Book Reviews by Elizabeth A. White

Note: Details of the first book in this series, The Detroit Electric Scheme, are discussed in both Motor City Shakedown and, to an extent, this review of it.

I had my life back. This time I wouldn’t waste it. – Will Anderson

Detroit, 1911. When we last saw Will Anderson, heir apparent to the Detroit Electric car company, he and his then fiancée, Elizabeth Hume, had barely survived a nasty encounter with crime boss Vito Adamo.

Will’s best friend did not survive, and the guilt Will feels over his friend’s murder, as well as the terrible pain he suffers as a result of his mangled right hand, have driven Will to morphine addiction to dull his demons.

Determined to set things right and avenge his friend, Will begins with Adamo’s driver, intending to work his way up the criminal ladder to the boss. Unfortunately for Will someone beats him to the punch, and it’s a nearly decapitated body he finds upon entering the driver’s apartment.

Now Will’s a suspect in a murder he didn’t commit, and his quest to find the real killer starts him down a path that ends smack dab in the middle of an all-out mob war.

Will unexpectedly gets helped out of his police jam by the Gianolla crime family, who promptly turn around and use that leverage to squeeze Will into being their point man for the Teamsters’ entry into Detroit Electric. With the lives of Elizabeth and his family at stake, Will finds that hard times make for strange bedfellows as he begins to wonder if the enemy of his enemy – Vito Adamo – may actually be, well, if not his friend then at least a potential ally. (more…)

Tomorrow I’ll be reviewing Motor City Shakedown, author D.E. Johnson’s sequel to his debut novel, The Detroit Electric Scheme. Today, I am pleased to turn the blog over to Dan to talk a little crime… old style.

Carte blanche to write anything I want? Okay, how about Detroit crime—old style?

My new book, Motor City Shakedown, is set in Detroit’s first mob war. My protagonist, Will Anderson, is thrown into the middle of this bloody fight between the Adamo and Gianolla gangs. I’ve stayed close to the historical record, with the exception of throwing my fictional characters into the mix (and adding a bit of dramatic effect).

Here’s what really happened:

In the early 20th Century, the mob was really just a bunch of street gangs. The Sicilians were the most prominent, and were what was known at the time as “Black Hand” gangs. The Black Hand would walk into a business, usually one run by a fellow Sicilian, and tell them that, for a small weekly fee, they would protect the business and its employees from the bad elements in the neighborhood—namely, themselves. If the business owner refused, his place might burn down, his employees might get beaten, or worse.

Vito Adamo was the cream that first rose to the top of the Detroit rackets. He was a Sicilian immigrant who came to the Detroit area sometime around the turn of the century. By 1910 he was known as the “White Hand.” Adamo protected businesses from the Black Hand—for a fee. Oh, and it was his own Black Hand gang he was protecting the businesses from. He got it coming and going. (more…)