The big bundle

Nathan Heller, PI to the stars, is on his twentieth case (following Do No Harm, 2020). Collins' ever-fascinating premise, which blends historical mystery with alternate history, has Heller investigating real-life crimes (the Lindbergh kidnapping, the assassination of JFK, the alleged murder of Marilyn Monroe) and finding answers that contradict or clarify what we know as the official versions. This time he's on the kidnapping beat again, and, sadly, the result is the same as it was with Charles Lindbergh, Junior; six-year-old Bobby Greenlease, snatched from his home in Kansas City in 1953, was murdered before the kidnappers even issued their ransom demand of $600,000 (a record at the time). Heller fails, of course, at his assigned task of bringing Bobby home, but the backstory he uncovers, as with all the Heller novels, is the juicy part and, while fictional, makes perfect sense. Was Jimmy Hoffa involved? And where does Robert F. Kennedy fit in? Collins stitches it all together in an ambience-rich crime story that connects power brokers and lowlifes in an aromatic stew as sleazy as it is irresistible.

In MWA Grand Master Collins's superb 18th Nathan Heller novel, (after 2020's Do No Harm), the PI crosses paths with Robert Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa. It's 1953 in Kansas City, Mo., when millionaire Robert Greenlease retains Heller's services after his six-year-old son, Bobby, is kidnapped and ransomed for $600,000. Greenlease makes the payment, but the kidnappers delay returning the child. Heller uses his underworld contacts to try to get a lead on Bobby's whereabouts by attempting to trace the marked bills used for the payoff, though he fears that the boy is already dead. Flash forward to 1958. Heller is working both for Hoffa, the corrupt Teamsters leader, and Kennedy, then chief counsel for the Senate Rackets Committee, who's looking to nail Hoffa. With half of the ransom never accounted for, Kennedy hopes Heller can help him prove it ended up in the Teamsters Pension Fund. Heller's search for the money and the truth behind Bobby's abduction proves perilous. Collins again artfully uses a real-life crime, one now obscure but headline-making in the 1950s, as the springboard for a crackerjack plot. This is another standout in a consistently good series. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary. (Dec.)

A real-life 1953 abduction sends veteran fictional Chicago shamus Nathan Heller to Kansas City and far beyond. Whoever snatched 6-year-old Bobby Greenlease from his school is exasperatingly dumb. By the time Bob Greenlease, the wealthy owner of a chain of Cadillac dealerships, calls Heller in on the case, the kidnappers have already sent several garbled messages with unclear directions about how to drop off the record $600,000 ransom they've demanded and haven't shown any inclination to pick up. Greenlease's faith that Heller's matchless underworld connections will turn up a new angle pays off in a tip Heller gets from cabdrivers' union rep Barney Baker, a former bouncer for Bugsy Siegel. Barney tells Heller that top-flight St. Louis mobster Joe Costello has been approached by Steve Strand, an insurance agent looking for a "real nice girl" for the night and a way to launder some serious money. Could it be the Greenlease ransom? Heller makes contact with Costello, who's as hard-nosed as you'd expect; with Strand, who's one slippery customer; and with Sandy O'Day, that real nice girl. Students of history, or readers who've peeked ahead into Collins' entertainingly detailed appendix, will know that things won't end well for most of them. And they'll be surprised to find Heller, five years after half the ransom money disappears, invited back on the case by Rackets Committee chief counsel Robert F. Kennedy, whose money he won't take, and Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa, whose money he will. Neither Heller nor Collins supplies the closure Bob Greenlease longs for; this case unfolds more like a maze of Midwestern fleshpots than a whodunit. In the words of the character who has the most to lose, "It's been like something out of the Marx Brothers." Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.