Book: The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille

I like this writer and I liked this book. One reviewer said it is like The Great Gatsby meets The Godfather, and it was. It is a long novel but has a beginning, middle and end. It was written in 1990 but other than a noticeable lack of references to the Internet or cell phones and such, it is a modern novel. John Sutter and his wife Susan live on the north shore of Long Island, just east of Queens and The Bronx. They are quintessential WASPs and still live a very privileged, exclusive life with plenty of money and prestige and position, not that all that far removed from those who built the huge mansions in the early part of the 20th century. (If they don't have all the wealth of their forebears, at least the presumption of their superiority is still very much a part of the social structure.) It is a world of horses, clubs, sailing, flirtations, alcohol, pretense, traditions. Then Frank Bellarosa, a Mafia don, moves into the neighborhood. This is the story of what happens to Frank and John and Susan, and DeMille surely does know how to spin a tale.