Why TRUE NOIR's third chapter is a "gift that keeps on giving."
About the series ...
HISTORY BEHIND THE MYSTERY is a series of video shorts featuring Mystery Writers’ of America GrandMaster, Max Allan Collins, as he walks us through the research he did into the events, historical figures, and conflicts that form the foundation of TRUE NOIR: The Assassination of Anton Cermak.
Max also gives us some insights into the decisions he made as the author and creator of the Nathan Heller Casebooks.
Award-winning author, Max Allan Collins, shares some insights into his research process and why not every character he researches is a “household name” nearly a century later. That’s just one of several topics Max covers as he discusses historical events and characters found in the episode “Merry Christmas, Mr. Heller.”
In this video:
00:18 – Why are some of the historical figures in TRUE NOIR no longer “household names”?
00:52 – How do you go about your research?
02:01 – Do you work alone?
03:59 – Who was General Charles Gates Dawes – and why was he important to this story?
04:57 – What ever happened to George Raft?
06:22 – Who was Richard Daley?
07:36 – This episode gets pretty explicit. What’s the point of pushing the boundaries of the traditional detective story?
The nearly 5-hour audio drama stars Michael Rosenbaum (SMALLVILLE, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2) as Detective Nathan Heller, David Strathairn (LINCOLN, GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK) as Frank Nitti, and a host of other actors from television and film.
TRUE NOIR is produced by Imagination Connoisseurs Unlimited, LLC, in association with M.A.C. Productions. TRUE NOIR was created by Mike Bawden, Robert Meyer Burnett, and Max Allan Collins.
For more information about Imagination Connoisseurs Unlimited, please visit our website: www.icu.co
Check out more episodes of this series ...
Assassins, executions, show trials and TRUE NOIR!
Max Allan Collins takes aim at the trials of Cermak’s killer, Giuseppe Zangara, and noted Chicago mobster Frank Nitti. He also provides insights into how this chapter of Nathan Heller’s first mystery defines the heroic detective in the future.
Assassination gone wrong? Things get wild in Miami.
Max Allan Collins explains why he takes Nate Heller in a direction so often avoided by other noir detectives – into the arms (and bedroom) of a virgin paramour.
Things get a little “spicy” when Nate goes to Tower Town.
Max Allan Collins explains why he takes Nate Heller in a direction so often avoided by other noir detectives – into the arms (and bedroom) of a virgin paramour.
Max takes a deep dive into TRUE NOIR’s 4th chapter.
Creator Max Allan Collins provides some background on how “The Outfit” operated during the Prohibition Era in Chicago and gives us a deeper look into “Tower Town”