Reviews for White Shadow

The average rating for White Shadow based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-08-20 00:00:00 Elaina Skovira This is one of those books where the author let facts get in the way of a good story. It's based on the true crime story of the murder of Charlie Wall in 1955. Wall was a local legend in Tampa and a retired gangster who was found in his home after suffering a brutal beating and getting his throat cut. This historical fiction takes us through the investigation and how it involved local gangsters, the Sicilian Mafia, newspapermen, crooked cops, movie stars, Cubans and Cuban exiles like an idealistic lawyer named Fidel Castro. Ace Atkins used a couple of composite characters involved with the Wall murder to describe a bygone era, and it's very well researched. Unfortunately, the Wall murder was never officially solved and Atkins sticks close enough to real story that it comes across more as a chaotic look at a bunch of eccentric characters rather than a coherent storyline. I'm not sure why journalist Atkins didn't just write a non-fiction account rather than going the historical fiction route if he didn't want to break away from the real story. As a bonus on this, I listened to the audio version which included Atkins talking about how he got interested in and researched this story as well as a few recollections from some of the people who were actually involved.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-07-31 00:00:00 Ty HATCHER Ace Atkins uses the real-life murder of Tampa, Florida crime boss Charlie Wall as the basis for an atmospheric novel set in the Tampa of the mid-1950s. An idealistic young reporter and a hardened police detective attempt to solve the crime, each in his own way. Atkins is most successful in recreating the Tampa of fifty years ago with a mix of interesting characters set against a very convincing backdrop, and the book is well worth reading just for the portrait he creates. Even Fidel Castro makes an appearance. (Castro apparently visited Tampa in the late fifties, attempting to drum up support for his revolution.) Atkins is a bit less successful in creating a riveting story. The book is based on actual events, and the author may try just a bit too hard to be faithful to the facts. The book would have been a better read had he taken a bit more artistic license. Crime fiction fans who are accustomed to the sort of resolution that one usually finds at the ends of these books may be a bit disappointed with the conclusion of the book. Still, it's a good read that will inevitably provoke some comparisons with the L.A. noir of James Ellroy.