3.5★
“The word echoed in her skull. Manhunt—to hunt a man. She knew every successful hunt ends in a kill.”

Surprise, Lolly! Your beloved, clever husband, father of the baby adored by you both, is a bank robber on the run.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The publishing blurb explains that this is based on a true story, which you can find on Wikpedia or, indeed, in the FBI files here.
https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/nussbaum-and-wilcoxson

The author has written a fictionalised account of young Al and Lolly Nussbaum’s life together and apart. They were high school sweethearts, but he was in trouble early, stealing cars and the like. The story opens after he’s served prison time, when he and Lolly are married and living with their baby daughter in the top half of her parents’ home.

Lolly has decorated for Christmas and is waiting nervously for Al’s return from a ‘business trip’. The blizzard outside in Buffalo, NY, is getting worse. Meanwhile, Al has dropped his wild sidekick, Bobby, off at his place and is anxious to see his own family – except for his mother-in-law, with whom he is in a mutual hate relationship. She has a pretty good idea of his ‘business’.

“He sat behind the wheel, afraid to step out of the station wagon, imagining a dozen pairs of headlights snapping to life, a bullhorn voice telling him to raise his hands, and the winter air filled with the sound of weapons being locked and loaded. Lolly would be above him, watching it all from an upper window, the Christmas candle showing the horror on her face as they led him away or shot him dead where he stood.”

When and how is he going to tell her he isn’t running an electronics business and that the police scanner in his car isn’t a model he’s testing to see whether he’ll add it to his line?

I assume the author has invented the entire family story, although he’s done as much research as he could. He’s created a couple who are devoted to each other. Nussbaum was known for being amazingly bright and inventive.

Here, Al is as devoted to his wife as she is to him. He just needs to make enough money to set them up in a new life. Right? Of course. Then he will retire. Sure.

He begins with a couple of ex-cons he met in prison, and it’s immediately clear that Bobby is a loose cannon. He has a nervous disposition and a short fuse. He also has one eye, which makes him easily identifiable if he’s seen without sunglasses.

This is the early 1960s, so fingerprints are an issue, but there’s no DNA testing and not nearly the number of cameras we have today. Of course, Bobby won't wear gloves in a stolen car - the weather is too hot. Duh.

The story is told in the third person from both Al’s and Lolly’s points of view. Al is a chess whizz, so chess moves are used in describing some of his moves, and you just know he may find himself checkmated.

“The stolen Olds crept to the corner and then turned left on Utica Avenue towards the side entrance of the bank as Al knew it would. Kings Highway became a chessboard, and he studied it, seeing three moves ahead and knowing where pieces would slide and when. He knew other things, too. He knew that Bobby, still standing in front of the bank in the falling snow and awaiting his signal, carried a Thompson submachine gun under his raincoat, had a live hand grenade in each pocket, and a two-way radio clipped to his belt.”

It's a good story with a few wild rides and shootings, but there is also a lot of tenderness between Al and Lolly. She is torn between him and her bitter mother, whom she relies on to care for the baby.

I think the 1960s are shown pretty realistically, but I could have done without the lengthy section about a baseball game.

[OK, I looked it up for any baseball fans. It was 30 June 1962, and Sandy Koufax’s first major league no hitter – against the Mets. The men listening to the game are still mad about the Brooklyn Dodgers moving and leaving them with the Mets. I get it. But it didn’t need to be so many pages.]

As well as the baseball, there were many pages about a house Lolly fell in love with and about a Greek wedding she went to. I found myself skimming a fair bit in the last part of the book - not a great sign.

At the end, the author says Al Nussbaum’s crime story intrigued him so much that he wrote three novellas and eventually turned them into a novel. And it's a pretty good one. I do think some tighter editing around the baseball and wedding would make it even better.

It intrigued me enough to look up Nussbaum and Koufax, anyway. That has to be worth something. 😊

Thanks to NetGalley and Unsolicited Press for the copy for review.

Rook by Stephen G. Eoannou

Rating: 3 stars

Summary: A fictionalized account of a 1960’s serial bank robber who was afraid to go into the bank and do the actual robbing, who he left up to his gang buddies. The co robbers became upset he would take no chances inside so they quickly turned on him when a job goes bad and they kill and injure a bank guard in New York City.

Comments: Being the planner, the thinker, and the get away driver doesn’t make dreams come true.

This book was well researched and gives a well-detailed fictional account of the notorious bank robber, Al Nussbaum. The suspense kept going as Al hid from the FBI in plain sight. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes true crime, crime fiction, and anyone who are always looking for something new.

This book's cover lured me in and then the book kept me there! I liked this book for many reasons but here are a few. The writing was easy to read and follow. It was easy to invest your time into the characters. This book was written about a actual bank robber so it was easy to picture the plot unfolding. Even though this story was told back in the day as it happened, the author made you believe you were there watching it. I felt the fear and anger that both leading characters had almost the whole time. If you like stories based on true characters and events, then check this book out. You will be taking into the world of bank robbers, Tommy guns and even a game of chess!

I want to thank Net Galley and Unsolicited Press for allowing me to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Rook is the tale of two bank robbers who met in prison and formed an unholy alliance that lead to successful robberies, and constant tension between partners. Al, the protagonist wants to be a family man yet he cannot see to make an honest living.
The book is set in Buffalo NY circa 1961, and features vivid descriptions of winter in upstate New York.
Rook will hold the readers attention and the characters have some depth, however the conclusion is a bit a of disappointment.

Based on a true story, this book takes the reader right back to the era in which it was set and paints the setting and characters so clearly in those colours. A bit like a hard boiled detective story in tone and writing style, this book gives weight to the perspective of those impacted by the crimes of a person they love.