I got this book as part of the two for one credit sale on Audible. I have a wide array of Mafia related books, so I was pleased to add this to my library. This was an entertaining tale of how Michael Franzese grew up with a mafioso father and how he came to be inducted into the world of organized crime. He went into detail about his business dealings and how he managed to get out of the life and live to tell about it. I think this was about 5 hours to listen to, so fairly short. 

 I was very hesitant to read this book after the last two. This one was much better. Yes, it was another problem where the whole of vampiredom was facing a terrible end, but things happened that were very interesting and dramatic. I really am not a fan of the Children of Atlantis arc, but this one didn't place the focus solely on them. 

 Quinn Blackwood is back in this book, along with Lestat. Quinn has fallen in love with Mona Mayfair, who is dying from a mysterious illness. Quinn tries to save Mona by having Lestat turn her into a vampire to cure her from her illness that she came down with after giving birth. During these events, and in trying to keep the Mayfair family from finding out about Mona's transformation, Lestat falls in love with Rowan Mayfair. This was another cross over type of book, and I am not really crazy about cross overs. It wasn't a bad book, but it was not one of my favorites of the whole series. Of course, I love Quinn and was glad to see him again and see how his vampiric journey was going. 

 This book is the story of the life of Marius. Marius meets Thorne, an ancient vampire, who asks about his history. Marius tells Thorne that he was a Roman patrician, who was abducted by some Druids and held hostage for a god that lived in a tree. The god was actually a vampire, who gave Marius the gift of vampirism, though he did not want it. We also learn about the love story between Pandora and Marius, and how he became the keeper of Akasha and Enkil. Marius has had a long and interesting life up to this point, and I love getting to know more about specific characters. This was an good book, and explains so much about Marius and the way that he is. Marius is one of my favorite characters in this series. 

 This was a great book. It went into great detail about the methamphetamines that the Nazi's were taking. It talked about the companies that became involved in the Nazi regime and what their role was in making the drugs that were dispensed to the German public. I very much enjoyed this book. It really was a must have for my collection. 

 In this book, we meet Quinn Blackwood, who has been plagued by some spirit his whole life. He searches for Lestat, in hopes that Lestat will be able to help him. We learn about Quinn's life and his transformation from human to vampire. I love the character of Quinn. I enjoyed learning about his life and his family. Lestat enlists Merrick to help Quinn get rid of his spirit.

There are a lot of negative comments about this book. While I do not think that it was the best book in the entire series, I really liked it. I liked meeting Quinn, who is one of my favorite characters to date. I liked the story a lot, and I don't really understand or agree with some of the negative reviews. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, however, and my opinion is that this was a fine book in the series. The only thing that I didn't really care for was the whole arc of Goblin and Quinn. 

 We have made it ten books in to this series, and it goes up and down in quality like a rollercoaster. As always, Patricia Cornwell does an amazing job of keeping up with advancements in procedures, technology, and forensics. She does a great job pairing the most up to date techniques with the timeline of the books, and she does her research well. In this installment, Kay receives a letter written by Benton prior to his death and left to someone else to give to her a year after his death. This sends her reeling, as it would anyone. Scarpetta and Marino work a case of a body found in a shipping container. The body belongs to a member of a well to do family from France. Lucy is, of course, somehow involved in this case. (She is rapidly becoming my least favorite character next to crazy Temple and crazy Carrie.) Marino and Scarpetta have to contend with a saboteur in her own office, as well as someone attempting to murder Kay. I was a little unimpressed with the way things suddenly dropped off at the end, but it wasn't the worst book in the series to date. 

 James "Whitey" Bulger was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang in Massachusetts. He became linked up with a former childhood friend, turned FBI agent, John Connolly. Officially, he was an informant for the FBI, but swore up and down he was not. He was simply in business with one specific man who happened to be in the FBI. His brother was also a high ranking politician. He was sent to prison in 1956 for armed robbery and hijacking, and told an associate that he participated in the MK ULTRA experiments, being dosed with LSD something like fifty times. He was transferred from Atlanta to Alcatraz and then to Leavenworth before being released. He eventually went on the run when the FBI came after him. His former associates, especially Kevin Weeks, gave a lot of testimony on his activities. He was on the run for sixteen years, spending twelve of those years on the FBI Most Wanted List. Once he was captured, he was tried for RICO charges, murder, drugs, and a host of other things. He was sentenced in 2013 and served his time until he was beaten to death by other inmates in 2018.

This book was pretty good. I was fortunate enough to visit the Alcatraz East museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee a couple of times as it is only about an hour and a half from me. In the museum, there are a few artifacts that were recovered during his final apprehension, including some ugly tennis shoes. It was pretty interesting to see, and if you are ever in this area and are interested in crime or the mafia, they have some really neat items belonging to a host of well known criminals. They also have a rotating exhibit that changes every so often. Kevin Weeks also has a book out that details his involvement in the Winter Hill gang and his relationship with Bulger that was a pretty interesting read. (Where The Bodies Are Buried) I learned a few things I had not previously known, mostly about John Connolly, so this was worth the five dollars I paid for it. I also recently watched the film Black Mass with Johnny Depp, and it was pretty good as well. 

  I bought this book because I had planned to watch the film, but I still haven't managed to watch the film. This is the personal account of Ron Stallworth, the first black detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department. He came across an advertisement asking for people to enlist in the Ku Klux Klan. He managed to infiltrate the KKK, all why being the very thing they railed against and hated. This was a pretty interesting book, and I am really hoping to watch the film soon. 

 John Vernou Bouvier III, also known as "Black Jack", was born in Manhattan in 1891. His great grandfather emigrated to the United States after serving Napoleon's older brother, Joseph Bonaparte, in the Napoleonic Wars. His son, John Bouvier I, was very successful on Wall Street. His son, John Bouvier II, was a very successful attorney. John III, or Black Jack, was born into a family of successful people. If there is a such a thing as a male socialite, he was one. He attended the best schools- Philips Exeter Academy, Columbia Grammar & Prep School, Columbia College, and the Sheffield Scientific School. He was a member of the Cloister Club, and also a secret society (Book and Snake at Yale). He graduated in 1914.

He worked for a while at his family's stock firm, (Bouvier, Bouvier, & Bouvier), where he learned the business and was beginning to be pretty successful in his own right. He left the firm for a while, joining the United States Navy in 1917. He transferred to the United States Army, where he served as a major, before being discharged in 1919. (Two years, and was the rank of a major, which I found interesting.) He went back to the stock firm after that. He became engaged in 1920 to a woman, but that was called off. Of course, he became engaged to and married Janet Norton Lee. They were married in 1928. They went on to have two daughters, Jacqueline Lee and Caroline Lee. (Jackie & Lee). He and Janet divorced in 1940, due to his gambling, drinking, and whoring ways. That same year he was inducted into the Society of the Cincinnati. She remarried, but he never did. He was not the best father, in my opinion, to his daughters, certainly not when he was too drunk to do anything other than drink.

He was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer early in 1957. He finally checked into a hospital for treatment at the end of July that same year, but he was beyond help. He went into a coma on August 1 and died on August 3. He was 66 years old. His daughters, Jackie and Lee, handled his funeral arrangements, having the service at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan. He was buried in Most Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery in East Hampton, New York. Several members of the Bouvier family are buried here. I searched him up on Find A Grave, and I thought he would have a magnificent family plot or headstone...he did not. It was really very simple, so all of the money they made on Wall Street did not go to fancy burials. In fact, only one member of this family is listed on the Famous Memorials section of this cemetery page, and it was an author. None of the Bouvier's are listed on it, nor is Lee, who is also buried there.

I read this book sometime last year, and forgot to mark it as read. I am going though my books and downsizing and have found a few that I forgot to mark as read. I am trying to catch myself up with my reviews while doing this book clean out. This wasn't a bad book, and I did learn a lot of facts about Jackie Kennedy's father. The most interesting things that I learned were when I did other research while reading the book. One of those was the cemetery that I mentioned previously, and the others were about his secret societies and social clubs. I wish this book would have included more detailed information about those things, but Google is free so it worked out. If you are a Kennedy fan, this is a good book to have in your collection.