Final volume in the critically acclaimed "Connected" series of novels. Follow this last chapter in the life of gangster Trouble Ventura through his diaries, stories and poetry.

A small-time Capone hood named Johnny Pepys (“peeps,” after Samuel Pepys, the famous English diarist), is called upon to take dictation of the wounded kingpin’s memoirs, and soon finds himself caught between a deal he made with Bugsy Moran and Capone’s hostile and suspicious underlings. A humorous parody of “The Untouchables.” Stage Play (7m/3f) 45 min.

Ivan Johnson is a crime figure who grew up in Detroit. From the age of fifteen after watching his dad die in his arms, he takes over his dad’s business. He embarks on a fast life that includes a drug addiction, a few stormy romances, and a couple of prison sentences. His aggression and street fame led to him becoming a murderer. One of his latest victims, Marcus Washington strikes the most guilt in him as he stands trial for a double homicide. The victim’s wife, Sandra Washington, captures Ivan’s attention. After seeing her pain, Ivan begins to write Sandra a series of letters detailing his life story from his childhood to the murder of Sandra’s husband.

A New York Times Bestseller "A rich portrait of the urban poor, drawn not from statistics but from vivid tales of their lives and his, and how they intertwined." —The Economist "A sensitive, sympathetic, unpatronizing portrayal of lives that are ususally ignored or lumped into ill-defined stereotype." —Finanical Times Foreword by Stephen J. Dubner, coauthor of Freakonomics When first-year graduate student Sudhir Venkatesh walked into an abandoned building in one of Chicago’s most notorious housing projects, he hoped to find a few people willing to take a multiple-choice survey on urban poverty--and impress his professors with his boldness. He never imagined that as a result of this assignment he would befriend a gang leader named JT and spend the better part of a decade embedded inside the projects under JT’s protection. From a privileged position of unprecedented access, Venkatesh observed JT and the rest of his gang as they operated their crack-selling business, made peace with their neighbors, evaded the law, and rose up or fell within the ranks of the gang’s complex hierarchical structure. Examining the morally ambiguous, highly intricate, and often corrupt struggle to survive in an urban war zone, Gang Leader for a Day also tells the story of the complicated friendship that develops between Venkatesh and JT--two young and ambitious men a universe apart. Sudhir Venkatesh’s latest book Floating City: A Rogue Sociologist Lost and Found in New York’s Underground Economy—a memoir of sociological investigation revealing the true face of America’s most diverse city—is also published by Penguin Press.