Murder by the Numbers: Eliot Ness and the Cleveland Mob Wars [Hardcover]

Max Allan Collins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1993

In 1938 Cleveland, Eliot Ness finds himself in the midst of a racially explosive war between the Italian mob and the black numbers racket.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The fourth Eliot Ness novel from the prolific Collins ( Bullet Proof ), who also pens the Dick Tracy comic strip, is action-packed but essentially lifeless (despite the fact that many of the characters are actual figures). Former Untouchable Ness (who sent Al Capone to prison on tax evasion charges) has moved from Chicago to Cleveland, where he is out to break up the Mayfield Road mob, which five years earlier, in 1933, eliminated black numbers king Rufus Murphy. Forging an uneasy alliance with black detective Toussaint Johnson, and counting on the smoldering resentment of the black community, Ness assembles 70 witnesses and goes to the grand jury. Indictments follow for two Mayfield kingpins, Salvatore Lombardi and the sadistic Angelo Scalise. With a tip of the hat to Cleveland's Depression-era black crime novelist Chester Himes (whom he depicts working at the city's Karamu Theater), Collins effectively evokes the era, but his characters--the square-jawed, uncompromising Ness and slimy, sinister gangsters--remain cartoonish.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Legendary cop Elliot Ness, who's become a fixture in Collins's fact-based novels (Bullet Proof, 1989, etc.), goes up against Cleveland's Mayfield Road gang, the brainchild of two cousins, Black Sal Lombardi and Angelo Scalise, who've muscled in on the formerly black East Side numbers racket in 1938. The Mayfield gang runs a tight ship--interlopers are terrorized and informants executed--and it's only with the help of compromised Officer Toussaint Johnson, an old intimate of numbers banker Rufus Murphy, that Ness is able to break its grip on the city. Gritty details of interracial crime and punishment (the crime inevitably more rousing) enliven this otherwise routine Black Mask pastiche. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 209 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (March 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312088566
• ISBN-13: 978-0312088569
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,177,326 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.