Collins' 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.