The Glory Boys is an excellent tale of derring do involving Prohibition in the USA, the Mob and a few heroes and I highly recommend the book for anyone who likes a thriller/crime novel. This is a long book, at 618 pages but the story flows along nicely and not only is the story credible and well constructed but the characters are very well crafted.

The story begins in a simple and unassuming way: a world war one fighter ace crash lands in small town America, Independence Georgia; and within a few chapters he is asked to try to sort out the hoodlums who are running an illicit alcohol racket in the area: local people have been murdered because of it and everyone else is scared.

The figher ace, Abe, is sorry but he can't help and he leaves. Abe moves on and carries on with what he does best and what he loves more than anything, flying. Very quickly, however, he gets himself mixed up in the alcohol issue and not much longer after that it becomes clear that Abe is working on the problem from the inside: keeps this quiet, he tells no one. Abe is a loner but he didn't become a flying ace and a leader of men without knowing how to wrap other men round his finger, how to make them trust him, how to make them have faith in him.

A woman, Pen, flies into his life: of course she's tall, slim, blond hair with steely blue eyes. Not only did she fly into his life, she flew in expertly by manoeuvring an aeroplane in trouble in such a way that even Abe was impressed! She's a flying ace, with national flying prizes to her name! Their relationship comes to form an essential part of the book but it takes time as Abe really is a loner and it takes a long time for it to dawn on him that she loves him.

Abe and Pen begin to work together. Abe is found out by the people from the small town and he has to spill the beans to them to let them know what he's doing ... the mob doesn't rumble him for a long time, however.

Another world war one flying ace, Willard, part of Abe's flying troupe, who has already failed as a film star is down on his uppers and he gets a job working in New York for a Wall Street financier. Very quickly it becomes clear that all is not what it seems and things take a strange turn here too. Willard does a bit of digging and finds himself in the middle of the mob ... unlike other people who have followed the same path, Willard isn't killed. One simple reason why he isn't killed is that his father is a part of the racket.

Willard then becomes a trusted part of the financier's firm.

The story unfolds in parallel: there is a chapter on Abe then a chapter on Willard then Abe then Willard. This is virtually how the book works from then on.

Eventually, Willard comes to find that Abe is working with his organisation down South and smells a rat and that's the basis of the way in which the story then unfolds.

Subterfuge, legerdemain, sleight of hand, the lot: the signalling system that Abe and Hennessey, the man from Independence who asked Abe for help, is brilliant. How Abe and his team get their information and make their progress is also very clever; and credible.

All houses start falling down. Willard realises that something's not right but he is trumped by the evil head of security at the organisation who won't wait for things to unravel, he'll make them unravel.

The police have been bought, every Director of Prohibition bar two (that's 46 out of 48) have been bought, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has largely been bought as has the juidiciary.

The IRS is the key to what happens next as they've all worked out that the best way to nab the bleeders is to get the organisation for failing to declare their income and pay any tax on it. This is how they got Al Capone, you might be aware, so this part of the story is genuine.

Meanwhile Pen has been working in a local bank and has done well but suddenly things begin to move really quickly and Pen has to run. The place is crawling with hoodlums and bent policemen. Does she do it? As I was reading this part of the book my mind ran through all sorts of combinations as to what might possibly happen to her ... I was wrong on every count: Bingham is better than that!

Dominoes now tumble all over the country and chickens come home to roost. Abe, Pen and their IRS and Judiciary allies go through the mill. Willard has been sidelined by being sent on holiday by the organisation as the denouement approaches. It gets nasty, very nasty; but Willard still has feelings of deep respect for his old captain, Abe; and that becomes a key part of the story.

There is a bloodbath and whether Willard and Abe face each other a la High Noon or whether they end up together like something from Indiana Jones is something I shouldn't reveal. You need to read the book to find out: as with the rest of the book, the way the story is developed is well worth reading and it will pay you to do that! Happy ever after for everyone? Not quite and in fact the ending leaves it wide open for book 2, the sequel!

Stylistics

Despite the fact that I enjoyed the story and its development, I have one bone to pick with Harry Bingham: he has set the book in the USA and because of that he got himself in a pickle. As far as I know Bingham is a Brit and putting himself in the position of thinking and writing like an American has eluded him. Stylistically I would say that Bingham would have been well advised either to have employed an American editor or to have researched the dialogue more than he did.

Read Kathy Reichs' Cross Bones (click the link to see my review of this book) to see how American dialogue really unfolds. Take a look at Dean Koontz's Velocity (click the link to see my review of this book) too to see American English written by an American.

Bingham makes mistakes such as calling the Internal Revenue Service the Inland Revenue Service; and on one page he talks about a file cabinet (that's the American version) then on the very next page he talks about a filing cabinet (that the British version).

I know that many people will tell me that the stylistics are not important but I think Bingham needs to know that at least some readers find the inconsistencies an unfortunate blip in an otherwise excellent book. I am also reviewing books at the moment with my own stylistics review at the end: see my review of The Stranger House (click here!) for a comprehensive review of much worse stylistics problems than Bingham has presented us with.

Historical Perspective

Given my tenuous grip on history, I am often uncomfortable with historical novels since I am always wondering whether, for example, there really was a bar in the House of Representatives in Washington DC during prohibition; and whether it's true that only two of 48 State Prohibition Directors refused to be bought by the mob.

Harry Bingham has done the decent thing and provided a short historical note at the end of the book: he doesn't provide chapter and verse since the prohibition story and the effect it had on American society is pretty well public domain ... there really was a bar in the House of Representatives, astonishingly; and it really is true that only two Prohibition Directors refused to be bought off, astonishingly.

Duncan Williamson
14 November 2005