First, a Little Background
Before Al Capone became the face of Chicago’s Prohibition era, the city was already buzzing with underground activity. When the 18th Amendment kicked off in 1920, banning booze, Chicagoans didn’t just give up drinking—they found ways to work around the law. Saloons and taverns, once open and lively spots, went underground and turned into speakeasies. These hidden bars became the heart of the city’s nightlife, where people from all levels of society came together to drink, socialize, and defy the dry law.
Chicago’s location near the Great Lakes made it a prime spot for smuggling. Bootleggers used boats, trains, and backroads to sneak in liquor, often from Canada.1 Neighborhood gangs, like the Irish-run North Side Gang, started to build their power by controlling parts of this illegal booze business. Corruption was everywhere—cops, politicians, and even judges were often on the take, making it easy for the criminal networks to grow. While some folks supported Prohibition as a way to clean up the city, a lot of people just saw it as a hassle, and they were happy to look the other way—or join in on the fun. These years set the stage for the violent clashes and bigger-than-life gangsters that would soon define Chicago’s wild Prohibition era.
It was also a time of the violent Chicago Taxi Wars, waged between the two rival companies, Yellow Cab and Checker Cab.
Enter Huckabee Waller
Into this dynamic and fluid atmosphere in the Windy City, throw in a down-and-out Huckabee Waller from Louisiana, who is running from the law after knifing a pimp there. Hopping a freight train north, he ends up in the sprawling railroad yards of Chicago. Practically illiterate, he has a tough time finding a job and ends up participating in bare-knuckle fights for the North Side Gang. Huck is a good fighter and refuses to take a fall when ordered to. This gets him noticed by gang leader Dean O’Banion who gets him out of the fighting and into running liquor from Canada for the innumerable speakeasys around town. Huck also inserts himself into the taxi wars by selling himself as ‘muscle’ to keep a lid on the Checker Cab drivers poaching fares and parking under the Yellow Cab signs to pick up fares meant for Yellow. As you can safely assume, there is no shortage of situations that Huck finds himself in.
“The way’s out is horizontal and feet first.”
This is the first novel of Mr. Kalteis’ that I have read, although his name wasn’t unknown to me as a first-class crime novelist. Being a fan of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and others, in addition to the classic gangster movies of the 1930s like “Little Caesar”, “The Public Enemy” or “The Petrified Forest”, I was immediately swept up in the gutsy, from-the-hip language and the potential for violence to erupt in any given situation in Dirty Little War. Tempering this is Huck’s love interest, Karla Bow2 and Izzy, a young street urchin that Huck takes under his wing.
If you, like me enjoyed any of the aforementioned authors and movies, then Dirty Little Wars is a five-star read. Coming March 2025. This review is based on an Advance Reading Copy supplied by ECW Press.




About the Author
Dietrich Kalteis won the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Best Crime Novel for Under an Outlaw Moon. He is a critically acclaimed author of 12 novels, two of which won Independent Publisher Awards. He enjoys life with his family in West Vancouver.
Book Details
Publisher : ECW Press (March 18 2025)
Language : English
Paperback : 488 pages
ISBN-10 : 1770417966
ISBN-13 : 978-1770417960
Liquor could be legally produced in Canada, but not sold, only exported. Confusing.
I’m not sure if it’s intentional or not, but the names Huck Waller and Karla Bow seem like a riff on Fats Waller and Clara Bow (the “It” girl).