4.5
Too Many Bullets
ByPublisher Description
Acclaimed “True Crime” detective Nathan Heller, whose cases have sold more than 1 million copies, returns to uncover the secrets behind Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 assassination in this brand-new novel from bestselling ROAD TO PERDITION author Max Allan Collins.
In 1968, Nate Heller is there when Robert Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel. Heller takes it upon himself to investigate the murder when a friend of his and Bobby’s raises doubts about the LAPD’s investigation. Heller strongly suspects the involvement of Jimmy Hoffa (currently imprisoned), but Hoffa seems to be in the clear as the private eye looks into the possible presence of CIA enemies of RFK’s on the murder night, the apparent manipulation of Sirhan Sirhan into a Manchurian Candidate-style assassin, and a probable second shooter.
In 1968, Nate Heller is there when Robert Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel. Heller takes it upon himself to investigate the murder when a friend of his and Bobby’s raises doubts about the LAPD’s investigation. Heller strongly suspects the involvement of Jimmy Hoffa (currently imprisoned), but Hoffa seems to be in the clear as the private eye looks into the possible presence of CIA enemies of RFK’s on the murder night, the apparent manipulation of Sirhan Sirhan into a Manchurian Candidate-style assassin, and a probable second shooter.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesToo Many Bullets Reviews
4.5
“Too Many Bullets is vintage Max Allan Collins.
Summary -
"...At the end of this narrative, certain guilty people go free. You may even feel I'm one of them. Some will pay, while others will not, enjoying the unearned happy remainders of their lives. And any reader inclined to dismiss everything ahead as a conspiracy-like robbery and rape, murder and treason-is a real crime on the books. History, I'm afraid, is a mystery story without a satisfying resolution.
But know this: I did get some of the bastards..."
The sixties were a decade that changed a country, if not the world. But change rarely happens quietly. No, change is violent and cruel and tragic. It began with John Kennedy in 1963. Then Malcolm X in 1965. Martin Luther King followed in 1968 and later that same year, in June of 1968, Bobby Kennedy was gunned down at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
Nathan Heller is often referred to as the Private Eye to the Stars. Being close to Hollywood in the sixties also meant being close to the Kennedys as well. Bobby Kennedy was more than another job to Nathan, he was a friend as well. So when Bobby asked Nathan to help provide security at a speech at the Ambassador Hotel, Nathan agrees. With the recent murder of Martin Luther King earlier in the year, Heller knew that tensions were running high. But what unfolded that night he could not have fathomed in all his nightmares.
In the aftermath of that night, Nathan is left with more questions than answers. The assassin simply doesn't fit. Another lone gunman? The eyewitness accounts of gunshots coming from different directions, the chaos that ensued and the simple fact that there were too many bullets to account for.
"...He stared at the sun glimmering surface of the pool. 'I was up all night, twisting the radio dial in search of any news about Bob and his condition, the arrest of the assailant, any damn thing. I stumbled onto a phone-in show on KABD and who should be the guest, but my old associate...Dr. Joseph W. Bryant.'
I frowned. 'This was about the assassination?'
'Not directly. But the subject came up, briefly, Bryant made an offhand comment that gave me a chill.'
'Yeah?'
Dark mournful eyes fixed on me. 'Bryant said it sounded to him like the assassin may have been acting under a post-hypnotic suggestion..."
Heller's investigation will go from Hollywood to Washington. To strip clubs and Psychiatrist's offices. To mobsters and CIA operatives. To Hollywood's elite and the deserts of Las Vegas. To a simple conclusion that the truth is yet to be revealed.
Review -
Growing up in the sixties, there was a visceral change to the country after the assassinations. Vietnam was taking center stage as the country was embroiled in a war that many thought should have easily been won. There was a real sense that hope was lost. The potential of what could have been hung like a shroud over so many people.
Too Many Bullets has the feel of that time. Of lost innocence. Of having the country's belief system shattered. It was the beginning of a people mistrusting it's government.
Too Many Bullets takes the road of a conspiracy plot against Robert Kennedy that ended in his murder and that Sirhan Sirhan, if he even was the shooter, did not act alone. If he did do it, there looms the probability of a Manchurian Candidate effect. A patsy brainwashed into committing the murder.
Nathan Heller is a terrific character. A throwback detective whose charms and physical presence are as much a part of his arsenal as his detecting skills. But in Nathan is also the emotional turmoil of a man who sees his good friend killed in front of him. A friend he was supposed to protect.
Other characters flow in and out of the tale and each memorable in their own way. So well written and crisp that the story move deftly right along.
Collins is heralded as the author of Road to Perdition and his grasp of Noire is firm and tight. This is a tragic and moving tale about friendship and death and the fleeting opportunity for redemption,
A really good read.”
About Max Allan Collins
Max Allan Collins was hailed in 2004 by Publishers Weekly as "a new breed of writer." A frequent Mystery Writers of America nominee in both fiction and non-fiction categories, he has earned an unprecedented eighteen Private Eye Writers of America nominations, winning for his Nathan Heller novels, True Detective (1983) and Stolen Away (1991). In 2002, his graphic novel Road to Perdition was adapted into an Academy-Award winning film, starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Jude Law and Daniel Craig. He lives in Iowa, USA.
Other books by Max Allan Collins
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