Low Light (THE BOARDWALK TRILOGY prequel)
Gangsters Target FBI Director in Jazz Age Atlantic City
They made Al Rubin a terrific offer; he’d get a lucrative lease on an entertainment pier in exchange for a weekend of clandestine photography in a hotel room. Seduced by glamor and luxuries, aware of the risks, Al agreed. J. Edgar Hoover would be a guest of the city, a dignitary attending the gala 1929 Memorial Day ceremonies. Al plans the photo shoot carefully. Hoover arrives for four days of high-living on the city’s dime. Al’s plan seems perfect, until fate intervenes and he is forced to flee. Desperate and enraged, Hoover sends his minions to hunt Al down. The photographer navigates the sin city of its day, from the neon-lit boardwalk to the dark shadows of casinos and pleasure houses. Feeling cornered, he concocts an ingenious scheme to save himself before he loses his livelihood, his family and his freedom.
Historians are puzzled by Hoover’s hands-off approach to organized crime. During his thirty-seven year reign as the FBI’s Director, he investigated and prosecuted civil rights advocates and union organizers – anyone on his political left. The bodies piled up, witnesses testified to reporters and in local trials, and still Hoover refused to investigate any nationwide criminal enterprise. Despite irrefutable evidence to the contrary, he claimed that gangsters were too stupid to organize. LOW LIGHT is an imagined tale, an action adventure that fits the historical facts and offers a plausible explanation for the implausible behavior of one of the most peculiar men ever to hold high office.