Most crime novels are told from the point of view of the cops or a PI because that’s who we sympathize with. Author Tom Piccirilli’s “The Last Kind Words” is squarely in the corner of a Long Island, New York, family whose business has been, for generations, crime.

And you’ll find yourself sympathizing with them (at least most of them) and even rooting for them.

It helps that Piccirilli, author of several books, is such a solid writer and that he centers his book on Terry Rand, the youngest son in the family. Terry returns home after a five-year absence. He fled after his brother, Collie, went on a killing spree, shooting, stabbing and strangling several strangers one particularly horrific night.

The family finds Terry and lets him know that Collie wants to see him in the final days before he is executed.

Terry comes back and, reluctantly, returns to his old life and his family’s home. He’s reunited with his teenage sister, Dale; his mother and father, his grandfather and his two uncles.

Dale isn’t in the family business yet, although her current boyfriend is a mob wannabe. But his uncles, Mal and Grey, are still hustlers and card sharps. His father, Pinsch, is obsessed with his porcelain figurine collection but can’t resisting breaking and entering a house now and then. Terry’s long-suffering mom is caretaker for Shep, the family patriarch who, despite being nearly lost to dementia, is still the smoothest pickpocket around.

And then there’s Collie.

Collie has asked the family to contact Terry because of a bizarre twist from the night of the killing spree. In a prison visit, Collie tells a disbelieving Terry that he didn’t kill one of the eight people he was convicted of murdering. The killer is still out there and is still killing.

Terry must overcome his anger at his brother as well as the distance he’s put between himself and his family to try to arrive at the truth.

Plaguing Terry throughout the book: Is evil inherited? Sure, everyone in the family except for their mother and Dale is a thief, a pickpocket, burglar or scam artist. But does that make them evil?

And what pushed Collie over the edge? And could that madness affect other members of the family?

There’s an element of danger for the Rand family in a dogged cop who years ago pursued the family but, because of his own loneliness, has become something of a family member.

But the greatest threat to Terry comes from within himself and within the family.

Piccirilli’s sly sense of humor is an undertone in the book. If you noticed anything odd about the names of the family, Piccirilli gradually reveals that they’re all named after breeds of dog. (Terry’s name is Terrier, for example.)

“The Last Kind Words” is a terrific book. It’s steeped in cool noir, with bad guys and even badder guys.

Best of all, Piccirilli is working on another book about the Rand family. I’ll be reading it.