Chapter 5: Tower Town and Magic City
About the series ...
TRUE NOIR: The Assassination of Anton Cermak is a fully-immersive audio series adapted from the mystery novel TRUE DETECTIVE by Max Allan Collins.
The drama is set in Chicago at the end of the Prohibition Era (in the early 1930s) and tells the story of private eye Nathan Heller as he tracks down a political assassin. Mayor Anton Cermak was in a nearly constant power struggle with organized crime, business tycoons, and corrupt politicians … leaving plenty of suspects.
New episodes appear every Friday through February 28, 2025.
A little more about this episode …
Max Allan Collins talks about Prohibition-era Chicago’s darker (and sexier) side. He gives us more information about “Tower Town” and the artists, radicals, and hobos who lived there.
Max also provides a mini-lecture on the history of the “hard-boiled detective” and how the rules established for that kind of American hero in the 20s, 30s, and 40s had to be broken by the time he was writing about Nate Heller in the 1970s and 80s.
Take a closer look at this chapter with Max’s exclusive History Behind The Mystery series of videos.
Check out more episodes of this series ...
Chapter 4: Two New Clients
The day after Christmas, Heller takes a sleeper car to Atlanta on the Dixie Flyer, riding into a job that will put him at odds with the most powerful men in Chicago.
Chapter 3: Merry Christmas, Mr. Heller
Newly-minted private detective, Nathan Heller, runs three minutes late for his lunch with his uncle Louis and a distinguished guest, only to find out it’s just the first in a series of events with razor-thin margins of error. Is Heller up to the challenge?
Chapter 2: Visiting Hours
Heller, asleep in his one-room apartment at the Hotel Adams in Chicago, is rousted awake by an uninvited – and unwelcome – visitor. Who knew this would be the first in a series of unplanned meetings?
Chapter 1: The Nitti Raid
On a cold December day in 1932, and Chicago Police Detective Nathan Heller takes a ride that will change his career path, and his life, forever.