The Washington Times ran my On Crime column on Max Allen Collins’ The Big Bundle.
This interesting and insightful crime novel is about a fictional private eye traversing through a begone era and a true and once famous child kidnapping.
You can read the column via the below link or the text below:
BOOK REVIEW: 'The Big Bundle' - Washington Times
In “The Big Bundle,” Max Allan Collins’ 18th novel featuring Nathan Heller, the private detective appears
alongside Robert F. Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa, as well as historical crime and
law enforcement figures involved in the real-life kidnapping of a millionaire’s
son in 1953.
I contacted Mr. Collins and asked him to describe “The
Big Bundle.”
“In many respects, it’s a private eye thriller in the tradition
of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane,” Mr. Collins replied. “I was moving to a new
publisher, Hard Case Crime, and knew their audience was steeped in hardboiled
fiction and might be put off by the famous crimes I usually look at in a Nathan Heller novel. The real-life case
in ‘The Big Bundle,’ quite well known in the 1950s but forgotten now, allowed
me to put the emphasis on the noir aspect of the Heller novels and not be accused of
teaching a “history lesson.”
How would you describe Nathan Heller?
“Heller is a businessman who starts out in
a small office where he sleeps on a Murphy bed and winds up with a
coast-to-coast detective agency. He is not the typical Phillip Marlowe-style
modern-day knight who would never take a bribe or seduce a virgin — Heller has
done both and often indulges in situational ethics. Unlike most fictional
private eyes, he marries (more than once) and is a father and had a father and
mother and even grandparents. He ages with the years. At any age, Heller recoils at injustice in society
and serves up rough justice when he feels it necessary. He not only knows where
the bodies are buried, he has buried more than his share.”
Why have you written a series of crime novels based on
historical events with a fictional character interacting with historical
figures?
“Rereading ‘The Maltese Falcon’ for a college class I was
teaching in the early 1970s, I noticed the 1929 copyright. I had a light-bulb
moment: The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was 1929 — Sam Spade and Al Capone
were contemporaries! Instead of Mike Hammer meeting a Capone type, I could have
Capone meeting a Mike Hammer type. It was a fresh way into a form that had gone
stale,” Mr. Collins (seen in the bottom photo) explained. “What evolved, from
the initial novel about Frank Nitti’s Chicago (“True Detective,” 1983), was Heller solving famous unsolved or
controversially solved crimes, like the Lindbergh kidnapping, the Black Dahila
murder, the assassinations of Huey Long and JFK. Often, I substitute him for a
real detective involved in a case. Heller becomes a sort of ‘private eye
witness’ to history.”
How did you research the history that you use in “The Big
Bundle”?
“Less was available about the Greenlease case than with most
mysteries Heller has tackled — both Amelia
Earhart’s disappearance, the Roswell incident, required dealing with a
staggering number of books and voluminous newspaper and magazine material. Only
a handful of books about the Greenlease kidnapping existed to draw upon in “The
Big Bundle.” But the political aspect — Bobby Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa’s
involvement in the aftermath of the ransom’s disappearance — meant referring to
several dozen nonfiction works, as well as the usual newspaper and magazine
articles, which the kidnapping itself also generated. The idea is that I
prepare to write the definitive nonfiction book on a real crime or mystery.
Then I write a private eye novel instead.
Did you discover anything in your research that surprised you
about the kidnapping and other elements you use in your novel?
“Automobiles were everywhere in the narrative, befitting the
postwar boom in car buying and interstate travel. Key events took place at a
famous no-tell motel, the Coral Court, outside St. Louis. A crooked taxicab
company was caught up in the probable theft of half the ransom, and every
criminal in the case seemed either to drive a Caddy or want to — purchased
inevitably at one of the many Midwestern Cadillac dealerships owned by the
kidnap victim’s father.”
Do you plan to continue the Nathan Heller series?
“Too Many Bullets” has been completed, with Heller present in the pantry at the
Ambassador Hotel when Robert Kennedy was shot. It’s an open-and-shut case,
supposedly, yet the research indicates otherwise. In many respects, the real
story is like something out of Raymond Chandler: hit men, crooked cops, a crazy
hypnotist, a duplicitous showgirl. That comes out in October, again from Hard
Case Crime. There may be one more after that. The degree of difficulty here is
high, however, and I just turned 75, so it depends on how well Heller and I hold up.”
• Paul Davis’ On Crime column covers true crime, crime fiction
and thrillers.
• • •
The Big Bundle
Max Allan Collins
Hard Case Crime, $22.99, 304 pages
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