Chicago Confidential: A Nathan Heller Novel [Hardcover]

Max Allan Collins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2002

It's 1950, and P.I. Nathan Heller has returned home to Chicago, where a congressional probe into organized crime sparks an all-out mob war-with Heller's partner among the victims. An astonishing mix of fact and fiction, this new Heller thriller features such notable characters as singer Frank Sinatra, mobster Sam Giancana, Senator Joe McCarthy, and Hollywood bombshell-in-the-making, Jayne Mansfield.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nobody does historical hard-boiled detective fiction better than Max Allan Collins. He proves this once again in Chicago Confidential, a randy, rollicking read that finds series PI Nathan Heller squeezed dangerously between ambitious politicians and remorseless gangsters. The year is 1950, and America's first congressional inquiry into organized crime, led by presidential-hopeful U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver, has swept into the Windy City on a tsunami of press coverage. Heller hopes to lie low until this subpoena-waving circus has passed. "While not a mob guy myself," he confides, "I had... certain underworld associations, and hence did know where a good share of the bodies were buried. Hell, I'd buried some of them." But, instead, he's catapulted into the investigative limelight, first by one of his employees--ex-cop Bill Drury, who agrees to cooperate with Kefauver's crusade--and then by his association with Jackie Payne, the abused, drug-addicted girlfriend of a powerful mobster. After hit men target Drury, and Jackie is abducted, Heller finds a way to get revenge and justice at the same time.

As in previous Heller outings, Chicago Confidential smoothly blends well-researched fact with fiction. The gumshoe pals around with crooner Frank Sinatra, falls (fast) to the seductive wiles of future starlet Jayne Mansfield, and is threatened by commie-hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy. If Confidential is less darkly intense than Stolen Away or Angel in Black, two previous entries in this series, its quicksilver dialogue and truly menacing action sequences still make it one gangbuster of a book. --J. Kingston Pierce

From Publishers Weekly

"I had done jobs for Nitti, and Nitti had done me favors, like not having me whacked," PI Nate Heller recalls in the latest entertaining installment of his "memoirs," which takes him back to his old stomping grounds in Chicago. It's 1950, the moment in American history when the Mafia becomes a household name, and Senator estes Kefauver is investigating organized crime. The PI walks the thin line between keeping his underworld sources confidential and holding the Feds at bay, but when a crusading ex-cop who once saved his life is murdered, Heller knows revenge is in order. Fourteen novels ago the prolific Collins (who has also scripted the Batman comic and novelized Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan) introduced Heller in True Detective (1983), set in the Chitown of Capone and Nitti. More recently Heller has wandered the country, investigating now-famous crimes such as the Black Dahlia and the assassination of Huey Long, always set in a factual here-and-now crossbred with the jazzy pulp stylings of such paperback original writers as Mickey Spillane. A famous starlet-to-be has a cameo role ("her elaborately brassiered breasts punched at the light fabric like shells almost breaching a submarine's hull"). While the crime elements are strictly pro forma for the hard-boiled genre, Collins excels in the dialogue with the Made Guys, and every time Frank Sinatra (whose career Heller figures is finished) appears, the pages sing. Light and fast-paced, this is criminal history made easy and fun.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 292 pages
• Publisher: NAL Hardcover (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451206509
• ISBN-13: 978-0451206503
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,872,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Max Allan Collins is a New York Times bestselling author of original mysteries, a Shamus award winner and an experienced author of movie adaptions and tie-in novels. His graphic novel ROAD TO PERDITION was made into a major motion picture by Tom Hank's production company, Playtone.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Nate Heller Novel, July 31, 2004

By 

David W. Nicholas (Van Nuys, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chicago Confidential (Mysteries & Horror) (Mass Market Paperback)

Max Allan Collins is probably one of the best mystery writers who's never really broken out from the pack, and wound up on bestseller lists regularly, like Sue Grafton or Robert B. Parker. He's sort of the king of the also-rans. It's not really a bad place to be, though. He's best known (perhaps) for writing novelizations of movies and TV shows (he did all the CSI books, and Saving Private Ryan, among others) and for writing Road to Perdition, which was made into the Paul Newman/Tom Hanks movie of a couple of years ago.

That being said, among mystery fans he's known for something else. He's been writing the Nathan Heller novels for maybe 20 years now (his son is actually named Nathan in real life) and they're clearly what he enjoys doing the most. The character is a hoot, bedding women right and left, shooting bad guys with considerable skill, and solving every mystery imaginable from the middle of the last century. There's the suspension-of-disbelief factor that I've mentioned before: it takes a bit of an imagination to believe in a character who's involved in all of these different crimes, and solves them all. Once you're over that, they're very entertaining and fun.

In the current installment, the year is 1950, and Heller's in LA hiding from the Kefauver commitee, which is exploring organized crime in America. The Mafia, of course, doesn't officially exist, courtesy of executive fiat from Director Hoover of the FBI. Heller knows better, of course, but he doesn't want to testify, because as he puts it, he knows where the bodies are buried, and in some cases helped bury them. So he's hiding in LA, but he has to return to Chicago to get one of his employees out of trouble, and that starts things going.

There isn't the single high-profile crime here that there is in many of his other books. He's done several like this before, where what murders there are don't measure up, and I don't think it hurts things that much, to tell you the truth. The story has more than enough historical characters and flavor, and the action is intelligent and fun. I enjoyed this book, and would recommend it.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Nate Heller's best, August 1, 2002

By 

Flipkid (Cockeysville, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chicago Confidential: A Nathan Heller Novel (Hardcover)

Sorry, Steve 731, I respectfully disagree. I think this is one of the BEST Nate Heller books. The "crime" itself may not be as sensational as "The Black Dahlia" or the Lindbergh kidnapping, but most readers will be well aware of the McCarthy hearings and Kefauver hearings into organized crime (and this book provides a fascinating-- if theoretical-- inside look at both).

I do agree, though, that with a cameo appearance by Jack Ruby (and the fact that Frank Sinatra and mobster Sam "Mooney" Giancana are major characters in this book) it's only a matter of time until Max Allan Collins/Nate Heller tackle the JFK assassination (I can hardly wait!).

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book but slow at first, July 27, 2002

By 

Brian Evankovich "Brian E." (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chicago Confidential: A Nathan Heller Novel (Hardcover)

It took less than a week to read Chicago Confidential but I almost didn't finish it because the first half is real slow. I stayed with it to see who Heller met and all that, and when the action picked up in the middle, I was hooked.

The case Heller takes on may not be very well known but it's an important part of the Heller story and well worth your time. Collins, as always, has done a great job. --Brian