The Fifty Million Dollar Job

A Prequel to Mortal Silence, Lust, Money & Murder #18

By: Mike Wells

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

A perfect crime. A bad deal. And a man who thought he was smarter than the devil.

The year is 1982.

Italy still prints its own paper money. The Cold War is alive and well. And inside the Italian mint, temptation is everywhere.

A Rome-based mafia kingpin is offered something that sounds impossible—and far too good to be true.

Massimo Serpieri is a brilliant but deeply dissatisfied technician at the Italian mint. After years of watching billions of lire roll off the presses, temptation finally wins. Massimo believes he has discovered a flawless method to create perfect counterfeit U.S. hundred-dollar bills—using real American paper, real intaglio presses, and nothing more than access, patience, and nerve.

When he brings the idea to Salvatore Grimaldi, one of Rome’s most powerful and feared crime bosses, a deal is struck.

It’s a bad deal.

Grimaldi supplies everything—money, protection, logistics—and keeps ninety percent of the profits. Massimo gets ten. He accepts, telling himself it’s temporary. That once the operation is running, he’ll find a way to rebalance the scales.

What begins as a technical triumph soon turns into a psychological war.

As millions are printed and trust erodes, Massimo grows desperate enough to involve someone who should never have been dragged into the scheme at all—his fifteen-year-old nephew. From that moment on, the operation is doomed.

Because Salvatore Grimaldi does not forgive deception.

And he never loses.

The Fifty Million Dollar Job is a dark, fast-paced crime novella set decades before Mortal Silence. It reveals the origins of a legendary counterfeit operation—and the ruthless calculus that made Salvatore Grimaldi who he is.

Readers of Don Winslow, Michael Connelly, and Frederick Forsyth will enjoy this book.