Taking a dive is not Huckabee Waller’s style, much to the displeasure of the gangsters taking bets on the bare-knuckle fights near Chicago’s stockyards. It’s 1920, and Prohibition is the law of the land. Huck, who hopped a boxcar heading north after killing a pimp in New Orleans, turns to earning a living in illegal boxing matches. Impressed by Huck’s pugilistic skills and his past as a Louisiana moonshine runner, Dean O’Banion, head of the notorious North Side Gang, recruits Huck into smuggling booze across the Canadian border. Huck also runs a sideline as security for John D. Hertz’s Yellow Cab Company, which is involved in a vicious and violent competition with Morris Markin’s Checker Taxi. Soon Huck is rolling in dough, but his new luxurious lifestyle comes at a cost. When his new wife, Karla, urges him to find more legitimate employment, hitman Gypsy Doyle reminds Huck that the only way out “is feet first and horizontal.” Winner of the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Best Crime Novel (for Under an Outlaw Moon), Kalteis has written a tough, epic historical noir that covers the most tumultuous decade in Chicago’s mob history. The Zelig-like Huck encounters infamous mobsters of the era (O’Banion, Johnny Torrio, Vincent Drucci, Al Capone) and becomes tangentially involved in some of the most notorious killings (St. Valentine’s Day massacre). As the body count rises, Kalteis’s punchy, hard-boiled prose vividly captures the brutality behind the glitz of the Jazz Age. Fans of Max Allan Collins’s Nathan Heller historical mysteries and The Road to Perdition will enjoy this gritty novel.

In Dirty Little War by Dietrich Kalteis, Huckabee “Huck” Waller finds himself in deep trouble in 1920s Louisiana, forcing him to either flee the state or stay behind and face even more trouble from some nasty people. Huck decides to flee and travels to Chicago by hopping trains with little more than the clothes on his back, his fists, and a desire to find fair work for a fair wage.

Unable to find lasting work for a decent wage—and because Huck is good with his fists and has a concrete skull—he participates in “toe the line” bare-knuckle fights to make a living. Soon, Huck garners the attention of local Chicago mobsters and lowlifes, who are eager to take advantage of Huck’s brawling skills. Through them, Huck begins his journey through 1920s Chicago.

After one brutal fight, Huck is left unconscious and robbed, then dumped in an alley. He’s taken to a hospital, where he becomes enamored with a nurse who seems immune to his charms and even refuses to tell him her name. Later, at a dance hall where women dance for tickets, Huck encounters the same nurse, who continues to act as though she has never met him—only increasing his infatuation.

Weary of the repeated hard knocks in bare-knuckle fighting, Huck starts running illegal booze and quickly excels thanks to his creativity, driving skills, and willingness to use violence in the ruthless Chicago underworld. Around the same time, Huck signs up as an enforcer for John D. Hertz in a violent battle against a rival taxi company. Hertz hires Huck to ensure his competition becomes less competitive. In taking Hertz’s job, Huck is forced to choose sides among the numerous mob factions prowling Chicago and beyond—including crossing paths with an up-and-coming gangster named Alphonse Capone.

The novel follows Huck as he tries to court the unyielding nurse while becoming more entangled with the mob. Despite his involvement in the criminal world, Huck maintains a surprising level of integrity, using violence only against those within the mob and steering clear of innocents. He also becomes a surrogate authority figure to a young, streetwise boy who is initially suspicious of Huck’s motives but soon discovers there is more to him than thick-as-leather fists, violence, and fast driving.

Dietrich Kalteis’s Dirty Little War reads like an epic tale of 1920s gangsterism, unfolding at a deliberate pace. It’s not a blindingly fast page-turner but rather a well-crafted story with elements of actual history and real figures from the 1920s. The characters are richly developed, with illustrative backgrounds and depth, adding a sense of historical accuracy that enhances the novel’s appeal.

Dirty Little War is set to be published in March 2025 and is recommended for fans of crime novels with a strong historical flavor, including a mix of real-life characters and fiction.

This review was originally published at MysteryandSuspense.com. NetGalley provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In reality, the long and storied history of Chicago includes the great taxicab wars between Yelloevcabs and checker cabs of 1920 and 1921, which included shootings, bombings, and all out street battles that rocked the city. Kalteis brings these legendary wars to life through the fictional character of Huckabee Waller, who left New Orleans in a hurry after a barroom disagreement over whether merely talking to a lady required paying for her time, a disagreement resulting in the death on the barroom floor of one well-connected pimp. Hopping trains brings young Huck to the railyards of Chicago where he earns some money in boxing matches, ones where he was supposed to take a dive and refused. From there, he goes on to ferrying booze from Canada during prohibition and offers security services to Yellow which was feeling the brunt of attacks from Checkered.

Huck is in the middle of mob wars between bootleggers and the ensuing and ever expanding hijinks of the taxi wars. Tough nut that he is, Huck is humanized by his romance with a dime a dance girl, who wants him to make an honest living. But with the Capones involved, Huck gets word that the only way out of the wars is in a six-foot wooden box. One side will never accept his quitting and the other wants vengeance, pure and simple.

This rich thick novel is filled with action, some defying credulity, some simply bare knuckles brawling. If you have any interest in the gangster wars of 1920’s Chicago, this novel is something special.

I found this to be a very entertaining and well written book focused on the Mob years in Chicago, and one man's evolution from young punk to polished gentleman. Huckabee Waller (Huck to his friends) had to leave New Orleans in a hurry and jumped a train to get out, he ended up in Chicago, broke, with literally the clothes on his back, he resorts to bareknuckle fighting, a quick way to make money but the organizers want him to drop certain matches to increase their money, Huck doesn't but they eventually get him involved in other illegal activities, like running booze from Canada to Chicago, prohibition is in force but that doesn't stop anyone from wanting their booze. Huck's a resourceful guy, saves what he makes, has visions of living in the country away from all the crime and corruption. He also ends up working for John D Hertz (yes that guy) who runs a taxi company, which is in direct competition with another company, and things are very brutal, gun fights on the street, taxi cars careening down crowded streets, bystanders being injured. Huck also finds time, after being in the hospital briefly, to fall in love with a nurse who's not real interested in him, but he's patient and wins her affections. The level of corruption/crime/mob hits is quite high as well as the pollution around Chicago at the time, the description of the various companies that dump their waste directly into the river and it's resultant effect on it, is stomach turning. Al Capone makes an appearance, and I suppose if you are familiar with the mob during that time you would probably recognize some of the other names. I would highly recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #ECW Press for the ARC.