During his exile at his grandma's house during the summer of 1959 as his parents contemplate divorce, 12 year old Denny finds himself pulled between two worlds. He makes new friends that summer; Timothy - the perfect boy with a perfect family, and Frankie - a local hoodlum with aspirations of becoming a gangster.

Saddled with a degenerate drunken gambler for a father and a mother doing her best to survive, Denny yearns for what Timothy has; a stable family and a wholesome moral compass. Yet at the same time, Frankie draws Denny into the wild side of life, filled with reckless heists, running from the cops, and the sweet taste of revenge. And then there's Carrie - a nine year old girl who adores him and who he has fallen in love with, experiencing new emotions he doesn't know what to do with.

Denny already has a head start on the criminal front with an uncle who fancies himself a pimp, his grandma who is an East Vancouver bootlegger, and a godfather who is a mob boss. At times believing he may be losing his mind, Denny finds himself at a crossroad and the choices he makes that summer will echo throughout his entire life. But will that be his destiny? Can he choose his own path?

Drawn from the author's own childhood, Little Gangsters will open a window onto the mean streets of East Vancouver; the gangs, the larger-than-life characters; and the angst of a preteen boy trying
to make sense of the world around him.