The term ‘mafia’ is often loosely applied to describe any illicit activity and erroneously used in the singular form as a one-size-fits-all locution, due perhaps to the unfamiliarity of varied international criminal organisations, like the Japanese mafia or Yakuza and the Russian mafia or Bratva. Moreover, one needs to be aware that in Italy there are four primary criminal organisations – Cosa Nostra, Camorra, ’Ndrangheta, and Sacra Corona Unita (with Stidda slowly fading away), and that these have expanded from their original regional locales. The editors of the volume Italian Mafias Today have not only added a qualifier to the noun, ‘Italian’, but also have employed the plural ‘mafias’ to give the reader a clearly-defined picture of the phenomenon, focusing on the post-maxi-trial era, that is after the 1990s, and on the complex web that ties these organisations to territory, business, and politics. The book is divided, accordingly, into three parts: the first is titled ‘Mafias in Traditional Territories’, the second is ‘Mafia Between Politics, Economy and Society’ and the third looks at ‘Mafias in Non-Traditional Territories’. The editors recognise that a number of important themes, such as women's roles, the crime-terror nexus, and the impact and use of social media within the mafias, are not thoroughly investigated here, but it would be impossible to cover everything in one volume and quite difficult to capture their continuous evolution.

In the first part of this volume, each of the four chapters gives an overview of the four national mafias. Alessandra Dino examines the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and its history from 1983 to 2018, with a summary of the different leaderships within the Corleonesi clan, a period of crisis with a consequent wait for a new capo, and exploration of new markets (chapter 1). Luciano Brancaccio and Vittorio Martone use the plural ‘Camorras’ (camorre) to highlight the differences between the Camorra of the city and the Camorra of the provinces, and they discuss the different clans and their strategies (chapter 2). Enzo Ciconte deals with the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta, the richest and strongest of all the national organisations yet the least studied, from its origins, stereotypes and assumptions to its cultural transformations, organisational structures and investments (chapter 3), while, in the concluding chapter, Monica Massari covers the fourth mafia, the Apulian Sacra Corona Unita, with its physiognomy of a secret society, its rituals and symbols.

In the second part of the book, Rocco Sciarrone first examines the economic dimensions of the mafias, reviewing their presence in illegal markets, in extortion protection mechanisms, in legal businesses such as construction, public contracts, retail and healthcare, in betting shops and financial investing (chapter 6). Salvatore Sberna and Alberto Vannucci then highlight the symbiotic relationship of reciprocal protection between criminal organisations and politicians (chapter 7), while Alessandro Colletti follows up, in chapter 8, with another tight connection between mafias and healthcare, demonstrating how Cosa Nostra, Camorra and ’Ndrangheta consider the Italian public health system a strategic economic sector for their own personal and professional purposes, i.e. medical cover for the mafiosi and their families but also a route to control of public services. Chapter 9 concludes this section with a close analysis of the use and impact of pizzini, alongside Provenzano's leadership strategies (his written communication represents a form of facilitation instead of command).

In the last part of the volume, its contributors focus on the mafias’ presence in central and northern Italy as well as in European countries such as Germany, France, Spain, the UK, Romania, the Benelux countries and Switzerland, with a specific chapter on Italian mafias in Australia. Nando Dalla Chiesa examines the ’Ndrangheta in the Lombardy region: here, its presence started in the 1950s, for smuggling, diamond trafficking and gambling; in the 1970s, kidnapping was an additional popular activity (chapter 10). Graziana Corica and Vittorio Mete's interest is in Emilia Romagna, where a branch of ’Ndrangheta has been present on and off for 40 years (chapter 11), while in chapter 12 Isabella Clough Marinaro and Maria Giuditta Borselli state that whereas Rome was considered, for decades, to be mafia-free, the Italian capital is today an ‘open city’ to multiple criminal interests. Various sectors are of particular interest, due to money laundering and economic infiltration: real estate, restaurants, gambling and small-scale retail enterprises. Joselle Dagnes, Davide Donatiello and Luca Storti shed light on the expansion of the Italian mafias within Europe. More specifically, in Germany, after the Duisburg massacre in August 2007, when six men connected with the ’Ndrangheta were shot dead in front of a pizzeria, an anti-mafia movement in Berlin, Mafia? Nein Danke was founded. France is a hub of autochthonous as well as foreign groups coming from the Balkans and other Eastern European countries and of the ’Ndrangheta, in the south of the country; Camorra groups are increasing in number and strength in the UK. The Netherlands and Belgium are strategic sites for international drug trafficking, where Antwerp, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam are the main gateways (chapter 13). In the concluding chapters, Felia Allum and David Bright discuss the ’Ndrangheta and Camorra in Australia, first as a well-established presence (in 2015 there were approximately 25 families, who continued to exercise violence against law enforcement agencies and politicians) and second as a light, invisible, fast, and mobile presence (chapter 14); and Antonio La Spina reports on the anti-mafia fight in Italy and abroad. Unfortunately, in spite of all efforts, these criminal organisations still exist, some in weakened forms (chapter 15).

This book is an important read for all scholars interested in criminology, economics, politics, Mediterranean studies, and cultural studies. With the increasing number of university courses focusing on mafias, this volume should be a required textbook. I am encouraged to see an in-depth and multidimensionally researched volume that discards any notion of the romanticised criminality that the media relentlessly promote, particularly outside of Italy.