| Wicked City |  | Author: Ace Atkins
Creator: Dick Hill
Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged
List Price: $36.95
Buy New: $24.37
as of 9/5/2010 14:01 MST details
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Seller: pbshop
Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 2,103,415
Format: Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 9
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 1423349857
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781423349853
ASIN: 1423349857
Publication Date: April 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In 1955, Look magazine called Phenix City, Alabama, “The Wickedest City in America,” but even that may have been an understatement. It was a stew of organized crime and corruption, run by a machine that dealt with complaints forcefully and with dispatch. No one dared cross them - no one even tried. And then the machine killed the wrong man.
When crime-fighting attorney Albert Patterson is gunned down in a Phenix City alley in the spring of 1954, the entire town seems to pause for just a moment - and when it starts up again, there is something different about it. A small group of men meet and decide they have had enough, but what that means and where it will take them is something they could not have foreseen. Over the course of the next several months, lives will change, people die, and unexpected heroes emerge - like “a Randolph Scott western,” one of them remarks, “played out not with horses and Winchesters, but with Chevys and .38s and switchblades.”
Peopled by an extraordinary cast of characters, both real and fictional, Wicked City is a novel of uncommon intensity, rich with atmosphere, filled with sensuality and surprise.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
 An Excellent Piece of Work May 8, 2010
Big D (Auburn, AL. USA)
Ace Atkins has proven his worth---he's done it again, another fine piece of work by a talented and gifted writer. (Sure am glad he got out of newspaper journalism to concentrate on this type writing.)
Ace weaves fact and fiction together nicely in this story of Phenix City, Alabama, near where Ace lifed most of his young life. Using facts and real personalities, he has set the stage for what truly was one of America's most wicked cities. His real life characters set the stage and his fictional characters help explain just how wicked the city, the criminals and the times were.
A fast moving, enthralling read.
One Note: For those even vaguely with the Phenix City story, it might be--definitely would be--of help to go online and get some information, even pictures, of the real life characters in Ace's book. A good place to go would be the site for movie "Phenix City Confidential." It has outstanding pictures and bios of Ace's true characters and really adds to the enjoyment of the book. In fact, that site has what may be the actual photgraph of the arrest of Art Ferrell as Ace describes it in the book, National Guard troops and all.
A good book, very good. Hope he will do one on Birmingham in the same vein. Now that would be a great one!!!
Excellent in all respects1 March 13, 2010
James T. Gibson III (Birmingham, Al. USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A gripping book, delivered in pristine condition (better than described), at a giveaway price within the stated time. How could this transaction been better? Maybe a free book with free shipping. Short of that, it was as good as it gets!!
Wow January 14, 2010
C. Laughlin (Caseyville, IL United States)
I really wasn't expecting too much when I listened to this on my MP3, but Ace Atkins knows how to really draw you into Wicked City and by the time you finish you know you have been in the dirtiest town in the USA. The main character reminds me of Clint Eastwood being caught up in trying to clean up the town and what a job he has. It is ride for him and you get to ride shotgun. I even bought my husband the book for Christmas and he can't put it down.
Amazingly Accurate for a Work of Fiction May 3, 2009
Jack P. (Virginia)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Having grown up in Phenix City, Alabama during the 1940s and 1950s, and witnessed the city's cleanup in 1954, I was amazed at the historcal accuracy of the events portrayed by Mr. Atkins. Many readers express surprise at how and why Phenix City acquired its reputation as "Sin City U.S.A." One must recognize that the city was relatively poor with a work force mainly comprised of workers in the cotton mills of Columbus, Georgia just across the Chattahootchie river. There was little by way of legitimate business in the city comprising a tax base. For many years, until the 1954 cleanup, the local mob had convinced most of the people that the city, including its churches and schools, could not survive without the mob's financial support. The beneficiaries didn't complain. There was also an understandable reluctance by so-called "law-abiding citizens" to complain for fear of making themselves the target of mob retribution. And, reacting like ordinary folks usually do in any circumstance, some just "didn't want to get involved."
As Mr. Atkins writes, there were a handful of principled, determined, and couragous citizens who took on the mob and helped overthrow the lawless regime. Sheriff Lamar Murphy was certainly one of those individuals. Among other things, Sheriff Murphy identified the eye witness to the murder of Albert Patterson, the Democrat nominee for Alabama Attorney General, and this witness' testimony was instrumental in convicting the triggerman in the murder. Some commenters expressed surprise that a fellow who pumped gas for a living could take on the job of sheriff and perform it so well. Mr. Atkins' book shows that it can and did happen in Phenix City, Alabama.
wickedly sublime February 24, 2009
S. Morris (at large)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Atkins is establishing himself as a master when it comes to historical fiction. The genre is demanding, because readers expect factual accuracy though not at the expense of the delights of a novel. There must be the authority that results from hours of painstaking research, getting every detail right, and yet at the same time all this must be conveyed with novelistic power. Atkins does it sublimely. He drops down into the psyche of character after character, creating a compelling world that is framed by thorough research. Wicked City is a triumph. There is grit and poetry here aplenty. And Atkins provides a knowing take on the evil that humans are capable of (and the evil in this book is fierce), yet he also offers something much more difficult to pull off: a vivid portrait of those who risk their lives to see goodness prevail.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
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