NEW YORK - s4story -- Kerry Lutz's new novel, HOA Emperor: The Mob Was Tough, But the Board Was Murder!, brings organized crime, real estate, technology, corporate corruption, and homeowners-association politics together in a crime thriller set in South Florida.

The story follows Max Vecchio, a former organized-crime financial strategist who enters witness protection after cooperating with federal authorities and assumes a new identity: John Masters.

In South Florida, John discovers that troubled homeowners associations can present opportunities for money, influence, and control. His attention turns to Queens Point, a fictional over-55 community of approximately 1,500 units struggling with deferred maintenance, financial problems, and internal conflicts.

Working with community manager Veronica Santiago, John begins reshaping the community's power structure around efficiency, centralized management, and profitability. What starts with one community expands into multiple homeowners associations, vendor relationships, property transactions, wellness programs, and a growing pickleball business.

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The communities become cleaner and more attractive, but John's expanding operation also creates new mechanisms for maintaining control.

Technology becomes central to his strategy when a community-management application evolves into a sophisticated surveillance system capable of collecting extensive information about residents. As questions about privacy and control emerge, concerned homeowners and investigative journalists begin examining the interconnected organizations.

Meanwhile, John's past threatens to catch up with him. Federal investigators begin connecting his South Florida activities to his former identity as Max Vecchio, while members of the Cleveland criminal organization he betrayed search for the man they believed had disappeared.

As pressure builds from multiple directions, the systems John created to maintain control begin generating evidence that could expose his operation.

HOA Emperor combines crime thriller, corporate intrigue, technological suspense, real-estate drama, and satire of homeowners-association politics. The novel explores how money, information, technology, and organizational control can reshape communities—and how those same systems can ultimately become a threat to the person who created them.

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The book also includes an appendix, "5 Insider Techniques for Realtors: How to Keep Dysfunctional HOA & Condo Boards from Killing Your Deal," offering observations for real estate professionals dealing with HOA and condominium-board challenges.

About the Book

Title: HOA Emperor
Subtitle: The Mob Was Tough, But the Board Was Murder!
Author: Kerry Lutz
Paperback ISBN: 979-8-9985597-9-2
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-970521-00-9
Digital ISBN: 978-1-970521-01-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2025922813

Media Contact:

Kerry Lutz
khl@kerrylutz.com
kerrylutz.com