Writing A Mobster Novel
I have been writing a Mafia-themed novel for a long time. It follows two main characters: Vittorio "Victor" DeSimone, a young hood who eventually rises to power in the Cicerone crime family of New York City. The other protagonist is Santino Cicerone, the leader of the Mafia organization that Victor becomes a member of, but it follows his struggles as the leader of the Cicerone family business after his father, Ezio Cicerone, is assassinated. I just realized how similar this idea (two storylines of two mobsters in two different eras) might sound to The Godfather Part II, but I didn't really get the idea from it. I actually got the idea from a video game LOL!
Many characters in the book are going to be based off of real criminals (there is a bank robber in the Santino Cicerone storyline named Jack Dattinger, who is obviously based off of John Dillinger). I am considering including Frank Nitti and Al Capone as characters without changing the names but I'm not sure how that would go legally. Another plan I had was starting my own little criminal underworld universe by making other books based off of supporting characters in this (such as a story following the life and death of Jack Dattinger).
When Santino first steps into Ezio's shoes, he is caught in a civil war. The organization started by his father is divided up into three factions which are ran by Santino himself and two other factions ran two of his father's top men: Salvatore Grazzini and Giovanni Gravano. Santino's right hand man during these events is Vito Falco, his father's advisor. The storyline of Santino doesn't only chronicle the civil war that consolidates his power within the Cicerone gang (which later becomes the Cicerone family), but also how his family operated during Prohibition (which helps them rise to power), but also their decline in power, which leads up to Victor's storyline.
The story is not told in chronological order, so you have two plots to follow at once.
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