There is something very unusual about the Blake family.
Moving into the quiet town of Cholong-sur-Avre in Normandy under cover of darkness and attempting to keep a decidedly low profile it is not long before local residents are asking questions about them. This American family of four consists of Fred Blake and his wife Maggie and their two teenage children Warren and Belle. Fred Blake is soon telling curious Normans that he is an author who has based himself in the area in order to write a history of the Normandy landings of World War Two. Maggie helps out with local charities and their children enrol in the lycee.
However, Fred Blake is in fact an ex-mafia boss whose real name is Giovanni Manzoni who after snitching on his fellow gangsters is now part of the FBI Witness Protection Programme. Manzoni, unable to reject past behaviour has jeopardised his family's safety several times in America and the FBI have finally tried concealing their identity in Europe. But within days of their arrival strange events are taking place in this sleepy Norman town as variously an uncooperative plumber has both arms mysteriously broken and a rude supermarket manager finds his supermarket burnt down. Through a surreal turn of events imprisoned mafia boss Don Mimino discovers the whereabouts of the Manzoni family and orders a death squad to eliminate them.
The scene is set then for a violent shoot-out in the unlikely environs of the French countryside. Badfellas offers a darkly humorous and knowing take on the Mafia genre that is neither sentimental nor glamorising and is often at pains to point out the seedy and prosaic nature of organised crime.
Author Tonino Benacquista succeeds in creating a new take on the well worn theme of the Mafia family and delivers a pacey, stylish and entertaining story.
Who said family values are dead?
Giles Morgan
Badfellas
Tonino Benacquista
Bitter Lemon Press, £7.99, 9781904738435
