Revere Beach Trilogy Books

Revere Beach Boulevard, a novel both literary and suspenseful, tells the story of a family that rallies around an errant son, even as a dark secret that has blighted all their lives comes to the surface. For Peter, the son who battles a gambling addiction for most of his adult life, it means having the courage to stand up to Eddie Crevine, a Mafia thug to whom he is in debt. For Peter's famous sister, Joanna, it means admitting that she shares some of her brother's anger at their parents and that she is no longer wholly responsible for saving him from the consequences of his gambling. For Vito, the father who hasn't ever had an easy time with his son, and Vito's wife, Lucy, it involves dealing with the aftereffects of a youthful indiscretion, a moment of unchecked passion that changes all of their lives in ways that can never be undone.

In this richly evocative novel--the moving story of one boy's coming of age--acclaimed author Roland Merullo will make you nostalgic for a small Massachusetts city called Revere even if you've never been there. Providing a window into an unspoiled America of forty years ago, In Revere welcomes you to the fiercely loyal and devoted Italian-American family of the Benedettos. Although he was orphaned as a child, young Anthony Benedetto was always surrounded by family, and the vibrant warmth of the Revere community. His Uncle Peter, a former Golden Gloves boxer whose days of glory were behind him, believed Tonio was bound for great things. So did his daughter Rosie, Tonio's favorite cousin, who would take many wrong turns--away from Tonio--through adolescence. His gentle grandparents, who took him in, encouraged him to claim a future outside of Revere, but the warm, unconditional love of his family, and the smells and sounds of Revere stay with him forever.

Part novel of suspense, part family drama, The Return follows six characters originally introduced in Roland Merullo's bestselling novel Revere Beach Boulevard.Kirkus Magazine praised Boulevard in a starred review saying, "although it’s about family, gambling, gangsters, sin, and redemption, Merullo’s smart book resists all the clichés of ethnic melodrama . . . this study in secrets and lies in no way romanticizes either its working-class Italians or the goodfellas who prey upon their addictions. Merullo, with a tip of his hat to Dostoyevsky, probes the psyche of the gambler but avoids any neat explanations for —the animal of addiction. The conflict of loyalties here (church, blood, class) also accounts for much inner turmoil among the primary characters, each drawn with sensitivity and intelligence. If Coppola or Scorsese ever repent for their glamorization of the underworld, this is the perfect novel to bring to the big screen: the ordinary people of Merullo’s realist fiction, no easy saints themselves, testify to the true meaning of familial love."These lives have been sewn together by love, addiction, and deceit.Peter Imbesalacqua is living in Montana in the witness protection program. A former gambling addict, he went deep in debt to a mob figure in his hometown of Revere, Massachusetts, bravely wore a wire at their last meeting, then had to flee. Now he’s happily married, with an adopted son, but he longs for his hometown, and especially misses his aging father.Vito Imbesalacqua, Peter’s dad, lives alone in the family home, visited occasionally by his daughter and illegitimate son, Alfonse, and tormented by the mistakes he’s made and the way they damaged his family.Joanie Imbesalacqua is obsessed with finding the mobster her brother Peter sent into hiding. She believes — correctly, as it turns out — that this evil man will one day return to Revere to seek revenge on her family. Locally famous, secretly gay, Joanie is torn between ambition and family, fury and love.Alfonse Romano is a local police captain, son of Vito, engaged to a woman who fled the Cambodian Holocaust and worried about Joanie, Vito, and Peter. Dutiful, kind, the ultimate straight-arrow, he came of age not knowing the identity of his true father and he and Vito are now rebuilding their relationship.Eddie Crevine was once a mafia captain. When Peter tape-recorded his threats he was forced to leave Revere with his wife, Alicia, and — like Peter — live in hiding under a false name. Vicious, racist, utterly self-centered, Eddie is haunted by what he sees as Peter’s betrayal of the codes of their hometown. Thousands of miles apart, very different men, Peter and Eddie both decide to return to Revere at the same time, drawing all of the characters into a vortex of violence and grace.