Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite

"Monster Hill" tells of Boston and the crime bosses and their followers who trafficked in whatever brought them power and money. Years ago, in 1963, Angelo Garguilo ran all the local crime except for that of the Irish, better known as the Winter Hill gang. Angelo is upset with Winter Hill's Henry Sommers and his cohort Sammy Cunningham as they refuse to participate in drug trafficking. Angelo sends a message of anger to Henry by having Henry's wife Charlene killed while shevis a comatose patient at Boston General Hospital.Henry's major enforcer is drinking, drugging tough Jay O'Malley whose younger sisters are drawn into Henry and Sammy's company. Claire O'Malley, the youngest, becomes pregnant with Sammy's child just before he is killed in a gangland attack from the Garguilos. Erin, her older sister, is attracted to Henry Sommers who is sent to a federal prison. Years pass and Claire has married the son of the policeman who killed her love, Sammy Cunningham. She raises her sons, Sammy, Cunningham's son, and Arnie, named after his father, Arnie DeLuca, whom she has married. Sammy becomes a gangster and Arnie becomes a Massachusetts State Police officer. Will the half-brother's paths ever converge?

"Monster Hill" by Dan Ferullo is a long but suspense-filled novel of the constantly-threatened lives of Boston's mobsters and the police and federal officers who try to ensnare them. Winter Hill gang leaders Henry Sommers and Sammy Cunningham are the fascinating and likeable main characters in the beginning of this novel. Jay O'Malley, Sammy DeLuca, Erin and Claire O'Malley, Winter Hill enforcers Jasper and Mario and all other characters suit the storyline well. The dialogue is always powerful and believable. The part that features the baseball game with the Boston Red Sox is long and detailed, but sports-loving readers will adore it. "Monster Hill" is a thriller that readers everywhere will want to read and absorb.