Everybody Goes to Jimmy's

November 17, 2014
Set in 1932, Mayo’s fast-paced sequel to 2012’s Jimmy the Stick finds Jimmy Quinn, who runs a speakeasy in Manhattan, dealing with top criminals like Arnold Rothstein, crooked cops, and dames—in particular, a dame from his past, Anna Gunderwald, who challenges him to a foot race. More seriously, a bomb explodes in the alley next to his speak, a mysterious package of four indecipherable ledgers arrives, and suddenly all kinds of people are interested in Jimmy. A crooked cop, Betcherman, wants his share of something, but Jimmy doesn’t know what; a German, Johann Klapprott, wishes to purchase his place on behalf of a second party; and Mercer Weeks, enforcer for numbers boss Jacob Weiss, pays him a call. Basically, everyone is after the pile of money Jimmy is believed to possess. Mayo spins several clever yarns off this premise as the quick-witted Jimmy hustles to keep one step ahead of the crowd. Agent: Otto Penzler.

January 1, 2015
It's 1932, and Manhattan speakeasy owner Jimmy the Stick Quinn is wondering about his future. Repeal of Prohibition is coming, and Jimmy admits that he has no idea how to be an honest businessman. But a bomb has exploded in the alley behind the speak, and someone has been trying to break into the vaultlike basement where the liquor is stored. His last delivery had one more case than he ordered, and it was filled with notebooks containing mysteriously coded information. A mannered lawyer representing the Free Society of Teutonia is offering to buy Jimmy's place, but Jimmy instantly spots the lawyer's swastika lapel pin. But it is a message from Anna, his former flame, who he believed was dead, that is most arrestinguntil top gangster Jacob Weiss is told that Jimmy is behind a plot to extort Weiss. The second Quinn novel follows the template of the first (Jimmy the Stick, 2012): multiple plot complications combined with Jimmy's fascinating tales of real crimes and criminals during the 1920s and '30s.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)