Reviewed by Stefan Vucak for Readers' Favorite

Old man Tuccille is at a point of death. Marie reveals a secret to her husband Jerry, how Tuccille has a fortune in old paintings secreted in a cellar. Jerry recovers the paintings, not sure what to do with them, not knowing how Tuccille got them or if they were stolen. His cousin Georgie is something of a racketeer. He and his partner initially stole the paintings and were planning to sell them to a collector, but the deal went sour when the FBI got wind of it. With Tuccille in hospital, Jerry does not want anything to do with the paintings and gives them to Georgie. The FBI have not given up the hunt and are still looking for them, and everyone is now in trouble.

Jerry decides to run a campaign to become Governor of New York. In the meantime, Tuccille and Georgie are scheming how to sell the paintings and avoid the FBI. In the meantime, Jerry is trying desperately to extricate himself from the whole mess.

The tangled family machinations have a serious and a humorous side, which makes the book very real. The story moves along fairly slowly, but for this type of novel, that is not a distraction. What makes it work is that the book is based on fact, which shows that truth can be stranger than fiction.

With Gallery of Fools the first thing the reader encounters is confident, smooth narrative and deft dialogue, and the reader knows he is the hands of a craftsman. Jerome Tuccille is a craftsman and his book is definitely worth reading.