OMERTA

In an ominous, throaty tone, Joe Mantegna tells Puzo's latest tale of violence and the Mafia's brand of honor. As a driven FBI agent devises a fail-safe plan to bring the last Mafia family to justice, he doesn't gauge the extent of revenge and reprisals that have to be played out first. Puzo spins the story around several converging plots, with killings and treachery driving the story. Mantegna can't get in the way of the compelling action, but he has such a limited range of voices that he fails to give the characters much life. The life-and-death struggles have no adrenaline, leaving listeners inured to the violence, as perhaps we are. R.F.W. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 00]