I just got around to reading STOLEN AWAY (1991), a Nate
Heller story, where Nate--first a Chicago policeman, later a
private eye--is asked to help out on the Lindbergh baby
kidnapping case. I had no idea the kidnapping was so badly
handled, or that it involved Al Capone (and many other Chi
gangsters); the father of General Norman Schwarzkopf; Edgar
Cayce; the woman who owned the Hope diamond; and even Jack
Benny, who watched the Bruno Hauptmann trial.
It's 600 pages long, which is too long, but Collins had a lot
to cover and he made it all pretty clear. Heller is on the
case just after the kidnapping and then comes back a couple
of years later to try to clear Hauptmann. Heller ends up
solving the case, and I have no idea if his theory is at all
likely, but it's certainly interesting.
In all the discussion we've had about these Heller books I
never noticed that people mentioned the true crime aspect,
but this one had it in spades. I don't read true crime, but I
liked the book, and I'm going to take the recommendation of
Mr. Niebuhr and others and go back and read the first ones.
Chicago's got a lot of lively history I'd like to learn more
about.
Canadian TV viewers may notice that in some pictures Max
Allan Collins bears a resemblance to Bubbles from TRAILER
PARK BOYS. Compare:
http://www.showcase.ca/trailerparkboys/images/features/p_blowing_bubbles_1.jpg
http://www.maxallancollins.com/Max/max.gif
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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