Why Bugsy Siegel Was a Friend of Mine by James Lee Burke; A Story from 'Jesus Out to Sea', Book 10; Unabridged MP3 Audio Book; Narrator Ron McLarty

In this humorous but bittersweet fable about hero worship and self-reliance, Charlie and Nick meet the famous gangster and teach him yo-yo tricks. Complications ensue when they attempt to enlist Siegel in their campaign against the neighborhood bully.

JESUS OUT TO SEA: This story is one from a collection of 11 of Burke's short stories published over the last decade and makes a powerful case for the author's versatility and depth. Like Burke's beloved Dave Robicheaux novels, these stories are as varied in their complexity as they are poignant and haunting. Others are unremittingly bleak. While Jesus Out to Sea and Mist are piercing responses to Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war, other stories unfold in the 40s and 50s and draw from Burke's experiences growing up on the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast. Running throughout are the themes that have defined Burke's fiction over the last three decades: the confrontation of evil by ordinary folk, the juxtaposition of natural beauty and human violence, the poetic distillation of working class life in the American South.

James Lee Burke, a rare winner of two Edgar Awards, and named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, is the author of twenty-nine previous novels and two collections of short stories, including such New York Times bestsellers as The Glass Rainbow, Swan Peak, The Tin Roof Blowdown, Last Car to Elysian Fields and Rain Gods.  He lives in Missoula, Montana.