Mark Winegardner could have reduced the characters of The Godfather Returns, his sequel to Mario Puzo's 1969 work the The Godfather, to stereotypes. Instead, the author of the fine baseball novel Veracruz Blues and of Crooked River Burning, a Cleveland-focused fiction that was less well received, has created a novel, based on ready-mades, that is fresh and ingenious.

As in the last Godfather movie (by far the worst of three), the central character is Michael Corleone, Don Vito Corleone's son and spiritual heir. The book covers the mid-'50s and early '60s, covering the '20s toward the final third to flesh out the rise of Don Vito, a poor Sicilian who came to control the New York Mafia through adept politicking, sharp, corrupt economic deals and unparalleled, virtuoso ruthlessness. The dead-eyed Michael is smoother than his father but no less calculating or chilly:

"Michael's grand, intricate plan was this: peace, coupled with massive expansion and relocation, then organization of the crime Families throughout the country, better than before, while at the same time strengthening and expanding business ties with Sicily, all on the way to legitimacy, complete with utter control of Cuba and access to the White House and even the Vatican."

Michael wants to mask a life of high-level crime so he and wife Kay can live in what seems a legitimate fashion while the business Michael has engineered does untraceable, lucrative work. Meanwhile, Mafia foot soldier Nick Geraci, a Cleveland boxer of courage and intelligence, begins to plot his own ascent. The conflict between the smooth, aristocratic Michael and the equally driven, earthier Nick provides this book's central drama - and paves the way for a likely sequel.

The plot is complex, the details telling, the characterization rich. Winegardner's portrayals of Kay and Francesca, the daughter of Michael's impetuous dead brother Sonny, are credible and empathetic, and he artfully contextualizes Johnny Fontane, perhaps the best saloon singer ever, capturing Johnny's patron, National label owner Phil Ornstein, with great deftness:

"Phil ran his hands through the hair he mostly didn't have. He was the sort of man who unconsciously took on other people's mannerisms."