Crooks: A Novel About Crime and Family by Lou BerneyPublication Date: September 9, 2025
Pages: 384
Add on: Goodreads
Rating: ★★★★
Source: Edelweiss
Genre: Fiction / Crime
Publisher: William Morrow / HarperCollins
"Lou Berney's Crooks stands with some of the finest crime novels ever written." — Don Winslow, #1 Internationally bestselling author
"A panoramic, cross-generational look at a unique family pursuing their individual visions of the American dream” — Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author
From award-winning author Lou Berney comes an electrifying new novel that follows a uniquely American crime family on an unforgettable journey across four decades.
You’ve never met a family like the Mercurios.
They say the American dream is going farther in life than your parents ever did. But how does that work if your parents are criminals?
For Buddy, a low-level mob wise guy, and Lillian, a charming pickpocket, the criminal underworld is the only life they’ve ever known. When they’re forced to flee the glittering Babylon of Las Vegas, they end up opening a club in Oklahoma City—a town that quickly feels like a gold mine of fresh marks and easy new money. Along for the ride are their five children, all of them raised into the family business of crime—until the day comes when they each have a chance to make their own way in the world, even if they can never completely escape the family’s long, dark shadow.
Jeremy, the family’s Golden Boy, will throw himself into the glittering excesses of a drug-fueled Hollywood in the roaring 1980s.
Tallulah, the daredevil, will find herself in the deadly Wild West of post-communist Moscow.
Ray, the dope, the dumb muscle since he was a kid, wants nothing more than to put down his gun, but following orders is all he’s ever known.
Alice, the genius who renounced her life of crime long ago, now sees her white-shoe law firm being blackmailed and must tap into old skills to save both the company and her own life.
And Piggy, a civilian always on the outside looking in on his crime family, desperate to be part of the gang.
Crooks is an epic novel about a truly unforgettable family–forty years of peril as each Mercurio has to grapple, in their own way, with the family’s powerful criminal legacy.
REVIEW
REVIEW
Lou Berney’s Crooks isn’t just another mob novel—it’s a bruising, decades-spanning saga that puts the Mercurio family under the microscope. Across forty years, Berney tracks the family’s rise and unravelling, digging into the kind of secrets and betrayals that don’t just scar—they define. The Mercurios aren’t caricatures; they’re flesh and blood, haunted by the criminal world they can’t escape and the ties that bind them tighter than any set of handcuffs.
Buddy, the streetwise mobster, and Lillian, the pickpocket with a conscience, lead a cast as vivid as any HBO drama. Berney doesn’t just give you the grit of organized crime—he lets you feel the weight of inheritance and the desperate hope that things might be different for the next generation. Themes of corruption, fractured dreams, and loyalty run deep, making the Mercurios memorable not just for their schemes but for their struggle to break free from their own history.
Berney’s writing is sharp, cinematic, and often surprisingly tender. He’s got a knack for dialogue that crackles, scenes that stick, and a pace that never lets up. It’s crime fiction with a literary edge, layered with emotion and insight—think Elmore Leonard with a splash of family epic.
Crooks is sprawling, but Berney never loses control—every thread feels earned, every twist lands. If there’s a knock, it’s just that you might wish to linger longer with some of the unforgettable Mercurios.
Rating: 4 out of 5
If you want your crime novels with as much heart as suspense, Crooks delivers in spades.
