July 2009 Public Enemies. America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 by Brian Burrough. This was a little longer book than I generally finish in a month (~550 pages) but it was an easy and informative read. In the author's preface, he states that he hopes that people will have as much fun reading this book as he had writing it. I know I did. The book brings together the stories of criminals whose names we all know (John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, etc..) and intertwines their timelines which, surprizing anyway to me, were a relatively brief period of time in 1933-34, and pretty much confined to the Midwest and Texas. The author also introduces most of the lawmen involved and gives biographical sketches of not just Hoover and Purvis, who seem to get the headlnes, but the guys who really fought the war. I've not read any other books on this period, so I don't have any contrasting opinion to compare. The author was fairly critical of Melvin Purvis, the Chicago SAC involved in getting Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd. The character I really liked was Sam Cowley, with whom Hoover replaced Purvis. I liked this book. Now I can go see Johnny Depp.