Dead A Long Time

by Tim Mahoney

In this second book of the series, bootlegger Mick Powers is trying to survive his reluctant association with the Barker-Karpis gang. It's Christmas, 1932 and the gang has targeted a Minneapolis bank. Mick is the "jug marker" who sets up what he hopes is a bloodless robbery. But when the Barker gang hooks up with the madman known as The Chopper, things quickly go wrong.

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 22, 2015

About the author

The Gangster Era pulled me in almost from the moment I began researching it. The first book to come out of that research was "Secret Partners." It's a documented history of the Barker Gang and the police chief who was their protector.
But there were many stories to tell, and not all of them could be throughly documented. So I turned to fiction and am now writing the last in a five-book series that tells the stories of the most infamous public enemies, Alvin Karpis, Fred Barker and John Dillinger. All these stories are based on the true crimes of this fascinating era.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Really enjoying the series. On to the next.

[Karl Jorgenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mahoney likely is the preeminent expert on the St. Paul gangster era, the early thirties when the corrupt police had a working arrangement with bootleggers and bank robbers: for a fee, criminals wanted for crimes across the country could disappear in St. Paul under the protection of the cops. All this is historical fact, and Mohoney uses it to great advantage as the background for his Mick Powers novels, of which this is the second.
Mick is a guy caught between conscience and money. The gangs are getting more ruthless, but the only jobs Mick can find keep him on the wrong side of the law. Finally he persuades a local crime boss to let him 'mark' a bank, (plan the robbery thereof) in the hopes of making one big score and exiting the rackets. The robbers are the notorious Barker-Karpis gang.
Mick glides through the underworld of speakeasies, flappers, gangsters, and corrupt cops, convinced some local hoods are stalking him, uncertain of his status with the bosses, and hoping to stay alive long enough to collect his share.
Mahoney is a skillful writer with vivid prose, complex characters, and unforgettable scenes. The series is almost more than a series: Book 1 (If the Dead could Speak) doesn't really conclude when it ends. Mick's troubles move on without a break to this book, and the ending here is similar, a good stopping point, but not a true resolution of the characters' challenges. If a reader picked up 'Dead A Long Time' first, she might not realize that events and people referred to frequently as having touched Mick are not merely backstory, but the main plot line of the first book.
In short, this series reads as though it was a single, 350,000 word book chopped into four manageable sections. I will proceed to the next two books, because they're so enjoyable, and because I want to find out how it finally does wrap up.

[John Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book in a series. I enjoyed the first (If The Dead Could Speak), I liked this second volume even more, and I’m waiting anxiously for the next.
Mick Powers, an underworld Everyman, travels through the speakeasys, back alleys and swank hotels gangster-era St. Paul, Minnesota. In the 30’s, Saint Paul became a criminal oasis, corrupt, brutal and … interesting. Mahoney knows the history well and winds Alvin Karpis, Ma Barker, Jack Pfeifer, and others through Mick’s story. This is noir mystery, yes, but the hard-shell exterior of the classic noir tough guy covers over an interesting character always struggling between survival in a depression-era city corrupt to its core, his Catholic upbringing, and his love of family and several very different women. The story is great, Mick is fascinating, and I want more!