Part Tarantino-style operetta, part soap opera, Ottavio Cappellani's hilarious novel takes place in a twenty-first-century Sicily rife with moody aristocrats, vain politicians, inept gangsters, shabby theater actors, and high-tech assassins. Balding, fortyish Alfio Turrisi is a mid-level Mafioso with deep pockets. He's in love with Betty, the spoiled daughter of a rival mobster. They are poised to become a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, until flamboyant theater director Tino Cagnotto arrives to put a new spin on this Shakespearean tale. The way Tino sees it, the real heat in that tragedy is between Romeo and Mercutio, not Romeo and Juliet.