Neon Mirage (Nathan Heller Novels) - Softcover

Max Allan Collins

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1612181015 ISBN 13: 9781612181011

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer, 2011

Synopsis

When Nate Heller clears Bugsy Siegel of murder, the Chicago P.I. and brash, handsome gangster become unlikely friends...and rivals in love. Bugsy invents modern Vegas, but receives bullets as his reward and Heller becomes his avenger.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In 1946 Chicago, Nathan Heller—president of the flourishing A-1 Detective Agency—is hired to protect racing-wire gambling chief James Ragen, who is nonetheless shot down on the streets of Chicago. Not one to take such an affront sitting down, Nate goes after the killer, but he’s in for the biggest surprise of his career. Demonstrating once again that he is the master of true-crime fiction, Max Allan Collins’ story of the birth of Las Vegas—and the dirty deeds that floated all around it—is a masterpiece of modern noir. Heller follows the trail as it leads to Hollywood and Las Vegas, specifically to Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, but when he proves Siegel’s innocence, Heller and the suave gangster wind up friends...and rivals for the love of Nate’s life. Bugsy hires Heller as security chief of the under-construction Flamingo hotel, where mob bag woman Virginia Hill is a dangerous, if glamorous, distraction. It all comes to a boil with a shocking mob assassination in Beverly Hills that sends Heller into fever-dream ride of vengeance.

“Collins breaks out a really good one, knocking over the...competition (Parker and Leonard for sure, maybe even Puzo)...The book is unputdownable.”—Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Max Allan Collins has earned fifteen Private Eye Writers of America "Shamus" nominations, winning for his Nathan Heller novels, True Detective and Stolen Away, and receiving the PWA life achievement award, the Eye. His graphic novel, Road to Perdition, which is the basis of the Academy Award-winning film starring Tom Hanks, was followed by two novels, Road to Purgatory and Road to Paradise. His suspense series include Quarry, Nolan, Mallory, and Eliot Ness, and his numerous comics credits include the syndicated Dick Tracy and his own Ms. Tree. He has written and directed five feature films and two documentaries, including "The Expert," a HBO World Premiere. His coffee-table book The History of Mystery received nominations for every major mystery award and Men’s Adventure Magazines won the Anthony Award. Collins lives in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife, writer Barbara Collins. They have collaborated on seven novels and numerous short stories, and are currently writing the “Trash ‘n’ Treasures” mysteries.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1612181015
• ISBN 13: 9781612181011
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 275