This is a great successor and companion to Kavieff's previous volume, The Purple Gang, and an even better book than its predecessor. Covers the Mafia factions who succeeded the Purples as masters of Detroit's underworld and various independent mobs, some unheralded since their last appearances in 1930's vintage detective magazines, such as "Legs" Laman's kidnapping gang, or the "Flatheads" gang headed by Paul Jaworski who committed the nation's first armored car robbery. Violent crimes have soared in volume over the years but for sheer audacity "crime in the streets" pales in comparison to the 1920's and The Violent Years captures this spirit better than any book I've seen in a long while.

In The Violent Years: Prohibition And The Detroit Mobs, author Paul Kavieff draws upon his many years of meticulous research to provide an accurate, harsh, brutal look at the tremendous wealth and unspeakable savagery of organized crime in Prohibition-era Detroit. Turning an unflinching spotlight upon the gangster's worst excesses, The Violent Years pulls no punches in its sordid, factual, carefully researched account. Also highly recommended for students of organized crime in twentieth century American history is Paul Kavieff's companion volume The Purple Gang: Organized Crime In Detroit 1910-1945 (1569801479, $...).

If you'e ever wondered exactly what it is that a book editor does, read this volume and discover what happens when a book goes directly to print without any editing, proofreading or even spellchecking. The result is a confused jumble of facts, so poorly organized that the reader has trouble simply trying to figure out the sequence of events described.

Beyond the many spelling and punctuation errors (the author needs a serious tutorial on how to use apostrophes)and the hideous typeface are hundreds of confused descriptions and misuses of words that leave the reader not only confused, but occasionally laughing out loud. Consider the description of Hyman Altma. Having described him as a man who stood 5'8" and weighed 200 lbs, Kavieff goes on to say of this rather short man "Because of his formidable stature..." In a number of sections, the same sentence is repeated two or three times- which makes the reader wonder if even the author had given it a final reading before sending it off to his publisher.

This mess of a book has one redeeming feature- Kavieff has assembled a very complete and fascinating history of the Purple gang. That's if you can manage to read it, and at least two people I know couldn't. Caveat Emptor.

Paul R. Kavieff has done an excellent job in vividly portraying the history of this vicious Prohibition era mob and its influence on the people and the politics of Detroit in the twenties and early thirties. Despite type errors and editing problems this is the first book ever that deals with the detroit underworld and the under side of Detroit history. The author writes with a flair for putting the reader at the scene of many high profile crimes for which the Purples are so well known. It is obvious that Mr. Kavieff has a great knowledge of the Purple Gang and the Detroit underworld. This is truely one of the best organized crime histories I have ever read! Some of the criticism of this book has been totally unfair! Crime historians and other critics who have read this book for grammatical errors rather than content are missing the whole point of the work. It is obvious that the author did a great deal of original research to put this book together and I salute him as a crime historian for his wonderful effort and ability to put together a organized crime history of this scope.

As another reviewer pointed out, this is an important book because it is the only book on the Purple Gang. How this gang has escaped serious study is beyond me. Growing up in the Detroit area their name has popped up over the years many many times, as some oldtimer recollects or a house that once was a Purple Gang hideout is bulldozed, stuff like that. One time in the Detroit Public Library I went into the history room and they asked for my ID and I jokingly said, "what do you think I am in the Purple Gang or something?" The guy who asked laughed and said "funny you should say that. A writer has been trying to research the Purple Gang, and is having a hell of a time. It seems like most of the police files on them have somehow disappeared". I cannot vouch for that info, but I suppose that it was the author of this book that was doing the research and maybe that explains why there is so little info available. For that reason alone, despite the grammatical errors that others found annoying, I give it 5 stars. I found it a fascinating read.