Published 12th August 2022 by Sobriety Press.
From the cover of the book:
How can a crooked man ever go straight?Jewish gangster, Alex Cohen settles down in Florida surrounded by his wife and family. But his past life in the criminal underworld stalks his every move and when a bullet whizzes past his ear, he must decide whether to run or fight.
In his desire to go straight, Alex inserts himself in the East Coast porn film industry, only to find that the tentacles of the mob are clasped tight around his life. With the Feds using new laws to hunt down mob bosses, and rats in his own organization all too ready to testify against him, Alex must clean house before the authorities throw him in jail or the mob kills him to stop him ratting them out.
The seventh book in the Alex Cohen series is an historical thriller novel, which reveals the dying embers of Jewish organized crime in America. Leopold Borstinski's crime fiction shines a light on the death of the old-style mob in an explosive finale.
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Alex Cohen has spent his whole life on the wrong side of the law. Instrumental in many of the criminal activities of Jewish organised crime in the 20th century, it is now time for him to settle into retirement with his wife and family...almost. As Alex finally begins to divest himself of the remaining illegal operations that have sustained his empire, he needs a new income and somehow finds himself a producer for the porn film industry, which although not strictly legal is definitely lucrative.
But Alex's worries are not yet over. The Feds are on still on the trail of the mobsters that have so far evaded their clutches, and the powers invested in them under the new RICO Act have Alex worried that any links to his past crimes might come back to haunt him and his family. If that was not enough, his so called friends in the Italian mafia see him as threat to their own safety, should he be forced into a corner by the Feds.
It is time for Alex to tie up those loose ends...
Welcome to the final instalment of the Alex Cohen books, which have taken us through Alex's long career as a Jewish mobster from 1915 all the way to the 1970s. Alex is now an old man, and the time has come for him to reluctantly remove himself from the last remaining parts of his criminal operations and settle down to retirement as a respectable business man. It does take him a while here to finally get himself out of his Las Vegas interests, causing him a bit of trouble with his longstanding lieutenants, and his supposedly new business venture turns out to be a bit more in the legal grey area that he intended which is quite amusing.
However, things do seem to be going in the right direction, until once again he finds himself squeezed between the less than friendly attentions of the Feds on one side, and his former mobster pals on the other. His looked forward to retirement will have to be delayed for a while as he goes on the offensive, drawing on the skills which made his name over the years to ensure he and his family are safe. Borstinski uses Alex's unexpected predicament to good effect, with scenes that hark back to Alex's murderous heyday, reminding you exactly how ruthless he can be.
Unfortunately this is not the only area where Alex falls back into his old ways, as he indulges his old habit of infidelity, which actually made me rather disappointed with him after all his professions of undying love for his ex-wife Sarah in the last couple of books. I have to admit that while all the gun-slinging action was very entertaining here, this rather overshadowed things a bit for me, although I can see why Borstinski used this thread of the overall story to build up the picture of mounting intrigue against Alex and tie it to his past.
There are some nice touches to anchor this book in terms of time and place, many of them well employed to enhance the impression that this is the end of an era. Mentions of the Vietnam War, the Watergate Scandal, and Zionism, are all used very cleverly, and Borstinski makes you aware of the impact of the passage of time with references to Alex's own part in significant historical events during his lifetime.
There is the feel of a bloody reckoning here that I very much enjoyed, rounding things off nicely with a bang, and the threads that have run throughout the series are tied off in a satisfying way. Ultimately, Alex remains true to himself in the end, and there is a pleasing sense of irony to Borstinski's choice of title for Alex's concluding adventure in The Mensch - meaning a person of integrity of honour. Perhaps his honour is more of the nature of that among thieves, but it drives him to the very end.
It has been a real pleasure to follow this series, and I have learned so much about not only the Jewish influence on the history of mobsters in the USA, but about the establishment and development of organised crime over a big portion of the 20th century. If you are looking for an unconventional and completely fascinating look at the subject, then this is definitely a series to add to your reading pile.
The Mensch is available to buy now in paperback and ebook.
Thank you to Leopold Borstinski for sending me an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Zooloo's Book Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
There is nothing he likes better so he does as much nothing as he possibly can. He has travelled extensively in Europe and the US and has visited Asia on several occasions. Leopold holds a Philosophy degree and tries not to drop it too often.
He lives near London and is married with one wife, one child and no pets.
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