Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Adventure fiction: Westerns

WORLD, CHASE ME DOWN

Andrew Hilleman

In the vein of True Grit and The Sisters Brothers, this western is based on the forgotten true story of an American Robin Hood, the turn-of-the-20th-century Omaha butcher turned outlaw and populist hero, who committed the “crime of the century,” becoming the most wanted man in America for kidnapping the son of a millionaire meatpacking magnate—the first successful kidnapping for ransom in US history.

Once the most wanted man in America, Pat Crowe is a forgotten folk hero who captivated the nation as an outlaw for economic justice. World, Chase Me Down resurrects him, telling the electrifying story of the first great crime of the last century: how in 1900 the out-of-work former butcher kidnapped the teenage son of Omaha’s wealthiest meatpacking tycoon for a ransom of $25,000 in gold, and then burgled, safe-cracked, and bond-jumped his way across the country and beyond, inciting a manhunt that was dubbed “the thrill of the nation” and a showdown in the court of public opinion between the haves and have-nots—all the while plotting a return to the woman he never stopped loving.

As if channeling Mark Twain and Charles Portis, Andrew Hilleman has given us a character who is bawdy and soulful, grizzled, salty, and hard-drinking, and with a voice as unforgettable as that of Lucy Marsden in Alan Gurganus’s Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All—an anti-hero you can’t help rooting for.

Andrew Hilleman was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1982. He has been published by The Fiddlehead and was a finalist for Glimmer Train’s Very Short Fiction Award. A fiction editor at The Editorial Department, he is based in Tucson, Arizona.

Available products
Book Published 2017-01-24 by Penguin Books
Book Published 2017-01-24 by Penguin Books

Comments

The crime at the heart of this novel reverberates from dirty back streets to the halls of power. Once WORLD, CHASE ME DOWN grabs you, it won’t let go.

Unforgettable: a raucous and engaging story told by a voice so convincing you’ll think the author must be channeling his turn-of-the-20th-century antihero, with all his imagination, boldness, wry humor, and natural eloquence. Rich historical details bring the sights, sounds, and smells of rough-and-tumble meat-packing Omaha to life in this suspenseful and surprising novel.

World, Chase Me Down brings a patch of history forward, depicting a wide range of humans living and laughing, making mistakes and trying to do right—or sort of right. The vigor of the writing puts the story on the page with memorable bursts of power and subversive wit.

The kidnapping that was called “the crime of the century” in the early 1900s later became just a footnote in Omaha history, but Andrew Hilleman has given it fascination and life in this elegant, meditative, beautifully written novel.

A thunderous debut: a raucous gallivant through the wild heartland of our American myth, an indictment of big beef money, and a portrait of the 21st century’s first great outlaw. This book will raise laughs from your belly and stab the wild meat of your heart. It sounds the barbaric yawp of a great new voice in American fiction.

I envy you, reader, because you’re in for at least two treats. First, World, Chase Me Down is a rollicking, elegiac page-turner that depicts a time and place I’ve not seen before in fiction and that stars a one-of-a-kind antihero you’ll keep thinking about days and weeks later. Second, you get to be among the first to experience the debut of a great new talent in Andrew Hilleman. So: Buy and enjoy this novel right now.

Supremely compelling. Gleaming with dark beauty in every line and gritty truth in its portraits of both haves and have-nots, WORLD, CHASE ME DOWN is that rare thing: a novel paced like a blazing page-turner and crafted like finely woven tapestry. Brilliant on all counts.

A riotous and righteous read—part poetry, part penny dreadful—World, Chase Me Down grips you with an originality that will keep you rooted to your chair.

A first-class page-turner, layered with ambition, greed, promises made and broken, and the powerful bond of friendship. The writing is pitch-perfect, the dialogue pops, the flashes of humor are just right, and the courtroom scenes are not to be missed. Best of all is the sophisticated portrait of the kidnapper, a complicated and unforgettable character. Bravo.

A riveting read that brings a turn-of-the-century crime into shivering reality. Pat Crowe, butcher turned kidnapper, is a fascinating combination of high hopes and dark desires.