Another great crime fiction novel by Kalteis-a criminally under-appreciated author. This one is a novel about the criminal exploits of Alvin Karpis, Ma Barker and variousl other criminals and gangs that populated the 1930’s. It’s fast paced, literate, appears historically accurate and, as they say, bring to light a bygone era. Read all his books. I have and look forward to whatever else he writes.

A look into the Alvin Karpis -Fred Barker gang who started out robbing banks and moved on to kidnapping rich people. The story picks up after they have met in prison and are now again meeting up. The portrayl of Ma Barker is nothing that I have ever read about before. There are other references to some other famous bank robbers from that period and also the formation of the FBI and how he did not like Hoover. He is telling the story to a couple who recognized him after he got out and was in Europe. A good book.

I really hate giving low ratings for books that I've been generously gifted in exchange for a review, so I'll start with the positives.

If you like gritty, western-style, true crime, you'd probably love this. Full of shoot-outs and bank heists and men on the run from the law.

From the 75 percent mark it got interesting - I got invested in what would happen to Dolores (the pregnant girlfriend) while on the run, and when our protagonist Alvin was trying to evade the FBI.

However, I found this was the only bit of the book with any real plot. The book felt very repetitive, bank robbery - on the run - bank robbery - on the run - shootout with cops - bank robbery - shootout with cops. I was just... Bored.... Sorry. There was literally no other plot occurring, no start, middle, climax and end. The characters were flaky - would randomly appear with no introduction then disappear again a few pages later - no character developments, some even had more than one name without explanation -(including the main character Ray/Alvin?) and I was just confused.

I'm sorry this one wasn't for me.

This was the perfect book to use as a cleanser, it was fast-paced, detailed, and kept me on the edge of my seat.
I loved the writing style, it was easy to digest and fully understand, you really felt like you were actually with the main characters and I loved the immersion of it,