Crooks: A Novel about Crime and Family by Lou Berney
Think crime novels aren’t for you? Crooks may make you reconsider. In 1960s Vegas, Buddy Mercurio is a low-ranks mobster getting exactly nowhere. When Buddy catches department store clerk Lillian swiping cash from a customer, it’s love at first sight. “Mercurios don’t play by the rules” is their family motto. These words play out differently over the coming decades for each of the five Mercurio children. Some embrace the family legacy, while some can’t quite seem to reject it. Yet the siblings remain tied together no matter how far they drift apart. An unconventional structure — each part of the novel has a tight focus on one family member — keeps the story moving, but it’s the richly drawn characters that make this one memorable. By turns poignant, gritty and dryly funny, Crooks is crime fiction in a class by itself.
Reviewed by Mary Kinser, collection development librarian, Whatcom County Library System
(Originally published in Bellingham Alive October 2025 issue.)