City of Angels is the best private eye series, ever, and is probably the biggest single influence on Nate Heller. The show did several historically based stories, that prefigure what I did, and Wayne Rogers was a great wiseguy private eye, very much a nontraditional, selfish, sometimes cowardly, sometimes reckless hero in the Roy Huggins Maverick/Rockford Files vein.

I have been chastised for making this claim, but I do feel I invented the historical hard-boiled detective novel. Not the period private eye novel ([Stuart] Kaminsky and [Andrew] Bergman and Robert Towne and maybe a couple others pre-date me), but using a fictional noirish protagonist in a story that is otherwise solidly based on fact. That's my contribution.

On his Nathan Heller detective novels: The books are conceived as memoirs, with Nate himself writing these in geezerhood retirement - which is why certain anachronisms creep in (the old boy is not perfect, nor is his memory). It's also possible Heller is not a reliable narrator -- like [George MacDonald Fraser's] Flashman, he may be bullshitting us to some extent. But who cares? I wanted the events of the various novels to impact later novels -- I hate the way series characters experience earth-shattering events in one story and any ramifications disappear by the next story. The violent, world-weary postwar Heller is a very different guy from the brash, world-beating younger Heller.

Spillane was a primitive, a natural talent who brought to the tough mystery the concerns and traumas of the World War II generation of men, the returning soldiers and sailors and marines who found the American dream they'd been fighting for was frequently a nightmare. The loss of innocence these vets brought with them led Spillane to his more explicit violence and daring (for its time) sexual content. The vivid scenes Spillane paints -- including scenes of violence that remain unsurpassed -- indicate a natural artist of considerable talent and power. The craftsmanship of his surprise endings, the abrupt, startling conclusions he's famous for, are unmatched in the field.

Jack Webb is the forgotten genius of the genre, condemned by his own inferior later work that is all anybody knows of him, these days: the color, later Harry Morgan Dragnet episodes. Webb was the Orson Welles of early TV. He transformed the medium into something adult and sophisticated, and he was a genuine noir auteur. It's a crime that so few of the early black-and-white Dragnet shows are available.

It's my hope to relaunch [Mike] Hammer... In addition to the two books in progress I mentioned, there are two Hammer novels from the '60s where Mickey stopped at about the halfway point, which I hope to complete. Beyond that, Mickey left an unusual number (and this sounds like B.S., but I swear it's true) of first chapters of Hammer books, often with notes and endings--meaning another five or six Hammer novels could be done with substantial Spillane content. I hope some publisher out there will understand what an incredible opportunity this is. And I am thrilled and honored that Mickey and Jane selected me to be their literary point man.

On finishing the Mike Hammer series by Mickey Spillane: "Mickey's file of unpublished material was extensive - another trio of Hammers can follow, if these three do well. This is a very big deal - there are only 13 Mike Hammer novels, and adding another three (or six) to the canon is unheard of for so famous a mystery series."

On completing Mickey Spillane's unpublished Mike Hammer novels: "I am working from substantial partial manuscripts - at least half of each book already written by Mickey. That I will be collaborating with Mickey on at least three Hammer novels is thrilling to me beyond words. This is highly unusual, because I am working not only with his wife Jane's blessing, but Mickey's own: he asked me to complete these novels. First up: "The Goliath Bone," the final Hammer chronologically.'

I don't really consider 'The Expert' a "bad" experience. Frustrating, yes, but overall constructive, and I still consider Bill Lustig a friend, and a talented filmmaker. We'll probably work together again. It was in the midst of the constant rewrites of 'The Expert'...did you know it was a Dirty Dozen script, for most of its life, until Speakman was cast?

On the making of The Expert (1995): "Lustig and I wanted a cast of character actors - somebody like Ed Ward or Lance Henriksen in the lead, backed up by Fred Williamson and Charles Napier and Robert Forster. Ex-Green Berets on a final mission, invading Death Row after the death penalty is repealed, to perform the executions the state had reneged on. I had this great bit where Williamson was to be the guy who went in to execute everybody; he goes in laden down with weaponry - and promptly gets killed. Then, thanks to him, everybody on Death Row is suddenly armed, and the shit hits the fan."

Eliot Ness is the most famous real-life detective in American history, but probably no historical figure has been more misunderstood or misrepresented... Surprisingly the real story is more exciting and colorful than the Hollywood version -- Ness fought gangsters, corrupt cops and even America's first serial killer.