Nate Heller
Created by Max Allan Collins

As a Chicago cop in the glory days of Al Capone, and later as a big-shot private eye, NATE HELLER seems to have wandered into every major crime story in the last century, in what's turned out to be one of the most intriguing and satisfying P.I. series of the eighties and nineties.

Collins drew a little heat when he first lay claim to having invented the historical private eye novel (he seemed to have conveniently forgotten previous retro eyes such as Toby Peters and Andrew Bergman's Jack Levine), but he pointed out that "I deal with real crimes, real people; the closest thing to what I do that existed before me was Chinatown, which changed names, dates, etc., and certain episodes of the greatest of all P.I. series, City of Angels. Stu and the rest do period mysteries -- using the setting, the nostalgia, some real people but not real events. That's the diff."

Regardless, Collins deserves credit for the skill he brings to his well-researched true crime/fictional PI masterpieces that not only humanize old stories, but force us to look at them again as he digs up old theories, and comes up with new ones. Who REALLY kidnapped the Lindbergh baby? Who REALLY bumped off Bugsy Siegal? Was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre a mistake? Who REALLY shot John Dillinger? What REALLY happened to Amelia Earhart? For any fan of classic true crimes and other unsolved mysteries of 20th century America, or anyone who just enjoys a great PI yarn, you could do a lot worse than this entertaining, and often, enlightening series.

And Nate is an intriguing appealingly-less-than-perfect, character. Half-Jewish, half-Irish, he's greedy, horny, morally amivalent, if not downright ambiguous. He can be bought off, but only on his terms. Probably the key to his character is the death of his father: Nate's old man was a dedicated leftist, an old union guy, who shot himself after Nate lied on the witness stand, in order to join the police department (and therefore make his way to the trough). Nate carries the nine-millimeter with which his father did the deed, and he calls it "the closest thing to a conscience I've got."

Besides creating Heller, he's also responsible for continuing the comic strip adventures of Dick Tracy, as well as his own Mike Danger, Mike Mist, the rebirth of Johnny Dynamite, and possibly his greatest coup-the creation of Ms. Tree, the private eye heroine of the longest-running private eye comic book in history. He's also written novels featuring professional thief Quarry and amateur sleuth/mystery writer Mallory, and several novelisations of various crime films and televsion shows. He's also penned, along with James L. Traylor, One Lonely Knight, a spirited critical defense of his idol, Mickey Spillane. And lately, along with Spillane, he's been editing a series of anthologies of original stories, all of which are recommended, especially 1998's Private Eyes. And in 2001, he's releasing what might be his non-fiction magnum opus, The History of Mystery, a personal and passionate stab at the entire crime fiction genre.

MEA CULPA

• Lately, rumours have spread that nobody was interested in publishing the Nate Heller series -- a rumour that I may have inadvertently spread. The truth is that, according to Collins, he's simply too busy right now, with his publisher already having him lined up for several other projects. He also says it's his intention to bring Heller back at some point, and that he'd rather not be painted as "the poster boy for Great Series That Can't Find a Home."
  
  But rest easy, fans. Collins says "Heller is still my protagonist of choice. I was in Hollywood just a while back meeting with a guy about the prospect of a Heller mini-series (probably won't happen -- this stuff almost never does)."

FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY

• "It'd probably cost a fortune, but imagine a long-form television series that could either go chronologically through Heller's life, or like the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, hopscotch around. Done right, it could be wonderful. As for casting, tough. John Savage is probably a little long in the tooth right now. The casting possibilities for the other characters especially the real people...wow!"
  (Ted Fitzgerald, May 1998 P.I. Poll on Television Eyes)
  .
• "Heller was an idea I'd been developing since the early 70s, even prior to [the movie] Chinatown. I've said this many times before, but it was a re-reading of The Maltese Falcon that inspired Heller -- not the book itself, but the copyright date: 1929. This caused me to muse, "That's the year of the St. Valentine's Day massacre. Sam Spade and Al Capone were contemporaries. That means that instead of Phillip Marlowe meeting an Al Capone type, a Phillip Marlowe type could meet the real Al Capone." Realizing that the private eye had been
  around long enough to exist in a genuinely historical setting was the revelation...I have been chastised for making this claim, but I do feel I invented the historical hard-boiled detective novel. Not the period private eye novel ([Stuart] Kaminsky and [Andrew] Bergman and Robert Towne and maybe a couple others pre-date me), but using a fictional noirish protagonist in a story that is otherwise solidly based on fact. That's my contribution."
  (Max Allan Collins, The January Magazine Interview)

NOVELS

• True Detective (1983) .Buy this book
• True Crime (1984) .Buy this book
• The Million-Dollar Wound (1986) .Buy this book
• Neon Mirage (1988)
• Stolen Away (1991). Buy this book
• Carnal Hours (1994)
• Blood and Thunder (1995)...Buy this book
• Damned in Paradise (1996)...Buy this book
• Flying Blind (1998) Buy this book
• Majic Man (1999)..Buy this book
• Angel in Black (2001)..Buy this book
• Chicago Confidential (2002)...Buy this book

COLLECTIONS

• Dying in the Post-War World (1991) . Buy this book
• Kisses of Death: A Nathan Heller Casebook (2001) . Buy this book

SHORT STORIES

• "The Strawberry Teardrop" (1984, The Eyes Have It)
• "House Call" (1986, Mean Streets)
• "Scrap" (1987, The Black Lizard Anthology of Crime Fiction)
• "Marble Mildred" (1988, An Eye for Justice)
• "Private Consultation" (1990, Justice for Hire)
• "Kisses of Death" (1996; an as yet unpublished novella, available only as a 90 minute promotional audio tape given away at ABA, read by Max and Barb Collins, available only from Collins web site-see below; Nate Heller)
• "A Kaddish for the Kid" (1998, Private Eyes)
• "Natural Death, Inc." (1999, Diagnosis Dead)
• "Screwball" (2000, The Shamus Game)
• "Unreasonable Doubt" (2001, And the Dying Is Easy)
• "Pinch-Hitter" (2001, Murderer's Row)
• "Shoot-Out on Sunset" (2001, Mystery Street)
• "That Kind of Nag" (2006, Murder at the Racetrack)
• "The Blonde Tigress" (June 2008, EQMM)

OTHER APPEARANCES

• Dark City (1987; Nate Heller makes an appearance in this Eliot Ness novel)
• Caribbean Blues (1988; Nate Heller makes an appearance in this multiple author mystery)
• Bullet Proof (1989; Nate Heller makes an appearance in this Eliot Ness novel)

RELATED LINKS

• F.O.M.A.C. (Friends, Fans, and Family Of Max Allan Collins)
  Max's Official Website!  Here you can find information on Max and his latest works, all done up in a most excellent fashion by his son, Nate, who wants to go to college. So, buy his dad's stuff!
  .
• The January Magazine Interview: Killers, Cover-Ups and Max Allan Collins
  An illuminating interview with Max, conducted by J. Kingston Pierce. Lots of info on Nate Heller, and a great bit on The Two Jakes. Now there's two of us.

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Bluefox808, and Max Allan Collins himself, for their help here.