When Stephen King describes a book as “the best gangster novel I’ve ever read,” I sit up and listen. When its author is Michael Koryta, I am pretty much hooked.

Set in the mid-1930s following the end of the Depression era and Prohibition, and several years before the US enters WWII, DIE FAMOUS deals with the Brady Gang, which was high on J. Edgar Hoover’s hit list and consisted of Al Brady, James Dalhover and Clarence Lee Shaffer Jr. They were infamous for their string of bank robberies and jewelry store heists, but they became fugitives on the FBI’s Most Wanted list after they shot and killed a police officer during one of their operations.

"Koryta’s hoodlums are far from what you might envision when you hear the word 'gangster' as they are nowhere near perfect criminals. It is his writing that breathes life into them and in turn spins out a tale that is both classic noir and literary fiction."

The one fictional character in the gang is their getaway driver, Eddie “Nickel” Terhune. The book focuses primarily on Nickel and Savannah Cody, the woman he met and impregnated some years earlier. Savannah is now a single mother raising her well-adjusted son, Alford. Along with her father Wendell, a retired railroad detective, they are searching for Nickel for several reasons. At the top of the book, Savannah is having very dark thoughts about her ex-beau and has designs to see him dead. It is only her son’s desire to meet his father that reins her in. She is not someone to be trifled with and has many sides to her complex personality that includes a love for Henry David Thoreau.

The novel jumps around briefly in time and features chapters from the viewpoints of Savannah, Nickel and Alford. We also enjoy a number of sections where Savannah is being interviewed by FBI Agent Toland, whose interrogations aren't about getting information concerning Nickel, but rather is focused on the aiding and abetting she became a part of that has her facing imprisonment and a possible death sentence.

Along the way, we see how Nickel is nabbed after being shot in the leg during a heist and getting turned in by the off-hour doctor the Brady Gang forced to work on him. Of course, he is still engaged to be wed to Savannah, and the prison makes arrangements to have him driven to the church for the nuptials. This is the perfect opportunity for his cronies to bust him out. He goes back on the road with them and leaves poor Savannah jilted at the altar.

The latest spree finds the gang running from Indiana and eventually ending up in Maine. In between, the heist they pull at a bank in Saratoga, NY, goes awry, resulting in them being hunted harder than ever. On the bandwagon tracing their tracks is Savannah, Alford and Wendell. The Brady Gang takes on aliases and separates until the heat dies down. One of the most touching parts of the novel is when Nickel, going by the name of Jake with a full-grown beard, meets Alford, who also uses an alias. They fish together, and Nickel leaves the boy the dog he had been keeping, as well as $200. He has no idea that he is spending time with his son, but Alford is well aware of who Jake is.

The finale is a wild one, blending factual events with these terrific fictional characters. DIE FAMOUS plays out like a cross between the films Bonnie and Clyde and Public Enemies. Koryta’s hoodlums are far from what you might envision when you hear the word “gangster” as they are nowhere near perfect criminals. It is his writing that breathes life into them and in turn spins out a tale that is both classic noir and literary fiction.