Mafialand (formerly published as Shadowland): How the Mob Invaded Britain

Douglas Thompson

Aug 2012 · Random House

About this ebook

Mafialand is a revelatory and dramatic true-life thriller spanning much of the twentieth century, a page-turning chronicle of an elaborate Mafia plan to 'invade' Europe using 1960s London as a bridgehead.

The capital city of the Swinging Sixties was also a world of gambling, guns and gangsters. Several veterans of the era are astonished that they survived it and some feel protected enough - now that most of the killers are themselves dead - to reveal to bestselling author Douglas Thompson the details and secrets of one of history's greatest criminal conspiracies, and of how world-champion boxer Freddie Mills really died.

Mafialand (previously published as Shadowland) recounts events from the viewpoint of the pawns as well as the kingmakers. Brutal, terrifying and intrigue-packed, it is an account of the Mob's Machiavellian global manipulation of governments and officials. All the big players of Mob history are here, controlled by the gangster genius Meyer Lansky, but so are the hit men, the fixers, the hoodlums and the wiseguys.

About the author

Douglas Thompson is the author of more than 20 books. A biographer, broadcaster and international journalist, he is a regular contributor to major newspapers and magazines worldwide. He divides his time between a medieval English village and California, where he was based as a Fleet Street foreign correspondent and columnist for more than 20 years.