Kalteis, best known for his Canadian-based crime novels, returns to the Depression-era where he set his novel Call Down the Thunder, and offers us a fictionalized version of the Barker-Karpis Gang, one of the most famed gangs during the 1930’s until J. Edgar Hoover hunted them to extinction. The story is dense and is told in short conversational chapters, each depicting a specific day, beginning with Alvin Karpis and Fred Barker meeting in jail and, Alvin visiting Fred’s mother after he gets out. Fred’s mother, Kate, is the famed and legendary Ma Barker, though she was not the mastermind of the gang’s crime spree, she never turned down any gifts they had for her or asked any questions and went into hiding with them.

Alvin, though not a Barker by birth, is the lead character and there is never much question that they are all a bunch of never-do-goods, fixated on bank robberies and later on kidnappings. The novel takes the reader step by step through each robbery, primarily through the Elmore Leonard like conversations that the characters have. They are a violent unsympathetic gang who faults Dillinger, a rival bank robber, for putting on an act as if he were doing it Robin Hood style for the little People. They cross paths throughout the tale with every crime character from the 1930’s from Clyde Barrow to John Dillinger to Frank Nitti and the Chicago Mob. Not all of their dealings with these other characters were friendly in nature. When they made their way into Chicago, they had to deal with Nitti and pay tribute with a slice of treasure too big to be believed. When they tried to launder ransom money through a Cleveland casino, they found too that the percentage off the top kept growing.

You will find that Crooked is unlike Kalteis’ other crime novels, both for the fact that it is historically and factually based, and because it reads a bit slower and requires more careful reading to capture everything that is going on.

If you’re a crime fiction fan and a new release from Dietrich Kalteis isn’t high on your “ must read “ list, then you’ll find that you’ve been missing the boat . With his crafty plotting and impecable ear for the criminal vernacular, Kalteis weaves shady tales with the best of them. For example, take his latest page turner @ Crooked, a fictionalized telling of one of the 30’s most famous band of bad guys ( and girl ), The Barker Gang. With a romp that takes them through a variety of locales including Toledo, where they stash some of their earnings, the antics of these notorious hooligans never lags and seems authentic as I have spent all 75 years of my life in Toledo and am quite familiar with its criminal reputation which is portrayed in @Crooked, and may be Kalteis’ best yet. Don’t let the Dietrich Kalteis boat pass you by.. @Crooked will thoroughly entertain you.

Another great crime fiction novel by Kalteis-a criminally under-appreciated author. This one is a novel about the criminal exploits of Alvin Karpis, Ma Barker and variousl other criminals and gangs that populated the 1930’s. It’s fast paced, literate, appears historically accurate and, as they say, bring to light a bygone era. Read all his books. I have and look forward to whatever else he writes.

A look into the Alvin Karpis -Fred Barker gang who started out robbing banks and moved on to kidnapping rich people. The story picks up after they have met in prison and are now again meeting up. The portrayl of Ma Barker is nothing that I have ever read about before. There are other references to some other famous bank robbers from that period and also the formation of the FBI and how he did not like Hoover. He is telling the story to a couple who recognized him after he got out and was in Europe. A good book.

I really hate giving low ratings for books that I've been generously gifted in exchange for a review, so I'll start with the positives.

If you like gritty, western-style, true crime, you'd probably love this. Full of shoot-outs and bank heists and men on the run from the law.

From the 75 percent mark it got interesting - I got invested in what would happen to Dolores (the pregnant girlfriend) while on the run, and when our protagonist Alvin was trying to evade the FBI.

However, I found this was the only bit of the book with any real plot. The book felt very repetitive, bank robbery - on the run - bank robbery - on the run - shootout with cops - bank robbery - shootout with cops. I was just... Bored.... Sorry. There was literally no other plot occurring, no start, middle, climax and end. The characters were flaky - would randomly appear with no introduction then disappear again a few pages later - no character developments, some even had more than one name without explanation -(including the main character Ray/Alvin?) and I was just confused.

I'm sorry this one wasn't for me.

This was the perfect book to use as a cleanser, it was fast-paced, detailed, and kept me on the edge of my seat.
I loved the writing style, it was easy to digest and fully understand, you really felt like you were actually with the main characters and I loved the immersion of it,