Today Amazon offers 10 books from the long-running Nathan Heller historical mystery series by award-winning author Max Allan Collins are just $1.99 each (80% off). Set in the 1930s to the 1950s, Collins’s gripping and humorous hard-boiled stories follow Heller, a Chicago private eye with a knack for nabbing high-profile cases involving famous people. Here are the list of these books:
1. The Million-Dollar Wound (Nathan Heller Novels)
In 1942, Chicago P.I. Nate Heller and his childhood pal, boxer Barney Ross, join the Marines and see bloody action together at Guadalcanal. Upon his return to gangland Chicago, the shell-shocked Heller—more dangerous than ever—is thrust into the midst of an inter-gang war to depose Capone’s successor Frank Nitti, whose minions are infiltrating Hollywood movie unions. In this crushing finale to rough-and-tumble Nate Heller’s Frank Nitti trilogy, Max Allan Collins delves into the damaged psyche of war veterans as a full-on gangland war threatens to explode. As tempers in Hollywood flare-up, Heller attempts to solve a murder committed behind enemy lines, and deal with the drug addiction of his friend Barney. But not even the company of fan dancer Sally Rand can ease Heller’s conscience as he is haunted by the events at Guadalcanal even as he’s surrounded by the murder and mayhem of Nitti’s final, violent days.
2. Neon Mirage (Nathan Heller Novels)
In 1946 Chicago, Nathan Heller—president of the flourishing A-1 Detective Agency—is hired to protect racing-wire gambling chief James Ragen, who is nonetheless shot down on the streets of Chicago. Not one to take such an affront sitting down, Nate goes after the killer, but he’s in for the biggest surprise of his career. Demonstrating once again that he is the master of true-crime fiction, Max Allan Collins’ story of the birth of Las Vegas—and the dirty deeds that floated all around it—is a masterpiece of modern noir. Heller follows the trail as it leads to Hollywood and Las Vegas, specifically to Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, but when he proves Siegel’s innocence, Heller and the suave gangster wind up friends…and rivals for the love of Nate’s life. Bugsy hires Heller as security chief of the under-construction Flamingo hotel, where mob bag woman Virginia Hill is a dangerous, if glamorous, distraction. It all comes to a boil with a shocking mob assassination in Beverly Hills that sends Heller into fever-dream ride of vengeance.
3. Stolen Away (Nathan Heller Novels)
March 1932. After the recently incarcerated Al Capone offers to negotiate the return of the kidnapped son of Charles Lindbergh, Nathan Heller of the Chicago P.D. is sent to Hopewell, New Jersey, as a police liaison. As a part of Lindbergh’s inner circle, Heller investigates crooks, cranks, socialites, and psychics in a frustrating, fruitless attempt to solve the case. Max Allan Collins makes the crime that captivated a nation the focal point of yet another fascinating and thoroughly spellbinding foray into his world of historical crime fiction. Four years later, in 1936, Heller—now a private detective, and considered an expert and insider on the Lindbergh case—is hired by the governor of New Jersey in an eleventh-hour quest to determine the guilt or innocence of Bruno Hauptmann, who sits on death row convicted of the murder and kidnapping of the Lindbergh child.
4. Carnal Hours (Nathan Heller Novels)
In July 1943, Nate Heller flies to Nassau where multimillionaire Sir Harry Oakes wants dirt dug up on Count De Marigny, the playboy who has married Harry’s beautiful, underage daughter, Nancy. But the investigation has barely begun when Sir Harry turns up dead in bed—burned to death in a real-life locked-room mystery—and Heller is soon working for Nancy, whose husband faces murder charges. Chicago P.I. Heller is on his most intriguing—and dangerous—mission yet in this devilishly clever thriller filled with surprising twists and sharp turns. With the world at war, the peaceful Bahamas provide an ironic, idyllic backdrop for Nazis, the mafia, and two lovely women: one a native girl, the other an aristocratic Englishwoman. Heller is aided by a certain British secret service agent (“Fleming…Ian Fleming”), and encounters along the way the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Meyer Lanksy, and Perry Mason’s creator, Erle Stanley Gardner.
5. Blood and Thunder (Nathan Heller Novels)
1935. Louisiana. Presidential candidate—and force of nature—Huey Long, the “Kingfish,” is in fear for his life. After Nathan Heller delivers the former Louisiana governor a bulletproof vest, the Kingfish hires the Chicago private eye to investigate death threats from political rivals. Soon Heller runs head-on into an IRS investigation seeking millions skimmed from state workers for Huey’s “de-duct box”…and into the arms of the ex-governor’s lovely ex-mistress. When the charismatic politician is shot down by a seemingly crazed doctor, Heller gets a new employer—the insurance agency fighting a double-indemnity claim from Long’s widow. Was the Kingfish truly the victim of assassination, or accidentally killed by his own bodyguards? A classic P.I. thriller built on historical fact, Max Allan Collins’ Blood and Thunder showcases Huey Long in all his gaudy glory, while delving deep into the heart of the deadliest swamps of Louisiana’s mob-infested politics.
6. Flying Blind (Nathan Heller Novels)
In 1935, Nate Heller is hired to escort Amelia Earhart on a speaking tour due to numerous cut-and-paste death threats against her life. Heller suspects the threats are a stunt by Earhart’s publicity-hungry husband, and the detective’s growing closeness to the bisexual aviatrix leads to a steamy affair. Two years later, when Earhart embarks on her flight around the world—and mysteriously disappears over the South Pacific—Uncle Sam enlists Heller in a clandestine search of Japanese waters for the popular Earhart…and the top-secret plane she was flying. Blending the unsolved mystery and historical facts swirling around Earhart’s disappearance with Heller’s sarcastic wit, Max Allan Collins delivers another riveting tale of intrigue and betrayal, taking Heller far from his native Chicago. As he investigates, Heller discovers a treacherous plot involving marital betrayal and the U.S. government. Heller’s secret undercover mission leads to Saipan where Earhart is believed to be held prisoner. But Nate’s heartbreaking attempted rescue leads the detective to return, many years later, to extract his final revenge.
7. Majic Man (Nathan Heller Novels)
It’s 1949 in Washington, D.C., and Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, convinced he has been targeted for murder, hires Chicago P.I. Nate Heller for protection. Heller must deal with Beltway infighting, Communist paranoia, Israeli agents, and a mysterious military group called the Majestic Twelve in his journey to protect Forrestal. With his client locked away in a mental ward, Heller begins to doubt his own sanity as he explores reports of flying saucers landing near the tiny desert town of Roswell, New Mexico. Taking his unique brand of historical fiction to the highest seats of our country’s power structure, Max Allan Collins delivers a sordid tale long on wit and rich in detail. When Forrestal suspiciously commits “suicide,” the Chicago P.I. uncovers a top-secret, reprehensible alliance between the U.S. government and a Nazi cabal. With a supporting cast that includes Harry Truman, Teddy Kollek, Jack Anderson, and Drew Pearson, Majic Man is a who’s who of American post-war history.
8. Angel in Black (Nathan Heller Novels)
Los Angeles. The City of Angels. The perfect place for a honeymoon…and the worst possible time for a murder. Vacationing private investigator Nate Heller finds himself a suspect in the LAPD’s investigation of the notorious Black Dahlia murder case. Problem is the butchered starlet, Elizabeth Short, is an old Chicago flame of Heller’s—and only the P.I. himself knows she was blackmailing him for abortion money. Classic noir at its finest blended to extraordinary effect with historical facts, Max Allan Collins’ Angel in Black crackles with tight plotting and razor-sharp dialogue. With the help of a world-weary, alcoholic Eliot Ness, Heller links the murder to a notorious Cleveland serial killer…while doing his best to stay out of jail and salvage his already troubled new marriage. Along the way he encounters Chicago boxer Barney Ross, fellow suspect Orson Welles, and zany gangster Mickey Cohen.
9. Chicago Confidential (Nathan Heller Novels)
It’s 1950 in Chicago, P.I. Nate Heller’s old stomping grounds. But things are different now, and the wind is blowing in a different, decidedly more dangerous direction. Congressman-with-a-cause and presidential-hopeful Estes Kefauver creates the Committee on Organized Crime to put the squeeze on the mob—and anyone who ever associated with them. Heller tries to lay low, but when ex-cop Bill Drury cooperates and mafia moll Jackie Payne sings, Heller finds himself catapulted into the middle of the investigation. Quick wits and tough talk swirl in the middle of Kefauver’s senatorial charade as Max Allan Collins blends fact and fiction to stunning results. When Drury is murdered and Jackie disappears, Heller decides it’s time for a little payback—and maybe some ice cold justice. With the mob and Kefauver’s crime committee hot on his trail, Heller mixes with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Jayne Mansfield, and Senator Joe McCarthy on a wild Windy City ride.
10. Chicago Lightning: The Collected Nathan Heller Short Stories (Nate Heller)
Tough, cynical, and clever, Nathan Heller has been called “the perfect private eye,” the best investigator that Chicago (where ‘lightning’ means gunfire) has to offer. Created by New York Times bestselling novelist and Road to Perdition creator Max Allan Collins, the classic PI comes vibrantly to life in this collection of 13 stories, all based on real cases of the 1930s and ’40s. In “The Blonde Tigress,” Heller encounters a vicious hold-up crew with a brutal female leader, while in “Scrap” he investigates a union shooting that has national implications. In “The Perfect Crime,” he goes Hollywood to protect the lovely Thelma Todd, with tragic results. The private eye finds himself tangling with notorious mobster Mickey Cohen in “A Shoot-out on Sunset” and with Al Capone’s successor, Frank Nitti, in “Screwball.” Heller’s friendship with Eliot Ness finds the two men working together in both “The Strawberry Teardrop,” in which Heller encounters America’s first serial killer, and “Natural Death, Inc.” Heller tackles each case with his trademark cynicism and humor, digging into the grimy underbelly of 20th-century America to uncover the truth at any cost.
Cool Dog, School Dog by Deborah Heiligman (Author) and Tim Bowers (Illustrator) is a book for kids which Amazon also include in today’s deals. It costs $1.99.
Tinka is a cool dog, a school dog, a breaking all the rules dog.A hall dog, a ball dog, a crash-into-the-wall dog.
Join Tinka, a dandy, sandy Golden Retriever, as she unexpectedly visits her owner at school and helps his class learn to read. Bright illustrations rendered in acrylic paint add to the excitement in this playful back-to-school story about a boy and his “loves-to-hear-a-book” dog.
Some words about the Authors
Author Deborah Heiligman is the author of a number of highly praised nonfiction children’s books, including High Hopes: A Photobiography of John F. Kennedy (named a Top Ten JFK Pick by BookSense). She and her husband live and write in New York City.
Illustrator Tim Bowers has illustrated more than twenty children’s books, many of them about dogs. Among his most popular titles are the Little Whistle books by Cynthia Rylant and Sometimes I Wonder If Poodles Like Noodles by Laura Numeroff. Tim and his family live in Granville, Ohio.
Pair Up is a game for your Kindle Fire. Today only it is free.
Pair-Up is an addictive educational game that will keep your child engaged while developing their cognitive skills, including language, quantitative and reasoning skills development.
With over 300 unique questions, and high definition gorgeous graphics your child can enjoy hours of gameplay. In addition a lot of the questions are randomly generated so each time the game is played the question will be a bit different and challenging even if it was already solved before.
The game includes 3 main categories, “Visual Perception”, “Quantitative Reasoning” and “Associative Thinking” and in each category we’ve included a basic and advanced set of questions.
Your child will be presented with a single image and four possible answers of which only one is correct. Drag the right answer to the empty frame and you’ll advance to the next question in the set. Complete the whole set of questions and you’ll be awarded with up to 3 stars depending on your performance.
For the young audience that is not capable of reading yet we’ve included a narrator that introduces each set, this helps explaining what needs to be done. In addition there is also a hint page which will explain in more details the logic behind each set and how to solve it (Press the ‘?’ button in the game )
The default game mode is the ‘Drag Mode’, but if your child is lacking the fine motor skills of dragging the images you can turn on the ‘Tap Mode’ through the setting screen. In this mode just tapping the right answer will be enough and you won’t need to physically drag it into the empty frame.
Pair Up was designed for children ages 4 and up, though some sets within the game will be more advanced. this is on purpose and will help to further develop your child.