Dinner at Tony Napoli’s by Edward Izzi

A hard-nosed Chicago mob thriller written with Edward Izzi’s signature grit, Dinner at Tony Napoli’s is the latest gripping novel from this skilled storyteller.

A legendary Italian restaurant in Chicago is set for demolition after more than five decades of serving the powerful, famous, and dangerous denizens of that underworld. Rather than die in prison, the restaurant owner, Tony Sorrentino, must break his code of silence and share the dark secrets of his place of business with his nephew – a no-nonsense CPD detective. Dennis Romanowski wants to protect the man he’s known all his life, while also being a good cop, but when his mob-adjacent uncle starts spilling an unbelievable life story, it will challenge everything Denny knows about loyalty, guilt, justice, and the brotherhood of the police.

Izzi nails the authenticity of the Chicago metropolis in this addictive read, particularly with the characters’ explosively colloquial language and the narration as told from the perspective of a worn-out cop. The exposition and world-building of the Chicago Outfit is done slowly and with meticulous detail, so while this is a piece of fiction, it rubs close enough to reality for true crime fans to properly dig in. The dialogue occasionally falls flat, or a conversation feels out of character, but these inconsistencies don’t overwhelm the read by any means.

As a whole, this tightly crafted novel is a searing depiction of the last generation of organized crime, and a stirring homage to one of the great American cities.