Tough guys in Chi-town
Dirty Little War: A Crime Novel
by Dietrich Kalteis
Toronto: ECW Press, 2025
$26.95 / 9781770417960
Reviewed by Ron Verzuh
*
The works of west coast crime writer Dietrich Kalteis—Dirty Little War is his twelfth novel—are an acquired taste. Fortunately, I have acquired it and have come to admire his ability to capture the gritty dialogue that qualifies him for comparison with a favourite of mine, the late Elmore Leonard.
In Crooked, his most recent novel, Kalteis ushered us into the life and times of the Ma Barker family crime gang through the eyes of Alvin “Old Creepy” Karpis. In this book, we switch to another criminal group, the Chicago gangs of Al Capone, Bugsy Moran, and other notables of the U.S. Prohibition-era folly instituted through the Volstead Act of 1919.
Kalteis’s writing machine is well-oiled as he introduces us to Huck (for Huckabee) Waller, an illiterate New Orleans punk who lands in Chicago with nothing but his two fists to feed himself. With no need for Marquess of Queensbury rules, he uses them effectively in the backstreets of the Windy City, waiving requests to “take a dive.” That’s our signal that our hero is not all gangster.
Even so, Huck teams up with the wrong people, men with names like Nails Morton, Gypsy Doyle and Gorilla Al, and takes several terrible beatings before moving to a more lucrative ring, that of the protection racket. But not before Kalteis gives us a lesson in street fighting, Chicago-style.
Night-time work involves driving truck across the line to Ontario cities and returning full of booze that crooked distributors move out to various locations, including several speakeasies. On the side, Huck hustles as a cab driver and then a tough-guy persuader when the rivalry between two big taxi companies, Yellow and Checker, starts to get rough.
In the meantime, Huck ends his bare-knuckles career, adopts a young homeless kid named Issy, who has an endless appetite for flapjacks, and meets a “nickel dancer” named Karla. They’ve met before. Karla patched him up while working as nurse. She’s strong but no floozy hanging out with mobsters. She likes Huck but not his shadowy business dealings.
As a taxi war starts to erupt with cars being driven into the river and drivers being tossed in after them, Huck is hired by Yellow Cab owner John D. Hertz to act as his driver and added protection as the war heats up.
With illicit booze runs to Canada and earnings as muscle, Huck starts to think big. He presents a diamond ring to Karla and wedding bells ring soon after. The couple make plans. They provide a home and an education for young Izzy, preferring the name Isaac now, and soon baby Maudie joins the happy family.
Huck has socked away a million dollars through means fair and foul and has started buy race horses. Soon construction begins on a fancy new house. Karla urges Huck to “get clean” and he makes a valiant effort, but getting out of the mob is not easy. He is almost gunned down at one point, but friends come blazing to his rescue. The incident confirms his need to abide by Karla’s demand.
The drama climaxes when Capone has his goons bring in Huck for a discussion… at the urging of a Tommy gun. Horseshoes Huck manages to squeeze out from under the gangster of gangsters when police show up to arrest Scarface for one of many crimes they manage to make stick.
The saga of Huckabee Waller ends with the couple, Izzy and Maudie in tow, living happily ever after. At least we are led to think so. But Huck is a chameleon of a man, shrewd and able to roll with the punches. He knows how to play both sides of the street. If his ponies do well, all will go well. Otherwise, there’s always life on the street. But he’ll travel that road alone.
Kalteis has a knack of creating characters with enough of a shady side mixed with a big heart. As I say, perhaps not for everyone. His are not always nice characters; more likely they will be thugs and losers. There is a street hustler evident in Dirty Little War and a man who has learned to take care of himself and his business whatever that might turn out to be. Still, there’s a likeable element to Huck and the others in Kalteis’s cast of undesirables. Who will we meet in novel thirteen?
*
Ron Verzuh is a writer and historian. [Editor’s note: Ron has recently reviewed books by Graeme Menzies, Ron Base and Prudence Emery, Geoff Mynett, John Moore, Tom Langford, Ron Thompson, John Ibbitson (ed.), and Bob McDonald for BCR.]
The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
“Only connect.” – E.M. Forster