World gone by : a novel
(Book)

Ten years after his world was torn apart by tragedy, charming criminal Joe Coughlin has built a new life for himself in Tampa, Florida. But success cannot protect him from his past. When he is forced into a final reckoning, will the wages of a lifetime of sin finally be paid in full?

Late spring, 1943. Tampa. The world is at war but the American mob is in its heyday. Former crime boss Joe Coughlin now works as a consigliere to the infamous Bartolo Crime Family, effortlessly handling its interest in Tampa, Boston, and Cuba. A decade has passed since he lost his wife in a cascade of bullets; Prohibition is dead, and Joe has made a home for himself and his son, Tomas, in Ybor City. Navigating his way through the ruthless, rapidly expanding mob world controlled by Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano, Joe is instrumental in their growing relationship with Fulgencio Batista, who rules a corrupt Cuba with an iron fist. Once again, Joe has forged everything out of nothing: money, influence, a clandestine relationship with a beautiful woman, and a privileged place in Tampa's shadowy underworld. But a rumor surfaces that someone wants Joe dead. And he has only days to figure out who is after him or he will die. And then there's the ghost-a young boy who appears on the fringes of Joe's vision and seems to be trying to tell him something.