This was an incendiary account of Joseph Valachi, a member of the Genovese crime family. He was displeased with the way things were going, and turned informant for the federal government. He was the first person who broke the code of silence for the Mafia, giving a detailed account of the hierarchy of the crime families in New York. He provided names, positions, nicknames, and phone numbers. All of this information led to some indictments and improved policing against organized crime families. The book itself was okay, though I found it to be slightly boring.