It is 1906 when the illegitimate, five-year-old Agostino Rossini witnesses his grandfather, Carlo Batista murder his mother, Alessandra Rossini. With no memories of the violent crime the child is sent to an orphanage. After eleven years Rossini flees the orphanage. His need to prove that he's worthy drives him to leave his few true friends and emigrate to America where he uses the opportunities provided by Prohibition and a booming stock market to build what on the outside seems like a perfect life. Inside, however, he remains emotionally frozen, tormented by horrific nightmares he's unable to explain. When a chance experience resurrects his long-suppressed memories, the twenty-eight year old Rossini, finally understands both the devastating dreams and his inability to commit to the loving family life he craves. The only way to heal himself, honor his mother and move beyond his painful past is to return to Italy to confront his grandfather.
In the intervening years, the elderly patriarch, Carlo Batista, becomes more powerful. As a wealthy banker with ties to Mussolini, the Vatican and the Mafia, Batista considers himself largely invincible, except for a secret that only Rossini can expose: the fact that he was Alessandra's murderer-a truth which would ostracize him from his peers or even worse-cause his death. When Batista learns from a reliable informant that Rossini is returning to Italy, he knows for certain that his grandson remembers. Blood Feud pits Rossini against his grandfather and hurls him on a collision course with his half-brother, The Leopard, Italy's most accomplished assassin, who will stop at nothing to kill Rossini. The novel propels Rossini to challenge the assassin and fight for survival. The confrontation leads him to the realization and painful truth of his family's crimes.
Even though Rossini accepts he may never find his mother's body, the satisfaction of knowing that Batista and The Leopard are in jail awaiting trial and that justice prevails, enables him to move on. He forgives his father for his vulnerability and cowardice and uncovers the solace that enables him to rebuild a life with Francesca, his childhood sweetheart and attain the love and trust he's always sought.