White Shadow, Ace Atkins
White Shadow, Ace Atkins
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

White Shadow

Author: Ace Atkins

Narrator: Michael Braun

Unabridged: 13 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 02/27/2024


Synopsis

1955: Tampa, Florida is a city pulsing with Sicilian and Cuban gangsters, cigar factories, sweet rum, and violence. The death of retired kingpin Charlie Wall—the White Shadow—has shocked the city, sending cops, reporters, and associates scrambling to find those responsible. As the trail winds through
neighborhoods rich and poor, enmeshing the innocent and corrupt alike all the way down to the streets and casinos of Havana, an extraordinary story of revenge, honor, and greed emerges. For Charlie Wall had his secrets—secrets that if discovered could destroy a criminal empire and ignite a revolution.

“This book succeeds both as a first-rate historical novel and as a superb crime story. It packs the emotional wallop of Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River. It is as gritty as James Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential. And yet, the prose is as lyrical as James Lee Burke’s Crusader’s Cross. With White Shadow, Atkins has found his true
voice.”—Associated Press

About Ace Atkins

Ace Atkins, an Alabama native, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 while at the Tampa Tribune for his investigation of the real-life murders of Charlie Wall and others in 1950s Tampa. He is the author of more than ten books, including four Nick Travers novels: Crossroad Blues, Leavin' Trunk Blues, Dark End of the Street, and Dirty South. And, yes, Ace is his real name.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kemper on August 20, 2011

This is one of those books where the author let facts get in the way of a good story. It's based on the true crime story of the murder of Charlie Wall in 1955. Wall was a local legend in Tampa and a retired gangster who was found in his home after suffering a brutal beating and getting his throat cut......more

Goodreads review by James on July 31, 2010

Ace Atkins uses the real-life murder of Tampa, Florida crime boss Charlie Wall as the basis for an atmospheric novel set in the Tampa of the mid-1950s. An idealistic young reporter and a hardened police detective attempt to solve the crime, each in his own way. Atkins is most successful in recreating......more

Goodreads review by Sam on December 18, 2014

Try to design a perfect setting for a crime novel and it would be hard to beat Tampa in the fifties, a Deep South stronghold with Sicilians running the vice rackets and Cubans rolling cigars and cooking up political intrigues. Ace Atkins based this novel on a real case, the 1955 killing of an old cr......more

Goodreads review by Charles on April 02, 2024

Very similar to listening to a true crime podcast. Interesting characters and interesting situations but, in the end, where it goes is pretty limited. So, you kind of like it and kind of don’t.......more