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The Jazz Bird: A Novel
The Jazz Bird: A Novel
The Jazz Bird: A Novel
Ebook369 pages4 hours

The Jazz Bird: A Novel

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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An exquistely written novel of love and betrayal, of money and power, set at the apex of that time of glitz and innocence known as the Jazz Age.

CINCINNATI, 1927...

Lawyer George Remus became the country's biggest bootlegger, grossing over $80 million until his arrest. Upon his release from prison, he learns that his beautiful wife, Imogene, has left him and that his bank accounts are empty. On the morning of their divorce, he runs her car off the road in the middle of rush hour in Eden Park and shoots her to death.

Shocked and fascinated by this horrible crime, the country gears up for a sensational trial pitting the man known as “the king of the bootleggers” against Chief Prosecutor Charlie Taft, the youngest son of the former president. The trial is a national spectacle, a lens focused on the fabulous rise and fall of the Remus empire and the tragic love story within it, and an attempt to answer some tantalizing questions: What actually happened to the fortune? What are the motives of the federal agent who brought Remus down? What complex emotions and desires, leading ultimately to the ruin of three men, really lie within the heart of the woman known as the Jazz Bird?

Based on a true story, The Jazz Bird is at once a love story, a crime novel, and the tale of the courtroom battle between two powerful men whose respective futures hang in the balance.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 19, 2002
ISBN9780743217576
The Jazz Bird: A Novel
Author

Craig Holden

Craig Holden is the author of four previous novels: The Jazz Bird, The River Sorrow, The Last Sanctuary, and Four Corners of Night. He lives in Michigan.

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Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

4 ratings5 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Worse than River Sorrow or Four Corners of Night ...
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fascinating historical crime novel set in the 1920s era of prohibition and bootlegging. Well paced and well written. But, I'm still curious about what Imogene had planned? Doge's fall? And why didn't Remus plan for the divorce?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This novel is almost the obverse side of "The Great Gatsby, though with a far more intense scrutiny of the violence and seediness of racketeering during Prohibition"! Like "James Gatz", George Remus comes from humble origins but sticks around, working from an early age to help to support his family. He starts out working in his uncle's pharmacy and works so well that he subsequently buys him out, and goes on to establish a chain of other stores. Once he is financially secure he pays his way through law school and starts to practise as a defence attorney.Fast forward to the Prohibition era. Using a little-known loophole Remus is able to secure huge supplies of alcohol and builds up a wide network around Cincinnati feeding the demands of a suddenly and reluctantly dry population. He then meets Imogene, beautiful daughter of his bent lawyer. She falls in love with him immediately. He is more aloof, but does gradually fall under her spell. Eventually they marry, having negotiated various hurdles (not the least of which is her husband, severely wounded in the First World War and now confined to a private medical home ).The novel actually opens in 1926 with Remus killing Imogene. The bulk of the book is actually about his trial, in which he puts forward a defence of insanity, with flashbacks letting the reader see how things came about. The Public Prosecutor is Charlie Taft, son of the former President and Chief Justice, who is driven by a growing (almost obsessive) empathy for the victim.The plot is very taut, and Holden keeps the reader engaged throughout. Very impressive.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Entertaining, but too much Susan Casey, too much macho fetishism.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very sympatheic characters and a glamourous era. The 'lawyer' character could use a little fleshing out. I liked the bad guys more. I'd like to read another by this author.

Book preview

The Jazz Bird - Craig Holden

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