(FORTUNE Magazine) – Even a Sopranos nut (like me) would be put to sleep by most day- to-day accounts of organized crime--which is why I nodded off through the middle of The Devil and Sonny Liston (Little Brown), a look at one of the most feared heavyweights ever and his relationship with the Mob. Otherwise, I enjoyed much of Nick Tosches' biography, particularly the descriptions of Liston's twisted family heritage (all the way back to slavery) and the dilemma he posed for black leaders, who considered him a poor representative of their cause. If Tosches never delivers on a statement that Liston was murdered--ostensibly by organized crime, though a coroner blamed a rare heart ailment--he does make you wonder what really happened.

--ROY S. JOHNSON