Originally posted by Turnbull:
After Sonny was killed, Tom poured himself a drink and said to himself that he knew he wasn't a wartime consigliere (his exact words). "Genco would have smelled a rat." Why did he say this? Because, if he were Sicilian, he would have suspected that Carlo would never have lived with the humiliation Sonny inflicted on him without seeking revenge. He would have warned Sonny to look out for a plot exactly like the one that entrapped and killed him. Genco would have assumed that Carlo would have thirsted for revenge.
That's right, but I think that "smelling a rat" had a little wider meaning. He thinks:
"He was, he knew now, no fit consigliere for a Family at war. He had been fooled, faked out, by the Five Families and their seeming timidity. They had remained quiet, laying their terrible ambush. They had planned and waited, holding their bloody hands no matter what provocation they had been given. They had waited to land one terrible blow. And they had. Old Genco Abbandando would never had fallen for it, he would have smelled a rat, he would have smoked them out, tripled his precautions." This means that there was not just Carlo to "smell", but the five families. Because using Carlo might be only one of their possible moves. It doesn't make very much difference from your surmise, only adds some depth to the situation.
