Scarface and the untouchable : Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the battle for Chicago / Max Allan Collins, A. Brad Schwartz.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2018]Copyright date: ©2018Edition: First EditionDescription: xix, 699 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780062441942
- 0062441949
- 9780062441959
- 0062441957
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | 364.1092 C712 | Available | 33111009231958 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
The new definitive history of gangster-era Chicago-a landmark work that is as riveting as a thriller.
A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year
"Gripping. ... Reads like a novel." --Chicago
"Revolutionizes our understanding of Al Capone and Eliot Ness." --Matthew Pearl
In 1929, thirty-year-old gangster Al Capone ruled both Chicago's underworld and its corrupt government. To a public who scorned Prohibition, "Scarface" became a local hero and national celebrity. But after the brutal St. Valentine's Day Massacre transformed Capone into "Public Enemy Number One," the federal government found an unlikely new hero in a twenty-seven-year-old Prohibition agent named Eliot Ness. Chosen to head the legendary law enforcement team known as "The Untouchables," Ness set his sights on crippling Capone's criminal empire.
Today, no underworld figure is more iconic than Al Capone and no lawman as renowned as Eliot Ness. Yet in 2016 the Chicago Tribune wrote, "Al Capone still awaits the biographer who can fully untangle, and balance, the complexities of his life," while revisionist historians have continued to misrepresent Ness and his remarkable career.
Enter Max Allan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz, a unique and vibrant writing team combining the narrative skill of a master novelist with the scholarly rigor of a trained historian. Collins is the New York Times bestselling author of the gangster classic Road to Perdition. Schwartz is a rising-star historian whose work anticipated the fake-news phenomenon.
Scarface and the Untouchable draws upon decades of primary source research--including the personal papers of Ness and his associates, newly released federal files, and long-forgotten crime magazines containing interviews with the gangsters and G-men themselves. Collins and Schwartz have recaptured a bygone bullet-ridden era while uncovering the previously unrevealed truth behind Scarface's downfall. Together they have crafted the definitive work on Capone, Ness, and the battle for Chicago.
Includes 115 photographs and a map of gangland Chicago.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 565-674) and index.
"A THRILLING MAGNUM OPUS ON AMERICA'S GREAT CRIME EPIC. A Mystery Writers of America "Grand Master"--author of the gangster classic Road to Perdition, long-time Dick Tracy writer, and multiple Shamus Award winner--teams with an acclaimed rising young historian, in this riveting, myth-shattering dual portrait of Al Capone, America's most notorious gangster, and Eliot Ness, the legendary Prohibition agent whose extraordinary investigative work crippled his organization. Written with novelistic pacing and underpinned by groundbreaking research, Max Allan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz's Scarface and the Untouchable delivers--at last--the definitive account of the "Battle for Chicago," the iconic struggle between the mythic yet real combatants who have captivated the world for 90 years"-- Provided by publisher.
A riveting, myth-shattering dual portrait of Al Capone, America's most notorious gangster, and Eliot Ness, the legendary Prohibition agent whose extraordinary investigative work crippled his organization. Written with novelistic pacing and underpinned by groundbreaking research, Collins and Schwartz deliver the definitive account of the iconic struggle between the mythic yet real combatants who have captivated the world for 90 years. -- adapted from publisher info
Introduction: Untouchable truth -- Map: Organized crime in 1920s Chicago -- Rogues' gallery -- Prologue: St. Valentine's Day -- Prairie Avenue boys -- Citizen Capone -- On the spot -- Epilogue: The great American city.