Al Capone at the Blanche Hotel by Linda Bennett Pennell – Review by Lisa Brydalski

Al Capone at the Blanche Hotel by Linda Bennett Pennell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Two young boys, Zeke and Jack, see a body dumped into a sinkhole in Lake City, Florida in the summer of 1930. Thus starts the book Al Capone at the Blanche Hotel by author Linda Bennett Pennell. Liz Reams is a teacher, writer and researcher, in 2011, with a penchant for bad boys, especially depression era gangsters like Al Capone. When she transfers to Gainesville, Florida to follow her boyfriend she stumbles upon the fact that Al Capone spent some time in Lake City in 1930 so she decides to do a little research and find out why old “Scarface” was in the area for an unusual amount of time. Liz gets drawn into the small town’s history and begins to unravel decades of hidden secrets centered on a violent summer where the KKK, lynching’s, prohibition, and deceit are in excess and where innocence is lost too soon.
This was an excellent book, which for all intents and purposes, is made up of two separate stories: the story of Jack and Zeke and the world they inhabit in the 1930’s South as well as Liz’s story centered in 2011 where her interest in the bad boy leads her to question just how she has been living her life. The author does a great job tying the two stories together and coming to a satisfying conclusion. My only issue is that it wasn’t longer. Thank you Ms. Pennell for a great story!

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