The Prohibition-era crime scene comes alive in three novels “sure to appeal to fans of Max Allan Collins’s gangster historicals” (Publishers Weekly).
Novelist and film critic Michal Mayo “persuasively portrays such real-life mobsters as Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano” in this crime fiction series set in the 1930s featuring Jimmy Quinn, aka Jimmy the Stick (Publishers Weekly). Jimmy was a gunman, bootlegger, and bagman—until a bullet in the leg and the murder of gangster boss Arnold Rothstein ended his career. Now Quinn runs a speakeasy in downtown Manhattan, but he just can’t seem to stay out of trouble . . .
Jimmy the Stick: In Mayo’s “gritty first novel,” Jimmy’s old friend and partner Walter Spencer has left his criminal past behind, marrying into the Pennyweight family—of Pennyweight Petroleum—and settling into a legitimate lifestyle in rural New Jersey (Publishers Weekly). But with the Lindbergh kidnapping in the news, Spence wants Quinn to protect his family while he takes care of business out of state. Unfortunately, Quinn quickly finds that the Garden State can be even more dangerous than the mean streets of New York City.
Everybody Goes to Jimmy’s: When a bomb blast rocks the alley outside Quinn’s quiet little Manhattan speakeasy, his memory flashes back twelve years to when he was delivering a bribe for racketeer Arnold Rothstein and a bomb went off on Wall Street, killing thirty people. It seems like the motive behind this bombing may be the same as that previous explosion: money. Soon Quinn’s on a mad race to stay out of the line of fire, taking him from the heights of the Chrysler Building to the depths of New York’s underworld.
Jimmy and Fay: In March 1933, King Kong is premiering at Radio City Music Hall, and Fay Wray is about to become a star. One problem: a blackmailer has pictures of a Fay Wray look-alike engaging in conduct that would make even the giant ape blush, and the movie studio—with the cooperation of a slightly corrupt NYPD detective—wants Jimmy Quinn to settle the matter quietly. But stopping the extortion will cut just as deeply as Fay’s famous scream, ringing from Broadway all the way to Chinatown.

Michael Mayo