Review by School Library Journal:
“When Tommy and Nicky [the protagonist] agree to deliver bootlegged master copies of the computer chips for a hot new game, they are held hostage at gunpoint by some real gangsters. Nicky’s dad and uncle, who turns out to be an undercover detective, save the day. The authors capture the flavor of an Italian household and neighborhood, sparing no stereotype. Though Nicky’s foray into the world of petty crime has serious consequences, there is an underlying, boys will be boys attitude that could give impressionable readers the wrong idea.”
Sorry if I don’t find anything entertaining about the mob in any context.
But the point stands -- this is not about a 'mob' family, it's about a couple of silly kids playing cops-and-robbers (on the robber side - dumb them) and imagining that their family is mob when it turns out the family is actually law enforcement.
Boys' books generally have a certain amount of blood-and-thunder in them, and if you're going to do a contemporary urban story, well, crime is the only place to go. And a lot of books defuse or deflect the crime element by having kids suspect (a la Hardy Boys) that somebody is a criminal.