Martin McDonough is a private detective whose investigations are usually successful because he knows how to get the low-down from his copper friends-a formula that works for a long time, but not forever. This noir mystery novel follows him from 1930s St. Paul, where a corrupt police force creates a haven for trigger-happy gangsters, to post-World War II San Francisco, where the jazz scene and the local mob uneasily coexist. In McDonough's world people are getting shot all time, but not by him... if he can help it. Trouble is, it's hard to be nice to the kind of rats he keeps running into.
Industry Reviews
In the 1930s St. Paul, Minnesota, was a haven for some of America's most notorious gangsters. Dillinger, Nelson, Karpis, the Barker gang, and "Machine Gun" Kelly were all habitues of the Mississippi River's most northern port city. It was widely known in the day that if your favorite killer wasn't in prison, he was most likely in St. Paul.
Bruce Rubenstein, award winning Twin Cities writer, describes his book SMOKE as historical fiction that contains references to real life criminals who actually did things much as he has portrayed them. Some would be flattered by what he writes, he says, and others would be furious. But they are all dead now so they "can't sue."
His St. Paul private eye, Martin McDonough, runs in the city's milieu of crooks, corrupt cops, and devious politicians of that era, talking the talk and walking the walk. He is hired by a pretty widow who wants the mastermind of her husband's murder brought to justice. The man she suspects hired the actual killer is well liked while feared as someone who doesn't take to people crossing him. So, although under some suspicion, he floats around a free man.
McDonough is well connected with the brass of the St. Paul police department and is privy to inside information and gossip. He is also brash and fearless, with the reputation of solving crimes. He agrees to look into the widow's suspicions and, along the way, gets involved in other situations that eventually lead to the book's conclusion, which you'll have to read yourself.
What's important to know is that Rubenstein is an engaging writer with the chops to put this book together. It's filled with historical references to the bad people previously mentioned, the vernacular of the 1930s gritty side of society, and subtle humor that makes the book highly enjoyable. There are references of encounters with notorious St. Paul police chiefs John O'Connor and Tommy Brown. McDonough frequents the infamous bars of the area, such as The Green Lantern, and real people known for their shady existence drift in and out of his story.
McDonough even escorts a police rescue squad that attempts to warn John Dillinger of an impending FBI "hit squad' raid that intends to kill him. If that were allowed to happen, St. Paul's reputation as a safe haven for gangsters would be threatened. Rubenstein's description of this actual event is wonderfully written and contains enough confusion, whizzing bullets, and crashing cars to create motion pictures in the reader's mind. In the end, John Dillinger and his squeeze, Billie Frechette, escape and St. Paul's lucrative Layover policy of a safe haven remains intact.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The environment is well documented, the dialogue is timely and real, and the storyline, although somewhat dated, is well constructed. Some rambling in the theme and confusion in the characterizations keeps it from getting 5 stars.
-Schuyler T Wallace, author of TIN LIZARD TALES
Bruce and I have been pals since junior high school. The promise he showed back in our University of Minnesota days has been more than redeemed by this artfully crafted tale. The lingo, the characters, the ambiance: all meticulously researched, and presented ""warts and all"".
My dad, a card and pool sharp, used to regale me with stories about St. Paul in the 30s -- he had met John Dillinger among other infamous gunsels -- and I was introduced to some of the Jewish gangsters and a few crooked politicians that came out of that era. Bits and pieces of history.
Bruce has put it all together in a fast-paced true-crime tale that my father would easily recognize, and he's done it with a writing style that is at once colloquial and mannered.
If you've never even been to St. Paul, no matter: this book is for anyone that appreciates a good yarn. And while you're at it, check out some of Bruce's other writings. You won't regret it.
-Stan Gotlieb
