Free Danner really is free, after spending the best years of his young life in Juvy Detention for what the judge terms an unspeakable act and Danner considered one of mercy. Now he's determined to find the dad who doesn't know he exists. One thing's for sure: this is not The Maury Povitch Show; it's Danner's. And he figures everybody's out to screw him, which is probably an accurate assessment. So what's a guy supposed to do? The right thing, whatever Danner decides that is.
Petty bootlegger Carlo Baggio is enjoying the good life in Prohibition Chicago until he takes a bullet for his wayward brother. Carlo is ready to cash in his chips until he encounters a cocky Black Angel who convinces him otherwise. Later the angel comes to Carlo's rescue when he's trapped in a house fire. For the next fifty years Carlo and his family will experience hardship, tragedy, rewards, and the ambiguous honor of having two priests in the family before the angel returns, this time to hassle Carlo's grandson Father Frank, whose ruthless ambition has evolved into Vatican intrigue with deadly consequences.
Recently widowed and financially strapped Francesca Canelli doesn’t even like Coach Meredith. She hates herself for accepting his proposition: sleep with him to assure her son a coveted position on St. Louis’ premier youth soccer team -- his golden opportunity for a college scholarship, the dream once shared with his dad. Francesca’s deal with Meredith quickly sours when he abuses her and undermines her son’s confidence. Guilt-ridden and still grieving for her late husband, she meets Meredith at the deserted soccer complex where her attempt to end the affair provokes more abuse. She defends herself, leaving him naked in the parking lot, without the keys to his SUV.
Hours later, two policemen on patrol find Meredith dead, his battered body hanging from the crossbar of a goalpost, not far from where Francesca left him. She becomes a prime suspect, along with others in the soccer community Meredith had exploited. The details of his death create a scandal, but Francesca knows more than the investigators uncover and to protect her family she'll do whatever it takes to keep the whole truth her secret.
Pietro and Isabella Rocca are leading a marriage of convenience in 1928 Italy. He allows his wife to rule the household, the farm, and their young twins. Isabella thinks she rules her husband, until she discovers him in bed with the neighbor's wife. Isabella sends Pietro away, demanding he work in Torino for the year it will take her anger to subside. Instead, he sails to America with hopes of acquiring enough money to buy his family's forgiveness. The new life Pietro builds -- one based on gambling, extortion, bootlegging, and bigamy -- seduces him to stay. Meanwhile in Italy Isabella adjusts to life without Pietro, using deceit to safeguard her family and later to aid WWII partisans who eventually regard the son a hero and the daughter a Nazi collaborator. Twenty-nine years will pass before Pietro returns as a wealthy man, along with an American son who is determined to befriend the family his father deserted. But first, Pietro must redeem himself to Isabella, to their children, and to the elderly neighbor he betrayed, a man whose deceptions have made him patriarch to Pietro's family.
CHICAGO'S HEADMISTRESS: A prequel to the recently published Italian/American generational saga, THE FAMILY ANGEL.
Follow Giulietta Bracca's notorious rise to wealth and power, from street urchinin 1901 Genoa, Italy, to the headmistress of Night School, Prohibition Chicago's most popular and innovative men's club in the 1920s. Along the way Giulietta plays a deadly game of one-upmanship with men who use her, abuse her, and fall head-over-heels in love with her. She usually gives as good as she gets but there is one man Giulietta will never forget: the one she gave up and can't get back.
ITALY TO DIE FOR, a work in progress Too much togetherness spells disaster for two thirty-something sisters vacationing in Italy. When glamorous Margo opts for a steamy romance in Florence, plain-Jane Ellen sticks to their original plan and travels alone to the next destination, a charming hillside villa overlooking La Spezia. She accepts the offer of her host Lorenzo, a mysterious widower, to escort her around Cinque Terre, five picturesque fishing villages clinging to cliffs on the Ligurian Sea. Ellen is determined to experience the local culture but soon encounters intrigue and danger in Monterosso el Mare where gypsies and tourists are turning up dead faster than Lorenzo can show her the sights. And then Margo arrives from Florence.
