In 1946 Chicago, Nathan Hellerâ€•president of the flourishing A-1 Detective Agencyâ€•is hired to protect racing-wire gambling chief James Ragen, who is nonetheless shot down on the streets

Neon Mirage

In 1946 Chicago, Nathan Hellerâ€•president of the flourishing A-1 Detective Agencyâ€•is hired to protect racing-wire gambling chief James Ragen, who is nonetheless shot down on the streets of Chicago. Not one to take such an affront sitting down, Nate goes after the killer, but heâ€™s in for the biggest surprise of his career. Demonstrating once again that he is the master of true-crime fiction, Max Allan Collinsâ€™ story of the birth of Las Vegasâ€•and the dirty deeds that floated all around itâ€•is a masterpiece of modern noir. Heller follows the trail as it leads to Hollywood and Las Vegas, specifically to Benjamin â€œBugsyâ€ Siegel, but when he proves Siegelâ€™s innocence, Heller and the suave gangster wind up friends...and rivals for the love of Nateâ€™s life. Bugsy hires Heller as security chief of the under-construction Flamingo hotel, where mob bag woman Virginia Hill is a dangerous, if glamorous, distraction. It all comes to a boil with a shocking mob assassination in Beverly Hills that sends Heller into fever-dream ride of vengeance.

Neon Mirage