Omertà, the Sicilian code of silence, has been the cornerstone of the Mafia's
sense of honour for centuries. Born in the Sicilian hills, omertà carried the
Mafia through a hundred years of change, but now at the century's end it is
becoming a relic from a bygone age. Honour may be silent – but money talks. New
York – a mob boss is assassinated. His nephew Astorre Viola and the head of the
city's FBI both launch investigations into the murder. But this time silence
spreads like a contagion: the silence of rival gangs, the silence of crooked
bankers, even the silence of the courts. The