Showing results by author "Max Collins" in All Categories

Mallory is back and facing a two-fisted whodunit: Who’s responsible for the just-discovered “lost novel” by the celebrated author of The Maltese Falcon? Is it the master, Dashiell Hammett, himself, or a very cunning counterfeiter? And who’s behind the shocking, suspicious demise of Roscoe Kane, a hard-drinking, hard-boiled crime-novel pioneer? Aptly enough, this one-two punch of a puzzle is the talk of Bouchercon, the famed convention where mystery scribes gather to honor (and murder?) their own.

Each person worked for the same company, Kemco, which has a dicey history of manufacturing deadly chemicals. Coincidence? Journalism student Crane doesn’t think so, especially since one of the dead was his fiancée. Determined to uncover the truth, Crane teams up with a local environmental activist named Boone, whose ex-husband works for the chemical giant. Together, they aim to expose the town’s corrupt elements and bring Kemco to justice.

No sooner do Hot Rod and the Pistons reunite for their induction into the Iowa Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame than two band members take a final bow. Both alleged suicides. A tragic way to go out. A bum way for one-hit wonders to be remembered. But it’s Labor Day weekend. The show must go on. With replacements at the ready, the Pistons are back on home turf to headline the first ever Rock and Country Music Fest. Police Chief Krista Larson and her father, Keith, are there listening. Because they suspect there may be more to the band members’ untimely deaths than anyone else can see.

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Hedonistic socialite turned undercover detective and poster girl for the war effort, Fancy Anders is back to solve another case. The Hollywood Canteen has just opened as a refuge and nightclub to give enlisted men some nights they will never forget as they prepare to head into war. With Hollywood elite cooking food and tending bar, with beautiful young actresses and starlets serving as hostesses and dance partners, the Canteen is a wonderland indeed. But when a young hostess dies in a car accident, the entire club—and possibly the entire American military service—is in jeopardy.

In an attempt to soothe growing Cold War tensions between America and Russia, Premier Nikita Khrushchev visits the US to see all that his “enemy” has to offer. Top of his to-do list? A trip to Disneyland and an introduction to sexual icon Marilyn Monroe. Thanks to the impossible security requirements, Disneyland is out of the question. Marilyn, on the other hand, jumps at the chance to put on a show for the Russian official. During her appearance, she overhears the details of an assassination plot designed to spark an atomic holocaust and devastate both superpowers.

Collins became a next generation Mickey Spillane, creating memorable titles and characters of his own such as Road to Perdition and Quarry. He's worked in all kind of media, from scripting Dick Tracy daily comic strips from 1977-93 to writing the novelizations of movies such as Saving Private Ryan, Air Force One and American Gangster and creating his own one-man show Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life. The crowning achievement of his career, however, may have been when Mickey Spillane - the best-selling mystery writer of the 20th century - chose Collins to be his literary executor.

What’s a good mystery story without a beautiful blonde to set things in motion? When the femme sharing a bench with Mallory in the Port City, Iowa, bus station is accosted by a scar-faced, one-eyed thug, the aspiring writer stops minding his own business and leaps into the fray with nothing but his fists and a well-aimed Pepsi bottle.

Budding mystery writer Mallory was just trying to impress a politically correct girlfriend by delivering hot meals to little old ladies. The last thing he expected was to find his elderly charges such fascinating company, and when one sweet old gal meets an unexpectedly grisly fate, Mal sets out to find and stop the burglars who this time stole a life. The last thing the local sheriff needs, however, is a meddling civilian.

Everybody has someone they’d secretly like to kill. For Mallory and his fellow professional mystery authors, that someone is caustic book critic Kirk Rath. And while that’s no secret, it’s certainly a surprise when a busload of writers takes part in a mountain resort’s Murder Mystery Weekend - and discovers their archenemy has been cast in the plum part of the victim. What’s more surprising is how well Kirk Rath plays dead - until Mallory discovers the most hated man on Mohonk Mountain isn’t playing.

In 1935, Nate Heller is hired to escort Amelia Earhart on a speaking tour because of numerous cut-and-paste death threats against her life. Heller suspects the threats are a stunt by Earhart's publicity-hungry husband, and the detective’s growing closeness to the bisexual aviatrix leads to a steamy affair. Two years later, when Earhart embarks on her flight around the world - and mysteriously disappears over the South Pacific - Uncle Sam enlists Heller in a clandestine search of Japanese waters for the popular Earhart....

A killer blizzard sweeping across the Southwest threatens the livelihoods of everyone in the town of Trinidad. But it's two gunshots that fell Sheriff Caleb York's unlucky deputy. York knows it was a case of mistaken identity. The bullets were meant for him. It's the first nasty step in a plan rustled up by former Quantrill's Raider Luke "Burn 'Em" Burnham - eliminate the law, corral a team to rob a bank in booming Las Vegas, New Mexico, then lay low. Then they get wind of one little hitch: not only is York still alive, but he's gunning for justice - and revenge.

John Sand, former MI6 agent, is keeping a secret from his new bride, Stacey – he has been tracking the supposedly dead Jake Lonestarr, her Texas oil tycoon father's traitorous business partner. When Stacey disappears, is Lonestarr or Las Vegas godfather Anthony Morello responsible? Is it the shadowy figures at the new international spy agency trying to recruit John Sand?

On October 30, 1938, rising radio star Orson Welles boondoggles the American public into believing that Martians have attacked Earth. With his clever adaptation of The War of the Worlds, the great showman proves he can get away with anything - maybe even murder. Minutes before the fictitious invasion goes live on the air, a dead body is found in the studio and the polarizing Welles is the obvious suspect.

Sierra Kane—who has bounced from one foster family to another—faces an uncertain future when she receives an unapplied-for scholarship to Barnard College specifically designed for orphans whose academic records are merely above average. A second unexpected boon comes her way when another recipient of that somewhat mysterious scholarship offers her a part-time courier job. Soon, Sierra is caught up in a whirl of espionage and murder, with a new boyfriend who may or may not be part of a plot, a college mentor with a possible agenda of her own, and an FBI agent who rebuffs Sierra’s plea for help.