Target Lancer

Nathan Heller #14

by Max Allan Collins

An explosive novel that uncovers new facts about the deadly conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy. Rigorously researched, Max Allan Collins's Target Lancer is far more truth than fiction. Long before November 22, 1963, Nathan Heller, "P.I. to the Stars," knows that a conspiracy is in the works. Several years earlier, Heller had been involved with the Kennedys, the Mob, and the CIA in the early stages of a plan to assassinate Fidel Castro. Shortly after, Heller's Mafia contact is murdered. After being interrogated by gangsters and contacted by U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Heller realizes that he may be the one person who can prevent a devastating political assassination. Only he knows all the players; only he knows why a web of conspirators has targeted the man known to the Secret Service as "Lancer," John Fitzgerald Kennedy.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Crime, Historical Mystery, Politics, Detective

319 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 27, 2012

About the author

Received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 2006.

He has also published under the name Patrick Culhane. He and his wife, Barbara Collins, have written several books together. Some of them are published under the name Barbara Allan.

Book Awards
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1984) : True Detective
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1992) : Stolen Away
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1995) : Carnal Hours
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) : Damned in Paradise
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1999) : Flying Blind: A Novel about Amelia Earhart
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (2002) : Angel in Black

Japanese: マックス・アラン・コリンズ
or マックス・アラン コリンズ

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nathan Heller is Collins' fictional creation, but Collins has placed Heller throughout the history of the twentieth century alongside Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Eliot Ness, and Huey long. Heller is a fictional character who interacted throughout the twentieth century with interesting figures and in controversial situations ranging from Eliot Ness' war on organized crime to Marilyn Monroe's last days. As bizarre and silly as the concept sounds in the abstract, in Collins' capable hands, the concept actually works and works well.

Target Lancer takes it's title from the Secret Service code name for JFK. Collins takes on the controversy over JFK's assasination, keying in not on Dallas, but on the plot to kill the president a few weeks earlier in Chicago. Collins ties the plot into the machinations that began with hooking up the Cuban exiles with mafia elements a few years earlier. The premise is that there are so many connections with the CIA through Ruby and others and the fact that there were plots in Chicago and Dallas makes it hard to believe it was only a lone gunman, particularly since that loose end is eliminated. The book is an excellent read. I read it cover to cover in one night and it was a late night but worth it.

Heller is hired to play bodyguard to a businessman who is asked to do a money drop in a strip joint. The person who appears to take the money is Jack Ruby, apparently at the behest of Hoffa. Meanwhile, the President is coming to town and bobby Kennedy convinces Heller to help the secret service ferret out the assassination team. The portraits of all these people feel right on. At least five stars for this one.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nate Heller has connections in all kinds of places. Thus, the CIA taps him to help them make a connection to the mafia. Of course, this has all kinds of bad repercussions, not least of which is the death of one of Heller's friends. Jack Ruby is involved, like he seems to be involved in most of these books.

Heller pokes around a little bit. Finds a connection to his long ago "service."

It seems there's a plot to assassinate JFK--In Chicago. It seems very similar to what happened in Dallas. The FBI hands the whole thing over the Secret Service, who can't really handle it.

A lot of great stuff about a little known episode in the JFK saga.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

You knew it had to happen. With Nate Heller's penchant for getting involved in cases with possible conspiracies it was a forgone conclusion that he had to get to the JFK assassination. Rather than going to Dallas, Collins explores a little known incident in Chicago seemed to presage November 22, 1963. The plot, which was alleged by former Secret Security Agent Abraham Bolden (who is fictionalized in Collins' book) was that a four man assassination team was planning to assassinate JFK during a planned visit to Chicago on November 2, 1963. Collins deftly weaves the likes of Jimmy Hoffa, Johnny Roselli, Richard Caine and a whole lot more into a conspiracy to kill the president. That Collins had previously tied Heller in to the creation of Operation Mongoose just made it that much clearer that Heller was going to become involved in the Kennedy assassination.

This was really a page-turner, easily one of the better books in the series. Collins absolutely nailed it by going with the earlier Chicago incident rather than having Heller in Dallas. Not the best in the series, but Collins pulls this one off when I really expected not to care for it.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a sense half way through "Target Lancer" that Max Allen Collins has maybe found a crime that looms too large in the American psyche to cleanly tackle. The newest Nate Heller mystery (can we call the Heller series mysteries?) uncovers an assassination conspiracy against President John F. Kennedy. But instead of Dallas, November 22nd, we’re in Chicago three weeks earlier with a scenario of multiple gunmen setting up a patsy as the lone gunman fall guy. Sound Familiar?

This is a great story uncovered by Collins and his long time researcher, George Hagenauer, a Chicago plot that essentially mirrors and involves the central players surrounding the Kennedy assassination. That they bring this plot to light is a testament to research. The Chicago angle is a great addition to the Heller oeuvre which is good because you can tell that November 22nd was weighted down with too much evidence, conspiracy theories and opinions.

As usual Collins and his researcher have done their homework. Based in fact you find Jack Ruby in Chicago along with a slew of mafia circling the scene and CIA/Secret Service making their presence known as they prepare for a Kennedy visit. JFK wants to pay respects to Mayor Daley, a repayment for the Illinois vote (and a nod forward to the ’64 election.) Collins weaves in Jack Ruby, Jimmy Hoffa, the first African American Secret Service agent and even Lee Harvey Oswald. All cross paths in a not-so-practice run of a fateful day. And here’s the rub of this particular volume of a great mystery series, there’s too much name brand dropping. I get it that we’re establishing veracity, but by now I’m over that. I know Heller knows Chicago so let’s relax with the cut of the suit from particular tailors and explaining the importance of particular buildings of Chicago. But building a solid story around an overlooked and underplayed plot line that mirrors the Dallas scenario is fascinating, and it’s the only way you could write a fresh and compelling JFK story.

We can guess what’s next. After "Bye Bye, Baby" dealt with the Monroe death, this one covering JFK, there’s only one more place to go. As Robert Kennedy said at the end of his California primary victory speech before he walked into the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel, “Now it’s on to Chicago and let’s win there.”

[Jeff P · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was pretty good, but I didn't like it as well as the other two JFK books in this series. Nathan Heller is hired by RFK to provide support to the Secret Service in advance of JFK's visit to Chicago planned for November 2, 1963. In addition to RFK, Nate also interacts with Jack Ruby, Jimmy Hoffa, who invited him to a Bears game, and Sally Rand, the famous fan dancer. Heller always seems able to take a beautiful famous woman to bed with him in these books.

To look into this story further, I have put two of the many books Collins uses as source material on hold at my local library. These are 'Ultimate Sacrifice' by Lamar Waldron and 'Mafia Kingfish: Carlos Marcello and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy' by John H. Davis.

[Gram · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read with well researched details about Dallas and Chicago in the early 1960's allied with several clues for conspiracy theorists in thrall with the Kennedy assassination. "Private Eye to the Stars" Nate Heller is quickly enmeshed in what seems to be a convoluted plot to kill JFK on a visit to Chicago (or is it a dry run for the Dallas shooting?). Max Allan Collins drops scores of famous - and infamous names - into the story along with intriguing theories about why and how JFK was eventually assassinated - and who may have done it. One major complaint, which I think another reviewer mentioned; why does Mr Collins feel the need to give a description of the clothing worn by every character in his book?!?!? Even if they only appear in one page, he details their apparel and sometimes their hairstyles. After a while, I found it very distracting and started skipping pages. Otherwise, this is a pacy old-fashioned thriller which delivers the goods.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 16th of Max Allan Collins' Nate Heller series, published in 2012. Heller is the fictional private eye who gets involved in many of America's great mysteries of the 20th Century: the killing of Dillinger, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, and so forth right up to Marilyn Monroe's "suicide." This one continues Heller during the days of Camelot. President Kennedy is coming to Chicago--and his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy arranges to have Nate work as a consultant to the Secret Service. Nate also encounters such people as Jimmy Hoffa and a nightclub owner named Jack Ruby. Tensions increase as Cuban assassins are sighted in the Windy City....There's a real slambang ending and, although JFK is not assassinated in Chicago, we know from history that his fateful motorcade in Dallas is only weeks away. One of the best things about Collins' books is the Afterward in which he gives us the facts behind the fiction.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talked to Mr. Collins at an event & thanked him for bringing back the Nate Heller stories...dearly love the way he weaves history into the hard-boiled detective mysteries...in this one Collins weaves JFK conspiracies, Chicago history in the 60s & the tough-guy Heller going toe-to-toe with Chicago's gangsters...fun, fun, FUN!!!

[John Yingling · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very eager to read this book, so I had high expectations. Unfortunately, they weren't met in this uninvolving, slightly boring presentation.

[Jasmine Holloman · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. The book focused more on Nathan Heller than the JFK assassination plot. I felt the synopsis was very misleading. As a JFK enthusiast, I am very disappointed.

[Richard Block · Rating 4 out of 5]

On Target

Heller's 16th is the second in the Kennedy books and is a very successful entry. The blend of historical fiction and noir is finely wrought. It benefits from being a little know 'crime' - unlike so many of the others in the series.

Heller thwarts the Kennedy assassination - in Chicago. Right, less that three weeks before, there was a failed plot to kill JFK that was spookily like the one in Dallas - the one conspiracy theorists love. This works perfectly for a Heller, and for once, the detective is very successful at changing history - because the assassination never happened.

The writing is effortless. The momentum of the series is a bit slower, as Heller is a lot older. But the formula works pretty well. It has a cracker of an ending, one that you can't see coming, so it succeeds where it matters most. MAC is a guilty pleasure, and I'm addicted. Now for the Monroe novel (I'm reading the series in the wrong order - as usual.)

A goodie.

[Jim Janus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rarely read pulp. But when I do, I read "Target Lancer." I discovered this novel while searching the internet for information regarding a real-life character who in the ' 70s, '80s, and '90s walked up and down the suburban street I grew up on, just outside of Chicago. Reading this story was fun, particularly because it's set in Chicago, and the scenes take place in familiar locations such as The Berghoff, the Monadnock building, Glenview Navel Air Station, and so on. It's a crime novel, similar to the ones that author Mickey Spillane wrote about the detective character Mike Hammer. Although "Target Lancer" is fiction, it's loosely based on real characters and events. The author closes the book with several pages about those individuals, events, and the sources he used to get the information. Furthermore, Max Allen Collins has an extensive resume, including the book "The Road to Perdition" and numerous TV episodes of CSI.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would your thinking about the JFK assassination be any different if you learned there was an assassination plot uncovered in Chicago just three weeks before he was shot in Dallas?

Would it make a difference if you learned the primary suspect in Chicago was a former Marine who worked in the same base as Lee Harvey Oswald? Or if you knew that two suspected Cuban gunmen were able to successfully escape from Chicago and were never tracked down by federal authorities?

Max Allan Collins has put Nathan Heller in another interesting historical novel mystery centered around the Chicago case, which actually took place.

Collins thinks the coincidence is too great to really be coincidence, especially when you realize the Chicago plot was never considered while officials looked into what happened in Dallas.

Heller is a good, old-fashioned gumshoe who turs up in the most interesting places over the years. You might want to give him a try.

[Dlr MacKenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great historical crime novel by the author, this one deals with the lesser known attempt on JFKs life that was planned to take place in Chicago shortly before the successful attempt in Dallas. Most of the eye-opening stuff in here has basis in history, and the idea that two such similar attempts would happen within the space of a few weeks but no conspiracy strains credulity. History aside, this is a good read, full of interesting real-life characters and lots of period detail.

[Ted Hinkle · Rating 4 out of 5]

TARGET LANCER is the second installment of Max Allan Collin's JFK trilogy. He combines some little known facts with some fictitious material to explore the ongoing assassination conspiracy of President Kennedy. Primary character, Nathan Heller, exploits notorious mob members and the CIA in an attempt to stop an earlier Kennedy assassination plot in Chicago. Fascinating story line recalling the conspiracy and events leading up to the tragedy.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 4 out of 5]

October 1963, Chicago: PI Nate Heller's PR man Tom Ellison has turned up dead. Nate had spotted Tom with Jack Ruby earlier that evening. Then Nate is summoned to a special meeting with Robert Kennedy, who believes someone may have targeted his brother Jack. A well-researched mystery about the Kennedy assassination.

[Zach Eiting · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fictional twist on history, Collins writes about a plot to kill JFK in Chicago. Intertwined with Mafia contacts and the government, its up to one private detective to save the president in his hometown of Chicago. A fast paced thriller, has the reader excited with every twist and turn as the assassination plot is uncovered.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting fictionalized account of a covered up assassination attempt on the life of President JFK in Chicago in early November, 1963 - mere weeks before his actual assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963. This is based on an actual happening though I had never heard of it before reading this book. Wow!

[Vincent Lombardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was never a fan of conspiracies especially the JFK assassination one but with Max Allan Collins' Target Lancer, like many of his other novels makes a compelling case and believable story. Though in my opinion was not as enjoyable as many of his earlier novels.

[Zare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent thriller about part of JFK murder I knew very little about. If you like your heroes flawed but just then Nathan Heller is your man. I am now on the lookout for more Nathan Heller adventures.

Highly recommended to all fans of thrillers.

[dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The master of historical fiction has done it again. He never fails to both excite me and draw me into events from sixty years ago. I would suggest you buy this book and Ask Not and read them back to back.

[Dave Medicus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting read. Shocking and eye opening, this is another brilliant entry in the Nate Heller series!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to read about Chicago in 1963.

[David Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much to this one...

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nathan Heller uncovers a plot to assassinate Kennedy.

[AC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read. And more importantly, Collins “gets it” — as far as the conspiracy goes.

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's now over thirty years since Max Allan Collins began the True Detective, Nate Heller, series. We have seen Heller progress from a Chicago cop to a private detective to the head of a multi-city detective agency. In telling these tales, Collins has merged several genres including: historical fiction, pulp fiction, police procedural and speculative fiction. That he is able to carry this off with continuing style and grace is no small accomplishment.

First, he gets his history well grounded. He finds an interesting historical incident and explores its possibilities. He makes the Nate Heller character a rich mixture of likable and not so likable attitudes and actions. He takes historical characters such as Huey Long or President Truman and explores their personalities and motivations. He raises interesting issues such as: Was Amelia Earhart a Japanese P.O.W.? Or, was the assassination attempt on F.D.R. really a mob hit on Anton Cermak?

The writing style is easy-flowing with plenty of details of time and place. In Target Lancer, we get architectural details of the Chicago Federal Building, the Monadnock Building, and several Chicago dining and entertainment spots that set a certain context without interrupting the flow. Collins must give us some of the usual Hellerisms, but he avoids cliches for the most part. [How many times in each James Bond novel do we hear, "shaken, not stirred?]

In this novel, the time is 1963. President Kennedy is coming to Chicago and the government has heard of a plot to assassinate him. The Secret Service is undermanned. The FBI, under Hoover, would like to see them get egg on their face, so they are not being cooperative. The CIA has been, outside its charter, meddling in internal affairs. The Bay of Pigs attempt to oust Fidel Castro has morphed into more subtle attempts to eliminate him.

Nate Heller is dropped into this by way of a simple task of providing one night's protection for a Milwaukee businessman. His subsequent death starts this plot gathering momentum as the hours tick down to the President's arrival. I was grabbed by my collar and hauled along for a quick and satisfy read.

PS: I thought that I might add a bit from the book that sketches out the character of Nate Heller.

She raised an eyebrow. "Tom says you're an interesting man. He says people tell stories about you."

Lou gave me a look, and I said, "Really. What kind of stories?"

Tom says that you are a very tough hombre. That you sit in a fancy office in Chicago, but you're more like some kind of...Bogart kind of detective."

Lou grinned.

I really don't know what Tom meant by that," I said.

"Tom meant that you have your own sense of justice. Your own way of doing things. That people you don't like have been known to...just kind of go away."

Lou stopped grinning.

I could have dissuaded her. I'm not sure why I didn't. I could have said those were silly rumors, and just talk, people's imaginations running away with them.

But I didn't.

"Let me just say, " I replied gently, "that if the long arms of the law prove a little...short...I might sometimes find a way of evening the score. In certain situations."

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Max Allan Collins has insinuated his Chicago detective Nate Heller into some of history's most notorious events: Dillinger outside the Biograph Theater, Huey Long, the Lindbergh kidnapping, Amelia Earhart's disappearance and many more. In "Target Lancer" Collins has Nathan Heller in the middle of perhaps America's biggest mystery/conspiracy~the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

In "Target Lancer" Collins avoids Dallas entirely, instead focusing on the often overlooked but very real plot to kill Kennedy in November, 1963...in Chicago. In the Windy City, the players set in motion what eventually will come tragically to fruition just a few weeks later and change the face of the nation forever.

As always, Collins skillfully weaves his fictional detective into the fabric of real people, places and events~ creating another thought provoking, highly entertaining and incredibly accurate portrait of history. Of COURSE there is conjecture, even now almost 50 years later, the murder of JFK still is the subject of debate. But Collins sews his theory together with actual people like Sam Giancana, Jimmy Hoffa, Jake Rubenstein (aka Jack Ruby) and a little known Thomas A. Vallee, a Chicago resident who bears more than a few similar characteristics to his Dallas counterpart Lee Oswald.

If you are a JFK assassination buff, or interested in recent American history this book is a must-read. If you're a Chicagoan, I recommend "Target Lancer" for its perfectly accurate portrait of 1960s Chicago, from the Loop to Old Town--amazingly precise. If you just happen to enjoy a good mystery, let this fact based novel unfold before you as a well-written "whodunit."

I admit to being a diehard Nate Heller fan, having first discovered him hanging with the likes of Al Capone and Frank Nitti in Collins' "True Detective" trilogy...but "Target Lancer", taking place 30 years after the first in the series, is a suspenseful and enjoyable historical fiction novel to be savored.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I sat down and started reading TARGET LANCER, it didn't take me long to realize it was not the story I expected. Oh, there's a plot to kill President Kennedy alright, just not the one I expected. In his research for this book, Max Collins discovered there had been another known plan that would happen in Chicago. Not a lot is known, but enough to whet the author's imagination.

Heller gets pulled in when a man who'd did some PR work for him years ago asks him to function as a bodyguard while he makes a delivery to a contact in a strip club. An envelope full of hundreds, the man had gotten roped in because of free tickets to a Bears game.

Heller recognizes the contact, a man he grew up with and who went under the name Jack Ruby these days. Ruby spots him as well and the pair end up shooting the breeze about the old days. Heller even meets a young man there named Lee Harvey Oswald.

All this taking place in late October, 1963.

As usual Max Collins has woven real history into his fictional account. Most of the people are real, their actions here a product of his imagination. Collins freely admits things have been altered a bit, not a lot, to get a coherent narrative. And some things are different because of conflicting accounts in the various books he researched.

I thought this was a much better novel than placing Heller directly in the middle of the events of Dallas later in November. It's been done many times and this angle, a plot uncovered in Chicago was new to me. And most readers I would wager.

I never fail to be entertained with a Max Allan Collins novel

Recommended

[Mitch Duckworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Max Allan Collins writes an absorbing fictionalized account of the Kennedy assassination that wasn't; the Chicago plot that was scheduled to go down on November 2, 1963. The conspiracy and its players were in place and ready to strike when the White House opted for a last-minute change of schedule. The President did not go to Chicago, and in his sixteenth appearance as a protagonist in a Max Allan Collins novel, sleuth Nathan Heller helped foil a conspiracy that shared the hallmarks that were to prove effective in Dallas less than three weeks later.

To say this is an entertaining read is putting it mildly. To look at many of the (historically accurate) players and incidents through Heller's eyes is illuminating. The eerie similarities with the events in Dallas will shake the fervent believers of the single gunman theory to their core, and with good reason. Admittedly, this is a work of fiction, but the facts do not get in the way, and Collins didn't invent big events to fit his tale, only a few minor incidents are pure fiction and he confesses to them in an important afterward in which he credits the dozens of nonfiction books that provided his source materials and inspiration.

This page-turner is worthy of your time, even if you are a student of history, maybe especially if you're a student of history, or if you've never found closure or comfort in the official story of JFK's tragic end.