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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
A lot
Mob violence and the threat of assassination throughout; deaths of significant characters
Language
A lot
Strong language throughout; crime novel register
Sexual Content
Barely any
Brief adult relationship; mostly grief for his dead wife
Substance Use
Some
Heavy period drinking; organized crime social world
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The cost of a life built on violence, fatherhood as the only clean thing left, mortality arriving for a man who once seemed untouchable
What this book is about
Joe Coughlin is in his late thirties, running Tampa under the Italians as World War II reshapes everything. His wife is dead. His son is his everything. And someone has put out a contract on his life. The third and final Joe Coughlin novel is Lehane's most elegiac crime book — less about the violence of building an empire than the loneliness of having one, and the shadow that follows men who've lived outside the law too long.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
mob violence throughout
strong language in a crime milieu
death of loved ones as emotional weight
Reader Verification
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