World Famous Comics: Flying Blind: A Novel of Amelia Earhart (Nathan Heller Mystery Series)
Flying Blind: A Novel of Amelia Earhart (Nathan Heller Mystery Series)
By: Max Allan Collins Publisher: Signet Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Signet Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 384 Publication Date: September 01, 1999
Product Description: The most honored mystery series in the history of the Shamus Awards
In this ingenious new novel in the Shamus Award-winning series, detective Nathan Heller tries to solve the greatest mystery of the century--the unexplained disappearance of Amelia Earhart...
"One of Collins' best...a terrific novel of what really might have happened when Amelia Earhart disappeared."--Detroit Free Press
"Highly entertaining."--Los Angeles Times
"Compelling...Collins, who has been nominated for an unequaled eight Shamus Awards, could be in line for number nine."--Booklist
"Buckle your seatbelt and get ready for a journey into a world of intrigue, espionage, betrayal and a rousing good time. Collins is at his best."--Mostly Murder
"An entertaining and pro-vocative look at Earhart... highly successful."--Publishers Weekly
* Max Allan Collins has been nominated for the Shamus Award an unprecedented eight times for his Nathan Heller novels, and has won twice
* The new Nathan Heller novel, Majik Man, is available in hardcover from Dutton
* Available in Signet paperback: Carnal Hours, Blood and Thunder, Damned in Paradise
Amazon.com Review: "Now it was the next morning and the gas was in the plane. The tall, slender woman I'd lusted after the night before was standing next to me on the tarmac, near her ship, buckling a tan helmet under her chin, flashing me that gap-toothed grin she hid from photographers...." The woman, of course, is Amelia Earhart, and the man describing her is Nate Heller, ex-Chicago cop and private detective to the rich and famous. One of the most original characters in the historical mystery area, Max Allan Collins's Heller has jousted with Al Capone, helped out Clarence Darrow, and probed the killing of Huey Long--taking all his cases very personally. But a bad experience with a sadistic Charles Lindbergh has left him leery of flying, and it will take all of Earhart's charm to get him into a plane from St. Louis to Albuquerque, and then to Los Angeles. It's 1935, and Heller has been hired by Amelia's husband (the conniving publisher G.P. Putnam) to both guard her body and search out possible lovers on a book tour. A warm relationship grows up between the flyer and the detective, and when Earhart disappears a few years later, an overage Heller enlists in the Marines to search for her on the island of Saipan. The story is framed by scenes of a retired Nate in 1970 being persuaded to revisit Saipan by a persistent Earhart researcher, and the conclusions that Collins offers about her fate are as convincing as they are moving and exciting. --Dick Adler
Flying Blind - A (Fictional) Story of Amelia Earhart PLOT: Nate Heller, Chicago detective, finds himself recounting the memories of his own experience with the life of Amelia Earhart. Enrolled by Amelia's husband, G.P. Putnam, as an undercover detective, Heller becomes emotionally tied to Earharts' life, career and the risky business that comes with it. Later, when Earhart becomes lost during her around-the-world flight, he takes on a mission of his own; to find out the truth behind it all.
Type of Fiction: Mystery/Action/Adventure.
Positives: Collins has a remarkable ability to write a fast-paced, twisting, and eventful novel filled with lively characters, descriptions and memorable imaging. This book is an incredible portrayal of an Amelia Earhart theory, definitely showing that the author has done research.
Negatives: The author put to use the characteristics of a stereotypical detective when constructing Nate Heller, the main character. I also found it full of crude humour and subject - which is mostly a fault that my own opinions fail to dismiss. However, I don't find that it diminishes the plot - only subtracts slightly from my own enjoyment while reading.
Recommend? Definitely! This book, despite its negatives, is an incredibly written and thoroughly researched gem for those who are interested in mystery, Amelia Earhart, or aviation history. Having done research on Earhart, I would recommend this highly if you're looking for a basic introduction, or imagery for remembrance.
Age Range: 14+ - Sexual scenes, discussion and crude humor.
Where/When to Read: Well, I suggest waiting til after your air flight. Other than that, rain or shine, inside or out, I think you'll enjoy this novel.
Happy Reading!
Slander? Nah. Flying Blind is a solid entry, though not my favorite, in the excellent Nathan Heller mystery series. The "slandering the dead" complaint may reflect a generation gap. I don't find the depiction of AE as bisexual to be slanderous at all. The depiction of her sex life may be prurient, but it is completely in character with the narrator. I can't speak to the Packard tranny; that may be an error. (Maybe old Heller's memory is slipping as he writes his "memoirs"). As to the 9mm, that's no anachronism. Browning did make a 9mm automatic that predates the classic 1935 Hi-Power. 9mm was not common in the U.S. in Heller's day, but not unheard of. Many war-trophy Lugers were in the hands of the good, the bad and the ugly on the mean streets of the USA.
one of the better Nate Heller books Having read all of Collins' Nate Heller casebooks, I would rank this one as fitting into the top 5 or so. Not as snappy as the early Chicago-based ones and certainly nowhere close to the pinacle of the series Stolen Away (about the Lindbergh kidnapping), this book still has all of the best features of these books: Great background, terrific characters, funny dialogue, ample sex (using charmingly veiled language without lapsing into cute-ness), and a plausible plot that finds our man in the midst of one of the 20th Centuries best mysteries. If you haven't read a Heller book, seek out True Crime and True Detective, then jump to Stolen Away and then come here. You'll be glad you did.
Well written and entertaining, but offputting It's been a while since I've read a Nathan Heller novel. I loved "Stealing Away" and enjoyed the others I've read, but I figured that the more we saw, the harder it would be to swallow just how many famous mysteries Heller was involved in. And that's what happened here, especially since Heller is far more involved with Amelia Earhart than he's ever been with a client or a victim.
That involvement colored the rest of the book in a way that was a bit more cynical than usual and that made Heller a lot harder to take. I appreciate that the speculation about history's truth is just that, and that we can disregard the whole thing, but Heller's love for "Amy" makes almost every other character in a position of authority seem sordid if not evil. The result is a rather simplistic narrative. That Collins would treat Huey Long with more sympathy than any effort to spy on Japan in preparation for the inevitable war is perpelxing.
This is still a fun read, but it's just not the same as the earlier works. And after you've had your hero sleep with Amelia Earhart, what's next? Eleanor Roosevelt?
Collins take historical speculation too far Flying Blind troubled me in ways that none of the other Nate Heller books have troubled me. (I've read a total of nine.) The most important source of my reservations is Max Allan Collins' portrayal of Amelia Earhart's sex life, which seemed speculative to the point of presumption. While historians and biographers have long wondered if she was bisexual or lesbian, that speculation is a long way from having Heller, in one scene, discover Ms. Earhart in bed with another woman. The mistake is aggravated by the fact that Collins doesn't use his interpretation of Ms. Earhart's sexuality to illuminate her character--the same night she's been with the woman she goes to bed with Heller, just like any of Heller's numerous other girlfriends. The two carry on an intermittent affair throughout the rest of the novel, even talk about marriage--but the subject of Ms. Earhart's feelings for women never comes up again, leaving the impression that Collins employs it solely as a sensationalistic plot twist. (Toward the end, in a passage that is less important but even more outrageous, Heller asserts that Ms. Earhart's favorite heterosexual position was woman-on-top. Exactly where in his research did Collins find that "fact"?)
Amelia Earhart is a genuine American heroine. She deserves better treatment than this.
In Collins' favor, the book resembles the others in the series in that he has done a great deal of research, most of it accurate, and often manages to render the atmosphere of Depression-era America convincingly. Occasionally, however, inaccurate or anachronistic details jar--another reviewer has mentioned a Packard's automatic transmission and Heller's 9 mm sidearm. My personal favorite occurs when Collins has James Forrestal, assistant secretary of the Navy, tell Heller that the Japanese are developing a carrier aircraft called by two names--"Claude" and "Zero." Historically, Claude and Zero (aka "Zeke") were two different fighters, a fact still widely known and easy to find out. That Collins gets it wrong undermines a reader's faith in his other research.
The Heller series started off as a chronicle of the detective's adventures in the politically-corrupt and mob-run city of Chicago, fertile ground for Collins' brand of historical fiction. Recent installments, however, have found the character evolving into a 1930s version of James Bond who takes his investigations to exotic locations like Hawaii, New Orleans, and the Caribbean. Heller's abortive rescue of Earhart on the Pacific island of Saipan is blatantly unbelievable, leaving me wondering when he's going to get back home. Surely Heller must have been connected somehow to Mayor Daley's Democratic machine and the electoral hanky-panky that won Illinois for John Kennedy in 1960. Surely Heller must have investigated the 1968 Democratic convention riots and the trial of the Chicago 7. How about future Heller books on those? They'd get him back where he belongs.
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