Friday 18 December 2015

MAX ALLAN COLLINS - MOURN THE LIVING (1988)


Synopsis/blurb……..

The original novel in Max Allan Collins's series about professional thief Nolan. The death of a friend's daughter leads Nolan to a small Illinois college town where the mob has murderous rivals in the drug trade.

Says The Big Book of Noir: "There's nobody better at the American crime novel than Max Allan Collins."

Mourn the Living is the last Nolan novel to see print, but apparently the first to be written. It pre-dates the action of Bait Money by about 10 years.

Best book ever? No, but enough here to keep me more than happy.

Lone wolf, Nolan is a man with a price on his head after killing one of Chicago’s mob bosses. A debt to a former friend has him returning to Illinois to look into the death of Sid Tisor’s daughter, Irene. She thought she could fly from the roof of a building after taking LSD.

Irene was a student in the college town, which is ostensibly being run by George Franco, the misfit brother from the Chicago mob’s top family. Reluctantly, Nolan takes a look.

Drugs, drugs, more drugs, bent cops, hippies, a heroin addict and dealer, a frightened journalist, an incompetent and powerless mob boss, a mystery man pulling the strings and running the show, some New York hoods, a bit of love interest, a few bouts of fisticuffs, some gun play – some answers and a big suitcase full of cash and a pretty girl! Happy days.

It was interesting to see the origins of the series. A review I’ve read said this book was for Collins’ completists only and his writing get much better over the course of his career. ( It's not too shoddy here in my opinion.) In Collins own introduction he says this was written about 1967 or 1968 when he was an undergraduate. 

I really enjoyed this one. I did guess one of the end of novel reveals, but kind of forgot about it until the reveal itself, which was a surprise. There’s not a tremendous amount of depth to the characters and the plot isn’t overly complex – but hey, I’m a fan.

4 from 5    

My journey through the 8 Nolan books has me wanting to read more from Collins. So roll on the 11 or 12 book Quarry series. Quarry’s a hitman - so should be fun to follow.

The full series is as follows:
Nolan

8. Mourn the Living (1988)

Max Allan Collins has his website/blog here.

Mourn the Living was bought for Kindle a year or two ago.

12 comments:

  1. It's always interesting to see how writers change over the years like that, Col. Most writers do evolve and get better over time, so their first work isn't always their best. But this one sounds like a solid start to the series.

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    1. I do like latching onto an author and reading through their body of work. Probably a bit of a non-starter for me with Collins, especially as he has been so prolific, but his Quarry books might give me a more up to date taste of his writing, as this series spans 1976 to 2015. Good reading ahead of me!

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  2. I'm glad to hear this one turned out to be as good as you expected. And, as I always say when you post about Collins, I really must get to him at some stage!

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    1. You really should - he's the dog's doodahs!

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  3. I've never been a huge fan of the Nolans or Quarrys but I love the Nate Hellers. Not sure why, perhaps the historical foundations make them more real for me somehow.

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    1. I've not yet tried Quarry or Nate Heller. The Heller's do seem interesting, but I prefer the more contemporary settings for Nolan and Quarry - albeit some of them are now nearly 40 years old.

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  4. Col, I have definitely made up my mind to read Max Allan Collins early next year. I will have to see where to start.

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    1. Prashant, you have plenty to choose from. I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on with him.

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  5. You will mesmerise me into reading him one of these days - there's been quite a few posts recently hasn't there?

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    1. Yes, I'm reading through this and another of his series. You'll see him once a month!

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  6. So now you are through with Nolan, moving onto Quarry. I will look forward to more reviews. I have a good number of his books, three disaster series, 5 of the Nate Heller series, but unfortunately most of them are e-books, and I have a hard time getting motivated to read those. But I will get to him eventually.

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    1. Half of my Quarry books are e-books, half are paperbacks. I prefer paperbacks, but e reads are perfectly fine, unless the books over a certain length. If I was following on after Quarry, it would probably be Nate Heller for me. But I doubt I will.

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