Reviewer's Bookwatch: Il Dottore

Il Dottore

Ron Felber

Barricade Books, Inc.

185 Bridge Plaza North, Suite 308-A, Fort Lee, NJ 07024

1569802785 $24.95 1-800-592-6657 www.barricadebooks.com

Il Dottore: The Double Life Of A Mafia Doctor by author and biographyer Ron Felber is the startlingly true story of a physician at Mount Sinai Hospital who provided health care services for Mafia kingpins including John Gotti and Joseph Bonanno. By day, he pursued a flourishing career as a respected cardiac surgeon; by night, he was a gambling and sex addict, drawn ever deeper into the high-stakes world of organized crime. His double life came to a head-on conflict in the mid 1980's when the government's star witness, Ralph Scopo, lay on the operating table. Directed by John Gotti to "make sure that only one of you comes out of the operating room breathing" on one hand, yet threatened with ruin by mayor Giuliani on the other, he had to make the choice of a lifetime between loyalty to La Cosa Nostra and adherence to the Hippocratic Oath. An exciting and suspenseful true story, more enthralling than fiction.