Один из ведущих мастеров британского нуара Дэвид Пис признает, что его интерес к криминальной беллетристике был вызван зловещими событиями, происходившими в его родном Йоркшире — с 1975 до 1981 г. местное население жило в страхе перед неуловимым серийным убийцей — Йоркширским Потрошителем. Именно эти события послужили поводом для создания тетралогии «Йоркширский квартет», или «Красный райдинг» (райдинг — единица административно-территориального деления графства Йоркшир), принесшей Пису всемирную славу. «1974» — первый том тетралогии «Йоркширский квартет». 1974 год. Ирландская республиканская армия совершает серию взрывов в Лондоне. Иэн Болл предпринимает неудачную попытку похищения принцессы Анны. Ультраправые из «Национального фронта» проходят маршем через Уэст-Энд. В моде песни группы «Бэй Сити Роллерз». На экраны выходят девятый фильм бондианы «Человек с золотым пистолетом» с Роджером Муром и «Убийство в Восточном экспрессе» по роману Агаты Кристи. Графство Йоркшир, Англия. Корреспондент криминальной хроники газеты «Йоркшир пост» Эдвард Данфорд получает задание написать о расследовании таинственного исчезновения десятилетней девочки. Когда ее находят зверски убитой, Данфорд предпринимает собственное расследование зловещих преступлений, произошедших в Йоркшире. Чем больше вопросов он задает, тем глубже погружается в кошмарные тайны человеческих извращений и пороков, которые простираются до высших эшелонов власти и уходят в самое «сердце тьмы» английской глубинки

Книга повествует историю о двух друзьях, гениальном детективе и не менее одаренном химике, которые попали в непростую ситуацию. Химик «Картер» создал химический наркотик, под воздействием которого главные герои помогли преступникам успешно нарушить множество законов. За содеянное им, вероятнее всего, грозит смертная казнь, однако героям удается скрыться от правительства Вашингтона, и после этого они решают раскрывать собственные преступления

Here is a smashing, red-blooded mystery yarn, packed with fast action. This is crime as the police in “open” towns know it; hard-boiled detectives and as tough a collection of criminals as can be found in any metropolitan line-up. Torrey sets a speedy pace and the book tears to a climax you won’t forget. Shean Connell, a private detective, sets out to clear up a divorce case in Reno, and finds that he has been framed by the man who is boss of the town’s criminals. After he views the woman in the morgue and has the tip of his ear shot away, he realizes that murder and not divorce is being plotted. Why wouldn’t Tod Wendel’s wife speak to him? Between the wealthy society woman and her husband stood the forces of the underworld — gangsters, white slavers, dope runners — and Shean Connell breaks the case in the hardest-hitting, lustiest mystery novel since Dashiell Hammett

Лето 2013 года. В Москву идут шифровки разведслужб о том, что радикальные националисты Западной Украины готовят вооруженный переворот в Киеве и для этого им нужно очень много денег. С Воронцовского завода цветных металлов в России начинает «уплывать» во Львов золото наивысшей пробы, которое затем перепродается полякам. Чтобы поймать окопавшегося на «золотой фабрике» львовского резидента и ликвидировать утечку драгметалла, в Воронцово отправляют офицера ФСБ Антона Крымова по прозвищу Седой и следователя по особо важным делам Геннадия Ярового. «Важняк» раскручивает дело о хищении с завода эталонного золотого слитка 999,9-й пробы, а тем временем Седой под видом столичного криминального авторитета внедряется в местные банды, оседлавшие «золотую фабрику», чтобы уже через них выйти на львовского шпиона и его пособников в городе…

A mysterious voice from the telephone; a beautiful Chinese girl shot dead; a rich old man with a troubled conscience; a private investigator involved in murder; a Chinese prostitute who talked too much; and a coffin. These are some of the intriguing ingredients of James Hadley Chase’s splendid thriller. It is definitely a book to keep you awake long after your bedtime

The first novel from iconic X-Files star Gillian Anderson and New York Times bestselling author Jeff Rovin: a science fiction thriller of epic proportions. Renowned child psychologist Caitlin O’Hara is a single mom trying to juggle her job, her son, and a lackluster dating life. Her world is suddenly upturned when Maanik, the daughter of India’s ambassador to the United Nations, starts speaking in tongues and having violent visions. Caitlin is sure that her fits have something to do with the recent assassination attempt on her father—a shooting that has escalated nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan to dangerous levels—but when teenagers around the world start having similar outbursts, Caitlin begins to think that there’s a more sinister force at work. In Haiti, a student claws at her throat, drowning on dry land. In Iran, a boy suddenly and inexplicably sets himself on fire. Animals, too, are acting irrationally, from rats in New York City to birds in South America to ordinary house pets. With Asia on the cusp of nuclear war, Caitlin must race across the globe to uncover the mystical links among these seemingly unrelated incidents in order to save her patient—and perhaps the world

If you don't shudder with every twist and sudden thrust of these 16 terror tales… if you are able to turn off your bedside lamp after closing this volume and drift off to a deep, dreamless sleep… if you can drink your morning coffee without thinking there just might be a peculiarly bitter taste to it, or turn your back on your spouse or best friend without feeling a funny itching between your shoulder blades… then that lovable old master of menace, Alfred Hitchcock, apologizes and personally guarantees you your full payment in horror. All you have to do is meet him in the cemetery under the next murderer's moon…

THE NATIONAL DEBT In which the Saint disguises himself as a dusty professor in order to save a lovely damsel from the clutches of a sinister conspiracy. THE MAN WHO COULD NOT DIE In which the Saint's well known sensitivity to the adventurous possibilities of any situation lead him to pursue the current fortunes of the extraordinary Miles Hallin, a seemingly unimpeachable man about whom it has been said that if Miles Hallin could have walked a tight rope he would have walked a tight rope stretched across the crater of Vesuvius as a kind of appetizer before breakfast

Angst und Unsicherheit gehen um auf dem Rennplatz von Dunstable. Art Mathews schießt sich unter den Augen seiner Jockey-Kollegen eine Kugel in den Kopf. Doch er ist nur das erste Opfer einer mysteriösen Unglücksserie. Erst Rob Finn, ein ziemlich Neuer im Geschäft, macht sich an des Rätsels Lösung und gerät prompt in Lebensgefahr

Игра, секс и месть – составляющие части жизни молодого человека, который испытывает искреннюю ненависть ко всему женскому роду. Лучшее развлечение – убийство невинных девушек. Карты – средство заработка. Жизнь – путь мстителя. Блюстители правопорядка бессильны перед его уловками. Женщины не могут устоять перед его очарованием

Lew Archer #13 When Lew Archer is hired to get the goods on the suspiciously suave Frenchman who’s run off with his client’s girlfriend, it looks like a simple case of alienated affections. Things look different when the mysterious foreigner turns out to be connected to a seven-year-old suicide and a mountain of gambling debts. Black Money is Ross Macdonald at his finest, baring the skull beneath the untanned skin of Southern California’s high society

Ken Corning, fighting to break a murder frame, tangles with the killers

Полицейский участок юго-восточного Лондона охвачен гневом и ужасом: маньяк-убийца, вооружившись молотком, выслеживает копов одного за другим. В лучших традициях Гая Ричи и Квентина Тарантино стражам порядка придется спасать свои шкуры и пытаться остановить сумасшедшего Блица. «Blitz. Без компромиссов» — новый роман Кена Бруена, одного из самых успешных авторов нуар-детективов. Сюжет, крепкий, как ирландский виски, покорил не только читателей по всему миру, но и кинозрителей. В экранизации роль дикого и беспощадного крутого Бранта сыграл брутальный Джейсон Стэтхем

He was a son who hadn’t known his father very well. It was a town shaken by a grisly murder – his father’s murder. Johnny Weather was home from a war and wandering. When he found out that his father had been assassinated on a street corner and that his father’s seductive young wife had inherited a fortune, he started knocking on doors. The doors came open, and Johnny stepped into a world of gamblers, whores, drug-dealers, and blackmailers, a place in which his father had once moved freely. Now Johnny Weather was going to solve this murder – by pitting his rage, his courage, and his lost illusions against the brutal underworld that has overtaken his hometown

**In the next highly anticipated installment of Lee Child's acclaimed suspense series, Jack Reacher comes to the aid of an elderly couple . . . and confronts his most dangerous opponents yet.** **"Jack Reacher is today's James Bond, a thriller hero we can't get enough of."—Ken Follett** "This is a random universe," Reacher says. "Once in a blue moon things turn out just right." This isn't one of those times. Reacher is on a Greyhound bus, minding his own business, with no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there. Then he steps off the bus to help an old man who is obviously just a victim waiting to happen. But you know what they say about good deeds. Now Reacher wants to make it right. An elderly couple have made a few well-meaning mistakes, and now they owe big money to some very bad people. One brazen move leads to another, and suddenly Reacher finds himself a wanted man in the middle of a brutal

By the author of Dare Me and The End of Everything In October 1931, a station agent found two large trunks abandoned in Los Angeles’s Southern Pacific Station. What he found inside ignited one of the most scandalous tabloid sensations of the decade. Inspired by this notorious true crime, Edgar®-winning author Megan Abbott’s novel Bury Me Deep is the story of Marion Seeley, a young woman abandoned in Phoenix by her doctor husband. At the medical clinic where she finds a job, Marion becomes fast friends with Louise, a vivacious nurse, and her roommate, Ginny, a tubercular blonde. Before long, the demure Marion is swept up in the exuberant life of the girls, who supplement their scant income by entertaining the town’s most powerful men with wild parties. At one of these events, Marion meets—and falls hard for—the charming Joe Lanigan, a local rogue and politician on the rise, whose ties to all three women bring events to a dangerous collision. A story born of Jazz Age decadence and Depression-era desperation, Bury Me Deep—with its hothouse of jealousy, illicit sex and shifting loyalties—is a timeless portrait of the dark side of desire and the glimmer of redemption

A young Miami insurance executive can’t remember whether or not he’s a killer. He remembers a red-headed man who once said, “Murder is my business.” That’s how Mike Shayne gets into the case of amnesia, alibis, and anguish in Miami Beach and the Florida Keys

In these two novellas, crooked charity collectors and bent boxing promoters attract the Saint's attention... and will wish they hadn't

Манхэтон. Детективы полиции Глория Берч и Брайн Уйэн, готовы рискнуть жизнью, чтобы выйти на след сумасшедшего художника, который с необъяснимой жестокостью, безжалостность и методичностью, убивает молодых девушек необычным способом. Ситуация осложняется тем, что сама детектив Берч, может стать следующей жертвой убийцы. Детективы не сразу понимают, как далеко в прошлое уходят корнями эти леденящую душу преступления. Каждый в городе становиться подозреваемым, тем самым осложняя поиски убийцы

On the home front, two wartime lovers reunite under a cloud of paranoiaIn 1937 Munich, an American must be careful when he smokes his pipe. Robert Branch, a careless academic, makes the mistake of lighting up when the Füchrer is about to begin a procession, and nearly gets pummeled for his mistake. Only the timely intervention of Ruth Esch, a flame-haired actress, saves him. So begins a month-long romance between East and West – a torrid affair that ends when the lovers make the mistake of defending a Jew, earning Branch a beating and Esch a trip to a concentration camp. Six years later, Esch escapes to Vichy and makes her way to Detroit. To her surprise, Branch is waiting for her. He is a professor, working for the war effort, and his paranoia about a spy inside the Motor City War Board sours their reunion. Once again, a dangerous net is encircling these lovers – a reminder that, in this war, love always comes second to death

Gil Vine is a house officer in a N.Y. city hotel which witnesses the murder of a man in the suite of Tildy Millett, gimmick girl on a video show. From Tildy’s love for Dow Lanerd who plays around but not for keeps, to Lanerd’s murder which is to follow, this turns up other angles- and curves, for a final solution in blackmail and an indiscretion which ended in illegitimacy

His name was Regan. They called him the killer cop. He was accused of taking a bribe, and then murdering the man who gave it to him. The jury said he wasn't guilty — but his friends and his colleagues weren't convinced. So Regan had to prove it all over again — starting with the broad who poured him into a cab that fateful night. She was a big, beautiful redhead from a high class bordello, and when he found her, she was dead as doornails

Devil in a Blue Dress honors the tradition of the classic American detective novel by bestowing on it a vivid social canvas and the freshest new voice in crime writing in years, mixing the hard-boiled poetry of Raymond Chandler with the racial realism of Richard Wright to explosive effect

Plenty of dead ones get dragged out of the dark, roily water that runs through the greatest city in the world. The Harbor Police take only routine notice. But when the cadaver conies in installments — a torso, a leg, an arm — that’s murder... There are lots of murders, sure, but what made Lieutenant Steven Koski do a double-take on this particular butchery was the gadget that came with the torso. In its own frightful little way it was a weapon — the kind of weapon that kills a lot of people kind of quick. And Koski began to move — but fast. The murder marathon took him from a Coast Guard auxiliary vessel (cargo: one stunning blonde) to a waterfront dive. From a union leader’s hangout to an executive’s luxurious office. From a Chinese laundry to a ship being loaded with sudden death... And all the way, a long thin shape, detestable and horrible, paced him. Koski drove himself frantically onward. He had to catch that thing — had to

« Vicky de Berlin », la belle michetonneuse, tient le Ration K, bar à filles de Bruxelles. Les frères Napos, propriétaires du Vertige décidé de racketter tous les bars de la ville. Affrontement entre tenancières et tapineuses, entre caïds et faussaires. Le « beau Marcel », chargé de l'affaire des faux talbins, devra orchestrer les rivalités entre deux clans, les affaires de filles, de territoires qui ne font pas bon ménage. Le grand classique de référence : Rififi entre nanas et malfrats qui jaspinent, argot pour des talbins, les polkas ou un territoire et vous avez la recette du grand polar à la française ! A la fin, un glossaire d'argot. Né en 1913, Auguste Monfort vit une enfance perdue. Du monde ouvrier qui est le sien, il observe les élites avec curiosité. Naturellement, en autodidacte, il devient romancier décrivant les bas-fonds de Paris et des grandes capitales

New-York, 1962. Tandis que Mike Coppolano mène un combat acharné contre le crime qui gangrène la grosse pomme, son propre père, Louis Coppolano, s'implique malgré lui dans ce qui restera comme le casse le plus audacieux de l'après-guerre. Qui du père ou du fils remportera la mise ?

Nobody knows better than Matthew Scudder how far down a person can sink in this city. A young prostitute named Kim knew it also — and she wanted out. Maybe Kim didn't deserve the life fate had dealt her. She surely didn't deserve her death. The alcoholic ex-cop turned p.i. was supposed to protect her, but someone slashed her to ribbons on a crumbling New York City waterfront pier. Now finding Kim's killer will be Scudder's penance. But there are lethal secrets hiding in the slain hooker's past that are far dirtier than her trade. And there are many ways of dying in this cruel and dangerous town — some quick and brutal… and some agonizingly slow

Džina Kalogridisa Es, Mona Liza KONTINENTS RĪGA Florence, 1478. gada aprīlis. Izskatīgais Džuljāno de Medi­či tiek zvērīgi noslepkavots Florences Doma katedrālē. Draus­mais noziegums satricina visu lielo pilsētu, sākot ar slave­niem māksliniekiem - Leonardo da Vinči un Mikelandželo -, beidzot ar turīgu vilnas tirgoni un viņa neparasti skaisto meitu Lizu. Vairāk nekā pēc desmit gadiem Florenci apmāj sludinā­tājs Savonarola, fanātiķis, kurš dedzina gleznas un grāma­tas un tikpat vieglu roku sūta cilvēkus pretī nāvei. Liza, kas kļuvusi par valdzinošu sievieti, sagūsta Džuljāno brāļadēla un vārdabrāļa sirdi. Kad viņas mīļotais Džuljāno traģiski iet bojā, Lizai jāliek lietā drosme un viltus, lai atšķetinātu bais­mu mīlas, nodevības un bīstamu noslēpumu tīklu, kas ap­draud viņas dzīvību. "Mona Liza", gleznota uz piecpadsmitā gadsimta dra­matiskās Florences fona, ietver sevī daudzus patiesības un izdomājumu slāņus, un visi smalki izvītie sižeta pavērsieni izskan pašas madonnas Lizas aizraujošajā balsī. FLORENCE, 1478. GADA APRĪLIS Izskatīgais Džuljāno de Mediči tiek zvērīgi noslepkavots Doma katedrālē. Drausmais noziegums satricina visu lielo pilsētu, sakot .11 slaveniem māksliniekiem — Leonardo da Vinči un Mikelandžolo - 11 n beidzot ar turīgu vilnas tirgoni un viņa neparasti skaisto meitu Lizu. Pēc vairāk nekā desmit gadiem Florenci apmāj sludinātājs Savonarola fanātiķis, kurš dedzina gleznas un grāmatas un tikpat vieglu roku sut.i cilvēkus pretī nāvei. Dzimšanas dienā Jaunajai madonnai Lizai di Antonio Gerardini astro­logs atklāj zvaigznēs ierakstīto likteni — iesprostotai varmācības, asiņu un krāpšanas gredzenā —, viņai jāpabeidz tas, ko iesākuši citi… Pagātnē notikušais bieži vien šķiet tuvs un saprotams tagadnei, bet nesenie notikumi — kā senās jaunības dienas. Leonardo da Vinči Džina Kalogridisa ierindojama spožāko mūsdienu vēsturisko romānu autoru zvaigznājā. Viņas spalvai pieder tādas pērles ka "Bordžijas līgava", "Drakulas ģimenes dienasgrāmata" un citi tikpat aizraujoši vēsturiski romāni. Slavenākais un nozīmīgākais viņas radītais darbs ir jūsu rokās - neaizmirstama un iedvesmojoša grāmata par Leonardo da Vinči pazīstamākās gleznas mūzu Monu Lizu. Latvijas lasītājus drīzumā iepriecinās nākamais fascinējošais Džinas Kalogridisas romāns Mediči Karaliene. Pedantiski izpētīts un bagātīgi ilustrēts. isbn 978-9984^W3^) Kalogridisa neparasti tēlaini apraksta Rene­sanses Eiropas mākslas un politisko skatuvi. Džīnas Kalogridisas romana "Es, Mona Liza" publicēšanas tiesības pieder "Apgādam "Kontinents"" No angļu valodas tulkojusi Diana Smilga Vāka dizains Kristiāns Šics ISBN 978-9984-35-433-0 © Džina Kalogridisa, 2008 © Tulkojums latviešu valodā, mākslinieciskais noformējums, "Apgāds "Kontinents"", 2009 Noskannējis grāmatu un FB2 failu izveidojis Imants Ločmelis Džordžam. Līdz mūža galam Pateicības Es esmu ļoti lielu pateicību parādā šādiem cilvēkiem: -    savam vīram, kuram šogad nācās cīnīties ar vēzi, ķi- mijterapiju un sarežģījumiem, turklāt viņš spēja izturēt šis grāmatas rakstīšanu ar humoru un pacietību; -   lieliskajiem aģentiem Raselam Geilenam un Denijam Baro- ram, kuri jau divdesmit gadus pacieš mani kā savu klienti; -   draudzenēm Ketlīnai O'Mallijai un Annai Morozai, ku­ras drosmīgi izurbās cauri prāvajam manuskriptam un laip­ni sniedza man padomus; -   un visvairāk - saviem redaktoriem Čārlzam Spaiseram izdevniecībā St. Martin's Press un Emmai Kūdai HarperCollins UK. Abi ir lieliski profesionāļi, turklāt apdāvināti ar neizsmeļamu pacietību. Gan Čārlijs, gan Emma darīja visu iespējamo un neiespējamo, lai es varētu rūpēties par savu vi­ru viņa slimošanas laikā - lai gan šo rūpju dēļ šī grāmata tika iesniegta ar kaunpilnu novēlošanos. Es ļoti vēlētos atrast vār­dus, kas pareizi atainotu manu pateicību par šo cilvēku izrādīto laipnību un manu nožēlu, ka viņiem nācās tik ļoti steigties, lai sagatavotu manuskriptu drukāšanai. Viņiem es veltu šos vārdus: paldies, Čārlij! Paldies, Emma! Pirms daudziem gadiem notikušais bieži vien šķiet tuvs un saprotams tagadnei, bet nesenie notikumi liekas tik tali ka senas jaunības dienas. Leonardo da Vinči Codex Atlanticus, fol. 29v-a

Two hours of savagery, of silk and leaden lust, of sheer terror await you in the nightmare spell of these pages, this death-song. The hardest, roughest novel of them all Fast One. Here is the novel that goes even farther than Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler in bringing to life the savage side of America beyond the law. It is set amidst the dehumanizing desperation of the Great Depression. Its amoral hero is Kells, a cynical, icepick-sharp detective looking out for number one in a human jungle of big-time mobsters, crooked politicians, high-rolling gamblers, and high-priced women. Its action is nonstop, its realism brutally riveting, and its impact unforgettable

Lew Archer #5 Las Cruces wasn’t a place most travelers would think to stop. But after private investigator Lew Archer plays the good Samaritan and picks up a bloodied hitchhiker, he finds himself in town for a few days awaiting a murder inquest. A hijacked truck full of liquor and an evidence box full of marijuana, $20,000 from a big-time bank heist by a small-time crook, corruption, adultery, incest, prodigal daughters, and abused wives all make the little town seem a lot more interesting than any guide book ever could. And as the murder rate rises, Archer finds himself caught up in mystery where everyone is a suspect and everyone’s a victim

In which the Saint dallies with millionaires and murder, is the life ans soul of a "Tea Party", and discovers the intricacies of a double double-cross

Manville Moon thought the process through step by step as he trained his pistol on a desperate killer. Here was the climax of a case in which the life of a young man had already been taken, and the life of a young heiress hung by a hair. Actually, Moon got off one of the fastest snap-shots in history, and went on to wrap up the case for the most beautiful client he ever had

Ex-Jockey Randall Drew wird in einer delikaten Mission nach Moskau geschickt.Ein mysteröses Wesen mit Namen"Aljosha" bedroht einen königlichen Kandidaten an den Olympischen Spielen in Moskau.Der Auftrag ist vage,der Gegner unsichtbar,und die Hidernisse sind eigentlich unuberwindlich

In 1929, a new kind of magazine appeared on newsstands, the gang pulps! And no magazine that preceded them gave the pulps a worse reputation. Month after month, the stories luridly recounted the exploits of the most sadistic killers, the most craven squealers, the most coldblooded gun molls, the most corrupt cops, the most ruthless gang bosses, the most brutal mob wars, that ever escaped the realm of the imagination — a genre of extremes. There had been outlaw heroes in crime fiction before, but none like this new breed, who toasted with bootleg liquor while their bloody victims lay dying on the floor. Almost immediately, the gang pulps came under attack from the censors. America’s morals lay dying on the pulpwood pages, they claimed. Centered in the crosshairs was Harold Hersey, famed pulp editor, creator of Gangster Stories, Racketeer Stories, Speakeasy Stories, and a raft of other gang magazines. The censors threatened him with prosecution. Clean up — or else! But the story of this clash has never before been told; nor have many of the stories been available since their original publication during the dying years of Prohibition. In “Glorifying the American Goon,” an in-depth introduction based on all-new research, the world of the gang pulps is explored: what the stories were about, what happened during the attack on Hersey, how he responded, and how the stories changed. But you won’t have to take our word for anything. Also included in Gang Pulp are nineteen rare stories, selected from both the pre- and post-censorship periods. Did Hersey clean up the stories? Judge for yourself in violent and profane pulp classics like “One Hour Before Dawn,” “Rough on Rats,” and “City of Bullets.”

SO THIS GIRL WALKS INTO A BAR… …and when she walks out there's a man with her. She goes to bed with him, and she likes that part. Then she kills him, and she likes that even better. On her way out, she cleans out his wallet. She keeps moving, and has a new name for each change of address. She's been doing this for a while, and she's good at it. And then a chance remark gets her thinking of the men who got away, the lucky ones who survived a night with her. She starts writing down names. And now she's a girl with a mission. Picking up their trails. Hunting them down. Crossing them off her list…

In this short story from the thrilling anthology FaceOff, bestselling authors Lee Child and Joseph Finder – along with their popular series characters Jack Reacher and Nick Heller – team up for the first time ever. When Jack Reacher sits down to watch a baseball game at a Boston bar, he has no way of knowing what kind of trouble is about to walk in the door – and not just because he’s a Yankees fan in a Red Sox town. In this action-packed short story, Reacher and a new acquaintance – Sox fan Nick Heller – find themselves drawn into a much less friendly rivalry when the guy sitting between them at the bar turns out to be a marked man. For more exciting pairs, check out all eleven short stories in FaceOff!

Somewhere in western New York there's a remote mountaintop in the moonlight, its dark forests and moon-dappled meadows populated only by corpses, and if ex-PI Joe Kurtz doesn't unravel the secret of that place in five days, he'll be one of them. Everyone seems to want a piece of Kurtz and most succeed in getting one. Unknown assailants gun down Kurtz and his female parole officer, giving Kurtz the headache of a lifetime but putting pretty Peg O'Toole on life support. While working his own case through a haze of concussion migraine, Kurtz has to deal with Toma Gonzaga, the gay don who owes Kurtz a blood debt, and Angelina Farino Ferrara, the female don who is after Kurtz's body — or maybe just his head. And while someone is murdering all the heroin addicts in Buffalo and hauling away the bodies, a serial killer called the Artful Dodger hatches his twisted plan. In Kurtz's corner is police detective Rigby King, a beautiful woman who was his lover when they were both rebellious teenagers in Father Baker's Orphanage. Rigby also has designs on Joe Kurtz, but whether they're aimed at bedding or abetting him, helping him stay alive, or simply putting him away for life, Kurtz will have to discover the hard way

There's a bitter wind brewing in Buffalo, New York and it's blowing in more than just snow. "Little Skag" Farino, the last don of the local crime family, wants Kurtz dead and is sending in platoons of hit men, starting with the Attica Three Stooges and working up through more competent killers. Little Skag's beautiful sister, Angelina Farino Ferrara, is back from seven years in Sicily and has her own deadly agenda for Kurtz. If that isn't enough, Kurtz is approached by a dying concert violinist who wants his daughter's killer found. Rejecting the case at first, he is soon on the trail of a man who's not just the murderer of one child, but a cold-blooded serial killer who is a master of alternate identities and has the power to send a hundred men after Kurtz. As the bodies pile up like cords of wood, HARD FREEZE hits town with the power of a whiteout blizzard and builds to a truly chilling climax. This is a crime novel where trigger fingers freeze to blue steel

What are the ingredients of a hard-boiled detective story? “Savagery, style, sophistication, sleuthing, and sex,” said Ellery Queen. Often a desperate blond, a jealous husband, and, of course, a tough-but-tender P.I. the likes of Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe. Perhaps Raymond Chandler summed it up best in his description of Dashiell Hammett’s style: “Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it... He put these people down on paper as they were, and he made them talk and think in the language they customarily used for these purposes.” Hard-Boiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories is the largest and most comprehensive collection of its kind, with over half of the stories never published before in book form. Included are thirty-six sublimely suspenseful stories that chronicle the evolution of this quintessentially American art form, from its earliest beginnings during the golden age of the legendary pulp magazine Black Mask in the 1920s, to the arrival of the tough digest Manhunt in the 1950s, and finally leading up to present-day hard-boiled stories by such writers as James Ellroy. Here are eight decades worth of the best writing about betrayal, murder, and mayhem: from Hammett’s 1925 tour de force “The Scorched Face,” in which the disappearance of two sisters leads Hammett’s never-named detective, the Continental Op, straight into a web of sexual blackmail amidst the West Coast elite, to Ed Gorman’s 1992 “The Long Silence After,” a gripping and powerful rendezvous involving a middle class insurance executive, a Chicago streetwalker, and a loaded .38. Other delectable contributions include “Brush Fire” by James M. Cain, author of The Postman Always Rings Twice, Raymond Chandler’s “I’ll Be Waiting,” where, for once, the femme fatale is not blond but a redhead, a Ross Macdonald mystery starring Macdonald’s most famous creator, the cryptic Lew Archer, and “The Screen Test of Mike Hammer” by the one and only Mickey Spillane. The hard-boiled cult has more in common with the legendary lawmen of the Wild West than with the gentleman and lady sleuths of traditional drawing room mysteries, and this direct line of descent is on brilliant display in two of the most subtle and tautly written stories in the collection, Elmore Leonard’s “3:10 to Yuma” and John D. MacDonald’s “Nor Iron Bars.” Other contributors include Evan Hunter (better known as Ed McBain), Jim Thompson, Helen Nielsen, Margaret Maron, Andrew Vachss, Faye Kellerman, and Lawrence Block. Compellingly and compulsively readable, Hard-Boiled: An Anthology of American Crime Stories is a page-turner no mystery lover will want to be without. Containing many notable rarities, it celebrates a genre that has profoundly shaped not only American literature and film, but how we see our heroes and ourselves

Joe Kurtz has been wronged one too many times. So when he takes out the drugdealing thug who killed his girlfriend, the exPI gets to cool his heels for 11 years in Attica. It's there that he meets "Little Skag" Farino, the son of an aging Buffalo, New York, mob boss. In exchange for protecting the kid's manhood against any unwanted jailhouse affection, Kurtz gets an audience with Little Skag's father upon his release from prison. Semiretired Don Byron Farino is still clinging to what dwindling power he holds on the New York organized crime scene. He enlists Kurtz's help to track down the Family's missing accountanta man with too much knowledge of Family business to have on the loose. But someone doesn't want the accountant found. As the story twists and turns and the body count rises, Kurtz no longer knows whom he can trust. Everyone seems to be after something, from the mob boss's sultry yet dangerous daughter, to a hit man named The Dane, an albino killer who is good with a knife, and a dwarf who is armed to the teeth and hellbent on revenge. Bestselling author Dan Simmons expertly builds the tension as he springs one surprise after another, all the while daring the reader to take a ride with Kurtz through the cold, windy streets of Buffalo where one wrong move could mean a bellyfull of lead

Keller’s a hit man. For years now he’s had places to go and people to kill. But enough is enough. He’s got money in the bank and just one last job standing between him and retirement. So he carries it out with his usual professionalism, and he heads home, and guess what? One more job. Paid in advance, so what’s he going to do? Give the money back? In Des Moines, Keller stalks his designated target and waits for the client to give him the go-ahead. And one fine morning he’s picking out stamps for his collection (Sweden 1–5, the official reprints) at a shop in Urbandale when somebody guns down the charismatic governor of Ohio. Back at his motel, Keller’s watching TV when they show the killer’s face. And there’s something all too familiar about that face… Keller calls his associate Dot in White Plains, but there is no answer. He’s stranded halfway across the country, every cop in America’s just seen his picture, his ID and credit cards are no longer good, and he just spent almost all of his cash on the stamps. Now what?

Ken Corning, fighting young lawyer, tries to earn an honest living in a city of graft

What would you do if you were a DEAD RINGER for a DICTATOR? If you were small-time grifter Walter Harsh, recovering in a hospital with a broken arm, you’d listen to a proposition that could net you a cool $50,000 for impersonating the South American strongman you resemble. You’d pay attention when the dictator’s sultry mistress started putting the moves on you. And in the dead of night, when no one was watching, you might just hatch a plot to get it all for yourself: the money, the girl, and the stash of stolen loot she’s conspiring to spirit out of the country… From Publishers Weekly Smalltime con artist Walter Harsh is lured into international intrigue in this old-fashioned pulp thriller from the creator of Doc Savage. A mysterious man known only as Mr. Brother recruits Harsh and his girlfriend and sidekick, Vera Sue Crosby, into a complex scam involving a South American strongman's beautiful former mistress, a corrupt physician and an Arab financial mastermind. As the plotters await political chaos and the Peron-like dictator's flight from his country, Harsh prepares to impersonate the dictator as part of an embezzlement plot beyond his wildest imaginings. Originally written in 1956, Dent's story suffers from both an unlikely identical strangers premise and the casual sexism of its era, but the elaborate twists of the caper effectively draw the reader into a hard-boiled, violent and authentically gritty tale in the best pulp style. 

Gerald Hanna is rudely jolted out of his humdrum existence as an insurance actuary—with a longstanding librarian fiancee—when a dying man with a big boodle in gems lands in his car. Disposing of the body, Hanna keeps the jewels and manages to get the best of both the cops and the robbers who are on his tail… Progressively tricky and tense

In Uganda in 1977, a particular trainload of coffee, mostly belonging to dictator Idi Amin, is worth six million dollars. As a group of scoundrels and international financiers hijack the train, the double and triple crosses pile up and the comic tension escalates in a brawling brew of buffoons, bumblers, beans and boxcars. This 1981 Westlake gem is back in print. A mile-long freight train steams through the heart of Idi Amin’s mad, tortured, magical, and corrupt Uganda, loaded down with kahawa (Swahili for coffee). What Amin doesn't know, what his most beautiful spy has not been able to wring out of her latest victim, and what the world’s coffee markets may be unable to swallow, is that the train and six million dollars worth of coffee are about to disappear into the hands of a conflicted, colorful, swashbuckling band of mercenaries and moneymakers. “Kahawa is such a splendid huggermugger that if you don't like it, there's something wrong with you…. No reader that I will ever want to meet should dare complain.”

The guns, the punks, the whores were dying too fast. A wise guy was speeding up the underworld’s death rate with a .38 Special. Lt. Joe Scanlon manhunts the tawdry dives and deadly alleys of the slum jungle... his cover, a gorgeous lady cop who plays sex-bait... his target, a one-shot assassin who’s killing off the killers

When you’ve already got blood on your hands, what’s a little more? Turner needs to start a new life and that means he needs cash… fast. So the twenty thousand he’s offered for a job sounds pretty good, even if it means killing Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. And he’s not alone. There are four other men—killers, idealists, mercenaries—all with the same target. Can they band together to overthrow Castro and get Turner his chance at a new life? This ebook features an illustrated biography of Lawrence Block, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from his personal collection, and a new afterword written by the author

A Jack Reacher Novel – #1 Early one morning Jack jumps off a bus in the middle of nowhere and walks 14 miles down an empty country road. The minute he reaches the town of Margrave he is thrown into jail. As the only stranger in town, a local murder is blamed on him. However, it soon becomes clear that he is not the killer

Winston was a town where, as in a mobile, everything balanced precariously. It looked all right to visitors, and even to most of the people who lived there. Children got to school safely, and there wasn’t much union trouble, and the streets were fairly clean and well paved. A few people knew better about Winston — because they ran the town. KILLING TIME is the story of what happened when a couple of outsiders tried to interfere with those few people. The VIPs you’ll meet in the book are briefly described herewith. TIM SMITH — the only private eye in town — who maintained this status with a “little black book” JORDAN REED — the business big-wig who was mayor of Winston in everything but name DAN WANAMAKER — who had the name of Mayor HARCUM — the boy who was voted least likely to succeed — so of course became Police Chief JACK WYCZA — the councilman who believed in nepotism — when he needed it RON LASCOW — the town’s sharpest young lawyer or youngest sharp lawyer SHERRI — a girl who played both sides of the game once too often PAUL MASETTI — who came to town with the peculiar project of buying a man JOEY CASALE — the grocer with a family he could turn into an army — and did Of Donald Westlake’s first novel, The Mercenaries, one reviewer wrote: “Mr. Westlake’s clipped, breezy, bitter picture of a college man who found crime paid and was stimulating, too, marks him as a newcomer most certainly arrived.” “Clipped, breezy, bitter” could certainly be used about killing time. To this add: rough, tough, and fast as a bullet