The Bookish Buzz in conversation with Betty Passick

This November Chapter2 Books and Black Rooster Bistro will welcome BETTY BRANDT PASSICK, a multi-award-winning author of The Gangster Series that began with the story of Louie La Cava, a Chicago mobster who came to her hometown of Fairbank, Iowa (called 'Oxbow' in the novels) in the early 1920s, where he remained on and off for the next 60 years. 

The Gangster Series currently includes: Gangster in Our Midst, Bookkeeper, Lieutenant, and Sometimes Hitman for Al Capone (2017), which most recently won the 2025 Editor's Choice Award of Literary Excellence from Reader's House book review magazine in the UK. The Black Bag of Dr. Wiltse, Murder on the Prairie (2021) won an Indie Book Award from Shelf Unbound book review magazine in the USA. Anatomy of a Death (July 2026) tells a story of addiction set in post-American Civil War Iowa. 

Two significant memorials preceded the gangster series. Her novellas, poems, and short stories also regularly appear in books and magazines. She writes a "Gangster Blog" and a column for her hometown newspaper, the Fairbank Islander. In 2023, she launched the annual Wapsie Writing Contest to encourage children/teens (in particular) and adults to write creatively. She teaches writing workshops and enjoys inspirational public speaking to encourage writing at every age. Betty is a member of several mystery crime writers' organizations, the Iowa Writers Collaborative, and others.

Learn more about Betty at https://bettybrandtpassick.com/. Copies of her books will be available for sale at Chapter2 Books and at the event.