Nemesis: The Final Case of Eliot Ness A Novel [Hardcover]

William Bernhardt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 2009

In his bestselling legal thrillers, William Bernhardt has explored the dark side of contemporary politics, power, and the law. Now Bernhardt turns back the clock to the city of Cleveland, Ohio, in the fall of 1935. Based on true events and new discoveries about Eliot Ness, Nemesis is a brilliantly told story featuring this legendary lawman’s fateful duel with a terrifyingly new kind of criminal: America’s first serial killer.

In Chicago, Eliot Ness had created “the Untouchables,” the fabled team of federal agents who were beyond corruption and who finally put Al Capone behind bars. Now the headline-grabbing Ness has been moved to Cleveland, where a new mayor desperately needs some positive publicity. The heroic, squeaky-clean Fed is the perfect man to become the city’s director of public safety, but by the time Ness starts his new job, a killer has started a career of his own. And this man is as obsessed with blood and mayhem as Eliot Ness is obsessed with justice.

One by one, bodies are found, each one decapitated and uniquely dissected with a doctor’s skill and a madman’s bent. The police are baffled, the population is terrorized, and newspaper headlines blare about the so-called “Torso Killer.” Though it’s not his turf, Ness is forced to cross bureaucratic boundaries and take over the case, working with a dogged, street-smart detective and making enemies every step of the way. The more energy Ness pours into the investigation, the more it takes over his life, his marriage, even his untouchable reputation. Because in Cleveland, there is only one true untouchable: a killer who has the perfect hiding place and the perfect plan for destroying Eliot Ness.

From the first primitive use of forensic psychology to a portrait of America battling the Great Depression and a man battling his own demons, Nemesis is a masterwork of mystery, murder, and vivid, dynamic historical suspense.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Framed by an older Eliot Ness reminiscing with a biographer in 1957, this uneven imagining of the later career of the famed lawman by Bernhardt (Capitol Conspiracy) takes place mostly in mid-1930s Cleveland. Hired as the city's new safety director, Ness focuses his efforts on cleaning up a town mired in gambling, racketeering and juvenile crime. When dismembered corpses start turning up around Kingsbury Run, a notorious slum, public pressure forces Ness to put his anticorruption plans on hold and turn his attention to catching the Torso Murderer. As more bodies appear, Ness takes drastic steps to smoke out the killer, a gamble that could cost him his career and his life. While Bernhardt's research into Ness's last major case and one of the country's first serial killers is commendable, his heavy-handed prose style turns what should have been a crackling procedural into a plodding melodrama. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Bernhardt takes a break from the Ben Kincaid series to tell a lightly fictionalized version of the last major investigation conducted by Ness, the famed treasury agent who put Al Capone behind bars. In the mid-1930s, a killer dubbed the Torso Murderer was on the loose in Cleveland, Ohio, cutting up bodies and leaving them lying around the city. After the police made no headway in their investigation, the mayor put Ness, then the city’s public-safety director, in charge of the case, but he was never able to solve it. Now recent developments reveal that he seems to have had a suspect and that the suspect may have been the killer. Bernhardt stays as close to the facts as dramatic license will allow, except that he invents a conclusion that, in his words, is consistent with the historical record, that still allows Eliot Ness to solve his last big case. This is a thrilling novel that is both a fast-paced action-adventure and a character study, a portrait of a resourceful and determined lawman whose political naïveté and straight-arrow demeanor put off many of his colleagues. Fans of The Untouchables will get that same period feel from the book as the film version, and it will be a surprise if some clever Hollywood producer doesn’t snap up Bernhardt’s novel and put Ness onscreen yet again. A rousing success, highly recommended for fans of Max Allan Collins’ series starring Ness. --David Pitt

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; First Edition edition (January 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345487583
• ISBN-13: 978-0345487582
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.3 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,267,413 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I love my job. Even on the worst day when I can't seem to put together a coherent sentence, I am grateful for having been given this magnificent opportunity to participate in the literary exchange of ideas. My mother says I was telling people I wanted to be a writer when I was seven. I know that seems incredible, but she's my mom, so we have to believe her. I never missed an opportunity to visit the library, which was blissfully near my home, and the librarians there took a great interest in this nerdy, shy, bespectacled kid who kept reappearing almost every day. They encouraged me to read widely and to read the best of everything, and that is exactly what I did and have continued to do all my life.

I sent off my first submission when I was eleven, to Highlights Magazine. This was a poem of which I was particularly proud concerning the Oklahoma Land Run. They turned me down. Yes, that was my first rejection letter. Over the next twenty years, I collected over 400 more of them. No, I'm not exaggerating. I still have them. Every last one. There was a reason, I realize now, why all those compositions were being rejected. They weren't very good. But they improved over time. I didn't know it, but during the entire torturous process of submission and rejection, I was learning how to write.

I finally had my first novel published (by Ballantine, a division of Random House) when I was thirty-one. To some, this may seem an early age to publish, but if you clock it from my first rejection, it took twenty years. That was a great year--my first son, Harry, was born in August, and my first book, Primary Justice, was born in December. The book surprised everyone and the follow-up did even better and before I even realized it I had accomplished my goal--I was a real honest-to-gosh writer. I've been writing ever since. I've written more than twenty novels, edited two anthologies, done two books for children, and published numerous stories, essays, puzzles, and poems. I have three children now, and this job allows me to be present when they come home from school and available when they need me during the day, which is a blessing I could not have anticipated back when I was a seven-year old gazing dreamily at author photos on dust jackets, wishing I could see myself there.

My goals for the future are to continue to learn, to grow, to find new ways of doing my work and doing it better. I think the current interest in thrillers provides a marvelous opportunity to spin bigger and more exciting stories. I've learned that I enjoy teaching, which has led to the William Bernhardt Writing Programs and The Fundamentals of Fiction DVDs, as well as many speaking and teaching engagements throughout the year. My interest in mentoring aspiring writers led me to start the Small-Group Seminars and Master Classes, which allow me to teach my favorite subject all across the nation. And in my personal life, my goal is I to be the best parent possible to Harry, Alice, and Ralph, and the best possible partner to my wife, Marcia. I'm very excited about the future--my personal life with these extraordinary people, and my professional life, creating new stories for you wonderful people who still understand the importance of storytelling and the written word.
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William Bernhardt is the author of more than twenty novels, including Primary Justice, Murder One, Criminal Intent, Death Row, Capitol Murder, Capitol Threat, Capitol Conspiracy, and Nemesis. He is one of fewer than a dozen recipients of the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award given "in recognition of an outstanding body of work in which we understand ourselves and American society at large." He is also one of the country's most popular writing instructors, teaching at various conferences throughout the year. A former trial attorney, Bernhardt has received several awards for his public service. He lives in Tulsa with his wife, Marcia, and their children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Cleveland Way, March 29, 2009

By 

EddieLove "EddieLove" (NYC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nemesis: The Final Case of Eliot Ness A Novel (Hardcover)

Engagingly brisk thriller as Eliot Ness takes on a Depression-era madman on the loose in Cleveland where Ness now works as Safety Director. The book works as a whole, I wish there was a little more historical detail per the afterword as much of this is true. What period detail we do get is largely cliché back-stories of the people who find the victims, and that's largely filler. Otherwise, a good fast-paced tale.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well Written 4 1//2 Stars, January 18, 2009

By 

Konrad Kern (OFallon, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nemesis: The Final Case of Eliot Ness A Novel (Hardcover)

After the mayor of Cleveland hires the services of Eliot Ness to clean up the city, Ness finds himself getting involved in the investigation of a brutal serial killer.
Bernhardt's excellent writing style and his research into this story makes for a very readable and eye opening thriller. I had no idea, and was surprised, with what happened to Ness after helping to put Al Capone away.
A credible biographical thriller from one of my favorite authors.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars William Bernhardt has a winning combination in NEMESIS, February 25, 2009

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nemesis: The Final Case of Eliot Ness A Novel (Hardcover)

In 1935, Prohibition may have been over, but there was still some cleanup work to do, and still a lot of illegal booze that made its way into illegal houses of gambling. Riding high on his success at putting mobster Al Capone behind bars, Eliot Ness was assigned a new position --- that of alcohol tax agent in the "Moonshine Mountains" of Ohio. He and his wife moved to Cleveland, where newly-elected Mayor Harold Burton soon recognized the benefits of appointing Ness his Director of Safety to aid in keeping his campaign promises as a Reform Party candidate. Ness enthusiastically jumped in to take care of the traffic woes and police corruption that were nearly paralyzing Cleveland. With his baby face and his Boy Scout manner, he presented the perfect image to the public. Besides, everybody knew his name and his reputation as a true American hero.

But while Ness was attempting to solve the mayor's problems, a vicious serial killer had started on a spree. Dubbed "The Torso Killer" for his gruesome dismemberments, he left a bloody trail of bodies in his wake. He seemed to be taunting the authorities, and especially Ness, as he dumped torsos and heads of victims in areas that would ensure they would be found quickly. It looked as though Ness had met his match.

Battling this serial killer, the corruption in the police department, the hangover from Prohibition, the miseries of the Depression, a city's desperate need for modernization and a lonely wife threatening to leave him, Ness had his hands over full. His boyish optimism could carry him only so far. To make matters worse, the Torso Murderer, also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, had hit too close to home when he sent postcards to Ness. They contained jeering remarks, a sort of written form of thumbing his nose. But when Ness realized that the latest postcard did not come through the mail but was hand delivered, he snapped. The man murdering people already down on their luck had just sent Ness a personal message.

As Director of Safety, Ness thought his job was to reduce traffic accidents, stop illegal sales of booze and put a halt to gambling. He didn't want any involvement in the sensational murder case --- that is, until it touched a raw nerve. And once assigned to him, he launched himself into it as doggedly as he pursued Capone. But the Torso Murderer turned out to be Ness's true nemesis. Officially, the case was never solved. But unofficially?

Just how much of William Bernhardt's novel is made up? We may never know, for it has an excellent basis in fact and much of the speculation has its roots in truth. He presents a persuasive case for the probable identity of the killer. So what kept Ness from bringing him in? The torso murder case had to have frustrated him to the end of his days.

William Bernhardt has a winning combination in NEMESIS. He has pitted America's first real-life serial killer against one of America's favorite heroes. Claiming at least a dozen victims, the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run terrorized the citizens of Cleveland at a time when many were already beleaguered by the Depression. Full of great period detail, right down to the nuances of the time and the place, NEMESIS is a compelling page-turner.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers