THE MILLION-DOLLAR WOUND

by Max Allan Collins ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 31, 1986

Even more of a jumble than True Detective and True Crime, this third volume in ""The Memoirs of Nathan Heller"" again mixes real-life figures with fictional ones--as Collins continues to trace, obliquely and speculatively, the history of Chicago gangsterdom in the Thirties and Forties. Narrator-hero Nate, a private eye with ambivalent, long-standing ties to Mob-prince Frank Nitti, is first met here in a 1942 mental hospital, recovering from amnesia as he recalls--under hypnosis--his nightmare experiences on Guadalcanal. He's haunted not only by combat-terrors--which he shared with pal Barney Ross, the famed boxer--but also by one unexplained, half-remembered shooting (at close range) of a fellow Marine. (""Did I kill you, Monawk? Did you scream and endanger us all and I killed you?"")Nate then recalls his edgy involvement in several Mob-related matters back in 1939. There's the gangland murder of Mob-connected millionaire Edward J. O'Hare--which leads Nate to believe that Nitti covertly arranged the 1930s downfall/imprisonment of Mob-king Al Capone. There's also the spreading influence of the Mob in the Hollywood unions: Nate is hired by actor Robert Montgomery (via anti-Semitic columnist Westbrook Pegler) to dig up the dirt on some notorious union officials involved in extortion; meanwhile, those same officials hire Nate (an old acquaintance) to work for them in keeping their shady doings from being exposed! And finally, as Nate returns to Chicago in 1943, the various plots are picked up again and more or less resolved. Nate's old flame Estelle Carey, the mistress of one of those Mob/Hollywood extortionists, is found torture-murdered--by Mob types in search of $2 million in dirty money. Nate, urged by chum Eliot Ness to help with grand jury proceedings against the Mob, witnesses the coup that ends Nitti's control. And Barney Ross returns from Guadalcanal with a drug habit--which greatly disturbs Nate. . .but does help him to exorcise his own Guadalcanal demon. A choppy, meandering mishmash of war-trauma melodrama, gangland-sleuthing vignettes, Mob-history theories, and cameo guest-stars (including Nate's frequent bedmate Sally Rand)--offering sporadic diversion at best, primarily for Collins' fellow Mob buffs.

Pub Date: March 31, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION