Eliot Ness: The Rise and Fall of an American Hero

"The action scenes are positively cinematic ... Eliot Ness is fast-paced and full of detail that's well-researched but not overbearing. Smart, authoritative, and bristling with challenges to the status quo: It has more than a little in common with its remarkable subject."
-- The Christian Science Monitor
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"A new and invaluable biography ... Perry is a fine writer and an insightful one, giving us the Ness story straight, without the bells, whistles and Tommy guns ablaze. He does justice to his subject, a complicated and self-destructive human being, but one who was also admired by many. He is a tragic rather than heroic figure, and Perry nails him with style and compassion."
-- Chicago Tribune
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"With a shrewd mix of drama, insight, and objectivity, Perry artfully chronicles the life of the leader of the 'Untouchables' squad and illuminates his subject's complicated worldview, passions, and faults."
-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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"Douglas Perry paints a riveting portrait of the real man behind the Untouchables icon, highlighting Ness's legendary takedown of Al Capone and his later career in Cleveland, where he busted racketeers and corrupt cops. ... It's a tragic true story more engrossing than the myth."
-- Parade magazine
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"(Perry) hauntingly depicts the grimness of the Depression years ... Ness lived in interesting times, and the manner in which he cleaned up Cleveland's corrupt culture was brave and remarkable. As Perry keenly notes, his successes seemed to give him a high that was nothing short of addictive."
-- Cleveland Plain Dealer
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"This is rip-roaring stuff, and Mr. Perry tells it with gusto."
-- The Wall Street Journal
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"Compelling, complicated, sad and inspiring."
-- NPR's "Weekend Edition"
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"Eliot Ness was the real thing ... Perry has spun a riveting tale."
-- The Washington Post
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"The real Ness was a far more interesting and flawed person than the cartoonlike character of television and film. He was ambitious, charming, and innovative, but he was also reckless in both his personal and public lives, and he died in debt and obscurity. Perry recounts both his rise and decline with the proper mix of objectivity and compassion ..."
-- Booklist

"A thorough recounting of the career of Eliot Ness, from humble beginning to humble ending, with spectacular fame in between. ... The author ably shows that there was far more to Ness' career than just his battles with Capone, with accomplishments that may even outweigh his work during Prohibition."
-- Kirkus Reviews

The Girls of Murder City

Daily Herald Best Books of 2011

"The Girls of Murder City spans several categories -- true-crime, comedy, social history. It turns out that behind Chicago there was a sexy, swaggering, historical tale in no need of a soundtrack. Liked the movie. Loved the book."
--The Wall Street Journal
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"The Girls of Murder City is a well-researched and skillfully crafted time capsule about Chicago-style justice (or lack thereof). Fans of true crime and popular history will enjoy the book's outsized female characters and its hardboiled background of crime and no punishment."
--The Boston Globe
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"Perry's ambitious remit: to recreate a whole era and to delineate with lyrical precision the fascinating characters, high and low, connected with this short grisly epoch. It is a task he handles with jaunty spirits, journalistic verve and cleverness, and a hardboiled sangfroid."
--The Barnes & Noble Review
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"Delicious and devilish ... As entertaining as Chicago (on stage or screen), and far more informative, The Girls of Murder City recaptures a moment in which the Victorian feminine ideal was (and wasn't) giving way to the 'churning change' of the flapper lifestyle -- and ebulliently elucidates the emergence of the criminal as celebrity. It's this summer's 'not guilty' pleasure."
--NPR, Books We Like
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"Perry takes a sturdy foundation of murder, sex and Chicago's scandal-happy newspapers and builds a nonfiction marvel. His bouncy, exuberant prose perfectly complements the theatricality of the proceedings, and he deftly maneuvers away from the main story without ever losing momentum...The Girls of Murder City not only illustrates the origins of a new media monster, but reminds us that we've never been that innocent."
--BookPage
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"Award-winning journalist Perry entertainingly takes us inside the glittering underworld of Jazz Age Chicago, where Al Capone sold bootleg liquor to millions and a booming 1920s media eagerly covered celebrities and sensational scandals ... For true crime buffs, history fans or anyone interested in the roaring 1920s, this one's a sure-fire hit."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Mammoth: A Novel

"Bursting with vigor and electrified characters and with an ending the author stamps with a knowing wink."
-- Kirkus Reviews
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"Douglas Perry's edgy debut novel is as taut, moody and full of fascinating characters as his nonfiction tales. Perry ignites our nerves and then feeds the unease until the very last page."
-- Julia Heaberlin, author of Black-Eyed Susans

"Mammoth is a gripping thriller built on conundrums -- and not necessarily the 'whodunit?' kind. The puzzles it presents are the ones we face every day. Why do people do what they do? What makes us who we are? Why do bad things happen? Fittingly for its title, Mammoth is that rare crime novel that takes on the biggest mysteries of them all."
-- Steve Hockensmith, Edgar Award finalist for Holmes on the Range

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