Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Max Allan Collins was recently interviewed by Michael Barson about Collins’ friendship and collaborations with Mickey Spillane. If you’re a fan of Collins and/or Spillane, you won’t want to miss it.
Source: Crime Spree Mag.
Better Dead: A Nathan Heller Thriller by Max Allan Collins
Publisher: Mysterious Press
First sentence…
I was there when the Commies took over.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Better Dead is actually two interconnected novellas.
In the first Nathan Heller is hired to find evidence to exonerate Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a married couple sentenced to die for providing Russia with secret information on how to build nuclear bombs. Senator Joe McCarthy, who is leading the hunt for American Commies, wants Heller to serve as a double agent and provide him with whatever information Heller learns about the Rosenbergs. Before long Heller is on the wrong side of government agents and gangsters and a possible death sentence of his own.
In the second story, Heller learns about government-funded mind control experiments on unknowing subjects from a scientist who has a change of heart. When the scientist turns up missing, Heller knows that he’s next up unless he can figure a way out.
I’m a huge fan of Max Allan Collins’ Nate Heller series. Heller is a fictional detective who finds himself in the middle of real crimes. Heller ages as the series progresses and fiction is mixed with extensive research and historical fact. It’s fun watching Heller interact with famous (and infamous) folks right out of our history books. Equally enjoyable is Collins’ take on the crimes and what may have really happened (if it is not as we’ve been taught).
In Better Dead Heller interacts with Joe McCarthy, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Roy Cohen, Bettie Page, Bobby Kennedy and others. I also like that Heller in these outings is a bit more hardboiled. Perhaps it’s the decade.
Better Dead is another great addition to the Nate Heller legacy. I’m hoping for more!
Rating:
Angel in Black: A Nathan Heller Novel by Max Allan Collins (2001)
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: NAL
First sentence…
The two pieces of her lay porcelain-white in the ankle-high grass and weeds of a vacant lot on South Norton Avenue, like the upper and lower sections of a discarded marionette.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
I’m a sucker for the Nate Heller series by Max Allan Collins. Heller is a detective who finds himself involved in famous murder cases. Collins is a stickler for historical accuracy and has created a timeline and plausible setting that allows Heller to find himself (over the course of the series) mixed up in everything from the Lindbergh baby murder to the assassination of JFK!
This time out Heller ends up at the scene of the Black Dahlia murder and discovers that he had dated her in Chicago just months before her murder. She had told him she was pregnant and he was the father… then disappeared. Since Heller had since married her murder could ruin his marriage, his career and makes him the number one suspect in her death. Heller must stay a step ahead of the reporters and the law and find out who killed the Black Dahlia before he ends up taking the fall.
Rating:
Max Allan Collins is one of my favorite novelists. Collins’ Nathan Heller historical novels are buy-as-soon-as-they-come-out must reads.
Collins discusses…
Congrats to Max Allan Collins. Collins’ fictional hit man, Quarry, the star of several novels, is going to become a tv star as well.
Cinemax has given the go-ahead for eight episodes with Logan Marshall-Green in the title role.
Now if only someone would give Collins’ Nate Heller the same treatment!
Source: ComingSoon.net.
Max Allan Collins recently spoke with The Rap Sheet and they covered a wide range of topics. Here are a few tidbits [with a link to full interview]…
…like a lot of Americans, he [Mickey Spillane] was deeply troubled by the terrorist attacks on September 11, and I think he just had to get Mike Hammer into that fray. But as much as I like Goliath Bone, I think King of the Weeds, with its traditional crime elements, feels more like the final Hammer novel.
The amount of unfinished, unpublished material Mickey left behind was and is staggering. Even now I haven’t read every word of it.
JKP: I understand you’re also now working on a Western, based on an unproduced screenplay Mickey Spillane wrote originally for actor John Wayne. Can you fill in more of the background on that particular tale, which you’ve titled The Legend of Caleb York? MAC: …Over a Bouchercon breakfast I said, “You know what I have? An unproduced screenplay Mickey Spillane wrote for John Wayne. You guys publish Westerns, right?” And my editor sort of pounced.
The interview also covers the next Nate Heller books [and potential tv series], the Quarry books [and potential tv series – the pilot has been filmed] and much more.
The Rap Sheet interview is worth a read!
That’s a candid of Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins. If you’re a fan of either you’ll want to check out Crimespree’s recent interview with Max Allan Collins.
Don’t you love the look of the new editions of Max Allan Collins’ Nolan crime novels coming for Perfect Crime Books? For those not in the know, Nolan is an aging thief and Max Allan Collins is the author of the Nate Heller series, the Quarry series, and many, many other books. I’ve never read anything that wasn’t excellent that was written by Max Allan Collins.
Oh, by the way, our buddy, Chris Mills designed the Nolan covers and did a fantastic job. Take a bow, Chris!
The Big Bang: The Lost Mike Hammer Sixties Novel.
If you’re a Spillane fan, then we probably thought the same thing as we read the line above: I want it now. Although we’re going to have to wait a bit longer, at least we know the broad strokes:
Drawing on an unpublished partial Spillane manuscript dating from the ’60s, [Max Allan] Collins resurrects Spillane’s randy, two-fisted New York City PI, Mike Hammer…
From Max Allan Collins’ website:
In midtown Manhattan, Mike Hammer, recovering from a near-fatal mix-up with the Mob, runs into drug dealers assaulting a young hospital messenger. He saves the kid, but the muggers are not so lucky. Hammer considers the rescue a one-off, but someone has different ideas, as indicated by a street-corner knife attack.
With himself for a client, Hammer — and his beautiful, deadly partner Velda — take on the narcotics racket in New York just as the streets have dried up and rumors run rampant of a massive heroin shipment due any day. In a New York of flashy discotheques, swanky bachelor pads, and the occasional dark alley, Hammer deals with doctors and drug addicts, hippie chicks and hit men, meeting changing times with his timeless brand of violent vengeance.
The Big Bang is available for pre-order now.
As we start 2024, let’s pause for a look at the BEST OF 2023. I hope you see something that you enjoyed or gets you interested to check out. Here we go…
Movies and Limited Series
In 2023, I watched 409 movies and limited series. That number is up 04 from last year. None were seen in a theater! My favorite films and limited series released in 2023 included (in alpha order):
Books
In 2023, I read 21 books (16 down from last year, but considering the year we had, that’s not bad). My favorites from this year included (in the order I read them):
It Dies With You by Scott Blackburn
Black Mountain by Laird Barron
Too Many Bullets by Max Allan Collins
But Enough About Me by Burt Reynolds
Dirty Words by Todd Robinson
The Big Bundle by Max Allan Collins
My Most Popular Posts of the Year
I continue to find some surprises in what became my most popular posts each year. Here are the top ten for 2023 and some thoughts for each…
10. Top 10 Most Iconic Horror Movie Villains – Hung in the 10th spot for the second year in a row.
09. RIP: Rachel Welch. New to the list
08. The Different Covers for David Morrell’s First Blood. Same spot as last year.
07. Meeting Sly Stallone. New to the list!
06. Paul Gulacy Week: Day Four. New to the list!
05. Red Sonja, Conan and Dan Panosian. New to the list.
04. Louis Meyers: Evidence He was the Zodiac Killer. Same spot as last year.
03. Dracula Through the Ages. Same spot as last year.
02. Schwarzenegger in “King Lear” & Robin Williams in “Jack and the Beanstalk”. Fell from the first spot last year.
01. SYFY’s 2023/2024 TWILIGHT ZONE New Year’s Eve Marathon is Up! The most popular post last year.
My All-Time Most Popular Posts
The top 4 didn’t change and only one new post broke in to the All-Time most popular posts. Let’s see how things shook out…
10. Joel Osteen in Jacksonville – held on to the 10th spot for two years in a row.
09. Gadot & The Rock Strike a Pose – was in the 9th spot for the last three years.
08. Steve Reeves as Superman – No change.
07. TOP 10 MOST ICONIC HORROR MOVIE VILLAINS! – from 5th to 7th.
06. Dracula Through the Ages – still in the 6th spot. Vampires are in.
05. New Billy the Kid Photo Discovered – No change!
04. SYFY’s 2023/2024 TWILIGHT ZONE New Year’s Eve Marathon is Up!
03. Zodiac Killer Code Cracked? – No change!
02. Louis Meyers: Evidence He Was the Zodiac Killer – No change!
01. Schwarzenegger in “King Lear” & Robin Williams in “Jack and the Beanstalk” – was #1 last year and continues to be our most popular post of all-time.
It’s always interesting to see which topics resonate with fans and continue to be popular long after their initial post.
The Last Lullaby (2008)
Director: Jeffrey Goodman
Writer: Peter Biegen, Max Allan Collins
Stars: Tom Sizemore, Sasha Alexander, Sprague Grayden, Bill Smitrovich, Ray McKinnon and Jerry Hardin
Tagline: There comes a time in your life when you want to be exactly who you are.
The Plot…
Price (Sizemore) is a retired hitman bored with his new life. When a high-priced contract with a tight completion date falls into his lap, Price takes it. The target is pretty, small-town librarian named Sarah (Alexander). One night as Price is watching her, Sarah is attacked. Price saves her. One thing leads to another, and soon Price is falling for his mark. As the deadline approaches Price will need to make a decision.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Price is based on Max Allan Collins’ hitman Quarry. Collins has written several novels featuring this character.
Tom Sizemore was such a talented actor.
Ray McKinnon is billed as Ominous Figure and he is! I wish that they had done more with him. McKinnon is so good at being creepy.
Sprague Grayden has a small role. I always like her film/tv appearances and this is no exception.
The Last Lullaby (2008) rates 3 of 5 stars.
I was reading a discussion between Andy Rausch and Michael Gonzales titled HOW TO WRITE A MEMORABLE HIT MAN: A CONVERSATION AMONG CONNOISSEURS. If you’re a crime fiction fan, especially the sub genre of hitmen, then you’d enjoy the post by Michael Gonzales.
At the end of the article Gonzales listed his Top Ten Hitman List from popular culture. It’s a good list, so I decided to come up with one of my own (listed in alphabetical order):
I love this cover to Ms. Tree: One Mean Mother. Ms. Tree was a comic series created by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty that first appeared back in the 1980’s!
I have to admit I didn’t get the title’s pun until my buddy, Jim Ivey pointed it out to me: Ms. Tree = Mystery. He thought I was messing with him, but I truly missed it. At any rate, Ms. Tree tales are being reprinted by Hard Case Crime. Here’s how the first is being solicited…
When her private detective husband is murdered by the Muerta crime family, Ms. Tree takes over the business! Cold, calculating, and tough as nails, no case is too small, no violence too extreme, so long as a mystery is solved… and Ms. Tree is paid.
The creation of award-winning crime and comics writer Max Allan Collins (Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, Road To Perdition, Quarry’s War), illustrated by co-creator and pulp legend Terry Beatty (Johnny Dynamite, Mike Danger, Rex Morgan M.D.)!
Collects five classic Ms. Tree stories for the first time since the ’80s, plus the rare Ms. Tree prose story “Inconvenience Store”!
That’s just one of the first issue covers to Hard Case Crime / Titan Comics new Mike Hammer comic series. Based on an unproduced Mike Hammer screenplay written by Spillane, “The Night I Died,” will be adapted by Max Allan Collins with art by Marcelo Salaza and colorist Marcio Freire.
For a look at other covers and some interior art click over to FlickeringMyth.
posted his choices for 10 Creepy, True Stories That Deserve Their Own TV Shows. Venable makes some good suggestions and my favorite is…
The Cleveland Torso Murderer
Given how incredible David Fincher’s Zodiac was, it seems only natural that more unsolved serial killer stories would have been made in the last few years. But somehow, the story of the Cleveland Torso Murderer – also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run – has yet to make it to the small screen. (But definitely read Brian Michael Bendis’ graphic novel.) His lethal streak took place in the 1930s and included at least 12 victims (most of them unidentified), with all of them decapitated and many dismembered. Thus the nickname. Beyond being unsolved, the murders are remembered as one of the last cases that fell under former Untouchables investigator Eliot Ness, although he wasn’t heavily involved. NBC had plans to turn this into a miniseries back in 2013, but there hasn’t been any news about it since. HBO and Netflix are better homes for this gritty mystery anyway.
I read Bendis’ graphic novel and Max Allan Collins work about the subject and agree that The Cleveland Torso Murderers could make for interesting viewing.
