Dietrich Kalteis is one of those writers you can’t get enough of. Every new addition adds another to jewel to his crime writing crown. His latest historical crime offering, CROOKED, is absolutely no exception.

Like an expert fisherman, Kalteis hooks readers from the outset thanks to a cast of dastardly charmers. Crooked, a fictional account, follows the infamous American outlaws known as the Barker-Karpis Gang and their exploits through 1930s America, from robberies to kidnapping and beyond.

Crooked is an wild, criminally-charged romp through America’s gun-toting, gangster roots.

Get your hands on Crooked here and read below for an interview with Dietrich!

WHITEHURST: Before we get started, I wanted to congratulate you and your novel UNDER AN OUTLAW MOON for winning the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Best Crime Novel! With your inspiring body of work, I can’t think of anyone more deserving. Did you celebrate when you learned the news?

KALTEIS: Thank you, Patrick. When I found out I had won, I was thrilled to say the least. And I think I’m still celebrating that one.

Crooked by Dietrich Kalteis
ECW Press (September 24, 2024)

WHITEHURST: Crooked opens in Spain and makes readers feel they’re sitting right next to “Karpowitz” in 1979. Setting is pivotal and you nailed it. How do you prepare a scene, from a point in history, when you sit down to write? Especially if set in a foreign country?

KALTEIS: When I’m researching for a historical story, I dig up everything I can and cherry pick those moments that I think I can bring to life and that make the strongest visual scenes. If it’s set in a country I haven’t visited, I immerse myself in the customs and culture and times. From there, I start a scene close to the action and I try to end it the same way in order to give it a hook leading into what follows. This allows for a good pace too. While writing the scene I slip in bits of the research, just enough of it to lend credibility and a sense of realism. 

WHITEHURST: This is an historical crime fiction novel that jumps around in time, and from Spain to Tulsa for instance. Is there any point in history that you wished you could experience?

KALTEIS: I’ve written several novels set in the twenties and thirties, and the hard times are fascinating and of particular interest, although I’ve never wished I could have lived through the Great Depression or wanted to feel the stinging Dustbowl sands. I think the postwar boom years of the fifties would have been more interesting times to experience. Aside from fears around the Korean War and the Cold War, there was a confidence in a future that promised peace and prosperity. Unemployment and inflation ran low, and people had money to spend. Elvis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard played on jukeboxes. It was the Golden Age of Television and that meant I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners and Gunsmoke. The Drive-Ins showed Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, and who’d pass seeing James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause or John Wayne in Rio Grande on the big screen. There were soda fountains and malt shops, drive-in restaurants with waitresses on roller skates (no junk food joints back then). Kids read comic books, played street hockey and spun hoola-hoops. Older kids danced the jitterbug and went to sock hops. And families piled into the Chevy Bel Air and went camping or on road trips. All of that sounds pretty good to me.

WHITEHURST: With Crooked, was there any aspect of the writing process you’re most proud of? What about any challenges with this book?

KALTEIS: There was a certain pride when I finished and I felt I’d done my best. The parts I enjoyed most were building the story around the timeline of actual events, blending history with moments of pure fiction. The big challenge was deciding what history to put in and what to leave out. There was so much interesting research that I couldn’t include all of it without making the chapters sound like history lessons.

WHITEHURST: What made you decide on the Barker-Karpis Gang as the central characters for your newest novel?

KALTEIS: I was doing research for Call Down the Thunder, which was also set in the same era. I read about Alvin Karpis and his relationship with the Barkers and I became intrigued. After I finished Call Down the Thunder, I started compiling research on the life and crimes of Karpis.

WHITEHURST: What do you hope readers take away from Crooked?

KALTEIS: Like every book, it’s about entertaining and taking readers on a journey, one that stays with them a long time. My hope is that they enjoy it enough to recommend it to their friends, and want to check out some of my other stories.

WHITEHURST: You’ve written many fantastic books over the years. Do you do something special, a fancy dinner perhaps, to celebrate each release?

KALTEIS: Thanks, Patrick. I think of reading events and book tours as my way of celebrating a new release. I love sharing the stories with an audience, and it’s always nice to lift a glass with family and friends to celebrate a new release as well.

WHITEHURST: What’s on the horizon for you now that Crooked has come out?

KALTEIS: My next one is Dirty Little War, published by ECW Press and scheduled to be released May 18, 2025. The story’s set in Chicago around Prohibition and focuses on the taxi wars going on — a wild west shoot ‘em up in the streets of the Windy City. The story starts in 1920 and rolls through the decade. Here’s the short synopsis:

A riveting, fast-paced ride through 1920s Prohibition-era Chicago — the epicenter of crime, corruption and commerce.

Trouble has a way of following Huckabee Waller like a shadow. Tough times force him to make his way bare-knuckle fighting and running booze. Before long, he finds himself entangled in the escalating tension between notorious rival gangs and the city’s deadly taxi wars. Caught up in vice and violence, Huckabee lands in the crosshairs of Al Capone. 

The smart thing to do would be to get out of Chicago — fast — that is if his reckless life doesn’t kill him first.

Coming in May 2025
Dirty Little War by Dietrich Kalteis

Thank you very much for the interview, Patrick.

To learn more about the author and his books, visit Dietrich online at https://dietrichkalteis.com/.