Gangbuster, Alan Prendergast
Gangbuster, Alan Prendergast
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Gangbuster
One Man's Battle Against Crime, Corruption, and the Klan

Author: Alan Prendergast

Narrator: Gabriel Vaughan

Unabridged: 9 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/28/2023


Synopsis

At the height of the roaring 1920s, the ex-frontier town of Denver, Colorado, emerged from the postwar boom as the future of the American city. But the slick façade of progress and opportunity masked a murky stew of organized crime, elaborate swindles, and widespread government corruption.

Rookie district attorney Phillip Van Cise was already making national headlines for a new brand of law enforcement. Employing military intelligence tools he'd developed during the Great War, Van Cise crippled the criminal empire of Lou Blonger, an ex-lawman who had risen from petty scam artist to master of the Big Con. But Van Cise had even darker, more malevolent forces on his radar.

The Ku Klux Klan had emerged as a shockingly mainstream middle-class movement, all while claiming to protect true American values. Utilizing his pioneering surveillance techniques, Van Cise was determined to expose the Invisible Empire from within.

Gripping and exhaustively researched, this prescient chronicle of Phillip Van Cise's spectacular career as a feared gangbuster taking on organized crime, the KKK, and corruption at the highest levels of government is a cautionary tale that mirrors our tumultuous times.

About Alan Prendergast

Alan Prendergast is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Outside, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, as well as The Best American Sports Writing and The Best American Crime Reporting. His nonfiction crime book, The Poison Tree, was an Edgar Award finalist. He lives in Colorado, where he is a senior contributor for Denver's weekly newspaper, Westword, and part-time professor at Colorado College.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kate on March 13, 2023

A truly fascinating read. I got the audiobook thanks to Netgalley. Delighted with it although it is pretty uncomfortable listening. This book gives you a look into part of the life of Philip Van Cise who served as DA in Denver at a time when institutional corruption ran hand in hand with the gangster......more

Goodreads review by Sheila on November 25, 2022

I received a free copy of Gangbuster, by Alan Prendergast, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Philip Van Cise was an amazing man, a gangbuster if you will. This book was a bit dark with all the gang dealings, but a well written book, about a very intelligent man.......more

Goodreads review by Brendan on December 01, 2022

Denver was quite a mess in the early 1900s! Graft and scams were rampant and then those American grown idiots the KKK showed up. Into the fray steps Philip Van Cise and Alan Prendergast is here to tell us all about him. Gangbuster is a very fun book. It is basically a tale of two books. The first cov......more

Goodreads review by Ezra on March 20, 2023

Thanks to Tantor Audio through Net Galley who allowed me to listen to the audio version of this book. Reading “Gangbuster” was both an inspiring and unsettling experience. It recounts the true story of a Colorado district attorney Phillip Van Cise’s fight against corruption, crime, and the KKK in the......more