“Nearly every family has a skeleton in its closet, an ancestor who "sins" against custom and tradition and pays a double price. Karen Tintori refused to allow the truth to remain forgotten. This is a book for anyone who shares the conviction that all history, in the end, is family history.”--Frank Viviano, author of Blood Washes Blood and Dispatches from the Pacific Century

“Many books are called ‘page-turners’ by reviewers, but this one will truly have you glued to the turning pages for hours.”-- Comunes of Italy Magazine

“Unto the Daughters reads like a nonfiction version of the film Godfather II--if it had been told from the point of view of a female Corleone.”--Eleni N. Gage, author of North of Ithaka 

Karen Tintori thought she knew her family tree. Her grandmother Josie had immigrated from Sicily with her parents at the turn of the century. They settled in Detroit, and with Josie's eight siblings, worked to create a home for themselves away from the poverty and servitude of the old country. Their descendants were proud Italian-Americans.

But Josie had a sister that nobody spoke of. Her name was Frances, and at age sixteen, she fell in love with a young barber. Her father wanted her to marry an older don in the neighborhood mafia--a marriage that would give his sons a leg up in the mob. But Frances eloped with her barber. And when she returned a married woman, her father and brothers killed her for it. Her family then erased her from its collective memory. Even 80 years and two generations later, Frances and her death were not spoken of, her name was erased from the family genealogy, her pictures burned, and her memory suppressed.

Unto the Daughters is a historical mystery and family story that unwraps the many layers of family, honor, memory, and fear to find an honor killing in turn of the century Detroit.

“Many books are called ‘page-turners’ by reviewers, but this one will truly have you glued to the turning pages for hours.  It's a must read for anyone researching their Italian ancestry.”-- Comunes of Italy Magazine

In Honour Killing, Ayse Onal conducts interviews with men convicted of killing their mothers, sisters, and daughters. The result is a fascinating, revealing, and ultimately tragic account of ruined lives—of both the victims and the murderers.

With an introduction by Joan Smith contextualizing honor killings both in Turkey and elsewhere in Europe and the Middle East.

Ayse Onal is an award-winning journalist who has reported on Turkish politics, organized crime, and conflicts in the Middle East for over two decades. For ten years, she was blacklisted by the Turkish state and could not write or work for the Turkish media until the political embargo was lifted in 2005.