Crime comes to History Center

NORTH ENGLISH — “Gangster in our Midst: Bookkeeper, Lieutenant, and Sometimes Hitman for Al Capone,” written by Iowa native Betty Brandt Passick, won a 2019 Notable Indie Book Award from Shelf Unbound book review magazine.

Passick will speak at English Valleys’s History Center Sunday, April 21 at 2 p.m.

"Gangster in our Midst“ is the first book in Passick’s gangster series. Her historical crime novels are loosely based on her hometown of Fairbank, Iowa.

This 221-page novel tells the fact-inspired story of an Italian American mobster, Louie La Cava who comes to the small Midwestern town of Oxbow in the 1920s and claims to be a bookkeeper for Chicago Kingpin Al Capone.

His presence sets the whole town on edge. He resides in the town for the next 60 years.

Passick tells the rest of the story, as the La Cavas were among the New York mafia families who lived and died by the rules of La Cosa Nostra.

The EV History Center is located at 108 N. Main St. in North English. The public is invited to the free program. Donations are welcome.