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The Bootlegger’s Secret

Michael Springer
Outskirts Press, Inc. (2010)
ISBN 9781432757922
Reviewed by Charline Ratcliff for RebeccasReads (10/10)


It’s the summer of 1941. Two eleven-year-old boys, Mark Penn and Swede Larson, discover a submerged automobile while swimming in the Minnesota River. The car is a 1931 Pierce-Arrow and Swede decides it merits further investigation. He swims down and into the car but finds nothing of interest other than an inlaid-gold cigarette case. Swede returns to the surface and the two boys open the case. They discover it plays music and contains Turkish filter-tip cigarettes as well as a photograph of a beautiful woman. Surprisingly enough the picture and the cigarettes are dry even after being submerged in the vehicle for the past eight years.

The boys don’t realize that, because of their discovery, they have now attracted the attention of members from Al Capone’s mafia as well as agents from the Federal Treasury department. Unfortunately for the boys, the cigarette case holds a secret neither of them is aware of. The Treasury department wants the case, and its hidden information, so that they can prosecute the corrupt officials who have been bribed by mob member Eddie Knowland. The Chicago gangsters want the records so they can blackmail these same officials. While the Treasury agents are willing to work with the boys in an attempt to recover the case, the mafia members are not. Suddenly and without warning the boy’s summer vacation becomes fear-filled and they discover they are not safe anywhere.

“The Bootlegger’s Secret” by author Michael Springer was definitely a great book. Springer has an easy-to-read writing style and his descriptions of characters and situations are crystal clear, intense and suspenseful. Springer kept his storyline straight and I never had to deal with redundancy or having key elements of the plot forgotten. There was even a nice little twist at the end. It was also nice to read about life back in 1941 where children got to be children; get into mischief and no one really got hurt. A time when there was still naiveté and innocence and a general joy for life... Lastly, at one hundred and fifty-eight pages “The Bootlegger’s Secret” is a shorter book / quick read but I would say it is definitely worth picking up. It is also “age-friendly” and can, therefore, be enjoyed by readers of any age.

In closing I give “The Bootlegger’s Secret” a five-star rating and I look forward to reading more by Springer in the future…