Chicago Confidential

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.

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!).

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

Over the years, as writer Max Allan Collins has gotten older, his signature character Nate Heller has gotten mellower. And I think I like it. When I was a young firebrand, Nate Heller (in the early novels) was a smart-mouth roughneck. As my tastes matured, Heller mellowed out and got involved in fewer shoot-outs and savage beatings. I like the evolution of Heller; from poormouth private eye (in the 30s) to minor celebrity private eye to the stars (in the late 40s). Chicago Confidential (the title comes from a period muck-raking book of the same name; it is not a rip-off of James Ellroy's LA Confidential) isn't about any particular crime like the other Heller novels. Instead, it is a novel about a particular era; the 1950s gangland witch-hunt by a crusading senator. A good, brooding story from a master of hard-boiled fiction. My only complaint is that the Joe McCarthy angle wasn't explored as deeply as I wanted. I was sort of looking forward to Heller being paranoid and concerned about the malevolent government establishment, like in Majic Man.

Detective Nathan Heller knows better than to get involved in the Kefauver hearings on organized crime. He knows plenty--but the only way to stay alive is to keep what he knows under his hat. He tries to tell his friend Bill Drury the same thing, but Bill is intent on taking the Chicago Mafia down. When Drury gets killed in a Mafia hit, Heller knows he has to get involved--but how can he manage that without ending up as dead as Drury? Author Max Allan Collins delivers a convincing account of Chicago during the 1950s. The American Mafia has begun its climb toward respectability, helped by the FBI's assurances that there is no organized crime in America. Chicago is controlled by a combination of its political machine and the mob, with dirty police more common than not. Collins makes Heller acquainted with both major mob figures and with popular icons such as Frank Sinatra and Jayne Mansfield, giving the reader occasional brushes with the famous. What makes CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL powerful, however, is Heller's emotional strength as he battles between doing what is safe and what is right--in a Chicago-pragmatic way. CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL is an enjoyable novel and Nathan Heller a convincing and sympathetic 'tough guy' hero.