William Nolan Books in Order

In the year 2057, Professor C. Cydwick Ohms introduces a Time Door intended to solve the world’s accumulated problems. Its capricious behavior complicates that promise in a short science fiction tale about an invention with far-reaching ambitions.

After aliens devastate Earth, Lewis Stillman survives beneath the deserted streets of Los Angeles. His nightly searches for supplies and human companionship expose him to dangerous creatures, while isolation and nightmares steadily erode his fragile refuge.

Nolan traces Barney Oldfield's rise as a pioneering racing driver, from early Ford competitions to record-setting appearances in famous machines. Race results, illustrations, and accounts of his flamboyant public life document American motorsport's formative years.

In a future society that requires death at twenty-one, Sandman Logan hunts people who refuse to surrender their lives. Posing as a fugitive draws him into a search for Sanctuary and challenges his loyalty to the system.

Private detective Sam Space operates from a shabby Martian office, taking bizarre cases across the solar system. Unusual clients, unreliable machines, and dangerous transformations complicate his investigations in this comic blend of science fiction and hard-boiled mystery.

Nolan examines Steve McQueen through his enthusiasm for automobile and motorcycle racing as well as his screen career. The portrait emphasizes the actor's life behind the wheel and the sporting interests that accompanied his Hollywood success.

This collection of motor-racing accounts moves from Indianapolis and Le Mans to early cross-country competitions. Profiles of drivers, including Phil Hill, accompany stories of hazardous races and the people who shaped the sport's history.

Following the destruction of Earth's controlling computer, Logan returns to a devastated planet divided among violent tribes and surviving Sandmen. When his family suffers a tragedy, he pursues revenge through ruined cities and a renewed threat.

Aliens send Logan to an alternate Earth where a familiar system still controls human lifespans. To return to his own family, he must confront this parallel society's oppression and attempt another rebellion against its governing computer.

This biography follows Dashiell Hammett from his Pinkerton detective work into literary success and Hollywood. Nolan examines his relationship with Lillian Hellman, political commitments, and development as a writer within the circumstances of his turbulent life.

Drawing on his acquaintance with Steve McQueen, Nolan portrays the actor's career and personal interests, particularly his dedication to speed. Accounts of film work and motor racing explore the relationship between his screen persona and offscreen pursuits.

Martian investigator Sam Space navigates another absurd mixture of detective work and interplanetary trouble. Eccentric clients, dimensional travel, and unpredictable technology turn familiar hard-boiled conventions into comic science-fiction adventures far removed from an ordinary private eye's cases.

Nolan recounts the life of Frederick Schiller Faust, better known as prolific Western author Max Brand. Family recollections and a bibliography illuminate his difficult childhood, literary ambitions, years in Italy, and work as a wartime correspondent.

Nolan assembles vintage detective stories honoring the writers associated with Black Mask magazine. The anthology explores the hard-boiled tradition through its fiction and the magazine's role in establishing the reputations of influential American crime authors.

This annotated bibliography documents Charles Beaumont's writing across books, short fiction, essays, film, and television. It also records unpublished material and other creative work, providing a reference guide to the fantasy writer's varied career.

A Montana rancher searches for his missing daughter after she mentions boarding a mysterious midnight steam train. Alongside his investigation unfolds a serial killer's journal, bringing human brutality and supernatural menace into an increasingly disturbing convergence.

Nolan uses examples to explain how writers can draw on their own fears to create unsettling fiction. This practical guide examines developing ideas and horror effects, helping aspiring authors turn frightening concepts into workable stories.

Dashiell Hammett becomes a fictional detective alongside Raymond Chandler and Erle Stanley Gardner in a Hollywood murder case. Their investigation follows a dangerous trail involving a jeweled treasure connected to the inspiration for The Maltese Falcon.

More than two dozen short stories explore supernatural threats and human violence, with encounters involving vampires, ghosts, cannibals, and other disturbing figures. Author notes accompany the collection, which also includes contributions from Peter Straub and Robert Bloch.

This revised biography follows Phil Hill from his early driving experiences to his 1961 Formula One championship with Ferrari. Expanded material covers later racing, family life, and car restoration, supported by photographs and career detail.

In 1936, Raymond Chandler investigates the apparent suicide of his wife's former husband in a Chinese cemetery. Assisted by Hammett and Gardner, he follows clues through Hollywood and Hearst Castle while encountering conflicting accounts and dangerous secrets.

Accused of murder, Erle Stanley Gardner becomes a fugitive determined to identify the real killer. His search moves through California's film world and beyond, culminating in a Beverly Hills trial where the mystery writer defends himself.

Twelve stories move from noir crime to unsettling fantasy, following a psychic facing cannibals, a gang member risking a deadly race and a killer visiting his mother. Other tales recast superheroes and fairy tales through terror and unexpected perspectives.

This retrospective gathers William Nolan’s short fiction across fifty years of writing, combining mystery, science fiction, horror and suspense. Author introductions accompany stories of darkness and danger, tracing the changing concerns and approaches of his long storytelling career.

Four horror stories explore murder, revenge and relationships that persist beyond death, including an ex-wife seeking vengeance and a husband who refuses to stay dead. Selected poems extend the collection into reflections on writers, places and literary influences.

This volume gathers Nolan's horror short fiction, bringing together tales of threatening presences and uncertain realities. Across separate stories, familiar surroundings become sources of unease as characters encounter terrors concealed beneath apparently ordinary appearances.

William Nolan gathers short fiction across westerns, detective stories, sports writing and science fiction. The collection moves among different settings and forms to explore human experience, presenting characters through their actions and the situations in which they find themselves.

Nineteen science fiction stories range from a society kept perpetually drugged to a lone Los Angeles survivor hiding from dangerous new inhabitants. Other tales explore robots’ attachments to humans, alien musicians and encounters that combine futuristic ideas with western settings.

Drawing on his own fiction and examples from other writers, Nolan discusses character creation, dialogue, dramatic development, and revision. The guide explains how opening pages and sustained conflict can help hold readers throughout a story.

Twenty-three stories gather William Nolan’s recent horror fiction, with most written after his earlier career retrospective. The collection brings together tales of shock and suspense from the new century, presenting a later phase of his work through 2007.

These stories range across horror, science fiction and literary fiction, exploring unsettling communities, the aftermath of wrongdoing and hidden motives in trusted relationships. Sherlock Holmes, encounters with Hyde and intimate human struggles appear alongside Nolan’s darker speculative visions.

This collection follows Sam Space, a Martian private investigator whose cases mix hard-boiled detective conventions with absurd science fiction. Alien encounters and futuristic complications provide the setting for comic adventures built around his interplanetary profession.

When Los Angeles police face cases beyond rational explanation, David Kincaid brings unusual investigative talents to his friend Mike Lucero’s aid. Three tales lead him among a headless corpse, a shapeshifting demon and a house filled with supernatural horror.

New stories bring together Sherlock Holmes, aliens, demons, killers and time travelers in a collection spanning horror and speculative fiction. Poetry, personal reflections and a conversation with Richard Matheson add other perspectives to Nolan’s portraits of danger and human experience.

Nolan gathers decades of writing about his friend and mentor Ray Bradbury, combining critical articles with fiction influenced by Bradbury's work. Parodies and tributes accompany reflections on the fantasy author's career and their longstanding literary connection.

William Nolan selects poems from across his writing life, beginning in 1940 and continuing through 2015. The retrospective gathers his verse into one volume, showing the varied rhythms, tones and emotional concerns of a career extending beyond fiction.

These collected essays combine Nolan's personal memories with reflections on writing, popular culture, and fellow authors. Childhood interests, family experiences, and portraits of figures such as Max Brand and Charles Beaumont illuminate the influences behind his creative life.