Deadly Beloved is a story for fans of Mickey Spillane. Michael Tree - Ms Michael Tree - is a hardboiled female P.I. Her father, a cop, wanted a son and insisted on naming her Michael. Michael Friday also became a police officer but has been relegated to the records department. She married an ex-police detective,Michael Tree and, taking his last name, gives us the pun, Ms Tree = "mystery."

Michael Tree, the husband, left the police force to open a detective agency taking the then Michael Friday and two other police officers with him. On their wedding night Michael Tree, the husband, is murdered in the parking lot of their motel. Ms Tree takes over the detective agency and establishes herself as a hardboiled private investigator, always ready to apply force and not hesitant to use her automatic - a 9mm not .45 like Mike Hammer but nonetheless lethal.

The Tree Detective Agency is hired to look into the case of Marcy Addwater, who, without a doubt, shot and killed her husband and a prostitute in a sleazy motel room. While there is no doubt she did the murders, why and how she accomplished it are questionable. Even some of the police officers think something is fishy.

The case takes a decidledy odd turn when it emerges that the case and the murder of Michael Tree might be somehow related. Is there an "Event Planner" who orchestrates murders, arranging it so that they cannot be traced back to the persons who commissioned them?

As with the hardboiled genre in general, there is a high body count, crisp, ironic dialog and a fast paced story.

Max Allan Collins is well known for writing Dick Tracy for many years where he worked to bring Tracy back to his hardboiled roots. He was also involved in comic projects including Ms Tree. Deadly beloved is the first Ms. Tree novel. There is an afterword where Collins writes "About Ms Tree" describing how he took her from comics to a novel. Collins obviously loves the hardboiled genre and Deadly Beloved is a terrific addition. I hope he decides to pen further adventures of Ms. Tree.

I recommend that you listen to an interview of Max Allen Collins on the podcast, Behind the Black Mask: Mystery Writers Revealed. There is a lot of good information about Collins' writing, the evolution of Ms. Tree, and the hardboiled genre. While you are there, check out the other interviews. I regularly get reading suggestions from the author interviews that Clute and Edwards, the podcasters, conduct.