World Gone By by Dennis Lehane

 

A beautiful novel about life as a mobster (in 1940s Tampa) and all the contradictions and complications of it. Lehane clearly has an ear for dialogue, and a sense of all the moral and logical and legal compromises the life brings with it. People persist in trying to be moral even as their morality is ruthlessly stomped out of them. There are no good outcomes for anyone, and the ending is like getting shivved.