Max Allan Collins Books in Order

Agent Alex Scott teams up with champion boxer Kelly Robinson to recover a stolen stealth bomber from an arms dealer. Their mission takes them into a European fortress, where an unlikely partnership must withstand danger and mutual friction.

Fourteen reproductions bring together patriotic pin-up illustrations associated with the Second World War, accompanied by an introduction from Max Allan Collins. Flags and wartime imagery show how glamour art incorporated American national symbols into its visual language.

This second collection of nude pin-up art reproduces fourteen classic illustrations in color, with an introduction by Max Allan Collins. The selected paintings place the nude figure within the traditions of vintage commercial glamour illustration.

This collection pairs fourteen vintage pin-up illustrations with an introductory essay by Max Allan Collins. Its selection emphasizes the playful side of glamour art, presenting images in a full-color format designed to showcase the original illustrations.

A missing wife leaves behind a recording of her husband's threats, while a stripper is found strangled inside a locked club. Las Vegas investigators examine both cases, following forensic evidence into their subjects' concealed lives.

Journalist Willard Huntington Wright boards the Lusitania and discovers suspicious wartime cargo and murdered German stowaways. With fellow passenger Philomina Vance, he investigates a shipboard mystery while the liner faces dangers beyond its own decks.

Akkadian assassin Mathayus sets out to challenge Memnon, a warlord whose victories depend on a sorceress's predictions. His encounter with Cassandra changes the mission, drawing him into a struggle over the future of the desert kingdoms.

An annual anthology collecting mystery, crime, and suspense fiction published in 2001, alongside surveys of the genre and an honors roundup. Edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, it draws stories and perspectives from the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Germany, and beyond.

Max discovers that Logan has concealed truths about her past, placing their relationship under strain. When he is kidnapped, she must set aside her anger and confront a dangerous cult with links to an old enemy.

Disturbing crime photographs found on an assistant's computer draw Catherine Willows and Nick Stokes into an investigation. Meanwhile, Grissom's team examines the disappearance of the mayor's secretary, bringing forensic scrutiny to two troubling Las Vegas cases.

Grissom and Sara travel to a forensic conference at a mountain hotel, only to encounter a crime requiring their skills. Back in Las Vegas, Catherine, Warrick, and Nick face an investigation of their own.

This eleventh Hot Blood anthology brings together erotic horror stories edited by Jeff Gelb and Michael Garrett. Its varied tales explore desire, fear, and disturbing encounters, with contributions from writers including Yvonne Navarro.

A murder suspect's escape from Las Vegas brings Horatio Caine into a pursuit across Miami. An abandoned car, a dead body, and a discovery on the beach complicate the hunt for Thomas Lessor.

Three short stories and the novel Primary Target bring together assignments from the career of Quarry, a professional killer. The collection follows his dealings with violent clients and targets, exploring the hazards of murder for hire.

Murders in Seattle threaten the already precarious position of the transgenic community sheltering in Terminal City. With suspicion falling on Joshua and possibly another escapee, Max investigates before fear and hostility provoke further violence.

Edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, this fourth annual collection gathers mystery and crime fiction from several countries. Stories by writers including Lawrence Block, Jeffery Deaver, and Anne Perry present varied approaches to suspense.

During Nikita Khrushchev's American visit in 1959, Marilyn Monroe overhears plans for an assassination. Unable to convince those around her, she is swept into a dangerous Cold War intrigue involving Soviet operatives and American agents.

Rebecca Bennett suspects her stepfather murdered her mother, but an exhumation reveals the wrong body in the grave. Meanwhile, Catherine and Warrick investigate a death at a care facility, uncovering another troubling forensic puzzle.

The murder of Miami crime boss Kurt Wallace leaves rival groups competing for control of his territory. Horatio Caine and his team follow the evidence through a crowded field of suspects as tensions rise.

Returning from the Second World War, Michael Satariano seeks revenge for his father's death by entering Chicago's criminal underworld. His work inside Frank Nitti's organization brings him into contact with Eliot Ness and competing loyalties.

This twelfth Hot Blood anthology collects erotic horror tales edited by Jeff Gelb and Michael Garrett. Among its unsettling encounters are a widow's devotion to her deceased husband and cowboys arriving in a strange town.

Working in a London hospital during the Blitz, Agatha Christie becomes involved in murders resembling Jack the Ripper's crimes. She joins forensic expert Sir Bernard Spilsbury to investigate amid wartime blackouts and the threat of bombing.

Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg assemble more than thirty mystery, crime, and suspense stories from around the world. This fifth annual volume includes work by Jeff Abbott, Rhys Bowen, Doug Allyn, and Liza Cody.

A series of murders resembles the work of a Las Vegas killer who vanished ten years earlier. When a journalist receives a letter denying responsibility for the new deaths, Grissom's team investigates a possible copycat.

After their reassignment to separate shifts, Las Vegas investigators encounter two murders with different methods but matching evidence. The cases reunite the team in a search for the hidden connection behind an apparently carefully designed crime.

A football coach is murdered and the valuable Pink Panther diamond disappears, prompting an investigation by Inspector Clouseau. The awkward French detective pursues suspects and clues while his superiors have their own reasons for assigning him.

Writer Walter Gibson visits Orson Welles's studio shortly before the 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast and discovers a body. With Welles under suspicion, Gibson has limited time to investigate before the performance begins.

In this tie in to the television series Bones, Dr Temperance Brennan and FBI agent Seeley Booth investigate a plastic bag of mixed skeletal remains left on federal steps. As Booth pursues a Chicago mob case, Tempe uncovers a serial killer hidden in the chaos.

A shootout at a casino outside Las Vegas kills a gang leader and a card dealer. Grissom's investigators examine whether the violence concealed a planned execution, while Warrick and Greg pursue another case.

Retired hitman Quarry accepts one final assignment from a wealthy media owner, expecting a familiar job. His target is a young librarian, and uncertainty about why she must die complicates his return to killing.

In 1948 Manhattan, former stripper Maggie Starr manages her late husband's newspaper syndicate with stepson Jack. When the publisher of Wonder Guy is found dead, their investigation leads among cartoonists, romantic rivals, and organized crime.

This anthology collects Batman adventures by multiple writers and artists, bringing together different interpretations of Gotham City's detective. The selected comics follow his crime-fighting career and illustrate changes in the character across his publishing history.

An aging Wyatt Earp works as a private detective when Kate Elder asks him to help Doc Holliday's son. The assignment takes him to Prohibition-era New York, where speakeasies, gangsters, and Al Capone threaten trouble.

The thirteenth Hot Blood anthology collects twenty erotic horror stories edited by Jeff Gelb and Michael Garrett. Its encounters include a woman considering beauty's price, a marriage involving a zombie, and a vampire hunter's forbidden memories.

Private investigator Ms. Tree examines a seemingly straightforward case after Marcy Addwatter kills her husband and a sex worker. Questions about the circumstances lead toward a broader conspiracy with possible connections to Tree's own husband's murder.

Jason Gideon and the FBI's behavioral analysis team investigate killings of homeless men in Lawrence, Kansas. The victims' grooming and new clothing suggest an unusual pattern, while a kidnapped heiress raises questions about a possible connection.

David Rossi and the FBI's behavioral analysis team investigate three girls found dead in Minnesota. Evidence connects the unidentified victims to disappearances in Georgia a decade earlier, suggesting a long-running kidnapping pattern may be starting again.

When women vanish in rural Virginia and human remains appear in the snow, a disgraced priest claims disturbing visions. Former FBI agents Mulder and Scully return to investigate, uncertain whether his revelations can be trusted.

The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit investigates seemingly unrelated Chicago murders. David Rossi recognizes scenes copied from notorious serial killers, leaving the team to profile an offender who hides his own identity behind other criminals' methods.

During World War II, Lieutenant Peter Maxwell serves aboard an ammunition ship plagued by racial hostility and hazardous duties. A murdered officer forces him to work with a former policeman to prevent further violence at sea.

In 1953 New York, rivalry between comic-strip creators spills into a Broadway production and an apparent suicide. Syndicate troubleshooter Jack Starr and his boss Maggie investigate a death whose staging points suspiciously toward a competing cartoonist.

Quarry begins his career as a contract killer with an assignment on a college campus. His target is a professor involved with a young student, but the affair conceals more serious reasons someone wants him dead.

On the eve of retirement and marriage to Velda, Hammer stumbles into an attack on two young archaeologists carrying a mysterious giant thigh bone. The relic is tied to biblical legend, Middle Eastern politics, and a terrorist plot that forces Hammer back into bloody action.

Young archaeologist Alex O'Connell accidentally awakens China's ruthless Dragon Emperor and discovers a danger he cannot face alone. He turns to his parents, Rick and Evelyn, whose experience battling the undead offers their best hope.

Recuperating in Florida from a mob shootout, Hammer learns that his old NYPD mentor apparently killed himself. He refuses to believe it and heads home, only to find a murdered woman, Nazi loot in the shadows, and enemies who thought the old cop took his secrets to the grave.

Two rival crime bosses each hire Quarry to eliminate the other, leaving the professional assassin holding both contracts. Caught between warring families, he must navigate their competing demands and the dangers surrounding the double assignment.

Set in the swingin’ sixties, Hammer is just back from a near-fatal run-in with the mob when he stops a gang mugging a young hospital messenger. The kid was carrying lifesaving drugs, and the ambush leads Hammer and Velda into New York’s growing heroin trade and a looming mega shipment.

Former sheriff J.C. Harrow hosts a popular crime television program after his wife and son are murdered. As viewers help solve cases, he uses the show's resources to pursue the killer who destroyed his family.

In 1962, Marilyn Monroe hires private eye Nathan Heller to record her dealings with a hostile studio. The assignment exposes wider intrigue, and her death draws Heller into an investigation involving powerful people and dangerous interests.

This collection follows private investigator Nathan Heller through cases involving mobsters, union violence, Hollywood celebrities, and notorious criminals. The stories combine fictional investigations with twentieth-century American history, including encounters with Eliot Ness and organized crime figures.

A sadistic killer sends a video to Crime Seen!, demanding airtime and threatening more murders. Host J.C. Harrow faces two killers competing for publicity, forcing the television investigation to confront violence staged for its audience.

A betrayal by his wife helped turn Vietnam veteran Quarry into a contract killer. Years later, an unexpected encounter with his ex brings his personal past into the violent world he has learned to survive.

The sixth Hot Blood anthology collects eighteen stories combining erotic desire with supernatural and psychological horror. Contributors including Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Graham Masterton, and Lucy Taylor explore dangerous attractions and the darker consequences of intimacy.

Notorious thief Morgan the Raider owes his life to a group of Cuban exiles in Miami, and when seventy-five thousand dollars of their money is stolen, he agrees to get it back. The favor leads him into Latin clubs, federal pressure, double crosses, and the dangerous mystery behind the name Consummata.

On a supposed beach vacation with Velda, Hammer crosses paths with a crooked small-town cop and a missing party girl. When the woman turns up naked and dead on a statue in the town square, he digs into illegal gambling, mob money, and local officials with plenty to hide.

After the Normandy landings, Captain John Miller leads a squad searching for a missing paratrooper whose three brothers have died. Their mission to send Private Ryan home tests the soldiers' sense of duty and sacrifice.

Driving upstate, Hammer spots a dog guarding something off the road and finds a mangled corpse with only a single hand intact. Teaming with an ambitious young reporter who soon vanishes, he uncovers grave robberies and a monstrous killing method that even he has never seen before.

Nathan Heller's past dealings with the Kennedys, the Mafia, and the CIA draw him into a political conspiracy. As threats accumulate before November 1963, he tries to prevent an assassination aimed at President John Kennedy.

Three novellas place private investigator Nathan Heller inside fictionalized accounts of real crimes. His cases include postwar deaths, a poisoning investigation, and the murder of a baseball player, combining historical settings with detective work.

In 1964, witnesses linked to President Kennedy's assassination die in suspicious circumstances, and Nathan Heller narrowly escapes an apparent attack. His investigation takes him to Texas, where journalist Flo Kilgore helps trace the growing violence.

Acting as security for a controversial anti-Communist politician, Hammer is snatched off the streets and hustled behind the Iron Curtain. Imprisoned, interrogated, and written off as a dead man, he has to fight his way out of Soviet captivity and untangle the political game that put him there.

A crusader seeking restrictions on comic books is murdered before a Senate hearing in 1954. Jack Starr and Maggie investigate his death as suspicion falls on an industry already threatened by censorship and public outrage.

Mike Hammer visits a dying retired police chief who once saved his life and receives a mysterious key. When another visitor murders the chief, Hammer investigates the loose ends someone is determined to erase.

Jordan Rivera breaks ten years of silence after hearing about murders resembling the attack that destroyed her family. Released from an institution, she joins other crime survivors to hunt the killer and reclaim control of her life.

In this short Mike Hammer caper, a notorious mob boss dies, leaving behind rumors of a ledger listing every payoff he ever made. Hired to find the book before it ruins politicians and gangsters alike, Hammer rips through the don’s family and enemies, knowing everyone has a price in mind.

As Hammer and Velda finally plan their wedding, an assassin’s bullet nearly kills him outside his office. At the same time a serial killer of cops is about to walk free and everyone suspects Hammer knows where billions in hidden Mafia cash are stashed, painting a massive target on his back.

Quarry protects intended victims by killing their hired assassins and tracing the people who commissioned the hits. A case involving a missing cheerleader's grieving family makes him question whether he has identified the right target.

Velda has vanished from Hammer’s life, and he is coming off a four-month bender when an ex-vice cop she once worked with turns up murdered. Learning that Velda is now on the arm of a Miami gangster, Hammer heads south to find out why she walked away and who wants her dead.

When Quarry's employer becomes an assassination target, the hitman travels south to eliminate a suspected traitor. Surrounded by vice and shifting loyalties, he must decide whom to trust and who actually needs to die.

In Trinidad, New Mexico, Sheriff Harry Gauge rules with a fast gun and greedy eye on rancher George Cullen’s land and daughter, Willa. When a mysterious stranger rides in and refuses to be pushed, a struggle for the town’s soul erupts, and Caleb York’s name becomes a legend.

This X-Files anthology sends Mulder and Scully into a fresh stack of creepy investigations, from monsters to conspiracies. Gini Koch's story, "Sewers," follows a string of teen disappearances into very dangerous underground territory.

This collection gathers eight Mike Hammer stories completed from Spillane’s drafts, beginning with a string of “accidents” that nearly kill him. The cases range from subway platform brawls to mob vendettas, showing Hammer at different ages but always ready to finish what someone else started.

Working for Senator McCarthy in the early 1950s, Nathan Heller also accepts Dashiell Hammett's appeal to investigate the Rosenberg case. Conflicting loyalties and a missing scientist draw him into the dangerous machinery of Cold War politics.

A hired gun bursts into Hammer’s office and nearly puts him in the ground, then a newsstand vendor takes a bullet meant for him. While hunting whoever signed the contract, Hammer is hired to guard a producer’s glamorous fiancée, only to stumble into another deadly kidnapping attempt.

Quarry accepts a political contract to kill a civil rights minister shortly before a presidential election. Discovering that a racist group also wants the man dead makes him question the motives of those who hired him.

Hired as town marshal in a settlement teetering between law and lawlessness, Caleb York faces rustlers, crooked businessmen, and a fast-gun rival who wants the star for himself. The inevitable showdown forces York to choose between cleaning up the town and walking away from its problems.

In 1975 Memphis, adult-magazine publisher Max Climer faces campaigns against his business and a hired killer targeting his life. Quarry steps in to protect him, investigating threats surrounding the magazine, strip club, and expanding entertainment empire.

A midnight walk by the Hudson brings Hammer face to face with a partial corpse drifting on an ice floe. The dead man was a former cop turned butler to a wealthy family now beset by suspicious deaths, and Hammer must sort through heirs who all have good reasons to kill.

In this “lost” first Mike Hammer case, the young PI hops a freight to the mill town of Killington and is promptly accused of rape and murder. A powerful senator’s beautiful daughter gives him an alibi at a price, and Hammer digs into the local corruption that made him a convenient suspect.

After a tragedy involving her high school's football players, Mercy Mathers turns to religion for forgiveness. Her conviction that troubled boys must be saved develops into a murderous mission to prevent them from falling from grace.

The first issue of a graphic Mike Hammer adventure, based on an unproduced Spillane script, finds the PI drawn into a case called “The Night I Died.” A chance meeting with a dangerous woman brings mob retaliation, leaving Hammer dodging bullets and wondering who set him up.

Continuing the comic-book arc begun in issue one, Hammer digs deeper into the mob war that exploded after his run-in with a femme fatale. As the body count climbs, he closes in on the hidden mastermind and delivers his brand of justice with fists, wisecracks, and a .45.

Rancher George Cullen is ready to fight the Santa Fe Railroad’s plan to push a spur through his land, even if everyone else in Trinidad welcomes it. York is sent to talk him down, but the return of an old partner and the arrival of a killer preacher turn a business dispute into a bloody showdown.

Lieutenant Peter Maxwell joins an ammunition ship during World War II, overseeing inexperienced sailors under a racist captain. Racial conflict, mutiny, storms, and murder threaten a crew whose dangerous cargo leaves little room for error.

Police chief Krista Larson attends her high school's ten-year reunion, then discovers a former classmate was murdered. When another death follows, she recruits her retired detective father to investigate secrets among their returning classmates.

Quarry learns that someone has put a contract on his own life, reversing his usual role in the assassination business. Tracking the hired killer leads toward his past and a possible connection with a former lover.

Outlaws hijack the morning stage from Trinidad, not for cash but for a banker and two women York cares about, Willa Cullen and saloon owner Rita Filley. Held in a ghost town called Hell Junction, the hostages become bargaining chips, and York has to infiltrate the gang before the ransom turns into massacre.

Hammer is hired by a New York senator and the senator’s sharp, charismatic wife to stop a blackmailer who threatens a White House bid. As suspects die one by one, he finds himself neck-deep in political secrets, bedroom scandals, and a plot that goes far beyond a single kompromat tape.

This graphic collection follows private investigator Michael Tree through five cases involving murder, crimes of passion, and criminal intrigue. Her investigations unfold against the continuing personal drive to avenge her husband's death and confront violent enemies.

Retired British agent John Sand begins married life with Texas oil heiress Stacey Boldt, only to encounter enemies from his past. Their hopes for a quiet future unravel as business troubles pull them back into espionage.

Nathan Heller investigates the conviction of doctor Sam Sheppard for murdering his wife, suspecting that evidence was manipulated. Unable to prove his doubts initially, he later receives another opportunity to pursue the case and seek justice.

Two members of a reunited rock band die in apparent suicides before an Iowa music festival. Police chief Krista Larson and her father investigate, uncovering old betrayals, revenge, and blackmail beneath the band's return to the stage.

A killer blizzard slams into New Mexico just as York’s deputy is gunned down in a case of mistaken identity. The bullets were meant for York, fired on orders from an old guerrilla fighter planning a bank robbery, and the sheriff must hunt a gang that thinks the storm will cover their escape.

Witnessing a Wall Street hotshot mowed down by a speeding red sports car, Hammer is hired by the victim’s broker father to find the driver. What looks like a hit and run leads to a series of bizarre murders tied to a forbidden martial-arts technique and a killer hiding in plain sight.

This second graphic collection gathers five cases featuring private detective Michael Tree, illustrated by Terry Beatty. Murder, personal vendettas, and crimes of passion test an investigator whose determination often takes her into direct conflict with violent criminals.

Reformed thief Nolan takes Sherry to Las Vegas to marry, but casino surveillance brings his criminal past back into focus. When an old associate targets him for a robbery scheme, young accomplice Jon investigates their disappearance.

This omnibus collects two Nolan novels involving a hijacked flight after a successful heist and killings within a Mafia-linked family. Nolan and Jon navigate threats to their stolen money while considering another lucrative criminal assignment.

With her father's detective agency in her care during World War II, Fancy Anders investigates a riveter's suspicious death. Going undercover at an aircraft plant forces the wealthy newcomer to navigate an unfamiliar workplace and possible murder.