For 150 years, the world's most notorious criminal fraternity controlled Sicily through ruthless and systematic extortion and murder. The Sicilian mafia, Cosa Nostra, once seemed invincible. Now, thanks to the heroic sacrifice of police and public prosecutors, it is trapped in a death spiral.

In Twilight of the Godfathers, acclaimed historian John Dickie deploys shrewd historical detective work and vivid testimonies from both sides in the war to tell the thrilling inside story of how the Sicilian mafia was humbled. How the mightiest bosses have been hunted down. How hundreds of mafiosi have turned state's witness. How the transatlantic bridge to Cosa Nostra's American sister organization has been disrupted. How the mafia's territorial structure has been ravaged, and its access to international narcotics markets drastically reduced.

But Twilight of the Godfathers is also a tale with a far darker side. As the mafia has retreated, the void has been filled by suspicion, factionalism and shameless corruption. Has Sicily won its war with Cosa Nostra, only to find that, all along, a far deadlier threat was lurking at the very heart of the state? Beating the mafia was never supposed to be this way.