Max Allan Collins's Blog

I have ten advance copies of Quarry’s Reunion to offer. The first ten of you to respond will receive a signed copy, in exchange for your promise to write a review at Amazon and or Barnes & Noble (if you have a blog, even better). Be sure to include your snail mail address! One thing: you can’t submit Amazon reviews until the book is out – publication day is Nov. 10. So hold up sending your review in till then. Write me at macphilms@hotmail.com to request the book. [All copies have been claimed! Thank you for your support! –Nate] If you don’t like the book, you are released from any obligation to review it. [Open to U.S. addresses only, due to shipping costs. Sorry! –Nate]

As this is the 50th anniversary of Quarry (the first novel, The Broker which is now known as Quarry) was published in 1976. I’ll be doing some interviews (a good one with Andrew Sumner of Titan Books is linked below) and with luck there’ll be some fuss. Turns out Quarry is the longest-running character in American mystery fiction, and world-wide second only Agatha Christie’s Poirot.

Now Quarry’s long run is deceiving. I’ve told this story in various ways, but here it is again, with a few details not previously shared.

Quarry developed out of my desire, after writing the first few Nolan books and being an acolyte of Donald E. Westlake in his Richard Stark persona, to see if the third-person approach enjoyed by both Nolan and Parker could be replaced with a first-person narrator. My notion was that professional thieves Parker and Nolan did not kill civilians, which protected and distanced the reader. I wanted to see if readers could identify with a hired killer. Specifically, I would show Quarry’s killing ways in the early chapters and then he would ease into a sort of detective role, solving the murder he committed, and would have a relationship with a woman that seemed to stir his more human and humane side. We’d forgot who we were identifying with.

Then, toward the end of the book, I would pull the rug out from under the reader and remind them what a naughty boy Quarry really was.

So it was a kind of literary experiment. Hey, I was in college. I wrote the first two chapters. In chapter one, Quarry killed a priest (apparent priest) and chapter two, he has meaningless sex with a pick-up at a motel. The idea was: bang bang.

At the University of Iowa we would share our latest work with the class (and the Writers Workshop instructor), and it would be discussed. With the exception of one bright young man who loved it, everybody hated what I’d written. The instructor, William Price Fox, was not impressed, either. About two weeks later, my first novel Bait Money, sold, and Fox reevaluated me, as I was the only student in the Workshop that year to sell a novel.

I worked on the first Quarry book until I was given the opportunity to write Nolan sequels (and Mallory, as the first one of those, No Cure for Death, sold a week after Bait Money). So Quarry was put aside, as I recall, until I’d delivered those sequels. I did use what I’d written of that book as part of what I called my Port City Trilogy, which was my thesis.

The Port City Trilogy was designed to show hardboiled crime novels could be written not about New York or Los Angeles but using a small Midwestern town as the setting. Bait Money takes place in Port City, as does No Cure For Death and also Quarry.

Somewhere along the line I finished Quarry and my agent began trying to market it. My Nolan and Mallory contracts for multiple books were all delivered, and luckily Quarry sold not long after. And Berkley Books wanted three more Quarry novels, and I was glad to comply.

The Quarry character, who’d first reared his head at the University of Iowa Workshop in 1972, finally saw print in 1976 as The Broker (a title I still despise). Hence the 50th anniversary occurring in 2026, my math skills being second to none.

But the story almost ends there. Berkley Books did not request more Quarry novels, which disappointed me (of course) because I really thought I had something with the character, something unique that my generation could relate to where an old-fashioned private eye might not. So I put Quarry behind me and was involved with Dick Tracy and various other projects, including Nolan relaunching by Pinnacle in the early ‘80s.

One of those projects was True Detective, in which I found a way to write a private eye novel by going the historical route. Chinatown and Stuart Kaminsky had demonstrated doing a period private eye story was a workable path, and to that I added doing actual historical crimes – after True Detective unintentionally launched another series, my PI would solve just about every damn real mystery of the 20th Century.

True Detective was a success and that led to me having the opportunity to write anything I wanted to for a change, and I chose to do another Quarry. A surprising amount of fan mail had come in during the ten years since the series began, after its apparent demise in 1977. The first four books were reprinted (with the books receiving my preferred titles) and Primary Target (later retitled Quarry’s Vote) a new novel, appeared. These were well-received but did not lead, immediately, to more.

In the ‘90s I wrote occasional Quarry short stories, one of which attracted the attention of young filmmaker Jeffrey Goodman. Jeffrey wanted to do a short film based on “A Matter of Principal,” the most anthologized of the Quarry short stories. I resisted his efforts but he ground me down, and I agreed to let him make the film as long as I was the writer.

That film came out and did well on the festival circuit. After Road to Perdition put me briefly on the map, the idea of doing a Quarry feature followed. Simultaneously (more or less) publisher/editor Charles Ardai – after Hard Case Crime had done a combined reprint of the first two Nolan novels as Two for the Money – gave me the opportunity to do an original novel. I chose to do a Quarry – specifically to end the series with The Last Quarry. I felt the hardcore fans deserved that.

Shockingly, that book did very well. Finally a Quarry novel was a success! Nice sales and great reviews. In a buffet line at a Bouchercon, Charles said, “It’s too bad you wrote The Last Quarry and ended the series.” And, a plate in my hand, I said, “How about doing The First Quarry?”

Now Quarry’s Reunion is eleven novels later, adding up to 18 books.

Here is that interview with Andrew Sumner, my favorite interviewer.

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A big part of the 50th anniversary celebration is the release on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber of The Last Lullaby, the feature film based on The Last Quarry. The bonus features will include the award-winning short, “A Matter of Principal,” directed by Jeffrey and written by me from my short story. My buddy Heath Holland of Cereal at Midnight moderated the director and myself in a commentary for this release – in December!

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Death By Fruitcake is still available at Amazon at a sale price of $5.68! Our little micro-budget feature based on the ANTIQUES series by Barbara Allan (Barb and me) is the perfect stocking-stuffer or just as an addition to your shelf. It had been listed at over $22, so this is a great buy if you’re at all interested.

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Back in the ‘70s when I was young and beautiful (well, young) I was on a popular game show. Check it out.

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This weekend, a reading of a play by Barb’s sister is being performed in Amana, IA:

The Iowa Play: A Gentle Comedy in Two Acts
Amana Heritage Society and TKM Theatrical Productions present Kathe Mull’s gentle, two-act comedy about friendship, community, and the heart of Iowa

DATE/TIME:
Saturday, October 10, 2026
Doors will open at 2:30 p.m., with the performance beginning at 3:00 p.m.

LOCATION:
The Amana Performing Arts Center
39 38th Ave, Amana, IA

ABOUT THE SHOW:
What happens when an Iowa-born theatre artist spends a lifetime on and behind the stage, makes New York City her home, and then turns back to Iowa for inspiration? The result is The Iowa Play—a gentle comedy in two acts by playwright Kathe Mull, receiving its first public reading.

FEATURING:
Tom Milligan, Marty Norton, & Adam Burnham

Presented by:
Amana Heritage Society and
TKM Theatrical Productions.

Tickets $25 per person

Admission includes an intermission menu featuring an “Amana-rite” sandwich, Amana’s playful homage to Iowa’s famous Maid-Rite sandwich.

Kathe Mull was born and raised in Muscatine, Iowa, where she graduated from Muscatine High School. She went on to attend Muscatine Community College on a drama scholarship.

Following college, Kathe joined The Old Creamery Theatre Company, where she performed as an actress for several seasons. Later, she also directed On Golden Pond, starring Tom Milligan and Deb Kennedy.

Kathe later became a member of the resident acting company at Charlie’s Showplace in Des Moines, Iowa, where she performed for eight years before relocating to New York City.

More than 45 years later, Kathe continues to call Manhattan home, where she has enjoyed a diverse and rewarding career in the theatre. Her work has included acting, directing, serving as a Broadway star dresser, and, most recently, playwrighting. Drawing on decades of experience both onstage and behind the scenes, she brings authenticity, wit, and a deep love of theatre to her writing.

Kathe is thrilled to join TKM Productions and the Amana Heritage Society in presenting The Iowa Plays in its first public reading. It is a special privilege to share these stories—celebrating the people, history, humor, and heart of Iowa—with audiences for the very first time. She hopes audiences find a little of themselves in these Iowa stories.

She is especially looking forward to enjoying her first Maid-Rite (without ketchup, of course) since 1974.

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More Quarry Anniversary stuff next week!

M.A.C.

The new Antiques novel by Barbara Allan (Barb and me) is out now! Brick-and-mortar stores may not have it (our publisher, Severn House, now affiliated with Joffe Books, is British) but Amazon does, in both hardcover and on Kindle.

Hardcover:
E-Book:

Here’s what reader Mary S. thinks about the new Trash ‘n’ Treasures mystery:

“Antiques Web is the latest in the Trash’n’treasures mystery series featuring mother daughter duo Vivian and Brandy Bourne and adorable shih tzu, Sushi. This series has been running for a long time and possibly could feel a little formulaic, but it really doesn’t because it’s so darned funny! I love the mother daughter duo and their sweet family that now includes Brandy’s son Jake and her police chief husband Tony. The setting in small town Iowa is great and the hijinks drama queen Vivian gets into are hilarious. This mystery involved murder, a UFO house, and the mob. What more could we really ask for! If you are looking for a cozy mystery with lots of humor that is a great escape from real life then this is the book for you! I loved the ending and I’m already looking forward to the next book.”

And Navy Mom says:

“This book is a positive mood lifter. I have never laughed so much while reading a murder mystery. The main characters are family and friends who run a Antiques shop called “Trash “n” Treasures.” Thus fabolous sweet read has embezzlement, a Mafia connection, a Sheriff who is beside himself as his wife & her Mother get involved in solving crimes. I totally loved this series, and I think I’m going to have to but Book 1 and complete them all.”

And our little micro-budget movie, Death by Fruitcake, is available at Amazon right now, regularly $22.29, but it’s been on sale a couple of times lately, so keep an eye out.

It’s free with commercials on Tubi, The Roku Channel, Fawesome and Xumo Play. Check here for more options: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/death-by-fruitcake.

If you hit one of the sale prices (it’s been as low as $6.66!), snag some for friends, relatives and to use for stocking stuffers.

Here’s a review that may convince you:

Five stars from reviewer zagain.
Solid Independent Film
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2026

“Death By Fruitcake is an adaptation of a novella by Barbara Allen from the Trash ‘n’ Treasures cozy mystery series. Allen is the pen name used by noted crime and mystery writer Max Allan Collins and his wife Barbara who co-write these adventures of antiques store owner Vivian Borne and her daughter Brandy. The film is set in small-town Serenity, Iowa and focuses on a community theater production of a Christmas play centered around local fruitcake production during the FDR administration. Vivian is directing the production and it stars local star Louise Lamont, who has recently returned to her hometown roots while on the downside of her successful career in soap operas and other stage shows. Things go awry when Lamont, a diva who has rubbed the rest of the cast and crew the wrong way, dies in the middle of a dress rehearsal. Vivian, who views herself as something of an amateur sleuth, takes it upon herself to assist local police chief Tony Cassato in solving the crime.

The film stars Paula Sands, a long-time news anchor and reporter in the Quad Cities area, as Vivian Borne and Alisabeth Von Presley, best known for her music career and as a former contestant on

American Idol, as her daughter Brandy. The film also features Rene Mauck, who portrayed Velda in the filmed stage radio-style production of Mickey Spillane’s Encore for Murder, as Louise; Rob Merritt (Richard Stone in Blue Christmas) as Chief Cassato; and Chris Causey (Jake Marley in Blue Christmas) as Paul, the theater’s lighting guru. While the cast may not contain a number of household names, there are some solid performances in the film. Sands does a solid job as Vivian, although some of her delivery certainly points to her past at a news desk. Von Presley, who had a minor role in Blue Christmas, stands out with an ability to easily speak to the camera in several scenes designed to break the fourth wall. Merritt, who was strong as the lead in Blue Christmas, puts in another solid performance as does Chris Causey, who has the presence of an experienced character actor (making it somewhat surprising that he’s not had more roles according to his IMDb profile). Kimberly Kurtenbach also stands out as Clara Buffet, head of Lamont’s fan club.

The film is a low budget, independent production, but that works just fine given that this is a character-driven, quick (89 minutes) whodunit film that takes place entirely in one setting (the community theater). There are several funny spots and one-liners as well as an ending with a twist that is to be expected in these types of mystery stories. Although I’m unfamiliar with the book series this is based on, it’s safe to assume it is a fairly true adaptation given that it is written, directed and produced by Max Allan Collins and also produced by series co-writer Barbara Collins. Overall fans of the series, of cozy mysteries, or of Collins’ work in general are likely to find this film a worthy watch.

Here’s another FRUITCAKE review that just came to my attention:

Overly Honest Reviews – *** ½ stars
RAVING REVIEW: One of the best types of mysteries doesn’t pretend to be bigger than it is. DEATH BY FRUITCAKE leans into its small-town setting, its contained stage environment, and its personality-driven storytelling without trying to inflate the stakes beyond what the story can support. That restraint ends up being one of its biggest advantages. It knows the scale it’s operating within and, instead of stretching, digs inward into character, tone, and timing.

The setup is simple in the best way. A dress rehearsal collapses into chaos when a notoriously difficult actress drops dead mid-performance, and suddenly everyone in the room becomes a suspect. That kind of confined, single-location mystery has been done countless times, but what makes this one click is the attention it pays to the personalities circling the event. This isn’t about elaborate plotting or intricate twists stacked on top of each other. It’s about letting the audience sit in a room full of people who all have a reason to hate the victim and watching the tension build from there.

Paula Sands carries much of the story as Vivian, and what stands out isn’t just her presence but the way the performance embraces a slightly heightened delivery without tipping into parody. There’s a stiffness to her line reading at times, but instead of breaking the illusion, it almost feeds into the character. Vivian feels like someone who sees herself as more composed and authoritative than she actually is, and that disconnect becomes part of the charm. It’s not polished conventionally, but it fits the world the film builds.

Alisabeth Von Presley brings a different kind of portrayal as Brandy, and the contrast between the two performances becomes one of the film’s strengths. Where Vivian leans toward control and presentation, Brandy feels more fluid, more aware of the absurdity around her. The moments where she interacts directly with the camera could have come off as distracting. They’re used sparingly enough that they add personality instead of pulling you out of the story. It gives the film an edge, a reminder that it’s in on its own tone without constantly pointing it out

.

The supporting cast fills out the ensemble, keeping the suspect pool engaging. No one is pushed into satire, but everyone is just exaggerated enough to feel distinct. That balance is important in a story like this. If the characters blend into one another, the mystery loses its shape. Here, each interaction carries just enough tension or humor to keep things moving, even when the narrative slows.

The investigation expands in a way that feels intentionally relaxed, but there are stretches where it could have used a sharper sense of escalation. Conversations feel a bit repetitive at times, suspicions shift without always adding new information, and the momentum dips as a result. It never stalls completely, but there’s a version of this that trims some of that repetition and lands with a bit more impact.

There’s a lightness to the humor that doesn’t undercut the mystery, and a sense of familiarity that works in its favor rather than against it. It feels like a story that understands its audience, especially those drawn to mysteries where the intrigue matters but the experience is just as much about spending time with the characters. The jokes land more often than not, and when they don’t, they still feel in line with the world the film has created.

The single-location setting becomes a strength rather than a constraint, forcing the film to rely on blocking, performance, and dialogue rather than on visuals. There’s a stage-like quality to everything, which makes sense given the setting, and instead of fighting that, the film leans into it.

What ultimately holds everything together is the film’s understanding of what kind of mystery it wants to be. It’s not chasing complexity for its own sake, and it’s not trying to reinvent the genre. Instead, it focuses on delivering a contained, character-driven story with enough intrigue to keep you guessing and enough personality to keep you invested.

There’s also an underlying appreciation for the setting itself. The small-town dynamics, the overlapping relationships, the way grudges and histories linger just beneath the surface, all of that feeds into the mystery without needing to be spelled out. It gives the film a sense of place that adds texture without complicating the narrative.

DEATH BY FRUITCAKE doesn’t aim for perfection. Its appeal comes from how comfortably it settles into its identity. The imperfections are part of the experience, but they don’t define it. What sticks is the chemistry between its leads, the playful tone, and the steady commitment to telling a story that fits its scale. It’s the kind of film that understands exactly what it’s offering, and more importantly, what it isn’t. And in a genre that often overreaches or overcomplicates itself, that clarity goes a long way.

This same reviewer also likes Return of the Maltese Falcon:

from reviewer zagain:
5 out of 5 stars
Excellent Followup
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2026
Format: Hardcover

Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon from 1930 is a whirlwind of a hardboiled novel in which you are thrown right into the story. There’s no long preamble introducing characters or settings — characters quickly enter the scene and the action starts immediately. It can be almost disorienting at first with how quickly things begin happening and with characters coming into and going out of the plot. The overall story is well-known to most thanks to John Huston’s film noir classic starring Humphrey Bogart, and the ending to the tale is perfect given how frenetic the rest of the story was executed.

BUT…. it’s hard not to wonder what happens next with Sam Spade and the motley crew of would-be crooks.

And Max Allan Collins provides a solution for that nagging question with his

Return of the Maltese Falcon follow-up. Much like the original, Collins wastes no time with a long setup as the story begins immediately and characters, both new and old, quickly make their way into the plot. Like the original, the Return features several twists and turns; a cast of characters who may or may not be who they claim; fisticuffs; sarcastic quips from Spade; and a bird statue that’s caught the attention of many.

Collins is no stranger to working with characters created by others and finishing tales began by other classic authors — he was handpicked by Mickey Spillane to complete all of his unfinished works; authored the Dick Tracy comic strip for a number of years; wrote the Batman comic; and even provided novels for the popular CSI television series. And not surprisingly, he does a fantastic job with Hammett’s classic PI Sam Spade in this follow-up.

Overall this is an excellent read that holds up to the quality of the original.

This may have appeared here before, but if you haven’t read it – particularly if you haven’t read my Return of the Maltese Falcon – this might encourage you to do so.

Return of the Maltese Falcon (2026) by Max Allan Collins

The Maltese Falcon is both a seminal novel (1929) in the private eye genre and one of the most classic movies ever made. The 1941 film, which were are all intimately familiar with (or should be), starred Humphrey Bogart in an immortal role as well as Mary Astor, Gladys George, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet. It is amazing that Sam Spade (the private eye character) only appeared in one Hammett novel (The Maltese Falcon) and a handful of short stories. The character, perhaps propelled by the silver screen success of John Huston’s version, has assumed proportions which are larger than life. Spade is perhaps more well known as a private eye than almost any other literary figure other than Sherlock Holmes, who was a product of a different era.

Collins’ Return of the Maltese Falcon is a pastiche, that is, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, “[a] dramatic, literary, or musical piece openly imitating the previous works of other artists, often with satirical intent.” Collins tells us readers in an afterward that he based his novel solely on the original 1929 work and ignored the movies and other pastiches. He does admit though that he is, in doing this, like “a buzzard picking at the Falcon’s bones.”

(NOTE FROM MAC: I do not consider Return of the Maltese Falcon a pastiche because it is utterly devoid of satirical intent. My quoted “buzzard” remark, however, is.)

The novel continues less than two weeks after the first one (the one that Hammett wrote) left off. Sam Spade is now in his office, savoring the fact that he put Brigid O’Shaughnessy in jail for Archer’s murder. He is satisfied that he has avenged his one-time partner, Miles Archer, though he candidly states he had no love for Archer and had been fooling around with Archer’s wife, blonde, blue-eyed and painfully pretty Iva, which made him a suspect in Archer’s murder. The match-up between Spade and Archer had never been a good match and their three-year contract was close to running out when Archer died. His name has now been razored off the door.

Effie Perine, his secretary, plays a strong role in this novel, with semi-romantic sparring between them. The story quickly switches to the Falcon as Rhea Gutman, the daughter of Casper Gutman, the infamous seeker of all things Falcon, approaches Spade and hires him to find the Falcon, once again, but this time the real one. She explains that her only inheritance is her father’s quest for that golden bejeweled bird.

What follows is a sort of trip down memory lane with Spade visiting both Brigid and Joel Cairo, soliciting their help. Along the way, Spade is hired by more than one person in their quest for the Falcon with him quietly pocketing retainers left and right, hoping that it will all sort itself out in the end. Brigid continues her femme fatale role as a “supplely shapely female” with “nearly violet eyes, half-lidded and languid under long lovely lashes.” She is still a siren’s song even in jail.

Spade, a former Continental Operative, but not Hammet’s famous unnamed Continental Op, admits that he has not been known to play things by any one’s rules but his own, and states that the assumption that he is “outright crooked misses the point.” He says he is in the detective trade and his partner was murdered so he had to do something about it. San Francisco has no shortage of suckers, he explains, and never think that he is one of them.

Return of the Maltese Falcon is not the original The Maltese Falcon, but perhaps it is the next best thing. It offers us another chapter in that chase for the elusive treasure and the collection of odd ducks who are after it. It revisits familiar characters and breathes new life into them. And it is just plain fun to read.

The HBO/Cinemax Quarry series is on a list of underrated TV crime dramas.

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On Tuesday (I am writing this on Sunday) I will be recording a Blu-ray commentary with moderator Heath Holland and Jeffrey Goodman, the director of The Last Lullaby (2008). That’s the Quarry movie starring Tom Sizemore based on my short story, “A Matter of Principal,” and my script for the film, which I turned into the novel The Last Quarry. Before filming, a second writer did a pass on the script, after my two drafts; and I did a punch-up of sorts after that.

Quarry is called “Price” in the film because I didn’t want to tie the character up for subsequent films.

Kino Lorber is bringing it out on Blu-ray, much to my delight (I like the film), in conjunction with Quarry’s 50th anniversary (the first novel appeared in 1976, The Broker now called Quarry, my preferred title). Release date of the Blu-ray TBA.

I am hopeful the short Quarry film will be included on the special features of the Blu-ray. Fingers crossed.

M.A.C.

Last week I promised not to talk politics here. But I want to share with you something that just happened to me. A week or so ago, I ordered, through e-bay, a blu-ray boxed set. I paid for it and for the postage. Today I was notified that customs is charging me 39.50 USD import fees for the privilege of doing business with Canada.

Thank you, Donald Trump.

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Also, last week I announced that two very different books in two very different series are about to come out – namely, Antiques Web in the Trash ‘n’ Treasures series featuring Brandy and Vivian Borne, and Quarry’s Reunion in the, well, Quarry series. Antiques Web is by Barbara Allan, the joint byline of my wife Barb and me, and Quarry’s Reunion is my work (though Barb in fact edits me…editor Charles Ardai bats clean-up).

We had already received great reviews for Quarry’s Reunion from Publisher’s Weekly and the often cranky Kirkus, but now we’ve had a rave from Booklist — the kind that rates an “aw shucks” and the toe of a shoe digging at the dirt.

Quarry, as some of you know, is celebrating 50 years that arguably make my somewhat-retired hitman the longest- running mystery series in terms of passage of time (others have obviously racked up more entries). Still, Quarry has a respectable 19 books, not to mention (and now I’ll mention them), an award-winning short film (“A Matter of Principal”), a well-received feature film (The Last Lullaby), and a one-season HBO/Cinemax TV series (Quarry).

This Booklist review is particularly gratifying.

Quarry’s Reunion
By Max Allan Collins
Nov. 2026. 224p. Hard Case Crime, paper, $19.99 (9781835416464)

It doesn’t seem like a completely terrible idea, heading back to Ohio for his 50-year high school reunion. An old girlfriend wants him there, and surely there’s no danger at a school reunion for a retired killer-for-hire? Well, it turns out Quarry is wrong. Danger follows him wherever he goes—even now, when he’s no longer in the killing game. Once again, he’s forced to pull himself out of retirement to save his own life and the lives of innocent bystanders. Collins has been writing about Quarry since 1976. He took a 20-year break from the character after Primary Target (1987) but roared back into action in 2006, and since then, he’s been treating his fans to one perfect book after another. While the author doesn’t seem to have explicitly called this the end of the series—and another Quarry adventure would always be welcome—it would still be a lovely way to send Quarry off into permanent retirement, an entirely appropriate finale to this touching story and to a long, hard life.

The novel will be out in early November.

Trade Paperback:
E-Book: * * *

Barb and I have been very lucky to have an excellent audio publisher for the majority of our books. Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir read Quarry and Antiques respectively and do an incredible job.

Stefan has made Quarry his own, and Gabrielle has done a beautiful job where other readers of the Antiques novels have occasionally failed (how about Vivian with a Southern accent?) (Maybe Serenity is in Southern Iowa….)

Skyboat has posted a wonderful blog entry about the Antiques series and their take on it. We want to share it with you in full:

If the name Barbara Allan sounds familiar to you, there may be a few reasons for that. Is it Allan that sparks in your head? Then maybe you’ve listened to some of Max Allan Collins’s phenomenal thriller series (Quarry, Fancy Anders, Nolan, or Mike Hammer). Or is the name Barbara ringing any bells? Perhaps you’ve listened to REGENERATION, BOMBSHELL, and CUTOUT, read by Skyboat’s own Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir!

Barbara Allan is the pen name used by Max Allan Collins and his wife, Barbara Collins. Together they are the authors of the Trash ‘n’ Treasure series of comic cozy mysteries, and two stand alone thrillers.

These delightful tales of intrigue and mystery star Brandy Borne, her eccentric mother Vivian, and her beloved Shih Tzu, Sushi. Brandy and Vivian run a small antiques business in their quaint Iowan hometown, but through digging for antiques to sell at their store, they often find themselves in the middle of a town scandals and murder plots. And while they’re at it, they might as well solve the mysteries themselves!

On their shared writing process, Barbara Collins says: “Our collaboration process is simple: we plot the novel together, often on a long car trip or over several restaurant meals; usually I take notes. Then I write a complete first draft without [Max] seeing any of it. If I run into trouble along the way, we discuss the problem over another lunch (there’s a very famous restaurant in Muscatine, Iowa – perhaps you’ve heard of it: Applebees).”

And to answer the question of why one would co-write a novel (not to mention the dozens they have written together), she says: “Beyond shoring up each others weaknesses through your own strengths, why should a writer embark on such a perilous enterprise? The answer is as simple as collaboration is complex: a third writer is created. A successful writing collaboration creates a distinct third voice in an end product that – because of the strengths each writer brings to the work table – could not have been accomplished alone. That’s when two plus two can equal five. Even my husband can do that math.”

Gabrielle has taken on Books 15-18 (Antiques Carry On, Antiques Liquidation, Antiques Foe, and Antiques Slay Belles), with more to come!

Looking for a laugh-out-loud, quirky mystery to brighten your mood? Trash ’n’ Treasures is “one of the funniest cozy series going” (Ellery Queen Magazine) – and if you’re new to the series, it’s safe to jump right in.

Find recipes from the books and more info on the series here!

If you just can’t decide, get the box set for 15-17 here!

Check out our SoundCloud playlist with samples for the whole series!

You’ll note Antiques Web is not among the Skyboat titles, but that’s temporary – they’re recording it now. Patience.

In the meantime, you know how to scratch that itch? Order Antiques Web the novel (or the e-book) now.

Hardcover:
E-Book:

Our promo material indicates the Kindle e-book will be available September 22. That’s sooner than originally promised…and would appear to be…TODAY!!!

But the physical hardcover book still has a pub date of Oct. 8.

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This is the second time Barb and I have had an Antiques book out simultaneously with one of my Quarry novels. I talked about this last week, my preference for doing a bunch of things and not just one.

I couldn’t stand writing nothing but Reacher, for example, fun as that character is (although I could abide the royalties just fine). I need to stay fresh. I started at this around 1968 (took me till 1972 to sell) (Bait Money) and this approach has kept me (nearly) sane.

I asked Mickey Spillane why he hadn’t written more Mike Hammer novels despite the demand from readers and editors and he said he felt Hammer was “over-characterized,” that there was nothing new to do with him. I couldn’t understand that, and when I started working with Mickey’s unfinished manuscripts, I couldn’t imagine ever feeling I should walk away from Hammer…but I have. Mickey wrote 13 Hammers. I co-wrote 14 more.

Now if a new Hammer movie happens, which it keeps threatening to, my attitude might change….

* * *

We haven’t had a book giveaway here in ages, but one is coming up soon. Be sure to stop by next week.

M.A.C.

Antiques Web, the latest adventure of Brandy Borne and her diva mother Vivian, will be published next week – on September 22 (an earlier date than we’d been told).

Pre-order the hardcover here:

Two of my series have distinctions relating to the length of their runs. Quarry, who will return in Quarry’s Reunion (available November 10), is (I’m told) the longest-running mystery series around, having begun in 1976 with Quarry (aka The Broker). It has suffered some stops and starts but has continued on throughout the decades for 17 novels and a short story collection. There’s also been a Quarry short film, a feature film and one-season TV series from HBO/Cinemax.

Other series of mine have had long runs, notably Nathan Heller, starting with True Detective in 1983. Nate’s delivered 19 novels, one short story collection and one novella collection.

But the real winner for durability is the Antiques series (aka the Trash ‘n’ Treasures mysteries) from Barbara Allan, the joint byline of my wife Barb and me. There are twenty novels, starting with Antiques Roadkill in 2006, and a three-novella collection (Antiques Ho-Ho-Homicides, in 2018, including Antiques Fruitcake, the basis of our micro-budget indie, Death by Fruitcake). Antiques also represents the most novels in the shortest span of time, basically one a year.

Nonetheless, because of its cozy nature – even though critics tend to call us a subversive cozy – some readers of my tough stuff have never tried Barbara Allan and the Antiques series. To be fair, some have and found it not to their taste, and that’s okay. I write to keep myself interested and that has seen me jumping around more than some writers of mystery fiction. Barb finds the Antiques novels are a handy way for her to explore numerous themes, motivated as she is by what’s currently of interest to her in what we laughingly refer to as real life.

It’s always puzzled me a bit when a reader loves Quarry but doesn’t go for Nate Heller. Some mystery fiction readers seem to be put off by the historical nature of the books, particularly those who haven’t tried one. Quarry novels are a quick read and the Hellers offer some heft, though they are first and foremost traditional hardboiled private eye stories and only secondarily historical. But doing all these historical cases has kept the books from blurring together, as is often the case with long-running series.

The Antiques series has a quirky, sometimes wacky sense of humor that isn’t for everybody. No apologies for that, because the traditional mystery field is cluttered as hell and being distinctive – even if it turns a few readers away – seems a positive to us. From the beginning Antiques has been a tongue-in-cheek affair.

If you haven’t tried one of the Antiques entries, here’s a brief introduction to Antiques Web.

When Serenity’s most eccentric sleuthing duo is involved, even a quiet Iowa river town can become a hotbed of murder, mayhem, and mid-century collectibles.

Brandy Borne is hoping for a calm life – new marriage, new routines, and only the usual chaos courtesy of her mercurial, melodramatic mother, Vivian.

But when an antiques auction turns disastrous and Vivian’s close friend Evelyn dies in what looks like a freak fall, the Bornes sniff out something far more sinister.

Then another woman turns up dead – crushed beneath a massive Frank Lloyd Wright statue – and the pattern becomes impossible to ignore. Someone in Serenity is weaving an elaborate con, preying on the vulnerable with a too-good-to- be-true investment scheme…and eliminating anyone who gets in the way.

With a suspicious niece, a furious financial advisor, a cryptic message from a dying mob boss, and a fierce dog who can be bribed, Vivian and Brandy find themselves tangled in a web of secrets, scams, and deadly deceit.

To save their friends – and themselves – they’ll have to outsmart a killer, out bid a con artist, and maybe (just maybe) keep Vivian from getting arrested. Again.

* * *

This blog/update space is a politics-free zone.

It always has been, though I’ve slipped a few times. I don’t feel my readers should be subjected to my politics. For one thing, it’s bad business – it can unintentionally chase customers away. For another, it’s way too off point to be tolerated. This is just not the appropriate platform.

But away from here, on Facebook, I have started sharing occasional posts that make my political slant easily perceived. I am doing this because, with the November midterm election looming, I feel it’s my responsibility as an American citizen to express these views.

Nonetheless, I have no intention of alienating or insulting readers who (obviously) have every right to their own opinions. The hardcore followers of the President are not my intended target. It’s the independents and more traditional Republicans (I know them when I see them because I used to be one) who I would hope to reach. To provoke thought and even debate.

Years ago, when I first got on Facebook, I would comment about disagreements I had with friends who had posted political opinions. I damaged several such friendships – including several quite painful losses (miss you, Joe) – and I stopped posting any comments on their sites.

I don’t think it’s ever been hard to detect that I am left of center; but generally I’m not very far left of center, which frequently puts me in the middle of the road where I can be swiped by cars coming from either direction. (One of them driven by my son.)

I do this only because of this coming election, the importance of which is something I think we can all agree about. Interestingly, my sharing of these videos has been greeted mostly were smiley faces, but a few scowls are scattered in as well. What’s confusing is whether the scowling faces mean they agree or disagree.

Of course, if AI kills us all, I suppose the point is moot.

M.A.C.

I haven’t written about Mickey Spillane here for a while.

For latecomers, I started reading Mickey and Mike Hammer when I was twelve or thirteen. Private eyes were all over the TV in those years (1958 – 1960) and Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer was one of the first, along with Perry Mason – Peter Gunn, 77 Sunset Strip and many others joined them soon.

I already was a kid who liked to read the literary sources of movies and TV I’d enjoyed, and most of the private eyes had literary roots. I quickly discovered Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane. They became, and remain, my pulp pillars.

Even at that early age I could see the fascinating differences between them – how Hammett was spare, how Chandler was literary, how Spillane was visceral. And I relished those differences.

But what surprised me, as I researched the three writers at the library, was how Spillane was viewed with disdain and even disgust. That research revealed that Mickey was the most popular of the three, and for a time had been the most popular in fiction period. Why, then, was he a pariah?

Mickey Spillane

It became clear, over time, that it was Spillane’s perceived political stance – a conservative one – that turned the nicer murder mystery community against him. Chandler was openly contemptuous of Mickey, dismissing him as a comic book writer.

Well, that may have been part of why I liked Spillane. I was not aware that his professional career had largely been one of a comic book scripter before he turned to the mystery writing game. But I was a comic book kid, a consumer of comics and even a collector, so Spillane spurred my all-in-color-for-a-dime blood.

What I wasn’t was political – at 13 or so, I had little grasp on politics. Later I began to question being a hereditary Republican, having grown up in GOP household; and by early college – after a flirtation with Ayn Rand – my burgeoning politics had definitely moved left.

That hadn’t changed my opinion of, or love for, the work of Mickey Spillane. I’d had a seemless transition from Mickey’s first six bestsellers (1947 – 1952) and his multi-book comeback in 1960. (I had discovered Ian Fleming in between.) I was familiar enough with Ayn Rand to know that she had sparked his four-book series about reactionary secret agent Tiger Mann. But I never thought of Mickey’s work as anything particularly political.

Today, as I see commentators about noir fiction talking dismissively about Mickey, I see that politics is a big part of it – politics and perceptions of him and his work coming from people who have read little or none of it. The majority of the casual scorn heaped upon Spillane inevitably talks about Mike Hammer in terms of fighting “Commies.”

The first six Spillanes (I, the Jury through Kiss Me, Deadly) were the enormous bestsellers that put him on the map. One of those books has Hammer taking on Russian agents – the glorious One Lonely Night. The rest find him taking on gangsters and psychopaths and other apolitical foes.

The next batch of Hammer novels, starting with The Girl Hunters (1961) deal on occasion with foreign foes in a very Ian Fleming sort of world, indicating Spillane was trying to keep up with the market he’d turned his back on. These novels are not particularly “Commie”-bashing, although the Dragon is a KGB agent in The Girl Hunters. Again, Mickey seems to be nodding to his new competition: Ian Fleming.

And yet the critics of Spillane and Hammer speak only in those anti-Communist terms – an easy mistake if you are criticizing Mike Hammer’s creator without having read him much or at all. None of these critics seems to have noticed that the villain of one of the key early novels is plainly based on Joe McCarthy.

It’s all snobbery. Hammett and especially Chandler are designed for readers who see themselves as aficionados of superior mystery fiction. Spillane clearly has a working-class audience in mind with his blue-collar hero.

Dashiell Hammett

All of that was beyond me as a young reader, but I see it now. Hammett was one of the founders of the feast that Hemingway regularly served up (I happen to prefer Dash to Ernie), a spare style that reflected a no-nonsense view of the world; after all, Hammett had been a real-life PI. Chandler, schooled in Great Britain, created a fantasy detective, a chess-playing tough guy who tossed off one fancy simile per page like alms to the poor.

And I love both Hammett and Chandler.

Raymond Chandler

But the pulp majesty of Mickey Spillane is what drew me in to the genre – me and a couple of generations of readers. This is how you grab a reader (or customer, as Mickey put it):

All I saw was the dame standing there in the glare of the headlights waving her arms like a huge puppet and the curse I spit out filled the car and my own ears. I wrenched the wheel over, felt the rear end start to slide, brought it out with a splash of power and almost ran up the side of a cliff as the car fishtailed. The brakes bit in, gouging a furrow in the shoulder, then jumped to the pavement and held.

Somehow I had managed a sweeping curve around the babe. For a few seconds she had been living on stolen time because instead of getting out of the way she had tried to stay in the beam of the headlights. I sat there and let myself shake. The butt that had fallen out of my mouth had burned a hole in the leg of my pants and I flipped it out the window. The stink of burned rubber and brake lining hung in the air like smoke and I was thinking of every damn thing I ever wanted to say to a hairbrained woman so I could have it ready when I got my hands on her.

That was as far as I got. She was there in the car beside me, the door slammed shut and she said, “Thanks, mister.”

Many of the critics of Spillane do so while praising the film version of Kiss Me, Deadly (which lacks Mickey’s characteristic comma). But they aren’t familiar enough with the text to know how, in certain respects, faithful the film is to Spillane. We see Hammer as the world sees him, which is not entirely admirable; but we also experience that paperback world that surrounds him, that noir universe the film inhabits but that Mickey created.

Consider the opening of One Lonely Night:

Nobody ever walked across the bridge, not on a night like this. The rain was misty enough to be almost fog-like, a cold gray curtain that separated me from the pale ovals of white that were faces locked behind the steamed-up windows of the cars that hissed by. Even the brilliance that was Manhattan by night was reduced to a few sleepy, yellow lights off in the distance.

Some place over there I had left my car and started walking, burying my head in the collar of my raincoat, with the night pulled in around me like a blanket. I walked and I smoked and I flipped the spent butts ahead of me and watched them arch to the pavement and fizzle out with one last wink. If there was life behind the windows of the buildings on either side of me, I didn’t notice it. The street was mine, all mine. They gave it to me gladly and wondered why I wanted it so nice and all alone.

How many times have you seen somebody say that Spillane was a lousy writer? Even those who grant him storytelling gifts like to dismiss him as some kind of literary lowlife.

So it is about politics in the end.

The kind of politics that dismiss, that condescend, that judge without consideration. I am happy my politics weren’t formed when I met Mickey. And I am here to tell you that Mickey knew my politics and his were not aligned. Of course, Mickey had become a Jehovah’s Witness decades before and politics was off-limits in that branch of faith.

But he was conservative, all right. And I was a liberal.

We never talked about it. But he entrusted to me his unfinished manuscripts – someone he knew to be liberal, but who understand his famous character. And you know what? He was an artist and didn’t give a damn about politics.

My pal Jim Traylor and I wrote Mickey’s biography for Otto Penzler at Mysterious Press, Spillane – King of Pulp Fiction. You can get it here.

* * *

Here’s another health update.

I wound up back in the ER last week with another of those attacks that I guess are called aphasia – spells of an inability to talk coherently, even using made-up words while at the same time maintaining a more or less mental clarity.

One attack was diagnosed as T.I.A., which is a minor stroke. That I’ve had several recurrences is disturbing, but they appear connected to the two ablations I’ve had – the spells have followed in a day or two, and then disappeared.

We are looking into this and related stuff – in both instances, I’ve been diagnosed with urinary tract infections. Right now I’m recuperating from the most recent heart-related ablation, which I’m told will take a month or so. I am in no pain but require a lot of sleep, and I am definitely slowed down.

Barb has been great. She is truly unbelievable.

And your warm good wishes are much appreciated; but I assure you we’re on top of this.

M.A.C.

A few of you knew about me going in for a procedure last week (Thursday to be exact). I am recuperating at the moment, so this will be a brief update. Medically speaking, I’m doing fine – it was an ablation/cardioversion having to do with trying to tame my a-fib.

Flowers are unnecessary but good wishes always appreciated. I have the most incredible wife in the world, by the way – Barbara Collins is exactly who any smart person would like to have at their side in any tight scrape.

As the Christmas season approaches, I notice a number of my movies on physical media are popping up at good prices – some of these are steals. I’ll annotate each (they are listed here in no particular order).

For the casual browser who’s just happened to stop by I’ll mention that, in addition to some bigtime stuff like Road to Perdition and the HBO/Cinemax Quarry series, I have done (written and directed) a number of indie projects – seven features, two documentaries, and a handful of short films. Also, I’ve written a few produced screenplays that others have directed – The Last Lullaby, The Expert and recently Mickey Spillane’s Cap City.

Some of the prices listed below are sale prices and may not last long – so now’s the time….

BLUE CHRISTMAS $3.49 (Blu-ray) at Oldies.com

Blue Christmas is a micro-budget adaptation my novella “A Wreath for Marley,” which is essentially The Maltese Falcon Meets A Christmas Carol. We shot it in a week for ten thousand bucks on a single set with a largely local cast, who I think did a terrific job. We won some awards and scored some very nice reviews.

ELIOT NESS: AN UNTOUCHABLE LIFE (Blu-ray) $17.47 at VCI

This is my late friend Michael Cornelison’s signature role as Eliot Ness in a one-man show. It was produced and performed at a theater in Des Moines, Iowa, but we shot it movie style with only the opening and closing from a live performance. It appeared on Iowa PBS and also was an award-winner.

MICKEY SPILLANE’S ENCORE FOR MURDER $1.98 (DVD) at Oldies.com

This is a performance (actually a movie culled by me and editor Chad Bishop from a dress rehearsal and the sole performance) of a radio-style play starring Gary Sandy (who was one of the stars of Mommy 2: Mommy’s Day). Gary had performed Encore (originally written for Stacy Keach in an audio production) in several larger venues, but this captured the version done here in Muscatine, Iowa, with (again) local talent backing him. He did a terrific job, and so did they. Again, a micro-budget production that won awards.

MOMMY & MOMMY 2 (Blu-ray double feature) $16.99 at Amazon

These are the two movies starring Patty McCormack as a sort of grown-up version of her classic Bad Seed role. They were done at the tail end of the home video rental era, and were hits – with respectable budgets in the half-million range – in that market. Mommy also appeared on Lifetime in primetime, and we had a stellar cast backing Patty up – Majel Barrett Roddenberry, Brinke Stevens, Jason Miller, Mickey Spillane, Gary Sandy, Arlen Dean Snyder and more.

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CAVEMAN: V.T. HAMLIN & ALLEY OOP, $9.98 at VCI.
My documentary about the cartoon caveman and his creators V.T. Hamlin (Iowa born) and the assistant who took over the famous strip, Dave Graue, is my secret take on Chester Gould and his assistant Rick Fletcher on Dick Tracy. Includes an interview with the great Will Eisner.

DEATH BY FRUITCAKE (DVD), $18.90 at Oldies.com

This is our most recent production, based on a novella in the Antiques/Trash ‘n’ Treasures mysteries by Barb and me (as “Barbara Allan”). It, too, is micro-budget, but like Blue Christmas we got a lot of streaming play and some nice awards. Quad Cities broadcasting legend Paula Sands plays Vivian Borne, Midwest superstar Alisabeth Von Presley (American Idol) is daughter Brandy, and Rob Merritt (star of Blue Christmas) is Detective Tony Cassoto. You can catch this free on Tubi with a few commercials and on Prime and elsewhere on rental.

THE TWO JAKES $12.49 (Blu-Ray) at Barnes & Noble

This is one of my favorite movies, the sequel to Chinatown; this release [The Kino-Lorber release, not the Paramount!–Nate] includes a commentary track by me and my pal Heath Holland.

Why, you may ask, have I spent so much time out of my career in doing smalltime projects? The thing is, I have a love for movies and specifically hearing my dialogue spoken that draws this moth to the flame. In a fairly successful fiction-writing career that began in 1972 I have had many options for film and TV, and the money was nice, but the satisfaction (when the bulk of those projects inevitably went south) was negligible.

Part of this is my fault for never leaving my smalltown Iowa home. The reasons I stayed are many, but among them was an understanding that my temperament, and what it would take to make it in Hollywood, were almost certainly incompatible. Doing this in a small-scale way has helped me maintain control and get things done.

Say what you will, I have wracked up a filmography that has allowed me to demonstrate, at least to some small degree, what I’m capable of. God bless collaborators like Mike Cornelison, Phil Dingeldein, Steve Henke, Chad Bishop and so many more – chief among them Barbara Collins – for helping me carve out this small, unlikely place in my CV.

* * *

Craig Zablo has announced the upcoming Quarry’s Reunion on his site with a lovely look at the cover.

Barb and I received copies of Antiques Web from Severn House in London and will share a look at it as we grow closer to the pub date (early October).

Meanwhile I’m beginning serious research on Road to Hell, which will include a chapter about Michael O’Sullivan’s harrowing experiences in the Great War.

That’s all for this week…my beautiful nurse is calling….

M.A.C.

Yes, I created my hitman character Quarry fifty years ago. The life he’s led since has been both violent and unexpected.

In the late ‘60s, I’d set my ambitions to be a private eye writer aside to follow the Richard Stark example and write Bait Money, in which the mono-named thief Nolan and his sidekick Jon had one criminal adventure that led somehow to a number more. Nolan was meant to be an homage to Stark (Donald E. Westlake) and his antihero Parker, a one-off; but the publisher wanted more, and Don Westlake gave his blessing, so off and running we went.

But from the start I wanted to come up with something of my own, even if it was bound to reflect the hardboiled likes of Richard Stark, Mickey Spillane, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, Jim Thompson and Raymond Chandler. I’m fuzzy on whether I was, somewhere in my young psyche, wanting to write a novel that could lead to sequels.

I’ll say this: I never have believed in writing a novel consciously designed to do that. It’s too presumptuous and leads to bad decisions – I always have written one book at a time. And with Quarry (originally published under the unfortunate title The Broker) I left my hitman in an untenable position, one from which it was unlikely he might survive.

Of course he did anyway.

I’ve spoken of this before, but I wanted to get away from the Stark/Parker approach that included only other crooks getting killed – no civilians. And, in part because I already felt I had a knack for it, utilize my gift for first-person narration to write about a bad guy in his own voice. To me, much as I liked Stark’s Parker, the character and his world presented in third person gave the reader some protection.

I wanted to tear that wall down, to confront readers with just who they were identifying. Additionally, I wanted Quarry to be in many ways normal, so you could go for long stretches and not have to deal with who and what he really was. I wanted him to be good company. He was damaged goods, but in many ways was just like us.

Also, I knew I had to do something original (again, within the hardboiled spectrum) to really make my mark in my chosen field. The way Spade, Marlowe, Hammer, Bond had. And Quarry seemed just the ticket. Nobody had written that character before, not in the first person, anyway.

So some part of the young me felt I’d found the thing that would set me apart, and my mark would be made. Except…no. The four Quarry paperbacks I wrote for Berkley Books generated scant sales; yes, a few nice reviews and some fan mail, but…when the fourth book came and went, so did Quarry.

And Nathan Heller, with his historical approach and first-person narration, became how I really made at least some sort of mark in my chosen field.

Enough so that a publisher approached me about doing whatever novel I wanted to…and I took that opportunity to write a fifth Quarry, to see if I could jump-start the series. The novel was well received (Primary Target aka Quarry’s Vote) but no further novels immediately followed. A few short stories did, however, and one of them (“A Matter of Principal”) generated a short film.

From there, Quarry just kept coming. Editor Charles Ardai at Hard Case Crime, in the early days of that line, gave me the opportunity to wrap the series up with The Last Quarry. But somehow that led to The First Quarry, and now the novels number eighteen…and somehow he’s been around since 1976. Along the way there has been a movie I wrote plus a single season of a Quarry TV series.

Actually the character was created at the University of Iowa’s Writers Workshop around ‘72, but it took a while for me to finish the novel and get it sold.

In November the 50th anniversary Quarry novel will be published by Hard Case Crime: Quarry’s Reunion. Reviews have started to appear and they’ve been positive. Take a look at Publisher’s Weekly on the novel:

Trade Paperback:
E-Book: Quarry’s Reunion (Quarry #18)
Max Allan Collins. Hard Case Crime, $18.99 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-83541-646-4

Aging ex–hit man Quarry is in fine form in the pulse-pounding sequel to Quarry’s Return from MWA Grand Master Collins. At 71, Quarry is trying to lead a tranquil life in Minnesota. He jumps into action when he’s approached by Jenny Means, an attractive 40-something who’s the spitting image of her mother, Mary Ann—Quarry’s high school sweetheart. Jenny, who’s recently experienced a series of strange accidents and been shot at, fears someone is out to kill her. The police have dismissed her worries, attributing the gunfire to random gang violence, but Quarry returns to his hometown of Fair View, Ohio, where Jenny lives, to investigate. He arrives just in time for his 50th high school reunion, and finds several people who might want Jenny dead. They include her half brother, Alex, who’ll benefit financially if she dies before him, and Quarry’s former classmate, Caldonia Jackson, who has a fraught history with Quarry and has become Alex’s mentor. As in other series entries, Collins complements the brisk, pulpy plot with plentiful sex scenes, resulting in a gritty adventure that lives up to series standards. Collins’s fans will be well pleased. (Nov.)

Well, I’m well-pleased, as PW can be tough, and I took a chance with this one, because it’s not a typical Quarry (if there is such a thing). I wanted to explore his past in a way I haven’t before, and I also wanted to do a traditional mystery with a noir approach – something I’ve done a few times, including with Quarry in Quarry’s Cut.

The novel will not be out till November, but I am planning to do a book giveaway in September. I’ll offer ten copies to readers willing to write Amazon reviews. Or if you have a blog and do reviews, and would like a copy, let me know at macphilms@hotmail.com. More about this later.

In the meantime, here’s a terrific write-up from writer Ron Fortier, a real pro:

QUARRY’S REUNION
By Max Allan Collins
Available 10 Nov. 2026
Hard Case Crime
217 pgs

Grand Master mystery writer Max Allan Collins has created a number of series during his long career. He’s given us professional thieves, historical private eyes, retired secret agents and a wonderful small town female sheriff among many others. All were brilliantly written, but we do have our favorites. Topping our list is the Quarry books that tell the story of a Vietnam veteran and his evolution into a contract killer. Why it remains our favorite is primarily because, like Collin’s deadly protagonist, we too are veterans of that Southeast Asian conflict and are now well past calling ourselves middle-age.

Collins allows his fictional character to age like the rest of us. With the past few entries in the series, it has been fun to watch a 70-year-old tough guy deal with new, and always dangerous situations. Never quite sure his body will respond to whatever threats he will encounter; Quarry has to rely on his experience and hard earned survival skills.

In this new story, he is summoned back to his home town of Fair View, Ohio, by his long ago high-school sweetheart, Mary Ann Kemper. After he had left home to join the US Marines, Mary Ann married Bobby Means, the son of the town’s wealthiest family. They had a beautiful daughter named Jenny. After the marriage ended in divorce, Bobby married another local girl, Suzanne Shaw, and together they had a son, Alex. Soon after, Suzanne followed Mary Ann’s history and left him. Despite the scandalous divorces, Bobby’s mother, Virginia Means, refused to abandon her grandchildren and set up a trust fund for them. When turning 50, both Jenny and Alex would receive half a million dollars.

Now, as each is nearing that particular birthday, Jenny is nearly killed in three separate incidents. The police believe them to be nothing by random events, but Mary Ann disagrees. Convinced someone is trying to kill her daughter, she reaches out to Quarry. How and why she does this would involve writing our own lengthy dissertation. Suffice it to say, our protagonist agrees to help her. All this occurs during the weekend of his 50th High School Reunion. Among his surviving classmates are several possible suspects with motives for wanting Jenny terminated.

Quarry’s Reunion is a fun read watching Collins juxtapose his mystery over the all too familiar nostalgic torture that these gatherings become. It offers us a rare glimpse into Quarry’s origins, his life and aspiration before the world turned upside down and he found himself lost in a jungle half a world away. Again, it was all too easy for this reviewer to nod time and again, as we share quite a few of the old soldiers’ memories. This Quarry is a different character, attesting to the reality that change is the only true constant. Thanks Max, for not being afraid to grow old with us.

M.A.C.

When I was in high school, I was the comic book guy in our class of around 300. Yes, kids read comics in grade school and junior high, but nobody but me collected them in high school. I was the oddball who did.

I had been inhaling comic books from age five on, with a propensity toward Dick Tracy, Joe Palooka and Li’l Abner, all of which were reprints of newspaper comic strips, though I initially wasn’t aware of that. I read Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, and Mad, among many others. An antiques shop within easy walking distance had stacks of comics and I would trade two-for-one.

But when I was six, the Comics Code Authority came in and censorship chased a lot of comic books out of business, in particular horror and crime, which I’d already been gobbling up. Also, DC Comics managed to sue the original Captain Marvel off the stands, claiming it was a plagiarism of Superman. Captain Marvel (and Captain Marvel Jr. and The Marvel Family) were outselling DC, which somehow had the muscle to get rid of their competition (much as they had gotten rid of Siegel and Shuster, who created Superman).

Mad became a magazine, and lots of comic books flat out disappeared. Tracy survived a while, as did Palooka; but before long just about all that was left of adventure comics was Superman (and its spin-offs) and Batman, which after some wonderful years (mostly drawn by Dick Sprang) got silly; but I hung in there. Batman still had a newspaper-comics look that endeared it to me. I was still buying it in high school.

DC’s Showcase introduced a new version of the Flash in 1956, and in the late ‘50s brought back Green Lantern, too, as well as the proto-Fantastic Four by way of Challengers of the Unknown in 1957. When the latter got its own comic book, I subscribed. I had good instincts at age nine: it was Jack Kirby’s work.

Then came Marvel.

Because of Kirby, I had followed that artist to Marvel where he drew monsters like Fin Fang Foom for Strange Tales and other similar titles. This would have been the late 1950s and early ‘60s. But what really caught my attention was Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1962.

That title introduced Spider-man (aka Peter Parker) and his cast of supporting players. Artist Steve Ditko was a unique talent and the stories by longtime Atlas/Marvel editor Stan Lee essentially updated Superman to what was then modern-day, specifically making his super-hero an angst-ridden teenager. In March 1963 Spidey got his own book.

The Fantastic Four came along late in 1961 with Lee bringing a tongue-in-cheek touch to his four super-powered leads, with Jack Kirby co-creating. Kirby did around 100 issues, but when he left, so did I.

Ditko left Spider-man in 1966, the year I graduated from high school. He was replaced by John Romita, also a fine cartoonist, and I hung in there as long as Romita drew the book (1971), at which point I bailed.

As Marvel expanded, though, I’d come along for the ride – The Avengers in 1963, The X-Men that same year, both co-created by Kirby and Lee. Additionally Iron Man and Dr. Strange came along, too, in 1963.

My enthusiasm for Marvel petered out in my college years, during which I sold many of my now incredibly valuable comic books. But I needed the money, so what the hell.

Still, I have history with Spider-man and the rest of the Marvel universe. And I have gone to every movie about those characters, up through Thunderbolts, which I skipped – it just looked dreadful.

And I do believe I am done.

I realize a lot of people like Spider-Man: Brand-New Day. Tom Holland is fine in the lead. The personal story works well enough. It all adds up to a fine 90-minute Spider-man movie. Unfortunately Brand-New Day runs 145 minutes.

This is really not a movie at all. It is an overstuffed promotional piece for upcoming Marvel movies in general, and an attempt to elevate characters in the Marvel Universe who are lesser than Spider-man.

[Major Brand-New Day plot spoilers follow!! You’ve been warned! — Nate] [I mean it! — Nate]

The central story has to do with Jean Grey, one of the X-Men. It includes the character Black Widow, previously played by Scarlett Johansson, now played by Florence Pugh (as the dead Widow’s sister) since the film Thunderbolts, which was a flop (and yet we’re all supposed to know who she is). Her scenes are ridiculous, even for a super-hero movie (her “office” is a bathhouse swimming pool and she’s naked…my 11 year-old grandson said, “Hello!”).

Another minor Marvel character, the Punisher (a direct rip-off of Don Pendleton’s The Executioner), is given a criminal amount of screen time and is uncomfortably overplayed by Jon Bernthal. Bruce Banner is back, which is to say the Hulk as portrayed by a picking-up-a-paycheck Mark Ruffalo; he too gets an inordinate amount of (mostly unconvincing CGI) screen time.

The Jean Grey character is a ridiculous sinister villain until a vision including the unlikely glamorous version of Aunt May (Spidey’s late aunt) turns Jean “nice.” Sorry about the old guy she made to get hit by a taxi cab!

Does Holland hold it all together? Sort of. He seems to be guest-starring in his own movie, though. This is the Happy Meal version of a film and I am done. A comics fan since age five, and I am done. Never again!

Well…maybe Batman 2….

* * *

The great J. Kingston Pierce has given Nate Heller some attention in his Rap Sheet column, specifically a behind-the-scenes look at the first two covers done for the series at TOR Books back in the day.

M.A.C.

I am preparing to begin Road to Hell, which will be both the prose novel prequel to Road to Perdition and a deeper dive into the real-life criminal reign of John Looney (and his son Connor) in the Iowa/Illinois Quad Cities.

This mini-documentary on Looney has just popped up on YouTube.

Of course, you have probably already heard that “Looney” was changed to “Rooney” in the 2002 film, because Looney sounded too “comic-booky” (a pronouncement indicating a lack of knowledge about Looney and his son having been real).

Here’s another YouTube look at John and Connor Looney courtesy of the Forgotten Quad Cities series. The narrator overdoes the folksy bit but he knows his stuff.

[And here’s an older one, short and sweet, from a channel I recommend highly. –Nate]

And as usual, here’s a story about the “comic book” that led to screen great Paul Newman’s final film role.

People still can’t get over Road to Perdition being based on a comic book, which is to say, graphic novel.

I believe I’ve told this story before, so forgive me if you’ve heard it. But one of my instructors at the University of Iowa’s Writers Workshop was Walter Tevis. He wrote The Queen’s Gambit (a terrific novel) and The Man Who Fell to Earth (one of several science-fiction novels he wrote). More importantly, in this context at least, he wrote the great crime novel The Hustler, made into a Paul Newman-starring film, much acclaimed, directed by Robert Rossen. I was excited to have an instructor who seemed to be working my side of the street, at least to some degree.

When I know I’m going to meet someone famous, particularly one who I admire, I take a tactic designed to disarm that someone. For example, when I talked with Tom Hanks at the Chicago premiere of Road to Perdition, I didn’t talk to him about that film but instead brought up That Thing You Do, which he’d written and directed. I knew he had an interest in ‘60s garage rock and I talked to him about that subject, which he immediately warmed to. He seemed excited to learn of the famous groups my two bands had opened for in concert.

So with Newman I thought bringing up Walter Tevis as one of my teachers would be just the ticket.

It wasn’t.

The actor immediately said that they had thrown the book away and started over – nothing was usable. Now we were talking about The Hustler, or at least that was the door I went in. I was puzzled and taken aback and had to do some fancy footwork to get back on this enigmatic man’s good side.

What I figured out, literally years later, was that he had confused The Hustler with its sequel, The Color of Money, which had been the source of the film sequel, too…but most of which had indeed been thrown out.

In a way, it was a lucky break, because I liked The Color of Money the book much better than the movie, and if that had slipped out, I’d have received an even colder look from those ice-blue eyes.

A minor irony is that a documentary about Newman’s life included, of all things, some footage of my conversation with him at the Perdition premiere.

M.A.C.

This week is a YouTube fest, and we begin with a fan of The Maltese Falcon taking a smart look at Return of the Maltese Falcon.

There’s something on You Tube called Private Eye July, and Mystery and Mayhem host Jim (don’t know his last name) took a look at both True Detective (and the Nathan Heller series) and Return of the Maltese Falcon.

First, on what appears to be a regular show, Jim offers Mystery and Mayhem recommendations.

Second, he offers a wrap-up of this year’s Private Eye July, including a look at Return of the Maltese Falcon.

Finally the Book Graveyard has a review of my first published book, Bait Money.

Though the Graveyard host is knowledgeable, and apparently a big fan of my work, he is unaware that the 1981 edition from Pinnacle of Bait Money is a somewhat revised reprint of the Curtis Books original that had appeared in 1973. A Nolan book preceded it, Mourn the Living, but it didn’t see publication till much later (this early work is included with Spree in the Hard Case Crime title, Mad Money).

The Book Graveyard host is obviously an enthusiast of paperback originals in the men’s adventure and Executioner-type crime vein, and I admit to being delighted for my early ‘70s self when he talks about my writing being on a whole other level than what he regularly reads.

M.A.C.