Chapter 3: Merry Christmas, Mr. Heller
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.
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?
A little more about this episode …
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.”
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 10: The Happy Ending
Heller survives being pushed off the Sky Ride at the Chicago World’s Fair, triumphs in a brutal battle of blows and bullets, and even invades the domain of a Chicago mob boss without getting killed. But will he make it through breaking the bad news to Mary Anne about her missing brother?
Chapter 9: The Guilty Party
Heller takes an unexpected thrill ride at the World’s Fair, ending on a metal strut hundreds of feet off the ground. It’s just the first of a series of events that night that could spell the end of his fledgling detective agency – and him.
Chapter 8: Too Long At The Fair
Heller watches a capacity crowd celebrate the opening of the Chicago World’s Fair. Little does he know he’s standing at the crossroads of his two biggest cases – and things are about to take an unexpected turn.
Chapter 7: Trial Run
Just three days after Chicago Mayor Cermak dies from an assassin’s bullet, the Bayfront Park Shooter is tried for attempted murder on four counts and sentenced to eighty years. But Heller knows there’s more to the story than a lunatic with a gun.