Down at the Balinese is the winner of the Claymore Award for Best True Crime!

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1005761579163299

Best Saturday night ever with my agent and friend Dean Krystek of the Wordlink Agency, and Dwight Holing, fellow Capitol Crimes writing member and winner of the Silver Falchion Award for Western themed novel.

As I said during the acceptance speech, Down at the Balinese was a gift. While caring for an old gangster during my medical training in Galveston, Texas, he began telling me a story, an incredible story, with insights that only an eyewitness could provide. A story of the convergence of Old Hollywood, the mob, and the Texas Rangers in a place that was “Vegas” before there was Vegas. A 20th Century Gomorrah, it chronicles the powerful Maceo family’s criminal empire with the opulent Balinese room at its center and a secret playground where the likes of Howard Hughes and Harlow to Sinatra, Sophie Tucker, and Duke Ellington—and America’s elite indulged every decadent appetite—and all in the unassuming little barrier island town of Galveston. Spanning 60 years, it is a story of Texas, of America, of Prohibition, of drugs and crime, of race, of justice, of music and mayhem, of sex and sin … and love, and ultimately, the greatest American true crime story not yet told.

On another, and even more interesting level, it is a story of social and personal evolution. The idea that one must change, change the world, or else fade away. When the Maceos are being innovative in their bootlegging, smuggling, gambling and networking operations they are able to rebuff the Rangers and even an attempted coup by Al Capone. When they become conventional, they die. Conversely, it is only when the Rangers begin to follow Klevenhagen’s innovative, progressive concepts that they go from an anachronistic brawn and braggadocio crowd to a modern investigative unit that triumphs without having to a shot in anger.

First penned as an award-winning screenplay and pilot, this award for the novelization just goes to show that a great story never gets old no matter what medium is used.

Thanks to all the wonderful KillerNashville folks, and to Clay Stafford for all he does to foster the written word.