5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nate Heller Returns, November 6, 2002
Nate Heller novels are always fun. When I reviewed the last one I had read, I made the observation that you must accept one big whopper: that a single detective could do everything he does, in all of the various historical cases the author gets him involved in. If you can live with that, then you'll thoroughly enjoy the books, as I do.
In this installment, it's early in Heller's career, and he's still a Chicago cop. He's finishing up the first part of his involvement in the Lindberg kidnapping when Clarence Darrow calls. Heller knows Darrow because Heller's father owned a radical bookstore some years before, and Darrow was a customer. Darrow wants an investigator to accompany him to Hawaii, and help him with the defense of a quartet of accused murderers, who apparently killed a man accused of rape. The accused include the rape victim's husband and her mother. The kicker is that all of the accused rapists were Asian or Polynesian of some sort, and the rape victim, and all of those accused in the killing, are white. Racial tensions are running high when Heller and Darrow arrive in the islands.
The story is typical Collins, and a rather good example of what he does. The mystery is well-presented, and interesting. The author knows the characters, and the issues, involved in the real-life crime that he portrays. Most people think that Hawaiians are easy-going types, and many are, but there is also a considerable amount of anger about past discrimination on the island, percieved or real. This book does a good job of portraying that.
The other thing Collins always does is cameo appearances by celebrities. In addition to Darrow, and the defendants in the case, Heller runs into a young Buster Crabbe and a much older Chang Apana. The latter was a well-known Honolulu police detective who was the basis for Earl Der Biggers' character Charlie Chan. Amusingly, Detective Apana repeats some of Charlie Chan's quotes from the movies, with tongue firmly in cheek.
I really enjoyed this book. I think most others who are interested in history, and in detective novels, would enjoy it also.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding as usual, October 14, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Damned In Paradise: A Nathan Heller Novel (Paperback)
Max Allan Collins is one of my favorite writers. His books which employ the character Nate Heller are some of the best mystery novels ever written. Nate is always placed in the middle of a true-life incident, sometimes historically significant, sometimes not. In this case, the incident was not particularly historically significant, if not for the appearance of an aging Clarence Darrow. As always, this Heller book informs regarding the incident and truly entertains. I have read dozens of mystery series. Nate Heller ranks right up there with Travis McGee and Elvis Cole as one of my favorite detectives. Perhaps Heller is the most developed and interesting of the bunch.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining and enjoyable with a nod to historical fact., October 15, 2008
I really enjoyed this book. I first got into MACs books when I randomly picked up "The Pearl Harbor Murders" one night at the library. After reading that I decided to look for more. As a result, I wound up reading this one, and with no regrets. He does a very fine job of painting vivid pictures of the Hawaiian backdrop and climate as well as creating believable characters and engaging dialogue. While action is rather minimal, I never got "bored" as he moves the story along at a nice clip. Like most all of MACs books, he frames this story around a real event with actual historical characters and, I might add, he does a good job of it. Based on the historical references and articles I've read about the Massie affair, his story stays true to most all of the evidence and events that transpired during that tumultuous time in Hawai'i. Now, of course, he did take some literary priviledges with the story, but not to an overwhelming degree that would destract from the true incident or take the story way out into left field.
Having just finished this book, I am eagerly awaiting the next books to arrive that I ordered in the Nate Heller series, "Carnal Hours" and "True Crime".
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