The Black Hand: The Epic War Between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History

by Stephan Talty

Beginning in the summer of 1903, an insidious crime wave stirred New York City, then the entire country, into panic. The children of Italian immigrants were being kidnapped and dozens of innocent victims gunned down. Bombs tore apart tenement buildings. Judges, senators, Rockefellers, and society matrons were threatened with gruesome deaths. The perpetrators’ only calling card: the symbol of a black hand.

Standing between the American public and the Black Hand’s lawlessness was Joseph Petrosino. Dubbed “the Italian Sherlock Holmes,” he was a dogged and ingenious detective and master of disguise. As the crimes grew ever more bizarre, Petrosino and his all-Italian police squad raced to capture members of the secret criminal society before the nation’s anti-immigrant tremors exploded into catastrophe.

The Black Hand is a fast-paced story of mystery, terror, sacrifice, and honor in turn-of-the-century America, from a master of narrative nonfiction.