Showing results by author "Max Collins" in All Categories

Nolan is a pro, a veteran of mob vendettas and decades of high-tension heists. All he wants in his advancing middle age is his slice of the American pie - a way to make capitalism pay without having to drag guns into it. But a bullet-scarred life does not come without its bad karma, and Nolan - and his young cohort Jon, whose own dream is to confine the violence to the comics he draws - often find themselves facing old enemies and new temptations.

The world thinks John Sand is retired. No longer heading into the MI6 offices, he’s an energy company executive. He’s got a nice corner office, lavish dinners to attend, and no bullets flying at his head...yet. Sand is hunting stolen uranium, and he knows if he doesn’t find it soon, he’ll be hunting something very different—a nuclear bomb. Deep in South America, the remnants of Nazi Germany hide. Their only goal is to accomplish what their insane leader failed to do: ensure Germany rises victorious out of the next World War.

When a retired colleague dies of an apparent suicide, ex - Secret Service agent Joe Reeder knows there must be far more to the story. Why did the man leave a desperate message for Reeder moments before dying? And what could possibly make such a seasoned veteran fear for his life? FBI Special Agent Patti Rogers has a mystery of her own to solve: she's leading a task force investigating a brutal series of similar but seemingly unconnected murders across the DC area.

A tarnished former cop goes on a crusade to find a politician's killer and avoid the .45-caliber slug with his name on it. A pilot forced to make an emergency landing in the desert finds himself at the center of a struggle between FBI agents, unsavory fortune hunters, and members of the local Indian tribe to control a mysterious find that could mean wealth and power - or death.

Max Allan Collins became Spillane's friend and collaborator, continuing the Mike Hammer series for years after the author's death, building upon unfinished manuscripts the writer left behind. Now, with coauthor James Traylor, Collins has produced the first comprehensive and authoritative profile of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master. It is a must-listen for any fan of the author—or of the generations of crime writers that were influenced by his work.

In Eastern Europe four CIA agents are dead - geopolitical pawns caught in border dispute cross fire. Why were they there? Who sent them? Not even the President knows. Back in Washington, the Secretary of the Interior dies from an apparent allergic shock. As details emerge, so do suspicions that she was murdered. Investigating their respective cases, ex - Secret Service agent Joe Reeder and FBI Special Situations Task Force leader Patti Rogers recognize a dangerous conspiracy is in play.

Jordan Rivera is an ordinary kid with an ordinary family, until a vicious killer takes it all away, sparing her, but leaving her broken. The murders of her father, mother, and brother destroy something inside Jordan, who spends ten long, mute years in an institution. Catching a glimpse of a news report about another family slaying, Jordan at last breaks her silence. Now she's out, and she molds herself - body and mind - into an instrument of justice.

Two nights before the devastating military strike on Pearl Harbor, a young half-Japanese singer is found dead on a Honolulu beach. The murder appears to be a simple crime of passion, but writer Edgar Rice Burroughs - creator of Tarzan and John Carter - has his doubts. The writer’s suspicions lead him and his son Hully to conduct a sub-rosa investigation into the sultry singer’s death. Their pursuit of the killer coincides with rumors of an imminent Japanese attack against the Pacific fleet stationed in Oahu.

Leslie Charteris had no way of knowing that the Hindenburg was hurtling toward catastrophe. But like his crime-fighting character, the Saint, Charteris has an eye for trouble. First the famous mystery writer suspects the German airship has received a bomb threat. Then he discovers a passenger has mysteriously disappeared. Convinced the man was pushed overboard, Charteris conducts a covert investigation. But the vanished man turns out to be an undercover Nazi agent....

Ginnie Mullens was many things in her life: tomboy, hippie, businesswoman, and inveterate gambler. Now, she’s just dead - apparently by her own hand. But “apparently” doesn’t pass muster with mystery writer Mallory, because no matter what else she may have been, Ginnie was first and foremost his friend. There’s nothing Mal won’t do to prove she didn’t go into that good night willingly…and nothing that will stop him from coming down hard on her killer.

Los Angeles. The City of Angels. The perfect place for a honeymoon… and the worst possible time for a murder. Vacationing private investigator Nate Heller finds himself a suspect in the LAPD’s investigation of the notorious Black Dahlia murder case. Problem is the butchered starlet, Elizabeth Short, is an old Chicago flame of Heller’s — and only the P.I. himself knows she was blackmailing him for abortion money.

Tough, cynical, and clever, Nathan Heller has been called "the perfect private eye", the best investigator that Chicago (where "lightning" means gunfire) has to offer. Created by New York Times best-selling novelist and Road to Perdition creator Max Allan Collins, the classic PI comes vibrantly to life in this collection of 13 stories, all based on real cases of the 1930s and '40s.

Beautiful, homicidal Julie has one lethal solution for every problem. And now Nolan and his sometime sidekick Jon have gotten on Julie's “problem” list. If a pair of out-of-town hitmen can't do the job, Julie will do it herself.

Just when Nolan’s looking for a way out of his dead-end job, trouble comes knocking, and he’s back in business. Someone harboring an old grudge has just picked off Joey DiPreta, a crooked businessman with ties to the mob, and the guy’s family is out to get whoever’s responsible. So is Nolan’s family - in Chicago - and they offer him big bucks and a piece of a swank hotel if he’ll protect their interests.

It’s 1950 in Chicago, P.I. Nate Heller’s old stomping grounds. But things are different now, and the wind is blowing in a different, decidedly more dangerous direction. Congressman-with-a-cause and presidential-hopeful Estes Kefauver creates the Committee on Organized Crime to put the squeeze on the mob - and anyone who ever associated with them. Heller tries to lay low, but when ex-cop Bill Drury cooperates and mafia moll Jackie Payne sings, Heller finds himself catapulted into the middle of the investigation.

Nathan Heller, star of MWA Grandmaster Max Allan Collins’ most acclaimed series of novels (more than 1 million copies sold to date!), comes to Hard Case Crime for the first time in an all-new thriller drawn from the pages of history. A millionaire’s son is kidnapped and private eye Heller is called in to help. But when half of the record $600,000 ransom goes missing, Heller must wade through a morass of deception and depravity to blow the lid off a notorious crime whose consequences reach into the corridors of power in Washington D.C.

Comics kill. Or so the esteemed Dr. Werner Frederick would have people believe - people like the Congressmen holding hearings on banning violent crime and horror "funny books". And when the crusade provokes a most un-funny murder, Jack Starr - comics syndicate troubleshooter - has no shortage of suspects. Was it the knife-wielding juvenile delinquent or the naked seductress? Perhaps a frustrated publisher or an outraged cartoonist. Or was it a comic book reader…?

In a small Midwest town, twenty-eight-year-old Krista Larson has made her mark as the youngest female police chief in the country. She’s learned from the best: her father, Keith, a decorated former detective. But as accustomed as they are to the relative quiet of their idyllic tourist town, things quickly turn with Krista’s ten-year high school reunion. With the out-of-towners holed up in a lakefront lodge, it doesn’t take long to stir up old grudges and resentments. Now a successful TV host, Astrid Lund, voted the “Girl Most Likely to Succeed” is back in town

Joyce Lackey was a classic baby-boomer. She had it all: a high-paying position, a beautiful condo, a BMW. But there was one thing she didn’t have any more—her youth, and that was what she needed most. Her boss fired her because he wanted someone with “young blood and young ideas.” Joyce was forced to start all over again. But could she compete with all the beautiful young kids who were so hungry for what she had?

Heist-man Nolan is enjoying his retirement from crime, running his own restaurant, when the president of a bank he robbed two years ago shows up with a blackmail demand. All Nolan has to do is rob the bank again — and play patsy to a sexy girlfriend’s murder scheme.