The Ghosts of Eden Park

This page contains affiliate links, and we may receive compensation if you click on a link. You can read my full advertising disclosure HERE.

Manufacturer: Karen Abbott
Brand: Non-Fiction
Brew: Audiobook
Steeping Time: 11 hours 12 minutes
Tea Service: Personal Choice
Strength:

Synopsis: 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 cars 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. Williebrandt’s bosses at the Justice Department 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 the fledgling FBI on the case, Remus is quickly imprisoned for violating the Volstead Act. Her husband behind bars, Imogene begins an affair with Dodge. Together, they plot to ruin Remus, sparking a bitter feud that soon reaches the highest levels of government – and that can only end in murder.

This. Book. Is. CRAZY.

It baffles me that there isn’t a film or series based on George Remus. You wouldn’t even have to work at it, just take his story straight off the page and put it on screen. If you were ever looking for a real-life Gatsby, look no further. The Ghosts of Eden Park starts in the park of the very name. George Remus is chasing his wife, Imogene, trying to speak with her. She is running from him, terrified. He finally reaches her. A gun is drawn. A shot fired. The chapter ends. The next chapter takes us back in time, and we start George and Imogene’s story from the beginning. And folks, buckle up because it’s a wild ride.

Prohibition came into law in 1920, and the United States collectively lost its mind. People found all sorts of ways to smuggle alcohol. Women tied pints to their corset strings, amputees filled their hollowed-out prosthetics with liquor, and submarines smuggled cases of the elixir ashore. Those who wanted a drink were doing everything they could to get one. George Remus saw an opportunity. Within two years, he’d made a name for himself. He was known as the ‘King of the Bootleggers’ and made so much money that he couldn’t get it in the bank fast enough. He was known to carry around $100,000.00 in cash. On his person. In the 1920s. That’s the equivalent of $1,589,607 in today’s money. George Remus was a mastermind in the bootlegging business, and the crazy part to me is that he never drank a drop.

At the height of his success, he threw an incredible New Years Eve party.

Guests found $1,000.00 bills (yes, one thousand dollar bills) under their dinner plates. Remus and Imogene gave the men diamond-studded jewelry. They gave the women brand new Pontiacs. After dinner, he unveiled his Grecian swimming pool. His step-daughter jumped in, fully clothed. George and Imogene followed, as did some of their guests. Life was good.

And then it wasn’t.

Enter Mabel Willebrandt and her Mabel Men, including one Franklin Dodge. They cracked down hard on bootleggers, and George couldn’t escape their grasp. Things go downhill from there, one slippery step at a time.

The Ghosts of Eden Park was a mind-blowing read. I listened to it with my mouth hanging open in shock or surprise for at least 90% of it, and I couldn’t listen fast enough. I can’t find the words to explain how gripping this book is. It’s just…you have to read it. The book follows the events leading up to the shooting in Eden Park with testimony from the murder trial splashed in. I had the murderer wrong for the entire book and was quite surprised at the end. The whole book was perfection. The two narrators were also on point. A huge shout out to Rob Shapiro and Cassandra Campbell. They did a wonderful job.

If you are interested in Prohibition, organized crime, the 1920s, or a true-crime book like no other, The Ghosts of Eden Park is for you. If you’d like to see the characters in photos, check out the author’s website.

Have you read The Ghosts of Eden Park? Leave a comment and let me know what you thought about it! Want to read it for yourself? Click here to get a copy of your own.
Cheers,
Lydia