Fans of the HBO Series Boardwalk Empire will find Venable Park an engaging journey to the same era, with the struggles of the times viewed through the eyes of a vastly different central character. **** 1920s Prohibition Baltimore is a place apart from the bright, gilded world of Gatsby; a place where ash and smoke darken midday skies. Millworker Henry Dawson is a returned WWI vet, finding his tenuous path back to civilian life after a harrowing tour of duty in France’s Argonne Forest. Just as Dawson gradually gains his bearings, events at the football stadium rising from the grounds of the city’s Venable Park threaten to send him spiraling back to the despair of the war. Told from the perspective of Henry, Venable Park is a rare look at the Twenties as they were, weighted by the toils and lifted by the triumphs of common men. An excellent book…heartbreaking, but ultimately satisfying. - WYPR - Baltimore’s NPR Station