THE GHOSTS OF EDEN PARK
The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America
"An exhaustively researched, hugely entertaining work of popular history that…exhumes a colorful crew of once-celebrated characters and restores them to full-blooded life… [Abbott’s] métier is narrative nonfiction and—as this vibrant, enormously readable book makes clear—she is one of the masters of the art.”
— Wall Street Journal
Description
In the early days of Prohibition, long before Al Capone became a household name, a German immigrant named George Remus quits practicing law and starts trafficking whiskey. Within two years he's a multi-millionaire. The press calls him "King of the Bootleggers," writing breathless stories about the Gatsby-esque events he and his glamorous second wife, Imogene, host at their Cincinnati mansion, with party favors ranging from diamond jewelry for the men to brand-new Pontiacs for the women. By the summer of 1921, Remus owns 35 percent of all the liquor in the United States.
Pioneering prosecutor Mabel Walker Willebrandt is determined to bring him down. Willebrandt's bosses at the U.S. Attorney's office hired her right out of law school, assuming she'd pose no real threat to the cozy relationship they maintain with Remus. Eager to prove them wrong, she dispatches her best investigator, Franklin Dodge, to look into his empire. It's a decision with deadly consequences: with Remus behind bars, Franklin and Imogene begin an affair and plot to ruin him, sparking a bitter feud that soon reaches the highest levels of government--and that can only end in murder.
Combining deep historical research with novelistic flair, THE GHOSTS OF EDEN PARK is the unforgettable, stranger-than-fiction story of a rags-to-riches entrepreneur and a long-forgotten heroine, of the excesses and absurdities of the Jazz Age, and of the infinite human capacity to deceive.
Praise for The Ghosts of Eden Park
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Engrossing... This real-life page-turner will appeal to fans of Erik Larson."
Kirkus Reviews
"A spirited history... Abbott recounts in tense, vivid detail Remus's entanglement in intrigue, betrayal, madness, and violence. An entertaining tale ripped from the headlines of Jazz Age America."
Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of In the Kingdom of Ice
"Karen Abbott has long shown a formidable talent for rescuing Gothic stories from the noirish margins of American history. In The Ghosts of Eden Park, she’s done it once again. Here is a high-proof narrative from the Age of Excess, populated with real-life gangsters and flapper girls, but also with plenty of surprising characters who cut against type. This Prohibition-era tale of trapdoors and false bottoms, of wicked pleasures and brilliant deceptions, springs to life on the page—and has Hollywood written all over it.”
Kate Moore, New York Times bestselling author of The Radium Girls
“A stellar achievement. Like a skilled bartender in an underground speakeasy, Karen Abbott expertly blends superb storytelling with immersive historical detail to create a heady cocktail of bootlegging, betrayal and blood-dark passion. So vivid is the world she conjures that I could viscerally taste the whiskey and smell the sweat - and hear the gunshots too. The Ghosts of Eden Park has that bittersweet brilliance of all great books: though I couldn't stop turning the pages, I never wanted it to end."
Lindsey Fitzharris, bestselling author of The Butchering Art
“The Ghosts of Eden Park is a story so strange, so salacious, it nearly defies belief. Exquisitely crafted and expertly rendered, this book weds high drama to rigorous scholarship. Karen Abbott has mastered the art of telling true stories as riveting and suspenseful as fiction.”
Booklist
"Abbott continues her inquiry into sensational yet forgotten women's lives in this riveting combination of social history and true crime... Smart and delectable [and] generating lots of buzz."
Erik Larson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dead Wake and The Devil in the White City
"Prose so rich and evocative, you feel you're living the story—and full of lots of 'I didn't know that' moments. Gatsby-era noir at its best."
Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove and Beneath a Ruthless Sun
“In Karen Abbott’s hands, the saga of bootlegger George Remus is more than just a rollicking tale of money, obsession, and murder (although it is certainly that), it’s nonfiction’s answer to The Great Gatsby and an instant classic. Scrupulously researched and packed with jaw-dropping details, The Ghosts of Eden Park is the most thrilling narrative I have read in a long time.”
Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife and Love and Ruin
"Few authors write as colorfully and compellingly about the past as Karen Abbott, particularly when bad behavior is involved. In The Ghosts of Eden Park, we meet the audacious, larger-than-life ‘King of the Bootleggers,’ George Remus, and the equally fascinating women who will seal his fate. Sex and greed, corruption and revenge, oceans of illegal booze—Abbott’s action-packed, riveting tale has it all.”
Susannah Cahalan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain On Fire
“With The Ghosts of Eden Park, Karen Abbott gifts us with a story of sex, madness, and murder in Jazz-Age America that is as intoxicating as a hit of bootlegged bourbon. In Abbott’s hands truth is not only stranger than fiction, it’s also a hell of a lot more thrilling. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.”
More Nonfiction Titles
