Book cover of White Shadow

Book description

From "a singular voice in fiction" (USA Today) comes a remarkable new novel about one of the most infamous murders in Florida history.

Tampa, Florida, 1955: a city pulsing with Sicilian and Cuban gangsters, smoky clubs, cigar factories, light and voices and rum. The bludgeoning death of mob boss Charlie…

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Why read it?

1 author picked White Shadow as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Tampa is my hometown, and Ace Atkins and I were both reporters for the Tampa Tribune.

He uses the 1955 murder of Tampa mob kingpin Charlie Wall as a peg to tell a story that moves from the cigar factories of Ybor City, downtown Tampa, and even pre-revolution Havana. Atkins gets the setting right and reveals the seamy underbelly of a southern port city where crime and corruption were rampant for much of the 20th century. I can’t resist a novel based around a cynical reporter and a determined cop. 

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