The Bootlegger's Secret by Michael Springer - BOOK REVIEW

Title:  The Bootlegger's Secret
Author:  Michael Springer
Publisher:  Outskirts Press
Publish Date: May, 2010
Paperback, 166 pages
ISBN 10:  143275792X
ISBN 13:  9781432757922

Goodreads description:

It's the summer of 1941 in Middleton, Minnesota. Eleven-year-olds Mark Penn and Swede Larson have built a treehouse along the river. School is out and the boys are looking forward to the arrival of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the Fourth of July parade, and the baseball season of the Middleton Aces. Mark is the team's batboy and Swede a ball shagger.

One day while swimming in the river, they spot the hood ornament of a submerged 1931 Pierce-Arrow. Swede swims down, inside the car and finds an inlaid-gold cigarette case containing a music box, Turkish filter-tips and the photograph of a beautiful woman. Later, police recover the corpse of the car's owner, Eddie Knowland, local bootlegging kingpin and member of Al Capone's Chicago gang. Knowland and his car have been missing for eight years.

The cigarette case has a secret compartment containing Knowland's business records. Treasury agents want the records to prosecute corrupt officials bribed by Knowland. Chicago gangsters want the records for blackmail.

When the cigarette case disappears, Mark and Swede are caught in a deadly squeeze between the T-men and the gangsters. They are not even safe at home or in their treehouse. Summer vacation becomes a nightmare of shadows and ghosts.

My Take: 

I must first admit to a bit of "bad cover" antipathy towards this one; which is why it took me so long to get to it.  I really need to start following the "never judge a book by it's cover" rule as I've read some books with wonderful covers (or tried to read them) that were just bleh! and some with horrid covers that were fabulous (like this one).

This isn't a "lyrical and evocatively written" book; it's a book with a great solid writing style that will put you in mind of Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and the like.

It's 1941 - Meet Mark and Swede, two tweens from different sides of the social spectrum, yet fast friends.  Mark's father owns an insurance agency, and his mom works as a nurse at the local hospital.  Swede's mother apparently suffers from a depression that leaves her bed-ridden, and his father is a violent drunk.  Mark has two siblings; Swede has none.

Swede is the kid your parents warn you to stay away from - he nips from his father's gambling winnings while his dad is passed out at the kitchen table; he doesn't appear to have much of a moral conscience, and his future abode appears to be the juvenile detention center.

Mark, on the other hand, has a solid family, good values, and a HUGE crush on his former neighbor Cathy, whose big brother George is a sideways bully (the kind that pushes and instigates on the sly and then cries when he gets pushed or hit back).

Mark and Swede are spending time at the swimming hole when they come across a long-submerged Packard.  In an attempt to get the hood ornament, Swede dives under the water and ends up going inside the car, where he finds a silver cigarette case.  Even though he was unsuccessful in retrieving the hood ornament, he and Mark take their new treasure to an abandoned treehouse which has become their hangout spot.  Inside is a picture of someone named Grace, which Swede attaches to the clubhouse wall, and some smokes, which he and Mark light up and try.  Mark, coughing, puts his out right away and heads home.

The next day, as the boys are going to the swimming hole, there are police and a tow truck there pulling the Packard out.  A body is found inside, which is eventually identified as that of Eddie Knowland, a bootlegger who disappeared eight years ago.  The boys deny knowing anything about it, and there the story begins.

Who are the two men following them?  Are they the federal agents or the bad guys?  Who ransacked their treehouse?  When the cigarette case and Grace's photo come up missing, who took them?  When Swede disappears, where did he go?  Did he leave on his own or did someone take him?  Whose body is found in the trunk of the bad guy's car that was abandoned at the police station?

This is such a really good book; I'm going to re-read it with Bebe Boy James, who really liked Huckleberry Finn; it will be our next read-together book.

There are twists and turns and some unexpected surprises, all written in a fashion that makes you want to keep right on reading.  I highly recommend this as a good middle reader, especially for reluctant boy readers.

QUOTES:

Fifty cents entitled them to see everything:  side show, animal menagerie, and Big Top, where the opening spectacle - or spec - began at two-fifteen.  They were so excited that they didn't notice the two men in dark suits and hats who were following them.

Swede wore a long-sleeved shirt to hide the red welts on his arms where his pa had whipped him with a belt - just because the old man had a hangover.

How did a man choose killing for his life's work?  Mark imagined Steffano's son or daughter being asked by classmates, "What's your dad do for a living?"  And they'd say, "Oh, he kills people".


BOOK RATING:  5.0 out of 5 stars

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BUY IT:  At Amazon, through the publisher's website, and at other on-and-off-line booksellers.  eBook also available.

Disclosure:  I received a complimentary copy of this title through Bostick Communications to facilitate my review.  No other compensation was received and I was not required to post a positive review.