Finally available in the U.S. - now that the brilliant Brendan Gleeson bio-film came and went a few years back - is Paul Williams' excellent book "The General: The True Story of Working-Class Hero and Irish Mob Boss Martin Cahill." Williams' book - which chronicles the rise and fall of Cahill's at times bizarre career of secrecy, drugs brutality, and riches - was a runaway best-seller abroad.

Mobster Martin Cahill was better known as "The General," who pocketed some 40 million pounds during his criminal career, which was capped off by one of the world's largest art and gold heists. Williams also makes it clear that Cahill, often celebrated as a Robin Hood figure, was a brutal killer, obsessed with secrecy and beating the authorities.

But it was Cahill's refusal to play ball with the IRA that would lead to "the General's" downfall. Williams - one of Ireland's best-known crime journalists - takes this innately fascinating story and runs with it. As entertaining as it is unnerving. (285 pages / $24.95 / Forge)