goldold25
SBH Insider
I've got to be in the proper frame of mind to start and finish sweeping historical novels. I started this book with a bit of trepidation but, in the end, I know I made the proper decision to stay the course.
This is an historical novel detailing New York City politics around and after WW II. It includes many real figures of the era and three renamed luminaries and details the "real" story of how they all were seemingly joined at the hip. And not usually in a good way. It weaves the bad guys of Murder, Incorporated, mobster Frank Costello, the real Manhattan District Attorney, Frank Hogan with the likes of Cardinal Spellman, Union Boss Joe Ryan and labor reformer Peter Panto. The real Mayor of NYC at the time William O'Dwyer is depicted very closely by character Charlie O'Kane and O'Dwyers real life socialite wife, Slaone Simpson is renamed Slim Sadler. Their fictionalized backgrounds are virtually the same as the real people's but their stories are so entertaining it might as well be in a novel.
We encounter more real people of the era; Toots Shor, Albert Anastasia, Fiorello LaGuardia and Robert Moses. If you are a history buff this book is the real deal. If you are a crime buff, this book is the real deal and if you are at all interested in the real political dealings of NYC, this book is the real deal as well.
It may be the first book I've ever read the entire "Notes on Sources and Acknowledgements". It was written by Kevin Baker who has to his credit Strivers Row, Paradise Alley and Dreamland.
I enjoyed the book immensely and rank it up there with some of Pete Hamel's period novels about NYC. It's a book well worth the time spent reading.
This is an historical novel detailing New York City politics around and after WW II. It includes many real figures of the era and three renamed luminaries and details the "real" story of how they all were seemingly joined at the hip. And not usually in a good way. It weaves the bad guys of Murder, Incorporated, mobster Frank Costello, the real Manhattan District Attorney, Frank Hogan with the likes of Cardinal Spellman, Union Boss Joe Ryan and labor reformer Peter Panto. The real Mayor of NYC at the time William O'Dwyer is depicted very closely by character Charlie O'Kane and O'Dwyers real life socialite wife, Slaone Simpson is renamed Slim Sadler. Their fictionalized backgrounds are virtually the same as the real people's but their stories are so entertaining it might as well be in a novel.
We encounter more real people of the era; Toots Shor, Albert Anastasia, Fiorello LaGuardia and Robert Moses. If you are a history buff this book is the real deal. If you are a crime buff, this book is the real deal and if you are at all interested in the real political dealings of NYC, this book is the real deal as well.
It may be the first book I've ever read the entire "Notes on Sources and Acknowledgements". It was written by Kevin Baker who has to his credit Strivers Row, Paradise Alley and Dreamland.
I enjoyed the book immensely and rank it up there with some of Pete Hamel's period novels about NYC. It's a book well worth the time spent reading.
