Gangbuster by journalist and author Alan Prendergast (The Poison Tree) is a stirring nonfiction account of the life of Philip Van Cise, a public servant who risked his life and status to break the mob and fight the Ku Klux Klan. Set in 1920s Denver--a city riven with organized crime, corrupt institutions and sophisticated confidence men--Gangbuster is a vivid mural of a place in time. Van Cise returned from World War I in Europe all too aware of humanity's capacity for evil and determined to make his home a better place. Appalled by violent labor suppression and the legal system's favoritism toward capital, Van Cise ran for and won the office of Denver district attorney. There he resisted pressures to capitulate to organized criminal interests and, instead, took them head on.
With years of painstaking detective work, Van Cise broke the mob's hold on Denver. However, he was then confronted by a more powerful and sinister force: the Ku Klux Klan, which dominated the police and many business and media organizations and had even installed an acolyte as governor of Colorado. Van Cise took a defiant public stand against them. Through denunciations, aggressive investigations and the rallying of opposition, including former personal rivals, he fomented insecurity and infighting in their ranks and inspired others to stand up. Prendergast tells a story--in straightforward prose that belies his intensive historical research--that is, by turns, terrifying and motivational, one mercifully free of idolatry but penetrating and insightful in what it condemns and commends. --Walker Minot, freelance writer and editor