The US has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of people behind bars than any other country in the world. It also has the greatest number of lawmen. It has long attracted organised and individual crime, especially in its big cities. Perpetrators figure that crowded metropolises are ripe for the picking.
Illegal drugs are the lucrative moneymakers today, yet they are comparatively newcomers. One hundred and more years ago extortion, ransom for kidnapping, mugging, breaking and entering, highway robbery were prevalent. Not smuggling as prohibition had yet to go into effect.
Non-English-speaking immigrants were fair game. Corruption was standard practice. The Irish were exploited in the latter half of the 19th century, until they become both racketeers cops. To be superseded by the Italians, a number with ancestry in Sicily, Naples and Calabria. They called themselves the Black Hand.
A generation ago E.L. Doctorow focused his crime thrillers on the Big Apple of the pre-World War I period. He has since been replaced by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott in their Isaac Bell series. A New England banker’s son, Yale University graduate, he chose the career of an investigator.
The nationwide Dorn Detective Agency is called upon when the authorities require assistance. Bell’s speciality is rescuing abducted children, the number of miscreants he shoots in the process growing. His Black Hand nemesis, Antonio Branco vows to get him.
The year is 1906 and Theodore Roosevelt is the elected occupant of the White House. The title of the book under review in fact refers to two people. The Gangster is Branco and millionaire J.R. Culp, who pays Branco to do his dirty work. An anarchist at heart, Culp opposes Teddy’s efforts to expand the government.
Convinced that he would make a better head for the country, he’s paying Branco to kill everybody between him and the Oval office. Aware of the danger the Van Dorn Agency is hired to protect the president on his visit to New York City. Bell and Branco meet face to face.
Scriveners tend to concentrate on what followed decades hence-the Mafis Al Capone, John Dillinger, the FBI. The Bell series ends before then, with the construction of the subways and reservoirs. It’s not Ancient Rome, but it is history.
A sleuth in Rome
Historical novels about Ancient Rome to be released by the publishers. The millennium-old Empire was over run by the barbarians six centuries ago, yet contemporary scriveners and cinemoguls won’t let it rest in peace. Il Duce tried to revive its glory, but to no avail.
To be sure Ancient Rome’s innovations were memorable — acquaducts, its Irgions, gladiators, emperors, conquests. Shakespeare brought them all to life. His successors are ensuring their immortality. Were they better than today’s lot? More than a few were, certainly.
British scholar Simon Scarrow has penned a score of works of historical fiction about his favourite era. His form is to take one or another emperor, latch on to the major problem of his reign and detail a major battle. If you enjoy blood and guts matches, Scarrow’s your man.
Several books back, he introduced two literary creations. Cato the Prefect and Macro the Centurian, professional soldiers and friends, have caught on with readers. When not hacking their enemies to pieces — in Britain in 52AD in Brothers In Blood this time round, they are solving mysteries.
The problem virtually always is that there are conspiracies to dethrone the emperor in Rome, wherever he may be. Cato and Macro have sworn oaths to defend the emperor, Until the penultimate climax, their efforts are thwarted. Mainly because the conspirators are doing their dirty work in secret.
Indeed Emperor Claudius’s closest friends are those he has the most to fear from. Among other things, they are financing a rebellion in Britain. Cato comes across as a kind of Sherlock Holmes of 2,000 years ago.
In each of the scribe’s stories, pages are set aside for Ancient Romecana. Now it’s about rankings way back when. We are left in little doubt how thoroughly he’d delved into the subject. This reviewers awaits a series on the Rome of the East: Eyzantium.
Which is not say that a good many people care one way or the other about Ancient Rome, Tudor England, the Knights Templars and Atlantis. Nevertheless, a number of authors are and aren’t about to let you forget about them.
I, for one, don’t think bound books will ever be replaced. There is something permanent about them and what they have to say. On the Internet they just whisk pass you.
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.