Lake City, Florida, June, 1930: Al Capone checks in for an unusually
long stay at the Blanche Hotel, a nice enough joint for an insignificant
little whistle stop. The following night, young Jack Blevins witnesses a
body being dumped heralding the summer of violence to come. One-by-one,
people controlling county vice activities swing from KKK ropes. No
moonshine distributor, gaming operator, or brothel madam, black or
white, is safe from the Klan's self-righteous vigilantism. Jack's older
sister Meg, a waitress at the Blanche, and her fiancé, a sheriff's
deputy, discover reasons to believe the lynchings are cover for a much
larger ambition than simply ridding the county of vice. Someone,
possibly backed by Capone, has secret plans for filling the voids
created by the killings. But as the body count grows and crosses burn,
they come to realize this knowledge may get all of them killed.
Gainesville, Florida, August, 2011: Liz Reams, an up and coming young
academic specializing in the history of American crime, impulsively
moves across the continent to follow a man who convinces her of his
devotion yet refuses to say the three simple words “I love you”. Despite
the entreaties of friends and family, she is attracted to edginess and a
certain type of glamour in her men, both living and historical. Her
personal life is an emotional roller coaster, but her career options
suddenly blossom beyond all expectation, creating a very different type
of stress. To deal with it all, Liz loses herself in her professional
passion, original research into the life and times of her favorite bad
boy, Al Capone. What she discovers about 1930's summer of violence,
and herself in the process, leaves her reeling at first and then changed
forever.
Genre: Historical Mystery
long stay at the Blanche Hotel, a nice enough joint for an insignificant
little whistle stop. The following night, young Jack Blevins witnesses a
body being dumped heralding the summer of violence to come. One-by-one,
people controlling county vice activities swing from KKK ropes. No
moonshine distributor, gaming operator, or brothel madam, black or
white, is safe from the Klan's self-righteous vigilantism. Jack's older
sister Meg, a waitress at the Blanche, and her fiancé, a sheriff's
deputy, discover reasons to believe the lynchings are cover for a much
larger ambition than simply ridding the county of vice. Someone,
possibly backed by Capone, has secret plans for filling the voids
created by the killings. But as the body count grows and crosses burn,
they come to realize this knowledge may get all of them killed.
Gainesville, Florida, August, 2011: Liz Reams, an up and coming young
academic specializing in the history of American crime, impulsively
moves across the continent to follow a man who convinces her of his
devotion yet refuses to say the three simple words “I love you”. Despite
the entreaties of friends and family, she is attracted to edginess and a
certain type of glamour in her men, both living and historical. Her
personal life is an emotional roller coaster, but her career options
suddenly blossom beyond all expectation, creating a very different type
of stress. To deal with it all, Liz loses herself in her professional
passion, original research into the life and times of her favorite bad
boy, Al Capone. What she discovers about 1930's summer of violence,
and herself in the process, leaves her reeling at first and then changed
forever.
Genre: Historical Mystery
Used availability for Linda Bennett Pennell's Al Capone at the Blanche Hotel