True Crime
Written by Max Allan Collins
Narrated by Dan John Miller
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
1934 Chicago dazzles with fast action and calculating, cold-blooded mean¬ness as private detective Nate Heller combs Chicago’s North Side looking for John Dillinger. But things take a turn for the strange when self-aggrandizing G-Man Melvin Purvis shoots down a Dillinger double in front of the Biograph Theater.
Full of muscle and oozing Chicago’s tough-guy persona to the hilt, Max Allan Collins’ Nate Heller is the ultimate private investigator—in the ultimate P.I. town. Heller’s undercover search for a farmer’s-daughter-turned-gun-moll has him on the dusty Depression backroads of middle America, in the company of Ma Barker and her boys, Baby Face Nelson, Alvin Karpis, and a very-much-still-alive Dillinger—whose outlandish plan to kidnap J. Edgar Hoover in downtown Chicago is one Heller tries to foil. Including appearances by fan dancer Sally Rand, boxer Barney Ross, and Heller’s “godfather,” Frank Nitti, True Crime is a relentless classic.
Max Allan Collins
<p>Max Allan Collins is a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. He is the author of the Shamus Award-winning Nathan Heller thrillers and the graphic novel <em>Road to Perdition</em>, basis of the Academy Award-winning film starring Tom Hanks. His innovative Quarry novels led to a 2016 Cinemax series. He has completed a dozen posthumous Mickey Spillane mysteries, and wrote the syndicated <em>Dick Tracy</em> series for more than fifteen years. His one-man show, <em>Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life</em>, was an Edgar Award finalist. He lives in Iowa.</p>
More audiobooks from Max Allan Collins
Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Legend of Caleb York Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Supreme Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fate of the Union Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bibliomysteries Volume 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The London Blitz Murders Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Lusitania Murders Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nice Weekend for a Murder Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5What Doesn't Kill Her Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War of the Worlds Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Titanic Murders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Executive Order Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seduction of the Innocent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hindenburg Murders Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5No Cure for Death Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Baby Blue Rip-Off Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to True Crime
Titles in the series (16)
Bye Bye, Baby Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5True Detective Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Million-Dollar Wound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Target Lancer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5True Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood and Thunder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chicago Confidential Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Carnal Hours Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flying Blind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Damned in Paradise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Majic Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Triple Play: A Nathan Heller Casebook Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Neon Mirage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angel in Black Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stolen Away Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chicago Lightning: The Collected Nathan Heller Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related audiobooks
True Detective Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Damned in Paradise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chicago Lightning: The Collected Nathan Heller Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Triple Play: A Nathan Heller Casebook Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angel in Black Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollywood Nocturnes Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nice Weekend for a Murder Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hit and Run Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Million-Dollar Wound Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Neon Mirage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chicago Confidential Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Carnal Hours Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stolen Away Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Majic Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bullet For A Star Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mr. Media: The Max Allan Collins Interview Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDead Girl Blues Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mob: Stories of Death and Betrayal From Organized Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Road Dogs Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bye Bye, Baby Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Time to Scatter Stones: A Matthew Scudder Novella Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5White's Tavern Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Busy Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Baby Blue Rip-Off Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Not Comin' Home to You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cobra Clutch Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I, The Jury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When the Sacred Ginmill Closes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch a Falling Clown Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dock Boss: Eddie McGrath and the West Side Waterfront Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Historical Mystery For You
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Echo of Old Books: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bone Rattler: A Mystery of Colonial America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shutter Island Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The ABC Murders: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Curious Beginning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enchanted Hill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5T. H. Elkman: A Western Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tread of Angels Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White Lady: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Curse of the Brimstone Contract Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Librarian of Crooked Lane: The Glass Library, book 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Watchmaker's Daughter: Glass And Steele, Book 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eye of the Raven Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When I Come Home Again: 'A page-turning literary gem' THE TIMES, BEST BOOKS OF 2020 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder by Degrees: A Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady in the Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alienist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood of the Oak: A Mystery of Revolutionary America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Devil and the Dark Water Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Things in Jars: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Physicists' Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mapmaker's Apprentice: Glass And Steele, Book 2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crime and Punishment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Socialite's Guide to Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Dangerous Business Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Murder at the Mayfair Hotel: Cleopatra Fox Mysteries, book 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for True Crime
43 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5True Crime is the second book in Max Allan Collins' Frank Nitti Trilogy, and the second of his 19-book-and-counting Nathan Heller series, about an ex-Chicago cop (the full details are in True Detective; 1983) turned private eye; the conceit of the Heller series is that Heller somehow gets dragged into various real world mysteries, crimes and conspiracies so that Collins can float his own take on what might've happened without having his work marginalized to the conspiracy theory or crackpot genres. Think of Heller as Forrest Gump in film noir drag. In this installment, Heller finds that a seemingly straightforward case of investigating marital fidelity pulls him into the orbit of the nationwide manhunt for John Dillinger; after the events of 22 July 1934, Heller takes on another seemingly mundane case of searching for the wayward daughter of a tubercular ex-farmer, only to find himself cheek-by-jowl with a Who's Who of Public Enemies, plotting the proverbial "last big score" to finance their retirement, only this score is a hell of a lot more interesting than your typical bank or jewelry heist. I liked True Crime slightly better than its predecessor, True Detective, mainly because Collins made a very convincing case for Dillinger's survival; in his afterword ("I Owe Them One"), Collins gives a fairly exhaustive round-up of his main sources, with special recognition given to Jay Robert Nash's "Dillinger's not dead" theories (published in Dillinger -- Dead or Alive [1970], Citizen Hoover [1972], Bloodletters and Badmen [1973], and the revised and expanded edition of the first book, published in 1983 as The Dillinger Dossier), although he takes pains to note: "I do not draw exactly the same conclusions from the evidence at hand as does Nash, so he should not be held accountable for the version of Dillinger's 'death' as told in these pages." My only previous significant exposure to the notion that Dillinger really wasn't gunned down outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre on a hot summer's night in 1934 was in the pages of The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. While some of the details in True Crime verge on being overwhelming, they're nowhere nearly as head-snapping (if not mind-expanding...) as those crammed into The Illuminatus! Trilogy. (It does help, however, if you're willing to make a few sidebar searches with Google to fill in some of the details for some of the historical persons who appear in the pages of True Crime.) Nathan Heller is an interesting, mostly congenial shamus: he's tough and persistent without being superhuman or vicious (he rarely goes armed, at least partly because his father committed suicide with a firearm); he's reasonably fair and honest without being a plaster saint (hey, it's Chicago); and he's an intelligent man with several glaring blind spots. Some readers may be put off by the latter, as he makes two ginormous gaffes in True Crime that land him in more hot water than most of us would ever want to be in; then again, without these errors, there would be no story here, just another counterfactual true crime "history." Collins' prose style is no frills and WYSIWYG (which is exactly what I wanted after John le Carré's A Perfect Spy), and he lards True Crime (and True Detective) with plentiful, mundane period details that are mostly successful at conveying the feeling of the time and place (the Murphy bed in Heller's office is nearly a character in and of itself here); at times, however, he nearly oversells his research, which threatens to turn True Crime into a Nostalgia Illustrated-themed version of the children's game "I Spy." (That said, Heller's dismissal of the song stylings of Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians made me smile.) Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti is a more subdued presence in True Crime than he was in True Detective, for obvious, plot-related reasons; Nitti's power and influence over Heller (as, indeed, over all of Cook County, Illinois and, to a lesser extent, a goodly portion of the Midwest) is more interesting and sinister here than in the previous book, at least in part because of Nitti's relative lack of "screen time." Collins convinces the reader that Nitti was at his most dangerous when he was at his most avuncular. And although it would've had no place in True Crime, trivia-happy readers of a certain (admittedly sophomoric) mindset may feel faintly disappointed by the fact that Collins ignores the rumor that Dillinger's reportedly absurdly large penis ("14 in. flaccid, 20 in. erect," according to The Book of Lists 2 by Irving Wallace, David Wallechinsky, Amy Wallace and Sylvia Wallace [NY: William Morrow and Company, Inc.; 1980; ISBN: 0-688-03574-4; 551 pps.], p. 324) was on display at either the Smithsonian Institution or the Medical Museum of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (subsequently moved to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center). Given that the final chapter of True Crime consists of Heller giving a "Where are they now?" round-up a few decades after the events of the novel, Collins could've easily had Heller raise (ahem) and dismiss this rumor, to the relief of most of his male readers.