A better title for The Valachi Papers would have been The Thrice-Told Tales of Joseph Valachi. Anyone who may have anticipated that the prize Mafia informer had kept some precious nuggets of sensation hidden away to tell in his own fashion may now be disabused of all such illusion. Except for tidbits, there is nothing new in the present volume….

Maas does as well as can be done with the by-now familiar details of the endless double-cross and endless murder that mark the way of life in the underworld. One of his more fascinating asides deals with his struggle to get this story into book form. Shouting super-Italians put the heat on spineless politicians, and the politicians in turn pressured the Justice Department not to permit this affront to the Italian vote. Justice caved in, reneging on its promise to Valachi that he could write his own book...