β Scribed by Ace Atkins
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Set in 1933, Atkins's winning fourth history-based novel focuses on two figures who, as the author explains in an introduction, have been undeservedly lost in the shuffle of Depression-era gangsters: George Kelly, who ironically gets saddled with the nickname Machine Gun, and his wife, Kathryn. The fast-moving narrative spans a three-month period, starting with a fatal ambush in a parking lot outside Kansas City's Union Station in which hoods gun down several lawmen and the prisoner they were about to drive to Leavenworth. This massacre leads to the FBI obtaining the authority to make arrests and carry weapons. The bulk of the action concerns the Kellys' kidnapping of Charles Urschel, a wealthy Oklahoma oilman, and its aftermath. Atkins (Devil's Garden) 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. (Apr.)
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With the 1933 kidnapping of Oklahoma oil baron Charles Urschel, small-time bank robber George Kelly became βMachine Gunβ Kelly. Atkinsβ latest historical novel based on a real crime (following Devilβs Garden, 2009, about the Fatty Arbuckle scandal) makes it clear that Kellyβs wife, Kathryn, was the driving force behind his ascendance. George is shown to be an affable mug, a feckless dandy more interested in two-toned shoes and 16-cylinder Cadillacs than crime and machine guns, a crook who was dismissed as a lightweight by other gangsters. Kathryn, however, is a force of nature, a preening, determined-not-to-be-poor-again shopaholic, a celebrity-obsessed Lady Macbeth. But itβs Atkinsβ 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 todayβs America); and he captures the imminent end of the gangstersβ heyday. Like many fine historical crime novels, Infamous offers a window on society, then and now. --Thomas Gaughan
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EDITORIAL REVIEW: \*\* From "one of the best crime writers at work today" (Michael Connelly) comes a fast,f unny, 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
EDITORIAL REVIEW: \*\* From "one of the best crime writers at work today" (Michael Connelly) comes a fast,f unny, 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
"Compelling...[Atkins] captures the imminent end of the gangster heyday." -*Booklist* In July 1933, the gangster known as George "Machine Gun" Kelly staged the kidnapping-forransom of an Oklahoma oilman. He would live to regret it. Once again Ace Atkins transforms real-life events into riveting,
EDITORIAL REVIEW: \*\* From "one of the best crime writers at work today" (Michael Connelly) comes a fast,f unny, 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
EDITORIAL REVIEW: \*\* From "one of the best crime writers at work today" (Michael Connelly) comes a fast,f unny, 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
### From Publishers Weekly Set in 1933, Atkins's winning fourth history-based novel focuses on two figures who, as the author explains in an introduction, have been undeservedly lost in the shuffle of Depression-era gangsters: George Kelly, who ironically gets saddled with the nickname Machine Gun,