Illinois Authors

Open Road Distribution, New York, NY : 2015.

Dateline Chicago, 1946: Policy, the illegal lottery, makes millions of dollars for racketeers in Chicago's black community. But the numbers don't add up when kingpin Ed Jones is kidnapped. Who grabbed him? The mob? Another policy wheel operator? And why? Gus Carson, World War II veteran, a survivor of the sinking of his ship in the Pacific. A Chicago cop, he's suspended for a late night shooting at a brothel. Enter wealthy politico Arvis Hypoole. He hires Gus to find Jones. The caveat: He's got one week to do it. The challenge: Everyone's looking for Jones and most don't want to find him alive. Author Steve Monroe offers another slice of underworld life told through fact-based fiction. And his protagonist, Carson, is the conduit to the intrigue. Haunted and violent, he staves off pressure with a wisecrack or a hard cross to the jaw. He navigates through a world of gambling, nightlife, shady politics and murder, all the while seeking much more than the kidnapping victim. He's seeking redemption. And there is only one time and one city in which he can find it: '46, Chicago.

Talk Miramax Books/Hyperion, New York : ©2002.

Suspended from the Chicago police department after taking out a gunman who kills two people in the brothel that he is patronizing, crooked Chicago cop Gus Carson accepts a job from an aspiring politician to find a kidnapped black racketeer.

Talk Miramax Books/Hyperion, New York : ©2001.

Open Road Distribution, New York, NY : 2015.

A slice of underworld life, '57, Chicago is a fact-based fictional thriller. The banker's dead--a mob killing with repercussions. Money's tied up. Three men are on a collision course: Al. He's a layoff bookie, thinks he can live as a middleman between his customers and the Outfit. His credo: Never take a position. The Lip. Desperate and dangerous, he's a fight promoter trying to create the fight of a lifetime. The Hammer. A great black hope. He's a boxer, thrust into an uncomfortable limelight. A potential heavyweight champ, his biggest fight is with himself. The cops swarm. The gangsters rage. One night. One fight. No way they can all win. The heat's intense, the stakes are high and the outcome's impossible to predict. The mystery: Who makes it out alive? It's a bloody, savage night in '57, Chicago.