I wrote Chasing Eliot Ness to give Eliot Ness a bit of romance to his character. He's been portrayed on screen several times, most notably by Robert Stack in the television series The Untouchables. Also by Kevin Costner in the Brian DePalma Film "The Untouchables." Costner had him as a family man devoted to his wife and two fictional children.
Stack was more accurate. You never saw his wife or his son. Unfortunately, both of the depictions are inaccurate, according to any biography you read regarding Eliot Ness. The closest you will come to actually discovering anything about the real man is Paul Heimel's book that consists of interviews of a few people who actually knew Ness. By the time he wrote this book, the three wives Eliot Ness had were dead.
Eliot Ness failed to mention his first two marriages to Oscar Fraley, who wrote The Untouchables. Fraley had no idea that Ness was married twice before when he published the book. No one really knew the "real" Eliot Ness.
Many have put him into fiction, usually as a crimesolver. But what about his way with women? Why did he get divorced so many times?
According to the biographer, Heimel, he was pretty much a chick magnet. Not a bad looking guy and had women falling all over themselves for him. The ink wasn't dry on his two divorces before he married again. He liked women....but was never home.
So I made decided to get into his sex life and see what exactly made this guy tick when it came to women. Eliot Ness has demons. Eliot Ness has a strong sex drive. Eliot Ness is the romantic anti-hero in the book Chasing Eliot Ness.
This is not a romance book for everyone, although it does have quite a romantic slant to it. It features a lot of Chicago history, real places, real events and many real people. I mixed them in with fictional people and took liberties with some of the timelines. But not with the first divorce Eliot Ness had from his wife Edna.
This is a far cry from the geeky Eliot Ness in The Young Indiana Jones. According to his biographer, who took his information from the few alive in the late 1990s who actually knew the man, he was quite the catch in high school and college. Six feet tall (tall for a man in that era) with gray blue eyes and light brown hair.
Women liked this guy. Really liked him, even as he got older. I found this intriguing and wrote the book. It's available on Amazon as well as Barnes & Noble, Tower, Booksamillion and a few other places.
Those who want to see my take on Eliot Ness and also want a taste of Chicago History should take a look.
WARNING - The book is fiction. The book is written from the perspective of a woman with whom Ness has an affair. It is NOT for everyone, especially those who are looking for the typical romance. Also, it is written from a 1930's perspective. The female protagonist is has very few choices and is limited in her options. Those looking for a modern woman can forget it - this girl talks, behaves and thinks like a woman from the 1930s.
You can find a slang guide on my Amazon Author page to help you out. Lots of slang from the era is used. The female protagonist is NOT very nice. She manipulates Eliot Ness. He manipulates her. The male "hero" is a gangster.
You can find out more by visiting www.chasingeliotness.com. I plan to continue to update the blog with reviews as well as thoughts about the book from readers. Everyone who read this book got a different perspective. But everyone who read it did so in a week (574 pages - not an easy feat) so I take that as a compliment, even if not everyone liked all of the characters.
More to come.....
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