FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Author Ace Atkins will be at Page & Palette in Fairhope on May 1, at 4 p.m., to sign copies of his latest book, “Infamous.”

Called “one of the best crime writers at work today” by fellow author Michael Connelly, Atkins has written a fast, funny, violent new noir crime classic, a Coen Brothers movie come to life.

He has been compared to Lehane, Ellroy and Pelecanos, but Atkins’ rich, raucous, passionate blend of historical novel and crime story is all his own, and never more so than in “Infamous.”

In July 1933, the gangster known as George “Machine Gun” Kelly staged the kidnapping-for-ransom of an Oklahoma oilman. He would live to regret it. Kelly was never the sharpest knife in the drawer, and what started clean soon became messy, as two of his partners cut themselves into the action; a determined former Texas Ranger makes tracking Kelly his mission; and Kelly’s wife, ever alert to her own self-interest, starts playing both ends against the middle.

The result is a mesmerizing tale set in the first days of the modern FBI.

For more information, call (251) 928-5295, or visit www.pageandpalette.com.