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Nathan Heller
Triple Play
Since his introduction in 1983’s True Detective, Chicago-based private eye Nathan Heller has handily earned his spot alongside American crime-fiction greats Phillip Marlowe, Archie Goodwin, and Mike Hammer. Now the classic gumshoe is back in this collection of three novellas, all based on real cases of the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s. In "Dying in the Post-War World", Heller returns from combat to find his marriage a shambles and himself square in the middle of the notorious Lipstick Killer case of 1946. "Kisses of Death" follows the PI into the 1950s, when he is hired to guard Marilyn Monroe. The famous starlet’s intellectual pursuits eventually take Heller to Greenwich Village and a grisly murder. And in "Strike Zone", Heller is hired by zany baseball manager Bill Veeck to investigate the 1961 murder of a famous pinch hitter, whose private life will suck Nate into a dangerous new world of little people and big sins. With Triple Play, New York Times-bestselling author Max Allan Collins has pried back the lid of history to reveal the ugly, entertaining truth behind three of the twentieth century’s most shocking crimes.
235 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 17, 2012
45 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
About the author
Max Allan Collins
812 books1,327 followersReceived the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 2006.
He has also published under the name Patrick Culhane. He and his wife, Barbara Collins, have written several books together. Some of them are published under the name Barbara Allan.
Book Awards
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1984) : True Detective
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1992) : Stolen Away
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1995) : Carnal Hours
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) : Damned in Paradise
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1999) : Flying Blind: A Novel about Amelia Earhart
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (2002) : Angel in Black
Japanese: マックス・アラン・コリンズ
or マックス・アラン コリンズ
He has also published under the name Patrick Culhane. He and his wife, Barbara Collins, have written several books together. Some of them are published under the name Barbara Allan.
Book Awards
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1984) : True Detective
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1992) : Stolen Away
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1995) : Carnal Hours
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) : Damned in Paradise
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1999) : Flying Blind: A Novel about Amelia Earhart
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (2002) : Angel in Black
Japanese: マックス・アラン・コリンズ
or マックス・アラン コリンズ
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
October 22, 2021
Nathan Heller is a great private investigator who has helped solve some of the most important cases in American history: Amelia Earhart's disappearance, Marilyn Monroe's death, the Lindbergh kidnapping, the McKinley assassination, the Oklahoma City bombing - okay, I made up Heller's involvement in those last two. He had an amazing career though, in this fine series by Max Allan Collins.
Triple Play: A Nathan Heller Casebook is made up of three novellas or novelettes, each dealing with possible crimes and their conjectured solutions. Heller narrates all the stories. The first is "Dying in the Post-War World," originally published in 1991. This is set in 1947. Heller has returned from World War II, having taken part in the fighting at Guadalcanal. His wife is pregnant - and not enjoying it. Heller gets a call from an acquaintance whose six year old daughter has been kidnapped. The family has received a ransom note. Heller agrees to help. It soon appears that the child had been abducted by the notorious Chicago "Lipstick Killer." As with all the Heller tales, this case has a basis in fact. The Lipstick Killer was so called because he had left a message written on the wall of a woman believed to be his second victim. The message, written in lipstick, became famous:
For heavens
Sake catch me
Before I Kill More
I cannot control myself
Heller catches a man who he believes to be the killer, who is later convicted. Collins conjectures that the story was much more complex and that Heller goes on to really solve the case, about which, for good reasons, Heller never informs the authorities.
Collins explains in his excellent Introduction to the book that he later corresponded with Wiliam Heirens, the man convicted of the Lipstick Killer murders.
I knew of one of the victims in the second story, but did not know that those people who had died had been murdered. Maxwell Bodenheim was an author, once a novelist and a highly regarded poet. By 1953, when the story "Kisses of Death" was set, Bodenheim and his wife were living on the streets in New York City. In the story, Bodenheim's one-time friend, the famed author Ben Hecht, had brought Bodenheim and his much younger wife to Chicago and organized a fund-raising party for them, which raised the less-than-magnificent sum of $12. Heller is at that party, serving as bodyguard to another friend of Hecht's, a young actress named Marilyn Monroe.
The Bodenheims subsequently return to New York. Hecht wangles a book deal for Bodenheim in which some of Bodenheim's novels would be republished. Hecht asks Heller to go to New York, track down the Bodenheims, and tell them about the deal. Heller does this but complications soon follow.
According to the information on Wikipedia, this tale follows the known facts more closely than the previous one - except, of course, for the fictional Heller's involvement. Ms. Monroe's part in the plot is slight, but she is a most engaging distraction. Collins made Monroe a much more central figure in another Heller story, the novel Bye Bye Baby.
The last (and shortest) story in this collection is "Strike Zone." (Both this and "Kisses of Death" first appeared in 2001.) This is set in 1961. The "murder victim" in this story is baseball player Eddie Gaedel, "the most famous pinch hitter in history." This case's solution is entirely fiction; Gaedel may well have actually died of natural causes. Eddie Gaedel was a midget, brought in to take one at-bat for the Cleveland Browns in 1951. Team owner Bill Veeck hired Gaedel as a stunt. A batter's strike zone is "between the batter's armpits and the top of his knees." Any throw outside of that area would be considered a "ball" rather than a "strike." If the person batting got four balls before he got three strikes, that would be a "walk" and the batter would advance to the first base. Veeck thought that this would be funny, as Gaedel's strike zone would be so small that he would almost definitely get a walk, as indeed he did; then Gaedel was immediately replaced by a different base-runner. Just a gag, but a famous one, guaranteeing that Veeck and Gaedel would always be remembered for that stunt. In this story, after Gaedel died at thirty-six, his mother was convinced he was murdered. She contacted Veeck; Veeck hired Heller, who had known Gaedel, to look into it. Heller's narration throughout the book is amusingly sardonic; in this tale, I feel that it lapses into condescension toward Gaedel and little people in general.
All the Heller stories that I have read quite successfully insert Heller into actual situations, and they do this so cleverly that readers might not know what is based on reality and what is purely fiction. Every bit as good a stunt as Veeck's, even if not quite so well known.
Triple Play: A Nathan Heller Casebook is made up of three novellas or novelettes, each dealing with possible crimes and their conjectured solutions. Heller narrates all the stories. The first is "Dying in the Post-War World," originally published in 1991. This is set in 1947. Heller has returned from World War II, having taken part in the fighting at Guadalcanal. His wife is pregnant - and not enjoying it. Heller gets a call from an acquaintance whose six year old daughter has been kidnapped. The family has received a ransom note. Heller agrees to help. It soon appears that the child had been abducted by the notorious Chicago "Lipstick Killer." As with all the Heller tales, this case has a basis in fact. The Lipstick Killer was so called because he had left a message written on the wall of a woman believed to be his second victim. The message, written in lipstick, became famous:
For heavens
Sake catch me
Before I Kill More
I cannot control myself
Heller catches a man who he believes to be the killer, who is later convicted. Collins conjectures that the story was much more complex and that Heller goes on to really solve the case, about which, for good reasons, Heller never informs the authorities.
Collins explains in his excellent Introduction to the book that he later corresponded with Wiliam Heirens, the man convicted of the Lipstick Killer murders.
I knew of one of the victims in the second story, but did not know that those people who had died had been murdered. Maxwell Bodenheim was an author, once a novelist and a highly regarded poet. By 1953, when the story "Kisses of Death" was set, Bodenheim and his wife were living on the streets in New York City. In the story, Bodenheim's one-time friend, the famed author Ben Hecht, had brought Bodenheim and his much younger wife to Chicago and organized a fund-raising party for them, which raised the less-than-magnificent sum of $12. Heller is at that party, serving as bodyguard to another friend of Hecht's, a young actress named Marilyn Monroe.
The Bodenheims subsequently return to New York. Hecht wangles a book deal for Bodenheim in which some of Bodenheim's novels would be republished. Hecht asks Heller to go to New York, track down the Bodenheims, and tell them about the deal. Heller does this but complications soon follow.
According to the information on Wikipedia, this tale follows the known facts more closely than the previous one - except, of course, for the fictional Heller's involvement. Ms. Monroe's part in the plot is slight, but she is a most engaging distraction. Collins made Monroe a much more central figure in another Heller story, the novel Bye Bye Baby.
The last (and shortest) story in this collection is "Strike Zone." (Both this and "Kisses of Death" first appeared in 2001.) This is set in 1961. The "murder victim" in this story is baseball player Eddie Gaedel, "the most famous pinch hitter in history." This case's solution is entirely fiction; Gaedel may well have actually died of natural causes. Eddie Gaedel was a midget, brought in to take one at-bat for the Cleveland Browns in 1951. Team owner Bill Veeck hired Gaedel as a stunt. A batter's strike zone is "between the batter's armpits and the top of his knees." Any throw outside of that area would be considered a "ball" rather than a "strike." If the person batting got four balls before he got three strikes, that would be a "walk" and the batter would advance to the first base. Veeck thought that this would be funny, as Gaedel's strike zone would be so small that he would almost definitely get a walk, as indeed he did; then Gaedel was immediately replaced by a different base-runner. Just a gag, but a famous one, guaranteeing that Veeck and Gaedel would always be remembered for that stunt. In this story, after Gaedel died at thirty-six, his mother was convinced he was murdered. She contacted Veeck; Veeck hired Heller, who had known Gaedel, to look into it. Heller's narration throughout the book is amusingly sardonic; in this tale, I feel that it lapses into condescension toward Gaedel and little people in general.
All the Heller stories that I have read quite successfully insert Heller into actual situations, and they do this so cleverly that readers might not know what is based on reality and what is purely fiction. Every bit as good a stunt as Veeck's, even if not quite so well known.
August 8, 2019
Max Allan Collins's hero Nathan Heller is my favorite series detective. Much of that is due to the fact that each book combines my favorite genre, the mystery, with detailed research in 1930s - 1960s America. Equally entertaining is Heller's wisecracking style; he is the perfect guide to the corruption in days past. This trio of novellas/short stories is more for Heller completists than those new to the series. That said, they show off well Collins' ability to remake historical figures (Marilyn Monroe, Bill Veeck are among his clients here) into fascinating fictional ones in economical, readable style. If you haven't met Heller yet, start with True Detective. For those of us already in the know, this book will be light fun.
November 29, 2022
A collection of three Nate Heller tales of murder and mystery.
The first one is about a famous kidnapping and a proto-serial killer, called The Lipstick Killer.
The second involves Marilyn Monroe and the murder of a writer/poet, who was also a terrible drunk.
The third is about the midget who played baseball for the St Louis Browns.
They're not bad. I think the first one is probably the best. I never bought into the Marilyn Monroe myth the way Collins does.
The first one is about a famous kidnapping and a proto-serial killer, called The Lipstick Killer.
The second involves Marilyn Monroe and the murder of a writer/poet, who was also a terrible drunk.
The third is about the midget who played baseball for the St Louis Browns.
They're not bad. I think the first one is probably the best. I never bought into the Marilyn Monroe myth the way Collins does.
April 28, 2012
Another winner from Max Allan Collins: three Nathan Heller pieces of longer length.
DYING IN THE POST-WAR WORLD finds Heller getting back into the PI business after serving his country in WWII, a pregnant wife feeling less than glamorous, and looking into the "Lipstick Killer" case.
KISSES OF DEATH starts with Heller's first meeting with a young Marilyn Monroe, being her bodyguard, and eventually to the murder of poet/novelist Maxwell Bodenheim and his wife at the time
STRIKE ZONE finds Heller working for Bill Veeck to look into the death, possible murder, of Eddie Gaedel, the first and only little person to ever bat in the major leagues. Heller had been his babysitter leading up to the memorable 1951 moment.
A fine collection.
DYING IN THE POST-WAR WORLD finds Heller getting back into the PI business after serving his country in WWII, a pregnant wife feeling less than glamorous, and looking into the "Lipstick Killer" case.
KISSES OF DEATH starts with Heller's first meeting with a young Marilyn Monroe, being her bodyguard, and eventually to the murder of poet/novelist Maxwell Bodenheim and his wife at the time
STRIKE ZONE finds Heller working for Bill Veeck to look into the death, possible murder, of Eddie Gaedel, the first and only little person to ever bat in the major leagues. Heller had been his babysitter leading up to the memorable 1951 moment.
A fine collection.
January 12, 2013
This was an engaging collection of three real-life murders fictionalized to add Collins' detective to the mix.
I prefer Collins' Quarry noir stories, but these totally entertained me and made me interested in the history of the real crimes. So if you like that sort of thing, I recommend this book to you.
Note: Really surprised by the number of typos/missed words in this ebook. Author's nightmare when this sort of thing happens.
I prefer Collins' Quarry noir stories, but these totally entertained me and made me interested in the history of the real crimes. So if you like that sort of thing, I recommend this book to you.
Note: Really surprised by the number of typos/missed words in this ebook. Author's nightmare when this sort of thing happens.
May 15, 2024
This is a reread of a book I reviewed on Goodreads in 2021. The following is that review, slightly emended:
---------------------------------
Nathan Heller is a great private investigator who has helped solve some of the most important cases in American history: Amelia Earhart's disappearance, Marilyn Monroe's death, the Lindbergh kidnapping, and many more. He had an amazing career, even if a strictly fictional one, in this fine series by Max Allan Collins.
Triple Play: A Nathan Heller Casebook is made up of three novellas or novelettes, each dealing with possible crimes and their conjectured solutions. Heller narrates all the stories. The first is "Dying in the Post-War World," originally published in 1991. This is set in 1947. Heller has returned from World War II, having taken part in the fighting at Guadalcanal. His wife is pregnant - and not enjoying it. Heller gets a call from an acquaintance whose six year old daughter has been kidnapped. The family has received a ransom note. Heller agrees to help. It soon appears that the child had been abducted by the notorious Chicago "Lipstick Killer." As with all the Heller tales, this case has a basis in fact. The Lipstick Killer was so called because he had left a message written on the wall of a woman believed to be his second victim. The message, written in lipstick, became famous:
For heavens
Sake catch me
Before I Kill More
I cannot control myself
Heller catches a man who he believes to be the killer, who is later convicted. Collins conjectures that the story was much more complex and that Heller goes on to really solve the case, about which, for good reasons, Heller never informs the authorities.
Collins explains in his excellent Introduction to the book that he later corresponded with Wiliam Heirens, the man convicted of the Lipstick Killer murders.
I knew of one of the victims in the second story, but did not know that those people who had died had been murdered. Maxwell Bodenheim was an author, once a novelist and a highly regarded poet. By 1953, when the story "Kisses of Death" was set, Bodenheim and his wife were living on the streets in New York City. In the story, Bodenheim's one-time friend, the famed author Ben Hecht, had brought Bodenheim and his much younger wife to Chicago and organized a fund-raising party for them, which raised the less-than-magnificent sum of $12. Heller is at that party, serving as bodyguard to another friend of Hecht's, a young actress named Marilyn Monroe.
The Bodenheims subsequently return to New York. Hecht wangles a book deal for Bodenheim in which some of Bodenheim's novels would be republished. Hecht asks Heller to go to New York, track down the Bodenheims, and tell them about the deal. Heller does this but complications soon follow.
According to the information on Wikipedia
this tale follows the known facts more closely than the previous one - except, of course, for the fictional Heller's involvement. Ms. Monroe's part in the plot is slight, but she is a most engaging distraction. Collins made Monroe a much more central figure in another Heller story, the novel Bye Bye Baby.
The last (and shortest) story in this collection is "Strike Zone." (Both this and "Kisses of Death" first appeared in 2001.) This is set in 1961. The "murder victim" in this story is baseball player Eddie Gaedel, "the most famous pinch hitter in history." This case's solution is entirely fiction; Gaedel may well have actually died of natural causes. Eddie Gaedel was a midget, brought in to take one at-bat for the Cleveland Browns in 1951. Team owner Bill Veeck hired Gaedel as a stunt. A batter's strike zone is "between the batter's armpits and the top of his knees." Any throw outside of that area would be considered a "ball" rather than a "strike." If the person batting got four balls before he got three strikes, that would be a "walk" and the batter would advance to the first base. Veeck thought that this would be funny, as Gaedel's strike zone would be so small that he would almost definitely get a walk, as indeed he did; then Gaedel was immediately replaced by a different base-runner. Just a gag, but a famous one, guaranteeing that Veeck and Gaedel would always be remembered for that stunt. In this story, after Gaedel died at thirty-six, his mother was convinced he was murdered. She contacted Veeck; Veeck hired Heller, who had known Gaedel, to look into it. Heller's narration throughout the book is amusingly sardonic; in this tale, I feel that it lapses into condescension toward Gaedel and little people in general.
All the Heller stories that I have read quite successfully insert Heller into actual situations, and they do this so cleverly that readers might not know what is based on reality and what is purely fiction. Every bit as good a stunt as Veeck's, even if not quite so well known.
---------------------------------
The only thing that I would add to the 2021 review is that I have only read four books and several short stories in this series. I have liked all of them and I suspect that I would like some - or all - of the others as well.
---------------------------------
Nathan Heller is a great private investigator who has helped solve some of the most important cases in American history: Amelia Earhart's disappearance, Marilyn Monroe's death, the Lindbergh kidnapping, and many more. He had an amazing career, even if a strictly fictional one, in this fine series by Max Allan Collins.
Triple Play: A Nathan Heller Casebook is made up of three novellas or novelettes, each dealing with possible crimes and their conjectured solutions. Heller narrates all the stories. The first is "Dying in the Post-War World," originally published in 1991. This is set in 1947. Heller has returned from World War II, having taken part in the fighting at Guadalcanal. His wife is pregnant - and not enjoying it. Heller gets a call from an acquaintance whose six year old daughter has been kidnapped. The family has received a ransom note. Heller agrees to help. It soon appears that the child had been abducted by the notorious Chicago "Lipstick Killer." As with all the Heller tales, this case has a basis in fact. The Lipstick Killer was so called because he had left a message written on the wall of a woman believed to be his second victim. The message, written in lipstick, became famous:
For heavens
Sake catch me
Before I Kill More
I cannot control myself
Heller catches a man who he believes to be the killer, who is later convicted. Collins conjectures that the story was much more complex and that Heller goes on to really solve the case, about which, for good reasons, Heller never informs the authorities.
Collins explains in his excellent Introduction to the book that he later corresponded with Wiliam Heirens, the man convicted of the Lipstick Killer murders.
I knew of one of the victims in the second story, but did not know that those people who had died had been murdered. Maxwell Bodenheim was an author, once a novelist and a highly regarded poet. By 1953, when the story "Kisses of Death" was set, Bodenheim and his wife were living on the streets in New York City. In the story, Bodenheim's one-time friend, the famed author Ben Hecht, had brought Bodenheim and his much younger wife to Chicago and organized a fund-raising party for them, which raised the less-than-magnificent sum of $12. Heller is at that party, serving as bodyguard to another friend of Hecht's, a young actress named Marilyn Monroe.
The Bodenheims subsequently return to New York. Hecht wangles a book deal for Bodenheim in which some of Bodenheim's novels would be republished. Hecht asks Heller to go to New York, track down the Bodenheims, and tell them about the deal. Heller does this but complications soon follow.
According to the information on Wikipedia
this tale follows the known facts more closely than the previous one - except, of course, for the fictional Heller's involvement. Ms. Monroe's part in the plot is slight, but she is a most engaging distraction. Collins made Monroe a much more central figure in another Heller story, the novel Bye Bye Baby.
The last (and shortest) story in this collection is "Strike Zone." (Both this and "Kisses of Death" first appeared in 2001.) This is set in 1961. The "murder victim" in this story is baseball player Eddie Gaedel, "the most famous pinch hitter in history." This case's solution is entirely fiction; Gaedel may well have actually died of natural causes. Eddie Gaedel was a midget, brought in to take one at-bat for the Cleveland Browns in 1951. Team owner Bill Veeck hired Gaedel as a stunt. A batter's strike zone is "between the batter's armpits and the top of his knees." Any throw outside of that area would be considered a "ball" rather than a "strike." If the person batting got four balls before he got three strikes, that would be a "walk" and the batter would advance to the first base. Veeck thought that this would be funny, as Gaedel's strike zone would be so small that he would almost definitely get a walk, as indeed he did; then Gaedel was immediately replaced by a different base-runner. Just a gag, but a famous one, guaranteeing that Veeck and Gaedel would always be remembered for that stunt. In this story, after Gaedel died at thirty-six, his mother was convinced he was murdered. She contacted Veeck; Veeck hired Heller, who had known Gaedel, to look into it. Heller's narration throughout the book is amusingly sardonic; in this tale, I feel that it lapses into condescension toward Gaedel and little people in general.
All the Heller stories that I have read quite successfully insert Heller into actual situations, and they do this so cleverly that readers might not know what is based on reality and what is purely fiction. Every bit as good a stunt as Veeck's, even if not quite so well known.
---------------------------------
The only thing that I would add to the 2021 review is that I have only read four books and several short stories in this series. I have liked all of them and I suspect that I would like some - or all - of the others as well.
November 12, 2022
Fans of Max Allan Collins’ award winning series featuring Nate Heller should really enjoy this collection of two novellas and a short story presented again as the memoirs of Heller. Readers unfamiliar with Heller will find this volume a very satisfactory introduction, as it contains many of the familiar elements of the long running series. The famous and the infamous, in show business, politics, the Underworld, and even the only little person ever to play in a major league ball game all make appearances in this book.
Collins’ series is meticulously researched, and this entry is no exception. As in Heller’s other appearances a bibliography and historical context is also included.
The Heller series was introduced in 1982, before the Internet. Sometime in the 1990s this reader kept his tablet nearby as he looked at photographs and read encyclopedic entries featuring Heller’s various supporting characters
Collins’ series is meticulously researched, and this entry is no exception. As in Heller’s other appearances a bibliography and historical context is also included.
The Heller series was introduced in 1982, before the Internet. Sometime in the 1990s this reader kept his tablet nearby as he looked at photographs and read encyclopedic entries featuring Heller’s various supporting characters
February 28, 2024
Triple Play: More Chicago Fun and Games
I enjoyed these quick chapters with the snarkiest detective ever, with the heart of gold for the ladies, to put it politely. I loved the appearance of Marilyn Monroe at the Booksellers convention, with her earnestness and naïveté. And the sad end of an old radical who embodied the poet who raged, raged against the dying of the light.
I enjoyed these quick chapters with the snarkiest detective ever, with the heart of gold for the ladies, to put it politely. I loved the appearance of Marilyn Monroe at the Booksellers convention, with her earnestness and naïveté. And the sad end of an old radical who embodied the poet who raged, raged against the dying of the light.
March 1, 2022
A great read.
Like Charles Dickens Max will be read and studied by people one hundred years from now. He captures an era like no other living modern author. Only John D. MacDonald and his Travis Mcgee series can compare to what he writes. Thank you for many hours of enjoyment.
Like Charles Dickens Max will be read and studied by people one hundred years from now. He captures an era like no other living modern author. Only John D. MacDonald and his Travis Mcgee series can compare to what he writes. Thank you for many hours of enjoyment.
August 18, 2024
Triple Play...a Nathan Heller casebook
Fans of Nate Heller will enjoy this quick read of three short stories featuring the wily private eye in some strange circumstances.
Worth the time to check it out!
Fans of Nate Heller will enjoy this quick read of three short stories featuring the wily private eye in some strange circumstances.
Worth the time to check it out!
January 20, 2018
Good stories with an interesting main character.
October 9, 2021
Three Heller short stories
July 1, 2013
Max Allan Collins has given us a number of Nathan Heller novels. In this book he collects three novellas from the world of Nathan Heller. There is a grand tradition of these stories that are longer than short stories and shorter than novels. Once it was common to feature these in short story magazines. Authors (or publishers) would often collect three of these novellas and publish them in a single volume. Collins points out that this was a standard practice for Rex Stout. As short story periodicals have disappeared so have the novellas.
Collins says that he prefers writing novels to short stories. You wouldn’t know that from reading these stores. Of course they are not as in depth as a full novel, that would not be possible given the size of the story. For these stories Collins choose cases that were not as large in scope and so they allow for a shorter story. “Dying in the Post War World” covers the Lipstick Killer case. In this story Heller helps to track down a serial killer whose brutality leaves him ready to take matters into his own hands. In “Kisses of Death” Heller gets his first opportunity to work for Marilyn Monroe. While working for Ms. Monroe he is reacquainted with some members of the Chicago literary scene, mainly the obnoxious poet and author Maxwell Bodenheim. His look at this leading jazz age figure is less than flattering, but oh so wonderfully written. Finally in “Strike Zone” Heller goes to work for Bill Veek. Veeck was a well known character in the world of baseball. He loved to pull stunts to entertain the crowd. One of his best known stunts was to draft a midget as a pinch hitter. Eddie Gaedel will always be remembered as the shortest man who ever played professional baseball, even though he was later disqualified. Heller investigates the death of Gaedel after the man’s mother claims that he was murdered. There was a line in this story that had me laughing until I hurt.
All three of these novellas are well written and wonderful to read. I enjoyed each of them and can recommend this to any lover of great hardboiled detective stories.
Collins says that he prefers writing novels to short stories. You wouldn’t know that from reading these stores. Of course they are not as in depth as a full novel, that would not be possible given the size of the story. For these stories Collins choose cases that were not as large in scope and so they allow for a shorter story. “Dying in the Post War World” covers the Lipstick Killer case. In this story Heller helps to track down a serial killer whose brutality leaves him ready to take matters into his own hands. In “Kisses of Death” Heller gets his first opportunity to work for Marilyn Monroe. While working for Ms. Monroe he is reacquainted with some members of the Chicago literary scene, mainly the obnoxious poet and author Maxwell Bodenheim. His look at this leading jazz age figure is less than flattering, but oh so wonderfully written. Finally in “Strike Zone” Heller goes to work for Bill Veek. Veeck was a well known character in the world of baseball. He loved to pull stunts to entertain the crowd. One of his best known stunts was to draft a midget as a pinch hitter. Eddie Gaedel will always be remembered as the shortest man who ever played professional baseball, even though he was later disqualified. Heller investigates the death of Gaedel after the man’s mother claims that he was murdered. There was a line in this story that had me laughing until I hurt.
All three of these novellas are well written and wonderful to read. I enjoyed each of them and can recommend this to any lover of great hardboiled detective stories.
September 10, 2015
Triple Play is a collection of Max Allen Colllins’ short novels featuring detective Nate Heller, who seems to be involved in every historical mystery of the 20th Century. Collins is an expert of genre, both of the Private Eye story as well as the historical mystery story and these three stories (two novellas and a short story) as well done, fast paced reads that keep the reader moving rapidly to get to the well planned conclusions.
The stories are told from Heller’s perspective and lean heavily on historical events, giving the reader an excellent perspective on those events as seen through the eyes of a cynical ex-cop. While the character does fit the tropes of the genre, Collins’ writing makes the character seem more than the cliché. It also helps that there are a series of novels that flesh out the character, so that things that seem like asides inform the story and add more depth to long-time readers without making the stories seem impenetrable to new readers.
The book is made up of three stories, one involved the “Lipstick killer” of Chicago, one involving a fallen writer of radical literature and the final story involved the little person who played a single “at bat” in baseball. All are well contrasted mysteries, make the historical figures feel like fully realized characters and a written with skill and brevity. An excellent read and highly recommended for fans of good private eye stories or historical mysteries.
The stories are told from Heller’s perspective and lean heavily on historical events, giving the reader an excellent perspective on those events as seen through the eyes of a cynical ex-cop. While the character does fit the tropes of the genre, Collins’ writing makes the character seem more than the cliché. It also helps that there are a series of novels that flesh out the character, so that things that seem like asides inform the story and add more depth to long-time readers without making the stories seem impenetrable to new readers.
The book is made up of three stories, one involved the “Lipstick killer” of Chicago, one involving a fallen writer of radical literature and the final story involved the little person who played a single “at bat” in baseball. All are well contrasted mysteries, make the historical figures feel like fully realized characters and a written with skill and brevity. An excellent read and highly recommended for fans of good private eye stories or historical mysteries.
May 5, 2012
Triple Play includes three Nathan Heller stories: Dying in the Post-War World, Kisses of Death, and Strike Zone.
Dying in the Post-War World is based on the exploits of the Lipstick Killer, and it is the most violent and entertaining story in this collection. Heller is hired by a business acquaintance to find his kidnapped daughter, and it turns into a search for her killer, which leads him in several different directions. This one is a real page turner.
Kisses of Death starts out with Heller guarding Marilyn Monroe at a benefit for a downtrodden poet. She idolizes Maxwell Bodenheim, but Heller recognizes him for the fake that he is. This turns into a crime story, although it comes much too late and is resolved rather hastily.
Strike Zone is a short story about scout Bill Veeck who made a midget famous by hiring him to bat at a baseball game, beneficial to the team because his strike zone is so small. When Eddie Gaedel dies, Veeck suspects foul play and hires Heller to check it out.
The introduction discusses how difficult it is to get short stories published, especially pulp novels which have diminished in popularity since the 1960s. These types of stories are always entertaining, although they are not always the kind of thing you want to read multiple times. This collections offers a mixed bag.
Dying in the Post-War World is based on the exploits of the Lipstick Killer, and it is the most violent and entertaining story in this collection. Heller is hired by a business acquaintance to find his kidnapped daughter, and it turns into a search for her killer, which leads him in several different directions. This one is a real page turner.
Kisses of Death starts out with Heller guarding Marilyn Monroe at a benefit for a downtrodden poet. She idolizes Maxwell Bodenheim, but Heller recognizes him for the fake that he is. This turns into a crime story, although it comes much too late and is resolved rather hastily.
Strike Zone is a short story about scout Bill Veeck who made a midget famous by hiring him to bat at a baseball game, beneficial to the team because his strike zone is so small. When Eddie Gaedel dies, Veeck suspects foul play and hires Heller to check it out.
The introduction discusses how difficult it is to get short stories published, especially pulp novels which have diminished in popularity since the 1960s. These types of stories are always entertaining, although they are not always the kind of thing you want to read multiple times. This collections offers a mixed bag.
March 10, 2014
Three hard-boiled novellas reminiscent of those found in the pages of a pulp-fiction magazine. In these three stories Nate Heller, president and founder of the creatively named A1Detective Agency, finds himself once again caught up in three distinct and newsworthy events of the last half century. In the first he is quite literally caught up in the brutal lip-lipstick killings though an acquaintance whose daughter has been abducted. Heller finds realistic justice in the end as was once again he deals with and trough a corrupt Chicago PD and the outfit. In the second and in my option the best of three Heller ends up as a bodyguard for a young and up and coming Marylyn Monroe at a fundraiser for a down on his luck alcoholic poet. From Chicago to 1950's beatnik filled Greenwich Village, Heller works on what should be a non-violent easy escapade only to find himself once again up to his eyebrows in violence. The third and final story takes us to yet another peculiar event of mid-century America with baseball, midgets, booze and jealousy. All three stories could have been run in serial format in any men's pulp,magazine and done well. The Character development is quick, the settings descriptions brief and the sex insinuated. All in all stories worthy of Detective Heller and his uncanny ability to orbit the famous and not so famous events of the 20th Century.
January 23, 2016
I'll say it again--not a fan of mysteries, and not of fan of this genre, but I love a good story with solid characters and every ONE of Max Allan Collins' books deliver.
This installment has three more Nathan Heller stories. They are too long to be short stories, but not long enough for their own covers. They are not sequential, giving us a different glimpse of Nathan Heller each time. My favorite is the last one, STRIKE ZONE. It's about a little person (book uses "midget") who at one point played professional baseball as a gimmick. Less funny is that he ended up dead, but it's still a well written and entertaining story.
The great thing about the main character is that he has ethics, but they are not really in alignment with the law. For him, it's not always about the law as much as it is about justice, and because the stories are all told first person there is some great commentary on the law and society.
PI fans, mystery fans, or just fans of well written stories will enjoy this for sure.
This installment has three more Nathan Heller stories. They are too long to be short stories, but not long enough for their own covers. They are not sequential, giving us a different glimpse of Nathan Heller each time. My favorite is the last one, STRIKE ZONE. It's about a little person (book uses "midget") who at one point played professional baseball as a gimmick. Less funny is that he ended up dead, but it's still a well written and entertaining story.
The great thing about the main character is that he has ethics, but they are not really in alignment with the law. For him, it's not always about the law as much as it is about justice, and because the stories are all told first person there is some great commentary on the law and society.
PI fans, mystery fans, or just fans of well written stories will enjoy this for sure.
February 11, 2014
3 shorter pieces; one recycled; one with a nod to MM; and the third with a baseball background; hence, the title. This isn't the usual detailed exposition one gets in a Nate Heller novel.
Under other circumstances, I would be rating this 3 stars or less, but the shortcomings are balanced by a very interesting introduction where Collins discusses the role of the shorter story, particularly in the context of crime fiction. Further, the story of Eddie Gaedel (who will always be remembered as the shortest man who ever played major league baseball)Bill Veeck takes us back to an earlier era of baseball that will interest the dedicated fan. The first story, about Chicago's most prolific serial killer (to that date), is also-well researched and revealing. The middle story is the weakest, but interesting for its discussion of the Chicago literary scene and Ben Hecht. Marilyn Monroe has a cameo role that foreshadows a later Nate Heller novel.
Under other circumstances, I would be rating this 3 stars or less, but the shortcomings are balanced by a very interesting introduction where Collins discusses the role of the shorter story, particularly in the context of crime fiction. Further, the story of Eddie Gaedel (who will always be remembered as the shortest man who ever played major league baseball)Bill Veeck takes us back to an earlier era of baseball that will interest the dedicated fan. The first story, about Chicago's most prolific serial killer (to that date), is also-well researched and revealing. The middle story is the weakest, but interesting for its discussion of the Chicago literary scene and Ben Hecht. Marilyn Monroe has a cameo role that foreshadows a later Nate Heller novel.
May 25, 2013
This is a collection of three novellas featuring series character Nathan Heller. I'm a big fan of the Heller novels, and while these are of shorter length they don't disappoint. Heller takes on the Lipstick Killer in the first novella, and in the latter two crosses paths with such celebrities as Ben Hecht, Marilyn Monroe, and Bill Veeck. As always, Collins appends an afterword discussing his sources and delineating fact from fiction. Recommended!
May 27, 2013
Three excellent Nathan Heller stories -- billed as three short novels but really one short novel and three long short stories. Each, as with the regular novels in this series, puts Heller in the right place and right time to solve a real-world, historical murder case. All three feature vivid characters, brutal crimes, and more than a little bit of humor. Equally as good as the full Heller novels and worth a read.
May 8, 2012
I haven't read Max Allan Collins before but really enjoyed this, a cheap deal on Kindle. Collins writes an introduction about how the market for short, pulp fiction has changed since its heyday. The best story is the first, about Chicago's so-called Lipstick Killer. The second features Marilyn Monroe in a cameo role. The final piece is a bit short, but otherwise an entertaining read.
July 11, 2012
I really get tired of the name dropping in these Nate Heller books. The dude knows everyone from Elliott Ness and Frank Nitti to Marilyn Monroe. Give me a break. I prefer my hardboiled detectives be a little more obscure.
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May 3, 2012I like the way the book has started out. It makes me want to keep reading. The three stories were unrelated but each one was interesting and well written. I want to read more by this author.
February 20, 2019
More great stories from Collins
October 29, 2016
great reading
of an audiobook. Dan John Miller is superb as Nathan Heller. great voice. great acting. I love these books :)
of an audiobook. Dan John Miller is superb as Nathan Heller. great voice. great acting. I love these books :)
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