Wicked City [Kindle Edition]

Ace Atkins (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Atkins's richly detailed but scattered sixth novel draws on the history of a real town, Phenix City, Ala., which in 1954 was overrun with gambling, prostitution and moonshine. When Albert Patterson, the state's recently elected attorney general, is gunned down on the street, the town's antivice group vows to bring the murderer to justice. Ex-boxer and family man Lamar Murphy leads the charge, with the rest of the Russell County Betterment Association (RBA) following suit. There are crooked characters at every turn, from the lecherous Deputy Bert Fuller, who personally inspects and catalogues the city's prostitutes, to Fannie Belle, a brothel madam with a habit of collecting husbands. Even when the town falls under martial law and Lamar is appointed interim sheriff, the redneck mafia will do anything to prevent Phenix City from going straight. Atkins (White Shadow) spares no punches in detailing the town's depravity, but the result is less a coherent story and more a snapshot of a bygone era. Readers will struggle with the many names and shifting alliances, while the climax and resolution are anything but surprising. Author tour. (Apr.)
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Product Description

From "one of crime fiction's most interesting and passionate voices" (Laura Lippman) comes a new "noir crime classic" (Mystery Ink) about one of the most notorious towns in American history.

Reviewing White Shadow, the Associated Press wrote, "It is as gritty as James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential. And yet, the prose is as lyrical as James Lee Burke's Crusader's Cross. With White Shadow, Atkins has found his true voice." And with Wicked City, it is even truer.

In 1955, Look magazine called Phenix City, Alabama, "The Wickedest City in America," but even that may have been an understatement. It was a stew of organized crime and corruption, run by a machine that dealt with complaints forcefully and with dispatch. No one dared cross them-no one even tried. And then the machine killed the wrong man.

When crime-fighting attorney Albert Patterson is gunned down in a Phenix City alley in the spring of 1954, the entire town seems to pause just for a moment- and when it starts up again, there is something different about it. A small group of men meet and decide that they have had enough, but what that means and where it will take them is something they could not have foreseen. Over the course of the next several months, lives will change, people will die, and unexpected heroes will emerge-like "a Randolph Scott western," one of them remarks, "played out not with horses and Winchesters but with Chevys and .38s and switchblades."

Peopled by an extraordinary cast of characters, both real and fictional, Wicked City is a novel of uncommon intensity-rich with atmosphere and filled with sensuality and surprise.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 373 KB
• Publisher: Berkley (April 7, 2009)
• Sold by: Penguin Publishing
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0012DHDRC
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Ace Atkins is the author of nine novels, including The Ranger, the debut novel in the Quinn Colson series, from G.P. Putnam's Sons. Earlier this year, Atkins was chosen by the Robert B. Parker estate to continue the highly popular Spenser novels.

The first of those books hits bookstores in 2012 along with Atkins' sequel to The Ranger.

A former journalist who cut his teeth as a crime reporter in the newsroom of The Tampa Tribune, he published his first novel, Crossroad Blues, at 27 and became a full-time novelist at 30.

While at the Tribune, Ace earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination for a feature series based on his investigation into a forgotten murder of the 1950s. The story became the core of his critically acclaimed novel, White Shadow, which earned raves from noted authors and critics. In his next novels, Wicked City, Devil's Garden, and Infamous, blended first-hand interviews and original research into police and court records with tightly woven plots and incisive characters. The historical novels told great American stories by weaving fact and fiction into a colorful, seamless tapestry.

The Ranger represents a return to Ace's first love: hero-driven series fiction. Quinn Colson is a real hero--a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan--who returns home to north Mississippi to fight corruption on his home turf. The first Quinn Colson novel, a contemporary book with a dash of classic westerns and noir, hits stores June 9th.

Ace lives on a historic farm outside Oxford, Mississippi with his family.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical events through a vivid and realistic fictional lens, June 30, 2008

By 

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

This review is from: Wicked City (Hardcover)

WICKED CITY continues Ace Atkins's practice --- inaugurated in his last book, WHITE SHADOW --- of crafting a novel by basing it upon real world events visualized through a fictional prism. It concerns Phenix City, Alabama, in the early 1950s, a small town where corruption, graft and vice had taken root to the degree that, like the kudzu native to the region, it appeared to be impossible to uproot.

The relative complacency of the townspeople to the extent and degree of the wickedness --- there is no other word for it --- is shattered by the cold-blooded murder of Albert Patterson, a crime-fighting attorney who had campaigned on a promise to clean up Phenix City. Fresh off a primary victory that all but assures him of being elected the Attorney General of Alabama, Patterson is gunned down in a downtown alley. His son, John, vows to take his place, and not only to see that the killers are brought to justice but also to fulfill his campaign promise. Among John's early recruits is Lamar Murphy, a quietly upright and decent soul whose former career as a boxer has given way to a married life that involves nothing more complicated than operating a service station by day and spending time with family in the evening.

At first, Murphy is underestimated by the entrenched vice lords of the city, referred to derisively as a "palooka" and a "grease monkey." When they realize, however, that he is a serious opponent to be reckoned with, Murphy soon has a price on his head, one that will not be easy to escape. But as time passes, Murphy's example leads others to stand up as well, including witnesses to Patterson's murder who previously had been reticent to speak up. Armed with truth, a righteous indignation and firepower, Murphy and John take what is sure to be their one and only shot at cleaning up Phenix City and avenging the murder of Albert Patterson.

Atkins has done yeoman's work researching Phenix City, and the results show that. It turns out that the author had relatives who were intimately familiar --- and involved --- with the goings-on in Phenix City; indeed, one of the characters here is based on a composite of Atkins's grandfathers. Atkins met and interviewed Murphy's direct descendents as well, so that, combined with other extensive research, one feels at times while reading the book that one is in the process of actually witnessing the events. One example of many: Murphy, at one point, leads a raid on what is referred to as the "Rabbit Farm." Atkins's description of what follows, and of the premises itself, does not border on genius; it stakes the term out and marks it as posted.

So how good is WICKED CITY? As I was reading, I experienced the high that readers seek, that of total immersion, where your immediate reality is limited to what is between the covers of the book at any given moment. There were also times when I thought I was going to jump out of my skin. And right to the end, Atkins lobs subtle surprises at the reader, never letting up for a moment. You will read and re-read it, copy passages from it, jealously guard it, and run back into a burning building just to rescue your copy.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazingly Accurate for a Work of Fiction, May 3, 2009

By 

Jack P. (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wicked City (Paperback)

Having grown up in Phenix City, Alabama during the 1940s and 1950s, and witnessed the city's cleanup in 1954, I was amazed at the historcal accuracy of the events portrayed by Mr. Atkins. Many readers express surprise at how and why Phenix City acquired its reputation as "Sin City U.S.A." One must recognize that the city was relatively poor with a work force mainly comprised of workers in the cotton mills of Columbus, Georgia just across the Chattahootchie river. There was little by way of legitimate business in the city comprising a tax base. For many years, until the 1954 cleanup, the local mob had convinced most of the people that the city, including its churches and schools, could not survive without the mob's financial support. The beneficiaries didn't complain. There was also an understandable reluctance by so-called "law-abiding citizens" to complain for fear of making themselves the target of mob retribution. And, reacting like ordinary folks usually do in any circumstance, some just "didn't want to get involved."

As Mr. Atkins writes, there were a handful of principled, determined, and couragous citizens who took on the mob and helped overthrow the lawless regime. Sheriff Lamar Murphy was certainly one of those individuals. Among other things, Sheriff Murphy identified the eye witness to the murder of Albert Patterson, the Democrat nominee for Alabama Attorney General, and this witness' testimony was instrumental in convicting the triggerman in the murder. Some commenters expressed surprise that a fellow who pumped gas for a living could take on the job of sheriff and perform it so well. Mr. Atkins' book shows that it can and did happen in Phenix City, Alabama.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Piece of Work, May 8, 2010

By 

Big D (Auburn, AL. USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Wicked City (Hardcover)

Ace Atkins has proven his worth---he's done it again, another fine piece of work by a talented and gifted writer. (Sure am glad he got out of newspaper journalism to concentrate on this type writing.)

Ace weaves fact and fiction together nicely in this story of Phenix City, Alabama, near where Ace lifed most of his young life. Using facts and real personalities, he has set the stage for what truly was one of America's most wicked cities. His real life characters set the stage and his fictional characters help explain just how wicked the city, the criminals and the times were.

A fast moving, enthralling read.

One Note: For those even vaguely with the Phenix City story, it might be--definitely would be--of help to go online and get some information, even pictures, of the real life characters in Ace's book. A good place to go would be the site for movie "Phenix City Confidential." It has outstanding pictures and bios of Ace's true characters and really adds to the enjoyment of the book. In fact, that site has what may be the actual photgraph of the arrest of Art Ferrell as Ace describes it in the book, National Guard troops and all.

A good book, very good. Hope he will do one on Birmingham in the same vein. Now that would be a great one!!!