Carnal Hours

Nathan Heller #6

by Max Allan Collins

For Chicago detective Nathan Heller, coming to the Bahamas is anything but a vacation. Seems billionaire recluse Sir Harry Oakes wants Nate to get the goods on his new son-in-law, and his pockets are deep enough to get Nate to agree to anything.

No sooner is Nate on the island than Sir Harry is murdered in his bed. With his client--and meal-ticket--suddenly gone up in smoke, Nate's left without a case. Until Sir Harry's beautiful daughter convinces him to take on her problem. Her husband has just been accused of murder . . . .

Nate's a talented guy, however, and still has time to hobnob with exiled royalty, challenge the mob, battle shadowy Nazis, and romance the lovely ladies of this tropical paradise. Tough work.

Page Numbers Source ISBN: 161218097

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Thriller, Detective, Noir

400 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1994

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

[David Highton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collins inserts his character Nate Heller into another murder mystery - this time, Sir Harry Oakes, in 1943 Nassau. He adds in a couple of fictional women to provide the sex interest, and also inserts Ian Fleming from British naval Intelligence. These novels are very cleverly written and constructed, interweaving fact and fiction. This one drags a little to start with but has a great twist at the end, overall an enjoyable read.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to read 87 nonfiction books about this real people in this novel. Damn you, Max Allan Collins!

[Charlie Eckhaus · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of those lesser-known historical crimes; OK start; lots of imagery.
At page 40, about to get more intense.
Effective grisly scene of the crime. Surprise appearance by an earlier recurring character.
A quandary develops; a notable crime figure makes his first appearance in the series. Another real personage is introduced, likely with more significance to the story.
Ugly personalities trouble the investigation and violence continues to have its way with undeserving victims. A relationship blossoms and apparently subsides. Women habitually preoccupy him.
Even at this late point, Collins surprises happily with the logical appearance of another real-life personality.
A satisfying wrap-up. I guessed the culprit by the way they were portrayed right from the beginning, but no way the entire complex story.
A highly enjoyable entry in a distinguished series.

[Byron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This guy Collins basically takes real things that happened, but long ago enough that no one ever heard of them, and inserts his character Nathan Heller, as if he had anything to do with it. Has him solving crimes, banging chicks, killing people. The whole nine. How weird would it be if you were a woman, an actual historical figure, and Max Allan Collins had you banging Nathan Heller, for the purposes of his fine literature? I guess that could be a compliment, depending on who it was. Regardless of who it was, she'd be fortunate in that MAC could have pulled this all out of his ass, for all I know. This was all news to me. The story has to do with the murder of Sir Harry Oakes, an ultra wealthy Canadian/British gold miner living in the Bahamas. Oakes hires Heller to take pictures of his son-in-law doing the nasty with someone other than his daughter, to ruin his daughter's marriage. But then Oakes turns up dead, and his daughter hires Heller to prove that the son in law didn't do it. And it only gets more retarded/convoluted from there. But it's pretty well written for what it is. MAC is clearly a master of the form. It says at the end of the book he's been nominated for the top prize in mystery writing like 15 times. Granted the other people nominated were probably idiots, but still.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chicago detective Nathan Heller is offered the opportunity to do some sleuthing for Sir Harry Oakes in the Bahamas. But no sooner does he get started than Sir Harry is murdered during the "carnal hours" — the islanders' name for the time between dark and daylight. Sir Harry's daughter, believing that the man accused of the crime is innocent, hires Nate to investigate the murder.

This is the first Nathan Heller mystery that I've read, but I intend to come back for more. Collins does a great job of integrating the fictional Heller into the real-life Oakes murder case, with appearances by figures including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, mobster Meyer Lansky, and writers Erle Stanley Gardner and Ian Fleming. Collins's style is crisp and the story is fast-moving. A great read.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This entry in the Nathan Heller series sends the sleuth to The Bahamas, where he investigates the death of Sir Harry Oakes. This real life case is a doozy of incompetence and conspiracy. for the most part, it's a fairly conventional tropical islands type mystery, with maybe a little more violence than most. The inclusion of Erle Stanley Gardner is a good bit.

It may be small minded, but I like these better when I agree with Collins's solution, but on this one, we disagree.

[Robert M. Roth MD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nathan Heller at his best

Max Collins has a unique ability to merge historical crimes into a top notch detective novel. The pace is fat, the characters credible, and the dialogue is crisp. Enough plot twists to keep one guessing and a main character who is both sharp and witty. Most excellent.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heller is back involved in another big historical case. And like most of the rest this one started a bit slow and then sucked me in in the second half and made me lose sleep. The added attraction here is that this is the first one that I wasn't at all familiar with Heller's case. I was generally familiar with the Capone/Nitti era stuff, Dillinger, very familiar with Ben Siegel and the founding of Las Vegas and quite familiar with the Lindbergh case. But I'd never come across the murder of Sir Harry Oakes until now. And, as usual, Collins had me Googling aplenty as I read the book.

Heller flies to The Bahamas at the behest of Sir Harry Oakes, multi-millionaire and the richest man in The Bahamas (and Canada) to investigate Oakes' son-in-law. Heller himself doesn't like doing cheating spouse work, but Oakes makes him a monetary offer he can't refuse. Unfortunately, the night that Heller is hired Oakes is murdered in his Bahamian estate and Heller is thrown into a murder investigation that is complicated by the Duke of Windsor (former King of England and, in 1943, the Governor of the Bahamas) who brings in two thuggish mob-connected Miami police detectives to investigate. Heller ends up hired by Oakes' daughter to find the real murderer and free her husband, who has been charged with the murder on very thin evidence.

I think I may have enjoyed this one more than most simply because I was less familiar with the surrounding events. Oakes himself was an extremely interesting man. As I followed up on his life he was a bit of a real-life Uncle Scrooge, prospecting in the Klondike, California, South America and Australia before finally striking it rich in Ontario, Canada with what would become the second largest gold mine in the Americas. He ultimately moved to The Bahamas as a tax refugee where he donated over a million dollars (around fifteen million today) to Bahamian charities.

Collins does a good job of bringing the tropical setting to life and showing the divergence of the lives between the white upper crust of Bahamian life and the largely black underclass. He also sprinkles the book with the requisite historical celebrities, almost all of which were organically involved in the case; The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Erle Stanley Gardner (who covered the case for Hearst Newspapers), Sally Rand (who did do some shows in The Bahamas at the time and did appear in front of the Windsors), and Meyer Lansky (who was involved in bringing casinos to The Bahamas after the war). He also throws in one British spy who wasn't involved in the case but was stationed in Jamaica at the time.

Another fun read made more fun by the fact that I wasn't familiar with the case or setting and that Collins goes down a slightly different path than the standard for deciding who actually killed Sir Harry Oakes (still officially unsolved).

[Darius Ostrowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just gone through a bunch of the Quarry novels, I thought I'd get back to Nathan Heller and his brushes with history...

The setting is 1943 Bahamas. Heller, done with his tour of duty in the Pacific theater, is asked by ultra-wealthy Sir Harry Oakes to do a little snooping and catch his son-in-law cheating. Heller is usually above this type of work but for the huge fee he makes an exception.

As he follows the son-in-law around one dark and rainy night, his client Oakes gets himself murdered, with the son-in-law being the chief suspect. Oakes' daughter retains Heller to prove her husband's innocence, and off Nate goes, getting involved with local corruption, the USA mob, black marketeers, thugs, racial tensions, and even a little bit of voodoo. As more bodies pile up and others go missing, can Nate find out the truth before the son-in-law gets found guilty?

As usual, Mr. Collins takes an interesting historical situation and weaves a fantastic story around it. In this case, in addition to Sir Harry we have the Duke (and Duchess) of Windsor, who famously abdicated the throne of England, mafia bigwig Meyer Lansky, Perry Mason writer Erle Stanley Gardner and even Naval Intelligence Officer Ian Fleming, pre-James Bond fame. A wonderful mix of fact and fiction, with an interesting murder mystery to boot.

[Michael Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part of this series success is due to the well written and developed characters, events and plotting. Part is due to the way each story often develops from a simple premise or event. And also from the fact that so many tales revolve around real life characters and events where because of the great research, Nate Heller can step into the role of real life investigators or police and away we go with a what-if presentation where the end result always follows the truth but with the Max Collins twists and turns.
The most famous unsolved crime in the Bahamas is the center of this story. Heller, the Irish redheaded Jewish ex cop from Chicago with his mob ties arrives in 1943 Nassau to see the wealthy American/Canadian millionaire with a domestic case worth $10,000 for a short week or two of warm weather and great food. Instead he has storms, murder, crooked Miami cops with their own mob ties and Nazi leaning foes set to do what it takes to survive if the Reich falls causing more trouble than Nate can handle. He meets Erle Stanley Gardner and Ian Fleming as he works through the mess.

[Jiří Pavlovský · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jeden z dalších cílů Rudé žně bude Max Allan Collins. Autor Cesty do zatracení… a zhruba dalšího půl milionu knih, včetně filmových adaptací a pokračování románů Mikea Spillanea. A ano, mnoha detektivek zasazených do třicátých a čtyřicátých let. To je jeho parketa.

Nathan Heller je jednou z jeho oblíbených postav, vzniklo s ním přes dvacet knih… a asi nejzajímavější na nich je to, že jsou v nich často využité skutečné události a postavy. Takže v Carnal Hours se řeší dodnes nevyřešená vražda milionáře Harry Oakese a objevuje se tu i Ian Fleming a především autor Perryho Masona Earl Stanley Gardner. Což působí podivně, ale pravdou je, že tenhle spisovatel skutečně dostal za úkol o případu napsat a na tropický ostrov Nassau přilétl. V některých příbězích se řeší únos Lindberghova dítěte či zmizení Amelie Earhartové. Prostě, pokud je v minulosti nějaká záhada, tak vám Nathan Heller naservíruje její řešení.

A to bych dal jako to jediné, čím jsou knihy zajímavé. Sám detektiv není ničím zvláštní… a pokud má nějaké hlášky, tak se to ztratilo v překladu.

[Richard Block · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heller's Tropical Hell

This edition of Nate Heller's noir memoirs is an overcooked mess despite having lashings of reality. The crime is the killing of millionaire Harry Oakes and the place is the Bahamas. The time is 1943. While other Heller tales name drop shamelessly, this one takes the biscuit and self congratulates in a mostly annoying way.

In it, not only does Heller solve the case, acquit the accused and kill the killer, he also manages to involve Earle Stanley Gardner, the Duke of Windsor, and even Ian Fleming. It is too cute for words, too convoluted, and the detective is too much of a babe magnet - even for Heller.

Still it is a cut above many books of this ilk, is very entertaining and well constructed (if over-egged). It also and contains an unnecessary inter-racial romance, loads of fatuous dialogue and unnecessary characters (like the inventor of the lie detector), Gardner, etc.

Oh well - they can't all be gems.

[Joey Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am going through the Nathan Heller Novels in chronological order as best I can. While the murder of Sir Harry Oakes may not be as well known as some of the mysteries covered in the Nathan Heller memoirs, this is not a book to be missed. One of his better works. Highly recommended.

[dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of his best.

I have read this book twice and enjoyed it more the second time around. Collins has taken history and actually made it more interesting than the case itself. Well done Max!

[Douglas Hancock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Great Heller Mystery

I'm continually amazed at Max Allan Collins ability to blend fiction with historical characters and events. I highly recommend this series and especially this volume.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Original Concept

Hardly high class literature but an amusing concept and an easy read. I will be trying and others in the series

[George W J Pryor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good story




A mixture of history plus fiction well written
Kept me
Wrapped in the story well worth the the time spent reading

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This time Heller is in the Bahamas working another real life case from history. One I wasn't familiar with. Definitely worth a read! Excellent mystery with plenty of action.

[Andy Rausch]

This is a masterwork. An exceptionally well-written book. Bravo!

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

This is one Nate Heller that you can read without having read any of the others in the series. Heller finds himself taking a job for a very rich guy in the Bahamas. All Heller breaks loose when his client is terminated shortly after the assignment begins. Instead of the original task, the client's attractive daughter persuades Nate to investigate the murder. (If I told you much more plot, you would shoot me.)
"Carnal hours?" I asked.
(She) explained patiently. "in these islands, that's what they call the time between dark and daylight."

Of course, there is more to that phrase than just telling time. Yet, what Max Allan Collins is able to do, is to make the venue real in both time and place. I knew the Nassau before it became the so popular rich people's retreat. I knew Hog Island before it became Paradise Island. Collins makes you feel the humidity and the tropical breezes while giving the authentic feel of the Bahamas during World War II, when the recently abdicated (and Nazi-sympathizing) Duke of Windsor was its governor.

Collins also works in a very clever homage to Earle Stanley Garner, who was actually there during these events. And to Ian Fleming, who might have been. There is plenty of action; more courtroom drama than usual, and some clever tying up of loose ends before we're done.

Very satisfactory.

[David Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again Nathan Heller is on the case. This time Heller takes a seemingly easy case. He is hired to find evidence that a rich man's son-in-law is cheating. Instead his famous client is murdered and the son-in-law is arrested. Then the man's daughter hires Heller to prove her husband's innocence. Heller is up to his eyeballs in intrigue. Of course the job is made easier by the sexy women that he encounters. On the other hand he has to deal with the Duke of Windsor who seems to be setting up a frame for the son-in-law by using two mob connected policemen from Miami. Then there is Meyer Lansky. Does he have a stake in this? With a real life, star-studded cast that includes Erle Stanely Gardner and a certain famous British Naval Intelligence officer this is Nathan Heller at his best.

[Frank O'Neill · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Carnal Hours

If you’re looking for a fast paced mystery that will give you some laughs without taxing your brain, check out The Carnal Hours. Max Allan Collins has created a great setting for his macho private eye Nathan Heller — the exotic tropical city of Nassau, where he investigates the murder of Sir Harry Oakes, the richest man in the Bahamas. The story, which is based on the actual murder of Oakes, is filled with characters plucked from history. The Duke and Dutchess of Windsor, Ian Fleming, Sally Rand, Erle Stanley Gardner, Meyer Lansky, among them.

Collins has created a delightful hero in Nathan Heller. If only he didn’t put all those juvenile sex scenes in the book, which makes it seem as if he got his sex education from porn star Harry Reems.

[Art · Rating 3 out of 5]

I continue working my way through the Nate Heller series, as I am wont to do when I discover a new character who has been around for years. (Last year at this time I was working my way through John Sandford and Lee Childs.) I am enjoying the Heller series. It's a quick read and I love finding out about famous mysteries from history. In this one, Heller partners with Erle Stanley Gardner and Ian Fleming to let Collins give a literary shout-out to some brother authors. As much as I like the books, I look forward to the "I Owe Them One" section at the end which lets you know what was true, what was fictional and what his sources were for research. Next up: Amelia Earhart.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great entry in the Nathan Heller series! This is up there with Majic Man in terms of good old-fashioned mystery. This read like a Mickey Spillane novel, not surprising considering Collins work with Spillane. I didn't know anything about the Sir Harry Oakes murder but this had everything that made it feel like a great mystery. There was murder, sex, femme fatales, gangsters. There was no drawn-out sequence on the past like in other Heller novels. It was a straight mystery!

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the seventh book in the Nathan Heller series, and, I believe, one of the better stories in the series. This book read more like the original trilogy. I loved the historical characters he put into this story and they way they interacted. And, Collins keep the plot twisting right up to the end. Highly recommend this to "Nathan Heller" fans and fans of this genre.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 7th book in the Nathan Heller historical crime series by Max Allan Collins takes on the murder of Sir Harry Oakes in Nassau. Authors Earle Stanley Gardner and Ian Fleming have roles in the narrative. While I always enjoy the afterwords in which the author separates fact from fiction, it was particularly needed in this case due to my unfamiliarity with the case.

[Ginney Etherton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hard-boiled detective in the Bahamas during the Forties mixing it up with real people from the pages of history --- what fun! I'll be reading more Nate Heller stories. I know they won't take place in Nassau because he's based in Chicago, but that could be fun, too.(less)

[warren frieze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fiction meets factual

The combination of wrapping the fiction into the factual murder was done to perfection. The literary license made for an entertaining read.Recommend to all mystery fans.

[Metagion]

Very snappy writing, and LOVED the 'cameos' in the story...would make a GREAT suspense film!

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little different, but still excellent