Released September 24th, 2024. Get it at Amazon, your favorite
bookstore, or from ECW Press here!
A page-turning crime tale based on a true story
Notorious outlaws Alvin Karpis and Fred Barker meet the old-fashioned way: serving time in Kansas State Prison. After their release in 1931, the two reconnect and form the infamous Barker-Karpis Gang and begin a spree of robberies that leave a wake of terror in their path, including two dead cops. Now hunted in several states, the gang settles into hiding in St. Paul, Minnesota, where they thrive under the protection of a crooked police chief, who happily turns a blind eye to their activities — so long as they commit crimes outside of his jurisdiction. With increased security at banks, the Barker-Karpis Gang switches to kidnapping, catching the attention of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI and landing them at the top of the most-wanted list. How long can these wily men evade capture? Who can they trust? Where will they run when the entire country is hunting them, dead or alive?
“Kalteis vividly evokes the spirit of the times, and paints multidimensional portraits of his central characters. The action is tightly coiled enough to keep readers flipping pages and rooting for the rogues. It’s another winner from Kalteis.” — Publishers Weekly
“Crooked doesn’t let mob history get in the way of telling an exciting story.”
— Vancouver Sun
“Kalteis had me hooked like a cop pinned against the wall or a bank manager locked in his empty safe. Beautifully written and creatively constructed … Kalteis puts us smack dab into the hard-drinking, easy-living 1930s.”
— The British Columbia Review
“Crooked is a well-rendered story of cocky, charming rogues, and the fast life. Kalteis so immerses you in their world that you feel the bullets whizzing by your head as you swerve out of trouble and down the highway to the next escapade. Well recommended reading.”
— Murder in Common
“Kalteis captures the criminal life with one of the few who survived it. He pulls off a great magic trick of having us connect to Alvin and Fred while reminding us they are violent criminals with little regard for the lives outside theirs and those close to them. Crooked travels down an outlaw road in a fast Ford coupe with bullets flying out and in with Kalteis’s foot on the gas.” — The Hard Word
“Crooked is a crime thriller that draws the reader into the sordid world of infamous outlaws Alvin Karpis and Fred Barker. Kalteis masterfully re-creates the essence of the 1930s … The story is full of tension and filled with action. The characters are well-developed, and their dynamic adds a lot of depth to the story … Kalteis weaves historical facts with thrilling fiction, leaving readers on the edge of their seats. “Crooked” is the kind of tale that will knock any fan of crime fiction off their feet!
— John Raab, Suspense Magazine
“Kalteis is a powerful storyteller at the top of his game and Crooked is a crime fiction must-read.”
— John Lansing, national bestselling author of the Jack Bertolino series
“Crooked is another winner for one of the best crime novelists of this era.”
— Ken MacQueen, author of Hero Haters
“Crooked immersed me in the world of poor working-class young men and women in the early 1930s … Main character Karpis is cunning and won’t let anything stand between him and a big payday, but we can’t help but ride along, rooting for him but knowing it won’t end well for him and his pals. Grab a copy and enjoy the ride.”
— Robert W MacKay, award-winning author of The Forgotten
“In Crooked, Dietrich Kalteis skillfully chronicles the rise and ultimate fall of the Karpis-Barker gang’s reign of terror. He knows his stuff, and his Tommy Gun-like dialogue crackles and pops, giving the reader the vicarious thrill of a period in American history when gangsters were as well-known by the public as Hollywood movie stars.”
— Charles Salzberg, three-time Shamus nominated author
“Dietrich Kalteis is one of those writers you can’t get enough of. His latest historical crime offering, Crooked, is no exception … a wild, criminally-charged romp through America’s gun-toting gangster roots.”
— Patrick Whitehurst, author of Eeerie Arizona
Released June 2023
Lenny Ovitz has plenty of secrets. He works for a volatile crime boss, is drowning in debt to the wrong people, and he’s certain his soon-to-be ex is aiming to screw him over. Somebody is going to have to get whacked.
“Smooth plotting, vivid characters, and sharp dialogue (especially from the rough-edged leads) bolster this darkly comic story, which Kalteis shepherds to a hugely satisfying conclusion. Fans of Elmore Leonard and George Pelecanos will find much to enjoy.”
— Starred review, Publishers Weekly
“The Get is sure-fire entertainment for fans of high-octane crime fiction from an author who knows how to get the job done.”
— The Miramachi Reader
“One of the most enjoyable crime novels that I have read this year … highly recommended.”
— Mystery & Suspense Magazine
“Seasoned crime writer Dietrich Kalteis returns with The Get (ECW Press) in this darkly comic gangster novel.”
— Top Ten Picks for June, 2023 — All Lit Up
“Perfect Pick to get your summer reading on.”
— Summer Reading Picks, 49th Shelf
“Summer Reading List of Must read books from B.C. authors.”
— The Beacon Herald
“I always get a kick out of Kalteis’s work; it’s funny and sharp as a tack with gritty characters and whip-smart dialogue. Kalteis creates cinematic characters that will stick with you long after you’ve finished the book; feisty noir thugs looking to screw each other over and come up with inventive ways to beat the rap.”
— The Minerva Reader
“Kalteis’s quick pacing and cutting dialogue transport the reader into the heart of the crime world.”
— BC Booklook
Order from ECW Press.
Released June, 2022
“One of our recommended Beach Reads with B.C. ties that will help you unwind on summer holidays.”
— The Province
“I’ve reviewed a few of Dietrich Kalteis’s books. This one just might be my favourite. Well recommended.”
— Murder in Common
“A brisk pace and sharp attention to character help propel this lean story of chance encounters amid a battle for survival. Fans of gritty crime fiction will be gratified.”
— Publishers Weekly
“Recommended to those that favor novels with well developed characters in a good hunt and chase tale.”
— Mystery & Suspense Magazine
“This story is rough and tough. It’s a good mystery.”
— Book Fairie Review
When long retired cop, Fitch Henry Haut, sees two men forcing a runaway girl into their vehicle, he steps in and gets the upper hand. He and the girl escape in his broken-down Winnebago, and as Fitch listens to her story, he realizes the men will come after them. A bond forms as he and the girl struggle to escape out of town.
ORDER NOW at ECW PRESS
https://ecwpress.com/products/nobody-from-somewhere
Released November, 2021
Under an Outlaw Moon,
won Best Crime Novel
in the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada
Awards of Excellence
“We feel sheer admiration for the way the characters cope
with what life throws at them.
Their sometimes very bad decisions make a story
that is a pure pleasure to read. As in many crime novels,
there is sex, violence, bigotry, hatred, scheming,
and a longing to be heard and understood.
Under An Outlaw Moon more than satisfies
the reader on all counts.”
— Crime Writers of Canada Awards Committee
“A gripping read I would recommend to those who love the golden era of the dirty thirties.” — The Miramichi Reader
“He spins us around his short, clipped phrases and keeps us wanting more … Kalteis is a literary rebel.” — Ottawa Review of Books
“Kalteis blends historical facts and fiction in this captivating cat and mouse story … Mainly written in dialogue, the plot moves along fast and keeps us right in the middle of the events.” — 24 stories, the best books of the moment
“Based on a true story, this riveting Depression-era crime novel from Canadian author Kalteis … This is a delightful treat for historical crime fiction enthusiasts.”
— Publishers Weekly, a starred review
“Among our 13 most anticipated books for November.”
— The Zoomer Book Club
“Dietrich Kalteis has done it again, with his own style of spare writing, that somehow gives us every thing we need. Under an Outlaw Moon has it all in one quick and compelling package.” — Murder in Common
Meet Depression-era newlyweds Bennie and Stella. He’s reckless, she’s naive. Longing for freedom from tough times, they rob a bank, setting off a series of events that quickly spin out of their control.
Under an Outlaw Moon is based on the true story of Depression-era bank robbers Bennie and Stella Mae Dickson. She’s a teenage outsider longing to fit in. He’s a few years older and he’s trouble. They meet at a local skating rink and the sparks fly. They marry and Stella dreams of a nice house with a swing out back, while Bennie figures out how to get enough money to make it happen. Setting his sights on the good life, he decides to rob a bank. Talking Stella into it, he lays out his plan and teaches her to shoot. The newlyweds celebrate her 16th birthday by robbing a local bank. They pull it off, but the score is small, and Bennie realizes the money won’t last long, so he plans a bigger robbery. What lays ahead is more than either of them bargained for. After J. Edgar Hoover finds out they crossed state lines, he declares them public enemies number one and two — wanted dead or alive. So much for the good life. The manhunt is on, and there’s little room for them to run.
ORDER NOW at ECW Press!
NOW AVAILABLE — The audiobook for Under an Outlaw Moon, with actor Patrick Garrow narrating. Get a taste here.
Released November, 2020
available in print, ebook and audiobook
from ECW Press
Listen to the unabridged audiobook of
Cradle of the Deep
on Spotify here.
“It’s a cracking drama,
chock-full of incident, with plenty of bounce …
Pace, plot, characters, settings, action,
humor, conflict, and a satisfying resolution.
Big ticks in all the boxes.”
— Col’s Criminal Library
“Cradle of the Deep has humour, great characters,
and the situations are well played – you’ll enjoy it.”
— Murder in Common
“Kalteis writes brash, raw, dirty, and gritty like no one else … A hair-raising escapade fueled by impulsive choices, this page-turner kept me up most of the night.”
— Ottawa Review of Books
Getting into bed with the wrong guy can get you killed.
Wanting to free herself from her boyfriend, aging gangster “Mad Dog” Palmieri, Bobbi Ricci concocts a misguided plan with Denny, Mad Dog’s ex-driver, a guy who’s bent on getting even with the gangster for the humiliating way in which he was sacked.
Helping themselves to the gangster’s secret money stash, along with his Cadillac, Bobbi and Denny slip out of town, expecting to lay low for a while before enjoying the spoils.
Realizing he’s been betrayed, an enraged Mad Dog calls in stone-cold killer Lee Trane. As Trane picks up their trail, plans quickly change for Bobbi and Denny, who now find themselves on a wild chase of misadventure through northern British Columbia and into Alaska.
Time is running out for them once they find out that Trane’s been sent to do away with them, or worse, bring them back — either way, Mad Dog will make them pay.
Released October 2019
Sonny and Clara Myers struggle on their Kansas farm in the late 1930s, a time the Lord gave up on. The land’s gone dry, barren and worthless. And the bankers, greedy and hungry, make life even more impossible, squeezing farmers out of their homes. The couple can wither along with the land, or surrender to the bankers and hightail it to California like most of the other farmers. But Sonny comes up with a way for them to stay on their land and prosper while giving the banks a taste of their own misery.
Check out the interview at Wrong Place, Write Crime
“What really draws the reader into this story is Dietrich Kalteis’s characteristic writing style. Breaking the “rules” of contemporary fiction, he twists language to keep the phrases fluid and the plot spinning … I’m reminded of John Steinbeck as I read: The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men. The language is similar.” — Wendy Hawkin, Ottawa Review of Books
“Call Down the Thunder is a caper novel about Kansas during the Dirty Thirties, and as a historical novel, it’s a beauty. Not a whodunit, but a fine tale well written.” — The Globe and Mail
“Call Down the Thunder is profound and affecting, with just the right amount of comic leavening. As always, Kalteis shows himself to be a smart, skilled, entertaining, and — this is important — full-hearted writer.” — Joan Barfoot, London Free Press
“Set in Depression-era Kansas, this colorful, character-driven crime novel pits desperate small-town folk against racists and thugs. Kalteis does a fine job of scene setting; the reader can practically smell the horehound candy at the general store and feel the grit in the air at Sonny’s farm. Fans of historical crime fiction won’t want to miss this.” — Publishers Weekly
“Kalteis does a brilliant job of planting us in this particular time and place. Even at its darkest, the story is lifted by a light, engaging touch. A sharp-witted, affecting noir, Dust Bowl-style.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Rarely have I read such descriptions of the land, the wind, the time when sand infiltrated every window and under the door. And all this from a Canadian better known for his thrillers.” — Andrew Armitage, The Sun Times
“At times heartfelt, and deftly written throughout, Call Down the Thunder takes readers on a desperate, Dust Bowl era crime caper that quenches our thirst for gritty historical crime fiction.”
— Patrick Whitehurst, Suspense Magazine
“Immensely readable, tough but beguiling, Call Down the Thunder is a highly original novel: a pacy caper set in ugly times as the dust bowl, the depression and the Klan gang up on a ragbag of dirt farmers, circus folk and one indomitable woman, all hoping to scrape by till the rains come. Laugh-out-loud funny, lump-in-the-throat moving, and packed with
surprises. I loved it.”
— Catriona McPherson, multi-award-winning and national best-selling author of Strangers at the Gate.
“Kalteis is such a skillful writer that you feel you’re in dustbowl Kansas right from page one; you catch yourself talking in the local dialect, and thinking twice about parting with a nickel in case one never rolls your way again. The voice, the characters and the setting are brilliantly realized!”
— Anne Emery, Winner, 2019 Arthur Ellis Best Crime Novel
“Call Down the Thunder brilliantly weaves history and fiction to give us a gritty, raw-boned tale of survival and retribution in the ‘Dirty Thirties’ of depression-era Kansas.”
— Mark Coggins, award-winning author of The Dead Beat Scroll
“In Call Down the Thunder Dietrich Kalteis has done something remarkable: He’s rendered the Kansas of the dustbowl 1930’s so completely that I felt myself disappearing into this surreal and tragic world. The people, the language, and the place itself are fully imagined and alive. Bravo!”
— SJ Rozan, best-selling author of Paper Son
“Populated with dirt-poor Kansans, crooked lawmen, circus freaks, brothel dwellers, klansmen and bank robbers, Call Down the Thunder is a proud representative of the Southern Gothic tradition. If Faulkner and Fellini had got together and written a crime novel, this would’ve been it. Hugely recommended.”
— Robert Hough, author of The Final Confession of Mabel Stark and The Man Who Saved Henry Morgan
Released September, 2018
Sample Audio file: Chapter One
Jeff Nichols, an ex-con recently released from Toronto’s infamous Don Jail,
is discontent with his used-car sales job. Not one to let the lessons of past
mistakes stand in the way of a good score, he’s soon caught up in a gun-
running scheme. As things spin out of control, Jeff hangs on, determined to not let anything stop him from hitting the motherlode.
“Dietrich Kalteis writes about 1980s Toronto crooks in a style that’s breezy and confident, comic and ribald — and he’s especially letter perfect in portraying characters who’ve got “loser” stamped smack in the middle of their foreheads.”
— Jack Batten, The Toronto Star
“Full of jaw-smacking fistfights, rip-roaring car chases, and gun-blazing gang battles, Poughkeepsie Shuffle delivers a mighty thump of thrills and spills, and carloads of mean-tempered sons of bitches.”
— Nicholas Litchfield, Lancashire Evening Post
“Kalteis does it again — shoots us into the seedy side of criminal life with a raunchy cast of posers and thugs and one bold anti-hero. The novel is cleverly written in Kalteis’s signature clipped-to-the-quick phrases. A master craftsman, Kalteis knows how to rock our senses exponentially”
— Wendy Hawkin, Ottawa Review of Books
“It’s not for nothing that Kalteis has been compared with the great character-and-dialogue-creator Elmore Leonard, with work that is fast, harsh, violent and funny – if in a melancholy and even tragic sort of way. There may be violent people, greedy people, and even psychopaths in a Kalteis novel, but his special and delightful gift is in the bounce and joy of his writing.”
— Joan Barfoot, The London Free Press
“There is probably no other mystery writer of the Canadian breed with such readability and crime-caper perfectness. Kalteis is the master of writing about lowlifes but this latest one outdoes his best. A great stick-to-your chair read, a wonderful Canadian crime novel.”
— Andrew Armitage, The Sun Times
“Dietrich Kalteis has delivered another solid crime tale from the depths of the Canadian underworld. There are few others writing novels focused solely on the criminals who do it nearly as well.”
— Eric Beetner, Criminal Element
“For the perfect crime caper cocktail you need a good(ish) guy in over his head, a bevy of bad guys and scumbags, a get-rich-quick scheme doomed to failure and a dash of dark humor. Poughkeepsie Shuffle has all these
ingredients in spades.”
— Simon Wood, USA Today bestselling author of Saving Grace
“Nobody delivers lowlifes gunning for the high life as credibly as Dietrich Kalteis. Poughkeepsie Shuffle delivers a s-load of excitement, and a
glimmer of light, in one badass world.”
— John Farrow, The Storm Murders Trilogy
At your favorite bookstore,
or order a copy here: Canada USA ECW Press
Check out my chat with Pam Stack at Authors on the Air, taped
September 12, 2018, talking about Poughkeepsie Shuffle. Check it out here.
————
Zero Avenue is set to the cranking beat and amphetamine buzz of Vancouver’s early punk scene.
“If a literary prize existed for depicting the most offensive club lavatories, this novel would win it hands down.” — Publishers Weekly
“Kalteis tells the story in prose that’s fast, funny, profane and a pleasure to read.“ — Toronto Star
“Kalteis is rapidly becoming one of Canada’s top modern crime writers.“ — Lancashire Post
“Short book. Tall story. Active, masterful writing.”
— The Ottawa Review of Books
“If you love noir, you’ll love Zero Avenue. Simply as good as it gets.” — The Rap Sheet
“I don’t think there was a dull sentence or paragraph in the book, pedal to metal, a flat-out adrenaline fuelled read.” — Col’s Criminal Library
“The first thing one notices is Kalteis’ use of language, raw and unfiltered. The writing like the characters is unapologetic and doesn’t give a shit whether you get it or not: punk music, punk characters, punk writing. I was loving it immediately.” — Unlawful Acts
Pick up a copy from your favorite bookstore, or order online from
ECW Press or Amazon.