Pursuit

by Harry Taylor

Overview

Tony Virenti, a young Italian, is serving a life sentence in a dire English prison having been wrongly convicted on circumstantial evidence of slaying a British lawyer and his family. In Italy his uncle, Massimo Pulverenti, the Mafia Godfather, is under pressure from family elders to seek Virenti's release as they are convinced there was collusion between the British police and the authorities with Freemason connections at the trial. Massimo is also concerned with the failing health of Virenti's mother, and as her desire is to see her son home again he makes a promise to set the boy free. He assigns the Mafia's top Italian lawyer to the case but the lawyer faces strong resistance from the British authorities and the police and he learns of the involvement of the Freemasons. The lawyer is brilliant and has never lost a case and he is determined to beat the British legal system but he encounters delays, delays that put pressure on Massimo, who then decides to secretly free Virenti the Mafia way.Two methods with one single objective. One legal, one illegal. Will either succeed?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781502864697
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	12/09/2014
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Pursuit is Harry Taylor's second novel and it is a spin off from Rogues, Riches & Retribution.
Thoughts on writing first occurred when Harry was a teenager studying in Manchester, England but it was to be many year later before pencil was put to paper. Harry hails from the lovely old market town of Nantwich in Cheshire. From there he moved to Bristol to complete his studies and then onto Stafford where many happy years were spent. After a spell in Bristol he embarked on his overseas career. Tripoli in North Africa was the first stop, followed by Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait but the draw of Dubai has been the biggest pull on his life and that is where he now resides with his wife and family.

Editorial Reviews

2015-08-21
A legal thriller that pits the Mafia against a corrupt British legal system. The second installment of Taylor's (Rogues, Riches & Retribution, 2013) Mafia trilogy delves deep into the Pulvirenti family, a powerful presence in the world of organized crime. Tony, nephew of Massimo, the family's feared Godfather, is sentenced to life in a British prison for the brutal murder of the Lawson family. Massimo charges his best lawyer, Angelo Bertesconi, with finding a way to free Tony and immediately sends him to England. A brilliant attorney who has yet to lose a case, Bertesconi is able to determine that Tony was convicted on the flimsiest circumstantial evidence: a murder weapon was never produced, and not a trace of blood was found on Tony's clothing. Also, the murderer let the Lawson daughter live—a witness who could identify him in court. Bertesconi discovers that the chief inspector, detective inspector, and the judge are Freemasons, belonging to the same brotherhood as Lawson. Freemasons are an influential and notoriously corrupt organization in Italy, where Massimo largely directs his own affairs. However, the legal path to freeing Tony is a slow one fraught with obstacles: it takes Bertesconi an extraordinary amount of time to even procure the court transcripts, plus he has to learn an unfamiliar judicial system. Tony's mother, dying and crippled with grief, pressures Massimo to expedite her son's release by whatever means necessary. Massimo impatiently begins to plot an alternative plan that travels an extralegal path and courts great risk. In this dialogue-driven narrative, the plot unfolds largely through sharply written exchanges. Much of the suspense revolves around whether or not Massimo will choose to trust the British legal process or instead pursue criminal means to get his nephew out of prison. Even Tony—confident in Bertesconi and wary of life as a fugitive—is conflicted over the choice. While the story develops too slowly at first and often pushes the envelope of plausibility, the drama of that decision drives the whole book and makes for a worthwhile read. An intriguing blend of legal thrills and Mafia matters.

Kirkus Reviews