Visit 1951 and the 1920s for Some Retro Crime
Bop City Swing
“It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing.” – Duke Ellington
Tap into the San Francisco’s jazz scene. It’s bebop and swing bands all around and homicide Detective Tom Keegan digs the scene.
Vivian Davis works as the hitter Gunselle and is hired to take out a politician who “really deserves it”. She’s frustrated when someone beats her to the punch and he’s killed at a fundraising dinner.
First on the scene of the assassination, Keegan quickly puts together the sequence of events and begins the hunt.
Thugs, gangsters and hep cats will take you along for the ride of a booze soaked, smoky, fast paced, jitterbug noir. All that and more in Bop City Swing.
Dirty Little War
The Prohibition-era is well in place in Chicago and this is where Huck Waller lands with no money and the grim determination to make it.
It’s the world of Bugsy Moran and Al Capone so he’s got a task ahead. He’ll achieve some standing by bare-knuckling it through but it’s the protection racket that gives him a step up.
Waller creates a family, marrying Karla (who once patched him up), taking in Izzy, and building a life along with his wealth.
Dirty Little War has plenty of heart next to the mobster’s realm, a feature of Kalteis’ writing. It’s never just one or the other but an intertwining of this character’s life as imagined by a truly skilled writer.
Just a wee note to let you know I’ve been having some vision problems which makes it quite difficult to read and write. I hope this will clear up over the next couple of weeks but depending on how things go, my reading recommendations for you may have to take a hiatus.
~ June Lorraine Roberts
Murder in Common is #26 on the Feedspot Top 80 Crime Novel Website
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