eae ns we Jaaicese ends

ee DP Am eee

>

6

pooks.

Life of crime

aah ‘ May 3° 1989- North Shore News

NEW PAPERBACKS GIVE UNDERWORLD INSIGHT

TRUE-CRIME buffs can take advantage of two really sweet
deals in bookstores right now — and they're both legal.

Just released in paperback edi-
tions are Dr. Snow and My Un-
dercover Life In The Mafia, a pair
of blockbusters that strong-armed
their way on to international
bestseller lists in hardcover and
proved that crime does pay — at
least for some lucky writers and
their publishers.

My Undercover Life in The
Mafia (Signet/Penguin; 413 pp.;
$5.95 in paperback) is an amazing
story of the dedication of an FBI
agent tc his job. Employing the
pseudonym Donnie Brasco, Joe
Pistone spent six years undercover
in an immensely successful bid to
infiltrate the highest echelons of
the Mafia.

MIKE
STEELE

book reviewer

The longest undercever opera-
tion in FBI history, the Donnie
Brasco caper was responsible for
the conviction of some of the big-
gest names in contemporary crime
annals,

it alsu triggered a wave of
retaliatory violence by the mob
against some of its own duped
members and forced Pistone and
his family to themselves become
fugitives.

Pistone,-a streetwise Italian-
American, posed as a crook-of-
all-trades in a low-key approach to
criminal organizations involved in
car theft and general thievery. By
painstakingly establishing a ‘deep

. cover identity, Pistone gradual

earned the wary acceptance of fr-
inge players in the Mafia’s fiefdom.

Building on this conditional
trust, Pistone became the partner
of Mafia ‘soldiers’ and, eventual-
ly, the confidant of Cosa Nostra
kingpins who directed mob opera-
tions coast-to-coast in the U.S. and
Canada.

it's a remarkable story not only
for the unqualified success en-

BC BEST SELLERS
THIS WEEK

Figures in brackets indicate
last week’s position
FICTION
1, (1) The Satanic Verses Rushdie
2. (2) Prayer for Owen

Meany.........0.0. Irving
3. (8) Drawing of the Three King
4. (4) Star ......... «s+.» Steele
5. (7) Love in the Time

of Cholera.......Marquez
6. (3) Cat’s Eye ........ Atwood

7. (6) The Long Dark Tea
Time of the Soul...Adams
8. (9) A Season in Hell . . Higgins
9, (8) Journey ..... ... Michener
10. (-) Negotiator ........ Forsyth

NON-FICTION

1. (i) Brief History

of Time......... Hawking
2. (5) Going Within ... MacLaine
3. (2) The Power of

Myth..........4 Campbell
4, (2) Stress for Success .Hanson
5. (3) Struggle for

Democracy ....... Watson
6. (8) Chaos ............ Gleick
7. ©) Wordstruck ...... MacNeil

8. (7) Never Chop Your

As compiled by
United Communications Research Ane.
eS AND

joyed by the FBI in the larger-
than-life exploit, but also for the
incredible sacrifices made by
Pistone as he walked a tightrope
for six long, stress-loaded years.

Married and a father, he was
forced by the demands of this har-
rowing assignment to meet only
infrequently (and clandestinely)
with a family only vaguely aware
of just what the assignment was
and the deadly risks it entailed.

Despite the acclaim earned by
the author and the pride taken by
the FBI in this, one of its most
famous attacks on the Mafia, the
Donnie Brasco affair has been a
bittersweet achievement.

Joe Pistone was forced to end a
17-year career with the Bureau
and, ironically, to assume a new
identity in what is enigmatically
described as “...an undisclosed
location.”

se

Dr. Snow (Signet/Penguin; 348
pp.; $5.95 in paperback) is every
bit as engrossing as My Under-
cover Life In The Mafia, but what
a difference in the cast of charac-

ters. .

Subtitled “How The FBI Nailed
An Ivy League Coke King,” Dr.
Snow recounts a lengthy investiga-
tion that proved to be the downfall
of a yuppie dentist and his band of
very merry men and women.

Twenty-six-year-old Larry Lavin
seemed like living proof of the
viability of the American Dream, A
graduate of the University of Pen-
nsylvania’s dental program, he had

’ his own practice, a palatial home

in one of Philadelphia's most ex-
clusive neighborhoods, a top-of-
the-line BMW and a seemingly
boundless future. Until the day the
FBI stumbled across his name in
the course of an arson investiga-

- tion.

Curious as to Lavin’s links with a
failed business enterprise and its
bungled torching, the FBI began
digging into Lavin’s private and fi-
nancial affairs. They were as-
tounded at what they unearthed.

From humble beginnings as a
marijuana dealer to pay his way at
the ‘Ivy League’ University of
Pennsylvania, Lavin had graduated
to head one of the largest cocaine
smiggling and distribution rings
on the Atlantic coast.

Managed with all of the business
acumen and drive of a Fortune

_ 500 company, Lavin’s drug cartel

became a cocaine conglomerate

_with ‘branch offices’ in 13 states

moving 60 kilos of high-grade
coke a year.

Lavin’s annual net income for
managing this yuppie-driven
enterprise exceeded $1.5 million.

Through lengthy interviews with
the FBI, Lavin and the host of
players involved in ‘Dr. Snow’s’
drug ring, author Carol Saline has
pieced together a first-rate chroni-
cle of the motivations and
machinations of the men and
women who participated ina
highly lucrative and destructive
criminal empire.

At times the reader will be sur-
prised, if not shocked, at how in-
timate and personally damning
some of these revelations are.

Saline’s Dr. Snow is a titillating
tale of coke-fueled orgies,
$1,000-a-night hookers and in-
triguingly kinky relationships. It’s
also one heck of a lesson on just
how fine the line (no pun intend-
ed) can be between the American
Dream and a nation’s nightmare.

net

Next week, BOOKS NOW ex-
amines two new titles dealing with
remarkable Canadian Native lead-
ers: Roy MacGregor’s Chief — The
Fearless Vision of Chief Billy Dia-
mond; and The Song and The
Silence, Peter Jonker’s sensitive’
biography of Stoney Indian Chief,
Frank Kaquitts.

Do you know: me?

{am Michael the chef. | am behind
the scenes but very visible. Because
it is my preparation of food — my
creations — that seek your approval.
| work kard to please you. So when
you say, “My compliments to the
chef” — it makes my day.

FISH & GAME HOUSE

P.S. Romantic piano nightly
195 W. Broadway 876-9256

has a lot
to say.

FAIRWAYS

Whistler, B.C.
Call Toll Free: (-800-663-5644

SUSHI ORIGINALS

AN OCEAN OF ORIGINAL AND CLASSIC SUSHIS LOVINGLY PREPARED |
Try oar rainbow roll — a delicioesly colourful roll of
_ Seaeel, cacumber, salmon, snapper aud egg
and spinach, or mushroom sushi with
shitake mushrooms.

OPEN TUESDAY
CLOSED MONDAY

TAKE-OUT and !
CATERING AVAILABLE

980-1510 180 East 2nd, North Van. |

SIMMONS HIDE-A-BED

See our leather hide-a-beds

AVE 20 to 40%

S

oor m ©LOVESEAT SIZES
: FROM °

$59500

Other. models

Re Regular-995 5695 ©

ee @ Queen 1095". $795 .
‘FREE DELIVERY.

ASPEN Reg. 995° 9795 TOE eles

All sizes in Stock ingies, Doubles, Queens) _

USED FOLDING.
HIDE-A-BEDS ‘SOFA BEDS:

99

1582 Marine ‘Dr.. West Van.
“ 922:6506 of 926-0307 .

MOTHER'S DAY AT THE
DUNDARAVE CAFE

Lunch, Dinner or
Saturday/Sunday .-
Brunch’

Guitarist ‘Harpist
Saturday . Sunday
Brunch

Brunch

Open 7 Days & Nights a Week
2427 MARINE DRIVE, W. VANCOUVER 926-8838