- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Dec 25 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0743212967
- ISBN-13: 978-0743212960
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.4 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 549 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,530,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
After three taut, well-crafted contemporary mysteries, Craig Holden turns here to the 1920s, evoking a period rich in glamour and drama in a powerful and elegiac story told with consummate skill. Young Charlie Taft, a prosecutor who's the son of a former president and chief justice, doesn't need to solve the murder of Imogene Remus, the quixotic and exotic wife of Cincinnati bootlegger George Remus. George has already confessed to the crime, and his conviction is all but assured. But as Charlie delves deeper into the tangled history of the stunning socialite who defied her wealthy family to marry Remus and went to extraordinary lengths to free him from prison, he begins to doubt whether the bootlegger is insane, as he claims, or the real victim of his wife's betrayal. Holden brings a fascinating era in American history to life through the creation of complex, multidimensional characters who haunt the reader long after the last page is turned. This is a tour de force from a writer who gets better with every novel. --Jane Adams
From Publishers Weekly
Based on a true story, this deftly written novel by Holden (Four Corners of the Night) delves deep into the murk of the Jazz Age, blending mystery and history in a heady cocktail. Charlie Taft is a prosecutor in late 1920s Cincinnati; he is also the son of William Howard Taft, Supreme Court chief justice and former president. When bootlegger George Remus turns himself in, in October 1927, for shooting his society wife, Imogene, Charlie thinks he's been handed a career maker. But all is not as simple as it seems. Through testimony and Imogene's diaries, Charlie becomes fascinated with the dead woman. Dubbed the Jazz Bird by Remus's men, she is a fabulous creation brilliant, beautiful, extraordinarily intelligent, na‹ve and deeply loved by her husband. Remus is a fascinating character, too, his fortune made by purchasing alcohol allowance certificates from pharmaceutical corporations. Forced into prison in 1924, Remus is saved by Imogene, who goes to humiliating lengths to get him released, but the nature of her act leads him to believe he was betrayed. Is this why he killed her, or is he truly insane, as he pleads in court? Throughout the effective trial sequences, the reader learns the story slowly, as Charlie does, and there are twists to the very end. The poignancy of the story lies in Holden's uncanny ability to make his creations believable, flaws and all, and in his evocation of the charged and sultry 1920s. Agent, Gail Hochman. 8-city author tour.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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Already, the telephone in the study was ringing. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
AN UNGILDED CAGE,
By
This review is from: The Jazz Bird: A Novel (Hardcover)
THE JAZZ BIRD, based on a true story, but admittedly fictionalized to add dramatic voice, is a stunning example of good characterization if nothing else. Holden brings us realistic, tragic, and multi-layered characters in the story of a murder trial in which we know the defendant is guilty. But the background is complex and nothing is quite as it seems. At times Holden's plotting does get a little muddled, but by the end of the novel, you get a better understanding of George Remus and why he killed his enigmatic wife, Imogene. While the jumping around at times defuses the courtroom suspense, I was surprised by its ending, and the novel itself ends on a note that is not easily accepted.Good, crisp writing, should enhance Holden's growing reputation.
2.0 out of 5 stars
The Jazz Bird lays an egg...,
By
This review is from: The Jazz Bird: A Novel (Hardcover)
I have spent the last 3 months reading 4 dozen various mysteries and I have enjoyed every single one of them--until now. I found this book terribly confusing with the story jumping around between past and present and the assortment of characters. I thought that the character of Charlie Taft was very undeveloped and that he should develop a "passion" for the dead Imogene rather laughable. I could not understand why people had such sympathy for George Remus and was disappointed by the ending. Any book that I start, I force myself to finish. Many times I'm surprised halfway through. But I now wish I had bailed out on this book after a couple of chapters. It wasn't worth the time. I read in Holden's notes that he had two editors for this book. Perhaps that was a big part of the problem. This will certainly be my first and last Holden.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sweet Singing Imogene,
This review is from: The Jazz Bird: A Novel (Hardcover)
This is the first work by Craig Holden that I have read; it most certainly will not be the last. I am not familiar enough with the historical basis for this book, so I comment purely as a reader. "The Jazz Bird", is a wicked book, from a large cast of characters whose loyalty cannot be placed until the book's end, an immense fortune built by prohibition, and the co-star of the book Imogene.Imogene is one of the better female players that I have read in quite some time. If the character in the book bears any resemblance to who this woman truly was, there must be additional books written already, or more will certainly follow. The author reconstructs the 1920's with great detail, right down to noting the Rag Time Piano Music of Scott Joplin. If you recall the music, you may also remember the movie that brought it back when Paul Newman and Robert Redford gave classic performances in, "The Sting". This work is much darker than the movie I reference, but if the time period appeals to you, the book will as well. Prohibition parties where 100-dollar bills were under the plate of each guest, or perhaps dozens of new cars awaited the guests who stayed the night as gifts. Add to all of this Imogene, daughter of the privileged class who marries the largest rumrunner, systematically destroys all she was brought up to be a part of, and does it with either the greatest calculation, or the most grievous unintended consequence. The book is a classic roaring 20's tragedy that you know is going to happen but Craig Holden brings you there through a series of brilliant characters, and the most circuitous of routes.
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