Six Graves to Munich »

Lifelong New Yorker Mario Puzo drew upon figures in his Italian-American family to create the characters in his smash hit The Godfather in 1969; but he claimed never to have met a real-life mobster, and his detailed portrait of the Mafia world came entirely from diligent research.

A novel of blood and vengeance from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Godfather.

Michael Rogan was an intelligence officer behind enemy lines in World War II Europe. But he made the mistake of falling in love, which gave him something to lose-or to be taken from him.

Captured by the Nazis, Michael was treated as an experiment. A piece of meat. A subject upon which his captors committed atrocity upon atrocity. But not before they did the same to his wife-and unborn son. He's lived with the horror of that experience for ten years.

Now, Michael Rogan has returned to Europe to find the men who tortured him. And he's going to make sure that they never have to live with the horror as he did...

They will die with it.

Publishers Weekly

First published under a pseudonym in 1967, two years before The Godfather, this thin revenge thriller from Puzo (1920–1999) grafts elements of The Count of Monte Cristo onto a post-WWII European setting. Ten years after American Michael Rogan was left for dead by the Nazis and miraculously survived what should have been a fatal head wound in 1945, Rogan, now the millionaire owner of a computer company, returns to Europe for revenge. After dispatching the first of seven men who murdered his pregnant wife and interrogated him to get Rogan to disclose the Allies' secret codes, the avenger hooks up with Rosalie, a prostitute with a heart of gold, who becomes his companion and assistant. Displaying little of the sophisticated plotting or fully fleshed characterizations that distinguished Puzo's best work, this reissue won't add much luster to his reputation. (May)