Brotherly bonds are tested by criminal connections in Edgar Award-winning author Warren Murphy'sBloodline, a gritty historical novel about the Mafia in 1920s New York.

The Falcones are a respected immigrant family living in New York City in 1920. But their peaceful existence is compromised when their cousin Nilo arrives after causing several deaths in a fight in Italy. Soon enough Nilo is wreaking havoc in his new city, falling in with the Italian Mafia, and working as a still-wrecker, assassin, and skilled criminal. His cousins Tommy and Mario, a cop and a priest, both do their best to turn a blind eye. But as conflicts in the city begin to erupt into a violent war involving gangsters from all parts of the country, the brothers may be left with no other choice but to join the Mafia themselves.