Celebrate Valentine's Day Mobster-Style

From one of LCP's dear friends and former authors, Laura Mazzuca Toops (A Native's Guide to Chicago's Western Suburbs):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Celebrate Valentine's Day Mobster-Style with the Hudson Lake Book Launch Party

Historical Novel Celebrates Its Debut at the Jazz Club Co-Owned by the Novel's Villain, Alleged Al Capone Henchman and Planner of St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Machine Gun Jack McGurn

(Chicago, IL – February 1, 2007)—On Valentine's Day, Chicago's literary scene will take a step back in time, to the 1920s, with the launch party for Laura Mazzuca Toops's Jazz Age historical novel, Hudson Lake, at The Green Mill. A classic Chicago jazz club, dating back to 1907, The Green Mill is actually one of the settings for the novel, having been co-owned in the 1920s by Machine Gun Jack McGurn. Reputed to be a both a mobster and the man most responsible for the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, McGurn appears in Hudson Lake as a villainous emissary of Al Capone.

"The Green Mill is icon in the Jazz world," says author Toops, who will be signing her novel while sitting in the booth favored by Scarface Al Capone, himself. "This is a truly historical setting, and is such an ironic place to be on Valentine's Day. It's not often you can appear in the same place your book is set, on a day with such significance to one of the characters. It's also great that The Book Cellar is our bookstore for this event. We're keeping it local for the evening."

The party will run from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., after which The Green Mill will return to their regular Jazz schedule with Alfonso Ponticelli and Swing Gitan, and the Frank Catalano Trio playing that evening.

Time: 6:30 p.m.–8:00 p.m.
Place: Green Mill Jazz Club (4802 N. Broadway, Chicago)
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About Hudson Lake

In the summer of 1926, jazz lovers from all over the Midwest go where the weather is hot and the music hotter—the Blue Lantern Inn on Hudson Lake, a rural Indiana dance hall where the season's resident jazz band features a young cornet player named Bix Beiderbecke.

Meticulously researched, Hudson Lake creates a snapshot of the Jazz Age, following the brilliant, but doomed, Bix through the speakeasies and music halls of Prohibition Era Chicago and Indiana.
Seen through the eyes of the two women vying for Bix's affections, the haze of bootleg liquor parts to reveal a world where Louis Armstrong and Al Capone haunt the nightlife. Where a nod to the soda jerk gets you an altogether different drink. Where jazz brings the Chicago Mob out to the country and on a collision course with an angry mob of locals who don't much care for the amoral ways of city folk, alcohol and musicians.

Reviewer comments:

"Captures the intoxicating mix of energy and danger that defined the early days of jazz."
—Bill Ott, Booklist

"Hudson Lake is a vivid, poignant, sexy tale of the Jazz Age, built around one of America's greatest and most intriguing musicians. Laura Mazzuca Toops knows her music, and her history."
—Kevin Baker, author of Dreamland

Advanced Praise for "On the Job"

Lake Claremont Press is proud to post some advanced praise for Danny Smith's On the Job: Behind the Stars of the Chicago Police Department, due in March.

"Taking on no easy task, Danny Smith gives us a compelling journey into the hearts and minds and even the souls of those urban soldiers we call cops. As real and wild and fascinating as the streets they travel."
—Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune and WGN Radio

"Turn off 'CSI' and see what police-work is really about. Daniel Smith has successfully opened the door to the private entrance of the Chicago Police Department. On the Job is an emotional and heartfelt journey inside one of America’s oldest and most respected police departments. This story is one that only a member of the family could tell."
—Lee Lofland, author of The Book of Police Procedure and Investigation (2007)

"Told with sensitivity and candor, On the Job: Behind the Stars of the Chicago Police Department is both inspiring and tragic. The story of everyday police officers serving on the front lines reveals the human side of 'the job.' Mr. Smith has weaved a fine narrative on the inner workings of a secret, oath-bound brotherhood, the impact of this 'job' upon their personal lives, and what it really means to be one of 'Chicago's Finest.'"
—Richard C. Lindberg, Chicago historian and the author of To Serve and Collect: Chicago Politics and Police Corruption from the Lager Beer Riot to the Summerdale Scandal, 1855-1960

"On the Job tells the real story of Chicago Police. Chicago is like a small town in which Smith, because of his own background and credentials, was able to get cops to share their stories, which are too little told. Here is an honest dialogue which those of us who care about this city and others are privileged to read. On the Job fills an important gap in our oral history as a city and as a people."
—Dick Simpson, Head of the Department of Political Science, University of Illinois at Chicago and former Chicago Alderman

Keep an eye on author Danny Smith's blog for more information on the book and the officers who shared their stories with him.

For media inquiries and to pre-order the book, please contact Lake Claremont Press.