Max Allan Collins applied both of his skills as a detective fiction writer and detective fiction historian The Return Of The Maltese Falcon, a continuation of Hammett's classic. He credibly delivers Sam Spade and the returning characters as well as introducing a few new ones that fit perfectly in the world. I was able to ask Mr. Collins some questions about the book, his comic book Ms. Tree, that has been fully reprinted, and the sequel to a classic detective film he did a di

In First Do No Harm, the latest book to feature the private eye team of Lydia Chin and Bill Smith, author S.J. Rozan finds a unique setting. Partially due to a favor for Lydia's doctor brother, Elliot, they take the case of Jordy Karazim, a morgue assistant (or diener), who woke up in a River Valley Hospital area the staff uses to either nap or hook up, next to the dead body of Nurse Sophia Scott. He claims innocence, even though his father, and brother both prominent doctor

Before V.I. Warshawski and Kinsey Malone, Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone knocked down the door for female private detectives in the novel Edwin of Iron Shoes. Other than gender, she stood out from other investigators by working for the San Francisco legal co-op All Souls, using her gumshoe skills to serve the downtrodden. Recently, Stark House Press released a collection of short stories dealing with the character in The Lost Coast and Other Sharon McCone stories. It kicks off

Kelli Stanley's latest, The Reckoning, deals with a lady on the run in 1985 with many secrets, dealing with a town of secrets, some tied to it's marijuana cash crop, others to the young girls who have gone missing in the past years. It was great to get together with Kelli again and ask a few questions. SCOTT MONTGOMERY: Which drew you first to the story- the character of Renata Drake or setting a story in eighties Garberville, CA? KELLI STANLEY: I think most writers, at one p

I like to read every kind of mystery, from hard-boiled noir all the way to cozies involving baking and cats (preferably both!). But what I most love to read is books where people who are outwardly fine citizens of the most upstanding kind who are actually truly horrible people. And as fans of The Hunting Wives know (either the book or the Netflix series, pick your poison), no one does that whole wealthy, pious adults acting like absolute heathens better than May Cobb. The aut

One Foot In Hell reads like a classic fifties psycho-sexual noir that also looks as the dark society of small town America. You wouldn't be surprised if author Wilen Shaw read most of Jim Thompson's output up to that time before banging this out on the Remington. He practically strips his tale down to its genre bones, making it both sleek and engaging with little pretension. Larry Crenshaw lives the American middle class dream in Hadsville, Kentucky as successful accountant

I was excited to read Return of the Maltese Falcon with Max Allan Collins giving private eye Sam Spade another shot at the jewel encrusted bird statue. Not only is Collins a master craftsman of crime fiction, particularly when it comes to the PI yarn, he is also a student of the genre with a deep understanding of the its past. He also has experience in continuing the adventures of famed hard boiled heroes, notably his friend Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. He applies all of t

In The Red Scare Murders, Con Lehane introduces us to Mike Mulligan, a blacklisted animator turned fledgling private detective in the fifties. He gets hired by a union boss in a last ditch effort to get one of his members, a black communist, off death row for killing his boss. Con uses the case to give a vivid portrait of living in that era. Don was kind enough to talk in depth about the book and the period it covers. SCOTT MONTGOMERY: What drew you to the Red Scare? CON LEHA

In The Reckoning, Kelli Stanley deals in secrets on both micro and macro levels. It begins is classic noir fashion, in 1985, with its protagonist Renata Drake, coming into town on a Greyhound bus, miles away from her mysterious past. However this is no normal town. Garberville, California is supported by its cash crop of marijuana. There is an understanding of local law, but outside agencies have it under surveillance to bring their business down. Cannabis isn't the only crim

This year gave us many offbeat novels that broke the crime fiction mold and possibly set molds to come as they examined our crazy world. Here are some of what i thought were the best. 1. SAGAMORE by Jack Sonni - Sadly, this debut novel was a posthumous one as well from musician Jack Sonni. He takes a troubadour approach to this epic crime story triggered by the murder of a corrupt game warden in a nineteen twenties mining town that already has tension between the Italian immi