Antiques Fate (23 page)

BARBARA ALLAN
is a joint pseudonym of husband-and-wife mystery writers Barbara and Max Allan Collins.

 

BARBARA COLLINS
is a highly respected short story writer in the mystery field, with appearances in over a dozen top anthologies, including
Murder Most Delicious, Women on the Edge, Deadly Housewives,
and the best-selling
Cat Crimes
series. She was the co-editor of (and a contributor to) the best-selling anthology
Lethal Ladies
, and her stories were selected for inclusion in the first three volumes of
The Year's 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories
.

Two acclaimed hardcover collections of her work have been published—
Too Many Tomcats
and (with her husband)
Murder—His and Hers
. The Collins's first novel together, the Baby Boomer thriller
Regeneration
, was a paperback best-seller; their second collaborative novel,
Bombshell
—in which Marilyn Monroe saves the world from World War III—was published in hardcover to excellent reviews. Both are back in print under the “Barbara Allan” byline.

Barbara has been the production manager and/or line producer on various independent film projects emanating from the production company she and her husband jointly run.

 

MAX ALLAN COLLINS
has been hailed as “the Renaissance man of mystery fiction.” He has earned an unprecedented twenty-two Private Eye of America “Shamus” nominations, winning two Best Novel awards for his Nathan Heller historical thrillers,
True Detective
(1983), and
Stolen Away
(1991), and Best Short Story for his Mike Hammer story, “So Long Chief” (2014), completing an unfinished work by Mickey Spillane. His other credits include film criticism, short fiction, songwriting, trading-card sets, and movie/TV tie-in novels, including the
New York Times
best-sellers
Saving Private Ryan
and the Scribe Award
–
winning
American Gangster
. His graphic novel
Road to Perdition,
considered a classic of the form, is the basis of the Academy Award–winning film. Max's other comics credits include the “Dick Tracy” syndicated strip; his own “Ms. Tree”; “Batman”; and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” based on the hit TV series, for which he has also written six video games and ten best-selling novels.

An acclaimed, award-winning filmmaker in the Midwest, he wrote and directed the Lifetime movie
Mommy
(1996) and three other features; his produced screenplays include the 1995 HBO World Premiere
The Expert
and
The Last Lullaby
(2008). His 1998 documentary
Mike Hammer's Mickey Spillane
appears on the Criterion Collection release of the acclaimed film noir
Kiss Me Deadly
.

Max's most recent novels include
Ask Not
(the conclusion to his Nate Heller “JFK Trilogy”) and
King of the Weeds
(completing an unfinished Mike Hammer novel from the late Mickey Spillane's files).

“BARBARA ALLAN” live(s) in Muscatine, Iowa, their Serenity-esque hometown. Son Nathan works as a translator of Japanese to English, with credits ranging from video games to novels.