The Master Of The Unexpected - Rage of Angels

A master storyteller, Sidney Sheldon is the author of eighteen novels (which have sold over 300 million copies), over 200 television scripts, 25 major motion pictures and 6 Broadway plays, ranking him as one of the world's most prolific writers. His first book, The Naked Face, was acclaimed by the New York Times as 'the best first mystery novel of the year' and subsequently each of his highly popular books has hit No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.


'... Tell us of the secrets hosts of evil, O Cimon... Their names may not be spake aloud lest they profane mortal lips, for they came out of unholy darkness and attacked the heavens, but they were driven away by the rage of angels...' - From Dialogues of Chios

ONE

New York: September 4, 1969

The hunters were closing in for the kill.
Two thousand years ago in Rome, the contest would have been staged at the Circus Neronis or the Colosseum, where voracious lions would have been stalking the victim in the arena of blood and sand, eager to tear him into pieces. But this was the civilized twentieth century, and the circus was being staged in the Criminal Courts Building of downtown Manhattan, Courtroom Number 16.

In place of Suetonius was a court stenographer, to record the event for posterity, and there were dozens of members of the press and visitors attracted by the daily headlines about the murder trial, who queued up outside the courtroom at 7 o' clock in the morning to beassured of a seat.

The quarry, Michael Moretti, sat at the defendant's table, a silent, handsome man in his early thirties.
He was tall and lean, with a face formed of converging planes that gave him a rugged feral look.
He had fashionably styled black hair, a prominent chin with an unexpected dimple in it and deeply set olive-black eyes.
He wore a tailored gray suit, a light blue shirt with a darker blue silk tie, and polished, custom made shoes.

Except for his eyes which constantly swept over the courtroom, Michael Morreti was still.

The lion attacking him was Robert D. Silva, the fiery District Attorney for the Country of New York, representative of the People.
If Michael Moretti radiated stillness, Robert Di Silva radiated dynamic movement; he went through life as though he were five minutes late for an appointment.
He was in constant motion, shadowboxing with invisible opponents, he was short and powerfully built, with an unfashionable graying crew cut.
Di Silva had been a boxer in his youth and his nose and face bore the scars of it, he had once killed a man in the ring and he had never regretted it.
In the years since then, he had yet to learn compassion.

Robert Di Silva was a fiercely ambitious man who had fought his way up to his present position with neither money nor connections to help him.
During his climb, he had assumed the veneer of a civilized servant of people; but underneath, he was a gutter fighter, a man who neither forgot nor..
Forgave.

Under ordinary circumstances, District Attorney Di Silva would not have been in this courtroom on this day.
He had a large staff, and any one of his senior assistants was capable of prosecuting this case. But Di Silva had known from the beginning that he was going to handle the Moretti case himself.

Michael Moretti was front-page news, the son-in-law of Antonio Granelli, capo di capi, head of the largest of the five eastern Mafia Families.
Antonio Granelli was getting old and the street word was that Michael Morreti was being groomed to take his father-in-law's place.
Moretti had been involved in dozens of crimes ranging from mayhem to murder, but no district attorney had ever been able to prove anything. There were too many careful layers between Moretti and those who carried out his orders. Di Silva himself had spent three frustrating years trying to get evidence against Moretti. Then, suddenly, Di Silva had gotten lucky.

Camillo Stela, one of Morreti's soldati, had been caught in a murder committed during a robbery.
In exchange for his life Stela agreed to sing. It was the most beautiful music Di Silva had ever heard, a song that was going to bring the most powerful Mafia Family in the east to its knees, send Michael Moretti to the electric chair, and elevate Robert Di Silva to the governor's office in Albany.
Other New York governors had made it t the White House: Martin Van Burden, Grover Cleveland, Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt.
Di Silva intended to be next.

The timing was perfect. The gubernatorial elections were coming up next year.


The characters and events in this novels are fictional.
And all is made by Sidney Sheldon.

What's gonna happen next?
There are many other characters to be added.
Just wait :l