I love the book; it was in ok condition. Although I love your service, I am not an admirer of your website. It is convoluted.

First off, a warning...this is not a "feel-good" book.

John Sutter and his wife Susan Stanhope-Sutter live on Long Island's Gold Coast cruising into middle-aged boredom when Frank Bellarosa, the head of one of New York's crime families, moves into the estate next door. The lives of the Sutters change as they are drawn into the life of don Bellarosa.

The book is told from John Sutter's point of view with lots of witty comments about how the middle class and upper class view each other. I felt like Nelson DeMille had called up Mark Twain for some instruction on the first half of this book. It is all very light-hearted and easy-going for at least 400 pages. There are lots of humorous occurrences and witticisms thrown in as Bellarosa maneuvers the Sutters into his life.

And all along the way the narrator warns us that bad things are coming. But the narrative is so filled with amusing banter that you think the narrator is kidding.

This book is funny, very well written, and brutal. When you finish this 600-pager you will feel like you were smashed in the face by a Mafioso with a lead pipe. It's a good book that I can't recommend

The "voice" of the protagonist/hero of "The Gold Coast" reads exactly like the "voice" of John Corey, protagonist/hero of Nelson DeMille's later novels. And that's good, because Corey is a good man, as is John Sutter, the lawyer in this book. Both are good, honorable men with very human foilables that at times overcome them in their thoughts and actions.

This is a good book, a good story about the Mafia and how good, well meaning people can be seduced and come under the Mafia's charm without even knowing it.

DeMille has a gift, and his novels are a gift to the reading public. This one seems a bit long, however. It "reads long," almost too detailed until Part V when it all comes together and gives the last 100 pages or so some of the fastest, best and most exciting action of any DeMille novel. Only "The Lion's Game" is better.

One concern: This book in hardback is 500 pages. The sequal, "The Gatehouse,due out this October (2008) is 600 pages long. Hope that's not too long, but if it's like the finish of this book, it may not be long enough.

Read this book, capice?

Normally I'm a big fan of deMille, owning all his other books. But for me this one was definitely not up to standard. The plot is as predictable as the characters. What happens when old money meets nouveau riche? Infidelity of course. Hi hi, kiss kiss, bang bang, bye bye. It's more into Barbara Cartland territory than that of a respected thriller writer.

I agree with the reviewer who summed up this book as a "Bloated and unpursuasive thriller." Oh, I WANTED to like this book. The skeleton of the plot held some promise. And in places (alas, too few) the writing has some punch. But DeMille just goes ON and ON and ON ... and his writing becomes tiresome. I'm afaid that he simply loves to "hear himself write."
Five hundred pages? Tolstoi he aint.