I think you have to look at "For the Sins..." in a different light when you read in. It's very different from Murder Machine but it's supposed to be. It's more about a sons relationship to his criminal father, a relationship which could be extrapolated to any son with a parent who is a criminal. I thought it was really interesting how Roy as a father differs so much from Roy as a criminal. It's the classic example of how a criminal with a family would keep those two worlds apart in his life, almost like how Tony Soprano tries to do in the show. The best part of that book for me was the stuff after his father had been killed. All the legal troubles he was tied up in, etc and how it affected him as an adult.