Caught up in an interview on NPR I had to buy one of Lehane's books and discover if he was as good a writer as he was an interviewee. Luckily the answer was yes.
Lehane has Boston as his normal beat, his hometown and its unique character provide the background for his gangster era novels and a rich source of characters. In this book the story begins with a small time "outlaw" who works for gangsters (Joe prefers to be called an outlaw) and soon gets ratted out by one of his partners causing his arrest and imprisonment. Joe's father is a police officer and of course creates a tension between father and son that provides a nice background to the advancement of Joe in the criminal ranks.
Prison is the testing grounds and the university for a rising criminal and after leaving prison Joe ends up in Ybor, FL where he aligns himself with Cubans, takes over the rum business, falls in love with a Cuban and grows to be a Prince of Outlaws with a heart - but not a reluctance to have someone killed.
It is the moral dilemma of Joe's life, a nice guy Gangster, a man without a conscience, but with a mind open to doing good things with bad money and his Cuban wife (technically she is married to someone else and so not a wife in legal terms) guides his beneficence.
The book creates a wonderful cast of characters who inhabit the grey areas of human right and wrong. They in turn meet with the self-righteous KKK and the religious fanatics who think that their god makes them better than Joe and his associates. So they commit racial crimes, intimidation, and lynching while bemoaning the criminal who sells booze. I loved this give and take - this testing of moral high ground.
Inevitably a book like this has to end in a conflict, a loss, and retributions. It is a mixture of lifestyles that are not conducive of positive endings and the novel will not disappoint.
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