Family Blood - Hardcover

Ritz, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1556111762 ISBN 13: 9781556111761

Publisher: Dutton Adult, 1991

Law, music, and the mob collide as David Cross, a rebellious, music-loving attorney, struggles with his lawyer father and becomes involved with his ex-mobster grandfather and a cousin whose music company is threatened by their grandfather's old mob rival

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From Publishers Weekly:

Young New York City lawyer David Crossman is lured into the pop music biz by mysterious old Nathan Silver. We learn in flashbacks what takes David a while to understand: Nathan is his grandfather Bernie (ne Ruben "the Gent" Ginzburg), ex-hitman for Detroit mobster Pino Feldman in the '30s and '40s. Before ratting on Pino to the Feds, the Gent helped legendary jazz star Eve Silk get started. Their biracial affair is paralleled in David's liaison with rising songstress Rita Moses. David's lawyer-father Ralph, born Miltie Ginzburg, hides his roots as does his lover Margo Cunningham, nee Muriel Smith. In almost no time we're spun into a hectic tale of show-biz corruption and multigenerational vendettas. The book's frenetic pace--lit by the flashbacks, in which Gent Ginzburg, a great, sweet and savage character, steals the show--leads to a bloody, symmetrical ending. Novelist ( Barbells and Saxophones ), biographer (Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson), songwriter ("Sexual Healing") Ritz knows this milieu and depicts it with vastly entertaining skill. 50,000 first printing; $40,000 ad/promo; BOMC featured alternate.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Three generations of criminals in two families battle coast to coast in this dazzling juggling act of past and present. Ruben, a hit man in the 1940s, has one passion--music. He'd rather produce records than kill, but the latter pays better. When Ruben testifies against his boss, the crime king of Detroit, he must go underground and forsake his former life. Ruben's son Ralph rejects his past and becomes a famous lawyer. Ralph's son David is also a lawyer, but like his grandfather, David has a feel and ear for music. All are drawn into a complex series of events dramatizing crime and corruption in the music industry. It's a hurricane of a novel, and the author ( Barbells and Saxophones, LJ 2/15/90; Blue Notes Under a Green Felt Hat, LJ 4/1/89) is successful in interweaving all of the scenes and characters. Ritz knows the music industry well; he co-wrote the song "Sexual Healing" with Marvin Gaye. Certain to be very popular. BOMC alternate.
-Robert H. Donahugh, formerly with Youngstown & Mahoning Cty. P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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