Scratch Fever

Nolan #6

by Max Allan Collins

Return of a femme fatale. Beautiful, homicidal Julie has one lethal solution for every problem. And now Nolan and his sometime sidekick Jon have gotten on Julie's "problem" list. If a pair of out-of-town hitmen can't do the job, Julie will do it herself. Said the Cleveland Plain "For fans of the hardboiled crime novel...this is powerful and highly enjoyable reading, fast moving and very, very tough." Now six of Max Allan Collins's early Nolan novels are back in print, with new Introductions by the author.

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1982

About the author

Received 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

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

A direct follow up to Hard Cash. Jon is playing with his band in a bar one night when he recognizes someone who should be dead. Someone who double-crossed Jon and Nolan on their last job. But Jon was recognized as well. Now it's a game of cat and mouse as the two sides jockey for who will survive.

This was a really good, quick noir read. The series is about, Nolan, one of the best thieves in the business. Now retired, but never THAT retired.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this follow up to "Hard Cash," Jon and Nolan are again trying to retire from their bank robbing days, but retirement just isn't meant to be for them. Although Nolan and Jon are trying to play it straight, as they walk down the street, the dark shadows from their past are nipping at their heels.
Nolan is an ex-mafia guy who, after having his differences with members of the family, went off on his own for some years, getting involved in heists and robberies, well-planned, well-executed heists for that matter. Nolan was considered the best in the business and had never ended up behind bars.
Jon is about as unlikely a guy to be paired with as Nolan could imagine, but their sometimes-partnership works well. Jon's uncle was known as "The Planner" and, under the cover of being an antiques dealer, the Planner would case jobs and put together packages for jobs consisting of plans and contacts. That is, he did this prior to getting killed when some thieves broke into his antiques shop and stole the $800,000 that Nolan and Jon had reaped from their first job together.

Jon is a twenty-one year old baby-faced kid with little experience in the life. He collects comic books with a passion few could imagine and has as his life's dream becoming a comic book artist. He hoped that his first job with Nolan would finance his way to pursuing his life's dream, but it didn't quite work out that way. Jon has looked up to Nolan as the personification of his action hero fantasies.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nolan may not be my favorite Collins character, but the books are awesome in a throwback kind of way

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each novel gets a little more in love with itself. Scratch Fever paints an interesting picture of the Mississippi River of small towns and the dumb men who think they control events.

[....] Certainly not stage fright—she’d been singing with rock bands since junior high—but some other kind of scared, something in her stomach that was far worse than butterflies.
Something cold.
Something alive.
Fear.

* * *
[....] She turned to Harold and smiled like a madonna. “You stay down here. I can take care of this myself.”
Harold said, “I love you, Julie.”
“I know you do, Harold.”
He shot her in the right eye.
It knocked her back, left her sprawled across the bottom few steps of the staircase, a tear of blood tracing her cheek under where her eye had been. She looked at Harold out of the remaining one, or seemed to, anyway.
Nolan let out some air. Cautiously, he reached down and picked up the 9 mm, which Julie dropped when she died.
“Thanks,” Nolan said.
“Don’t mention it” the big man said, and turned the toy .22 on himself and looked down the barrel and watched death come out....

[Randall Coan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Great Nolan

I love the work of Max Allan Collins, and his Nolan series is among my favorite of his works, right there with Heller and Quarry. These are great heist novels in the vein of Richard Stark's Parker, and every one of the Nolan novels has been a joy to read in their own right. As ever, Collins exhibits wonderful hardboiled characters, descriptive settings and time of place, and nice pacing that keeps me reading and lost in the story. I highly recommend Scratch Fever.

[Woody Chandler · Rating 3 out of 5]

A diesel ⛽ Duke that SUDDENLY becomes bi?!? C'mon, MAC, you're better than that.

[Bruce Nieminski · Rating 4 out of 5]

8.5/10

192 pages

[Jason McCracken · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the introduction Collins says this was his favourite in the series and I'd probably agree with him.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 A bit of a change for Nolan in this fun book in the series. Nolan has changed. He’s retired and in a relationship. That’s a first for him. We will see if that’s the case In the next one.

[John Weagly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very homophobic.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jon is onstage finishing up the farewell concert of his rock band The Nodes when he sees a woman setting at the bar that couldn't be. Julie was supposed to be dead, killed in a car fire along with the three quarters of a million dollars she'd stiffed Nolan and he on their last job(Hard Cash). He manages to call Nolan and leave a message on his answering machine shortly before he's grabbed, knocked unconscious, and awakens handcuffed to a bed.

Nolan is forced to deal with a couple of hit men who've broken into his home and tortured his girl friend for his location, killing one while the other escapes.

Yhey have to be connected so he heads out to track down Julie, find John, and finish something that should have been over.