Father Divine's Bikes: Volume 1

By Steve Bassett

Book Overview

Discover the dark underbelly of post-war Newark, New Jersey--a city that boomed during World War II but finds itself unable to cope with the peace that brings joblessness, despair and crime.
In the autumn of 1945, a battle erupts when the city's competing mobs end their truce. Deeply entrenched white enclaves are being squeezed by the mass migration of Blacks, and escape routes for poor ethnic whites rapidly close. Two Catholic altar boys--Joey Bancik and Richie Maxwell--soon learn that their Father Divine's promise of Heaven on Earth comes with hellish consequences.
As the city ramps into bloody crisis, Black bookies use Father Divine's controversial International Peace Mission Movement as a front, recruiting Joey and Richie to run numbers under the guise of newspaper routes.
While the boys' families welcome the few bucks they can put on the table, their parish priest and two homicide detectives fear that the numbers racket will entrap the boys in a world of crime.
Turf wars, murders, and a corrupt police department in bed with the mob form a dark and gritty backdrop against a story of post-war Newark and the violence that permeated it.
Finalist in the 2018 International Book Awards in Cross-Genre Fiction

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1543927599
• ISBN13: 9781543927597
• Release Date: April 2018
• Publisher: Bookbaby
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"