Brilliant story of modern Sicilian history. - Rated 
Stille's book shows a side of Sicily and Italy that most of us are vaguely aware of,but submerge in "Godfather"-style cliches.
The Sicilian mafia are far more horrific than the Hollywood rendition,living off the misery of terrified Sicilians.Stille points out Mafia control of heroin traffiking(leading to the zombie-like world of junkiedom for many young Sicilians),protection rackets,tax fraud and their links with corrupt politicians are a cancer inside Sicilian and Italian society.Note well that the first victims of the Mafia,either in Italy or in the Italian diaspora worldwide,are other Italians-so much for the Mafia as being somehow protecting Italians.
The other side of Stille's story is the suicidal bravery of a small number of Siclilian prosecutors,policemen and politicians,led by Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino,and their efforts to fight back against the Mafia.The excellent cadavers of the tiltle are of those Italians who got in the way of the Mafia,and they are a long list of politicians,policemen,lawyers,journalists,even people who worked in drug rehabilitaion clinics who denounced drug dealing.
The climax of the book is the summer of 1992,when Falcone and Borsellino,after some epochal cases left many mafioso facing non-appealable life sentances,became the latest of the excellent cadavers.The simultaneous popular backlash against the mafia in Sicily,and the death throes of the first Italian republic(drowning in corruption partially fuelled by the mafia)is brilliantly portrayed.
Stille's final message is that the mafia isn't dead,just sleeping.Even after the birth of the second republic,given the right political environment(such as Silvio Berlusconi becoming prime minister in Rome),they could return even more powerful than before.
Stille clearly loves Italy,and that gives the book an added poignancy.Must read for crime buffs,students of Italian history or politics,or anyone visiting Sicily.
gripping! - Rated
no doubt the most definitive account of the anti-mafia trials and tribulations in englsh.
"stille has stlye"
superbly written !
Very readable introduction - Rated 
Stille's book provides a wonderfully readable introduction into the Italian, and more specifically the Sicilian, mafia's control over Italian society and government. It is particularly interesting in providing links between mafiosi and government officials and politicians, and the ensuing Mani Pulite scandal. This book definitely wins on readability and for all those starting to study the Cosa Nostra this is a fantastic first book to start with.
Excellent Cadavers. - Rated
Brilliant, incisive and ludicrously well researched and detailed. It isfluent and contains details which are hard to find in dozens of otherbooks on exactly the same topic. Stille has excelled with this book and Ihave frequently referenced this book for my thesis.The themes are horrificbut the book, brilliant, reads like a novel.Buy it.
Brilliant (but numbing) story well written and researched - Rated
I can add little to all the other reviewers great praise for a book thatcompeletely destroys the Godfather/Sopranos image that seems to grip themedia whenever the Mafia/Cosa Nostra is covered. Highly recommended!
As this book shows in painstaking detail, the continual dangerousinterplay between endemic corruption and the related violence it producedin Sicily alongside the Italian political model in Sicily and Rome of thepost war years created a culture that was ultimately to cost Italy interms of economic development and lead in part to the country's majorbudget deficits of recent years.
It took the courage of the two heroes of this story plus many others namedin the book, most of whom were sadly killed before the final fruits oftheir efforts were seen, to make a difference and get prosections thathurt the criminal gangs operating in Italy and other Southern Italyregions. That this was against endless obstacles and bureaucracy oftenpolitically motivated shows what real heroes these men were. Stille'shandling of all the characters and the many different political andcriminal elements and events is what makes the book such a memorableread.
My reason for using the description "numbing" is that sadly over its 400odd pages, just the sheer volume of murders that occurred leaves onenumbed, especially at the stories of the Corleonese gang's war of outrightextermination of any rivals.
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