• The Black Hand

  • The Epic War Between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History
  • By: Stephan Talty
  • Narrated by: Scott Aiello
  • Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (298 ratings)

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The Black Hand  By  cover art

The Black Hand

By: Stephan Talty
Narrated by: Scott Aiello
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Publisher's summary

The gripping true story of the origins of the Mafia in America - and the brilliant Italian-born detective who gave his life to stop it.

Film rights optioned by Paramount Studios, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Beginning in the summer of 1903, an insidious crime wave filled New York City, and then the entire country, with fear. The children of Italian immigrants were kidnapped, and dozens of innocent victims were gunned down. Bombs tore apart tenement buildings. Judges, senators, Rockefellers, and society matrons were threatened with gruesome deaths. The perpetrators seemed both omnipresent and invisible. Their only calling card: the symbol of a black hand.

The crimes whipped up the slavering tabloid press and heated ethnic tensions to the boiling point. Standing between the American public and the Black Hand's lawlessness was Joseph Petrosino. Dubbed the "Italian Sherlock Holmes", he was a famously dogged and ingenious detective and a master of disguise. As the crimes grew ever more bizarre and the Black Hand's activities spread far beyond New York's borders, Petrosino and the all-Italian police squad he assembled raced to capture members of the secret criminal society before the country's anti-immigrant tremors exploded into catastrophe. Petrosino's quest to root out the source of the Black Hand's power would take him all the way to Sicily - but at a terrible cost.

Unfolding a story rich with resonance in our own era, The Black Hand is fast-paced narrative history at its very best.

©2017 Stephan Talty (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Black Hand

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not a great listen.

Skip this one. It’s not a great listen. Too many names and stories to follow casually by listening.

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • GM
  • 06-04-17

Like a newspaper from the 19th century

struggled to stay awake. it was an interesting story and the narrator is servicable, but a little smug and snarky.

it's like the author is the boring guy at a dinner party that tells the excruciatingly long story that is interesting but goes on way to long

not a failure and certainly entertaining at points, this would be an excellent book if you were doing background research for your own novel

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3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great historical storytelling.

This book is a rare glimpse into the repeating battle that each immigrant group must fight with earlier settlers and with itself in order to become Americans.
More than anything else it is a tribute to an amazing American.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

good listen

I thaught this was a great book. I had never heard of The Black Hand. Love the time period as well. All around good listen.

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2 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

I had high hopes, but...

This was all very interesting but over halfway through, I got very bored because it had degenerated into a list of Italia last names doing terrible things to other people and it started to drag on and on, spinning into meh. I gave up.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

What a story...!

This is a audio/book that everyone with an interest in the Mafia, gangsters, organized crime or even New York should pickup. From what I know very few Italians either know or admit to their history and yet it's so rich with details and history.

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1 person found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating

I had no idea about the black hand and found the whole story fascinating. It was an easy listen and really informative.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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very good book

great book and story loved the history and the gritty and sometimes gruesome details but poor narration

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book but more about Petrosino

It's really a book about Joseph Petrosino. He certainly deserves it and a whole lot more than the minor accolades history has given him. But the book does give you a good idea of what the black hand was like, how terrible they were, and how ignoring them gave us a century or more of corruption in our major cities. Maybel we should be learning from them today.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Listen and Learn.

I think if you come at this book with the expectation of a history lesson, you will enjoy it much more (if you like learning). It was a very interesting read. I never even heard of the Black Hand Society and the author did a great job teaching me.

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