Bootleg Broadway

 It’s 1932. Prohibition rages, the Depression ravages, and Billy McGlory comes of age whether he wants to or not. Musical and adventurous, Billy dreams of having his own ritzy supper club and big band. On the eve of his marriage to the pregnant Prudence, the shifty “businessman” Rosario Ingovito offers him all that and more. Fame, fortune, his own Broadway musical—it’s all his for the taking, despite Pru’s opposition to Rosie’s ventures. Meanwhile, Pru’s artistic career gains momentum and their child is born. Can anything go wrong for Billy? Only when he gets in way over his head does he stop to wonder how his business partner really makes his millions, but by then it’s far too late…

Bootleg Broadway (Historical Romance)

Diana Rubino

The Wild Rose Press

ISBN #978-1509201280

Price $18.99

402 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“Inside The Mob.”

It’s 1932 New York, and young Billy McGlory, a musical genius has high hopes of seeing his name in lights. He has just married his childhood sweetheart, Prudence Muller, who also wants to be an artist. She’s pregnant, and Billy wants the best for their child. He’s discovered by Rosario Ingovito, a local mobster once from the Chicago Mob, now setting up business in New York. Rosie has big plans for Billy and his piano. Setting him up in a club, it only gets better as the mobster uses Billy’s talent to bring people in the clubs he owns. But Pru wants Billy out of the mobs. She knows where this connection will lead if he stays with his new pals.

It does sky rocket Billy to fame, with his name in lights; his own hit play on Broadway, and records. Billy is flying high while his wife sinks into depression and drugs. With the mobs involvement in bootleg whiskey, prostitution, and now moving into drugs and gambling, Billy also sees that it must end, but in the mob, there’s only one way out.

This was a fascinating story set in Prohibition and the Depression era New York. We see inside the Mafia, even meeting Al Capone and other high-ups in the mob. There are dirty cops and politicians on the take. The author did her research, and the reader is better for it. The love story is bittersweet, and the story ends as only such a story can when the mob runs the show – and your life. Yes, it’s a romantic tale, yet it’s also a Mafia story, and I highly recommend it to readers especially interested in the period, and for those who love a good yarn, and want to be entertained. It’s not just a love story.

Tom Johnson

Detective Mystery Stories