Infamous - Hardcover

Atkins, Ace

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399156305 ISBN 13: 9780399156304

Publisher: Putnam Pub Group, 2010

Synopsis

From "one of the best crime writers at work today" (Michael Connelly) comes a fast, funny, violent new noir crime classic—a Coen Brothers movie come to life.

He has been compared to Lehane, Ellroy, and Pelecanos, but Ace Atkins's rich, raucous, passionate blend of historical novel and crime story is all his own and never more so than in Infamous.

In July 1933, the gangster known as George "Machine Gun" Kelly staged the kidnapping-for-ransom of an Oklahoma oil­man. He would live to regret it. Kelly was never the sharpest knife in the drawer, and what started clean soon became messy, as two of his partners cut themselves into the action; a determined former Texas Ranger makes tracking Kelly his mission; and Kelly's wife, ever alert to her own self-interest, starts playing both ends against the middle.

The result is a mesmerizing tale set in the first days of the modern FBI, featuring one of the best femmes fatales in history—the Lady Macbeth of Depression-era crime—a great unexpected hero, and some of the most colorful supporting characters in recent crime fiction.
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Review:

Praise for Infamous

"In his compulsively readable latest, Atkins takes a revisionist look at the life and times of Machine Gun Kelly and the very bad woman who stood behind him....Bullets fly, gore puddles and, as the denouement approaches, oh how those pages turn. Atkins, who loves his characters colorful, makes readers love them too, and it doesn't much matter whether they're naughty or nice."--Kirkus Reviews

"Atkins brings to vivid life the henpecked George and the bloodthirsty Kathryn as he convincingly conjures up a past era. Not just for crime fans, this should appeal to a wide readership."--Publishers Weekly

"It's Atkins' prodigious research that makes this novel a compelling road trip through Depression-era America. He vividly portrays the Dust Bowl, foreclosures, the grinding poverty, gnawing hunger, desperation, and the rage at bankers (most of which resonate in today's America); and he captures the imminent end of the gangsters' heyday. Like many fine historical crime novels, Infamous offers a window on society, then and now."--Booklist

About the Author:

Ace Atkins is the author of White Shadow, Wicked City, Devil's Garden, and four Nick Travers novels. He lives on a farm outside Oxford, Mississippi.

About this edition

• Publisher: Putnam Pub Group
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0399156305
• ISBN 13: 9780399156304
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 406