Synopsis
A war breaks out in New York City between the Mafia and the Irish Mob over the area of Manhattan known as Hell's Kitchen. Two brothers are caught in the middle as one strives to go straight, while the other turns to thuggery.

Details
Publication Date:	1997-02-01

Size
Length:	273 pages
Height:	9.3 in
Width:	6.3 in
Thickness:	1 in
Weight:	16 oz

Publisher's Note
As an internecine mob war rages for control of the construction rackets of Hell's Kitchen, the Adare brothers--Paddy, a mob henchman, and Billy, on his way to law school--find their loyalties to family, friends, neighborhood, and each other put to the test. A first novel. 75,000 first printing. Tour.

As the wild building boom of the 1980s galvanizes the construction rackets, both the Mafia and the feds stake out territory in New York Citys eternally explosive Hell's Kitchen, longtime turf of the Irish mob.At the center of the story: two Irish brothers, Paddy and Billy Adare. One is an enforcer for the mob. The other, about to enter law school, works as a sandhog in the tunnels below Manhattan. Important to each other since childhood, they are caught in a crossfire of greed and savage violence that puts their loyalties -- to family, neighborhood, and each other -- to a brutal test.

New York City in the boomtown 1980s: land values skyrocketing, new buildings going up on every block, fortunes being made overnight - and extorted in the morning. On the streets of Hell's Kitchen, the construction rackets are in the hands of the Irish mob. It's always been their turf; now it's their time. And the stakes are higher than ever before - which explains the sudden interest in the Irish on the part of both the Mafia and the feds (led by a female agent trapped by the necessity to prove what she is clearly capable of), and the growing struggle for position and profit within the mob itself, an internecine war that finally ignites in the back rooms and broad daylight of the neighborhood. At the heart of the story are the Adare brothers: Paddy, a failed boxer turned mob henchman who's never left the streets he grew up on and who, at thirty-two, is beginning to pay the price for years of living large; and Billy, a college graduate, back home for the summer to work in the tunnels as a sandhog before he enters law school and gets himself out of the old neighborhood and in on the American dream - brothers divided by everything but their powerful blood-tie. Now, as their paths converge on familiar streets in a cross fire of greed, treachery, and violence, their loyalties - to family, friends, neighborhood, and, most important, each other - will be put to a brutal and profoundly telling test.

Industry Reviews
"Filled with blood and psychopaths, Thomas Kelly's taut first novel about ethnic identity, turf wars, labor unrest, organized crime, family ties and tunnel building has money at the root of its evil."
New York Times Book Review - James Polk (04/13/1997)

"The buzz that signals an important writer has begun...From the opening sentence, you know you are in the hands of a great storyteller."

"Kelly's criminals are vivid and convincing, as memorable as Elmore Leonard's or George Higgins's killers and hustlers. More importantly, his portrait of the last vestiges of Irish blue-collar life in New York is detailed and authoritative. A fresh, distinctive debut."
Spencer