MAFIA SPIES

Here's the starred review from BOOKLIST: * Mafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro. By Thomas Maier Apr. 2019. 440p. Skyhorse, $25.99 (9781510741713). 364.1 This is a standout in the field of spy nonfiction. Maier, a Newsday investigative journalist for 30 years, uses a slew of documents (including the National Archives’ recently declassified files about the Kennedy assassination, along with sworn court testimony, congressional hearings, and CIA and FBI documents) to make what is a totally credible case that two gangsters worked with the CIA in the early 1960s to try to assassinate Fidel Castro. Not only does Maier give beyond-solid evidence for the strange alliance of politicians, mobsters, movie stars, entertainers, and Cuban-exile commandos in Miami seeking to bring down Castro, he also makes the whole book crystal clear (a rarity in spy nonfiction) and enormously fun. The focus is on Hollywood/Las Vegas gangster Johnny Roselli...

Among those who once visited the Hotel Nacional in Havana was Winston Churchill, a subject of my last book WHEN LIONS ROAR. Today the hotel has named a posh bar in Churchill’s name. During a visit last week, it was good to see a reminder of Winston as I prepared for my new book, coming out April 2. MAFIA SPIES is all about spying and Winston was a master of it. Just ask Joe Kennedy and Tyler Kent, as described in LIONS. That chapter got me to thinking that I’d like to do a whole book about spying in the Cold War.

“Just when you think you’ve read and heard everything there is to know about the CIA, JFK and the mob, along comes Thomas Maier with this meticulously researched and nuanced report that sets the record straight in some areas and breaks new ground in others. Mafia Spies reads like a thriller but its all true. I found it gripping from page one. And important. The events reported on here changed history and give us better understanding of current times.” -- Michael Connelly, #1 NYT bestselling author and creator of Amazon's " Bosch ".      My name is Thomas Maier, a Newsday investigative reporter and author of several books, including most recently WHEN LIONS ROAR: The Churchills and the Kennedys for Crown. My 2009 book, MASTERS OF SEX, became an award-winning Showtime series starring Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan.       My new book is called MAFIA SPIES – – a non-fiction thriller about two gangsters hired by the CIA to kill Fidel Castro ...

“Just when you think you’ve read and heard everything there is to know about the CIA, JFK and the mob, along comes Thomas Maier with this meticulously researched and nuanced report that sets the record straight in some areas and breaks new ground in others. Mafia Spies reads like a thriller but its all true. I found it gripping from page one. And important. The events reported on here changed history and give us better understanding of current times.” -- Michael Connelly, #1 NYT bestselling author and creator of Amazon's " Bosch ".      My name is Thomas Maier, a Newsday investigative reporter and author of several books, including most recently WHEN LIONS ROAR: The Churchills and the Kennedys for Crown. My 2009 book, MASTERS OF SEX, became an award-winning Showtime series starring Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan.       My new book is called MAFIA SPIES – – a non-fiction thriller about two gangsters hired by the CIA to kill Fidel Castro – – ...

Praise for MAFIA SPIES by Thomas Maier, a new spy thriller out on April 2: “Just when you think you’ve read and heard everything there is to know about the CIA, JFK and the mob, along comes Thomas Maier with this meticulously researched and nuanced report that sets the record straight in some areas and breaks new ground in others.   MAFIA SPIES reads like a thriller but its all true. I found it gripping from page one. And important. The events reported on here changed history and give us better understanding of current times.” -- Michael Connelly, New York Times bestselling author and creator of Amazon's TV drama "Bosch".

I'm just back from Havana Cuba inspecting some of the locales, including the old gangster-run casinos, that are a big part of my new book MAFIA SPIES, which comes out April 2.