Max Allan Collins

Max Allan Collins was named a Grand Master in 2017 by the Mystery Writers of America. He is a three-time winner of the Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus” award, receiving the PWA “Eye” for Life Achievement (2006) and their “Hammer” award for making a major contribution to the private eye genre with the Nathan Heller saga (2012).

His graphic novel Road to Perdition (1998) became the Academy Award-winning Tom Hanks film, followed by prose sequels and several graphic novels. His other comics credits include the syndicated strip “Dick Tracy”; “Batman”; and his own “Ms. Tree” and “Wild Dog.”

His innovative Quarry novels were adapted as a 2016 TV series by Cinemax. His other suspense series include Eliot Ness, Krista Larson, Reeder and Rogers, and the “Disaster” novels. He has completed twelve “Mike Hammer” novels begun by the late Mickey Spillane; his audio novel, Mike Hammer: The Little Death with Stacy Keach, won a 2011 Audie.

For five years, he was sole licensing writer for TV’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (and its spin-offs), writing best-selling novels, graphic novels, and video games. His tie-in books have appeared on the USA TODAY and New York Times bestseller lists, including Saving Private Ryan, Air Force One, and American Gangster.

Collins has written and directed four features and two documentaries, including the Lifetime movie “Mommy” (1996) and “Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane” (1998); he scripted “The Expert,” a 1995 HBO World Premiere and “The Last Lullaby” (2009) from his novel The Last Quarry. His Edgar-nominated play “Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life” (2004) became a PBS special, and he has co-authored two non-fiction books on Ness, Scarface and the Untouchable (2018) and Eliot Ness and the Mad Butcher (2020).

Collins and his wife, writer Barbara Collins, live in Iowa; as “Barbara Allan,” they have collaborated on sixteen novels, including the “Trash ‘n’ Treasures” mysteries, Antiques Flee Market (2008) winning the Romantic Times Best Humorous Mystery Novel award of 2009. Their son Nathan has translated numerous novels into English from Japanese, as well as video games and manga.