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Stiletto
Cesare Cardinali is a young Italian aristocrat with an inborn penchant for violence who owes his lush lifestyle to the favors of a Mafia overlord. He is more than happy to return the favors by silencing four men awaiting trial in a sensational case against organized crime. Special Agent George Baker is the man who has assembled the evidence to put those same four men away for life. When one is knifed under the watchful eye of a policeman outside a New York courtroom, and another is found slumped over a Las Vegas gaming table, Baker enters a cat-and-mouse game to entrap Cardinali before his whole case is destroyed. But for Baker's adversary, it is the sting of the stiletto as it sinks into another human being that keeps Cesare Cardinali killing - not the debt he presumes to owe to the Mafia kingpin. And once he has begun to savor that encompassing rush, nobody - friend, enemy, or mistress - is likely to stop him from knowing it again.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 1981
43 people are currently reading
353 people want to read
About the author
Harold Robbins
308books427followersBorn as Harold Rubin in New York City, he later claimed to be a Jewish orphan who had been raised in a Catholic boys home. In reality he was the son of well-educated Russian and Polish immigrants. He was reared by his pharmacist father and stepmother in Brooklyn.
His first book, Never Love a Stranger (1948), caused controversy with its graphic sexuality. Publisher Pat Knopf reportedly bought Never Love a Stranger because "it was the first time he had ever read a book where on one page you'd have tears and on the next page you'd have a hard-on".
His 1952 novel, A Stone for Danny Fisher, was adapted into a 1958 motion picture King Creole, which starred Elvis Presley.
He would become arguably the world's bestselling author, publishing over 20 books which were translated into 32 languages and sold over 750 million copies. Among his best-known books is The Carpetbaggers, loosely based on the life of Howard Hughes, taking the reader from New York to California, from the prosperity of the aeronautical industry to the glamour of Hollywood.
His first book, Never Love a Stranger (1948), caused controversy with its graphic sexuality. Publisher Pat Knopf reportedly bought Never Love a Stranger because "it was the first time he had ever read a book where on one page you'd have tears and on the next page you'd have a hard-on".
His 1952 novel, A Stone for Danny Fisher, was adapted into a 1958 motion picture King Creole, which starred Elvis Presley.
He would become arguably the world's bestselling author, publishing over 20 books which were translated into 32 languages and sold over 750 million copies. Among his best-known books is The Carpetbaggers, loosely based on the life of Howard Hughes, taking the reader from New York to California, from the prosperity of the aeronautical industry to the glamour of Hollywood.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
October 31, 2013
I might be biased because I was in the movie... BUT I really thought this was one of Harold Robbins best books. "A Stone For Danny Fisher" and "Stiletto" are probably his best works.
July 9, 2014
I happened to find a rather old copy of this book in our bookshelf back home and picked it up because I wanted something rather small and light to read on a flight. After I finished it (it did not take too long) I think I'm going to categorise it as an in-flight book. It is small and light, as mentioned before, it is fast paced enough to not bore you and it is not complex enough to make you want to reach for dictionaries or make you drift off mentally or fall asleep.
It's been a long time since I read a book that was just a story without complexity (of words or theme). It was like picking up a Sidney Sheldon book again. It has crime, it has revenge, promiscuous relationships etc. It revolves around the mafia and the life of a man who kills three witnesses for them before being hunted down himself. It is no Godfather of course, but it is an enjoyable enough read.
It's been a long time since I read a book that was just a story without complexity (of words or theme). It was like picking up a Sidney Sheldon book again. It has crime, it has revenge, promiscuous relationships etc. It revolves around the mafia and the life of a man who kills three witnesses for them before being hunted down himself. It is no Godfather of course, but it is an enjoyable enough read.
May 3, 2009
it was a typical light romantic read, but it did have a story. I did learn that a stiletto was a knife and not shoes.
February 11, 2008
Wow! Very interesting
July 10, 2008
The master of sexy novels in the 70's! His books are full of lively characters, strong women and lots of filthy details!
October 26, 2012
A typical Harold Robbins novel of Power & Sex...
November 7, 2020
Really enjoyed this read. What happens when you make a deal with the devil and you are already a nasty piece of work? To get out from under the thumb of his uncle, Cesare makes a deal with Don Emilio. What he finds out though is that you can never repay your debt to the "family" and hope to live. Lots of double crosses and interesting payback. Trust no one would be a good moral for this story.
July 25, 2015
An interesting early book on the Mafia operating in the US (and exclusively using New York, at the time, as its base). Penned during the mid 50s, this book predate Mario Puzo's much celebrated Godfather, and provided a detailed modus operandi of the Italian mafia- well before it became popular knowledge (and stock formula for many subsequent movies, TV soaps and books). Harold Robbins is easy to read and the plethora of cheap editions (with covers that are incongruent to the content inside) perhaps make the reader perceive that the books merit little value as literature. But a careful reading of a novel like Stiletto confirms that Robbins took pains in developing the characters that people his novels, especially the central character. Cesare, the protagonist of Stiletto, is a complicated character. As I read the story I had a hard time trying to pigeonhole him as a type (commonly found in such novels): was he a gangster?, an adrenaline junkie? a ruthless businessman, or a proud aristocrat? Often it seemed he was all of these, and then it appeared that he was perhaps none of these.
The plot is not very original, but it was still a great read, for the story was fast paced and rife with interesting twists and turns. Published in 1960 it was novels like Stiletto that predicted Robbins' position as a best selling author of the coming decades- the 70s and the 80s.
The plot is not very original, but it was still a great read, for the story was fast paced and rife with interesting twists and turns. Published in 1960 it was novels like Stiletto that predicted Robbins' position as a best selling author of the coming decades- the 70s and the 80s.
October 9, 2016
One of the greatest story-tellers of all times. A mafia thriller set in New York and a drama played out by 1st generation European settlers in the post 2nd world war era. Richly garnished with style and sleaze, the plot is quite delicious even half a century later. The world must has become a very uninteresting place these days, it is not provoking writers to pen such unputdownable novels.
December 26, 2021
Probably a generous 3. It is trash I suppose. The dialogue not infrequently lspses into cheesy cliche and most of the sex is slightly distastefully sadomasochistic though not very explicit. The plot unwinds like a pretty obvious TV movie. As a plus it is easy reading, the pacing is quick and scene changes on point, the flashbacks often fun, and I may read another!
July 16, 2014
Storia di un assassino che uccide con uno stiletto. Mafia, donne, auto da corsa. Gli ingredienti ci sono, ma l'amalgama è troppo semplice e un po' datato. Va però tenuto conto che Robbins ha inventato il genere.
November 14, 2009
This was my first encounter with Harold Robbins; surprisingly, I enjoyed reading this novel depicting a cold-blooded protagonist subsequently doomed to reach his tragic fate.
Read
October 23, 2011Not so good as I thought. Quite superficial.
January 17, 2016
Chiaramente letto in edizione italiana!
March 11, 2016
Le falto más centrarse en la historia
October 12, 2016
One of the better Harold Robbins novels. Extremely good read.
June 1, 2021
The plot was a bit choppy and difficult to follow.
January 18, 2022
Read a1975 edition found in my basement. Quick, easy and entertaining! Could have been a bit more detailed, but otherwise interesting plot.
March 28, 2022
3,5*
Tựa tiếng Việt: Lưỡi dao găm
NXB Văn Học, in 700 cuốn kh� 13*19, năm 1997
Người dịch: Trịnh Xuân Hoàng - Nguyễn Thảo Ngạn
Tựa tiếng Việt: Lưỡi dao găm
NXB Văn Học, in 700 cuốn kh� 13*19, năm 1997
Người dịch: Trịnh Xuân Hoàng - Nguyễn Thảo Ngạn
September 10, 2014
Normalito sin más...
April 25, 2024
2.5 stars. Published in 1960 with a movie adaptation coming out about a decade later, Stiletto is an early precursor of the Mob novel that would soon become commonplace with The Godfather. It's kind of about a hitman, although our antihero--Count Cesare Cardinali, who is naturally descended from the Borgias (!)--is more like a disaffected serial killer who takes on a hitman gig to pay back a favor he owes to the Mob.
Conveniently, he's a WW2 veteran and master fencer in addition to the serial killer thing, so he's well-suited to take out a string of witnesses testifying against the Mafia's leadership. They're all mobsters themselves, but Cesare is hardly sympathetic. He's silly enough to bring a ladyfriend along to all his hits, but when she starts putting together the pieces of him being present at multiple assassinations... gak!
From there, it seems like the novel will be about a honey trap by the Feds to capture Cesare, but the woman they end up sending isn't exactly a match for him. Even at this early stage, Robbins gets the dramatic allure of the "every time I think I'm out, they pull me BACK IN!" conceit--although in typical "wotta guy!" fashion, he makes it that the Mob is pissed that Cesare won't join up as a capo or some such.
The rest of the plot is a string of assassination attempts by the Mafiosos Cesare just worked for; oddly, they all do their own dirty work instead of sending out goombas, which makes it pretty easy for Cesare to eliminate them one by one.
A few side characters get lengthy backstories, allowing for a modest amount of sex, but it comes off too sleazy to be believable and not sleazy enough to be titillating. One of Cesare's beaus was once involved in a mother-daughter threesome (!) and brother, if you're going that far, you might as well go the full Letter To The Penthouse Forum route.
Cesare's characterization is decent--he's sort of a proto-Dexter or an evil James Bond--but his arc ends with a whimper rather than a bang. His women are a tiresome collection of hotties who just need some mild, off-page S&M sex to fall hopelessly in love with him and the policeman chasing him is a cipher.
The assassinations aren't staged particularly cleverly: Cesare's gimmick is that he uses a stiletto on his targets, and it's so sharp that the stab wound closes up after he takes the knife out or something? At one point, he stabs a victim in a pool and no one notices even though you'd think there's immediately be a cloud of blood. Why not just have him inject people with cyanide? I guess "Syringe" doesn't sound as cool...
Conveniently, he's a WW2 veteran and master fencer in addition to the serial killer thing, so he's well-suited to take out a string of witnesses testifying against the Mafia's leadership. They're all mobsters themselves, but Cesare is hardly sympathetic. He's silly enough to bring a ladyfriend along to all his hits, but when she starts putting together the pieces of him being present at multiple assassinations... gak!
From there, it seems like the novel will be about a honey trap by the Feds to capture Cesare, but the woman they end up sending isn't exactly a match for him. Even at this early stage, Robbins gets the dramatic allure of the "every time I think I'm out, they pull me BACK IN!" conceit--although in typical "wotta guy!" fashion, he makes it that the Mob is pissed that Cesare won't join up as a capo or some such.
The rest of the plot is a string of assassination attempts by the Mafiosos Cesare just worked for; oddly, they all do their own dirty work instead of sending out goombas, which makes it pretty easy for Cesare to eliminate them one by one.
A few side characters get lengthy backstories, allowing for a modest amount of sex, but it comes off too sleazy to be believable and not sleazy enough to be titillating. One of Cesare's beaus was once involved in a mother-daughter threesome (!) and brother, if you're going that far, you might as well go the full Letter To The Penthouse Forum route.
Cesare's characterization is decent--he's sort of a proto-Dexter or an evil James Bond--but his arc ends with a whimper rather than a bang. His women are a tiresome collection of hotties who just need some mild, off-page S&M sex to fall hopelessly in love with him and the policeman chasing him is a cipher.
The assassinations aren't staged particularly cleverly: Cesare's gimmick is that he uses a stiletto on his targets, and it's so sharp that the stab wound closes up after he takes the knife out or something? At one point, he stabs a victim in a pool and no one notices even though you'd think there's immediately be a cloud of blood. Why not just have him inject people with cyanide? I guess "Syringe" doesn't sound as cool...
September 6, 2022
Another early Robbins effort. Still riding the 20th century love affair with organized crime. The female characters are comically disposable, the male character(s) scarcely take time for self-reflection. The events unfold, and the reader is left little else to amuse themselves with. I would note, though, that this book manages to capture more of the glamorous mood that it promises, which I've been critical of Robbins for in the past.
March 3, 2018
an ok read - the storyline was good, but not totally plausible, and the characters seemed shallow and not well developed. Nothing all that surprising or interesting to report although the interactions between the Count and the Inspector were handled well.
December 26, 2021
I knew what I was getting into when I found this book and my expectations were already low�..but still�.Remember the scene in “Silver Linings Playbook� when Pat finished “A Farewell to Arms� and threw it through his bedroom window? It’s that kind of book.
August 21, 2018
Z
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2023
My first suspense thriller from Harold Robbins.
July 5, 2024
absolutely horrible piece of trash, wattpad has better novels than this
January 24, 2025
Of course it’s excellent! It’s freaking Harold Robbins, one of the most-popular authors who ever wrote a book. Page turner about a mafioso assassin.
March 28, 2023
As I was working on developing a reading habit, after reading alchemist I joined an academy to enhance my english language reading and writing skills. Sir recommended reading Stiletto. It is an old classic weapon carried by those working in crime and policing concealed in their arm. The novel is a crime fiction and the whole plot of the story was that nothing will come out of crime, in the end, everyone has to pay.
Summing it up, Stiletto introduced some new vocabulary like thick, hoar, dust, for good and more. I am very thankful to sir Waqar Qazi for enriching me with advanced english. Journey from there onwards was a productive one and it helped me at many stages of life.
Summing it up, Stiletto introduced some new vocabulary like thick, hoar, dust, for good and more. I am very thankful to sir Waqar Qazi for enriching me with advanced english. Journey from there onwards was a productive one and it helped me at many stages of life.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
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