"I'm here to tell you that the earth's busting open and Hell's coming up through the seams."
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Kings of New York by Jeremy Lee Neverland Publishing Company
book review by S.C.
Kings of New York is a gangster novel set mostly in Prohibition-era New York, though we open in Chicago with real-life mobster Bugs Moran. He's out to get two things: the Fat Lady (i.e. a two-foot, 75-pound statue) and his money back from Shakes. He sends Denny, his most trusted and most violent henchman, to New York to recover both. Denny leaves a trail of bodies along the way as he obliges his boss. Meanwhile, Nate and Ash are in New York, working a straight construction gig and planning their next score, which just happens to include stealing the Fat Lady. Along with Shakes, they manage to not only cross Moran, but Al Capone. Will they be able to outrun Denny? The plot is unpredictable and picks up speed as the novel moves along.
The large cast and frequent point of view shifts make it difficult to get to know some of the characters, particularly Nate and Ash. Some of the violence feels a little gratuitous, but it paints Nate and Ash as—basically—good guys, while Denny comes off as a genuine psychopath. Every gangster story needs at least one of these, along with beautiful working girls, murder, and other double-crossing, hot-tempered gangsters—ingredients Kings of New York has in spades. The Chicago connection to real-life mobsters is a nice touch and adds weight to the story, while its energetic plot and dark feel should please noir readers and buffs of the Prohibition era.