Antiques Chop (A Trash 'n' Treasures Mystery) (22 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 bestselling
Cat Crimes
series. She was the coeditor of (and a contributor to) the bestselling 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 Collinses’ first novel together, the Baby Boomer thriller
Regeneration,
was a paperback bestseller; their second collaborative novel,
Bombshell
—in which Marilyn Monroe saves the world from World War III—was published in hardcover to excellent reviews.

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 seventeen Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus” nominations for his Nathan Heller historical thrillers, winning for
True Detective
(1983) and
Stolen Away
(1991).

His other credits include film criticism, short fiction, songwriting, trading-card sets, and movie/TV tie-in novels, including the
New York Times
bestsellers
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 bestselling 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 acclaimed film noir Kiss Me Deadly.

Max’s most recent novels include Seduction of the Inno
cent
(a Jack and Maggie Starr mystery) and
Lady, Go Die!
(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 graduated with honors in Japanese and computer science at the University of Iowa and works as a translator of Japanese to English, with credits ranging from video games to novels.

KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

 

Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10022

 

Copyright © 2013 by Max Allan Collins and Barbara Collins

 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

 

Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

 

Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number: 2013930671

ISBN: 978-0-7582-6362-9