SHOE TOWN eBook T J Birkenmeier
Download As PDF : SHOE TOWN eBook T J Birkenmeier 
GRITTY CITY BANG BANG!
When you look at the bloody bullet-hole on SHOE TOWN's cover, you can almost hear the police sirens wailing down Arsenal Street from Grand and Magnolia as law enforcement St. Louis-style is about to descend on the scene of the horrific crime in Tower Grove Park.
It is 1931, during the waning days of Prohibition, the Irish ruled the City Of St. Louis on both sides of the law. There was an uneasy peace between the Italian gang lord on “The Hill” and the Irish “King of Kerry Patch.”
In Chicago, Al Capone had just been convicted. In St. Louis, the Bambino was in town to beat the Browns, and the National League Cardinals were headed for a World Series match up against the A’s. FDR was making his first run for The White House and Harry S. Truman was an obscure judge from western Missouri whose political fortunes were about to change suddenly.
On the eve of St. Patrick’s Day, the tranquility of the City of St. Louis’ elegant Compton Heights neighborhood was shattered by a horrific double murder in Tower Grove Park. The victims were the son and heir of one of the City’s most socially prominent founding families and an unidentified much younger woman, who was not his wife. Both were brutally murdered in the back seat of his custom-built Madame X model 1930 Cadillac.
Shoe Town is the story of the earthquake created by those murders and the aftershocks that would resonate from the lowest levels of back alley bootlegging to the Easy Streets
of St. Louis Society, and from the smoky backrooms of Missouri politics to the very heights of Democrat party Presidential politics.
It’s a layered yarn of Karmic synchronicity that fast forwards from 1931 to 2031 and back again, with more twists and turns than the rickety Comet rollercoaster at the old Highland’s amusement park. This is the untold story behind the Tower Grove Park murders and the way St. Louis worked back in the days of The Irish Enterprises.
SHOE TOWN eBook T J Birkenmeier
Let me begin my comments by saying that if you are easily offended by racial and/or ethnic typing and now forbidden slurs, this is not going to be your cup of tea. It is, I believe, an exceptionally accurate portrayal of the times if a little disturbing by early twenty-first century standards.However, if you can understand the tone of the times in which this mystery is set, you will find a mystery that is both believable and accurately place in that time.
The main underlying plot, the murder, is vicious and extremely brutal and sets the tone for the rest of the book. The 1930's is not a time we can romanticize in our history and the brutality, abuse and corruption that was fostered by the Volstead Act is realistically portrayed in "Shoe Town". This is a story, not of murder, but the effects of that murder on the characters and how the times affected their response.
The story is set in St. Louis, Missouri in the 1930's and 2030's, a century apart chronologically and "eons" apart in sensibilities. The action of the chronicler draws the two eras together ethically and these same actions depict the vast gulf between our respective belief systems, racially and ethnically, that existed blatantly in the South and hypocritically in the North in that era.
Another factor that keeps this first effort out of the "warm and fuzzy'" category is how police methods and tactics are portrayed. The 1930's era portion of the novel show police of that era to be little more than an extension of the criminal element of the times; the bootlegger.(or was it the reverse) Again this is accurately portrayed, if tales from police officer uncles and other police officers of the time are to be believed, and a little disquieting by our ill conceived 21st century political correctness.
I did find the side plot, the romance of the 2031 protagonist and her lover, to be a bit "smaltzy" and too little defined. I would have liked to know more about them and the times in which they lived and how the author imagined twenty-one years from now to have change even from today much less in the 89 years intervening.
If you are familiar with St. Louis, you will find it easy to navigate the St. Louis of the 30's. The detail is accurate and the "trip down memory lane" appealing. Familiar venues are liberally sprinkled into the narrative. (I especially like the mention of the grotto where many of us had our first Marlboro and, it was a popular destination during sock hops).
I considered the read to be well worth the time and the mystery to be compelling. I also found the tone to be a bit thought provoking and an insight to my own Father's and Grandfather's time.
Was my $24 well spent? Yeah ...I think so. If you have an open mind and a sense of history, I think you will too.
Nice job, Tom.
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SHOE TOWN eBook T J Birkenmeier Reviews
Birk continues his tale of conspiracy and lunacy with humor, history and personalities from the St. Louis region. I've read the next installment, "Mel's Hole", and the tale gets better and better. Birk's personal descriptions are hilarious; full of action and told by a real wordsmith. He'll keep you guessing and wanting more.
Great story - well written!! Characters and St. Louis details make it even better!!
Wow! Who is this Birkenmeier guy? No one's heard of him and BANG!, he comes out of the blocks with this? I agree with the first reviewer this is a certified PAGE TURNER and a must for the big screen. In the first 5 pages, Birkenmeier has the pressure cooker rattling, and then continues to turn up the heat for the rest of the book. It is deliciously graphic and captures the whole zeitgeist of St. Louis in the 30's. If you like mysteries, don't pass this one up. Fair warning there is nothing "politically correct" about this guy's writing. It is down and dirty, filled with shocking surprises. Enjoy!
Somebody just loaned me this book. I have had to put it down -- reluctantly -- and it is just a lot of fun to read. (I'm not quite half through.) Granted, I am from STL, so the local references (some gone since the 1960s and some far more recently) will be fun trivia to hash over with locals of a certain age. But I think the book will have a much wider appeal. Set in both 2031 and 1931, the changes with time are interesting juxtapositions -- and the changes that the author envisions for 2031 are already maybe on target and maybe not (Yahoogle?) -- but again, look forward to discussion with friends WHO WILL BE READING THIS BOOK! If you loved newspapers, think crime can be fun and aren't worried about "frank" language, you should have a good time with this book.
I literally could not put this book down. I started at 9 a.m. this morning and just finished it, around 12 hours later (OK, I put it down to eat lunch and dinner, but that's about it). The mystery grabs you within the first 10 pages, and doesn't let go. In addition to the twists and turns of a great whodunnit, the book is a fascinating piece of historical literature. Perhaps more than any other period of American history, the prohibition era was a time when the line between the good guys and the bad buys was very blurry. The author captures that beautifully, with historical details that blur the line between reality and fantasy. This is a work of "fiction," torn from the pages of history. I hope this book lands on the desk of a good screenwriter or producer, because I'll gladly stand in line to see the movie.
Let me begin my comments by saying that if you are easily offended by racial and/or ethnic typing and now forbidden slurs, this is not going to be your cup of tea. It is, I believe, an exceptionally accurate portrayal of the times if a little disturbing by early twenty-first century standards.
However, if you can understand the tone of the times in which this mystery is set, you will find a mystery that is both believable and accurately place in that time.
The main underlying plot, the murder, is vicious and extremely brutal and sets the tone for the rest of the book. The 1930's is not a time we can romanticize in our history and the brutality, abuse and corruption that was fostered by the Volstead Act is realistically portrayed in "Shoe Town". This is a story, not of murder, but the effects of that murder on the characters and how the times affected their response.
The story is set in St. Louis, Missouri in the 1930's and 2030's, a century apart chronologically and "eons" apart in sensibilities. The action of the chronicler draws the two eras together ethically and these same actions depict the vast gulf between our respective belief systems, racially and ethnically, that existed blatantly in the South and hypocritically in the North in that era.
Another factor that keeps this first effort out of the "warm and fuzzy'" category is how police methods and tactics are portrayed. The 1930's era portion of the novel show police of that era to be little more than an extension of the criminal element of the times; the bootlegger.(or was it the reverse) Again this is accurately portrayed, if tales from police officer uncles and other police officers of the time are to be believed, and a little disquieting by our ill conceived 21st century political correctness.
I did find the side plot, the romance of the 2031 protagonist and her lover, to be a bit "smaltzy" and too little defined. I would have liked to know more about them and the times in which they lived and how the author imagined twenty-one years from now to have change even from today much less in the 89 years intervening.
If you are familiar with St. Louis, you will find it easy to navigate the St. Louis of the 30's. The detail is accurate and the "trip down memory lane" appealing. Familiar venues are liberally sprinkled into the narrative. (I especially like the mention of the grotto where many of us had our first Marlboro and, it was a popular destination during sock hops).
I considered the read to be well worth the time and the mystery to be compelling. I also found the tone to be a bit thought provoking and an insight to my own Father's and Grandfather's time.
Was my $24 well spent? Yeah ...I think so. If you have an open mind and a sense of history, I think you will too.
Nice job, Tom.
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