5.5" x 8.5", 175 page hardcover with dustjacket titled GOOD-BYE, CHICAGO by W.R. Burnett/ St. Martin's Press, ISBN # 0-312-33851-1, First Edition, copyright 1981/ Burnett's final novel (and his first since the 1968 paperback original "The Cool Man"). A gangster novel published the year before his death at the age of 82, it brought his career neatly full circle by returning to the topic and setting of his first book, "Little Caesar" (1929). Chicago 1928. A melancholy Italian police officer learns that his wife, who has long left without leaving his address, was found dead on the lake, probably after an overdose. He will learn a lot more through an old classmate who has taken the crooked path: the policemen, the politicians who buy and redeem, the corrupt lawyers, the reorganization of the prostitutes, the underworld of the Italians, the Irish and the Polish, the lost gangsters - a simple vendetta leads to a real night of St. Bartholomew. The book is complete and in VERY GOOD condition with some overall wear. There is a small red remainder dot on the top and bottom of the closed book pages.The dustjacket has a circular paper pull on the front cover (see pictures). |