A Big House For Little Men (Paperback)

"Glad this is just a Novel, the author put his heart into this character named Cody. I felt like I was in every chapter.. you get a big A+ from me!"

"This isn't just a corruption book. This isn't just a prison book. This is, in my opinion, the be all, and all of crime and punishment books about the inside of our Massachusetts prison system. It's a story of survival ~ and it happened right in our backyard. It is about my neighbor and yours.

This book IS violent. Very violent, in fact, I had to re-read pages because I just couldn't fathom what I was digesting. But, it is a life story ~ someone's tragic life story.

Imagine being born without a chance. No chance to be a kid, to be loved unconditionally by a mom and a dad, no chance to join Little League ~ but instead being drawn into burglaries and murders, seeing your siblings off to prison, not college. This is the sad way of life for main character Cody in the intense and often shocking A Big House for Little Men. Dorchester native and current North Attleboro resident Michael McKay penned an eye-opening fictional story of Cody's rise from juvenile offender to the most powerful criminal in Boston.

Time to elaborate: This book is based on a real story which had to be written as a fictional account of murders that occurred within Walpole State prison in the late 1970s.

So, although it is listed as "fiction," it is based ~ oh so closely ~ upon real events.

McKay explains, "80% is fiction and the 20% are embellishments. I have all the facts to back it up ~ written documents and reports. If I made this a work of non-fiction, I would have troopers, D.A.s and prison officials wanting to know the who, the when, the how.and I don't want to deal with that, if you know what I mean."

Cody is the notorious real life Mikey Thurber and the crimes he commits are atrocious. Thurber was the most talked about and feared creature of the 1970s. One of the most heinous and brutal (alleged) murders he commits while in prison involves an ice pick and a castration (and there's much more to it), retaliation for a fierce act of vigilante prison vengeance (specifically, someone strangling his friend). Riots at Walpole State Prison shook the Bay State in 1972. The facility gained national notoriety when prisoners took guards hostage in 1978; several murders within the prison made national headlines in 1979, after which the correction officers (scared for their and their families' lives) had enough and walked out of the prison in protest. At Walpole, the prisoners ran the show. Thurber ~ and in A Big House for Little Men, Cody ~ was its virtuoso.

As evil as Cody is, Michael McKay has superbly ~ if not perfectly ~ hand-crafted a character that gains readers' sympathy, that lets us have compassion for Cody. I actually felt for this person who had committed such vile crimes; I wanted him to win, to beat the system and get some sort of normalcy, a fresh start, a chance. I felt in a strange way that the state owed it to him, that maybe any of us who grew up loved and loving owed it to him.

Cody is now walking the streets ~ your streets, my streets. He was released ~ yes, released ~ with life parole (to tell you how and why now would be doing a disservice to McKay's magnetic storytelling, so all I shall do is urge you to read A Big House for Little Men for yourself!) but his sentence was eventually greatly reduced by a crooked ex- Massachusetts State Trooper (Cody's old acquaintance from the neighborhood) turned head of the Massachusetts Parole Board."

"I read this book and 90% of what this Author portrays as the Character "Cody' in this book is real. Walpole Prison was like working in Hell in the 1970's and 80's. I remember Mikey Thurber also, he escaped from Concord prison twice, and yes, once from over the 25 foot wall with guard towers watching and nobody even knew Thurber and two others left. They formed execution squads within the prison at Walpole and were killing other inmates for the own enjoyment. Then there was going to be a takeover of the prison in which all correctional officers were to die. Somehow Thurber with his connections and Past Friends with the State Police Robert Murphy walked out of prison a free man. This guy was a pure killer and he walk out of a Max prison serving a life sentence a free man. Give me a break!! He had connections like Whitey Bulger and the F.B.I. This Author had to somehow do an interview with either Thurber or one of his old friends to get this kind of information. All in all, this was a Great book well written. But it brought back the bad times we all want to forget as correctional officers in old Walpole State Prison. I also want to add another book called: Execution Squad Fraud, written by Stephen Doherty calms he was innocent of everything - Ya, right he got off on an appeal, he was just as bad if not worst as the other KILLERS."

"I read three books a week and I like to keep an open mind when I buy a new book with a new author. I understand the book industry and how hard it is for a new author and book to make it to the top.



I want everyone who reads reviews to read this - "This is a winner" The cover caught my eye and I knew I had to buy this book just based on the cover. But after reading this thriller, it stayed in my head and I talked about the character Cody to my friends. And told them how I felt for this character and understood what he went through in his life and yes, a couple of parts in the book brought me to tears.



I read some of the other reviews and some said this was based on a real person. I only hope if this is true, I hope this person found some sort of peace within himself.



Michael W. McKay. Welcome to the Book Industry. "You are going to do very well if you keep writing like this" You wrote a very good Book and found a follower and hope you find many more."

"I knew nothing at all about the author or the book, but after seeing the cover of the book and reading some of the reviews, I bought it. Glad I did, the author got into every little detail in his stories that kept my interest and once I started reading this book, I could not put it down.



The character Cody was powerful and the plots made you feel they were real and it was very thrilling. I was thinking if they ever made a movie about this book, who in hollywoodland would play Cody? It is to bad Heath Ledger is dead, becase he would have make a great Cody. Great job on the book to the author. The overall review of this book made me relize that there are a lot of other great writers out there other than the big ones like Steven King who I read all the time."

"Extremely well researched chilling re-telling of the infamous Walpole State Prisons in the 1970's and 80's and a notorious inmate named Mikey Thurber who was a street thug working under South Boston Gangsters back in those days. Walpole prison had so many murder that it shocked the nation back in the days. This was an institution that only housed 975 inmates and had the highest murder rate in one year than all the prisons in the Country put together. It made the Ap News when 12 inmates were indicted and charged with forming execution squads within the prison. McKay takes the reader through every detail of some the cold blooded murder of those times. And how this one character named "Cody" (Mikey Thurber) escaped twice from the prison system while serving a life sentence (which was very true). I worked with the State Police and FBI at that time as Dept Superintendent and we could do nothing to stop what happened in this hellish prison, I remember when all the Guards walked out of this prison because they all feared for there own life's because it was so bad inside. This all changed when there was to be a takeover of the prison by inmates wanting to correctional officers. The Governor and Commissioner call in the State Police and National Guard to clean out the prison and ship inmates off to federal prisons.



This is one of the best books I read so far about Walpole Prison and what happened back in those days. The author has a great source for his information in writing his book, because I have to tell you in my opinion most of it is true, and yes, "Cody" (Mikey Thurber) is still a free man walking the streets, and that is a nightmare in itself because I'll never foreget meeting him.................................."

"I was a Correction Officer in Concord Prison I'll never forget it - I was there in June of 1977, and I remember when Mikey Thurber went over the wall, he got 17 guards fired after that 2nd escape. Nobody even knew he went over the wall with his two partners. They would have made it if the car showed up on the other side of the wall. This book is totally about Thurber, he was in the mix of everything back in those days, after he was shipped back to Walpole prison he and his buddies formed execution squads within the prison and was killing other inmates like nothing. Nobody was never found guilty of any of the murders in Walpole, that was Jan of 1979 when they all got indicted.



This was a great book to read and brought back some old time memories for this old prison guard and I hope some younger kids read this book and realize that you can only beat the system if your dead."

"I could not believe "Cody" the charater in this book - I loved him, then I hated him. Now he is stuck in my head even when I go to sleep at night, he makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Great thrill ride and very, very suspenseful. Cody is a pure Phyco in this book, but you do have to feel for him. Good job to the Author and I know this book will do very well as long as Cody dose not get outta the book and becomes real - lol...I read on the Authors website that he is writing a part two, "You leave me no Option". I hope this is true, I'll be the first in line."

"I hate reading and this was the 1st book I ever read in my life. My friends Brother went to School with the authors Sons Mike and Matt while living in Florida and told me what it was about, so my mom was shocked when I asked her if she would buy it for me from Barnes and Nobel. She read it first and then gave it to me. She loved it. And I did as well. I could not believe how good a book can make you feel like your there with the characters in each chapter. This was like going to the movies,only better! I will start reading more books now, and I will always remember this book because it my first book I ever read. It was kinda sick in a way, and I felt so very sad for Codys friend Sean, I had to stop reading it and wipe tears from my eyes, I couldn't believe a book could make me cry and sad at the same time. Thank you Mr. McKay for opening up a new world of reading a book."

"I was around in the 1970's and I remember the Murder inditements of inmates from Walpole State Prison. There was an inmate called Mikey Thurber who is portrayed as Cody in this Book. He escaped twice from the prisons and led the hit squards within Walpole Prison. I know of this person because my husband was murdered within those prison walls in 1979. I know they got found not guilty at trial, and more people got murdered within those prison walls. They had to change the name of the prison. A Great book Overall and it did bring back back memories."