Cover by Todd Engel

5.0 out of 5 stars               Great read! Hard-boiled meets true crime!

By M. Lee Alexander

Amazon.com   November 7, 2011

    I was a fan of this author's previous book, Good People, which deftly explored the stand-up comedy scene in New York City in the 1980s. In his latest work, All That Money, he surpasses his previous work by bringing to life a combination of American true crime genre and hard-boiled style, this time evoking southern culture and setting as part of the lifeblood of the story. His style evokes Chandler, including Chandler's dry sense of humor and swift and at times biting dialog; I think it's the kind of novel Chandler or Hammett might write if they were basing their work on true crime today.

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All That Money FAQ

Cover by Todd Engel

Q. How did this book come about?

A. From looking at microfilm of the newspaper coverage of the 1934 Louisville, Kentucky kidnapping of Mrs. Alice Speed Stoll and realizing what a fascinating event it was. (I already knew her name from her more-than-$50 million bequest to the Speed Art Museum in 1996.) Her kidnapping cries out for a nonfiction book; though the story gripped the nation for weeks—the New York Times alone carried more than a hundred stories about it—no such account has appeared, and the event seems forgotten. My novel, of course, takes off from the facts of that case to tell a story all its own.

The legal aspect of the true story is even more harrowing than in my version: The kidnapper, turned in by his latest girlfriend, was flown across country by the F.B.I., questioned for more than 24 hours straight and, his mother weeping in the next room, agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence. Years later, in Alcatraz, he sued to overturn his plea and was granted a trial; convicted at the trial, he was sentenced to death and came within hours of being fried before President Truman commuted his sentence to life.

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