The Sisters Mallone Book

The Mallone sisters look Irish, but don't let their blue eyes fool you.

"It's all in how you say it," their grandma Anona proudly says. "Ma-llone is Irish. Mal-lon-e is Italian."

Growing up Italian in the 1920s, in Hell's Kitchen, an Irish enclave, requires toughness, thrift and a calculating mind — even for the three beautiful Mallone sisters.

Helen married Irish, but her husband died young and drunk, under the wheels of a beer delivery truck. Since then, she's lived the life of a libertine, frequenting dark nightclubs where she all too often catches a glimpse of her brother-in-law Frankie, checking out the sweet young waitresses and cigarette girls. Helen and Mary, who's married to a bighearted mobster twenty years her senior, have never trusted Frankie. Frankie's charm and good looks swept their baby sister Gracie right off her feet, but he's a flirt and a complainer. Besides, his mother never had any use for the Mallone girls. She wanted a girl from Little Italy for her Frankie.

Countless times, Gracie has come to her senses and left Frankie, packing up little Charlie and heading uptown to Anona's, threatening never to return. But Frankie always repents, begging and wailing under Anona's window until he changes Gracie's mind. This time, Helen and Mary have had enough. They want to ensure that Gracie and Charlie have the lives they deserve — even if they have to take drastic measures. They have it all planned out. And the first step is to catch Frankie in the act of infidelity....

The Sisters Mallone is a black comedy about the power of sisterhood and the importance of family — and family connections. Through irrepressible characters, and infectious and suspenseful writing, The Sisters Mallone reveals the American immigrant's dream — with a twist.