Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life, by Robert...

published 10/01/1993 at 22:23 PM

Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life, by Robert Lacey (Little, Brown & Co., $5.99).

Known as the Chairman of the Board and the Godfather of Godfathers, Meyer Lansky was at the top of the organized crime scene at its height. He was best friends with Lucky Luciano and partners with Bugsy Siegel as well as the mastermind behind the casinos in pre-Castro Cuba. Smarter than his criminal peers, Lansky distanced himself from the dirty crimes of drugs, prostitution and murder and maintained an elegant, bookish facade.

Partnered with Siegel, Lansky became the intelligent half of "Brawn and Brains," as the two became known. "His genius was to persuade other budding criminals that he was the perfect negotiator, wise man, go-between and sharer of ill-got proceeds," reviewer Clancy Sigal wrote in the Tribune in 1991.

He maintained his position by never shortchanging anyone. Author Robert Lacey makes "a persuasive case for Lansky the bumbling schnook rather than Lansky the kingmaker . . . in his meticulously researched book," Sigal wrote. "The media, and authors of previous books on Lansky and the mob, helped create the illusion that he was America's richest arch-criminal with a fortune of $300 million . . . (but) Lansky was just one crook among many, and he died relatively poor and powerless. Indeed, Lacey's biography often feels more like the story of a criminal Willy Loman than the story of one of those high-living, violently glamorous hoodlums we're used to from films."

Simply Halston, by Steven Gaines (Jove, $5.99). Chicago was the starting point of Roy Halston Frowick's career as America's first celebrity fashion designer. It was here that he was introduced to the famous milliner Lilly Dacheby, his tutor and mentor. And it was here that Chicago Daily News columnist Peg Zwecker first referred to him simply as Halston. Author Steven Gaines' biography, "Simply Halston," chronicles the designer's rise to fame. It also "details the affairs and lovers in Halston's life, first in Chicago, then in New York, the nightly dates with call boys . . . the drink and drugs and Studio 54. Life in all those fast lanes play their roles throughout the book," reviewer Genevieve Buck wrote in the Tribune in 1991.

By 1972, Newsweek had declared him "America's premier fashion designer" and he had sold his name for the then-astronomical sum of $12 million. Gaines' book covers his life from his arrival in Chicago as a poor boy from Des Moines through his fame and fortune and finally to his death of AIDS in March 1990. "The writing gets juicier as it goes along . . . however, given Halston's one-time stature and name recognition, his grand manner, his arrogance and temper, his record of excesses, it could have been more salacious," Buck wrote.

Guardian Angel, by Sara Paretsky (Delacorte, $5.99). "In `Guardian Angel'-the seventh V.I. Warshawski novel and to my mind the best of this excellent series-(author Sara) Paretsky is in such complete control of her character and her story that developments that might have been annoying or distracting in previous Warshawski books are made to seem clear and inevitable here," reviewer Dick Adler wrote in the Tribune last year. Warshawski once again fights the forces of white collar greed and corruption, but complicating matters is her affair with a Chicago cop, her falling-out with her best friend Dr. Lotty Herschel and her stubborn emotional attachment to her starchy, ambitious lawyer ex-husband. But, despite these developments, " `Guardian Angel' shows me that her sense of purpose is so fully-formed that she can't think or act any other way-even when her hormones and her old family ties send out conflicting signals," Adler wrote.