Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Midnight Haul | 1986 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 2 | In the Line of Fire | 1993 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 3 | Maverick | 1994 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 4 | Waterworld | 1995 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 5 | Daylight | 1996 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 6 | Air Force One | 1997 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 7 | American Gangster | 1997 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 8 | U.S. Marshals | 1998 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 9 | Regeneration | 1999 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 10 | U-571 | 2000 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 11 | Windtalkers | 2001 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 12 | The History of Mystery | 2001 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 13 | I Spy | 2002 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 14 | Bombshell | 2004 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 15 | The Pink Panther | 2005 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 16 | Black Hats | 2007 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 17 | Deadly Beloved | 2007 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 18 | Red Sky in Morning | 2008 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 19 | The Consummata | 2011 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 20 | Flower for the Butcher | 2012 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 21 | Saving Private Ryan | 2012 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 22 | What Doesn’t Kill Her | 2013 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 23 | USS Powderkeg | 2018 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
| 24 | Cutout | 2024 | Max Allan Collins | Buy |
Max Allan Collins is one of the most prolific writers working in crime fiction, and his standalone novels reflect the range of his interests. A large portion of these books are novelizations of major Hollywood films, including In the Line of Fire, Air Force One, U-571, and Saving Private Ryan. Collins brought his sharp prose style to these adaptations, giving them more depth than typical tie-in novels.
Beyond the movie novelizations, Collins has written original standalone fiction that draws on American history and noir traditions. Black Hats is a Western crime novel featuring Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson, while The Consummata is a hard-boiled thriller completed from an unfinished manuscript by Mickey Spillane. His non-fiction work The History of Mystery provides a survey of the mystery genre itself.
The standalone novels span nearly four decades of Collins’ career. Whether adapting a blockbuster screenplay or crafting his own crime stories, Collins writes with the same direct, punchy style that has defined his longer-running series work.