Twenty-five
hundred years ago the Greek tragedian, Aeschylus, composed a trilogy of
plays, known as the Oresteia. The first of these, Agamemnon,
derived from the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, is the best
known and most often performed and analyzed. John H. Rizzo brings
forward the characters and events—including the Trojan Horse—to
contemporary times in a novel of glory, lust and murder.
Augie Manetti is an independent small time hustler who
yearns to be part of La Cosa Nostra. To that end he has married
Cathy Musso, the niece of a real Mafioso, Salvatore "Artie" Musso.
Cathy, whose marriage has nipped in the bud a promising future as a
professional singer, has her own dreams of prevailing despite her
philandering husband—through the career of their super-talented but
troubled daughter Tina, who appears to be on the threshold of opera
stardom.
So desperate is Augie to lead an expedition that includes the highly
decorated war hero Al Colucci, to rescue his bother Mimo's beautiful
wife Helen from the clutches of the evil Parigi brothers, that, like
Agamemnon, he must decide whether to sacrifice his daughter, to become a
genuine "made man."
Set mostly in Chicago, New York, Cuba and Miami,
Augie is a
tale of the worlds of organized crime and big-time opera colliding,
thereby generating a series of action packed—and tragic— consequences.
