Rage of angle

Rage of angle - This is the first sydney sheldon novel and the first crime novel i've read, and it was an absolutely amazing experience.Its hard to believe that the book is purely fictional because for me it hits on notes of stark reality. I felt everything. 

             Rage of angle

Tell us of the secret hosts of evil, O Cimon:' "Their names may not be spake aloud lest they profane mortal lips, for they came out of unholy darknesses and attacked the heavens, but they were driven away by the rage of angels . . :' -from Dialogues of Chios 1,

 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 an arena of blood and sand, eager to tear him to  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 seven o'clock in the morning to be assured 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, custommade shoes. Except for his eyes, which constantly swept over the courtroom, Michael Moretti was still.  The lion attacking him was Robert Di Silva, the fiery District Attorney for  the County 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 the 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  Moretti 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……………..