City of Devils

Shanghais champion storyteller - He grips his reader to the end Economist
Gripping, breakneck ultra-noir reminiscent of vintage Ellroy David Peace, author of Red or Dead
If you love Richard Lloyd Parry and David Grann, dont miss City of Devils Megan Abbott, author of Dare Me

1930s Shanghai could give Chicago a run for its money. In the years before the Japanese invaded, the city was a haven for outlaws from all over the world: a place where pasts could be forgotten, fascism and communism outrun, names invented, fortunes made - and lost.

Lucky Jack Riley was the most notorious of those outlaws. An ex-Navy boxing champion, he escaped from prison in the States, spotted a craze for gambling and rose to become the Slot King of Shanghai. Ruler of the clubs in that day was Dapper Joe Farren - a Jewish boy who fled Viennas ghetto with a dream of dance halls. His chorus lines rivalled Ziegfelds and his name was in lights above the citys biggest casino.

In 1940 they bestrode the Shanghai Badlands like kings, while all around the Solitary Island was poverty, starvation and genocide. They thought they ruled Shanghai; but the city had other ideas. This is the story of their rise to power, their downfall, and the trail of destruction they left in their wake. Shanghai was their playground for a flickering few years, a city where for a fleeting moment even the wildest dreams seemed possible.

In the vein of true crime books whose real brilliance is the recreation of a time and place, this is an impeccably researched narrative non-fiction told with superb energy and brio, as if James Ellroy had stumbled into a Shanghai cathouse.