Tommy Gun Tango by Brant Randall & Bruce Cook 

reviewed by Lesa Holstine

Saturday, August 08, 2009

According to the author's note, the corruption in Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s was second only to Chicago. At the height of the Depression, it was a town that meant "land of opportunity" for so many unemployed people. Four of those people ended up in Los Angeles in Tommy Gun Tango by Brant Randall and Bruce Cook.

The story focuses on four losers, all heading west to start over. Marshal Lawe was the County Marshall in a small town in Massachusetts, Peony Springs, but as the town collapsed during the Depression, even the police were affected. After losing his job, he started for California, knowing of a cook that went to LA. He was the other side of a coin, totally different from the man he picked up on the road, Al Haine. While Marshal was honest and hard-working, Al fled Ireland in the 1920s, after killing a man. After arriving in the U.S., he ran liquor, worked collections for the mob, killed a couple more people, always moving west, looking for the next easy score.

Gloria Alwyn had owned her own little diner in Peony Springs, but lost it. When Marshal served the papers on her, she headed for her aunt's, where she found a job at a jazz club and restaurant. Unfortunately, Gloria ran afoul of two groups, a runner for Uncle Anton who ran the Negro criminal element, and a cop who picked her out in a raid as a "pinky", a Negro woman light enough to pass. This hard-working woman, again, stands as a contrast to Gayle Barton-Poole, known in Peony Springs as Jackie Sue, a young runaway and aspiring starlet who hooks up with Al.

Tommy Gun Tango sucks the characters into Los Angeles. It's a town where Marshal observes the bootleggers upstairs and the cops downstairs. While LA's mayor was a Prohibitionist, he had also been the head of the KKK in southern California. And, the movie studios, with all of their money and clout, bought and sold police, and paid for their own justice to hide the crimes of the stars. While tabloid newspapers tried to tell the criminal stories involving Fatty Arbuckle, William Desmond Taylor and Mabel Normand, it only took money for the studios to shut down justice.

Marshal, working for MGM, learns how the studios pay off cops, reporters and photographers to cover up the crimes and misdeeds of their stars. While he's upset with his observations, Al and Gayle know they can find a way to take advantage of the studios.

Los Angeles is brought vividly to life in this story of a sinful city in the 1920s and 1930s. It was a town, and a time, that could drag down even the most honest people, as they struggled to survive. And, it's the movie business, and the death of Jean Harlow's husband, that reveals the truth about all of the characters. In some ways, all of the main characters were victims of their times. There was prejudice against women, Negroes, the Irish, even lawmen, and each character relates some of their suffering because of their lot in life. The author excelled in the creation of the four people in this book, four people whose lives are forever changed by their time and place. Tommy Gun Tango is a masterful story of contrast, a perfect story for the economic times we're living through.

(Note - Bruce Cook writes as Brant Randall, and an author's note explains the reason for the pseudonym.)

Hooray for Hollywood

By Gayle Bartos-Pool
5.0 out of 5 stars

August 5, 2009

Great atmosphere shares center stage with a cast of memorable characters whose lives are intertwined in this fascinating tale of the dark side of old Hollywood.

Tommy Gun Tango, co-written by Bruce Cook and Brant Randall, brings back several characters from Randall's Blood Harvest, an equally entertaining story set against a backdrop of the KKK in Massachusetts. And readers of Cook's first novel will recognize a name that might be a relative of his hero in Philippine Fever, Cook's adventure story set in the steaming back streets of Manila.

Utilizing multiple points of view, one per chapter, each character starts out by explaining where they came from and about the skeletons in their closets. First is Marshal Lawe, an out-of-work constable from a podunk town called Peony Springs in rural Massachusetts. His little town pretty well dried up and blew away, so he headed west to the Golden State.

Along a deserted highway one night, Lawe sideswipes a hitchhiker who ends up completing the journey with him to the land of milk and honey. This is the Depression, 1932, and everything looks better on the other side of the tracks.

The guy Lawe hits is Al Haine, a two-fisted Irishman who uses one fist to fight and the other to gamble. He is good at both. Talk about the luck of the Irish. Al manages to secure a few extra bucks on their journey to the coast. He never mentions the bruised bodies he leaves in his wake.

Once in Hollywood, Lawe gets himself a job in the movies as an extra. His credentials lead him to a security job for one of the big studios. Al tries his luck at the dog track. He does well and soon moves with a faster, more dangerous crowd.

Laced throughout the opening section of the story are tasty little tidbits ripped from the headlines of the newspapers of the day. Stories like the Fatty Arbuckle scandal and the mysterious death of William Desmond Taylor. Each tale shows how the studio heads deal with moral turpitude and the threat to their box office receipts along with their willing accomplices in law enforcement.

Another character who graces the pages is Gladys Alwyn. When the war broke out she left Virginia and turned tricks in New York City before saving up enough money to buy a diner in Peony Springs. She hid her past and became romantically linked with Marshal Lawe, but when the economy turned south, she headed for Los Angeles. She had relatives there. She took with her another, darker, secret that she figured would ruin any further notions about making any permanent plans with Lawe.

Al Haine's tempestuous past was filled with rapid departures, usually when a dead body turned up. His anarchist tendencies finally landed him in America from Ireland where trouble kept finding him. Once in Los Angeles, he sought to improve his lot in life and ended up working at one of the studios as a dancer in a gangster musical. His dancing partner, Gayle, a gorgeous blonde, is a kid with ambition, but this little number plays by different rules.

Gayle wants to get out of the chorus line and into better things. She is a Jean Harlow look-alike who wants to parlay her considerable assets into a sizable career. The young woman (really young, try sixteen) ran away from her hometown, Peony Springs no less, changed her name to a high-toned hyphenated British derivative and, with a doctored birth certificate that places her outside the statutory range, works every angle to get ahead. She meets Al who likes all her angles. They decide to pool their resources and take Hollywood by storm. But they have no idea what kind of storm is brewing.

So everybody is now in Los Angeles, and a particular Hollywood death draws each into a soul-searching nightmare. Tommy Gun Tango is filled with spot-on atmosphere and terrific characters. Any fan of the movies from the 1930s will be instantly transported to an old black and white movie, so bring the popcorn.

A fast and fun read. My only complaint: I wanted it to last longer. The characters are so well drawn, I wanted to see more of them. But the authors left a few doors open, so there just might be more adventures in Hollywoodland.

www.bookbitch.com

By Jack Quick

October 2009

TOMMY GUN TANGO by Brant Randall and Bruce Cook (10/09): Marshall Ichabod Petrarch Lawe has lost his job as Marshall of Potemkin County in Peony Springs, Massachusetts and is headed toward Los Angeles. The County Supervisors let him keep his Ford police car complete with police radio as “mustering out” pay, although he had to sand off the Potemkin County Marshall decals on the doors. You immediately know this is a work of fiction when he fills up his tank with gas for $2.18. But then again, maybe that’s not too bad for 1932. Shortly thereafter he picks up a hitchhiker named Aloysious “Al” Haine, a big red headed Mick from Northern Ireland who is a gambler and an ardent Marxist who carries a knife strapped to his leg. Upon arrival in Los Angeles Lawe takes a job as a stuntman in Gower Gulch, the home of low budget western movies, which eventually leads him to a job in studio security at MGM. Haine picks up work at various studios as an extra and helps organize a labor movement among the actors. His union activities get him beaten by union-busting thugs and Lawe comes to his rescue. When Jean Harlow's husband turns up dead from a gunshot wound to the temple, Lawe suspects that murder has been committed, which puts him on the wrong side of the most powerful executives in Hollywood as well as corrupt local police. Reminiscent of Stuart Kamisnky’s Toby Peters series and nicely done.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

by Gautami Tripathi

 "I've been shot before. And I've taken my share of beatings. I was even left for dead once. But I've never been beaten, shot, and buried alive on the same day."

Title: Tommy Gun Tango Author: Brant Randall/Bruce Cook ISBN: 9780979996030 Publisher: Capital Crime Press/2009 Pages: 284 Set in the 1930s, in Los Angeles, this novel moves forward from the view points of four people, who become tangled with each other. At the height of depression, it all about survival in the land of opportunity.

Marshal Lawe is a County Marshall in a small town in Massachusetts, Peony Springs. After losing his job, he starts for California. En route, he picks up, Al Haine who has fled from Ireland in the 1920s, after committing a murder. Al Haine has worked for mobs, gambled and is always on a look out for making easy money, by hook or by crook.

Gloria Alwyn had run her own little diner in Peony Springs, but lost it. She had headed for her aunt's, where she finds a job at a jazz club and restaurant. Unfortunately, Gloria runs into bad luck again and calls out to Marshall for help. Both had a past and had been in love in Peony Springs. She too is a complete contrast to Gayle Barton-Poole, a wannabe actress known in Peony Springs as Jackie Sue, who had run away from home. She ends up with Al.

Tommy Gun Tango sucks us into the characters as well as what is going on in Los Angeles. The movie moghuls, with all of their money and clout, buy and sell justice at the drop of a hat, doing the best to hide the crimes of the movie actors. There is this Hollywood tabloid which writes about stories involving famous people the movie industry. This is what is very authentic where money can pay up for anything. Especially at the time of depression.

Marshal, Gloria, Al and Gayle get embroiled in all this. Marshall does not like it at all but Al and Gayle have no qualms about making it to their advantage.

The author has made the place, people and the times come alive. With colourful pasts, each one is victim in one way or the other. And one has to learn to survive, no matter what. Otherwise sharks will eat them alive. And when a famous actress husband dies, each one of is forced to face the truth about themselves.

Moving forward with fast pace, it holds our interest till the end. And also still relevant as it was in the 1920s or 1930s. The prejudices for colour, religion and lot more still exist, however we might deny those.

Tommy Gun Tango

Reviewed by Kam Aures
for Rebeccasreads.com (08/09)

In “A Note From One of the Authors” in the opening pages of “Tommy Gun Tango,” Brant Randall states that this book “recounts the further events of three characters: Marshal Lawe, Jackie Sue, and Gladys” from his previous book “Blood Harvest.” Although I had not read “Blood Harvest” many parts of that story were recounted in this current book and this novel stands very well on its own.

When Marshal Lawe loses his job in 1932, he decides to move out to Los Angeles. On the way there after almost hitting a man named Al Haine with his car, he allows Haine to come along for the ride. In L.A., Lawe seeks employment at a movie company while Haine opts for gambling (which he is apparently very good at). The other main characters of Gladys and Jackie Sue neatly enter into the story as the book progresses.

The bulk of the book depicts life in Hollywood during the early 1930’s and includes characters such as Jean Harlow and Paul Bern. It is stated that historical accuracy has been maintained in the book as much as possible which I found to be very intriguing. I really wasn’t familiar with the murder of Paul Bern and didn’t know much about Jean Harlow either. I liked how this fictional story had some elements of truth to it as that always makes for an interesting read. From the facts that the author states at the end about the case, I think that he did an excellent job incorporating reality into this fictional story.

Another element of mystery thrown into the mix is that of the authors, Brant Randall and Bruce Cook. Everything is not as it may seem, but I will let you discover what I am referring to on your own. I found the revealed information to be an added bonus on top of the story itself.

It was a lot of fun taking a trip back to the 1920’s and 1930’s, seeing inside the Hollywood movie industry of that era, and being witness to the crime and corruption that was running rampant. If you like historical fiction, I think that you will definitely enjoy “Tommy Gun Tango" by Brant Randall and Bruce Cook.

Book Review: Tommy Gun Tango

Posted on August 13th, 2009 by Maryann Miller
in All News, Book Reviews, Entertainment, Literary News, Reviews

In the midst of the Depression, California beckons as a place to find financial security and a better life, so Marshall Lawe, who lost his job as a constable in Peony Springs, Massachusetts, packs up and heads west. As he put it, the town dried up and his job with it.

As he’s driving along a dark, deserted highway in the midwest a ways past Chicago, Lawe falls victim to white-line fever and sideswipes a hitchhiker. Luckily, the man is not hurt and Lawe ends up asking the man to accompany him on the rest of the trip. Al Haine is an Irishman and a talkative counterpoint to Lawe, who prefers to keep his own counsel. “Al talked nonstop, and with an Irish brogue as dense as a thicket. I had to force my way through the underbrush to find his meaning, but I lost the trail half the time.”

Despite Al’s tendency toward loquaciousness, he never reveals why he is on the run, yet there are hints to a dark side beneath his air of joviality. He’s a drinking man and a gambler, and sometimes Lawe is not sure where Al gets some of his money. But he doesn’t ask.

Al shares the book’s stage with Lawe and two other major characters whose lives intertwine in sometimes surprising ways. Utilizing multiple points of view, one per chapter, each character reveals where they came from and what propelled them toward California, and as the story progresses the connections between the characters become stronger. For instance, Gladys is the woman that Lawe fell in love with in Massachusetts, and while he doesn’t openly admit it, part of the reason he headed to California was to find her.

The other major character is Gayle, an aspiring actress who has a Jean Harlow look and a belief that she is a better actress than the renowned star. Turns out, she, too, has a connection to Peony Springs, as well as a part in the mystery of who killed Jean Harlow’s husband.

Intermingled with the main story are news items of the period that includes the Fatty Arbuckle scandal and the mysterious death of William Desmond Taylor. Readers may wonder at first why the stories are included. Is it just for atmosphere or do they have a purpose? The answer is yes on both counts. The articles do add another layer to the authentic feel for the time and the place – Hollywood was the only happening place in the country in the early 30s – and the inclusion of those news articles has a direct link to the plot.

This is a fun, easy read in the excellent noir style Capital Crime Press is noted for publishing and as engaging as Randall’s previous book, Blood Harvest. In it, readers were first introduced to Marshall Lawe, who is a terrific character, someone you enjoy spending a few hundred pages with and are sorry when you have to part ways.