Max Allan Collins's Blog

The Return of the Maltese Falcon continues to dominate around here. We continue to get lovely notices, and this one from The Strand is a doozy:

We encourage sending pics of Return from your phones spotted out in the wild of Return on display. Barnes & Noble has improved on the title, but reports still come in that the book is not anywhere in certain individual stores. If you are a brave, hearty soul, go to the Help Counter and ask if it’s in stock, and if it isn’t, whether more are on the way. (You don’t have to buy the book at B & N to do this.)

Source: theeversocharming

Also, reviews posted at Amazon are highly helpful, however short, though we’ve had some really smart, well-written long ones, as well. Worth doing at Barnes & Noble dot com, too – considerably fewer reviews have been posted there, but still a fair number.

John-Jr-Jackson, an Imagination Connoisseur, wrote Patton Oswalt an Instagram recommendation:

Hey man , I know you like classic films and reading books , so I wanted to recommend a book to you if that is ok. Return of The Maltese Falcon by Max Allan Collins. It’s a great book and pure noir goodness. Thought I would throw that on to your radar.

That’s very cool, as Patton is not only a friend (well, friendly acquaintance), but did me the favor of joining the all-star cast of True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak.

By the way, a big, big, big date for me is coming up:

FEBRUARY 17, 2026

Why is that date important? It’s the official release date of two major projects of mine.

First – and more exciting news about this will follow in the next few Updates – True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak, the 4 ½ full, full-cast adaptation written by me (from the first Nathan Heller novel, True Detective), will be officially released worldwide. You’ll find it downloadable at Audible and elsewhere, and will be able to order the Skyboat Media 4-CD set (yay physical media!).

February 17 is also the release date of the Antiques/Trash ‘n’ Treasures movie, Death by Fruitcake, based on the novels by Barbara Allan (wife Barb and me), adapted from a novella of ours and co-produced by Barb. The great cast is topped by Emmy winner Paula Sands, Midwest superstar Alisabeth Von Presley, and my Blue Christmas lead, Rob Merritt. Chad T. Bishop shot and edited our modestly budgeted film and I directed it.

Pre-order the DVD here (no blu-ray).

One of the best reviews and interviews, relating to Return of the Maltese Falcon, appears at J. Kingston Pierce’s indispensable Rap Sheet. I’m taking the liberty of reprinting the review portion this week.

SPADE GOES BACK TO BIRD-HUNTING

Pinkerton detective-turned-author Dashiell Hammett realized he had something special on his hands when he submitted his revised, typewritten version of The Maltese Falcon to publisher Alfred A. Knopf in July 1929, asking that Knopf (who had previously handled his books Red Harvest and The Dain Curse) practice restraint in editing this latest manuscript. As Hammett scholar Richard Layman has explained: “He knew what he was doing, he said. Hammett wanted to get his third book right. It was a departure work for him, his attempt to break away from the formulas of pulp fiction to create a work with serious literary value.” Although the writer resisted changes by copy editors, he continued to tweak his own story—which had originally appeared (in slightly different form) in five monthly segments in Black Mask magazine—right up to when Knopf finally sent it away for printing. The completed novel was released on February 14, 1930.

Ninety-six years later, with the copyright on Hammett’s best-remembered (and most-filmed) tale having lapsed at the end of 2025, Iowa crime-fictionist Max Allan Collins seeks to add another “something special” to the Falcon legend. In Return of the Maltese Falcon, released this month by Hard Case Crime, he has boldly resuscitated the original book’s “hard and shifty” protagonist, San Francisco private investigator Samuel Spade, and sent him back out to locate the bejeweled bird of the title—which, you will likely recall, was never recovered in Hammett’s hard-boiled classic.

Penning a sequel to such a seminal genre work can only be characterized as intimidating. Indeed, Collins acknowledges that “avoiding strictly pure mimicry, and writing in my own style while honoring Hammett’s, was a tightrope to walk.” But the critical reception for Return of the Maltese Falcon has so far been generally favorable. Kirkus Reviews remarks that “Collins’ dialogue sounds pleasingly like Hammett’s; his plotting is even twistier; and if his descriptions mix Hammett’s terse, affectless minimalism with Raymond Chandler’s fondness for florid similes, that’s clearly, as he notes in an engaging coda, his intention. Fans convinced that nobody could possibly continue a tale that ends so definitely owe it to themselves to give Collins a try.” Reviewer Ray Palen of Bookreporter says Return is “a work of wonder, and I enjoyed every second of it. Collins has not just inhabited Hammett’s world but breathed new life into it and made it distinctly his own.” Finally, prolific author and blogger James Reasoner observes that, “stylistically, Collins’ fast-moving, straight-ahead prose isn’t quite as stripped down as Hammett’s, but it’s certainly in the same ballpark.” He adds: “The resolution of the mystery and the way the book wraps everything up are extremely satisfying.”

As Collins has stated in the past, he fell in love with The Maltese Falcon in 1961, when he was 13 years old and first watched the 1941 Humphrey Bogart movie adaptation on television. Not until much later did he consider recruiting Sam Spade into a new story—not necessarily a Falcon follow-up, but at least another novel starring the same principal. (Spade’s single other book-length appearance came in Joe Gores’ authorized 2009 Falcon prequel, Spade & Archer.)

Collins’ idea for a sequel dates back to 2024, when he included it in a future-projects sales pitch to Titan Books, the British owner of Hard Case Crime. Like numerous other readers, Collins was curious to know what happened after the events recounted in Hammett’s yarn—not just what became of the ever-elusive falcon statuette, but, as he told CrimeReads recently, how Sam Spade might “extricate himself from the ruins he’s made of his life and business.”

To help him answer those questions in Return of the Maltese Falcon, Collins brings back most of the original novel’s cast—some in secondary roles—while beefing up the involvement of several players to whom Hammett had assigned lesser parts. (Have no doubt: You should definitely have read the 1930 book before tackling Return.)

His action begins in December 1928, shortly after Spade failed to locate the gold, gem-encrusted (but now black enamel-covered) falcon at the center of the earlier story, and handed over his fetching but deceitful client, Brigid O’Shaughnessy, to the San Francisco cops for the murder of his detective partner, Miles Archer. Effie Perrine, Spade’s “lanky, tawny-haired” secretary (at 23, a decade Spade’s junior), has erected a Christmas tree where Archer’s desk once sat, and their office is looking “moderately successful” despite the “bad publicity” of late. Through the door comes Rhea Gutman, the “pale and petite,” 18-year-old blonde “daughter” of corpulent criminal Casper Gutman, who supposedly spent years chasing after the Maltese falcon, a treasure crafted for the King of Spain in the 1500s, only to have it stolen by a Russian general named Kemidov, and replaced with a fake. It seems that, like her late progenitor, Rhea is hungry to get her hands on the black bird, and she’ll split the rich proceeds with Spade if he can bring it to her.

Not surprisingly, the shamus accepts her offer. What he hadn’t expected was to then be approached by three more people wanting him to find the artifact (what he terms the “dingus”) on their behalf: Chicago gambler Dixie Monahan; a British Museum official, Steward Blackwood, who contends his institution holds true title to the falcon; and Brigid O’Shaughnessy’s younger sister, Corrine Wonderly. While raking in retainers from them all, he returns to his hunt for what has become the most famous “MacGuffin” in crime-fiction history. Spade’s investigation will eventually lead him to a violent clash with Casper Gutman’s erstwhile “gunsel,” Wilmer Cook; jail interviews with the aforementioned Miss O’Shaughnessy as well as dandyish Joel Cairo, familiar from the original tale and here claiming to know a private collector who’ll pay handsomely for the statuette; run-ins with police and the local district attorney; the discovery of an unidentified corpse in San Francisco Bay, in whose pocket is found Spade’s business card; a Golden Age-style gathering of suspects he hopes will flush out a killer; and late-in-the-game identity switches that I, for one, didn’t see coming.

When I first learned that Max Allan Collins would be revitalizing Sam Spade in a continuation novel—a sequel to one of American detective fiction’s founding yarns, no less—I felt a moment’s consternation. However, I reminded myself that Collins, who was named a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master in 2017, is a crackerjack tale-spinner who has given us two estimable series (a historical one starring Chicago gumshoe Nate Heller, and a second featuring the hit man known only as Quarry), and that he’s already succeeded in extending the life of another notable P.I., Mike Hammer, writing 13 new novels to add to the 13 Mickey Spillane had produced by the time he died in 2006. Furthermore, Collins put another iconic sleuth—Philip Marlowe—through his paces in “The Perfect Crime,” composed for the 1988 collection Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe: A Centennial Celebration, edited by Byron Preiss. (He subsequently swapped Marlowe for Heller and added that story to his 2001 “casebook,” Kisses of Death.)

If anyone had the chops and chutzpah necessary to extend Spade’s otherwise brief career, it was definitely Collins.

With its text having now entered the public domain, this seems to be the season to celebrate Dashiell Hammett’s third novel. Publisher Poltroon Press has brought a new, photo-embellished hardcover version of The Maltese Falcon to market that also features a pair of Spade short stories inked by modern San Francisco-area author Mark Coggins. Blackstone has released its own “collectors edition,” complete with black-and-white illustrations and artistically sprayed page edges. Meanwhile, Steeger Books is selling hardback (or paperback) copies of the Falcon as it was serialized in Black Mask, with more than 2,000 textual variations from the final, 1930 book, and including the original pulp-style interior art by Arthur Rodman Bowker. Finally, notebook maker Field Notes has packaged that same magazine edit in imitation of the World War II-era Armed Service Editions.

Return of the Maltese Falcon is altogether something bigger, though. In this, his 53rd year as a published author (Bait Money, his debut novel, came out in 1973), Collins has given us not only an homage to Hammett’s most memorable composition; he’s drawn a direct line between himself and that august scribbler of yore, emphasizing the fact that he wouldn’t have the award-winning career he does without Hammett and other ink-slinging pioneers having laid the foundations of the popular field in which he toils. There will be Hammett purists who object vociferously to Max Allan Collins, or anybody else, employing Sam Spade in fresh adventures. Yet when the results are as delightful, dramatic, and downright satisfying as Return of the Maltese Falcon, it’s hard to argue that the effort should never have been made.

NEXT WEEK: I will post J. Kingston’s Pierce’s interview with me about Return of the Maltese Falcon. Jeff has done some of the very best interviews with me ever done.

Speaking of interviews, my pal Heath Holland (with whom I partner on blu-ray commentaries) spoke with me about Return of the Maltese Falcon here.

M.A.C.

The audio book of my novel Return of the Maltese Falcon is available now.

Digital Audiobook:

Here’s a preview of the narration by Dan John Miller:

Let’s talk about Dan John Miller for a moment. I have two narrators of choice (and I’m usually asked by the audio publisher who those narrators are). One is Stefan Rudnicki, who took over for Stacy Keach on the last batch of Mike Hammer novels, and has become the voice of Quarry.

The other is Dan John Miller, who has done quite a bit of my stuff but is most importantly the voice of Nate Heller. You can hear him as Heller most recently on The Big Bundle and Too Many Bullets.

Another narrator who is a favorite of Barb and mine, who has done the last several Antiques novels, is Gabrielle de Cuir. We’ve not been fans of previous readers, one of whom read Vivian Borne with a Southern accent (!). (Yeah, Iowa is definitely the deep South.) She has also read, with full sound effects and scores, the Fancy Anders novellas. (We’ve had a recent nibble on my completed Fancy Anders novel – I’ll let you know if/when that happens.)

Return of the Maltese Falcon seems to be doing very well, with the exception of apparently Barnes & Noble, who don’t seem to be stocking it very aggressively.

Why? (You may ask.) Barnes & Noble bases its orders by an author on what the previous author’s book’s numbers were. They seem to routinely carry my stuff, but in the mystery section with a copy or two. That we have scored three rave reviews by the three industry reviewing services (Publisher’s Weekly giving us a starred review), are doing well at Amazon, and that this is a sequel to what is widely considered the best private eye novel ever written, appears to carry no weight.

Don’t know what I can do about it, although if you are a regular shopper at a Barnes & Noble (as I am), and you don’t see the book, please inquire and make a small fuss. Small. If you want to order it from the store (a process that seems rather pointless in these online days), do so.

Also, if you are hardcore enough, snap a photo of Return of the Maltese Falcon in the wild – particularly if it’s a Barnes & Noble. I will run it here. A photo here represents what J. Kingston Pierce of the essential Rap Sheet sent along.

Madison Books, Seattle. Photo: J. Kingston Pierce.

Meanwhile, terrific notices keep coming in.

Here’s one I’ll share with you by Craig Zablo, who knows his stuff (that dreams are made of).

RETURN OF THE MALTESE FALCON

First sentence…
“Samuel Spade, leaning back in his swivel-chair, studied the modest pine tree that might have sprouted tinsel-trimmed from where his late partner’s desk had till lately stood.”

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

THEN…
Detective Sam Spade was pulled into the search for the legendary Maltese Falcon, a jewel-encrusted gold statuette intended as a gift for the 16th century King of Spain. Spade’s partner was murdered. Spade was the prime suspect.

Brigid O’Shaughnessy who hired Spade, was willing to use money, her female charms and anything else to get Spade’s protection from criminals after the Falcon. The others were Casper Gutman, an obese gentleman malefactor and his thugs, Cairo and Wilmer Cook. Gutman depended on his brains and lies. When that didn’t work, Cairo and Cook would use their guns.

In addition to Spade’s partner, two others were killed in pursuit of the bird. Turns out Brigid was the murderess. She’s now behind bars. So is Cairo. But the story doesn’t end there…

NOW…

About a week has passed since Sam Spade’s life was upended. Rhea Gutman, the teenage daughter of Casper Gutman, wants to hire Spade to find the Maltese Falcon. Rhea informs Spade, her father was murdered, but she wants to complete his life’s mission. Rhea believes the Falcon is somewhere close. Spade accepts her retainer.

In short order, Spade is approached independently by several people who also want the Falcon.

Dixie Monahan, an infamous and dangerous Chicago gambler. He has no legal claim to the bird, but sees an opportunity to make money.

Corinne Wonderly, the younger sister of the imprisoned Brigid O’Shaughnessy wants to get and sell the Falcon. She plans to use the money raised to help her sister get a good lawyer.

Stewart Blackwood is a British Museum curator. He claims that he legally purchased the Maltese Falcon and it was stolen. Blackwood has a bill of sale.

Never one to turn down money, Spade accepts retainers from each.

Spade then works to untangle the lies, double crosses, twisted motivations and shifting alliances brought on by greed and self-preservation. Several people have already died in pursuit of the jewel-encrusted bird.

More will as well.

+++++

Recently Max Allan Collins gave away several copies of

Return of the Maltese Falcon. I was a lucky winner. Truth be told, I would have bought a copy had I not won one.

Collins is an author that I follow. I’m a huge fan of Max Allan Collins’ Nate Heller series. Every new Heller tale is a must-buy for me. Collins also completed several of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer novels (from partially finished manuscripts and outlines). I’ve read almost all of them. Collins’ Quarry crime novels are also good. I’ve read some of them. Same could be said for Collins’ Ms. Tree comics, his Dick Tracy strips and his movie adaptations and other novels. Max Allan Collins can be counted on to deliver a great tale each time out, but it’s his Nate Heller series that does it best for me.

Return of the Maltese Falcon shouldn’t be thought of as a sequel. It’s a continuation of the story. Taking on Hammet’s classic characters was a bold move. I’m very happy to say that Collins met the challenge.

Collins is to be commended. Not only for daring to step up and continue Hammet’s classic, but also for his ease at transporting readers to 1928 San Franciso. Collins take on Spade and the other characters feels like Hammet from their motivations to dialogue. Collins’ humor (just the right amount) and witty dialogue shine. The plot twists are unexpected, but not outlandish. They work to provide a surprisingly and satisfying climax.

Return of the Maltese Falcon not only reaches the bar set by Collins’ Nate Heller novels but that of Hammet in the original tale. I don’t say this lightly.

I’d love to see Collins provide us with another Sam Spade outing. Maybe even one that crosses over with Nate Heller.

Return of the Maltese Falcon gets my highest recommendation.

Rating: FIVE STARS

Here is another one:

Marvin Minkler – Modern First Editions·
Return of The Maltese Falcon.
Max Allan Collins.
Hard Case Crime/Titan Books.
First Edition – January 2026

“Don’t be too sure I’m as crooked as I’m supposed to be. That kind of reputation might be good business – bringing in the high-priced jobs and making it easier to deal with the enemy.” – Sam Spade in Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon.

What ever became of the Maltese Falcon…

Closed the covers on this deeply satisfying journey back to San Francisco 1928, and to the Spade & Archer detective agency office of Sam Spade, soon after the events of Dashiell Hammett’s classic novel,

The Maltese Falcon ended.

Max Allan Collins has penned a well written, researched, and respectful sequel to the search for the “dingus” as Spade calls the golden bird.

Familiar faces return; alluring femme fatales beckon, grifters, killers, and cops. The pages fly by, the chase is on, and as the plot thickens, bodies fall, the reader is pulled in, enjoying the ride, and loving it all. This is a damn fine book.

The author’s respect for Hammett and the genre is apparent on every page. As Max Allan Collins writes in the epilogue the novel is “a kind of love letter to Dashiell Hammett and the private eye form.”

Highly recommend.

* * *

I don’t talk politics here except very, very rarely. I do this because I want to respect the opinions of others and, frankly, I have no desire to alienate friends, which is how I view anybody who reads my work and comes back for more.

There is always, as Pee Wee Herman wisely said, a big but.

Last week I posted a link to an article critical of the Trump Administration. I didn’t do it here: I mean for this to be a politics free zone. But some of what’s been going on, particularly in my neighboring state of Minnesota, where some of Barb’s relatives live, makes it tough to stay silent and live with myself. The people up there are almost as nice as those in their neighboring Canada.

I got about fifty “likes” or “loves” from it, and a dozen comments, mostly favorable. A couple weren’t and one of them troubled me – not because of a political disagreement. Two things stop me from posting or responding to political stuff because (a) a few years ago I lost one of my best friends that way, and (b) nobody – NOBODY – ever won an argument on the Internet. Zero minds have been changed.

Still, I’d had enough and said so by sharing an essay by the Bulwark’s Jonathan V. Last, a writer I much admire.

Now as to the troubling comment. I am not going to reprint the writer’s name because I have no wish to embarrass or shame him, nor do I want to pick a fight. I only share this because the writer is fellow fiction writer, a thriller and private eye novelist who appears to be quite successful. I’d never heard of him but that means nothing. The only fiction writers I pay attention to are dead ones.

This is his post: “You should have continued to stay away from politics. Now you’re just another asshole. Goodbye.”

Let’s start with the last bit: I don’t recall meeting or engaging in any way with this fiction writer. Maybe I have – I’ve been to a lot of Bouchercons and Edgar Awards dinners, so, yes, I may have. If so it was friendly. I can say this because I have never had anything but friendly meetings with fellow wordsmiths at either Bouchercon or the Edgars.

Let’s go to the first sentence: he’s probably right. I should have stayed out of politics for the reasons I’ve stated above. I particularly don’t want to do it here, because that’s not what you’ve dropped by for. You (thank you for this!) are interested in what books and movies and so on I have coming out, and maybe enjoy the occasional essay I write here about pop culture.

It’s the middle sentence that troubled me.

Hey, not the first time I’ve been called an asshole. My father routinely called me a smart-ass and I seem to have survived that.

It’s the rudeness, I guess, the lack of civility that kind of stunned me. I shouldn’t have been – because people for years have gone to Facebook and its ilk to misbehave, to say things to people they wouldn’t dream of saying to their faces.

I try to imagine an instance where I would call someone an asshole in public, much less one who was a fellow toiler in the mystery game. I am not famous but I am known within the field. There are other ways to be displeased with me and my opinions then saying goodbye to someone you never said hello to, as well as call that person an asshole in an apparent attempt to, what? Embarrass them?

A lot of things are going on right now that are worth complaining about. But must we cross the line into truly hateful speech? Mickey Spillane and I did not agree on politics, but it never got in the way of the greatest friendship I ever had with a fellow writer…and I’ve had some good ones. I mean, he fucking entrusted Mike Hammer to me. We did talk politics, rarely, but it never got nasty. We were friends. Fellow Americans. Fellow humans.

Before we all start holding hands and singing “Kumbaya,” let me just say one political thing and then I’ll stop: I know Nazi shit when I see it.

* * *

I completed my draft of Antiques Web (from Barb’s excellent draft) a day ago, and tomorrow will start the final read-through and tweak. That usually takes two days.

So we are very close.

I have also confirmed that there will be a DVD of Death by Fruitcake (the Antiques movie) out in February, simultaneously with its POD release. Much more later.

Also more on the Star City Festival and the upcoming wide release of the audio drama, True Crime: The Assassination of Anton Cermak.

* * *
Our friend Dave — caught in the wild reading Quarry!

Here’s a nice write-up about the Quarry novels and the forthcoming 50th anniversary novel in the series, Quarry’s Reunion.

Both Baby, It’s Murder (the final Mike Hammer) and Antiques Round-up (the most recent Antiques novel) are on Glen Davis’ favorite books of 2025.

One of Marshall Rogers’ 13 lasting contributions to Batman is my brief collaboration with him, launching the Batman comic strip.

Thanks for listening to my non-political political rant.

M.A.C.

Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings…and Max Allan Collins writes a book.

Ah, if it were only that easy, but the vagaries of publishing – writing books over time with several publishers printing the results in the same calendar year and even right on top of each other – mean that my efforts to make a living seem offensive to some.

This has been less of a problem lately, as much of my work has appeared either at Hard Case Crime or their parent company Titan; and the Antiques series is happily settled at Severn House (Antiques Web is the book I’m working on now, from my wife Barb’s first pass – we’re “Barbara Allan” together).

The announcement of Quarry’s Reunion, the 50th anniversary Quarry novel, has brought up the old question, “Is there anything we can do to stop this guy?”

At my age, I’ll be stopped soon enough. The point now is to get as many stories worth telling told while I’m still on the planet, and generate some income for what are inaccurately described as the Golden Years.

Quarry is fifty years old (actually older – dating to 1972 at the latest) because the first novel, Quarry (originally titled The Broker) came out in 1976. I did four books in the series and then was not invited back by Berkley Books. A hearty band of readers discovered the books and this led to a fifth novel, published in the ‘80s (Quarry’s Vote, originally titled Primary Target) and a handful of Quarry short stories. One of the latter got turned into a short film I wrote, “A Matter of Principal.” This led to the first Quarry film, The Last Lullaby, which I co-wrote. Quarry is called Price in that film because I didn’t want to allow any sequel rights. Here’s an article/assessment by Douglas Buck about all of that from 2020.

It also led to the novel The Last Quarry allowing me to pick the series back up on a more or less regular basis. The last few have each felt like the last book in the series, and Quarry’s Reunion is no exception. But he’s a hard character for me to shake off.

Incidentally, he’s not a sociopath, as he’s often referred to. If he were a sociopath, he’d be less scary or (or maybe I should say) not as disturbing.

Here’s the magnificent new Paul Mann cover.

Right now I need to remind you that The Return of the Maltese Falcon is the main thing of the moment (month) (year) until November when Quarry’s Reunion comes out). We’ve had incredible reviews for Falcon, and most of the posted comments at Amazon have been favorable to say the least, though a few naysayers are among the gold.

The handful of complaints have included: it’s not a typical Collins book (agreed); Sam Spade gets beat up too much (actually, hit on the head twice, which is about P.I. par); it’s better that the falcon never be found (so a second book should end like the first?); and it’s generally “cheesy” (a complaint I’d take seriously if even just one example had been provided).

On the other hand, if you read Return of the Maltese Falcon, and like it, you’ll be doing it and me a great service by reviewing at Amazon and elsewhere. Reviews can be short – a couple of lines – or as in depth as you like.

Also, if you have a blog, a review there will be helpful. The Barnes & Noble site is useful, too.

It’s gratifying to get all these fine reviews. Here’s another by Scott Montgomery at the Hard Word.

But there are frustrations. Two trips to the nearby Quad Cities – to a Bam! and a Barnes & Noble – revealed no sign of the book on sale at all. Not on the New Releases, not in the mystery section, not even in local authors, the ghetto I wind up in, in this part of the world for having had the bad judgment to be born here and stayed.

If you spot Return of the Maltese Falcon out in the wild, take a photo with your phone and e-mail it to me at macphilms@hotmail.com.

I had such a great response to the book giveaway of Falcon that I was frustrated not to be able to send a signed copy to everyone who entered. What would you think about me getting a bookplate I could sign and send to anyone who requested one?

* * *

Here’s Crime Fiction Lover’s article on the forthcoming Quarry’s Reunion.

I appeared on You Tube on the popular Comic Book School show with hosts Buddy Scalera and Tom Fasolo, and with comic book and storyboard artist Jay Martin. It’s a fun show and you get to see Jay ink a page he drew based on a scene in The Return of the Maltese Falcon. This guy is good!

M.A.C.

I am happy to report that the reviews for Return of the Maltese Falcon thus far have been overwhelmingly positive. While proud of the book, and delighted to have had the chance to write it, I have braced myself (at my smart wife’s instructions) for what might be reviews in the “who do you think you are?” category.

That reaction is understandable.

My only justification is that the novel was written out of love and respect for Dashiell Hammett and his great novel. I was writing it essentially for the adolescent I’d been who desperately wanted to read another Sam Spade novel.

When I began reading mystery fiction, and became obsessed with Mickey Spillane and Mike Hammer, I knew that Mickey hadn’t written a Hammer novel in almost ten years. Imagine my delight and astonishment when in 1961 (nine years after Kiss Me, Deadly) Mickey gave his readers The Girl Hunters.

I knew, with The Maltese Falcon coming into the public domain, that Sam Spade would inevitably be subjected to the kind of nonsense that Winnie the Pooh, Popeye the Sailor and Steamboat Willie have, by way of “inspiring” bottom-feeding horror features. Higher up the food chain, but not necessarily involving writers who understood and respected the material they were drawing upon, new Sam Spade stories would almost certainly emerge. Paging James Patterson.

I wanted to be first and (at least try to) do it right.

Here is a review at Book Reporter that I particularly liked seeing, as the reviewer seemed to understand and appreciate what I was up to.

You may be interested in checking out this interview from Alex Dueben at CrimeReads, which is different from most of the many other interviews I’ve given over the years. Frankly, I usually request questions in writing and will respond accordingly – e-mail interviews. I can control what gets out there.

This interview, however, was actually transcribed and presented as spoken. It is long, and I thought pretty good, if exposing my loquaciousness (like that needed exposure). I was given the opportunity to go over it, and corrected a couple of things, but mostly got out of Alex’s way. I wasn’t happy with how long-winded I was, but relieved I spoke in actual sentences…a novelty these days.

There is a quite gratifying post on Linked-in from a longtime fan (he used to write into the Ms. Tree letters column, SWAK, frequently) – Wylie Wong. I love that name. It has music.

Anyway, I’m going to share his nice write-up with you.

I need to fanboy for a bit. Max Allan Collins – best known as the author of Road to Perdition – is the reason I grew up wanting to be a writer. And he just sent me an autographed copy of his latest novel, Return of the Maltese Falcon.

As a teen, I devoured his

Ms. Tree comic books and mystery novels. I loved his work so much that I wrote him a 12-page fan letter. Somewhere in my gushing praise, I mentioned I couldn’t find two of his out-of-print novels. A month later, Collins responded with the coolest Christmas gift: those two books – autographed.

Later, I met him at San Diego Comic-Con and went full geek with a backpack full of his books to sign. He graciously spent 20 minutes chatting and signing, then told me he was publishing a condensed version of my letter in

Ms. Tree. That fan letter became the first thing I ever had published.

When I went to college, I double-majored in creative writing and journalism, curious about a career in either fiction or non-fiction. Collins influenced my writing in unexpected ways – I even fell in love with the em dash because of him – and I’ve used it ever since. (So screw you, AI. I used it first.) But I enjoyed journalism too much, so I dropped creative writing and focused on telling true stories instead. No regrets.

Fast forward to 2024: Collins announced he was writing a sequel to Dashiell Hammett’s

The Maltese Falcon. I loved the original book. I loved the movie. A sequel from my favorite author? I’m all in.

When the book came out this week, Collins offered free copies to the first 20 people who promised to write an Amazon review. I wrote to him saying I’d already pre-ordered a copy but would love to be included. I told him I was still a big fan and shared that after college, I lived on Leavenworth Street in San Francisco, two blocks from where Hammett lived and supposedly finished the

Falcon. On cold, foggy nights, like SF Chronicle columnist Herb Caen, I’d imagine Sam Spade tromping up and down the hills.

Collins responded saying it was a “terrific email” and he’d send me the book and to “feel free to read the hell out of your other copy.”

I don’t know if he even remembers me. But receiving this book brings me right back to my teenage years, reading voraciously and learning good storytelling.

Oh, and for the record: I have the real Maltese Falcon in my home office. Photo as proof.

Thank you for this, Wylie. Good reviews, and particularly rave reviews, feel great – but a piece like yours goes way beyond anything of those.

M.A.C.

Despite the title this week, I am not suggesting we all go down to the local pub and discuss Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon.

No.

It is the publication date of my sequel to The Maltese Falcon that we are celebrating on January 6, 2026 (not the sixth anniversary of the Insurrection at the Capitol, either).

The celebration actually began last week, when I announced a book giveaway for copies of the hardcover Hard Case Crime first edition of Return of the Maltese Falcon. I offered 20 copies but expanded that to 25 from my personal stash. All 25 copies were gone on the first day. My thanks to all of you who entered and won, and especially to those I had to turn away.

Tomorrow as I write this (and today as you read it), you will be able to send a review to Amazon and other of the usual on-line suspects (Amazon doesn’t allow pre-pub reviews). I have been asked what it feels like to have this dream project actually come to fruition, and I have replied thusly: I am waiting to see it displayed among the New Releases at the Davenport, Iowa, Barnes & Noble – then I will believe it. And savor it.

Yes, I have long been dreaming about doing my own Sam Spade novel, and I can pinpoint when that desire began: 1961. I was thirteen, still in junior high, specifically the 8th grade. I saw the movie on TV that same year – I believe I did so on a Sunday morning, having convinced my parents that I was sick and couldn’t go to Sunday school or church.

I’ve done several interviews, including one on YouTube, wondering if the idea of specifically doing a Maltese Falcon sequel was something I’d had in mind from the start. The truth is: no. I just wanted to do a Sam Spade novel. The idea for the sequel was what I came up when I made my pitch to Titan Books in March of 2024. I think the whole pitch was, “I’d like to do a sequel to The Maltese Falcon.”

Doing so was gratifying and enjoyable, but hard. Hammett’s brilliant novel was a contemporary work; mine was a period piece. I had plenty of experience in the latter, having done all those Nathan Heller, Eliot Ness and “disaster series’ novels (like The Titanic Murders). So I was something of an old hand at historical fiction, which this would be in a way.

Hammett’s sly, spare style had to occasionally give way to describing places in a historical context – fortunately I had WPA Guides to both San Francisco and California, Don Herron’s excellent The Dashiell Hammett Tour, and several other reference works to call upon. Internet research also came into play. I think – hope – I hit the right balance.

When I completed the novel – having read it through to my satisfaction, doing any necessary tweaks – I was ready to send it to editor/publisher Charles Ardai at Hard Case Crime (Titan is the parent company) – my wife Barb (a writer herself) took me gently aside.

“You’d better prepare yourself,” she said, “for attacks. Not by everybody, but you will be seen by some as exploiting a classic.”

I’d known that going in, but hearing Barb say it was damn near bone-chilling. And last year, as word about my novel got around, I was in fact attacked several times, before the book had even come out or been read by anybody.

I have run into this before. It’s likely, if you’re reading this, that you are aware of my love for Mickey Spillane as a man and a writer, and that – at his request in his final days – he honored me by asking me to complete various works of his that were to be found in his three home offices. He did not put this in motion for his glory or mine, for that matter; but to generate income for his widow, Jane Spillane.

And yet.

There are hardcore Spillane fans who refuse to read the Spillane/Collins byline books or say disparaging things about them. This despite every one of the 16 novels (14 Mike Hammer) having significant Spillane content. The first ten or so were manuscripts well in progress by him, 100 manuscript pages (and notes about endings in some cases). One reader posted a review of Complex 90 (in which I show Velda and Mike in an overtly sexual relationship), accusing me of doing explicit material in a way that Mickey supposedly never would have.

Apparently that huge Spillane fan had never read either The Erection Set or The Last Cop Out. Hint: The Erection Set has erections in it, and I don’t mean buildings.

A key part of my approach to the Spillane co-bylined novels was to determine when he had written the partial manuscripts (and other material), so I could place the book at hand in the context of where Mickey was as a writer and as a man at that moment.

Much of the Spillane unpubbed material was developed during the (ahem) long wait between Kiss Me, Deadly (1952) and The Deep (a non-Hammer followed a year later by Hammer’s return in The Girl Hunters). But Mickey didn’t stop writing during that period – he published a dozen novellas, usually in the men’s adventure magazine Cavalier – works that are a window into his thinking and his evolving literary style.

Here’s the thing about The Maltese Falcon and public domain: somebody was going to do it. Other things that have gone into the public domain have led to such wondrous creative projects as horror films featuring Popeye the Sailor, Winnie the Pooh and Steamboat Willie. I wanted to make a respectful, serious attempt to do Sam Spade correctly. Faithful to Hammett. Others will no doubt follow me, and some may do a better job of it. But I wanted to be first and do it right.

After all, we can’t be far away from James Patterson bylining a novel in which Sam Spade meets Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, perhaps among Father Brown’s congregation or maybe in the waiting room of Sherlock Holmes, possibly to solve the murder of C. Auguste Dupin.

Anyway, you can imagine how relieved I’ve been at getting such great reviews from the three major book reviewing services: Publisher’s Weekly (a starred review), Booklist and even Kirkus, who in the past have often indicated that humanity would have been better served if I’d just stayed at sacking groceries (I was goddamn good at that).

The first review not from one of those reviewing services has popped up, and it’s worth sharing with you.

Return of the Maltese Falcon
Reviewed by James Reasoner

I’m starting the new year off well with an excellent novel from Max Allan Collins. I’ve been a fan of THE MALTESE FALCON since I read the novel in high school, the first thing by Dashiell Hammett I ever read, I believe. Needless to say, I was hooked. Now the original magazine version of the novel, as serialized in the iconic pulp BLACK MASK, is in public domain, and that’s what Collins has used as the starting point for his new novel RETURN OF THE MALTESE FALCON, which, as he points out, is a continuation rather than a true sequel.

And if, by some chance, you’ve never read Hammett’s novel, stop right now and read it before you read this review, and absolutely don’t tackle Collins’ novel until you’ve read the original, because they’re both, of necessity, full of spoilers. I mean it!

The action starts a week after the end of THE MALTESE FALCON, in December 1928. The dead Miles Archer’s desk has been removed from the office of Spade & Archer, and Effie Perrine, Sam Spade’s secretary, has put up a Christmas tree in its place. (Does that make this a Christmas novel? It sure does!)

A potential client pays a visit to Spade’s office. She’s Rhea Gutman, Casper Gutman’s daughter, and she wants to hire Spade to find the real Falcon. The one in Hammett’s novel was a fake, remember? Rhea is the first of four clients who give Spade a retainer to find the dingus. The others are Chicago gambler Dixie Monahan, Corrine Wonderly, the younger sister of femme fatale Brigid O’Shaughnessy, and Steward Blackwood, an official from the British Museum who claims that institution is the true owner of the Falcon.

Spade plays all these characters against each other. He has run-ins with the cops. A dead body turns up. Spade is hit on the head and knocked out, and he’s captured by a gunman who wants to kill him. This is great stuff in the classic hardboiled private eye mode, the kind of thing that Dashiell Hammett invented, along with Carroll John Daly. Stylistically, Collins’ fast-moving, straight-ahead prose isn’t quite as stripped down as Hammett’s, but it’s certainly in the same ballpark.

Being constrained to use only the elements to be found in the original novel’s pulp serialization turns out to be a good thing. Collins is able to bring on-stage characters who were only mentioned before and invent new ones who fit perfectly in that setting. The resolution of the mystery and the way the book wraps everything up are extremely satisfying.

A number of years ago, I read and loved Joe Gores’ prequel novel SPADE & ARCHER. RETURN OF THE MALTESE FALCON is even better. I’m glad Max Allan Collins wrote it, and I’m grateful to Hard Case Crime for publishing it. It’ll be out officially in e-book and hardcover editions tomorrow. For hardboiled fans, I give it my highest recommendation.

This is, obviously, a lovely review. James Reasoner, a top-notch word smith himself, is incorrect about one thing: while I re-read the serialization of The Maltese Falcon (in Otto Penzler’s The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories), the basis for my sequel is the published novel (Knopf, 1930). The serialization did not go into the public domain till last year, as its final installment appeared January 1930.

Trust me – I kept an eye on that.

Nonetheless, Mr. Reasoner liking my novel means a lot to me, as he is about as seasoned a pro in the fiction game as anybody I know of.

If you are familiar with the Bogart-starring film adaptation of The Maltese Falcon, a re-reading of that novel before reading the sequel isn’t necessary. A few readers have already told me they plan to re-read the original after they’ve read my sequel. Or that they will view the 1941 film either again or for the first time, in preparation of reading Return of the Maltese Falcon.

That my book will bring some new readers to Hammett’s masterpiece (The Glass Key is next best) is incredibly gratifying.

* * *

My pal Robert Meyer Burnett – who so masterfully directed the audio drama True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak, adapted by me from my novel True Detective – is a well-known YouTube pundit (among much else) with two long-running shows on that platform: Robservations and Let’s Get Physical Media.

On the first weekend of January, 2026, I appeared on episodes of both of those shows.

I caution you: these are lengthy episodes. The Robervations is an interview of me by Rob about (largely) Return of the Maltese Falcon). It runs around two hours!

The Let’s Get Physical Media has Rob, co-host Dieter Bastion, and me discussing our top ten favorite physical media releases of the year – it’s well over three hours with many excursions into this and that, including my most recent battle with Rob over Never Say Never Again, the film missing from the Sean Connery “James Bond” 4K set.

The interview:

The Favorite Blu-ray and 4K releases of 2025 from Burnett, Bastion and Collins:

Amazingly, one of the outstanding reviewers of physical media on the Net, That Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader, has done a very smart deep-dive into my novelization of the Dick Tracy movie, and goes into my misadventures writing it.

Even more amazingly, Spencer Draper, The Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader himself, has done the same for my two hard-to-find Tracy novels, Dick Tracy Goes to War and Dick Tracy Meets His Match.

He’s articulate and very, very smart, but again, a warning: these ain’t short shows. The novelization episode is about half an hour, and the Tracy novels episode is about forty minutes.

Damn that Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader! He makes me want to try to get the rights back to reprint the two rare Tracy novels he discusses!

* * *

Here’s another one of those articles about movies from comics that aren’t about superheroes.

* * *

Let’s make 2026 a much better year than the last.

M.A.C.

January 6, 2026, approaches, meaning Return of the Maltese Falcon finally goes on sale at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the usual suspects. (Hardcover: | E-Book: )

[All copies have been claimed. Thank you for your support! –Nate]

We are celebrating with a free book giveaway – thanks to the kind folks at Hard Case Crime (“folks” being editor/publisher Charles Ardai), I have secured 20 copies of my Sam Spade sequel for the first twenty among you who contact me (with apologies to Nero Wolfe for using contact as a verb) at macphilms@hotmail.com requesting a copy. I will sign and (if you request it) personalize these copies.

The rules: you must include in your e-mail your snail-mail address (even if you’ve won before); and you agree to write a review at Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble. Reviews on personal blogs are also encouraged. (If you dislike the book, you are encouraged not to review it!)

If you review for an on-line mystery site and want to review it, let me know and I’ll get you a copy, not from this batch of twenty.

Unfortunately, no Canadian or other foreign entries can be honored. International postage rates are higher than ever (aren’t tariffs wonderful?). I wanted to send a friend in Germany a copy and it would have cost $80.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR AMAZON REVIEW OF RETURN OF THE MALTESE FALCON BEFORE PUBLICATION DAY, JANUARY 6. THEY WILL NOT USE IT OTHERWISE!

Those of you who have already pre-ordered, thank you. And anyone who picks this up, thank you, paying customer!

This is an important book for me – both in the creative sense, bringing my love for private eye fiction full circle, and in trying to stay relevant in a publishing landscape where many of my readers are (choke) no longer with us, and lots of my editors have retired. Plus, publishing generally sucks.

I have been lucky so far to stay afloat thanks to the loyal readers who have stuck with me or discovered me recently and liked what they saw. Barb and I are grateful to all of you.

Speaking of Barb, she is just finishing up her draft of Antiques Web for Severn House and I will be starting my draft at the beginning of January.

Thank you all of you again, and let’s have a better 2026. Shouldn’t be hard, but it likely will be.

* * *

In the meantime, check out this great review from Kirkus, the third of the three major book review outlets to give a rave or near rave to Return of the Maltese Falcon. This is especially gratifying, since in the past Kirkus has frequently implied that my true calling was my previous job: sacking groceries.

RETURN OF THE MALTESE FALCON
Max Allan Collins

Did you ever imagine that

The Maltese Falcon could spawn a sequel? Well, Collins has, and although it’s no match for Dashiell Hammett, it’s surprisingly successful on its own terms.

After all, Hammett’s novel ends a bit up in the air, with (spoiler alert) Brigid O’Shaughnessy on her way to jail for killing Sam Spade’s partner, Miles Archer, but scheming, bloated Casper Gutman’s gunsel Wilmer Cook escaping after the precious falcon behind all the novel’s intrigue is revealed to be a phony. So why shouldn’t Gutman’s daughter, Rhea, call on Spade just a week later, as Christmas 1928 approaches, to hire him to track down the bird that the untrustworthy supplier, Russian general Kemidov, replaced with a fake? Spade agrees, and soon he has a stable of four clients—Rhea, Chicago gambler Dixie Monahan, British Museum curator Steward Blackwood, and Corrine Wonderly, Brigid’s kid sister—each of whom, unknown to the others, has paid him a retainer to locate a treasure none of them intends to share with anyone else. There’ll be more fatalities, of course, including two members of the original cast, before Spade gathers his clients together for a Christmas party at which he stages exactly the sort of denouement Hammett consistently took pains to avoid in all his fiction. Collins’ dialogue sounds pleasingly like Hammett’s; his plotting is even twistier; and if his descriptions mix Hammett’s terse, affectless minimalism with Raymond Chandler’s fondness for florid similes, that’s clearly, as he notes in an engaging coda, his intention.

Fans convinced that nobody could possibly continue a tale that ends so definitely owe it to themselves to give Collins a try.

* * *

Christmas may be over, but ‘tis still the season (for a few days anyway), so if you haven’t already watched our little micro-budget movie Blue Christmas, there’s still time to view it in a Yuletide context.

We’ve recently been accepted on You Tube, after jumping through a few hoops, but it’s available a bunch of places:

Tubi, Fawesome, or rent/buy it on Amazon Prime Video, with it sometimes appearing on library services like Hoopla. Some of these involve commercials – Tubi, I believe, opens with some ads and then the movie plays without further interruption.

I found the following review most insightful. If you’re a fan of the movie or of my work in general, check this out.

* * *

The HBO/Cinemax series Quarry, based of course on my book series, is number 2 on this list of worthwhile shows you may have missed, describing it as having a “beautiful visual style, and a gripping story – Quarry is an underappreciated classic worth discovering.”

I wrote an episode of the series and received a sole screen credit, but actually it was spread across two episodes by another writer who took the other sole credit. Just a Hollywood thing.

I’m proud of the show and, if you like the book series, you will probably like it. It does lack the dry humor of the novels, and moves the action to Memphis (one of the Quarry novels does take place in Memphis, Quarry’s Climax). And the concept of Quarry tracking other hitmen for targeted clients was something set for the second season (for which I wrote an episode and was paid for doing so) that never happened.

My understanding about why that second season did not get a greenlight is that the show runner and star clashed, refusing to work together again. That’s not a fact, just what I heard from insider sources. Again – Hollywood.

The real Quarry is coming from Hard Case Crime in 2026 in Quarry’s Reunion, but that will be late in the year.

2026 is all about Return of the Maltese Falcon.

M.A.C.

This will be a light week, as son Nate (who runs this page) is away with the wife and kids, so I’m chiefly going to present some links to a one article and some bargains (possible stocking stuffers) from my shelf.

First, though, an important announcement. True Noir: The Assassination of Anton Cermak – the ten-episode, all-star almost-five-hour audio drama based on True Detective and written by me – has been picked up for distribution for Skyboat Media. Directed by Robert Meyer Burnett and starring Michael Rosenbaum as Nathan Heller, this is my favorite adaptation of my work…including the film of Road to Perdition.

Skyboat has been very supportive of my work, releasing audio books of, among others, Quarry and the Antiques series (by “Barbara Allan,” Barb and me). Here’s some of what they have available.

The great magazine True West has posted an article/interview about me from a while back, focusing on my Caleb York novels and my relationship with Mickey Spillane. I love the picture of Mickey and me (taken, I think, at San Diego Comic Con in 1994).

Now, in the stocking stuffer area…and you are free to stuff your own stocking with these as well as those of your friends and loved ones…Hamilton Books has some of my stuffable stuff, including the two most recent Heller novels (The Big Bundle and Too Many Bullets) at bargain prices.

Hamilton also has Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction, the bio by Jim Traylor and me, at a great price, also a Caleb York, and several Hammer novels. Spillane and the more recent Hammer hardcovers are not scheduled for trade paperback, so picking up a hardcover at a bargain price makes sense. Also, the trade paperback of Kiss Her Goodbye, available at Hamilton, is the uncensored version with a different ending.

Hamilton also has my micro-budget movie, Blue Christmas, on DVD and Blu-ray at the best prices I’ve seen.

Here’s where you can stream Blue Christmas.

Here are some viewer reactions to The Expert, an action movie I wrote based on the classic Brute Force. I replaced Larry Cohen (!) on the film, which is tricky to find on physical media.

You can stream The Expert here on Amazon Prime among others.

Matt Clemens and I have contributed “Moriarty’s Notebook,” a Sherlock Holmes story, to Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2026 edited by my old pal Bob Greenberger. If you dig pulpy tales, consider backing this Kickstarter campaign.

Our movie, Death by Fruitcake, will have a few theatrical screenings in December – I’ll announce dates later – but you can order the new Antiques novel right now. As I’ve said, these UK-published books can be elusive in American bookstores, so Amazon and Barnes and Noble are the best bet.

And please consider pre-ordering The Return of the Maltese Falcon.

Hardcover:
E-Book: * * *

I wish all of you and your families a happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful to all of you who stop by here and support my work. This time of year I think about friends and colleagues I’ve lost, grateful to have known the likes of my musician cohort Paul Thomas – with me through both the Daybreakers and Crusin’ – and actor Mike Cornelison – who was part of so many of my movie projects, notably the Mommy movies and Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life. I’ve been blessed to know my pop culture heroes Chester Gould, Mickey Spillane and Donald E. Westlake as both mentors and friends.

And my collaborators, including (but not limited to) Matthew Clemens, Dave Thomas and Barbara Collins. They have all made me look good.

Thanks to the reviewers and bloggers who give attention to me and my work, a list I’m glad is too long to share. But I’ll single out J. Kingston Pierce at The Rap Sheet and the boys at Paperback Warrior (the graphic this week is theirs).

Finally, I’m grateful just to still be here, thanks to my family and doctors rallying to me when a routine operation had some unexpected side effects, including sending me into a hallucination right out of one of my own books.

I am not exaggerating when I say I made it back from madness thanks to my beautiful and talented wife, Barbara Collins. She is only six months younger than this ancient mariner, but she still looks like a pin-up girl.

M.A.C.

I occasionally get a nice e-mail from a reader who likes one thing or another of mine (or several things, which is really nice) and I do my best to answer all of these. I don’t mean to imply I’m swimming in praise, but sometimes I mean to respond and don’t get around to it. Things can get lost in the shuffle when you’re busy writing or getting a pacemaker put in.

For that reason, if you happen to be one of those who’ve written and been ignored, you weren’t really being ignored, your missive just got away from me. Please know I appreciate hearing from you. And I’m pleased to say I rarely get a negative letter from a reader.

Same goes for the comments that appear below each of these Update/blog entries. I read everything and usually respond, but not always.

Recently a reader who obviously read a lot of my stuff said the Heller novels didn’t trip his trigger like Quarry and Nolan. I get that, particularly when a reader doesn’t care for a book of the kind of length that Heller usually runs. Quarry and Nolan tend to appear in books that are quick reads – 50,000 to 60,000 or so. And Heller tends to appear in books of 80,000 words or more. True Detective was the longest first-person private eye novel ever written, until I wrote the even longer Stolen Away.

I myself find that Heller is rather daunting for me at this age. The breadth of research is staggering and the many chapters a challenge. In some ways I am a better writer now than I ever was. Mickey Spillane felt a writer should get better with age, because of being at it longer and gaining more experience in both art and life.

But in other ways I’m not the writer I was.

It isn’t just age. But the experience part Mickey mentioned applies to just being on the planet a while, and the fiction writing – like reading – depends on where you are in this string of seconds, minutes, days and years called time.

I recently re-watched The Verdict (1982) starring Paul Newman and written by David Mamet. I revisited it in part because I had been responsible in a way for the last motion picture this great film actor ever made, and had met – and been intimidated – by him. (I’ve written about that here before.)

But I am no fan of David Mamet. I find him mannered and pretty much despised his screenplay for The Untouchables. It has that great “Chicago way” speech of Sean Connery’s, but is a knuckle-headed and lazy take on Eliot Ness and Capone. I even turned down the novelization (stupidly, because it would have boosted sales of my Eliot Ness novels).

I had seen The Verdict when it came out and thought it good but overrated. Barb and I, pre-Covid lockdown, would go to at least one movie a week; and I sometimes went alone, too. So I find now, in my dotage, that I often remember nothing about a movie I saw twenty or thirty or more years ago except (a) that I saw it, and (b) remember my opinion of it.

The Verdict this time around seemed a near classic, a terrific courtroom drama and a fantastic character study from Paul Newman, who had a drinking problem in life that he explored in this particular performance. Fucking brilliant. And Mamet’s script didn’t strike me as mannered at all, and extremely well-constructed.

I am a different person going to the movies than I was years ago.

Right now I’m not going to theaters much at all, and doing considerable watching at home. You probably are the same. I’ve seen some stellar flicks in 2025 – Sinners, Weapons, One Battle After Another – and encountered some of the best TV ever, notably Slow Horses and the under-seen Chantal.

But I am also at odds with some things that a lot of people, smart people, really like – we walked out of the new Predator movie, and would have walked out on Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein if we weren’t home streaming it. In any case, we didn’t make it past an hour. We found it a precious thing, the kind of movie where you walk out humming the costumes.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but my point is that we see things at a specific point in time and who we are at that time – this obviously goes for books, too – impacts how we take things in. Barb and I – both of us big Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fans – hated creator Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus. Son Nate liked it.

Nobody’s right, nobody’s wrong. Well, sometimes things are just plain bad, but you catch my drift. A novel or a film is the artist plus the someone taking in that novel or film. The reader’s mind, the viewer’s mind, is where the novel or film plays out. I often have said that sometimes my stuff plays on Broadway and sometimes at the Podunk Community Playhouse.

Of course some reviewers have considered my micro-budget Christmas movie Blue Christmas barely worthy of a community theater. But quite a few others have praised it and were able to meet it on its own modest but sincere terms.

As for Heller not tripping a reader’s trigger where Quarry or Nolan or the Antiques mysteries do, I only hope it’s not the history aspect that puts such readers off. I admit that Heller was a way for me to combine my love of historical fiction with that of hardboiled mystery fiction. Do most of my readers even know who Samuel Shellabarger was? That his novels Captain from Castille and Prince of Foxes were my favorites at the same time I was inhaling Hammett, Chandler and Cain? Or that my favorite novels as an adolescent were The Three Musketeers and The Mark of Zorro? Or that Mickey Spillane’s faves were The Count of Monte Cristo and Prisoner of Zenda? (Shellabarger, by the way, was originally a mystery writer, under several pen names.)

But to readers who duck Heller because of the historical aspect, know this: the first intension is to write a classic private eye novel in the Hammett/Chandler/Spillane (Father, Son and Holy Ghost) vein. That is the goal and I think I’ve achieved it.

Interestingly, when I moved Heller to Hard Case Crime, editor/publisher Charles Ardai was pleased that The Big Bundle was based on a less-remembered crime than other books in the Heller series. He felt the HCC audience might be put off by the historical aspect.

What prompted this rambling missive to you, Dear Readers, is a particularly nice e-mail I received, and which I will share with you now, from Andrew Lewis – a fellow Iowan!

I hope this letter finds you well. I have been a fan of detective fiction since picking up The Hound of The Baskervilles at an elementary school book fare. Over time I’ve delved into Hammett and Chandler and even some of the better Batman comic books from the late 70s, but nothing has ever punched me in the face like the Mike Hammer novels.

What Mickey Spillane does with storytelling is, in my mind, what Lou Reed did with song lyrics, say very profound things using the most simple language you can. I’m five chapters in to

Kiss Her Goodbye which is, thus far, the 3rd Hammer novel I’ve read which you’ve completed. It’s hard to tell where Mickey stops and Max starts. It’s got some Black AlIey elements the same way Lady Go Die had some Twisted Thing elements, ideas set aside, forgotten, and reused. I’m all in.I am confused about the timeline. Hammer indicates in the novel that he made it halfway through 12th grade before lying about his age to enlist in WWII. That would make him maybe 72 in 1996 when Black Alley is set. I understand that King of The Weeds is a sequel to that novel. Is there a set chronology or is it a suspension of disbelief where Hammer is always just as old as he needs to be for the story being told? My mind needs order, “foolish consistency” and all that.

I’ve recently picked up

The Wrong Quarry and will be reading it after Kiss Her Goodbye. It’s my first journey into Quarry’s world, is it a good place to start? Thanks for taking the time to read this overly long note and for continuing the Spillane legacy.
Warmest regards,
Andrew Lewis
Council Bluffs, Ia

Here is the reply I sent to Andrew:

Thanks for your great e-mail.

With your permission I’d like to use it in this week’s Update/blog of mine, because you raise interesting questions that would be well answered in public.

Briefly, though, Mickey was very loose about continuity. Not as loose as, say, Rex Stout, who kept Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe frozen at the age at which we met them (their ages, not ours!). I have attempted to put together a continuity that doesn’t contradict Mickey, but that can only go so far. Do keep in mind

Black Alley (my least favorite of Mickey’s Hammer novels) is his final Hammer novel, and King of the Weeds was a direct sequel he began as was Kiss Her Goodbye — he set aside King of the Weeds, intended to be the final Hammer, to write a 9/11 novel, The Goliath Bone. I finished both King and Bone and kept them in relative continuity not only with Black Alley but with the entire series. King of the Weeds, by the way, is in part meant to answers questions and fix inconsistencies in Black Alley. I liked to think (and this is outrageous I know) that I “fixed” Black Alley — that reading Alley and King back to back is an improved experience…the “part two” that Mickey began writing.

I always tried to set each story that I completed in time — specifically, when Mickey started (and set aside) those unfinished novels. I try to think about where Mickey was in his life, and get into his head space at that point. This means

Lady Go Die is like an early Hammer, and King and Bone like later Hammers in tone and technique. Kiss Me Darling is another one that has that early feel. Kiss Her Goodbye is more mid-stream Mickey — he designed it to be Hammer’s return to the book market after a long quiet spell…but during that quiet spell, he kept starting (and stopping) various Hammer manuscripts.

I would recommend you read my biography of Mickey, co-written by James Traylor —

Spillane — King Of Pulp Fiction. I include as part of a back-of-the-book bonus content a lengthy article about how I came to write the books and how I approached each of them.

Thanks again, Andrew! Let me add to that one thing: I am very fond of Black Alley (and not just because it’s dedicated to me). I grew to respect it more working with it in depth writing its sequel from Mick’s existing chapters. My disappointment with the book was the way he softened a banger ending that he shared with me in conversation, which I wound up using in slightly different form in another Hammer.

M.A.C.

I try not to be overly commerce-oriented here, doing topics (in the Bob and Doug vein) that might be of interest to readers of mine in a fashion that doesn’t necessarily promote something that’s just come out or is about to.

Many of you who stop by here are fans of Nate Heller and/or Quarry and/or Mike Hammer, and some of the other things I do are not of much – perhaps of any – interest. I want to speak to those readers right now and discuss a few things of mine that they may not have tried.

Yes, here at the Skippy Peanut Butter Company, we have both smooth and chunky style.

I have done very well at Amazon’s publishing line, Thomas & Mercer, with my back-list titles, chiefly Nate Heller but also the “disaster” series, the five Mallory novels and a few stand-alones. My frequent collaborator, Matthew V. Clemens, has co-authored five successful T & M titles with me, including the bestselling Reeder & Rogers political-thriller trilogy, notably Supreme Justice.

I also did two novels about small-town Chief of Police Krista Larson and her retired police detective father, Keith Larson, who solve crimes in tourist-trap Galena, Illinois. These were designed to be my American entry into the “Nordic noir”-style of mystery. The first, Girl Most Likely, did rather well. The second one, Girl Can’t Help It, is the only Thomas & Mercer title of mine that hasn’t “earned out,” i.e., made back its advance.

Girl Can’t Help It is also the only novel of mine that deals with my experiences as a rock musician (I was a “weekend warrior,” singing and playing keyboards, for almost sixty years). The lack of success the novel has thus far experienced may reflect readers of Girl Most Likely not liking that novel enough to try the second in the series. I hope that is not the case, but….Anyway, I had planned a third but that never happened, for obvious reasons.

But if you like my work, you will probably enjoy meeting Krista and her father.

Paperback | Kindle | Audible

If you’ve followed my Mike Hammer titles, in which I complete unfinished material from Mickey Spillane’s files, you may also be familiar with the three Hard Case Crime non-Hammer titles, Dead Street, The Consummata and The Last Stand. But are you aware of the one Spillane horror novel that I completed?

The Menace, published by Wolfpack, I developed from an unfilmed Mickey Spillane film script. I had done this previously with the western, The Saga of Caleb York, also Kensington titles. The Menace reflected Mickey’s desire to meet Stephen King on the latter’s home ground, a monstrous menace terrorizing a father and his mentally challenged son, who may – or may not – be imagining he’s being protected by a resurrected Aztec mummy. I like the book a lot, but it’s easily the least read Spillane/Collins title.

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One of the great disappointments of my writing life has been how few readers have found their way to the John Sand trilogy written by Matt Clemens and me. The conceit of these novels, set in ‘60s period, is that John Sand is the retired (and now unfortunately famous) secret agent who James Bond was based on. These gave Matt and me a chance to expose our inner Bondian natures, and I frankly think these books they’re terrific. They were published individually by Wolfpack. Here’s the third of the three.

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I talk about the Antiques series here frequently, the slyly subversive “cozy” mysteries that my wife Barb and I write together. It’s the longest-running series of mine, at 20 books, and (as you probably know) we recently mounted a movie, Death By Fruitcake, based on a novella featuring mother-and-daughter sleuths, Brandy and Vivian Borne.

Look. You may be after the tough stuff I peddle, the hardboiled Heller, the noir poster-child Quarry, the uber-tough Mike Hammer; but the Antiques series is filled with wacky humor and twisty mysteries, and — if you haven’t tried one – you are (in my completely unbiased, wholly objective opinion) missing out.

Also, some longtime readers of the Trash ‘n’ Treasures/Antiques mysteries have fallen away since we moved the series to Severn House, our British publisher who sometimes don’t make us into your local Barnes & Noble or BAM! (This is not Severin’s fault – the stateside brick-and-mortar bunch are to blame, indie booksellers somewhat better about it.) But, at any rate, you may have been having trouble finding the last few Antiques titles. The current entry is a good one for longtime fans, who’ve fallen away, and new readers, who haven’t boarded the Serenity Trolley yet.

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I mentioned last week that my little micro-budget movie Blue Christmas is available at Amazon – $7.49 for the DVD and $10.87 for the Blu-ray.

Blue Christmas can be streamed now on Tubi and The Roku Channel for free with ads, and on Amazon Prime Video for a modest price. Tubi runs a handful of commercials up front before presenting the film without any interruption.

The source of Blue Christmas is my novella A Wreath for Marley, which is the lead story in my Wolfpack-published Blue Christmas & Other Holiday Homicides.

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Copies of the Blu-ray and DVD’s of Blue Christmas are perfect stocking stuffers. In my opinion. So would a copy of the Blue Christmas short story collection. And your personal bookshelves are yearning for all of titles here – unless you already have them, in which case…God Bless Us, Everyone.

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Here is a fun review of Tough Tender at the Pulp, Crime & Mystery Books site.

Quarry gets some love from borg here.

And this is a terrific article on the film version of Road to Perdition.

M.A.C.

We’re officially in holiday season, now that it’s November and the holiday everybody actually prefers (Halloween) is over. So it’s time for me to remind you about my little Christmas movie, Blue Christmas.

A couple of things.

We’ve had many nice reviews and a few negative, even nasty ones. Some reviewers don’t know how to deal with a micro-budget movie shot in six days on one set; I get that. But the majority of reviewers know how meet a movie on its own terms, and a whole lot of ‘em have liked our little Maltese Falcon/A Christmas Carol mash-up.

Listen, I understand why a few Grinches complain that Blue Christmas looks like a community theater production caught on camera. A movie that cost $8000 to make just doesn’t pass muster with their refined tastes. I really do get it.

I can only counter with the many hours (days, weeks) my editor Chad T. Bishop and I (Chad played “Pa Stone” by the way, and well) toiled to turn our almost-a-week’s footage into a more or less coherent feature. We’re starting to get some reviews again, because (a) Christmas appears to be coming, and (b) we’re getting a second bite of the apple.

Why “b”? Well, the distribution of Blue Christmas last year came too late to really be on time for holiday consumption – in fact, we didn’t hit any streaming services till earlier this year. And our physical media distribution was limited.

Here’s some recent takes on Blue Christmas:

https://www.antimusic.com/reviews/24/blue-christmas/

https://www.cgomovies.co.uk/2024/10/12/blue-christmas-noir-holiday-film-blu-ray-release/

Now, where can you get a copy of the DVD or Blu-ray? I thought you’d never ask.

Probably the best price you’ll find is, not surprisingly, at Amazon – $7.49 for the DVD and $10.87 for the Blu-ray. If you have Prime and free shipping, it’s definitely the best option. I see both DVD and Blu-ray elsewhere cheaper but with stiff (like, $7.99) shipping prices.

Anyway, here is the Amazon link.

Blue Christmas (2024) can already be streamed on Tubi and The Roku Channel for free with ads, and is also available on Amazon Prime Video for a modest price. I sampled Tubi and they ran a handful of commercials up front, then ran the film without any interruption.

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Another Blue catching some attention, and which strikes me as unlikely, is a nice review from Pulp, Crime and Mystery Books site about my first-published Mallory novel; it’s too nice not to share:

The Baby Blue Rip-off is the first in Collins’ Mallory series. Rather than writing about a reformed hitman (Quarry) or a ex-mob guy (Nolan), the Mallory series focuses on someone who is more of an everyman rather than being a professional tough guy. Mallory is a Vietnam Vet, who tried some odd jobs in California and other places, and returned to Port City, Iowa, after his parents died. There, he takes the occasional college course on the GI Bill and publishes the occasional mystery novel. He is not a tough guy and gets the crap beat out of him while getting caught up in mysteries. It is a great series and told in a humorous vein.

In this volume (a quick-reading 160 pages to be precise), Mallory has been shacked up with a young, slender blond named Sally and “there wasn’t a thing wrong with Sally that a new personality couldn’t have cured.” Indeed, “She was the sort of woman who uses her good looks as a form of blackmail when she’s in a good mood, and for revenge when she’s in a bad one.”

At Sally’s urging, Mallory gets involved in being a “Meals on Wheels” volunteer, delivering to the elderly once a week. Mallory, being a young, longish-haired, guy was not totally sold in doing public service for the elderly, thinks: “God forbid I’d be asked in to chat with one of the tottering old relics. Who in hell wanted to watch the decaying creatures gumming their food, saliva and masticated glop dribbling all over their hairy-warted chins? Yuck.” That is, until he meets them.

The plot centers around one fateful night when Mallory was making deliveries and sees a crew of people and two vehicles in front of an old woman’s house and they just didn’t seem right. Poking his nose into trouble is what makes a good story, but for Mallory it only gets him beat up and left unconscious along with the old woman’s body and what was left of her worldly possessions. The Sheriff, who has a personal dislike for Mallory on account of his anti-war activities some years back, tells Mallory to stay out of it and let the professionals resolve the matter, but Mallory can’t stay out of it and persons involved won’t let him stay out of it.

What follows is a good mystery story with Mallory, being an ordinary guy, not Mike Hammer or the like, getting bounced around by tough guys and femme fatales on his way to solving a murder that the officials just can’t get. The story is an easy, quick read – Shouldn’t take more than a few hours – and is filled with humor.

Mallory seems like a decent guy, even when he takes a trip down memory lane and gets re-involved with his high school sweetheart, the one who dumped him for the guy she is now married to. For Mallory, his return to Port City is a return to his roots. Many of the people he meets or interacts with were people he grew up with or were the parents of people he knew when he was a teenager.

It is highly recommended reading and should have appeal to quite a wide audience.

I still get requests from readers wanting another Mallory novel, and I always say (and mean it) that I have no interest in the character, because he was rather directly based on me.

Though Baby Blue was published first, the second one, No Cure for Death, was written first. Both novels were part of the Curtis Books debacle, where my first five Nolan novels and first two Mallorys were all sold to a company that got swallowed up by another. That second company kept promising to publish the books until enough time passed for the rights to revert.

And Nolan went to Pinnacle, for whom I wrote a sixth one, and Mallory went to Walker as my first hardcover publication.

No Cure for Death was written at the University of Iowa where my instructor – my mentor – Richard Yates (Revolutionary Road) had taken me under his wing. I had already written Bait Money, which was my attempt to do a crime novel in the Richard Stark manner, and now I was ready to go first-person. I didn’t think I’d be doing sequels to either, so both books were rather slavishly written as examples of forms I was trying to master, in the case of No Cure For Death the first-person private eye novel (even though Mallory wasn’t a private eye).

The first Mallory had a lot of stuff taken directly from my life. Mal was a veteran of the Vietnam/counter-culture years, a struggling mystery writer living in a small town (Port City) in a house trailer (before Jim Rockford). The tale took place when the Vietnam war was still raging, and several plot elements tied it to that specific time. For that reason – and because I considered the second book (The Baby Blue Rip-off) better, I submitted that first. After it sold to Walker, I submitted the second book, presented as a kind of flashback to ground it properly in time.

The third Mallory, Kill Your Darlings, found me – I mean, Mallory – at a Bouchercon, the annual mystery fan/writer convention. The book was almost rejected because my editor, Ruth Cavin – with whom I always had difficulties – thought Mallory suddenly was no longer a nice person. Well, that was because ten years had passed between the writing of Book Two and Book Three. I wasn’t as nice anymore, in case you haven’t figured that out.

The best of the Mallorys is A Shroud for Aquarius, which was based on the suicide of a friend of mine and, I think, dealt with my recent past in a worthwhile fashion. The next one, Nice Weekend for a Murder, was about a mystery weekend and showed Mallory continuing to evolve into a kind of junior Ellery Queen. And we already had a senior one.

I much preferred Quarry and Nate Heller and a few other protagonists to essentially writing about myself. Ironically, the most current Quarry – the one that will be out in late 2026, Quarry’s Reunion, is probably the book in that series most heavily drawing from my life. But still not so directly – I’ve never killed anybody, after all. As far as you know.

So it’s nice to see an obviously smart reader cotton to something of mine that I wrote in what is now my distant memory.

M.A.C.