Now one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of the Year
From Paul French, the New York Times bestselling author of Midnight
in Peking--winner of both the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and the
CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction--comes City of Devils, a
rags-to-riches tale of two self-made men set against a backdrop of crime
and vice in the sprawling badlands of Shanghai.
Shanghai, 1930s: It was a haven for outlaws from all over the world: a
place where pasts could be forgotten, fascism and communism outrun,
names invented, and fortunes made--and lost.
"Lucky" Jack Riley was the most notorious of those outlaws. An ex-U.S.
Navy boxing champion, he escaped from prison and rose to become the
Slots King of Shanghai. "Dapper" Joe Farren--a Jewish boy who fled
Vienna's ghetto--ruled the nightclubs. His chorus lines rivaled
Ziegfeld's.
In 1940, Lucky Jack and Dapper Joe bestrode the Shanghai Badlands like
kings, while all around the Solitary Island was poverty, starvation, and
war. They thought they ruled Shanghai, but the city had other ideas.
This is the story of their rise to power, their downfall, and the trail
of destruction left in their wake. Shanghai was their playground for a
flickering few years, a city where for a fleeting moment even the
wildest dreams could come true.