best mafia autobiography books

20 Of the Best Mafia Books

Neha is an editor living in Dallas, TX who reads a little more than her optometrist would like. She works fulltime as a medical editor but also loves proofreading and copyediting all types of fiction on the side as well as conducting sensitivity/authenticity reads for Indian characters and Hinduism. When she's not reading or editing, she's writing her fantasy novel, bookstagramming at @bookishdesi , or collecting records. More at neha-patel.com

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There is a strange type of romanticism associated with the mafia. I believe we have the rundown of famous blockbusters, such as The Godfather and Goodfellas , to thank for that. But where there’s a good story, books follow, and there is certainly a backlist of engaging and fascinating mafia books that take advantage of the figures and legends.

What do we mean by mafia books?

Before diving in, I want to dig into what “mafia” means. The term itself is derived from the Sicilian word mafiusu that can be roughly translated to “swagger.” I think the root of the romanticism lies right here in the word itself. The Italian mafia (i.e. the original mafia) are always portrayed as sharply dressed, tough men. The stories just seem to write themselves after that.

In terms of definition, a mafia is categorized as an organized crime syndicate that partakes in deeds such as racketeering and gambling. The original Italian mafia, whether they be Sicilian or Italian American, are where the concept derives from. However, the definition of mafia has been broadened to the Russian mafia, the Japanese mafia (i.e. yakuza), et cetera.

In terms of this list, I’ve widened the scope to include books about a diverse array of organized crime syndicates. This also has the added benefit of including authors of color and female authors. I have included books about the Italian mafia ; however, I should note that a huge chunk of these were written by white men.

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Young Adult Mafia Books

Young adult (YA) books about the mafia are almost always centered on the children of crime bosses. It’s interesting that many of these YA characters struggle with keeping with the legacies of their families while finding themselves (typical for YA fiction).

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

It’s 1926 in Shanghai and there are two gangs engaged in a blood feud. There’s the Scarlet Gang whose heir is Juliette Cain. And then there’s the White Flowers whose heir is Roma Montagov. As you may have surmised from their names, These Violent Delights is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet , but with gangsters and monsters stalking the streets of Shanghai.

Kate Unmasked by Cindy M. Hogan

Seventeen-year-old Kate is adopted and has always wanted to find her biological family. Unfortunately, every lead is a dead end…until she finds a hidden locket. The clue leads her to the New Jersey shore, but thoughts of a happy reunion are squashed when she realizes who her family is.

White Cat by Holly Black

Magic is prohibited in America, driving magic workers underground. Cassel’s family is one of the big five crime families that benefits from the resultant criminal culture. However, times are hard, and his family is falling apart, leaving Cassel to inherit a terrifying family secret.

Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt

Penelope is the daughter of one of the three crime families that controls the black market for organs. Despite her privileged life, Penelope is diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder which, in the violence surrounding her family’s line of work, leaves her vulnerable. When she’s caught in a crossfire between a rival family, she learns that she’s tougher than she seems and maybe freedom is possible.

Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman

Vince is a normal kid with normal kid problems. It just so happens that his father is the head of a powerful criminal organization. Although this has its perks, it has put a damper in his dating life. So it’s pretty shocking when the girl he falls for happens to be the daughter of an FBI agent hellbent on taking Vince’s father down.

Adult Fiction Mafia Books

Adult novels centered on the mafia are a little more intense than YA novels. While YA novels tend to skirt the criminal elements of the mafia, adult novels (for the most part) seem to embrace characters living in the gray.

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

No list of mafia books is really complete without this classic. The Corleones and their legacy of loyalty, blood, and greed have made their way into the zeitgeist. They’re a typical American immigrant family who begin as olive oil sellers but become part of the mafia. When their patriarch is attacked, the Corleones mobilize for their revenge.

The Road to Perdition by Max Allan Collins

You might also recognize the name of this book thanks to its film adaptation. Michael is a religious man whose job is to be an enforcer for an Irish mob family. After his eldest son witnesses one of his hits, the mob’s godfather orders the execution of Michael’s entire family. When only he and his youngest son survive, Michael embarks on a mission of revenge.

Out by Natsuo Kirino

I’ve written about Out in the past, but it’s worth mentioning again. The story follows a young mother who murders her deadbeat husband and recruits her coworkers to help cover up the crime. The ensuing pursuit by the police leads the characters through the gritty underworld of the yakuza.

The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura

The Thief is an anonymous pickpocket who weaves through the crowds of Tokyo, stealing wallets and trinkets. He’s eventually hired to tie up a rich man and steal the contents of his safe. It’s a simple enough job, but the next day The Thief learns that the man is a powerful politician who was murdered after The Thief left.

The Cartel by Ashley Antoinette and JaQuavis Coleman

The Diamond family controls the port of Miami, but their power is threatened when their leader dies. Carter Diamond left behind his wife, twin sons, and a daughter. But he also had an illegitimate son who comes back to Miami to claim his birthright.

Nonfiction Mafia Books

Organized crime is a fascinating theme to read about in fiction. However, there’s a reason why the fiction is so riveting: the reality is even more interesting. It’s easy to see the mafia as the linchpin to an engaging plot, but the reality is that organized crime is very real, and there are some well-researched books to teach you about it.

Five Families by Selwyn Raab

As the title suggests, you’ll learn about the five families that built the mafia into an empire: Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo, and Lucchese. The book tracks their rise and fall, illustrating the violent leaders and dogged investigators. Interestingly, the book also discusses a possible resurgence of the mafia as federal investigators focus more on homeland security than organized crime.

Confessions of a Yakuza by Junichi Saga

A surprisingly true story about a doctor who retells the story of a dying patient. The story begins with the patient walking into the doctor’s clinic, taking off his kimono in the exam room, and revealing his faded body tattoo. The patient is a former Yakuza boss who not only provides a gripping life story to the doctor but also offers a window into 20th century Japan.

Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb

Sicily is an ancient land that has seduced conquerors and travelers alike. But at the heart of this beautiful island is a vast network of crime powered by the La Cosa Nostra, or the Mafia. The author, Peter Robb, is a writer who lived in Italy for 14 years and set out to discover the roots of the Mafia and its place in contemporary Italy.

Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family by Joaquín “Jack” García and Michael Levin

It’s impossible to open a conversation about the mafia without including the FBI and its undercover agents. This book follows the true story of an undercover FBI agent who undertook a years-long operation to infiltrate the Gambino crime family.

Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster’s Daughter by Shōko Tendō

This memoir tells the story of Shoko Tendo, the daughter of a yakuza crime boss. Tendo lived a life of privilege and luxury until her father was sent to prison, spiraling her family into debt. After her father was released from prison, he became a violent alcoholic, galvanizing Tendo to rebel.

Romance Mafia Books

If you can ignore the obvious glossing over the crime, the mafia does make for an excellent backdrop for romance. I guess there’s nothing like a little danger to generate that all-important romantic spark.

Friend-Zoned by Belle Aurora

This is humorous story about two people who fall in love. Nikolai isn’t one to fall in love, especially with a friend. Valentina isn’t really interested in a relationship but enjoys making Nikolai smile. The mafia element is muted here, but it’s present in the background. The focus is more on the humorous relationship between Nikolai and Valentina.

The Kiss Thief by L.J. Shen

Francesca is caught in a vicious love triangle between two men. There’s Angelo, the heir to a powerful crime family, and there’s Wolfe, a vicious senator who blackmailed Francesca into marriage. Between these two men, Francesca fully intends to find her true happiness and finally take control over her own life.

The Marriage Contract by Katee Robert

The Marriage Contract is about the arranged marriage between Teague and Callista to facilitate an alliance between their two families. Teague has no intentions of marrying Callista. That is, until he sees the bruises on her neck and decides to protect her at all costs.

Destino by Sienna Mynx

Mira is at the height of her career as the first prominent Black fashion designer taking Italy by storm. Everything is going to plan until a dashing Sicilian businessman strolls into her life. The whirlwind romance leaves Mira wondering what harm a little fling could possibly do.

Deathless & Divided by Bethany-Kris

Why not end with yet another arranged marriage trope? Damian is expected to make good on a promise he made to a crime boss. This of course means marrying the man’s daughter. Lily is forced to come home and marry Damian, who is a complete stranger to her. Expecting the worst, she’s surprised to see that Damian is nothing like she thought.

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• Books 1 - 4
• Books 5 - 8
• Books 9 - 10

1. Five Families

For half a century, the American Mafia outwitted, outmaneuvered, and outgunned the FBI and other police agencies, wreaking unparalleled damages to America’s social fabric and business enterprises while emerging as the nation’s most formidable crime empire. The vanguard of this criminal juggernaut is still led by the Mafia’s most potent and largest borgatas: New York’s Five Families.

2. The Real Lucky Luciano

For the first twenty-five years of his career, Lucky Luciano was a vicious mobster who became the king of the New York underworld. For the next twenty-five, he was a fake, his reputation maintained by government agents. Boardwalk Gangster follows him from his early days as a hit man to his sex and narcotics empires, exposing the truth about what he did to help the Allies in World War II, and revealing how he really spent his twilight years.

3. Mr. Capone: The Real Story of Al Capone

All I ever did was to sell beer and whiskey to our best people. All I ever did was to supply a demand that was pretty popular. Why, the very guys that make my trade good are the ones that yell the loudest about me. Some of the leading judges use the stuff. When I sell liquor, it’s called bootlegging. When my patrons serve it on silver trays on Lake Shore Drive, it’s called hospitality.

4. Takedown: The Fall of the Last Mafia Empire

The bestselling true story of a young NYPD detective’s life-or-death undercover odyssey that led to the biggest mob takedown in New York City history.

5. The Westies: Inside New York’s Irish Mob

Even among the Mob, the Westies were feared. Starting with a partnership between two sadistic thugs, Jimmy Coonan and Mickey Featherstone, the gang rose out of the inferno of Hell’s Kitchen, a decaying tenderloin slice of New York City’s West Side. They became the most notorious gang in the history of organized crime, excelling in extortion, numbers running, loan sharking, and drug peddling. Upping the ante on depravity, their specialty was execution by dismemberment. Though never numbering more than a dozen members, their reign lasted for almost twenty years–until their own violent natures got the best of them, precipitating a downfall that would become as infamous as their notorious ascension into the annals of crime.

6. The Man to See

Legendary attorney Edward Bennet Williams was arguably the best trial lawyer ever to practice. Now, for the first time, best-selling author Evan Thomas takes us into the courtrooms of William’s greatest performances as he defends “Godfather” Frank Costello , Jimmy Hoffa, Frank Sinatra, The Washington Post, and others, as well as behind the scenes where the witnesses are coached, the traps set, and the deals cut.

7. The Mad Ones: Crazy Joe Gallo

The Mad Ones chronicles the rise and fall of the Gallo brothers, a trio of reckless young gangsters whose revolution against New York City’s Mafia was inspired by Crazy Joe Gallo ’s forays into Greenwich Village counter-culture.

Here, for the first time, is the complete story of the Gallos’ war against the powerful Cosa Nostra, an epic crime saga that culminates in Crazy Joe’s murder on the streets of Little Italy, where he was gunned down mid-bite into a forkful of spaghetti in 1972. The Mad Ones is a wildly satisfying entertainment and a significant work of cultural history.

8. The Outfit

The never-before-told story of the great Chicago crime family called The Outfit.

It is a common misperception that all the true-life organized crime stories have been written. Yet perhaps the most compelling gangster tale is one that has been, until now, too well-hidden. This is the story of the Outfit: the secretive organized crime cartel that began its reign in prohibition-era Chicago before becoming the real puppet master of Hollywood, Las Vegas (where you can get 50 free spin no deposit at a selection of casinos) and Washington D.C.

9. Accardo: The Genuine Godfather

For forty years Tony Accardo was America’s most dangerous criminal. He cut his teeth on the Chicago mob wars of Capone and Elliot Ness. He got his nickname “Joe Batters” for killing two men with a baseball bat. As the bodies piled up, Capone’s youngest capo murdered and schemed his way to the top.

William Roemer was the first FBI agent to face Tony “The Big Tuna” Accardo. Now, Roemer tells the story that only he could tell: the deals, the hits, the double-crosses, and the power plays that reached from the Windy City to Hollywood and to New York. Drawing on secret wiretaps and inside information, ACCARDO chronicles bloodshed and mayhem for more than six decades–as Roemer duels against the most powerful don of them all.

10. Joseph Bonanno – A Man of Honor

Joe Bonanno -likely a model for Don Corleone in the blockbuster movie The Godfather-takes readers inside the world of the real Mafia. He reveals the inner workings of New York’s Five Families-Bonanno, Gambino, Profaci, Lucchese, and Genovese-and uncovers how the Mafia not only dominated local businesses, but also influenced national politics. A fascinating glimpse into the world of crime, A Man of Honor is an unforgettable account of one of the most powerful crime figures in America’s history.

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Killer: The Autobiography of a Mafia Hit Man Kindle Edition

• Print length 285 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Open Road Media
• Publication date June 13, 2017
• File size 3923 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

From library journal, about the author, product details.

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B071VZWQ5J
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (June 13, 2017)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 13, 2017
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 3923 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 285 pages
• #473 in Biographies of Organized Crime
• #549 in Criminology (Kindle Store)
• #1,032 in Biographies & Memoirs of Criminals

About the authors

David fisher.

For more than three decades, David Fisher has been writing about an extraordinary variety of subjects, ranging from major league baseball umpires to Nobel Prize winning biochemists. He is the author of more than 80 books, among them 24 New York Times bestsellers, and has been a frequent contributor to major magazines and newspapers. He is the only writer ever to have a work of non-fiction, a novel and a reference book offered simultaneously by the Book-of-the Month Club.

He began his professional career as a staff writer for the late comedienne Joan Rivers’ syndicated talk show, That Show. From there he joined Life Magazine, when it was still published weekly, becoming the youngest reporter in that magazine’s history, covering primarily sports and youth culture.

He began his free-lance writing career with a children’s biography of Malcolm X. A year later he co-authored his first bestseller, Killer (Playboy Books) with ‘Joey Black,’ the first confessional written by a Mafia hit man. After writing a second bestseller with Joey Black, Hit #29, which was purchased by Paramount, as well as two additional books, he wrote the very first book about transcendental meditation, Tranquility Without Pills (Wyden Books). He wrote several others books about the world of crime, including Louie’s Widow. In 1980 John William Clouser, who had been on the FBI’s Most Wanted list longer than any man in history, contacted Fisher and asked him to arrange his surrender. After surrendering on national television, Clouser and Fisher collaborated on The Most Wanted Man in America (Stein and Day).

Fisher began writing about sports in the early 1980’s, co-authoring the two “laugh-out-loud bestsellers” (wrote the Times), The Umpire Strikes Back and Strike Two (Bantam Books) as well as two additional books with legendary umpire Ron Luciano, and former Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda’s bestselling autobiography, The Artful Dodger (Morrow). He also collaborated with Eugene Klein, the man credited with inventing junk bonds to put together one of the nation’s first conglomerates, The National General Corporation, and then tried to apply the lessons learned in business to pro football, in the cautionary tale, First Down and A Billion and with Basketball Hall of Fame member U of Arizona coach Lute Olson on his autobiography Lute! The Seasons of My Life.

Fisher created a new reference system when he wrote and edited, What’s What, A Visual Glossary of the Physical World (Hammond) which Esquire called, “The most important new reference work published in the past half-century,” and which subsequently was published in nine bilingual editions, selling more than 1,000,000 copies.

Fisher’s first novel, The Pack, (Putnam’s) was purchased by Warner Bros. and released as a feature film. His second novel, The War Magician (Coward McCann), based on the true story of magician Jasper Maskelyne, who used the techniques of stage magic against Rommel in the desert and whose classic deceptions were key to victory at El Alamein, was initially optioned by Paramount for Tom Cruise but currently is under option to Academy Award nominee Benedict Cumberbatch, has been published in 12 countries.

Moving from sports to entertainment, Fisher created and co-authored with George Burns the #1 bestsellers, Gracie, A Love Story and All My Best Friends. George Burns had co-authored five books prior to collaborating with Fisher, none of them bestsellers, and one book after their collaboration, which also failed to hit the bestseller list. The audio version of Gracie, which Fisher wrote and directed, was honored in 1990 with a Grammy for Best Spoken Record. Fisher also created and co-authored with Leslie Nielsen The Naked Truth, (Pocket Books) a parody of celebrity autobiographies dedicated “To the motion industry. The only business in the world in which the trailer comes first.” The audio version of that book was also nominated for a Grammy. He also collaborated with legendary TV and feature film producer and documentarian David Wolper, who is responsible for 10 of the top 50 shows in TV history as well as motion pictures like L.A. Confidential and Willy Wonka on the bestseller, Producer (Scribners). And he collaborated with legendary sidekick Ed McMahon on his memoir, For Laughing Out Loud (Warners) and a history of early television, When Television Was Young.

Fisher is the only reporter ever granted complete access to the FBI’s famed crime lab and his book, Hard Evidence, (S&S) has been published in six languages and triggered the explosive worldwide interest in forensic science. His warm and humorous novella, Conversations With My Cat, (Viking) was also published in six languages and after being the #2 bestseller in France, was honored with the ‘Prix Literature de 1,000,000 Amis,’ an award given annually to the best book concerning animals published that year. As Fisher was told by his cat The Bomber, the relationship between cats and humans can be explained simply, “You scratch my back, you scratch my back.”

Fisher’s parody, Chicken Poop for the Soul, Stories to Harden Your Heart, (Pocket Books) has sold more than 125,000 copies and led to a second successful collection of his humorous stories, Chicken Poop II: More Droppings. His humor book which featured classic fairy tales as might be written by lawyers, Legally Correct Fairy Tales, (Warner Books) has also sold more than 100,000 copies. His collaboration with the controversial Nobel Prize winning biochemist Kary Mullis, whose invention of the polymerase chain reaction literally changed the world, Dancing Naked in the Mind Field, (Pantheon) remains in print almost two decades after publication.

His most controversial bestseller, Been There, Done That (St. Martin’s) with Eddie Fisher, received rave reviews from critics and a less kind reception from Eddie Fisher’s former wives. His book Patient Number 1; (Crown) is the incredible story of the CEO of a biotech firm whose own company created the stem cell selection device that saved his life when he was diagnosed with stage 4 Mantle Cell Lymphoma. Later a judge rewrote 103 patent claims, overthrew a jury judgment and put this company out of business, depriving terminally ill patients of this potentially life-saving device. Patient Number 1 currently is in development by producers Janet and Jerry Zucker of Airplane and Ghost fame.

Both of Fisher’s collaborations with Hall of Fame quarterback and broadcaster Terry Bradshaw, It’s Only A Game and the inspirational Keep It Simple, (Pocket Books) were bestsellers, as was his collaboration with legendary attorney Johnny Cochran, A Lawyer’s Life. (St. Martin’s Press)

In the corporate world Fisher created and co-authored United Airlines 75th anniversary book, The Age of Flight as well as Safe Flight’s 60th anniversary book. When the pharmaceutical firm Warner-Lambert was purchased by Pfizer and was about to lose its corporate identity Fisher created the celebratory book, In Good Company. Fisher also wrote Animals Inc., a humorous novel showing how Orwell’s Animal Farm might have been run using the philosophy of the Gallup Organization, one of America’s leading business consulting firms.

Fisher created a new publishing format when he brought together legendary FBI Agent Joseph ‘Donnie Brasco’ Pistone and former Mafia Family head Bill Bonanno for the novel, The Good Guys, which was published by Warner Books in January 2005. In a starred review the influential publication Kirkus Reviews called it “the very model of a high-crime page turner – the kind so often promised and so infrequently delivered.” The New York Post wrote, “Incredibly fun to read. Mario Puzo would be smiling,” and the Times of London called it “A richly entertaining read.” In addition, he has created the computer game, Made Man with a British company which was released in April 2007 -- and Crime Lab, an educational video game.

Fisher has also written extensively for newspapers and magazines. His columns have appeared on the Op Ed page of the New York Times and Newsday, and he has contributed many articles to a variety of magazines, ranging from Sports Illustrated to Car and Driver. An article he wrote for Car and Driver, ‘The Birth of My Car,’ was honored as the best automotive feature writing in 1987.

Fisher also created and wrote the baseball comic strip, Scroogie, with legendary relief pitcher and character Tug McGraw, which was syndicated in 125 papers for four years, and was published in two collections. (Fawcett)

Fisher collaborated with William Shatner on his bestselling autobiography, Up Till Now (St. Martin’s) which was published in 2008 and two subsequent bestsellers, Leonard The Story of A 50 Year Friendship, with Leonard Nimoy, and Live Long and… What I learned Along the Way. In January, 2009, Grand Central Books published The Accountant, Fisher’s collaboration with Pablo Escobar’s brother, Roberto. Roberto was one of the leaders of the infamous Medellin drug cartel, and in this book reveals the story of the rise and fall of the most successful criminal – his brother -- in history. It is currently under option for a movie and thus far rights have been sold in seven countries.

In February, 2009 Hudson Street Books published Fisher’s controversial collaboration with former Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski, the central figure in baseball’s steroid scandal who provided much of the information revealed by Senator George Mitchell in the Mitchell Report.

In June, 2009 HarperCollins published Fisher’s collaboration with Detective Tommy Dades (NYPD ret.), and Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Michael Vecchione, the two men who opened the cold case leading to the indictment and conviction of two highly placed New York City detectives who were moonlighting as Mafia killers entitled Friends of the Family, The True Story of the Mafia Cops. That book also remains under movie option.

Fisher’s collaboration with Harry Markopolos, the well-known Bernie Madoff whistleblower entitled No One Would Listen, appeared at #6 on the New York Times bestseller list the week of publication and quickly went back to press three times, resulting in over 500,000 copies in print.

His collaboration with Sanjiv Chopra, Chairman of the Department of Continuing Medical Education at Harvard Medical School entitled Dr. Chopra Says, about discerning the truth in medical claims (St. Martin’s Press), was published in January, 2011. In the summer of 2012 his collaboration with Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Jack Jacobs, an anecdotal history of military basic training entitled Basic, was published by St. Martin’s Press. That book is currently being developed as a reality show, in which viewers will ‘experience’ basic training.

In August, 2012, St. Martin’s published Sapp Attack, Fisher’s book with NFL Hall-of-Fame member and broadcaster Warren Sapp. Fisher’s collaboration with two-time Super Bowl winning coach Tom Coughlin, Earn the Right to Win: How Success In Any Field Starts With Superior Preparation, was published by Portfolio in March, 2013 and became his 18th New York Times bestseller.

In 2013 Tom Dunne Books published American Warrior, the amazing story of Special Forces Hall of Fame member and legendary soldier Gary O’Neal. In June, 2013 Amazon published Brotherhood: Dharma, Destiny and the American Dream, by philosopher/writer Deepak Chopra and Dr. Sanjiv Chopra, a book that Fisher created and co-authored. This story of two brothers raised in India, who immigrated to America and became world leaders in western and eastern medicine, was also a major bestseller around the world.

Fisher’s inside look at America’s most effective – and least known -- law enforcement agency, the U.S. Marshal Service was published to strong reviews in 2014. This is the first time the revamped Marshal Service – which quietly tracked down and arrested 121,000 felons (with an average of four convictions each, half of them designated as violent offenders) in 2012 has cooperated with a writer and made its Deputy Marshals available to a journalist to tell many of their most their amazing stories.

His collaboration with Dr. Jan Pol, star of Nat Geo Wild’s wildly successful show, The Incredible Dr. Pol, entitled Never Turn Your Back on An Angus Cow was published in June, 2014 and immediately became his 19th New York Times bestseller.

In April, 2015 his book, Bill O’Reilly’s Legends and Lies: The Real West, the companion volume for the Fox News TV series of the same name debuted at #1 on the Times list and has remained there for several months. The second and third books in the series, The American Revolution and The Civil War also topped the Times bestsellers list.

In This Together, his collaboration with Ann Romney about her extraordinary fight against multiple sclerosis that has led to the establishment of the ground-breaking Ann Romney Institute for Neurologic Diseases, became his 23rdt Times bestseller.

In September, 2015, Fisher worked with then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on his campaign book, Crippled America, which immediately became a major bestseller.

His collaboration with the man Maxim magazine honored as ‘One of the Six Most Interesting People You Can Actually Meet’ Richard Garriott was published in 2017. Create/Explore: My Life At the Extremes. Garriott is one of the world’s most creative and successful entrepreneurs and adventurers; the man who essentially invented the multi-player online gaming industry (coining the word ‘avatar’ in that world), convinced the Russians to sell tickets to the International Space Station – where he spent two weeks and now owns the company, and now is actively involved in cutting-edge companies like SpaceX and Tesla.

After discovering that a transcript existed for the 27th and last murder trial in which Abraham Lincoln was involved Fisher recruited ABC’s legal correspondent Dan Abrams and their collaboration Lincoln’s Last Trial, which thus far has spent seven weeks in the summer of 2018 on the Times bestsellers list.

Although politically Fisher is a proud liberal, and the author with former Member of Congress Robert Wexler of Fire Breathing Liberal, his most recent book, a collaboration with conservative firebrand Glenn Beck, Addicted to Outrage, is being published in September, 2018.

He recently completed a political novel, a thriller entitled, How It Happened Here for Tom Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press which will be published in Spring, 2019.

Fisher is married and lives in New York with his wife and two sons and one very small, but very self-confident, Chihuahua.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

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Best Mafia Books

Uncover the dark allure of the underworld with these critically acclaimed mafia books, selected for their standing in numerous literary round-ups..

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• Europe edition

The top 10 books about the mafia

Whether through the seductive myth of honourable outlaws, or the bloody truth of ruthless criminals, this shadowy group has generated a vast literature – these are its highlights

H ow does one write a book in such an unwieldy field? One problem – apart from the obvious unmanageability of swelling bibliographies – is that “mafiological” literature is still beset by its original dilemma: is the mafia the set of codes of honour and family values we are accustomed to see at a Mascagni opera? Or is it the brutal reality of a criminal association whose only goal is the parasitical accumulation of wealth? One possibility is to keep in mind the old saying of Giambattista Vico: “myths have a public basis in truth.” What truth, then, lies at the heart of the mafia myths that the cultural industry has so gladly dispensed upon us? What social needs, what desires and fears are satisfied by mafia myths?

Sustaining these questions is my list of 10 books – some fact, some myth, and some both – that may help to navigate these murky waters.

1. Primitive Rebels by Eric Hobsbawm (1959) Robin Hood in England, Janosik in Poland and Slovakia, Diego Corrientes Mateos in Andalusia, and the mafiosi in Sicily are in this book archetypes of the social rebel who took from the rich to give to the poor. It is unfortunate that the most powerful of mafia myths – the honourable bandit in shotgun and tights – took shape in the pages of one of the most scrupulous and fact-driven modern historians. The verdict is unanimous: Hobsbawm is guilty of mafia mythology. But then again, don’t we all wish for a world of equality and justice, in which someone – even a mafioso – can right wrongs and prove that oppression can be turned upside down?

2. The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciascia (1961) A sunburnt Sicilian town reminiscent of Lordsburg in John Ford’s Stagecoach. A bus is about to leave the station when a gunshot is heard, leaving a body on the ground. The problem is that Captain Bellodi, in charge of investigating the crime, is no John Wayne – nor does Sciascia have any patience for western-style happy endings. The book remains one of the most engaging and thrilling detective stories ever written about the mafia – to avoid only if you have no tolerance for untidy endings.

3. The Godfather by Mario Puzo ( 1969)

Like Christ in Dostoevsky’s legend of the Grand Inquisitor, war-decorated hero Michael Corleone returns to civilian life after the second world war. Whether he should resist the temptation of organised crime, or yield to it for the good of the family, is the question Puzo borrows from Dostoevsky. The Godfather is a temptation of Christ for Nietzschean times – when the Don is dead, will-to-power affirms itself as a “yes!” to criminal life.

4. Mafia and Mafiosi by Henner Hess (1973) First published in German in 1970, and reissued in 1998, this is the classic sociological work on the mafia. Hess is on a mission to debunk all mafia myths – its medieval origin, its masonic rituals, and, above all, the myth of the mafia as an organisation. Hess’s mafia is instead the un-organised yet dominant subculture of Sicily to which no Sicilian is extraneous. Unsurprisingly, the book was much hated in Sicily.

5. Global Mafia by Antonio Nicaso and Lee Lamothe (1995) Sitting on the Advisory Board of the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security at York University in Toronto, and with a personal history in the anti-mafia, Nicaso has understandably little patience for the myth of men of honour. With journalist and novelist Lee Lamothe, Nicaso writes this most informative book on the transformation of organised crime under the “the new world order”.

6. Excellent Cadavers by Alexander Stille (1996) This carefully researched book reads almost like a novel. It would stand to reason, in fact, that only a novelist à la George RR Martin could possibly imagine the endless saga of grisly murders that happen on almost every page of this book. Credit for the gruesome plot goes to mafia boss Salvatore Riina, who made Westeros look like a holiday spa by comparison.

7. Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano (2006)

Saviano investigates the global and financial ambitions of organised crime in the age of neoliberalism. Reading Gomorrah, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish the logic of today’s mafias from that of global corporations. Beautifully written, Gomorrah is an example of that peculiar Neapolitan genre, the “essay-novel”.

8. Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb (2007) I have recommended this at times as a travel guide. The way Robb describes Sicilian landscapes and cities – most notably Palermo, “sacked” for roughly 30 years by mafia-led constructions and land speculation – is unequalled even by the “roughest” tourist guides.

9. Mafia Brotherhoods by John Dickie (2014) Historian Dickie is a master storyteller – which is fortunate for the reader of this 800-page tome, whose pages turn very quickly. It is one of the few books I know that attempt to trace the exhaustive history not of one, but of three Italian criminal organisations: ’ndrangheta , camorra , and mafia .

10. Mafia and Antimafia by Umberto Santino (2015) While the mafia has generated enormous public attention, the antimafia – which, Santino tells us, is as old as the mafia – has a remarkably low profile. The founder and director of the antimafia Centro siciliano di documentazione in Palermo, Santino is poised to change all that with this timely history.

• The Mafia: A Cultural History by Roberto Dainotto is published by Reaktion Books priced £20. Buy it from the Guardian bookshop for £16 .
• Society books
• Crime fiction
• History books
• Eric Hobsbawm

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