Casey’s Last Chance
In July 1960, the revelations about Nazi war crimes were only fifteen years old. Only two months before, in May 1960, Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann had been captured in Buenos Aires. Nazis like Eichmann, who had escaped Germany at the end of the war for places like South America, it was suspected, were rebuilding their lives while they kept the ideologies of National Socialism alive. This is the backdrop to Atkins’ noir detective novel set in the Southern states, where former Nazis have invested in businesses in which they exploit American workers. Casey Eubanks, Atkins’ doomed protagonist, is a loner on the run under suspicion of murder. He takes a job to assassinate one of the female workers trying to organize a union against the owner of a clothing factory. Turns out the owner, Max Duren, is a former Nazi whose deal with Casey is a trap.
This detective mystery is full of nasty, corrupt characters with not much hope in sight. While the female target for Casey’s assassination, Ala Gadomska, and her uncle, Martin Wolfe, might offer some hope of decency in this novel of corruption, sultry Southern nights, and cross-state road trips in hopelessly dilapidated vehicles, the ending is as bleak as Casey’s last chance.
