Mississippi Library Association

Wicked City

Atkins, Ace. Wicked City.
New York: GP Putnam’s Sons, 2008.
336 pp. $24.95 (hardcover)

In Wicked City, Ace Atkins turns his journalist’s eye toward Phenix City, Alabama, in the 1950s, a small backwater town overwhelmed by a sleazy and corrupt government under the collective thumb of gangsters known as The Machine. Called “the wickedest city in America” by Look magazine, Phenix City had an economy largely based on prostitution, gambling and moonshine. Atkins relates the story of how local citizens turned the tables on The Machine in 1954, returning Phenix City to its more law-abiding residents.

If you’re familiar with Atkins’ work, you know he has moved from music to city history, but he still creates some of the best historical fiction to be found. Crossroad Blues (1998), Leavin’ Trunk Blues (2001), and Dark End of the Street (2002) are great tales based on the history of jazz and its early artists in the South. With White Shadow (2006), Atkins turned his attention to Tampa, Florida, and the unsolved murder in 1955 of Charlie Wall, known as the “white shadow.”

Wicked City brings the author to Alabama and a city where the local law and the National Guard initially seem uninterested in solving the murder of a prominent lawyer who had been intent on reforming the city. Eventually, they are forced to face the facts by a local gas station manager and former boxer, Lamar Murphy, who is persuaded to serve as sheriff. Murphy points the Guard toward the town’s most flagrant gangsters, but in the process he uncovers even deeper layers of corruption of which he was unaware.

Wicked City is a well-told tale, based on the meticulous research common to Atkins’ novels. They may be crime stories, but they are based on court records, deeds, maps, and correspondence from the time. Atkins’ writing is based on the research and writing skills he honed as a reporter for the Tampa Tribune. His skillful writing puts the reader back in time and space, as if we were listening to the tale unfold at some distant kitchen table. Alabama is the author’s home, and his fluency with the rhythm and tone of the language is apparent. Atkins is now a resident of Oxford, Mississippi.

Priscilla L. Stephenson
Chief, Library Service
G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center

Entry Filed under: Book Reviews
Posted on: June 29th, 2009