Pitching in with help were my LAPD cop pal (and excellent mystery/suspense writer) Paul Bishop and my frequent collaborator, Matthew Clemens, who was always available to chase down a stray fact, particularly in the forensics area.
My thanks to my friend and agent, Dominick Abel, who has helped me keep Nathan Heller alive; and my editor, James Frenkel, who nudged, encouraged, and believed.
My wife, Barbara Collins, is a Marilyn Monroe buff par excellence. In her twenties, thirties, and forties, she was often stopped by strangers who noted her resemblance to Marilyn, and I imagine this fueled her interest in the actress. (It has not been a hardship to me, over the years, being married to a beautiful blonde.) Barb has assembled—with my help, often at Christmastime—one of the great Monroe collections anywhere: books, magazines, memorabilia, and collectibles. This interest inspired Barb to collaborate with me on Bombshell (2004), a fanciful comic espionage thriller that teams Marilyn Monroe and Nikita Khrushchev. The research (mostly by Barb) was solid, and both of us came out of the project with an even greater knowledge of Marilyn and her life and character. I have also written a Nathan Heller novella involving Marilyn, Kisses of Death, the lead story in a 2001 collection of the same name.
Because of Bombshell and Kisses of Death, and due to Barb’s interest in Marilyn, I have read many, many books on the actress, and viewed any number of documentaries, which no doubt influenced this novel. I will make no attempt to list them all here, although if you check the back of Bombshell for its bibliographic note, you’ll find many of them. But I must thank my wife, even more than usual, for being my constant sounding board during the writing of Bye Bye, Baby, and for the keen eye and sharp insights she provided as she read this novel chapter-at-a-time during its creation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MAX ALLAN COLLINS was hailed in 2004 by Publishers Weekly as “a new breed of writer.” A frequent Mystery Writers of America Edgar nominee in both fiction and nonfiction categories, he has earned an unprecedented fifteen Private Eye Writers of America Shamus nominations, winning for his Nathan Heller novels True Detective (1983) and Stolen Away (1991), and receiving the PWA life achievement award, the Eye, in 2007.
His graphic novel Road to Perdition (1998) is the basis of the Academy Award–winning 2002 film starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, and Daniel Craig, directed by Sam Mendes. It was followed by two acclaimed prose sequels, Road to Purgatory (2004) and Road to Paradise (2005), with a graphic novel sequel, Return to Perdition, forthcoming. He has written a number of innovative suspense series, notably Quarry (the first series about a hired killer) and Eliot Ness (four novels about the famous real-life Untouchable’s Cleveland years). He is completing a number of “Mike Hammer” novels begun by the late Mickey Spillane, with whom Collins collaborated on many projects; the third of these, Kiss Her Goodbye, is a 2011 publication. You Can’t Stop Me, a serial-killer thriller written with Matthew Clemens, was published in 2010.
His many comics credits include the syndicated strip “Dick Tracy”; his own “Ms. Tree” (the longest-running private eye comic book); “Batman”; and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, based on the hit TV series, for which he has also written video games, jigsaw puzzles, and ten novels that have sold millions of copies worldwide.
Termed “the novelization king” by Entertainment Weekly, Collins has written tie-in books that have appeared on the USA Today bestseller list nine times and on the New York Times list three. His movie novels include Saving Private Ryan, Air Force One, and American Gangster, the latter winning the Best Novel Scribe Award in 2008 from the International Association of Tie-in Writers.
An independent filmmaker in the Midwest, Collins has written and directed five features and two documentaries, including the Lifetime movie Mommy (1996) and a 1997 sequel, Mommy’s Day. He wrote The Expert, a 1995 HBO World Premiere, and The Last Lullaby, starring Tom Sizemore, a feature film based on Collins’ acclaimed novel The Last Quarry; the latter film won numerous awards on the film festival circuit before its theatrical and home-video release.
His one-man show, Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life, was nominated for an Edgar for Best Play of 2004 by the Mystery Writers of America; a film version, written and directed by Collins, was released on DVD in 2008 and appeared on PBS stations in 2009. His documentary Caveman: V.T. Hamlin & Alley Oop was also released on DVD after screening on PBS stations.
His other credits include film criticism, short fiction, songwriting, trading-card sets, and a regular column in Asian Cult Cinema magazine. His nonfiction work has received many honors, with his coffee-table book The History of Mystery receiving nominations for every major mystery award and his recent Men’s Adventure Magazines (with George Hagenauer) winning the Anthony Award.
Collins lives in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife, writer Barbara Collins; they have collaborated on six novels and numerous short stories, and are currently writing the successful “Trash ‘n’ Treasures” mysteries—their Antiques Flee Market (2008) won the Romantic Times Best Humorous Mystery Novel award in 2009. Their son, Nathan, is a Japanese-to-English translator, working on video games, manga, and novels.
BOOKS BY MAX ALLAN COLLINS
The Memoirs of Nathan Heller
Bye Bye, Baby
Chicago Confidential
Angel in Black
Kisses of Death
Majic Man
Flying Blind
Damned in Paradise
Blood and Thunder
Carnal Hours
Stolen Away
Dying in the Post-War World
Neon Mirage
The Million-Dollar Wound
True Crime
True Detective
The Road to Perdition Saga
Return to Perdition (graphic novel)
Road to Paradise
Road to Purgatory
Road to Perdition 2: On the Road (graphic novel)
Road to Perdition (graphic novel)
With Mickey Spillane
Kiss Her Goodbye
The Big Bang
The Goliath Bone
Dead Street
Antiques Knock-off
Antiques Bizarre
Antiques Flee Market
Antiques Maul
Antiques Roadkill
Quarry Novels
Quarry’s Ex
Quarry in the Middle
The First Quarry
The Last Quarry
Quarry’s Vote (aka Primary Target)
Quarry’s Cut (aka The Slasher)
Quarry’s Deal (aka The Dealer)
Quarry’s List (aka The Broker’s Wife)
Quarry (aka The Broker)
Writing as Patrick Culhane
Red Sky in Morning
Black Hats
With Matthew Clemens
No One Will Hear You
You Can’t Stop Me
Although the historical incidents in this novel are portrayed as accurately as the passage of time and contradictory source materials will allow, fact, speculation, and fiction are freely mixed here; historical personages exist side by side with composite characters and wholly fictional ones—all of whom are summoned, act, and speak at the author’s whim.
BYE BYE, BABY
Copyright © 2011 by Max Allan Collins
All rights reserved.
Edited by James Frenkel
A Forge® eBook
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor-forge.com
Forge® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
ISBN 978-0-7653-2179-4
First Edition: August 2011
eISBN 978-1-4299-8040-1
First Forge eBook Edition: August 2011
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