Overview

In the spirit of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Onion Field, Norco '80 is a gripping true crime account of one of the most violent bank heists in U.S. history. Norco '80 tells the story of how five heavily armed young men--led by an apocalyptic born-again Christian--attempted a bank robbery that turned into one of the most violent criminal events in U.S. history, forever changing the face of American law enforcement. Part action thriller and part courtroom drama, Norco '80 transports the listener back to the Southern California of the 1970s, an era of predatory evangelical gurus, doomsday predictions, megachurches, and soaring crime rates, with the threat of nuclear obliteration looming over it all. A group of landscapers transforms into a murderous gang of bank robbers armed to the teeth with military-grade weapons. Their desperate getaway turned the surrounding towns into war zones. When it was over, three were dead and close to twenty wounded; a police helicopter was forced down from the sky, and thirty-two police vehicles were destroyed by thousands of rounds of ammo. The resulting trial shook the community to the core, raising many issues that continue to face society today: from the epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder within law enforcement to religious extremism and the militarization of local police forces.

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9781665124058

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Reviews

Norco '80 is enthrallingly detailed, down to the pencils thrown by opposing counsel in the criminal trial that followed. -- Shelf Awareness Houlahan sure knows how to dramatize a scene. His cinematic treatment of the robbery itself reads like wildfire... and the huge manhunt through San Bernardino National Forest conducted by 'Hunt & Kill Teams' is a nail-biter. -- New York Times Book Review Houlahan...writes with a narrative urgency that perfectly captures the quick and chaotic nature of the robbery...A fascinating true-crime account. -- NPR Houlahan's debut is remarkable for the exhaustive... level of detail he brings to every stage of the story, transforming a pulpy true-crime narrative into a reflection of social transformations and class conflict as the countercultural 1970s faded into the Reagan era...An impressively well-rendered true-crime saga. -- Kirkus Reviews Like American Heiress in the summer of 2016, this looks like the true crime book that will launch a hundred conversations. -- Crime Reads This is true crime at its best. -- Coachella Review

""Norco '80 is enthrallingly detailed, down to the pencils thrown by opposing counsel in the criminal trial that followed."" -- ""Shelf Awareness"" ""Houlahan sure knows how to dramatize a scene. His cinematic treatment of the robbery itself reads like wildfire... and the huge manhunt through San Bernardino National Forest conducted by 'Hunt & Kill Teams' is a nail-biter."" -- ""New York Times Book Review"" ""Houlahan...writes with a narrative urgency that perfectly captures the quick and chaotic nature of the robbery...A fascinating true-crime account."" -- ""NPR"" ""Houlahan's debut is remarkable for the exhaustive... level of detail he brings to every stage of the story, transforming a pulpy true-crime narrative into a reflection of social transformations and class conflict as the countercultural 1970s faded into the Reagan era...An impressively well-rendered true-crime saga."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" ""Like American Heiress in the summer of 2016, this looks like the true crime book that will launch a hundred conversations."" -- ""Crime Reads"" ""This is true crime at its best."" -- "" Coachella Review""

Author Information

Peter Houlahan is an author, freelance writer, and book review contributor. His work has appeared in CrimeReads, Salon, Los Angeles Magazine, Police1, Hearst, Los Angeles Review of Books, the Daily Mirror, and the Orange County Register. His first book, Norco '80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History, was a finalist for an Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Hammett Prize, and a Macavity Award. The book has been chosen as a New York Times summer pick; a best book of the year by NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and Amazon; and a Gold Standard selection by the Junior Library Guild. Originally from Southern California, Houlahan now lives in Fairfield County, Connecticut, where he works as an emergency medical technician. Joe Barrett began his acting career at the age of five in the basement of his family's home in upstate New York. He has gone on to play many stage roles, both on and off-Broadway, and in regional theaters from Los Angeles, Houston, and St. Louis to Washington DC, San Francisco, and Portland, Maine. He has appeared in films and television, both prime time and late night, and in hundreds of television and radio commercials. Joe has narrated over two hundred audiobooks. He has been an Audie Award finalist eight times, and his narration of Gun Church by Reed Farrel Coleman won the 2013 Audie Award for Original Work. AudioFile magazine has granted Joe fourteen Earphones Awards, including for James Salter's All That Is and Donald Katz's Home Fires. Regarding Joe's narration of John Irving's A Prayer For Owen Meany, AudioFile said, ""This moving book comes across like a concerto . . . with a soloist-Owen's voice-rising from the background of an orchestral narration."" Joe is married to actor Andrea Wright, and together they have four very grown children.

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