Overview

In 1878 a teenage Jew, the Hessex Kid, kills an Irish thug in a Five Point's bar fight in front of hundreds of drugged and drunken killers, all members of the Whyo Gang, which controls all crime in Manhattan under the aegis of the corrupt Irish politicians at Tammany Hall. The boy is then grabbed by the rabble and murdered. By 1900, the Irish mob has gained control of the police departments, the gangs, and crime in every major American city, and from 1900 to 1910, a political operative named James Monaghan has risen to the pinnacle of power at Tammany, which is the icon of the nationwide Irish snake. In 1910, a gambler from Chicago named Billy McGuinness, haunted by the legend of the Hessex Kid and the murder of a low-level gambler and his family, arrives in New York. He is connected to mid-west political powers and to gangsters Max and Moses Annenberg, Big Jim Colisimo, and Johnny Torrio, his sole objective: to destroy Monaghan and the Irish political and criminal machine, Arriving in New York, McGuinness begins a torturous maneuver through real historic events and within the confines of New York's Bowery ghetto and its Tenderloin District, a.k.a Satan's Circus, manipulating the real politicians and gangsters who marked the period, now long-forgotten. In the end, McGuinness, driven by dark forces, becomes the inadvertent moving force behind prohibition booze smuggling, Murder Inc. and the Cosa Nostra until he is ultimately embraces the hand of God.

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9781662950360

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Reviews

Book Review 1: The Historical Fiction Company/Editorial Review (Nominated for Book of the Year-5 stars) The Circus of Satan by Jeffrey Konvitz is an engrossing and relentless historical crime epic that transports readers to the chaotic underground of American organized crime in the early 20th century. With the notorious Five Points, Tammany Hall's corruption, and the emergence of the Irish-American political machine as backdrops, Konvitz skillfully combines historical fact and fiction to tell a story of ambition, cruelty, and redemption. The horror of street fighting and the deft manipulation of political and criminal relationships are captured as the story progresses with cinematic intensity, spanning decades and points of view. The novel gains weight and realism from Konvitz' skillful blending of historical individuals with his fictitious cast. People like Big Tim Sullivan, Arnold Rothstein, and William Randolph Hearst are not just historical cameos; they are active participants in this complex game of survival and power. The vast breadth and intellectual foundations of The Circus of Satan distinguish it from other historical crime novels. It explores deeper issues of fate, justice, and the unexpected repercussions of power battles while still providing the anticipated action and intrigue. The Circus of Satan is a striking examination of ambition, corruption, and the cost of power because of its incisive prose, vividly rendered characters, and relentless tension. It is a book that stays with readers long beyond the last page, asking them to think about what justice really is in a society where morality is frequently simply another commodity to be exchanged. Book Review 2: The Book Revue/5 stars The world of organized crime in the early 20th century is ... unpredictable and deeply entangled with politics, corruption and shifting alliances...where every decision carries weight and danger lurks around every corner...where at its heart is a character...driven by the need to stay alive and the mistakes he has made in his past. This is more than a crime novel. It's deep dive into an era where power and corruption walked hand in hand. The Circus of Satan is gripping and brutal and impossible to forget. Book Review 3: Booklife Reviews Told in quick, sharp scenes that slice to the bone even as they leap across years and perspectives, this swift, sprawling epic of organized Irish crime in American cities blazes through the Gilded Age and the early 20th century, after a haunting prologue in the Five Points era. Konvitz (author of The Sentinel) blends history and fiction at the pace of a film montage, surveying the entwining of vice and political power in New York, Chicago, and elsewhere. Amid a welter of historical and fictional personages, from the bosses at Tammany Hall to New York Mayor William J. Gaynor, whose refusal, in 1910, to play ball with the Tammany machine will spur the invented thug-on-the-come-up Thomas Monaghan to assemble the ""Tenderloin vice interests, the Irish fraternal orders, and our friends at the Archdiocese,"" asking, ""Gaynor wants war? He'll have war."" Konvitz writes that war with brutal imaginative power-""One eye severed, his face ravaged with glass, Banjo Frank rocketed back into McGuinness."" Still, *The Circus of Satan*, named for the stretch of midtown Manhattan then known as the Tenderloin, is as concerned with the heart and the conscience as it is with when ""Tricker had Eat-'Em-Up's skull crushed."" In delightful early scenes, protagonist Billy McGuinness, a boxer too old to take punches anymore, is enticed away from his profitable Mississippi River gambling boat by his love for a ""Bible-toting prohibitionist.""

Author Information

Jeffrey Konvitz is an American attorney, writer, and film producer. He was raised in Woodmere, New York, and he graduated from Cornell University (AB) and Columbia Law School at Columbia University (JD). He is best known creatively for his 1974 New York Times best-selling novel, The Sentinel, which sold millions of copies. He went on to adapt The Sentinel for the screen and produced the film for Universal Studios. Jeffrey is also the author of The Sentinel sequel novel, The Guardian, and the thriller, Monster: A Tale of Loch Ness. He lives in Los Angeles, where he writes, produces motion pictures, and engages in entertainment finance law, media litigation, and appellate work.

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