Infamous

Almost gave it 4 stars, but it really wasn't on par with others I've rated 4, so 3 it is. It wasn't a bad book, although I didn't enjoy it as much as many of his others; but that's just me. I especially liked his Quinn Colson series.

I think the book was well-written, and pulled me in to the 1930s life of gangsters, boozing, and life in general; and also, the beginnings of the FBI. Back then, it seems like the gangsters were almost as popular as the movie stars, and many people seemed to get them a little confused, like robbing banks and killing people was just fun entertainment - mostly depending, of course, on which end of the gun you were on. But the pace was pretty slow, and skipped around a lot between various characters and crimes. show more Sometimes, it seemed the characters were just thrown in for no good reason, like meeting up briefly with Bonnie and Clyde. But it was all fairly entertaining show less

Ace Atkins book "Infamous" failed to hold my interest. There is little in the way of heart-stopping action or crime capers, other than the crime of kidnapping Oklahoma oilman Charles Urschel. I initially thought the book was a non-fictional story of an infamous criminal, "Machine Gun" Kelly. After starting the book, I found out it was historical fiction, and most of the book consisted of inane and invented day-to-day dialog between "Machine Gun" Kelly and his wife, Kathryn. She appeared to have more of a criminal bent than her husband, and if it wasn't for her, you get the feeling that Kelly would have faded away with little notice following the ransoming of Charles Urschel.

What wasn't written as dialog between Kelly and his wife was show more mostly conversations involving a variety of miscellaneous characters, such as the lead FBI agent tasked with finding Kelly. I frequently had trouble remembering which character was which, and how they were relevant to the story. show less

This was a fun introduction to the gangsters of the Depression. I believe most of the dates & actual facts were true, but I'm not an expert & there was a lot of fictional filler, but it rang true. Certainly the characters were memorable & there were a lot of absurdities on both sides of the law as well as in the press.

On the plus side, the entire era came alive through the diverse characters. Old lawmen who knew Pancho Villa, young paper hangers molded by the hardships of the Depression, & amoral gangsters were all well drawn.

On the minus side, there were a LOT of them. The cast ran to dozens & the story bogged down with them at times. 3/4 of the way through, I was ready for it to wrap up. If it had, I probably would have given it 4 show more stars.

It was well read with the voices very well done. Again, no section breaks & there were quite a few, so this hurt the reading a bit. Since there were so many characters, this usually wasn't a big problem, though.

I'll look forward to other books by this author. show less

George "Machine Gun" Kelly wasn't the brightest, most ambitious, or even deadliest, of the 1930s desperadoes who generated headlines and manhunts, and ,later, movies. He never killed anyone, and made one big score, the kidnapping of oilman Charles Urschel, from which his brief infamy grew. But he was the first FBI's "Public Enemy Number One," and Ace Atkins has taken the story of that 1933 summer and turned it into an authentic, complex novel that keeps the pages turning. Basing his book on extensive files, newspaper accounts, and interviews with relatives of Kelly's ambitious wife, Kathryn, Atkins has produced a book that is more than just a crime novel.

Highly recommended.