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Mallory #3
Kill Your Darlings
Roscoe Kane is one of the last—and, in Mallory’s opinion, best—of the old-school mystery writers. Back in the day, he turned out crime thrillers filled with babes, bullets, and tough-guy banter. But today Kane is filled with bitterness over the nosedive his career took after he sued a publisher. For Mallory, who learned his craft at Kane’s knee, it’s tough watching his literary hero drown his sorrows in booze—but it’s a million times tougher finding the old master drowned in a hotel bathtub.
Some call it ironic that Kane meets his end in the middle of Bouchercon, the famed convention that’s a mecca for mystery writers. The Chicago coroner calls it a drunken mishap. But Mallory spies treachery mingled with the tragedy.
Just like a classic whodunit, there’s a gallery full of suspects—from a scorned ex-wife and an ostracized gay son to an underhanded publisher and a roster of rival writers with axes to grind. Throw in a knockout dame who gives Mallory a private eyeful, an alluring widow who’s not too sad to be seductive, and a clutch of thugs who let their knuckles do the talking, and Mallory has his hands full finding justice for his hero.
Some call it ironic that Kane meets his end in the middle of Bouchercon, the famed convention that’s a mecca for mystery writers. The Chicago coroner calls it a drunken mishap. But Mallory spies treachery mingled with the tragedy.
Just like a classic whodunit, there’s a gallery full of suspects—from a scorned ex-wife and an ostracized gay son to an underhanded publisher and a roster of rival writers with axes to grind. Throw in a knockout dame who gives Mallory a private eyeful, an alluring widow who’s not too sad to be seductive, and a clutch of thugs who let their knuckles do the talking, and Mallory has his hands full finding justice for his hero.
219 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 1984
60 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
About the author
Max Allan Collins
811 books1,324 followersReceived the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 2006.
He has also published under the name Patrick Culhane. He and his wife, Barbara Collins, have written several books together. Some of them are published under the name Barbara Allan.
Book Awards
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1984) : True Detective
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1992) : Stolen Away
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1995) : Carnal Hours
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) : Damned in Paradise
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1999) : Flying Blind: A Novel about Amelia Earhart
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (2002) : Angel in Black
Japanese: マックス・アラン・コリンズ
or マックス・アラン コリンズ
He has also published under the name Patrick Culhane. He and his wife, Barbara Collins, have written several books together. Some of them are published under the name Barbara Allan.
Book Awards
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1984) : True Detective
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1992) : Stolen Away
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1995) : Carnal Hours
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) : Damned in Paradise
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1999) : Flying Blind: A Novel about Amelia Earhart
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (2002) : Angel in Black
Japanese: マックス・アラン・コリンズ
or マックス・アラン コリンズ
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
July 3, 2019
This could have been an intriguing mystery, the story of the death of a famous writer at a mystery convention. However the writing was poor and it was full of boorish behaviour and sexism. Pass on this one.
October 28, 2016
Really enjoyed this one, even more than the first two in the series, primarily because of all of the references to sorts of famous and not-so famous mystery writers and their works. The author's knowledge of the genre really shines through as Mallory, now a successful mystery writer himself, attempts to solve a mystery at a mystery-writers convention set in Chicago.
Max Allan Collins follows the tried and true "requirements" of the noir mystery, including beautiful dames, muscle-bound thugs, dark alleys, back-stabbing friends, and the "surprise" plot twist at the end. The best part? The main character seems to know he's stuck in this mystery, even identifying several times where he would be if he were a character in a mystery novel, which gave this novel the feel of "Ferris Bueller", nearly breaking down the fourth wall between protagonist and reader. Good stuff!
Max Allan Collins follows the tried and true "requirements" of the noir mystery, including beautiful dames, muscle-bound thugs, dark alleys, back-stabbing friends, and the "surprise" plot twist at the end. The best part? The main character seems to know he's stuck in this mystery, even identifying several times where he would be if he were a character in a mystery novel, which gave this novel the feel of "Ferris Bueller", nearly breaking down the fourth wall between protagonist and reader. Good stuff!
December 10, 2018
This was a clumsy attempt to make a pseudo-noir novel about noir novelists, one of whom is the detective figure in this book series. It was strange. The detective figure, Mallory, is a writer of mystery novels and aficionado of old-fashioned pulpy noir. So he’s at a writers’ conference but he occasionally breaks out and punches someone.
July 31, 2010
Collins mixes fiction with reality when he writes about his character Mallory attending the mystery writers convention Bouchercon. He scatters writers' names in with his fictional troupe as Mallory investigates the death of his childhood hero Kane. He also is suspicious of the "find" of an unpublished manuscript by Dashiell Hammett.
I wanted to like this book, but unfortunately the characters and writing style didn't appeal to me.
I wanted to like this book, but unfortunately the characters and writing style didn't appeal to me.
June 9, 2017
Max Allan Collins' Mallory is the man!
I've read just about everything from Max Allan Collins, and you should too. This series was initially started early in his career, and while the first two books showcase his early talent (while standing on their own), KILL YOUR DARLINGS really lights the series up! I initially thought the premise of this one might be too much of a love story to the world of modern mystery writers, but it was an homage to the masters and I finished it wanting to believe the victim (no spoiler here), Roscoe Kane's books could be added to my shelves. Like in the novel, I know I couldn't really be the hero in my favorite detective tales, and that the author is my real hero. Collins makes me want to 'take a stab' at the craft myself, and, like in this book those heroes are real. He's answered a couple of my emails with questions about details from various series I've read, and seemed genuinely pleased to hear from a fan. These, and several Max Allan Collins books are available on Kindle Unlimited, and are well worth the price of admission. They're the reason I signed up, as I'd paid for all the novels that weren't as well. Enjoy, I know you will.
I've read just about everything from Max Allan Collins, and you should too. This series was initially started early in his career, and while the first two books showcase his early talent (while standing on their own), KILL YOUR DARLINGS really lights the series up! I initially thought the premise of this one might be too much of a love story to the world of modern mystery writers, but it was an homage to the masters and I finished it wanting to believe the victim (no spoiler here), Roscoe Kane's books could be added to my shelves. Like in the novel, I know I couldn't really be the hero in my favorite detective tales, and that the author is my real hero. Collins makes me want to 'take a stab' at the craft myself, and, like in this book those heroes are real. He's answered a couple of my emails with questions about details from various series I've read, and seemed genuinely pleased to hear from a fan. These, and several Max Allan Collins books are available on Kindle Unlimited, and are well worth the price of admission. They're the reason I signed up, as I'd paid for all the novels that weren't as well. Enjoy, I know you will.
November 9, 2023
The setting is a conference of mystery writers. There is a lot of dialogue among the writers. There is a mysterious accident or murder to be considered. The ending is abrupt and a surprise. Well written.
June 3, 2025
Either the second or third whodunit I've read set at a mystery convention. Pretty sure one of Bill Pronzini's Nameless Detective novels was set at one. I think Pronzini had a spoof of Robert B. Parker in his story as well. If you know the genre, there's some amusing material here.
February 15, 2022
Having attended a Bouchercon or two, it was fun to see it used as a setting with references to mystery writers such as William Campbell Gault and others. This is a real hoot for mystery fans.
March 29, 2024
Mallory #3. A mystery writer is found dead at a convention of mystery writers. Accident, suicide or murder? Well crafted mystery with lots of name-dropping for mystery fans. I liked it....3 stars.
July 22, 2017
Fun in a dated way. Mallory is a mystery writer that is attending a mystery writing award ceremony. His mentor Roscoe Kane is being honored but before a few days before the award he was found dead. Mallory does not believe it was an accident and is trying to solve the case.
August 5, 2015
This is another one of those books where a detective fiction writer plays amateur detective, a la Ellery Queen, a kind of book Max Allan collins writes pretty well.
Kill Your Darlings is a combination of a hard boiled mystery (snappy dialogue, same character tropes, slim plot) and the kind of mystery Max often disses whenever given the chance, the drawing room mystery (pretty genteel overall and cosy, a secluded setting.)
This book, and Nice Weekend for Murder, fills a pretty niche craving of mine: an old-fashioned whodunit, drenched in the mystery fiction millieu. I don't know what others would make of it, though. It seems like a first draft in many respects, perhaps it was.
The mystery itself is pretty light and the atmosphere is all but missing, but the scenes play out well enough and the dialogue snaps, like I said, reminiscent of light Nick and Nora noir. I agree with more uncharitable reviewers who complain about all the name dropping. It gets tiresome when you're not sure if you've never heard of the person or if they're fictional.
Overall, if you're a fan of Clue-ish mysteries, check it out.
(I wouldn't bother to point out how often Max denigrates drawing room or cosy mysteries (those of Anthony Boucher and Agatha Christie both here) except that he gets defensive when his own favorites don't get their due so I think it's warranted. We get it, Max, you love you some Spillane. You grew up on Spillane. But, at least in this Mallory series, you're writing is more like Boucher than Spillane.
Also, curiously, the edition I read had a note after the last page that read if you like Walker books you can write to this address. Of course, it was a Mallory book, you big dumb publisher.)
Kill Your Darlings is a combination of a hard boiled mystery (snappy dialogue, same character tropes, slim plot) and the kind of mystery Max often disses whenever given the chance, the drawing room mystery (pretty genteel overall and cosy, a secluded setting.)
This book, and Nice Weekend for Murder, fills a pretty niche craving of mine: an old-fashioned whodunit, drenched in the mystery fiction millieu. I don't know what others would make of it, though. It seems like a first draft in many respects, perhaps it was.
The mystery itself is pretty light and the atmosphere is all but missing, but the scenes play out well enough and the dialogue snaps, like I said, reminiscent of light Nick and Nora noir. I agree with more uncharitable reviewers who complain about all the name dropping. It gets tiresome when you're not sure if you've never heard of the person or if they're fictional.
Overall, if you're a fan of Clue-ish mysteries, check it out.
(I wouldn't bother to point out how often Max denigrates drawing room or cosy mysteries (those of Anthony Boucher and Agatha Christie both here) except that he gets defensive when his own favorites don't get their due so I think it's warranted. We get it, Max, you love you some Spillane. You grew up on Spillane. But, at least in this Mallory series, you're writing is more like Boucher than Spillane.
Also, curiously, the edition I read had a note after the last page that read if you like Walker books you can write to this address. Of course, it was a Mallory book, you big dumb publisher.)
March 22, 2011
Mallory is an established novelist by now with two books published, one made into a film and he's up for an Edgar. In Chicago for the year's Bouchercon, he's touched bases with his friend and mentor Roscoe Kane, author of the Gat Garson novels. He's to receive a lifetime achievement award and Mallory is presenting it to him.
Recent years hadn't been kind to the writer. His hardboiled P.I. wasn't in vogue in the States(his last five Gats had only been published in Europe). He was a heavy drinker, a little age on him, and overweight. Mallory gets hin up to his room and returns downstairs for the opening of the con.
There he later runs into Kane's wife, his third, and escorts her up to the room, only to find Kane dead in the bathtub, his nose and mouth slipped below the water level, drunk and drowned. Mallory gets suspicious though. The floor is bone dry and there's only one towel in the bath. A hamper in the hall two doors down has three sopping wet towels on top. The coroner doesn;t buy that it's anything but an accidental drowning.
So Mallory starts looking around, asking questions. Plenty of suspects from the greedy little publisher there to hawk his recently discovered unknown Hammett Continental Op novel, the second wife, the gay son, jealous writers disparaging his style of writing even in death.
His poking around gets results in the form of three men dragging him and young Kathy Wickman, editor of NOIR magazine, into an alley and starting to beat on him.
That's when he knows he's onto something.
Recent years hadn't been kind to the writer. His hardboiled P.I. wasn't in vogue in the States(his last five Gats had only been published in Europe). He was a heavy drinker, a little age on him, and overweight. Mallory gets hin up to his room and returns downstairs for the opening of the con.
There he later runs into Kane's wife, his third, and escorts her up to the room, only to find Kane dead in the bathtub, his nose and mouth slipped below the water level, drunk and drowned. Mallory gets suspicious though. The floor is bone dry and there's only one towel in the bath. A hamper in the hall two doors down has three sopping wet towels on top. The coroner doesn;t buy that it's anything but an accidental drowning.
So Mallory starts looking around, asking questions. Plenty of suspects from the greedy little publisher there to hawk his recently discovered unknown Hammett Continental Op novel, the second wife, the gay son, jealous writers disparaging his style of writing even in death.
His poking around gets results in the form of three men dragging him and young Kathy Wickman, editor of NOIR magazine, into an alley and starting to beat on him.
That's when he knows he's onto something.
February 27, 2015
..If you love mysteries about mystery writers.....
Mallory goes to the Boucheron, the annual mystery writers convention where his hero a long out of print writer dies, perhaps by foul means. There is a plethora of possible suspects if it is murder.
Mallory is emotionally involved in both the loss of his mentor and a romance with an editor of Noir, a mystery journal. More than one plot line is developing during the course of the convention weekend and there is no scArcity of dramatic cha.racters (an ex wife who has been rode hard and then put away wet; the glamorous widow who may or may not be in cahoots with unsavory publisher; the usual oversized egos one would expect to find around such an event, of both sexes). The author resolves all this sAtisfactorily and his writing is well placed and interesting. It is not speak all but perfectly comfortable genre work.
Mallory goes to the Boucheron, the annual mystery writers convention where his hero a long out of print writer dies, perhaps by foul means. There is a plethora of possible suspects if it is murder.
Mallory is emotionally involved in both the loss of his mentor and a romance with an editor of Noir, a mystery journal. More than one plot line is developing during the course of the convention weekend and there is no scArcity of dramatic cha.racters (an ex wife who has been rode hard and then put away wet; the glamorous widow who may or may not be in cahoots with unsavory publisher; the usual oversized egos one would expect to find around such an event, of both sexes). The author resolves all this sAtisfactorily and his writing is well placed and interesting. It is not speak all but perfectly comfortable genre work.
July 17, 2015
I write traditional mysteries. Some people call these “cozy mysteries,” a term I don't like. Most cozies are set among polite society and involve a gentle, non-violent detective, frequently a woman.
That said, I’d call Kill Your Darlings a cozy due to its breezy attitude. It also carries a tongue-in-cheek attitude most of the way through. Set at a mystery writers’ convention, one of their own is killed after it is announced that the manuscript of a classic mystery, written by the dead man’s mentor (IIRC) has been found. Full of inside writers’ jokes, our hero, Mallory (first name never given, which is itself the subject of the occasional jab), is called upon to decide the authenticity of the manuscript and solve the murder.
2.4 stars because it was just too cute to be fun.
That said, I’d call Kill Your Darlings a cozy due to its breezy attitude. It also carries a tongue-in-cheek attitude most of the way through. Set at a mystery writers’ convention, one of their own is killed after it is announced that the manuscript of a classic mystery, written by the dead man’s mentor (IIRC) has been found. Full of inside writers’ jokes, our hero, Mallory (first name never given, which is itself the subject of the occasional jab), is called upon to decide the authenticity of the manuscript and solve the murder.
2.4 stars because it was just too cute to be fun.
July 4, 2014
Good plot. Interesting characters. Very interesting mystery with plausible reason why writer Mallory should solve the case. Only complaint is that Mallory stares at women's breasts too much...but then I'm a woman. I've been told by my husband when he was younger that men think about sex nearly all the time. On the other hand loved just about everything else about this mystery. Will definitely read the rest of the series.
June 16, 2013
Good tongue-in-cheek detective series that will resonate with any fan of "private eye" mystery stories. Tightly written and quick read...emphasis is on dialogue and pace, not an intricate puzzle. Dialogue about the greats of private eye fiction (Hammett, Chandler, Spillane) makes this especially enjoyable.
February 25, 2019
Nice change of pace from other Collins series
January 31, 2013
Very clever, laugh-out-loud funny (I had to keep explaining myself to my husband) mystery. It makes me want to read more of Collins' Mallory series.
June 15, 2013
I enjoyed this. It's been awhile since I read a whodunit . It was fun to be in the shoes of a mystery writer. I recommend!
July 9, 2013
Read my review at http://nchambe.blogspot.com/2013/07/k...
September 11, 2013
Hard-boiled detective, world-weary. Not my style
August 15, 2014
I wanted an easy crime novel and I got a cheesy, poorly written, boring book that I didn't like at all. No wonder it was free on amazon.
November 20, 2015
Mallory book 3, decent plot but not great
January 23, 2016
A fun, little story about a mystery writer who is killed at a mystery writer's convention. His protege works to solve the mystery.
April 25, 2022
DNF 70%
May 22, 2013
It's a fun short read. Very easy to digest.
Read
May 23, 2013Malory is at a book convention. His mentor is killed. The wife did it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews