In 1955, Look magazine called Phenix City, Alabama, "The Wickedest City in America," a stew of organized crime and corruption, run by a machine that dealt with complaints forcefully and with dispatch.
About the Book
In 1955, Look magazine called Phenix City, Alabama, “The Wickedest City in America,” a stew of organized crime and corruption, run by a machine that dealt with complaints forcefully and with dispatch.
When crime-fighting attorney Albert Patterson is gunned down in a Phenix City alley in the spring of 1954, the entire town seems to pause just for a moment—and when it starts up again, there is something different about it. A small group of men meet and decide that they have had enough, but what that means and where it will take them is something they could not have foreseen. Over the course of the next several months, lives will change, people will die, and unexpected heroes will emerge—like “a Randolph Scott western,” one of them remarks, “played out not with horses and Winchesters but with Chevys and .38s and switchblades.”
Atkins draws from the worlds of pulp and Faulkner in Wicked City, using characters from the town’s true history to tell a story of the best and worst of morality, and the ambiguity in between.
Critical Praise
“This is the classic Western tale of good vs. evil, ‘played out not with horses and Winchesters but with Chevys and Fords and .38s and switchblades.’ The result is a gripping, superb crime story, all the more remarkable because it really did happen. Highly recommended.”—Library Journal
On Wicked City
Read some recent reviews and interviews with Ace about his novel:
- Review in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Mysteries: Wicked City by Ace Atkins
- Review in the Rocky Mountain News: Specialty bookshelf: reviews of thriller and children’s titles
- New Orleans Times-Picayune: New mysteries focus on ‘Daddies dearest’
- Ft. Worth Star Telegram: Mysteries & Thrillers
- Mobile Press-Register: Wicked good Phenix City reborn in Ace Atkins’ hands
- Alabama Arts Radio podcast interview: http://www.arts.state.al.us/actc/1/radioseries.html#rheta_ace
- National Public Radio podcast interview: Q&A on “Wicked City”
- Feature in the Columbus Ledger: “Phenix City’s villainous past has the makings of good fiction. But how do novels set post-’54 affect the real city?”
- Review in the Tampa Tribune:“Something ‘Wicked’ Comes Our Way”
- Interview in Sarasota Herald: “Wicked City Tale”
- Review in the St. Petersburg Times: “Ace Atkins captures Phenix City in Wicked City”
- The Associated Press raves: “Family crime history is point of pride”
- Review of Wicked City in the Washington Post: “Vice and Its Grip”
- Short piece on Ace in the St. Petersburg Times: “Ace Atkins, local reporter turned novelist”
- A Q&A with Ace in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Q&A / ACE ATKINS, author: Real-life ‘Wicked City’ behind historical novel”
- A review of Wicked City in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “BOOKS: ‘Wicked’ puts Phenix City on murder map”
- A profile of Ace and Wicked City in the Birmingham News: “Alabama native Ace Atkins’ novel ‘Wicked City’ a patchwork of tales from Phenix City’s sordid past”
- A review of Wicked City by Noir master Eddie Muller in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Stansberry’s ‘Ancient Rain’ reimagines SLA”
- Library Journal Q&A with Ace: “Q&A: Ace Atkins”
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Look Inside
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