The Family Angel

A sequel and partial parallel to Chicago's Headmistress. this 60-year saga of romance, deception, intrigue, and crime reveals the Americanization of an Italian family, from immigrant bootleggers and coalminers to winemakers and Vatican priests, but only a chosen few will encounter the chameleon-like Black Angel who shows up when least expected to offer advice or merely observe. After all, there’s only so much one family angel can do.

Petty bootleggers Carlo Baggio and his brother Jake are enjoying the good life in 1925 Prohibition Chicago until Carlo enters into an arranged marriage with a bride from Italy and Jake gets run out of town for cheating on the boss’s daughter. In the aftermath Carlo takes a bullet for Jake and is ready to cash in his chips until a black angel Carlo dubs Angelo Nero convinces him otherwise, more than once. For the next fifty years the Baggio brothers and their families will experience hardship, tragedy, rewards, and the dubious honor of Carlo’s son becoming a priest.

When Angelo Nero finally returns, it is to aid Carlo’s grandson Frank during a life-altering experience. Frank follows his uncle into the priesthood and eventually trains for the prestigious Vatican Diplomatic Corps in Rome where he encounters the angel again, along with a mysterious warning. Later, while awaiting his first post, Frank becomes involved with a secret society within the Vatican that assigns him the task of delivering a renegade-priest to Rome. Frank’s covert mission brings him back to the family farm in Illinois and to his grandfather Carlo. Angelo Nero shows up too. But neither Carlo nor the angel can help Frank choose between the diplomatic career he has coveted for years and sparing the life of a priest defying tradition.

The Family Angel will appeal to fans of The Roaring Twenties, The Prohibition Era, The Great Depression, and WWII fiction.