Red Sky in Morning: a novel of World War II by Max Allan Collins writing as Patrick Culhane

Max Allan Collins's second mainstream novel under the Patrick Culhane byline, Red Sky in Morning, is a marked improvement over the first, Black Hats. Once again the action takes place in the past, but this time all the characters are fictitious, with only mentions of famous personalities — and a much closer connection to the author's own past.

Ensign Peter Maxwell has had it easy during his stint in the U.S. Navy, spending his days heading the chorus and spending his nights with his pretty wife, but there's a war going on around him, and damned if he doesn't want to be part of it. So, the newly promoted Lieutenant Maxwell and his best friends — known collectively as the Fantail Four, a vocal quartet best known for their Ink Spots impression — sign up for duty aboard the U.S.S. Liberty Hill Victory, an ammunition ship with an all-"colored" crew and an openly racist captain. (Liberty Hill is Maxwell's hometown, and he sees this as an omen.)

Slowly, the Four realize they've put themselves into a potentially life-threatening situation — a point the nearby Port Chicago disaster drives home — but they decide to do what they can to make it work, including teaching the mostly illiterate crew how to read (especially the "no smoking" signs posted next to the explosives).

But when the white X.O. (executive officer) and then a black crewmember are murdered, Maxwell is promoted to the post, then relieved of his duties to investigate the crime. He makes his first executive decision by choosing another black crewmember (and fellow jazz enthusiast), Seaman Ulysses Grant Washington — known as "Sarge" from his years as a Chicago homicide detective — to accompany him on interrogations, and to essentially run the investigation.

The murder mystery is well plotted and satisfyingly solved, but the real appeal of Red Sky in Morning lies in the characters' relationships and in how Culhane/Collins shows them realistically, not shying away from popular conceptions (and epithets) of the era. This way, we are offered a complete portrait of a time and place that is likely not very familiar even to World War II aficionados.

Red Sky in Morning was inspired by stories Collins's father (the book is dedicated to him) told him of his own time in the Navy, making this his most personal book yet. The author states that the book is mostly fictional, but that several details are lifted from those reminiscences.

The rest came from Collins's imagination and his usual exhaustive research of the setting and period. He and co-author/research associate Matthew V. Clemens (see My Lolita Complex) plotted the story together, much like they did for Collins's CSI novels. With Red Sky in Morning, Culhane/Collins once again showcases his inimitable skill at making a time period come alive. I for one am glad that Max Allan Collins, Sr., shared his experiences with his son, so that he could in turn share them with us.

Black Hats by Max Allan Collins writing as Patrick Culhane (historical crime fiction)

This review originally appeared in somewhat different form on The Green Man Review. Copyright 2008. Reprinted with permission.

It's hardly a secret that author Patrick Culhane is actually Max Allan Collins (in fact, it's all over the dustjacket copy), who is probably best known as the author of Road to Perdition, but who has been writing crime (and other) novels since 1973. He also occasionally collaborates with his wife Barbara under the name Barbara Allan. But whatever name his work appears under, Collins is a solid, dependable writer whose specialty is taking real events and people and crafting a fictional framework around them. Black Hats is no exception. From its high concept (Wyatt Earp meets Al Capone) to its exhaustive research (a Collins signature), it fits easily into the author's bibliography.

It is 1920. The Volstead Act was passed and the 18th Amendment to the Constitution ratified just months ago, beginning the era of Prohibition. Ex-U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp, now 70 years old, has adapted to the disappearance of the Wild West by working as a private detective in Los Angeles (and occasionally consulting on "those so-called Western pictures").

One day, "Big Nose Kate" Elder shows up and wants Earp to go to New York since her son (John Henry Holliday, Jr.) has gotten mixed up with a "dangerous lot," including an up-and-comer with the Italian mob named Alphonse Capone. Earp subsequently hops a train, winds up in Manhattan at the beginning of the Roaring Twenties in the middle of the Roaring Forties, and pairs up with old pal Bat Masterson (now a sports editor) to help out Holliday, the son of his late best friend.

Though its prose is as readable as is to be expected from so experienced an author, Black Hats is actually, generally speaking, a disappointment. Collins/Culhane spends too much story time introducing Earp to Manhattan and personages of the day. This is not to say that I didn't enjoy taking the trip along with Earp. Collins's skill at folding real people into a nearly seamless fictional narrative is in full swing the whole time, and getting to see folks like Damon Runyon and Texas Guinan come to life is a great deal of fun. But at times it does feel like he tried to include too much color, and was distracted from setting the stage for the advertised meeting of six-guns and tommy guns.

This is a minor quibble, however. I think the main problem with Black Hats comes from the restrictions that historical fact places on the options for the story. As promising as the premise is, the story must also gibe with documented truth, and since Earp lived nine more years, with Capone lasting till the 1940s, that pretty much cuts out any opportunity for a satisfying "showdown" of sorts, which leaves us with only a struggle over the liquor rights of a speakeasy, and that's not enough to carry a novel starring characters of this magnitude.

Western/Crime Novel Quote of the Day (from Black Hats by Patrick Culhane/Max Allan Collins)

"You're reading a book," [Kate Elder] said as [Wyatt Earp] set the thick little red-bound volume on the porch railing.

"You needn't sound so surprised."

"What is it?"

"Hamlet. Friend of mine suggested it."

This seemed to amuse her. "What do you think of it?"

"This Hamlet feller is a talkative man. Wouldn't have lasted long in Kansas."

— from Black Hats by Patrick Culhane (pseudonym of Max Allan Collins)