Vendetta: The Mafia, Judge Falcone, and the Hunt for Justice - Hardcover

Follain, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1444714112 ISBN 13: 9781444714111

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 2012

Synopsis

As of 23 May 2012 it is twenty years since the mafia blew apart its "Number One Enemy," the legendary prosecutor Judge Falcone, with a motorway bomb that also killed his wife Francesca and three bodyguards. Fifty-seven days later, the mafia killed Falcone's friend and colleague, Judge Paolo Borsellino, with a car bomb outside his mother's home that also killed five bodyguards. Vendetta, the first book about these murders, will tell the inside story of the assassination plot and the investigation that followed. Follain reveals Borsellino's desperate race against time to find out who killed his friend while knowing he was next on the list and reveals the daring undercover police mission which unmasked the killers. Based on new and exclusive interviews and the testimony of investigators, mafia super grasses, survivors, relatives and friends, Vendetta recounts the events hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute as the Mafiosi plan and carry out the murders, and as the police hunt them down.

About this title

About the Author

John Follain has covered Italy for The Sunday Times since 1998. His previous books include Death in Perugia, The Last Godfathers, and Zoya's Story on an Afghan resistance fighter, which was translated into fourteen languages. He was voted runner-up for the 2006 Paul Foot Award for Campaigning Journalism, and nominated for the 2008 Magazine Journalism Awards for his interview with the Knox family.

Review

'A book which causes deep anger because you see Italy once again lose its best men, like Falcone and Borsellino, who were exposed to slander even before they were hit by mafia explosives'. * Roberto Olla, TG1 news, Rome * The inside story of the assassination plots and investigations that followed Judge Falcone's killing. * John Humphrys, Today, BBCRadio 4 * John Follain, who interviewed Judge Falcone seven months before his death... relates the assassinations and the incredible race against time of Judge Borsellino, who died 57 days after Falcone, to discover who killed his friend and colleague. * La Gazzetta del Sud, Bari * On the basis of new and exclusive interviews and the testimony of investigators, supergrasses, survivors, relatives and friends, John Follain tells - minute-by-minute - the story of events which marked (Italy) for ever... An unprecedented portrait of how the Sicilian Mafia operates, describing in detail how it plotted and carried out the assassinations. * ADNKronos news agency, Rome * A cool, lucid, always vivid reconstruction... A gripping chronicle... A book which reads like a novel but is in fact a true story. * La Repubblica, Rome * A compelling narrative... From the 'walking corpses' to 'distinguished cadavers', bomb plots and dissolving dead bodies in acid baths, Follain's work is testimony not only to the determination and bravery of the forces of law and order but also of the arrogance and contempt shown by the Mafia. * Press Association * this exemplary account ... Follain tells the story with an almost thrillerish sense of pace and tension, but never loses sight of how the Falcone case dramatically affected the wider workings of both the mafia and the police. * The Sunday Times *

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1444714112
• ISBN 13: 9781444714111
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336