Kisses of Death: A Nathan Heller Casebook [Paperback]

Max Allan Collins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2001

NATHAN HELLER, PRIVATE EYE!!!

The private eye is as American as mom, apple pie — and gangsters and bootlegging. A child of the Roaring Twenties and the Depression Thirties, he is a genuine American hero with his poetic slang and his attempt to make things right as he goes down Mean Streets.

Max Allan Collins has recreated the great era of the P.I. in Nathan Heller. "I wanted to do the traditional P.I.," Collins writes in his introduction to Kisses of Death, "the tender tough guy in the trenchcoat and fedora with a bottle of wry in his bottom desk drawer. I didn't want to update him, and I didn't want to plop him down in contemporary times like a drunk who fell off a time machine." In novels and short stories, Collins has traced Heller's changes, and America's changes from the early thirties to the sixties, and in doing so has received a record nine Private Eye Writers of America "Shamus" nominations for his the series, winning twice. Each story investigates a genuine unsolved crime of the past.

Kisses of Death contains the previous unpublished title novella, in which Heller becomes associated with Marilyn Monroe and solves the famous Bodenheim murders. In other stories, he finds a solution to the death of actress Thelma Todd, becomes associated with Eliot Ness, and discovers who killed the midget that Bill Veeck had come to bat in a major league baseball game.

The book includes a new introduction and afterward by the author, and a Max Allan Collins checklist.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Two-time Shamus winner Max Allan Collins (The Hindenberg Murders) blends fact and fantasy in the new title novella and six previously published short stories assembled in Kisses of Death: A Nathan Heller Casebook. In the novella, wry, slang-slinging PI Heller stumbles upon clues to the Bodenheim murders as he bodyguards a demure Marilyn Monroe.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Nathan Heller doesn't usually do bodyguard work anymore, but the CEO of Chicago's A-1 Detective Agency agrees to make an exception when the body in question belongs to Marilyn Monroe. She's in Chicago to promote the release of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and needs an escort to a potentially raucous press party. Marilyn survives the party, but the same can't be said for a womanizing lush who turns up murdered. As in all the Heller capers, author Collins dramatizes a real-life unsolved crime and posits a fictional (but believable) solution. Among the other real cases Heller "solves" in this collection of stories are the murder of actress Thelma Todd and the suspicious death of Eddie Gaedel (the only midget to play major-league baseball). Collins, winner of two Shamus Awards, makes the most of a winning formula. His mix of fiction and fact is rich in period detail, and Heller is a complex narrator who doesn't always follow the private-eye's code of honor. Fans of the novels will be thrilled to discover these stories. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 207 pages
• Publisher: Crippen & Landru Pub (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885941560
• ISBN-13: 978-1885941565
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #670,501 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Max Allan Collins is a New York Times bestselling author of original mysteries, a Shamus award winner and an experienced author of movie adaptions and tie-in novels. His graphic novel ROAD TO PERDITION was made into a major motion picture by Tom Hank's production company, Playtone.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner for Collins and Heller., January 17, 2005

By 

James Clar (upstate NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kisses of Death: A Nathan Heller Casebook (Paperback)

Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane aren't writing anything new anymore, alas! Be that as it may, Sweetheart, if you are in the mood for some classic private eye fiction - and what self-respecting mystery fan isn't - then look no further than KISSES OF DEATH by Max Allan Collins. "Prolific" is a word that doesn't even begin to describe Collins' astonishing output in fields ranging from mystery and historical fiction to screenplays, film novelisations and comics. As Kevin Burton Smith points out on his Thrilling Detective Website what is so truly amazing, however, is that just about everything this man writes is absolutely first-rate. The seven Nate Heller stories in this handsome volume so lovingly put together by the folks at Crippen & Landru are no exception.

With the creation of Nate Heller, Collins claims to have "invented" the historical private eye novel. Heller, an ex-Chicago cop during the period of Prohibition, has been involved in the solution of virtually every significant American mystery from the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and the Lindbergh kidnapping to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, the murder of the "Black Dahlia," and the Roswell cover-up. Each of Heller's cases is meticulously researched and while Collins is not beyond taking some dramatic license with his material, he nevertheless tries to keep to the established "facts" and more plausible theories whenever possible.

While Collins has written a dozen Heller novels, KISSES OF DEATH is only the second published collection of stories featuring the tough Chicago-based gumshoe. An earlier collection, DYING IN THE POST-WAR WORLD, was released in 1991. All of the elements that mark Collins' longer fiction are here in these shorter works as well. Engaging plots, interesting and accurately drawn historical characters, fluid prose and sharp dialogue abound. Oh, and let's not forget the wisecracks, the saps, the nine millimeters, the brass knuckles and the damsels in distress either. This is your father's private eye fiction honed to the proverbial razor's edge. Can't you almost smell the pulp?

The title story of the volume, "Kisses of Death," sees Heller hired to act as a bodyguard for Marilyn Monroe. In the process he solves the murders of Greenwich Village poet Maxwell Bodenheim and his wife, Ruth. In "Kaddish for the Kid," set in 1933, Heller metes out some rough justice á la Mike Hammer. "The Perfect Crime" was originally a Phil Marlowe pastiche published in the 1988 collection, RAYMOND CHANDLER'S PHILLIP MARLOWE: A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. In it Collins offers an intriguing solution to one of Hollywood's most famous and enduring unsolved mysteries, the death of actress Thelma Todd.

KISSES OF DEATH belongs in the hands, and on the bookshelves, of all fans of private eye fiction - both those already familiar with Nate Heller and those making his acquaintance for the first time. As if the stories collected here weren't enough, Collins supplies both an introduction and a short afterward. Also included in the volume is a comprehensive and annotated checklist of the author's work. (James Clar - MYSTERY NEWS)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Second Heller short story collection a winner, November 6, 2002

By 

David W. Nicholas (Van Nuys, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kisses of Death: A Nathan Heller Casebook (Paperback)

I've been a fan of Max Allan Collins' Nate Heller stories for years now, well more than a decade. Some time ago, in addition to the novels, Collins released Dying in the Postwar World, which was billed as a casebook. The current volume is a second one, and they're basically short story collections, though both times the author wrote a novella to round out the volumes. In this book, the novella provides the title.

If you've read my reviews of other Heller books, you know the drill. His big drawback is that you must accept this detective being involved in basically every significant crime in the 30s 40s and 50s, with the possibility that he'll carry it further. The last of the stories in this book takes place in the early 60s. Given that you can make the suspension of disbelief, this is a very fun series, and the stories are well-written. I especially enjoyed this second casebook, which includes several cases that I thought were interesting, and was especially well-written.

Heller gets involved in cases with Marilyn Monroe, Thelma Todd, Bill Veeck, Mickey Cohen, and so forth. Frankly, the characters he pulls out of obscurity are endlessly interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed this collection, so I won't ruin it for you by telling you anything more about what's in the book. Suffice to say, the author has a solution for every mystery in the book, and they're all plausible, as far as I can see.

To reiterate, this is a wonderful book. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Second Heller short story collection a winner, November 6, 2002

By 

David W. Nicholas (Van Nuys, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kisses of Death: A Nathan Heller Casebook (Paperback)

I've been a fan of Max Allan Collins' Nate Heller stories for years now, well more than a decade. Some time ago, in addition to the novels, Collins released Dying in the Postwar World, which was billed as a casebook. The current volume is a second one, and they're basically short story collections, though both times the author wrote a novella to round out the volumes. In this book, the novella provides the title.

If you've read my reviews of other Heller books, you know the drill. His big drawback is that you must accept this detective being involved in basically every significant crime in the 30s 40s and 50s, with the possibility that he'll carry it further. The last of the stories in this book takes place in the early 60s. Given that you can make the suspension of disbelief, this is a very fun series, and the stories are well-written. I especially enjoyed this second casebook, which includes several cases that I thought were interesting, and was especially well-written.

Heller gets involved in cases with Marilyn Monroe, Thelma Todd, Bill Veeck, Mickey Cohen, and so forth. Frankly, the characters he pulls out of obscurity are endlessly interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed this collection, so I won't ruin it for you by telling you anything more about what's in the book. Suffice to say, the author has a solution for every mystery in the book, and they're all plausible, as far as I can see.

To reiterate, this is a wonderful book. I enjoyed it thoroughly.