A Bloody Business: The Rise of Organized Crime in America

Based on a series of interviews with gangster Jimmy Alo (1904–2001) in his old age, Struzan’s first novel takes a sweeping look at the Prohibition era from 1920 to 1933. The narrative focuses on friends and business partners Charlie Luciano and Meyer Lansky, but it also includes a large cast of lesser-known Italian, Jewish, and Irish mobsters fighting for a piece of the pie made possible by prohibition. If this version of the familiar story of bootlegging, rumrunning, cargo heists, and rub-outs in the streets lacks the soaring soap operatic grandeur of Mario Puzo’s novels or the superb characterizations of The Sopranos, it holds its chunk of turf with sheer energy. Readers will know how it all plays out, but hanging with Scarface, Lucky, Bugs, and the gang is always fun. The text includes illustrations by movie poster artist Drew Struzan, the author’s husband. Just in time for the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 18th Amendment, this crime saga thunders along with the authority of an erupting Tommy gun (Apr.)