The head of the biggest NYC crime family, Carmine Miceli, Jr., is taken in on racketeering charges. His lifelong friend, Gino Ranno, is forced to become the head of the family he has so desperately tried to keep at arm's length in this third book of Louis Romano's Gino Ranno mob series (FISH FARM, BESA).

The first order of business: The Russian mob. Infringing on the illegal profits made on the streets through prostitution, insurance scams, and the drug world, the Russians are also engaged in harvesting young female body parts through surgeons who are secretly on their payroll to be sold onto the black market to the highest bidder.

As Gino and the Albanian mafia join forces to end these brutal murders, a well-to-do American family finds themselves in a quandary when their college-aged son is in desperate need of a kidney transplant, and they are offered one for a price. How far will they go to save their son?

Drawn into their high-stakes game... A GAME OF PAWNS ... Gino soon comes to the heart-pounding realization that his life and a slew of people he's known for years are dependent upon him to keep them safe, and any of his decisions now will determine whether he, his friends, and associates live or die.

The Gino Ranno series: The streets of NYC are getting increasingly narrow as the different nationalities of mob families want more than their fair share of illegal, money-making activities. In FISH FARM, it was the mafia vs. the Colombian drug lords. In the 5-time award-winning BESA, the Albanians start an inner mob war when one of their own is shot during a drug deal gone bad, and now the Russians, who think they can muscle their way into Gino's backyard.

Louis Romano's extensive hands-on research for GAME OF PAWNS has been compared to a Patricia Cornwell novel for its accuracy.