Max Allan Collins - Deadly Beloved (Hard Case Crime)

Max Allan Collins is the closest thing we have to a 21st-century Mickey Spillane and...will please any fan of old-school, hardboiled crime fiction.

This Week

No one can twist you through a maze with as much intensity and suspense as Max Allan Collins.

Clive Cussler

Collins never misses a beat...All the stand-up pleasures of dime-store pulp with a beguiling level of complexity.

Booklist

Collins has an outwardly artless style that conceals a great deal of art.

The New York Times Book Review

A suspenseful, wild nights ride [from] one of the finest writers of crime fiction that the U.S. has produced.

Book Reporter

This book is about as perfect a page turner as youll find.

Library Journal

Bristling with suspense and sexuality, this book is a welcome addition to the Hard Case Crime library.

Publishers Weekly

A total delight...fast, surprising, and well-told.

Deadly Pleasures

Strong and compelling reading.

Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine

Max Allan Collins [is] like no other writer.

Andrew Vachss

Collins breaks out a really good one, knocking over the hard-boiled competition (Parker and Leonard for sure, maybe even Puzo) with a one-two punch: a feisty storyline told bittersweet and wry...nice and taut...the book is unputdownable. Never done better.

Kirkus Reviews

Rippling with brutal violence and surprisingly sexuality...I savored every turn.

Bookgasm

Masterful.

Jeffrey Deaver

Collins has a gift for creating low-life believable characters...a sharply focused action story that keeps the reader guessing till the slam-bang ending. A consummate thriller from one of the new masters of the genre.

Atlanta Journal Constitution

For fans of the hardboiled crime novel...this is powerful and highly enjoyable reading, fast moving and very, very tough.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Entertaining...full of colorful characters...a stirring conclusion.

Detroit Free Press

Collins makes it sound as though it really happened.

New York Daily News

An exceptional storyteller.

San Diego Union Tribune

A gift for intricate plotting and cinematically effective action scenes.

Jon L. Breen, Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers

Nobody does it better than Max Allan Collins.

John Lutz

Dominique Muerta sat behind a mahogany desk about the size of a sideways BMW. Impeccable in severe though stylish business attiregray suit, black silk blouse, by some European designer whose work I could neither recognize nor affordshe was a beautiful woman, no question of it, slender and yet strong and so pretty that the mannish severity of her no-doubt-expensive short hairdo took nothing away. The thin lips were a bright red and the almond-shaped eyes were as richly, deeply mahogany as the desk, softened with a touch of lavender eye shadow.

Michael Tree, she said, and smiled as she rose. She came around from behind the desk and met me halfway, extending a graceful hand.

As we shook, she said, This is a long overdue meeting. We have so much in common.

She did not offer to take my trenchcoat and I left it on, as well as my gloves, purse on its strap over my shoulder.

Indicating the glass coffee table, she said, Sit, sit.... Cappuccino? Water?...I can have hot or iced tea or regular coffee or a soft drink

No, I said, sitting on the nearest couch. Thank you. This wont take long.

Dominique sat on the white leather chair across the glass table. Her thin lips formed a razor-edge smile as she opened her hand to display the bullet in her palm.

Interesting business card, she said. An eyebrow arched. Did you mean to scare me, or just get my attention?

Dominique set the bullet on the coffee table, straight up, as if placing a miniature in a collectors set. It made a little klik on the glass.

When I want your attention, I said with my own smile, itll be traveling faster...

SOME OTHER HARD CASE CRIME BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY:

THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART by Lawrence Block

THE GUTTER AND THE GRAVE by Ed McBain

NIGHT WALKER by Donald Hamilton

A TOUCH OF DEATH by Charles Williams

SAY IT WITH BULLETS by Richard Powell

WITNESS TO MYSELF by Seymour Shubin

BUST by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr

STRAIGHT CUT by Madison Smartt Bell

LEMONS NEVER LIE by Richard Stark

THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins

THE GUNS OF HEAVEN by Pete Hamill

THE LAST MATCH by David Dodge

GRAVE DESCEND by John Lange

THE PEDDLER by Richard S. Prather

LUCKY AT CARDS by Lawrence Block

ROBBIES WIFE by Russell Hill

THE VENGEFUL VIRGIN by Gil Brewer

THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN by David Goodis

BLACKMAILER by George Axelrod

SONGS OF INNOCENCE by Richard Aleas

FRIGHT by Cornell Woolrich

KILL NOW, PAY LATER by Robert Terrall

SLIDE by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr

DEAD STREET by Mickey Spillane

by Max Allan Collins

A HARD CASE CRIME BOOK

(HCC-038)

First Hard Case Crime edition: December 2007

Published by

Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark Street

London

SE1 0UP

in collaboration with Winterfall LLC

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should know that it is stolen property. It was reported as unsold and destroyed to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this stripped book.

Copyright 2007 by Max Allan Collins

Cover painting copyright 2007 by Terry Beatty

MS. TREE is a trademark of Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Print edition ISBN 978-0-85768-322-9

E-book ISBN 978-0-85768-643-5

Cover design by Cooley Design Lab

Design direction by Max Phillips

Typeset by Swordsmith Productions

The name Hard Case Crime and the Hard Case Crime logo are trademarks of Winterfall LLC. Hard Case Crime books are selected and edited by Charles Ardai.

Printed in the United States of America

Visit us on the web at www.HardCaseCrime.com

For Ken Levin

Ms. Trees Chicago counsel

Down these mean streets a woman must go who is not herself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.

RAYMOND CHANDLER,

THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER,

PARAPHRASED

The woman in the skimpy black bikini on the perfect beach on the too-perfect day was me.

I saw her from a God-like distance, the long legs stretched out, shoulders back accentuating the full bust, black hair brushing tan shoulders with help of a whispery breeze, well-carved handsome features that were almost beautiful taking on a serene cast as blue-green eyes studied the blue-green water that rolled gently to a picture-book tan sand shore.