Mourn The Living

Introduction

This novel was written around 1967 or ’68, and is — in a sense — the first book in the Nolan series. But the first Nolan novel to be published was Bait Money (1973); and, as of this writing, five more books about the character have appeared over the years — most recently Spree (1987).

While Nolan has been inactive since, readers frequently inquire about his future; this novel, obviously, refers to his past, but perhaps those same readers will be pleased to encounter this “new” Nolan tale. From time to time, Hollywood has expressed interest in my thief and most recently an Italian company made serious cinematic noises; and I’m currently considering making my own independent film based on one of the novels. So I’m pleased to have this opportunity to bring Nolan’s first adventure, at long last, into book form.

Written during my undergrad years, Mourn the Living was set aside when an editor suggested that he would like to see either certain rewrites (with which I did not agree) or the author’s next book. I followed the latter course, figuring that Mourn would be published later on; but the subsequent series initiated by Bait Money differed from this first novel — among other things, Nolan aged ten years and acquired a youthful protégé, Jon. Also, times had changed so rapidly that the novel’s hippie-era time frame, so topical when I’d written it a few years before, seemed hopelessly dated.

It may sound unlikely, but I had forgotten about the book — at least in terms of it being a commercial property — until Wayne Dundee interviewed me for his fine small-press magazine Hardboiled. In the course of the interview, I mentioned the existence of Mourn the Living to Nolan fan Wayne, who expressed an interest in serializing it in Hardboiled.

So, twenty years after the fact, I found myself doing the necessary line-editing on the first Nolan novel. Too much time had elapsed for me to undertake any major rewriting. While the novel was recognizably mine, I realized I was a different writer, several decades down the road; and, like any good editor, I attempted to respect the wishes and intent of the young writer who wrote it.

I hope readers will enjoy meeting the younger Nolan, sans Jon, in his first recorded adventure. As for the time period of the book being dated, I am pleased that enough years have gone by for me to present it, unashamedly, as a period piece.

My thanks to Wayne Dundee, for nudging me and giving Mourn an audience at last; to Ed Gorman, who brought out the first edition, in hardcover for Five Star in 1999; and to my wife Barb, who patiently transferred the moldy, water- damaged manuscript onto computer disc for my editing.

Max Allan Collins