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    True Detective
    True Detective
    True Detective
    Audiobook11 hours

    True Detective

    Written by Max Allan Collins

    Narrated by Dan John Miller

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In the mob-choked Chicago of 1932, private detective Nathan Heller may be willing to risk his life to earn a Depression dollar, but he never sacrifices his sardonic wit. Now, author Max Allan Collins (Road to Perdition) reissues the contemporary classic that introduces the wise-cracking Nathan Heller in all his guts and glory.

    When Mayor Cermak’s “Hoodlum Squad” brings Heller along on a raid with no instructions but to keep his mouth shut and his gun handy, he becomes an unwitting, unwilling part of a hit on Al Capone’s successor, Frank Nitti. As a result, Heller quits the force to become a private eye; his first job—head off a nation-shaking political assassination in Miami Beach. With the Chicago World’s Fair as a backdrop, Heller encounters a Ragtime array of crooks and clients, including Al Capone, George Raft, “Dutch” Reagan, and FDR himself.

    Rich in riveting plot turns, including a heartbreaking romance, True Detective is one of the most highly entertaining and unlikely coming-of-age stories written. That’s why mystery fans and critics alike rank the history thriller True Detective at the top of their lists—and why the book swept up a Shamus Award for the best novel from the Private Eye Writers of America.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateSep 13, 2011
    ISBN9781455820948
    True Detective
    Author

    Max Allan Collins

    <p>Max Allan Collins is a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. He is the author of the Shamus Award-winning Nathan Heller thrillers and the graphic novel <em>Road to Perdition</em>, basis of the Academy Award-winning film starring Tom Hanks. His innovative Quarry novels led to a 2016 Cinemax series. He has completed a dozen posthumous Mickey Spillane mysteries, and wrote the syndicated <em>Dick Tracy</em> series for more than fifteen years. His one-man show, <em>Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life</em>, was an Edgar Award finalist. He lives in Iowa.</p>

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    Reviews for True Detective

    4/5

    74 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Excellent story presented very well. Really worth listening to. Am looking for the next Collins novel.
    • 4/5
      I'm going to give this one 3.5 stars, and round up.

      I had an exceptionally hard time getting into this one. I love the hard-boiled private eye genre, and Max Allan Collins is one of my favorite authors, so I'm not sure what happened here. The story seemed to take a really long time to set up, and I didn't feel connected to the main character much.

      I did experience a major life event while trying to read this (my dad passed away); maybe that impacted me in more ways than I know. My reading pace has dropped dramatically over the month of June, as well.

      Anyway, I am going to go back and reread this one at some point, and continue the series, too.
    • 5/5
      This is not just the first in the Heller series, it is one of the best. Instead of having a hardboiled detective meet an Al Capone type hoodlum, have him meet the real Al Capone in proper historical setting. Meet Nate Heller, who may just be Collins' greatest creation. This is a superb novel with a breadth and depth to place it among the best of the twentieth century classics.

      It is a story of drawing lines in a corrupt world, of honesty and trust, and betrayal. It is a coming of age story for a young police officer Nate Heller in the corrupt Chicago of the 1930's. He's no Boy Scout and no virgin, but Heller has some limits and some things he won't do, not even if Mayor Cernak (aka "Ten Percent Tony" because he presided over so many payoffs and underhanded dirty deals) says please.

      Nate Heller is not only placed into history with such buddies as world class boxer Barney Ross, who grew up with Heller on Maxwell Street, and Eliot Ness, but he has dealings with a Frank Nitti and Al Capone. How can he pal around with both Nitti and Ness? Well, Heller is not a cardboard character. He is fleshed out here with quite a bit of depth, including his Jewish-Irish background, his family background, his romantic and dating life. The characterizations of the people Heller meets are absolutely terrific. When he meets Nitti, Heller explains that, once having seen him, you wouldn't forget him as he had a fighter's nose, was impeccably groomed, and and was smaller than Frank Nitti was supposed to be. Nitti ran the Chicago outfit when Capone did hard time.

      It is a terrific, top notch book that you will want to read more than once to make sure you got everything because this book has everything you could want in a novel.
    • 3/5
      True Detective by Max Allan Collins
      I am not usually a reader of first person narrative novels, but Max Allan Collins was recommended to me and so I gave this, his first Nathan Heller novel, a try. I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised because the writing style was fast and pacy and drew me into the story straight away. The fact that characters involved in the story really existed made the storyline even better and more credible, and also drew me into doing some research about them.
      Plenty of action, atmospheric descriptions, murders, mayhem and danger. All of these added to the realism of the storyline, one with which I became intrigued. I will certainly give him, that is both the author and Nate Heller, another go in the future.
      4 stars.