Tooting my horn

As we face the last few months of 2024, any events, projects or releases planned to end the year?

by Dietrich

This week question’s just the perfect chance for some shameless self promotion. My new novel, Crooked, was just released by ECW Press on the 24th, and like any writer with a new book, I’m pretty jazzed about it. The story’s based on the real life misadventures of Alvin Karpis and his connection to the infamous Barker family, so it’s a work of fiction that follows actual events. 

I first became interested in Alvin Karpis's story after reading his autobiography On the Rock, which led me to Public Enemies by Bryan Burrough which covered the crimes of the Barker/Karpis Gang. There were also numerous reliable online sources such as Chicagology as well as many historical newspaper articles that helped me built the storyline.

Crooked starts shortly after Karpis and Fred Barker met in the Kansas State Prison. After being released in the spring of 1931, they connected and started a spree of small-time robberies that led to the killing of a patrolman in Arkansas, then facing off against a sheriff in Howell County, Missouri. 

After fleeing to Kansas, they robbed bank after bank before being joined by Fred’s brother ‘Doc’ upon his release from prison. Over the next two years the gang hit more banks, shooting at anyone that got in their way. When they became hunted by every lawmen over several states, they were forced to seek safe haven in St. Paul under the protection of a mobbed-up police chief who held out his hand and turned a blind eye to their criminal activities as long as they committed them someplace else. 

With increasing security on the banks, Karpis and the Barkers switched their focus to kidnapping, snatching William Hamm of Hamm's Brewery right outside the man’s office. Scoring over a hundred thousand, they followed this with a new slew of bank robberies before kidnapping Edward George Bremer, owner and president of the Schmidt Brewing Company. They scored a ransom of over two hundred thousand on that one, but they also caught the attention of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. As the gang topped the most-wanted lists, they soon found themselves the most hunted outlaws in America — and nobody was looking to take them alive.

Well, I hope that piques your interest in Crooked and thanks for reading.

Lastly, here’s an early review. 

“Kalteis vividly evokes the spirit of the times, and paints multidimensional portraits of his central characters. Though readers well-versed in the era’s history will know how the story ends, the action is tightly coiled enough to keep them flipping pages and rooting for the rogues. It’s another winner from Kalteis.” — Publishers Weekly