THE BIG BUNDLE

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.”