Northern Connection: Inside Canada's Deadliest Mafia Family.

Alexander David Kurke is a criminal lawyer in Sudbury, Ontario.

Peter Edwards charts the rise and fall of the Cotroni crime family of Montreal, which played an integral part in the establishment of the “French Connection” that routed Turkish opium to Marseilles, Montreal, and the United States. In the flashy, readable style of the investigative reporter, Edwards describes family head Vic Cotroni’s rise to power, his association to the New York Bonanno crime family, and his difficulties in establishing a successor. Much of the raw historical data comes from trial and wiretap transcripts, so police investigations, criminal convictions, and assassinations figure large in the history.

And indeed, books such as this prove the continuing relevance of a classical education. Like the Roman emperors, very few crime bosses die in their beds. Also like the Romans, a mafioso’s power or reputation can be measured by the pomp of his funeral procession. The book describes quite a few funerals, at which a person’s or family’s influence is measured by the number of flower-carrying limousines.

Paolo Violi was early destined by Vic Cotroni as his likely successor. Edwards lavishes attention on this man, whose far-ranging criminal activities were exposed by Montreal police officer Bob Menard, who bugged Violi’s headquarters while posing as a tenant in the apartment upstairs. Removed from circulation by criminal convictions, Violi lost his power and then his life. Next in line was Frank Cotroni, Vic’s brother, much of whose adult life was spent in prison, generally for drug trafficking. His accession was marked by growing rivalry between his Calabrian family and the Sicilian Mafia, and Edwards’ story turns to mechanics of a power struggle between the two groups. Ultimately, stiff prison terms would thin the ranks of the mafiosi and allow the rise of the outlaw bikers.

Compared with discussions of the murderous street gangs of Toronto, or the Hells Angels, a study of the Mafia would appear to be a quaint anachronism. However, the power of this book lies in its detailed (and heavily annotated) historical account of the rise of the Canadian Mafia, and its central position in international organized crime.