Collins 's longest running series and arguably his best known work is his Nathan Heller series . Heller is a Chicago private investigator who gets involved in famous crimes and meets famous people of the 1930s and 1940s , including Orson Welles , Frank Nitti , and Sally Rand . The first novel in this historical fiction series , '' True Detective '' , won the 1984 Shamus Award for Best P.I. Hardcover from the Private Eye Writers of America . Collins won his second Shamus in 1992 for the Heller novel '' Stolen Away '' , an account of the Lindbergh kidnapping . His 1999 novel '' Flying Blind '' sees Heller investigate the disappearance of Amelia Earhart , along the way becoming romantically involved with her . With the release of '' Chicago Confidential '' , Collins moved the action into the 1950s . '' Target Lancer '' , about an alleged attempt to assassinate John F. Kennedy in Chicago just weeks before the actual assassination in Dallas , was published in November 2012
actual assassination
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Max Allan Collins