Scarface

First published in 1930, Scarface is one of the defining crime novels of the Prohibition era, a hard, unsentimental portrait of ambition, violence, and power in America's underworld. Armitage Trail's novel follows Tony Guarino, a ruthless young gangster whose rise through the ranks of organized crime is fueled by brutality, paranoia, and an unrelenting hunger for control. Set against the backdrop of bootlegging, gang wars, and corrupt city politics, Scarface strips away glamour to reveal the instability and self-destruction at the heart of criminal success. Trail's prose is direct and relentless, emphasizing action and consequence rather than romantic mythmaking. This Impact Books edition presents the complete, unabridged text newly reset and professionally formatted for modern readability, with a clean layout designed for contemporary print and digital reading. The result is a fast-moving, historically grounded crime novel that helped shape the modern gangster narrative and inspired one of the most influential crime films of all time.