Orphaned at a young age, Frank Morris is taken in by Don Cabineri, the head of one of New York City’s most notorious Italian crime families. There, he is treated like a son, instilled with values of leadership and honor, and groomed to be a covert criminal himself. After a stint in Alcatraz and a daring escape where Frank is forced to assume a new identity, he becomes the Cabineri family’s most dangerous secret weapon. But a tragic murder threatens to destroy his family, and Frank is thrown on a collision course with the law. And the law standing in his way is none other than the son of a man who once spared his life in battle. Torn between avenging his family and honoring a life’s debt, Frank must make an impossible choice.
Spiros Gratsias’ UNYIELDING DESTINY has a brilliant premise steeped in American true crime history. It’s a story that’s fascinated people for decades—what if one of the notorious criminals who made a daring escape from Alcatraz actually survived their journey across the treacherous waters? The book reimagines Frank Morris as the adopted son of Mafia boss Don Cabineri, a lifelong criminal, a war veteran, and a man raised to know the value of honor and loyalty. It’s a story that’s loaded with potential, especially once Frank has a chance encounter with Scott, the young son of the man who gave his life during the Korean War so that Frank and others could live. Unfortunately, this amazing premise and its potential loses a lot in the overall execution of the narrative. It feels like the book needed to be longer for the story that was being told, because it covers such a huge timeline and often jumps forward several years at a time. Important events are glossed over and summarized after the fact, which leaves much of the emotional character development behind in a rush to get to the main conflict.
The real drama between Frank and Scott doesn’t happen until the last chunk of the book, and a lot of characters are thrown around without deeper emotional connections—most of it is told, not shown on the page through dialogue or action. So late in the story, the plot becomes devoid of its potential for tension and suspense. Without learning more about Scott’s journey alongside Frank’s and more cat-and-mouse interactions between them, more internal conflict, the ending’s intense, emotional resolution doesn’t ultimately feel earned. It is a thrilling, well-written climactic sequence, even though it doesn’t quite hit as hard as it should. The book’s attention to historical details, especially during the plot’s time in Alcatraz and building backstories for characters in Little Italy, is really what makes this unique alternate history so interesting.
A brilliant “what if?” premise that posits an alternate history for a notorious American criminal, UNYIELDING DESTINY has a keen eye for historical details, but is ultimately mired by its rushed, uneven pacing.
~Jessica Thomas for IndieReader