...an exhaustively researched, hugely entertaining work of popular history that...exhumes a colorful crew of once-celebrated characters and restores them to full-blooded life ... My single, small complaint—one that has been made by earlier reviewers of Ms. Abbott’s books and that she pre-emptively addresses in a prefatory note—is that she cannot resist embellishing her tale with the kinds of novelistic flourishes that, if one is a stickler for strict historical accuracy, can seem like an unwarranted self-indulgence ... Still, for all the painstaking research that clearly went into her project, Ms. Abbott doesn’t pretend to be a scholar. Her métier is narrative nonfiction and—as this vibrant, enormously readable book makes clear—she is one of the masters of the art.

... a gripping true-crime narrative ... Abbott crafts a gripping narrative from this previously obscure chapter in the 'noble experiment' of Prohibition. Her research is exemplary, and she lays out the details with a novelist’s deft touch. She makes particularly good use of trial transcripts during a riveting courtroom sequence ... During the Prohibition era, wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald, 'America was going on the greatest, gaudiest spree in history and there was going to be plenty to tell about it.' He would undoubtedly have appreciated this heady cocktail of murder, intrigue and Jazz Age excess.

There's a bit of a Law & Order structure to Ghosts, as Abbott sets up the events chronologically and at a sometimes dizzying pace — I wished in vain for a cast of characters section — and explores crime followed by trial, crime followed by trial ... Yet for all the successful and suspenseful storytelling, much of it gleaned from a 5,500-page-long trial transcript, it's somewhat unclear who and what we're meant to believe ... I personally needed more context about the time and place ... I wanted more of this in Ghosts of Eden Park, a deeper understanding of the politics surrounding Prohibition as related to immigrants (like Remus himself), African Americans, and the Ku Klux Klan's use of the new anti-liquor laws to recruit members and terrorize 'un-American' communities. But this might speak to my own sentiments regarding true crime and its ability to showcase the repetition of history ... As it stands, Karen Abbott's newest is a page-turner, teasing readers with its central mystery, and reaching its climactic final trial with a satisfying bang.

...Karen Abbott tells the story of Remus’ rise and fall with a novelist’s eye, and incredibly, every line of dialogue is taken directly from a primary source. Without embellishment or overt psychologizing, she pulls readers into the kaleidoscopic world of Jazz-Age America, full of flappers and whiskey parties, boisterous criminals and crooked government agents ... I was transfixed, not only by the incredible research that informed this compulsively readable book but also by what the story reveals about human nature, the interplay of brilliant and unpredictable individuals and the societies in which they live, and the way that greed, fame and lust can—and have—corrupted the motives of both lovers and enemies. If you are a fan of true crime, historical nonfiction and the Jazz Age, this is not a book to miss.

Karen Abbott brings George Remus to life ... Abbott compellingly details his life and times, rise and fall, delusions, paranoia and, frankly, his genius. Though he is firmly the book’s star, there are others to grab your attention ... It is a raucous and captivating story told with great style, the result of Abbott’s way with words, tireless research and unique subject. Its courtroom sections, using trial transcripts, are better than most any Law & Order hour.

Though Abbott claimed she had a fun time researching this subject (she reportedly had 85,000 pages of notes when she was done), I was kind of put off by why this recorder of historical girl-power would devote more than 300 pages—dispensing scenes and situations as she usually does, with all the amusingly unsubtle, can-you-believe-this-honey raciness of a wine-guzzling, society gal dishing the latest dirt at a brunchy get-together—to such a sordid, unrepentant tale. It wasn’t until I got to the bat-guano-crazy last half, where the former attorney ends up representing himself in a circus of a murder trial, that I got the sense that this is Abbott spinning a tale that both displays her knack for chronicling fact-based, throwback tawdriness and gives our true-crime-obsessed culture something it can snack on ... The fanciful Ghosts may not be as completely morbid and grimy as some of your more down-and-dirty, criminal accounts, but it’s still filled with money, power, greed, murder, women you shouldn’t trust and the men who foolishly do anyway. Basically, it’s a story as American as apple pie.

Bestseller Abbott...revives an obscure cause célèbre in this engrossing true crime narrative. Relying heavily on primary sources, including trial transcripts, Abbott asserts in an author’s note that she 'accurately depict[s] detailed scenes and entire conversations and reveal[s] characters’ thoughts, gestures, personalities, and histories.' That approach pays off from the start ... This real-life page-turner will appeal to fans of Erik Larson.

Attracted once again to sin and subversion, Abbott ...sets her lively new tale during Prohibition ... Drawing on government files, archives, newspaper articles, and trial transcripts—one of which was more than 5,000 pages long—Abbott recounts in tense, vivid detail Remus’ entanglement in intrigue, betrayal, madness, and violence.