Member Reviews
Shannon L, Reviewer
I made it about halfway before I head to give up. The writing is good and the story is appealing, however I just couldn’t get into it.
I do recommend this story to those of you who like true crime or stories based off real life.
It could be I wasn’t ready to read it. I do plan on trying it again.
Donald G, Reviewer
(2 1/2). This is a fun, pulp fiction kind of story. Interesting that it reads like a screenplay when so much of it is based around the movie business. We certainly are driven to think of Dillinger as an all around solid citizen, a concept that is pretty far fetched, but he certainly comes off as Harrison Ford/Leonardo Di Caprio kind of good/bad guy. Very entertaining, very fluffy and after a slow start, a reasonably paced read. OK stuff.
Dave W, Reviewer
In 1934, John Dillinger was the FBI’s public enemy number one. There wasn’t a bank 🏦 he couldn’t rob and not a cell which could hold him. They finally caught up with him one night in front of the Biograph Theater 🎭 in Chicago, ending his short but colorful life.
But what if things had worked out differently? What if Dillinger took a chance and surrendered to the FBI? And more importantly to our narrative, what if Jack Warner saw something special in the charismatic bank robber and pleaded with FDR to pardon him? What if the red carpet were rolled out and Dillinger with his Cary Grant mustache became the latest star of silver screen making more in a month than he ever got from the banks?
Capturing the grandeur of old Hollywood with Dillinger dining with Jean Harlow and William Powell at the Brown Derby, fist fighting with James Cagney, having affairs with the top stars of his day, this narrative really feels authentic — as if it really happened this way.
Of course, J. Edgar wouldn’t have just let Dillinger go no matter how much dirt was on him and the spying and surveillance of the movie star Dillinger rings true.
The narrative is best for the first two thirds , but tails off a bit as the story draws to a close. All in all, though, a unique and exciting glimpse of history as it could’ve been.
M
