“In this city, you can have anything you want if you kill the right four people.” ~ Nunzio Sabino In Weepers (Book 1), Angelo and his gang, with a bit of help from his beloved “uncle” Nunzio Sabino, defeated the notorious Satan’s Knights. Now, in this standalone sequel to Weepers, it’s 1960 and Nunzio is still the most powerful organized crime boss in New York City, protecting what’s his with political schemes and ‘business’ deals.
Against this backdrop of Mafia turf wars, local gang battles, and political power-plays in the mayoral election, the bodies begin stacking up. An unlikely assassin arrives fresh from Naples after killing a top member of the Camorra to avenge the murder of her family. She blends seamlessly into the neighborhood and with the focus on the threat from the Satan’s Knights, no one suspects that Angelo’s father and Nunzio are next on her hit list. Nunzio has lived his entire life by the mantra; Be a fox when there are traps and a lion when there are wolves. Will Nunzio be a lion in time?
Praise for Nick Chiarkas:
“Writers are always told, ‘Write what you know.’ Nick Chiarkas knows New York, organized crime, and how to write an engaging story. Nunzio’s Way is gritty and thoroughly gripping.” John DeDakis, award-winning Novelist and former editor for CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer”
Book Details:
Genre: Crime Thriller / Historical
Published by: HenschelHAUS Publishing
Publication Date: October 2022
Number of Pages: 261
ISBN: 978159595-908-6
Series: Weepers, #2
Book Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Author Guest Post:A Lakefly Question by Nick Chiarkas
I was recently asked if I attribute my achievements to defiance. It was at a recent writers’ conference in Wisconsin, I was presenting a session on self-editing, and my bio was posted in the conference brochure.
My bio: “Nick Chiarkas grew up in the Al Smith housing projects in the Two Bridges neighborhood on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. When he was in the fourth grade, his mother was told by the principal of PS-1 that “Nick was unlikely ever to complete high school, so you must steer him toward a simple and secure vocation.”
Instead, Nick became a writer, with a few stops along the way: a U.S. Army Paratrooper (101st Airborne Division); a New York City Police Officer; the Deputy Chief Counsel for the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations; the Deputy Chief Counsel and Research Director for the President’s Commission on Organized Crime; and the Director of the Wisconsin State Public Defender Agency. On the way, he picked up a Doctorate from Columbia University; a Law Degree from Temple University; and was a Pickett Fellow at Harvard.
How many mothers are told that their children are hopeless? How many kids with potential surrender to despair? That’s why Nick wrote Weepers and Nunzio’s Way — for them.”
Obviously, the question was about my wanting to prove the principal wrong. Usually, I respond to this question by saying it could have been a wee bit of a desire for a reckoning and let it go with that. But these were writers like me; they ought to know the power of their words. The truth. So, here’s the truth I shared that day.
I was nine years old, sitting outside the principal’s office, it was the end of the day, and his secretary was gone. Just me, and I could hear every derogatory word he was telling my mother about me. My mother was a poor Italian second-generation immigrant who thought God ordained principals. A teacher who had left for the day to pick up a bag of groceries had returned to the school to retrieve papers she inadvertently left on her desk. She stopped in front of me. Clearly, she could hear the principal. She took my hand, and we went to the teacher’s lounge. She made a pot of tea for us. At this point, I was feeling like a big shot. She took a poundcake with white frosting out of her shopping bag and asked if I liked cake. I said, “Yeah, especially the icing.” She unwrapped and cut the cake horizontally, leaving about an inch of cake and a half-inch of icing. We enjoyed tea and cake, and we talked. We talked about her growing up, and then she asked about me. What I think about. What I care about. She gave me a book of poems, Yesterday and Today, by Louis Untermeyer (I still have it). She told me to read it. I said, “I can’t read poems like these.” She said, “I believe you can. Read them and read everything and anything you can find.” And then she said, “And, Nicky, always eat the icing off the cake.”
When I was eleven, I had a job delivering groceries and would have money in my pockets when returning to the store. Gangs knew that and would chase me. I was good at running across the rooftops, jumping from roof to roof, they would give up, and I would go to the New York Public Library, gaining access from the roof, and hide in the fiction section, and I would read and read until it was safe to leave.
When I received my doctorate, I tracked down that teacher and mailed it (actually a copy of it) to her with a note that said, “See what you did.” That teacher made me feel valued, her advice empowered me, and reading gave me wings. I hope teachers, writers, and all those who take a moment to share a thought know how powerful their words are. That kids remember you. That we readers remember your words. That you can make a child fly.
About the author:
Author Links:
NickChiarkas.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @AuthorNickChiarkas
Twitter – @chiarkas
Facebook – @NicholasChiarkasAuthor
Giveaway details:
There will be FIVE (5) winners for this tour.
1 – Grand prize: $10 Amazon.com Gift Card & gift ebook (epub) of Weepers and Nunzio’s Way
4 – Runner Up prizes of Nunzio’s Way ebook (epub)
CLICK HERE to enter to win!
Special thanks to Partners in Crime Tours
Tour Stops:
10/24 Review @ I Read What You Write
10/24 Showcase @ BOOK REVIEWS by LINDA MOORE
10/25 Showcase @ 411 ON BOOKS, AUTHORS, AND PUBLISHING NEWS
10/26 Guest post @ The Bookworm
10/27 Showcase @ Books, Ramblings, and Tea
10/28 Guest post @ The Mystery of Writing
10/30 Review @ Guatemala Paula Loves to Read
11/08 Showcase @ Celticladys Reviews
11/09 Review @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader
11/1 Interview @ I Read What You Write
11/13 Review @ Paws. Read. Repeat
11/16 Guest post @ The Reading Frenzy
11/18 Review @ The Page Ladies
the bookworm 
What an inspiring story about teachers!
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Very!
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Wow! What an amazing guest post!
I had a similar thing happen (but different LOL).
When my daughter was in 1st grade she was reading over a 6th grade level. At a meeting, the teacher told me – she didn’t have any more testing or teaching materials for her and my daughter should just concentrate on playing!!!! Can you believe a teacher told me that!!?? Well I pulled her out of that school and put her in a private school and she thrived! She is now an adult and homeschools her own two children.
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Nothing surprises me anymore! I’m glad it worked out in the private school for her.
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