DEADLY BELOVED
Max Allan Collins
Hard Case Crime
Mystery
ISBN: 9780843957785

A great deal of the space in my house is given over to printed material, including several decades’ worth of comic books. I learned how to read on my own with "Dick Tracy" --- the original, with Chester Gould --- and didn’t stop until Gould’s successor, Max Allan Collins, retired from the strip. I was already familiar with Collins thanks to Ms. Tree, a female private detective whom he created. Drawn by Terry Beatty, Ms. Tree went through a number of issues and publishers --- in both comic book and original graphic novel form --- but the quality never flagged and to this day the stories hold up well.

I had some misgivings when I read that Collins, through Hard Case Crime, was about to publish DEADLY BELOVED, touted as the first Ms. Tree novel. Sequential art characters, for whatever reason, have trouble translating to the narrative page. I needn’t have worried. This book is perfect in every way, standing on its own if you have never heard of or read Ms. Tree and capturing perfectly the flavor and spirit of the comic if you’re familiar with it. While not sticking precisely to the Ms. Tree mythos established in the comic books and graphic novels that have gone before, the novel is hardly set (to use comic strip terms) in an alternative universe. We are simply blessed with Collins taking a slightly different turn on a character he created --- nothing more, nothing less --- and is wonderfully done, right down to the Terry Beatty cover.

DEADLY BELOVED is a tale told mostly in flashback of how Michael Tree came to stand at the helm of the agency that she and her husband (also named Michael) founded on the eve of their marriage, a bond cut tragically and brutally short. Several months after Mr. Tree’s death, the agency is retained on behalf of a woman who has murdered her husband, and a prostitute, after catching them in flagrante delicto. It appears, however, that the entire situation was set up by a third party --- one that ultimately may tie into the murder of Mr. Tree.

Ms. Tree is relentless, uncovering clues tenaciously, even as she discovers that the trail she is following leads to some very unexpected destinations that are much closer than one would expect. Collins is marvelous, dropping surprises throughout but saving the bombshells for the very end, all the while staying true to the genre that he loves, even as he maintains his acknowledged position as its contemporary grandmaster.

DEADLY BELOVED is perfect for fans of the Ms. Tree comics and graphic novels. For those unfamiliar with the character, this is a welcome introduction to her, not to mention an inspiration to catch up on all of her previous stories in an entirely different medium.

    --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

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