Once a Crooked Man

I had to read this book because it is by David McCallum, who played Ilya Kuryakin on "The Man from U.N.C.L.E series many years ago and is now Dr. Mallard in NCIS, one of our favorite TV shows. It is a competently written tale with some quirky characters, but I would not go out of my way to read another book by him. This one centers around 3 brothers (Sal, Max, and Enzo Bruschetti) who have run several illegal businesses and made a lot of money but now want to get out and go legit. In the process of shutting down, however, there is the inevitable cleaning up to do. Like getting rid of people who know their names and illegal activites. An actor, Harry Murphy, just happens to overhear their plans to get rid of some people connected with their operation in London and takes it upon himself to warn the targets of their impending demise. He does, in fact, initially save one man from being assassinated, but in process becomes a target himself, and also gets enlisted by the police to help them find the Bruschetti brothers. Harry turns out to be remarkably resourceful--he is an actor after all so he can tell a pretty convincing lie when needed. He manages to throw a real monkey wrench into the Bruschetti works, but in the end, it hardly seems like much has changed.