Road to Purgatory

Starred review from November 22, 2004
When you're dealing with the straight-text sequel to a bestselling American graphic novel, Road to Perdition
(2002), which became a memorable Tom Hanks movie, the words take on extra significance. Luckily, Collins is, among his other talents, a dedicated word man, the author of dozens of sharply written and impeccably researched mysteries and thrillers. In 1942, Michael O'Sullivan Jr.—the wide-eyed boy who watched his father turn into an angel of vengeance—is now grown up and about to become a WWII hero in the savage battle for Bataan. Raised by Italian-American adopted parents, Michael Satariano (as he's now named) then returns to America to continue his father's one-man war on the Capone mob by working his way up inside it. Michael hits it off with Frank Nitti, Al's successor (played so well by Stanley Tucci in the film version of Perdition
that he should be signed immediately for the sequel). Then there's a touching and frightening flashback to 1922, when Michael Sullivan Sr. covers up a crime by the son of his own mentor, John Looney. Collins ranges over a lot of ground, and his writing is most vivid when he describes visual exteriors rather than mental interiors. But the complete package is so smooth and imaginative that few will find it more graphic than novelistic. Agent, Dominick Abel.

August 1, 2004
Parallel tales set in 1942 and 1922 mobster Chicago follows two good men trapped in bad lives in this prose sequel to the acclaimed graphic novel and Oscar-winning film Road to Perdition. Collins, "mystery's renaissance man," is a 12-time Shamus Award nominee and a four-time Edgar Award nominee. He lives in Muscatine, IA. Author appearances in Chicago and Quad Cities, IA.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2004
After earning the Medal of Honor in Bataan, Michael Satariano (aka Michael O'Sullivan Jr.) returned to the U.S and took an undercover position as a chauffer with Frank Nitti, the acting capo of the Chicago Mob. Michael's actual boss is legendary crime fighter Elliot Ness. Michael's motivation is simple: as a child he watched as his father, the infamous Angel of Death, Michael O'Sullivan, was shot by a Capone hit man. Ness hopes to revive his flagging career by exploiting Michael's obsession with revenge. But Ness' plan goes awry when Michael bonds with Nitti, who bestows upon Michael the status of "made man." This prose sequel to " Road to Perdition" (1998), the graphic novel that inspired the Academy Award-winning film starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, is familiar ground for Collins, who populates his Shamus Award-winning Nate Heller crime series with many of the real-life mobsters portrayed here. Collins is a consummate storyteller, and in Michael Satariano, he has created a character trapped in a cordite-drenched Shakespearean tragedy from which he is unable--or possibly unwilling--to escape.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)