Джонатан Эймс0.0 The eponymous and hapless detective Happy Doll returns with a new philosophy and a new case in this second installment of a series “that's a tightly coiled double helix of offbeat humor and unflinching violence” (NYTBR)
Although badly scarred and down to his last kidney after the previous caper, Happy Doll is back in business. When a beguiling young woman turns up at his door, it’s Doll’s past that comes knocking. Mary DeAngelo is searching for her estranged mother, Ines Candle—a singular and troubled woman Doll once loved. The last he’d seen her she’d been near-death: arms slit like envelopes. Although she survived the episode, she vanished shortly thereafter. Now, years later, Mary claims Ines is alive and has recently made contact—messaging her on Facebook and calling her from a burner phone—only to disappear once again. Although his psychoanalyst would discourage it, Doll takes the case, desperate to see Ines again. But as the investigation deepens, there are questions he can’t shake. What’s led the flighty Ines to reappear? Is Mary only relaying half the truth? And who is Mary’s strange and mysterious husband?
In this wholly original follow-up to A MAN NAMED DOLL, Happy travels through L.A., Washington, Oregon and back again—a journey that gets wilder and woolier with each turn. An irreverent and inventive mystery, THE WHEEL OF DOLL is not to be missed.
Макс Аллан Коллинз0.0 True Crime detective Nathan Heller returns in a brand new case that connects a millionaire’s kidnapped child to Robert F. Kennedy’s campaign to bring down union boss Jimmy Hoffa.
Nathan Heller, star of MWA Grandmaster Max Allan Collins’ most acclaimed series of novels (more than 1 million copies sold to date!), comes to Hard Case Crime for the first time in an all-new thriller drawn from the pages of history. A millionaire’s son is kidnapped and private eye Heller is called in to help. But when half of the record $600,000 ransom goes missing, Heller must wade through a morass of deception and depravity to blow the lid off a notorious crime whose consequences reach into the corridors of power in Washington D.C., where Bobby Kennedy works tirelessly to take down crooked union boss Jimmy Hoffa…
M. Ravenel0.0 Another case has fallen onto the desk of Tootsie Carter; a female detective armed with a snub-nosed Colt .38, unmatchable wit, and a pocketful of Tootsie Rolls.
New York City, 1975
When a photo she took ends up splashed across a sleazy tabloid, Tootsie launches into an investigation to figure out who leaked it.
Pounding the pavement, she follows the leads to a seedy massage parlor.
One step inside and she knows something isn't right.
The women there need help, and Tootsie is determined to set them free.
But it won't be easy.
Sinister forces, who will stop at nothing to keep their income of dirty money flowing, are at work.
Can Tootsie break the women out of their violent shackles? Or will she find herself trapped alongside them?
Ide Joe0.0 Los Angeles - a city of scheming Malibu actresses, ruthless gang members, virulent inequality and washed-out police.
Roaming the city streets is Philip Marlowe: a quiet, lonely, remarkably capable private detective, living beneath the shadow of his father - a once-decorated LAPD homicide detective now drinking his life away.
Marlowe's latest client is tyrannical starlet Kendra James. Kendra's husband was fatally shot near their Malibu home, but even though that murder remains unresolved, the actress is more interested in tracking down her 17-year-old stepdaughter. But things get complicated after Marlowe lands a second missing person search from British academic Ren Stewart, whose ex-husband has kidnapped their seven-year-old son.
Steeped in the richly detailed ethnic neighborhoods of modern LA, Ide's The Goodbye Coast is a bold recreation that is viciously funny, ingeniously plotted, and surprisingly tender.
Kenneth Johnson0.0 The genius reappears, but is the twenty-first century ready for him?
Dr. Amy Winslow tells the story: in foggy, nighttime San Francisco a jogging SFPD captain is savagely attacked by a Bengal tiger which then vanishes. In her ER, Amy labors unsuccessfully to save the captain’s life, then consoles his aggrieved closest friend, Lt. Luis Ortega. Neither suspects their lives will intertwine in a life-or-death mystery.
The next day, checking on former patient Mrs. Hudson at her Victorian house isolated in Marin County’s forest, Amy discovers in the cellar a secret, cobweb-covered 1899 electrochemical laboratory containing a Jules Verne-esque steam-punk sarcophagus out of which springs a wild-eyed, half-mummified, crypt-keeper-like man who injects himself with something before falling dead at her feet. Amy barely revives him.
He claims to be a real-life Victorian master chemist and detective named Holmes, who allowed Conan Doyle to write stories based on his cases, though was slightly annoyed when Doyle changed his real first name to the catchier Sherlock. Becoming uninspired by 1890s crime, Holmes devised this method to hibernate for a century to investigate future mysteries.
Amy assumes he’s a lunatic. His Scotland Yard identity papers were stolen while he slept, so it takes her a while to realize his amazing story is true.
Respectably handsome when cleaned up, Holmes is still the same brash, egoistic, uber-English, cocaine-addicted, non-feminist genius -- but now a century out of sync -- so his still-brilliant deductions are sometimes laughingly or dangerously wrong. Holmes and Amy, his reluctant new Watson, find themselves unexpectedly attracted to each other while perilously involved in reclaiming his proof of identity, aided by cybersavvy street teen Zapper. It’s all connected to the horrific death-by-tiger, only the first of several bizarre, mystifying murders being committed by an exquisitely fiendish descendant of Holmes’ Victorian archenemy, Professor Moriarty.
The tone is classic Holmes -- plus a refreshing twist of fish-out-of-water humor with a surprising spark of real romance.
J.R. Sanders0.0 March 1939, and try as he might, private eye Nate Ross can't seem to stay clear of Hollywood. His latest case, a penny-ante theft caper, turns deadly serious when one of the miscreants is murdered and Nate's the prime witness. No sooner does L.A.P.D.'s number one suspect - a former friend and disgraced ex-colleague - turn up asking for Nate's help than he goes on the run again, from both the police and Nate.
Nate's forced to come to terms with more than one ghost from his past as his struggle to prove his on-the-lam client's innocence brings him up against hostile cops, a pair of rolling assassins, film pirates, mobsters, and a girl who may need his help or may be playing him for a chump.
Макс Аллан Коллинз0.0 The hitman hero of the acclaimed series Quarry on Cinemax returns for his final act. By Quarry’s creator, the award-winning author of Road to Perdition!
QUARRY'S VIOLENT PAST COMES LOOKING FOR HIM
The professional hitman known as Quarry -- star of the Cinemax TV miniseries of the same name -- has put killing behind him. But after a beautiful writer of true-crime bestsellers drops by to announce he's the subject of her next book, killers descend to give him some of his own deadly medicine, forcing Quarry to journey into his bloody past to find the answers -- and settle old scores.
QUARRY’S BLOOD brings the hitman’s decades-long saga right up to the present day as MWA Grand Master Max Allan Collins explores the startling final act of Quarry’s professional career.
Либби Фишер Хельман0.0 With little work during the pandemic, Chicago PI Georgia Davis agrees to help the best friend of fellow sleuth, Ellie Foreman. Susan Siler’s aunt died suddenly after her Covid booster, and Susan’s distraught mother wants the death investigated. However, Georgia’s investigation is interrupted by a family trip to Nauvoo, Illinois, the one-time Mormon heartland. It’s there that her life unexpectedly intersects with the runaway spouse of a Mormon Fundamentalist. Back in Evanston, after Georgia is almost killed by a hit and run driver, she discovers that she and the escaped woman look remarkably alike. Is someone trying to kill Georgia because of her death investigation? Or is it a case of mistaken identity? And how can Georgia find her doppelganger before whoever wants them both dead tries again?
Чарльз Зальцберг0.0 If a couple of Albanian gangsters show up outside your door to kidnap you, what do you do?
“Charles Salzberg’s Canary in the Coal Mine is everything a reader wants in a great crime novel, and then some. The rat-a-tat cadence of the noir masters, seamlessly blended with the contemporary sensibilities of an author thoroughly in control of his craft. I liked this book so much I read it twice. No kidding. It’s that good.” —Baron R. Birtcher, multi-award winning and Los Angeles Times bestselling author
Meet P.I. Pete Fortunato who spent a mysteriously short, forgettable stint as acop in a small upstate New York town. Living paycheck to paycheck, he works out of a friend’s downtown real estate office. So, when a beautiful woman wants to hire him to find her husband, he doesn’t hesitate to say yes.
Within a day, Fortunato finds the husband dead in the apartment of his client’s young, stud lover. Fortunato thinks the case is closed until his client’s check bounces and he is kidnapped by a couple of Albanian gangsters, hoping he’ll lead them to a large sum of money the dead husband stole. Fortunato soon realizes he may have been set up to take the fall for the murder and theft of money.
What to do? Fortunato embarks on a wild ride that takes him to Texas — searching for the client’s lover who he suspects has the money and holds the key to solving the murder that’s been blamed on him.
If you like Elmore Leonard, Michael Mann, and Phillip Marlowe, then you’ll love Charles Salzberg’s Canary in the Coal Mine .
“Salzberg has hit it out of the park. Love the writing style, and the story really draws you in. As with Salzberg’s prior works, he has a knack for making his heroes real, which makes their jeopardy real, too. So, say hello to Pete Fortunato, a modern PI who thinks on his feet and has moves that read like the noir version of Midnight Run.” —Tom Straw, author of the Richard Castle series (from the ABC show) and Buzz Killer
When a murder and a major theft have been pinned on you, how would you get out of that jam?
Габриэль Вальян0.0 Shane Cleary is living a comfortable life. He has money. He has a girl.
But a visit from a friend shakes up his status quo. Chess may be the metaphor, but the case is one that lifts the lid on problems nobody in Boston wants to talk about.
Murder. Race. Class. It's all Hush Hush.
Neither the crime nor the verdict is simple, and yet it is Black and White.
Shane will need more than a suit of armor if he wants to play knight. Can Justice be found? And at what cost?
