In the gripping next installment of the Gangster's Daughter series, Kadisha continues her cat and mouse game of matching wits with Detective Steel as she simultaneously continues to eliminate her enemies. But are they really enemies, or are her real enemies the people she trusts the most? She tries to use her daddy's diary to help her decipher friend from foe but it seems that the deeper she gets into the diary, the more secrets are revealed. Will these secrets destroy everything she ever thought she knew about life and her family? Or will her true enemies take her down before she gets to the bottom of the mystery surrounding her family's murders? Come along for the wild ride with America's favorite Gangster's Daughter, Kadisha Spencer, and see if you can unravel the mystery before she can...
In the gripping next installment of the Gangster's Daughter series, Kadisha continues her cat and mouse game of matching wits with Detective Steel as she simultaneously continues to eliminate her enemies. But are they really enemies, or are her real enemies the people she trusts the most? She tries to use her daddy's diary to help her decipher friend from foe but it seems that the deeper she gets into the diary, the more secrets are revealed. Will these secrets destroy everything she ever thought she knew about life and her family? Or will her true enemies take her down before she gets to the bottom of the mystery surrounding her family's murders? Come along for the wild ride with America's favorite Gangster's Daughter, Kadisha Spencer, and see if you can unravel the mystery before she can... This is part 4 on Kindle.
Yakuza Moon is the shocking, yet intensely moving memoir of 37-yearold Shoko Tendo, who grew up the daughter of a yakuza boss. Tendo lived her life in luxury until the age of six, when her father was sent to prison, and her family fell into terrible debt. Bullied by classmates who called her "the yakuza girl," and terrorized at home by a father who became a drunken, violent monster after his release from prison, Tendo rebelled. A regular visitor to nightclubs at the age of 12, she soon became a drug addict and a member of a girl gang. By the age of 15 she found herself sentenced to eight months in a juvenile detention center. Adulthood brought big bucks and glamour when Tendo started working as a bar hostess during Japan’s booming bubble economy of the nineteen- eighties. But among her many rich and loyal patrons there were also abusive clients, one of whom beat her so badly that her face was left permanently scarred. When her mother died, Tendo plunged into such a deep depression that she tried to commit suicide twice. Tendo takes us through the bad times with warmth and candor, and gives a moving and inspiring account of how she overcame a lifetime of discrimination and hardship. Getting tattooed, from the base of her neck to the tips of her toes, with a design centered on a geisha with a dagger in her mouth, was an act that empowered her to start making changes in her life. She quit her job as a hostess. On her last day at the bar she looked up at the full moon, a sight she never forgot. The moon became a symbol of her struggle to become whole, and the title of the book she wrote as an epitaph for herself and her family.
At 17 years old, young Kadisha Spencer has the world in the palm of her hands. She is young and beautiful, and lives a lavish life with a wonderful family, and an adorable boyfriend. She is destined for success. She graduated from high school ahead of her class, with Valedictorian honors. She has been accepted to a prestigious college, her dream is to became a doctor. All the while, she was raised in the preeminence of her legendary father, the infamous gangster, Ike "Monster" Spencer. Ike has been retired from the goon life for years, living the legitimate lifestyle as a dedicated father and businessman who has amassed millions. However, the streets are not ready for his retirement, it wants his timely demise, plus his riches. Suddenly, Kadisha's pristine sheltered world is shattered as devastation strikes. Her father is abducted and presumed dead. She, along with her beloved family members are brutalized in the most vicious way. Kadisha finds herself near death, barely clinging to life. That's when she makes one solemn promise to herself as well as the deceased members of her family. If she can pull through this, her attacker will have to pay with their lives. A gangster's daughter is born. This is a fast paced urban tale of murder, sex, drugs, and betrayal.
Daisy Sullivan's father was one of London's most infamous gangsters. Haunted by his violent death she vows to live a respectable life. That is until the day her mum, who abandoned her when she was young and who she barely remembers, barges back into her life. It doesn't take Daisy long to realise that her mum is the Queen-pin of a prostitution ring with links to high society and the head of one of London's most feared underworld families - the Kings. Soon she is drawn into their next criminal act - a bank job. A job that turns out to be no ordinary robbery. Soon she is running for her life and the only person she can trust is up and coming gangland bad boy, Ricky Smart. Now she has to use every dirty trick her dad ever taught her to stay alive . . .
Finalist for the Claymore and Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards Since separating from her philandering husband, Boca Raton writer Becks Ruchinsky has struggled to build a closer relationship with her quirky and contentious father, Tootsie, who lives in a retirement home. One evening, as she and her father are relaxing on the home's front porch, an elderly woman accuses Tootsie of having murdered her husband fifty years earlier. Tootsie admits to ratting on the man, who'd cheated their Jewish syndicate boss out of thousands of dollars, but denies killing the widow's husband. He also admits to having friends in the Jewish mafia and shares stories about his experiences. But the more time she spends with her father, the more convinced Becks becomes that Tootsie is lying about his involvement. Determined to discover the truth about her dad's past, she sets out on a journey to undercover his darkest secrets. She learns he worked for the Jewish mafia -running numbers for the Cuban lottery, beating up Nazi sympathizers, and smuggling arms to Israeli independence fighters. When she learns that he murdered his best friend and, possibly, his own brother, she must decide if she can accept his criminal past - or cut him out of her life. The Yiddish Gangster's Daughter also explores the impact our parents' relationships have on our own. Throughout the book, Becks challenges her father on his infidelity toward her mother and becomes frustrated by his refusal to acknowledge that what he did was hurtful to his entire family. She's upset when Tootsie minimizes her husband's affair and encourages her to take him back. Ultimately, Becks realizes that she cannot forgive her husband for cheating until she comes to terms with her father's infidelities...and her mother's willingness to put up with them. A gripping and thought-provoking murder mystery, this award-winning novel explores the colorful and precarious world of the 1940s and 1950s Jewish mafia . . . and the limits of familial love. Praise for The Yiddish Gangster's Daughter . . . an engaging, multi-layered family saga cum mystery where a fifty-something woman and mother of two grown sons suddenly discovers that the comfortable, predictable life she has been living is nothing but a sham. Her attempts to make sense of her impossible new reality are both touching and gripping, making for a truly unique literary experience. Les Standiford, The Last Train to Paradise
The highly acclaimed novel that reveals the life of a Vietnamese family in America through the knowing eyes of a child finding her place and voice in a new country. “A brilliant evocation of human sorrow and desire.... Heartbreaking and exhilarating.” —The New York Times Book Review In 1978 six refugees—a girl, her father, and four “uncles”—are pulled from the sea to begin a new life in San Diego. In the child’s imagination, the world is transmuted into an unearthly realm: she sees everything intensely, hears the distress calls of inanimate objects, and waits for her mother to join her. But life loses none of its strangeness when the family is reunited. As the girl grows, her matter-of-fact innocence eddies increasingly around opaque and ghostly traumas: the cataclysm that engulfed her homeland, the memory of a brother who drowned and, most inescapable, her father’s hopeless rage.
The daughter of one of the most powerful mobsters in America describes growing up amidst the glamour and tragedy of 1940s, 50s and 60s Las Vegas and recounts knowing Bugsy Siegel, Lucky Luciano and Frank Sinatra as a child.
