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Title: Damned in Paradise: A Nathan Heller Novel by Max Allan Collins ISBN: 0-451-19104-8 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: August, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Nate Heller Returns
Comment: Nate Heller novels are always fun. When I reviewed the last one I had read, I made the observation that you must accept one big whopper: that a single detective could do everything he does, in all of the various historical cases the author gets him involved in. If you can live with that, then you'll thoroughly enjoy the books, as I do.
In this installment, it's early in Heller's career, and he's still a Chicago cop. He's finishing up the first part of his involvement in the Lindberg kidnapping when Clarence Darrow calls. Heller knows Darrow because Heller's father owned a radical bookstore some years before, and Darrow was a customer. Darrow wants an investigator to accompany him to Hawaii, and help him with the defense of a quartet of accused murderers, who apparently killed a man accused of rape. The accused include the rape victim's husband and her mother. The kicker is that all of the accused rapists were Asian or Polynesian of some sort, and the rape victim, and all of those accused in the killing, are white. Racial tensions are running high when Heller and Darrow arrive in the islands.
The story is typical Collins, and a rather good example of what he does. The mystery is well-presented, and interesting. The author knows the characters, and the issues, involved in the real-life crime that he portrays. Most people think that Hawaiians are easy-going types, and many are, but there is also a considerable amount of anger about past discrimination on the island, percieved or real. This book does a good job of portraying that.
The other thing Collins always does is cameo appearances by celebrities. In addition to Darrow, and the defendants in the case, Heller runs into a young Buster Crabbe and a much older Chang Apana. The latter was a well-known Honolulu police detective who was the basis for Earl Der Biggers' character Charlie Chan. Amusingly, Detective Apana repeats some of Charlie Chan's quotes from the movies, with tongue firmly in cheek.
I really enjoyed this book. I think most others who are interested in history, and in detective novels, would enjoy it also.
Rating: 5
Summary: Outstanding as usual
Comment: Max Allan Collins is one of my favorite writers. His books which employ the character Nate Heller are some of the best mystery novels ever written. Nate is always placed in the middle of a true-life incident, sometimes historically significant, sometimes not. In this case, the incident was not particularly historically significant, if not for the appearance of an aging Clarence Darrow. As always, this Heller book informs regarding the incident and truly entertains. I have read dozens of mystery series. Nate Heller ranks right up there with Travis McGee and Elvis Cole as one of my favorite detectives. Perhaps Heller is the most developed and interesting of the bunch.
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Title: Blood and Thunder: A Nathan Heller Novel by Allan Max Collins, Max Allan Collins ISBN: 0451179765 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Carnal Hours: A Nate Heller Novel by Max Allan Collins ISBN: 0525937587 Publisher: E P Dutton Pub. Date: April, 1994 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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Title: The Million - Dollar Wound by Max Allan Collins ISBN: 0743474635 Publisher: I Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Stolen Away by Max Allan Collins ISBN: 0451202414 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 06 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Flying Blind: A Novel of Amelia Earhart by Max Allan Collins ISBN: 0525943110 Publisher: E P Dutton Pub. Date: August, 1998 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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