Heller – The Big Bundle

The Big Bundle opens with nonagenarian Nate Heller, setting down his account of one of the most infamous crimes of the 1950s. Nate, then in his hard-boiled, private-eye prime, was called in to help a billionaire friend whose son had been kidnapped from his Kansas City school. In the week following the abduction, the father received six ransom notes and a dozen phone calls all with garbled instructions about the payment and minimal information about the boy. Inept kidnappers? Or was the youngster already dead? Due in large part to Nate’s efforts, the case was brought to a close, except for one trifling detail – half the ransom, $300,000, was still missing. Five years later, Nate was hired by Robert F. Kennedy, chief counsel on the Senate Rackets Committee, to investigate if the money was laundered to bankroll the Teamsters Union and its leader Jimmy Hoffa, Kennedy’s target. This time, Nate followed the money trail from the proprietor of a no-tell motel, through big-time mobsters, crooked cops and the odd hooker, to… While staying true to the actual events, this fictionalized account of the boy’s abduction adds enough action and fast-talking to provide fans of LA-style noir with a fascinating read.