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About the Book
Jimmy Quinn knows about bombs. He was there at the 1920 Wall St. bombing. Then a woman from Jimmy's past shows up.
Book Synopsis
Jimmy Quinn knows about bombs. He was there at the 1920 Wall St. bombing. But he doesn't know what to think when another one goes off behind his speakeasy. It's the latest in a series of suspicious goings-on. A moderately corrupt police detective offers to help. A silky American Nazi says that he wants to buy Jimmy out, but his thuggish partner is more interested in roughing Jimmy up. Then a woman from Jimmy's past shows up--the blonde who spent a memorable night in a luxury hotel with a teenager and then vanished. At the center of it all is a missing $100,000.
Review Quotes
It's the 1930s. The Depression is spreading. Prohibition is ending. Hitler is ranting. Roosevelt is ascending. Jimmy Quinn, speakeasy owner gone legit with his own saloon, is the narrator of this densely written noir pastiche, the fourth in the series, following Jimmy and Fay (2016). Jimmy is a genuinely hard man, out of the Hammett school, no tongue-in-cheek. After surviving a murder attempt, he matter-of-factly opines, "I'm going to have to kill somebody to end this." Jimmy has no idea who's gunning for him or why. He must find out, and he feels put-upon: "I don't solve crimes. I commit crimes." It forces him, to his disgust, to confront politicians. Time was "politicians were men I delivered bribes and kickbacks to." Much blood flows as Jimmy homes in on the secret at the heart of things, which has to do with a plot by moneymen to unseat FDR because he's helping "labor unions, Jews and Blacks" take over the country. Funny how up-to- date this old genre can be.
- Don Crinklaw ALA Booklist
