PUBLIC ENEMY #1: THE TRUE STORY OF THE AL BRADY GANG

By Trudy Irene Scee

Down East Books, 2015

244 pages, $17.95

In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, gangs of armed robbers and killers roamed the Midwest, robbing banks and stores, kidnapping citizens and shooting police officers. Gangsters like Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Ma Barker, Alvin Karpis and Al Brady captured the headlines and the public’s fascination. Then, Al Brady and his gang made the fatal mistake of coming to Bangor.

“Public Enemy #1” is Brewer historian Trudy Scee’s fourth nonfiction book of Maine history, following “Rogues, Rascals, And Other Villainous Mainers” (2014). This is an excellent true story of crime and punishment (Brady committed the crimes, the cops dished out the punishment). Scee tells vividly of Al Brady’s violent criminal life and his gang’s two-year crime spree (1936-1937) through 10 states — from Indiana and Kentucky, to Illinois and Wisconsin — and the fateful decision that brought the gang to Maine in 1937.

As Scee relates, the Brady gang committed 150 armed robberies, at least three murders, ambushed policemen and pulled off a daring, successful jail break — earning FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s colorful scorn, calling Al Brady “Public Rat #1.”

Brady and his heavily armed gang were notorious stick-up artists, quick to use extreme violence, not caring who knew their identities or who they shot. They collected weapons and women, both easily discarded for more, but their smarts never equaled their bravado.

Scee describes how Brady was double-crossed by Chicago mobsters who took all the loot from him after a huge jewelry store heist. He vowed revenge, but never collected. Scee also tells of the nationwide manhunt — how the sheriffs, state police, and G-men pursued the Brady gang relentlessly, finally catching him and two other gunmen in a wild, deadly shoot-out on the streets of downtown Bangor on the morning of Oct. 12, 1937.

BOAR ISLAND

By Nevada Barr

Minotaur, 2016

384 pages, $26.99

When National Park Service Ranger Anna Pigeon is assigned temporarily as the assistant superintendent of Maine’s Acadia National Park, she never dreamed she would become involved with stalking and murder.

“Boar Island” is the 19th book in the Anna Pigeon mystery series by award-winning and bestselling author Nevada Barr. Barr is herself a former National Park Service Ranger, now a novelist, so her background brings authenticity to her series.

Barr juggles two separate, unconnected plots here — one is the cyberstalking case of a teenage girl, the other is the gruesome murder of a low-life wife beater. The mystery of whodunit and why rests in the cyberstalking case. In the other case, the reader knows exactly who the killer is, as well as the motive, right from the start. This arrangement dilutes the suspense, but the action keeps both plots rolling.

Anna is 50 years old and is an experienced ranger and investigator. Her move to Maine includes the wheelchair-bound mother of a 16-year-old girl hounded by a cyberstalker whose graphic threats terrify the mother and daughter. Anna helps them retreat from the threats by housing both women in an old lighthouse on Boar Island near Somes Sound.

Meanwhile, another park ranger is suffering with overwhelming anger at her former lover, the ranger now obsessed with jealousy and revenge and close to losing control. Then she meets an abused wife and their connection is cemented by much more than their anger and desperation. And somebody is going to die.

Anna works hard to protect her friend’s daughter and investigate a curious murder, but she stumbles into two potentially deadly situations. This is a mild psychological thriller with creepy characters, powerful emotions and predictable results, and readers will figure it all out pretty quickly.

Bill Bushnell lives and writes in Harpswell.

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