Norco ’80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History

Vague sourcing and fictionalization mar EMT Houlahan’s otherwise promising first book, an account of a bank robbery whose aftermath left dead on both sides of the law. In 1980, five heavily armed men, led by George Wayne Smith and Christopher Harven, held up the Security Pacific Bank in Norco, Calif. Smith and Harven weren’t typical thieves. They wanted the money because they believed that “America was on the verge of a catastrophe of biblical proportions, one in which only the well-armed and well-prepared would survive.” The execution of their plot was poor. Explosives planted some distance from the bank, intended as a diversion that would draw law enforcement away from the scene of the crime, didn’t explode as planned. At one point, Houlihan enters the mind of Billy Delgado, the driver of the robbers’ van, and conveys his thoughts. Soon afterward, a bullet to the neck mortally wounds Billy. “His body seemed to disappear on him. He could not feel it at all.... The only thing he could feel was a sharp stinging at the back of his neck.” This may be plausible, but it remains speculation, and an author note on sources, in which he says, “Everything presented, whether in dialogue or narrative, is as factual as I could determine based on a wide range of sources,” does nothing to reassure readers that he has not used dramatic license elsewhere. That Houlahan writes well suggests he’s capable of doing better next time. Agent: Jeff Ourvan, Jennifer Lyons Literary. (June)