"The reason I wanted to be a Gopher was simple: them gangsters never had to work for a living."

This is famed New York gangster Owney Madden, speaking in the crackling voice which runs throughout Michael Walsh's gritty new novel "And All the Saints."

Madden rose from a tough youth in an Irish ghetto in England to become one of the most notorious American crime figures ever. He started as the leader of the innocently named Gophers, a violent Irish street gang in the West Side Manhattan neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen. But in Prohibition New York, Madden saw countless opportunities to ultimately become a leading bootlegger.

Thanks to the seemingly endless cash flow - not to mention enough muscle to put down anyone who challenged his empire - Madden founded the world famous Cotton Club, and romanced starlet Mae West.

In "And All the Saints," Walsh takes the many colorful (and often violent) events of Madden's life and imagines the gangster writing his memoir. Madden's voice is endlessly cocky and full of sarcasm, even when Owney is but a school boy. A friend, Madden explains, is a student at "St. Michael's School, which was on 33rd Street, toward Ninth Avenue. I was supposedly attending the same worthy institution as well, but after just a few weeks I realized that prolonged and abstract book learning was only going to slow me down from achieving my life's goals and that therefore there was no percentage in it for yours truly."

At times, Madden's cracking wise gets a bit excessive, and the stage-Irish wailing of "Jesus, Mary and Joseph and all the saints" from various aged characters can be a bit much (even if it does lend Walsh's book a fine title). Still, Walsh's slow, steady march through Madden's life, loves and prison sentences kicks into high gear when Owney goes into business with fellow gangsters such as Dutch Schultz, Frank Costello and Meyer Lansky. Meanwhile, New York's top gangbuster Thomas Dewey is out to bring them all down. Even if you know how the real-life story of Owney Madden turns out, Walsh will keep you turning the pages, to see if the legitimate law - or competing gangsters, or anyone for that matter - can get to the legendary kingpin of West Side Irish crime. With "And All the Saints," Michael Walsh brings to life a dark, yet fascinating episode of Irish American history. (352 pages / $24.95 / Warner Books)