There is money to be made during Prohibition in the United States, and Huckabee Waller wants in on the action. He is the central character of Dirty Little War, an epic tale about gangsters in Chicago during the 1920s from Canadian author Dietrich Kalteis. In 2022, his novel Under an Outlaw Moon won the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Best Crime Novel.
Dirty Little War is a genre-crossing novel. It was clearly inspired by some true crimes that happened in Chicago during Prohibition. Kalteis has inserted fictional characters into events with historical figures like prominent businessmen, politicians and gangsters. If you’re familiar with the city you’ll recognise famous locations like the Drake Hotel, the Chicago Water Tower and an earlier version of the Berghoff, a German restaurant located in downtown Chicago, which add veracity to the novel.
Most historical crime fiction focuses on a specific crime however, this book covers a multitude of crimes within the 1920s. The story opens with an illegal bare-knuckle fight behind some boxcars. Huck is new to the city. A bar-room brawl that ended with the accidental death of a pimp led to his fast exit from New Orleans. An offer of a much needed five dollars entices Huck into the ring. It’s a brutal way to make money but at least he will be able to afford to eat.
Initially Huck wants to get a steady job but being illiterate limits his options. Instead he becomes a crowd favourite in the bare-knuckle fights organised by The North Side Gang. They think that Huck is capable of more than fighting and eventually he gets into running illegal whiskey from Canada for them.
After years with next to nothing, Huck is happy to be profiting from running booze for the North Side Gang but he wants more cash. He manages to convince the supervisor at Yellow Cab to hire him as security. There was a taxi war in the 1920s between Yellow Cab and Checker Cabs, which was more than stealing each other’s fares. Flying bullets and Molotov cocktails were a regular occurrence.
Some of the early events in the book have a humorous element to them, but as the plot progresses, so does the violence. Shifting loyalties and truces between the various gangs change the dynamics, as does the arrival of Alphonse Capone. Kalteis creates an image of the intense competition for control of Chicago with an ever increasing body count. Corruption within the police force and city hall help fuel the competition. More than one cab ends up in the river.
In spite of the violence and long hours, Huck manages to develop a personal life. He adopts Izzy, a young orphaned street boy. He gives him a roof over his head and ensures that he has food. In exchange, Izzy teaches him to read and brings some normalcy to Huck’s life. The scenes with Izzy give more depth to Huck’s character.
He also meets Karla, who is working as a dancer at a nickel joint. They had met once before when he was a fighter. When Huck ended up badly injured in the hospital, she was his nurse. Over time, Huck, Karla and Izzy form a family unit. Their development as a family becomes a sub plot that intertwines with the organised crime machinations.
Because much of this is from history, we know what happened to many of the real people that it features. Dirty Little War is not a book that will have you on the edge of your seat. The tension comes more from whether or not Huck will manage to survive the events around him. This book offers a well-written and interesting look at Chicago during the 1920s. Coming in at close to 500 pages, it will appeal primarily to those of you who are fascinated by the gangsters of the Prohibition era.
Also try Rook by Stephen G Eoannou, the tale of Buffalo, New York bank robber Al Nussbaum.
ECW Press
Print/Kindle
£6.49
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
