Mysteries & Thrillers
He called himself Alvin Limardo, and the job he had for Kinsey was cut-and-dried: locate a kid who'd done him a favor and pass on a check for $25,000. It was only later, after he'd stiffed her for her retainer, that Kinsey found out his name was Daggett. John Daggett. Ex-con. Inveterate liar. Chronic drunk. And dead. The cops called it an accident--death by drowning. Kinsey wasn't so sure.
Pulled into the detritus of a dead man's life, Kinsey soon realizes that Daggett had an awful lot of enemies. There's the daughter who grew up with a cheating drunk for a father, and the wife who's become a religious nut in response to an intolerable marriage. There's the lady who thought she was Mrs. Daggett--and has the bruises to prove it--only to discover the legal Mrs. D. And there are the drug dealers out $25,000. But most of all, there are the families of the five people John Daggett killed, victims of his wild, drunken driving. The D.A. called it vehicular manslaughter and put him away for two years. The families called it murder and had very good reason to want John Daggett dead.
Deft, cunning, and clever, this latest Millhone mystery also confronts some messy truths, for, as Kinsey herself says, "Some debts of the human soul are so enormous only life itself is sufficient forfeit"--but as she'd be the first to admit, murder is not a socially acceptable solution.
1st edition, 1st printing, ex-lib; dust jacket in protective cover. G/G
1st edition, published by Zomba Books, London, England, 1983; Black Box Thrillers, contains 4 novels in one; dust jacket in protective mylar cover; black cloth with gilt lettering on spine; glued binding - when opened flat the binding cracks and pages look cracked in gutters. G/G+
"'A Better Man, ' with its mix of meteorological suspense, psychological insight and criminal pursuit, is arguably the best book yet in an outstanding, original oeuvre." --Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
Enchanting... one of his most ennobling missions. --Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
Clanton, Mississippi. 1990. Jake Brigance finds himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial when the court appoints him attorney for Drew Gamble, a timid sixteen-year-old boy accused of murdering a local deputy. Many in Clanton want a swift trial and the death penalty, but Brigance digs in and discovers that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Jake's fierce commitment to saving Drew from the gas chamber puts his career, his financial security, and the safety of his family on the line. In what may be the most personal and accomplished legal thriller of John Grisham's storied career, we deepen our acquaintance with the iconic Southern town of Clanton and the vivid cast of characters that so many readers know and cherish. The result is a richly rewarding novel that is both timely and timeless, full of wit, drama, and--most of all--heart. Bursting with all the courthouse scheming, small-town intrigue, and stunning plot twists that have become the hallmarks of the master of the legal thriller, A Time for Mercy is John Grisham's most powerful courtroom drama yet. There is a time to kill and a time for justice. Now comes A Time for Mercy.
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
PARADE MAGAZINE - ONE OF FALL'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS
AARP'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF FALL
CRIMEREADS - ONE OF THE BEST TRADITIONAL MYSTERIES OF THE YEAR
GLOBE AND MAIL - TOP 100 BOOKS OF THE YEAR
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - ONE OF THE BEST NOVELS OF THE YEAR
KIRKUS REVIEWS - ONE OF THE BEST MYSTERIES/THRILLERS OF THE YEAR
LIBRARY JOURNAL - ONE OF THE BEST CRIME FICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR
The 16th novel by #1 bestselling author Louise Penny finds Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Quebec investigating a sinister plot in the City of Light
Leigh Brackett (1915-1978) was an American writer, particularly of science fiction; she has been referred to as the "Queen of Space Opera." She was also a screenwriter and a writer of crime fiction. An Eye for an Eye has been called a novel of nightmare revenge, and it was adapted for television as Suspicion series episode in 1958.
1st edition; published for the Crime Club by Doubleday & Company; "A Crime Club selection." Dust jacket in protective mylar cover; 1/2" tear at head of spine and top of front cover; price clipped; black boards with red decoration and lettering on spine; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/G+
William Riley (W.R.) Burnett (1899-1982) was an American novelist and screenwriter, best known for his crime novel Little Caesar, the film adaptation of which was considered to be the first of the classic American gangster movies. Burnett's characters exist in a world of twilight morality — virtue can come from gangsters and criminals, malice from guardians and protectors. Above all his characters are human and this could be their undoing. In The Asphalt Jungle, published in 1949 and made into a movie in 1950, the most perfectly masterminded plot falls apart as each character reveals a weakness.
1st UK edition, published by Macdonald & Company, London, 1950; dust jacket in protective mylar cover; top edge shelf-worn; black cloth with gilt lettering on spine; endpapers very lightly tanned; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/VG
A botched liquor store heist leaves three grisly dead. A hero cop is missing. Nobody could see a pattern in these two stray bits of information–no one except Detective Sergeant Lloyd Hopkins, a brilliant and disturbed L.A. cop with an obsessive desire to protect the innocent. To him they lead to one horrifying conclusion--a killer is on the loose and preying on his city. From the master of L.A. noir comes this beautiful and brutal tale of a cop and a criminal squared off in a life and death struggle.
1st edition; published by The Mysterious Press, New York, 1984; "A Lloyd Hopkins Novel of Suspense." Dust jacket in protective mylar cover; light shelf wear; corners chipped; dark green cloth with silver lettering on spine; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/VG
Charlie Chan is in San Francisco for one week only – he absolutely must leave on Wednesday's boat to get back to Hawaii, where a new son awaits his return. Never mind that Sir Frederic Bruce, a former Scotland Yard detective he's only just met, but for whom he already has great respect, has been murdered at a dinner party he was attending. Never mind that Sir Frederic was hot on the trail of a fifteen-year-old mystery involving murder and a missing woman. Never mind that Chan catches twice as many clues as the bumbling San Francisco detective put on the case – he must get home to his son. But even Charlie Chan can't resist a challenge from a beautiful, intelligent woman like June Morrow, deputy district attorney and the lawyer in charge of prosecuting Sir Frederic's murder. One more week away from home should be plenty of time to catch a killer…
Published by Grosset & Dunlap, 1928. Dust jacket in protective mylar cover; some shelf wear to edges; small area of front cover rubbed; orange cloth with stylized lettering on cover and spine; small decoration on spine; endpapers slightly foxed from dj flaps. G/G
Searching for a chorus girl’s stag film, Jack LeVine stumbles on a sinister political plot
Like all chorus girls, Kerry Lane yearns to get her name on the marquee. After years of high-kicking, she lands a bit part in a Broadway smash hit which should lead to better things. The only thing holding her back is her past: specifically a series of stag films from her days as a struggling wannabe film starlet. When a blackmailer demands a payoff to keep them out of the public eye, Kerry comes to Jack LeVine. Stocky, sweaty, and bald, LeVine is a Jewish private detective who makes a living by being polite. But underneath his smile lies a bulldog. Lured by long legs and a roll of crisp twenties, LeVine takes Kerry’s case. But before he can speak to the blackmailer, the crook turns up dead. As LeVine hunts for Kerry’s pictures, he finds that the heart of this case is even uglier than greed, lust, or murder. It’s politics.
1st edition; dust jacket in protective mylar cover; head of spine chipped; covers lightly soiled; orange and white boards with black lettering; front free endpaper clipped; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/VG-
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.
1st edition; dust jacket in protective mylar cover; top edge shelfworn; head of spine creased; small (3/4") tear on top back cover; blue boards with brown cloth spine; gilt lettering and decoration on spine; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/G+
Booked to Die, the first book in John Dunning’s bestselling, award-winning Cliff Janeway series, is “a joy to read for its wealth of inside knowledge about the antiquarian book business and its eccentric traders” (TheNew York Times Book Review).
Denver homicide detective Cliff Janeway may not always play by the book, but he’s an avid collector of rare and first editions. Bobby Westfall is a local bookscout, a gentle and quiet man who has sold enough valuable books to keep himself and his cats fed and housed. When Bobby is murdered, Janeway would like nothing better than to rearrange the suspect’s spine. But the suspect, local lowlife Jackie Newton, is a master at eluding the law, and Janeway’s wrathful brand of off-duty justice costs him his badge.
Turning to his lifelong passion, Janeway opens a small bookshop—all the while searching for evidence to put Newton away. When prized volumes in a highly sought-after collection begin to appear, so do dead bodies. Now Janeway’s life is about to change in profound and shocking ways as he attempts to find out who’s dealing death along with vintage Chandlers and Twains.
“One of the most enjoyable books I’ve read” (The Denver Post), Booked to Die is the first in the Cliff Janeway series. It is “a standout piece of crime fiction…Compelling page-turning stuff” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
1st edition, 4th printing; dust jacket shows minor wear; small closed tear at top of front cover on flap side; navy cloth over blue boards; lettering on spine in metallic blue; binding good; text clean. G+/G+
The wise and beleaguered Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns to Three Pines for the fifth book in Louise Penny's award-winning and critically revered mystery series
Chaos is coming, old son. With those words the peace of Three Pines is shattered. Everybody goes to Olivier's Bistro--including a stranger whose murdered body is found on the floor. When Chief Inspector Gamache is called to investigate, he is dismayed to discover that Olivier's story is full of holes. Why are his fingerprints all over the cabin that's uncovered deep in the wilderness, with priceless antiques and the dead man's blood? And what other secrets and layers of lies are buried in the seemingly idyllic village? Gamache follows a trail of clues and treasures--from first editions of Charlotte's Web and Jane Eyre to a spiderweb with a word mysteriously woven in it--into the woods and across the continent, before returning to Three Pines to confront the truth and the final, brutal telling.
The first novel to introduce lawyer and detective Scott Jordan. Dust jacket art by Bayre Phillips.
1st edition; "An Inner Sanctum Mystery;" dust jacket in protective mylar cover; head of spine and bottom of front cover creased; corners chipped; back cover soiled; inner edges of dj foxed; black cloth with gilt lettering on spine; pages tanned. G/G
James M. Cain (1892-1977) was a novelist whose "violent, sexually obsessed, and relentlessly paced melodramas epitomized the “hard-boiled” school of writing that flourished in the United States in the 1930s and ’40s. He was ranked with Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler as one of the masters of the genre. Three classics of the American screen were made from his novels: Double Indemnity (1936; film 1944), Mildred Pierce (1941; film 1945, TV miniseries 2011), and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934; stage version 1936, films 1946, 1981)." [https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-M-Cain].
The Butterfly tells the story of an Appalachian coal miner who has been separated from his family for years; his life is drastically changed and complicated as he seeks revenge when his daughter suddenly appears in his cabin, and he discovers the true identity of her illegitimate child.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947. 1st edition. Dust jacket in protective cover; spine edges creased and chipped; beige cloth with green decoration and lettering on cover and spine; binding tight; text bright. G/G
From New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George, a stunning mystery featuring Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley that explores the perfect crime--now available as a limited Olive Edition from Harper Perennial.
Devastated by the senseless murder of his wife, Thomas Lynley retreated to Cornwall, where he has spent six solitary weeks hiking the bleak and rugged coastline. But no matter how far he walks, the painful memories do not diminish.
Then, at the base of a cliff near a town better known for its surfing than its intrigue, Lynley discovers the body of a young man who has fallen to his death. First a witness, then a suspect when the hand of a killer is revealed, Lynley remains, above all, a policeman willing to aid the gruff head of an understaffed local constabulary in her investigation. But the secrets in this community run dark and deep--and Lynley must somehow find a way to let go of the past long enough to solve a most devious and dreadful crime.
The fifth of the Earl Derr Biggers Charlie Chan books books involves the Honolulu detective in a case of murder that stretches around the world, as members of a tour group are dying, one by one. Charlie's old friend Chief Inspector Duff from Scotland Yard comes to his rescue in this book. Duff is investigating the murder of Hugh Morris Drake, a sweet old man strangled in London's famous and exclusive hotel, Broome's. Drake is with a tour group encircling the globe. While Duff's ship is docked in Honolulu, the detective is shot and wounded by his quarry; though he survives, he is unable to continue with the cruise, and Chan takes his place on the ship to San Francisco, where finally the mystery is solved.
Bobbs-Merrill, 1930, assumed first edition with dj design (signed) by Mary Briggs, a bit tattered at top of spine. VG/VG
Colonel Sun was published in 1968 and is the first novel featuring the character of James Bond to appear after the death of his creator, Ian Fleming. It was published by Kingsley Amis under the name of Robert Markham
1st edition. London: Jonathan Cape, 1968. Dust jacket painting by Tom Adams; dj in protective cover; head of spine chipped; flap edges tanned; black cloth with gilt lettering on spine; illustrated endpapers; binding good; text clean. G+/G+
But he cannot shake a growing sense of dread.
A true crime podcast sets a trophy wife's present life on a collision course with her secret past in this "blazingly intense" Reese Witherspoon book club pick and New York Times Best Crime Novel of the Year (A. J. Finn).
The day Anna McDonald's quiet, respectable life exploded started off like all the days before: Packing up the kids for school, making breakfast, listening to yet another true crime podcast. Then her husband comes downstairs with an announcement, and Anna is suddenly, shockingly alone.
Reeling, desperate for distraction, Anna returns to the podcast. Other people's problems are much better than one's own -- a sunken yacht, a murdered family, a hint of international conspiracy. But this case actually is Anna's problem. She knows one of the victims from an earlier life, a life she's taken great pains to leave behind. And she is convinced that she knows what really happened.
Then an unexpected visitor arrives on her front stoop, a meddling neighbor intervenes, and life as Anna knows it is well and truly over. The devils of her past are awakened -- and they're in hot pursuit. Convinced she has no other options, Anna goes on the run, and in pursuit of the truth, with a washed-up musician at her side and the podcast as her guide.
Conviction is "daredevil storytelling at its finest" (NPR's Fresh Air), a breathtaking thriller from one of the most "superbly talented" writers of our time (Hank Phillippi Ryan, bestselling author of Trust Me).
Joyce Carol Oates pulls out all the stops in this chilling female-centric noir collection featuring brand-new writing from Margaret Atwood, Aimee Bender, Edwidge Danticat, and more.
Livia Llewellyn's "One of These Nights" has won the Edgar Award for Best Short Story, presented by the Mystery Writers of America!
"Miss Martin" by Sheila Kohler has been selected for inclusion in The Best American Mystery Stories 2021
"An eclectic anthology edited by Joyce Carol Oates. It features the work of 16 distinguished writers, including Margaret Atwood, Valerie Martin, Steph Cha and Ms. Oates herself. The theme is 'female noir, ' with shades encompassing 'sociological realism...Grand Guignol surrealism...erotic playfulness [and] dark fairy-tale determinism.' Noir sensibility, male or female, Ms. Oates concludes, is 'not so much pessimistic as starkly realist, free of romantic illusion, expecting the less benign, resigned to the worst.' If not the ideal cup of holiday cheer, then, perhaps a perfect tonic for the New Year?"
--Wall Street Journal
"The indefatigable Joyce Carol Oates gathers a strong list of names for Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by Women Writers. Emerging and established authors provide attention-grabbing short works: especially notable are Edwidge Danticat's story on the quotidian horror of domestic violence, Bernice L. McFadden's comic take on the appropriation of racial friendship, and Lisa Ling's illustrations of a grotesque marriage."
--Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
"But of course, in the end, it isn't the themes or the innovations on the format of the short story anthology that make the tales collected in Cutting Edge most 'feel' as if you were reading Joyce Carol Oates herself. It is the writing. The tight plots and fresh, flowing prose that go about their business until--snap!--the story's well-oiled mousetrap does its job."
--New York Journal of Books
Joyce Carol Oates, a queenpin of the noir genre, has brought her keen and discerning eye to the curation of an outstanding anthology of brand-new top-shelf short stories (and poems by Margaret Atwood!). While bad men are not always the victims in these tales, they get their due often enough to satisfy readers who are sick and tired of the gendered status quo, or who just want to have a little bit of fun at the expense of a crumbling patriarchal society. This stylistically diverse collection will make you squirm in your seat, stay up at night, laugh out loud, and inevitably wish for more.
Featuring brand-new stories by: Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood (poems), Valerie Martin, Aimee Bender, Edwidge Danticat, Sheila Kohler, S.A. Solomon, S.J. Rozan, Lucy Taylor, Cassandra Khaw, Bernice L. McFadden, Jennifer Morales, Elizabeth McCracken, Livia Llewellyn, Lisa Lim, and Steph Cha.
From the introduction by Joyce Carol Oates:
"The particular strength of the female noir vision isn't a recognizable style but rather a defiantly female, indeed feminist, perspective. Cutting Edge brings together a considerable range of twenty-first-century female voices, from sociological realism (Cha) to Grand Guignol surrealism (Oates); from erotic playfulness (Bender) to dark fairy-tale determinism (Khaw). Here is a brilliantly deadpan graphic story by Lisa Lim, and here are brilliantly executed poems by Margaret Atwood. Artwork by Laurel Hausler is striking and original, sinister and triumphant; Noir Dame (on the front cover) is the perfect image of a mysterious beauty, far more than merely skin-deep, and essentially unknowable."
"Tough-minded, richly described...combines a thrilling story with heartbreaking questions of social justice and history."--Seattle Times
Set in Scotland, Val McDermid's brilliant exploration of loyalty and greed intertwines the past and present in a novel that was chosen as a New York Times Notable Crime Book of the Year and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Now available as a limited Olive Edition from Harper Perennial.
Fife, Scotland, 1984. Mick Prentice abandons his family at the height of a politically charged national miners' strike to join the strikebreakers down south. Despised and disowned by friends and relatives, he is not reported missing until twenty-three years later.
Fife, Scotland, 1985. Kidnapped heiress Catriona Maclennan Grant is killed and her baby son vanishes when the ransom payoff goes horribly wrong. In 2008, a tourist in Tuscany stumbles upon dramatic new evidence that reopens the investigation.
Already immersed in the Prentice affair, Detective Karen Pirie, newly appointed head of the Cold Case Review Team, wants to make her mark with this second unsolved 1980s mystery. But two decades' worth of secrets are leading Pirie into a dark domain of violence and betrayal--a place darker than any she has previously entered.
--Mystery Scene
Hamish Macbeth, the laid-back constable of Lochdubh, Scotland, has a new Land Rover to drive and a Highland summer to savor, but as fast as rain rolls in from the loch, his happy life goes to hell in a handbasket. The trouble begins when his beloved Priscilla Halburton-Smythe returns from London . . . with a fiance on her arm. His miseries multiply when clouds of midges (the diabolical Scottish mosquito) descend on the town.
Then a paragon of housewifery named Trixie Thomas moves into Lochdubh with her lapdog husband in tow. The newcomer quickly convinces the local ladies to embrace low-cholesterol meals, ban tobacco, and begin bird-watching. Soon the town's fish-and-chips-loving men are up in arms. Now faced with the trials of his own soul, Macbeth must solve Lochdubh's newest crime-the mysterious poisoning of the perfect wife.
1st edition. Dust jacket in protective mylar cover. VG/VG
Book #3 in the Somebody's Bound to Wind Up Dead Mysteries, following Murder to the Metal
Dispatched by M to investigate the mysterious disappearance of MI6’s Jamaica station chief, Bond was expecting a holiday in the sun. But when he discovers a deadly centipede placed in his hotel room, the vacation is over.
On this island, all suspicious activity leads inexorably to Dr. Julius No, a reclusive megalomaniac with steel pincers for hands. To find out what the good doctor is hiding, 007 must enlist the aid of local fisherman Quarrel and alluring beachcomber Honeychile Rider. Together they will combat a local legend the natives call “the Dragon,” before Bond alone must face the most punishing test of all: an obstacle course—designed by the sadistic Dr. No himself—that measures the limits of the human body’s capacity for agony.
Signet, 1959 first pb printing. VG
Marty Holland, born Mary Hauenstein, was an American screenwriter and author of pulp novels. Holland began her career as a typist in Hollywood and wrote several short stories for pulps. Her first novel, Fallen Angel, was published in 1945 and immediately adapted into the 1945 film of the same name.
1st edition; dust jacket in protective mylar cover; dj corners clipped; head and tail of spine chipped; edges worn; small area of front cover rubbed; back cover soiled; orange cloth with dark blue lettering on cover and spine; small areas on pastedowns and endpapers show evidence of scotch tape; small bookseller's stamp in upper corner of front facing endpaper; rough cut paper; text clean and bright. G/G
In The Far Side of the Dollar, private investigator Lew Archer is looking for an unstable rich kid who has run away from an exclusive reform school—and into the arms of kidnappers. Why are his desperate parents so loath to give Archer the information he needs to find him? And why do all trails lead to a derelict Hollywood hotel where starlets and sailors once rubbed elbows with two-bit grifters—and where the present clientele includes a brand-new corpse? The result is Ross Macdonald at his most exciting, delivering 1,000-volt shocks to the nervous system while uncovering the venality and depravity at the heart of the case.
1st edition; dust jacket in protective mylar cover; spine and edges have some minor shelf wear; green cloth over brown boards; gilt lettering and decoration on spine; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/VG
Lana Lee returns for another delectable cozy set in a Chinese restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio in Vivien Chien's Fatal Fried Rice...
Lana Lee runs her family's Chinese restaurant in Cleveland's Asia Village like nobody's business. When it comes to actual cooking, however, she's known to be about a step up from boiling rice. So Lana decides to go to culinary school on the sly--and prove that she has what it takes in the kitchen after all. But when course instructor Margo Chan turns up dead after class, Lana suddenly finds herself on the case, frying pan in hand. Since she was the one who discovered the body, Lana must do double duty in finding the killer and clearing her name. Now, with or without the help of her boyfriend Detective Adam Trudeau, Lana launches her own investigation into Margo's life and mysterious death. Doing so leads her on a wild goose chase to and from the culinary school--and all the way back to the Ho-Lee noodle shop, where the guilty party may be closer than Lana thinks.
It was a long way from the million-dollar Foothill Club to Pelly Street, where grudges were settled in blood and Spanish and a stolen diamond ring landed a girl in jail. Defense lawyer Bill Gunnarson was making the trip—fast. He already knew a kidnapping at the club was tied to the girl's hot rock, and he suspected that a missing Hollywood starlet was the key to a busy crime ring. But while Gunnarson made his way through a storm of deception, money, drugs, and passions, he couldn't guess how some big shots and small-timers would all end up with murder in common...
1st edition; dust jacket in protective mylar cover; dj lightly soiled; blue boards with red cloth spine; gilt decoration and lettering on spine; front hinge a little weak; handwritten baseball scoring in ink on rear free endpaper; some of the ink lines are continued onto rear flap. G-/G+
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.
London: Severn House, 1976. 1st UK edition; originally published in 1954; dust jacket in protective mylar cover; very minor scuffing to head of spine; top corners very lightly chipped; maroon cloth with gilt lettering on spine; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/G+
The first in a series by the author of The Sol Majestic is "what might result if you put Breaking Bad and Reddit in a blender and hit 'frappe.' " (B&N Sci-Fi Blog)
FLEX Distilled magic in crystal form. The most dangerous drug in the world. Snort it, and you can create incredible coincidences to live the life of your dreams.
It started as a routine case for Paul Pine, just a job for a friend, the job of finding Laura Fremont, a girl who went to Chicago from Lincoln, Nebraska, and stopped writing her parents. But even before he left the land of the cornhuskers, Pine had been knocked cold and was involved in a murder.
1st edition; dust jacket in protective mylar cover; bottom inside corner of front cover missing; edges shelf worn and chipped; red cloth with gold lettering on cover and spine; water damage to inside rear cover. G-/G-
William Riley (W.R.) Burnett (1899-1982) was an American novelist and screenwriter, best known for his crime novel Little Caesar, the film adaptation of which was considered to be the first of the classic American gangster movies. Burnett's characters exist in a world of twilight morality — virtue can come from gangsters and criminals, malice from guardians and protectors. Above all his characters are human and this could be their undoing. High Sierra, published in 1940 and made into a movie in 1941 starring Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart, tells the story of notorious criminal "Mad Dog" Roy Earle.
1st edition; gorgeous dust jacket with drawing by Bob Smith; dj in protective mylar cover; 1" tear at head of spine; spine creased; edges and corners shelfworn; orange cloth with blue decoration and lettering on cover and spine; edges darkened; covers lightly soiled; endpapers foxed; text clean. G-/G-
A trip to the West Coast lands Jack LeVine in a tangled Hollywood murder web
After nearly a decade of churning out hits, Warner Bros. screenwriter Walter Adrian wants a raise on his weekly $2,500 salary. He thinks a thousand dollars more is fair—but the studio’s counteroffer is low, and dropping fast. Something is wrong, and he thinks it may have to do with communism. Though he insists he isn’t a Red, Adrian has no way of proving it. He flees to New York to ask the advice of high school buddy Jack LeVine, private eye. LeVine is broke, and has no sympathy for his wealthy friend, but he agrees to fly West to investigate his old classmate’s trouble. When he arrives, Adrian hangs dead from the gallows at the Western set on the Warners’ backlot. Behind his friend’s death LeVine finds a shadowy Cold War conspiracy, and a city far darker than anything Hollywood puts on screen.
1st edition; dust jacket in protective mylar cover; price clipped; minor shelf wear to spine and bottom front edge; red boards with white cloth spine, black lettering on spine; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG/VG
Tom Clancy's rich imagination and his remarkable grasp of the capabilities of advanced technology give this novel an amazing ring of authenticity. It is a thriller with a new twist, a "military procedural" with an ingenious, tightly woven plot that revolves around the defection of a Soviet nuclear submarine--the USSR's newest and most valuable ship, with its most trusted and skilled officer at the helm.
A deadly serious game of hide-and-seek is on. The entire Soviet Atlantic Fleet is ordered to hunt down the submarine and destroy her at all costs. The Americans are determined to find her first and get her safely to port in the intelligence coups of all time. But the Red October has a million square miles of ocean to hide in and a new silent propulsion system that is impossible to detect. Or is it?
Her daring and cunning captain, Marko Ramius, thinks so. The commander of the Soviet's fastest attack submarine, however, is confident that he will find his prey. And Bart Mancuso, the aggressive commander of the U.S. Navy attack sub the Dallas, is counting on the sensitive ears of his resourceful young sonar operator to identify Red October's unique sound print and track her down.
The nerve-wracking hunt goes on for eighteen days as the Red October stealthily eludes her hunters across 4,000 miles of ocean. But just short of Ramius's objective, his submarine converges with the others in a rousing climax that is one of the most thrilling underwater scenes ever written. Can the start of all-out war be avoided? The outcome is clear only on the very last pages.
Naval Institute Press, 1st edition, 2nd printing, 1984. Dust jacket in protective cover; red cloth with white lettering on spine. VG/VG
William Riley (W.R.) Burnett (1899-1982) was an American novelist and screenwriter, best known for his crime novel Little Caesar, the film adaptation of which was considered to be the first of the classic American gangster movies. Burnett's characters exist in a world of twilight morality — virtue can come from gangsters and criminals, malice from guardians and protectors. Above all his characters are human and this could be their undoing.
Iron Man features tough fighter Coke Mason. He’s got a great left hook, and he can take the punishment. His manager George Regan knows all his strengths and weaknesses—hell, they’ve known each other since they were kids--and uses them to his advantage to get Coke fired up before every fight. Coke is headed for the top. But he’s got one weakness that Regan can’t use—Coke’s love for Rose, his manipulative wife. Rose has Coke twisted around her finger so tight, Coke can’t see straight. But that doesn’t bother Coke. Whatever Rose wants is okay with him. Until suave hustler Paul Lewis enters the scene, with a proposition of his own.
1st printing, published by The Dial Press, New York, 1930; powerful dust jacket by Edna Reindel; dj in protective mylar cover; spine and corners chipped; top edges of dj foxed; blue boards with gilt lettering on spine; spine faded; top front corner has small water stain; inscription on front free endpaper; binding tight; text clean and bright. G/G-
John Dickson Carr's first novel is a brooding locked room mystery that takes place in Paris. In the smoke-wreathed gloom of a Parisian salon, Inspector Bencolin has summoned his allies to discuss a peculiar case. A would-be murderer, imprisoned for his attempt to kill his wife, has escaped and is known to have visited a plastic surgeon. His whereabouts remain a mystery, though with his former wife poised to marry another, Bencolin predicts his return. Sure enough, the Inspector's worst suspicions are realized when the beheaded body of the new suitor is discovered in a locked room of the salon, with no apparent exit. Bencolin sets off into the Parisian night to unravel the dumbfounding mystery and track down the sadistic killer.
1st edition; no dj; amateur repair to ffep. G-
With backing from the two privileged white boys she raised deep down in Mississippi, Liz Hampton's Biological sons rose to wealth and prominence in the north. But, into each life a little rain must fall as the Hampton dynasty experiences more than its share of storms from illegitimate children to thieving employees.
Vernalee is an entrepreneur turned author. Lee writes about “life” and relationships - both personal and professional.
Growing up in the south in a small business environment, her writings are often flavored with actual and visual revelations that reflect her life experiences derived from the quaint town of Glen Allan, Mississippi. “There was nothing that you didn’t see/witness in Glen Allan. The town is rich in life lessons.”
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A December 2018 Indie Next Pick
One of Kirkus Reviews' Best of 2018 Picks
BookPage Best of the Year 2018
A LibraryReads Pick for November 2018
A LibraryReads Hall of Fame Winner
Washington Post's 10 Books to Read This November
One of PopSugar's Best Fall Books to Curl Up With
Kingdom of the Blind, the new Chief Inspector Gamache novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author. When a peculiar letter arrives inviting Armand Gamache to an abandoned farmhouse, the former head of the Sûreté du Québec discovers that a complete stranger has named him one of the executors of her will. Still on suspension, and frankly curious, Gamache accepts and soon learns that the other two executors are Myrna Landers, the bookseller from Three Pines, and a young builder. None of them had ever met the elderly woman. The will is so odd and includes bequests that are so wildly unlikely that Gamache and the others suspect the woman must have been delusional. But what if, Gamache begins to ask himself, she was perfectly sane? When a body is found, the terms of the bizarre will suddenly seem less peculiar and far more menacing. But it isn't the only menace Gamache is facing. The investigation into what happened six months ago--the events that led to his suspension--has dragged on, into the dead of winter. And while most of the opioids he allowed to slip through his hands, in order to bring down the cartels, have been retrieved, there is one devastating exception. Enough narcotic to kill thousands has disappeared into inner city Montreal. With the deadly drug about to hit the streets, Gamache races for answers. As he uses increasingly audacious, even desperate, measures to retrieve the drug, Armand Gamache begins to see his own blind spots. And the terrible things hiding there.
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A December 2018 Indie Next Pick
One of Kirkus Reviews' Best of 2018 Picks
BookPage Best of the Year 2018
A LibraryReads Pick for November 2018
A LibraryReads Hall of Fame Winner
Washington Post's 10 Books to Read This November
One of PopSugar's Best Fall Books to Curl Up With
"A captivating, wintry whodunit." --PEOPLE
"A constantly surprising series that deepens and darkens as it evolves." --Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
Kingdom of the Blind, the new Chief Inspector Gamache novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author.
When a peculiar letter arrives inviting Armand Gamache to an abandoned farmhouse, the former head of the Sûreté du Québec discovers that a complete stranger has named him one of the executors of her will. Still on suspension, and frankly curious, Gamache accepts and soon learns that the other two executors are Myrna Landers, the bookseller from Three Pines, and a young builder.
None of them had ever met the elderly woman.
The will is so odd and includes bequests that are so wildly unlikely that Gamache and the others suspect the woman must have been delusional. But what if, Gamache begins to ask himself, she was perfectly sane?
When a body is found, the terms of the bizarre will suddenly seem less peculiar and far more menacing.
But it isn't the only menace Gamache is facing.
The investigation into what happened six months ago--the events that led to his suspension--has dragged on, into the dead of winter. And while most of the opioids he allowed to slip through his hands, in order to bring down the cartels, have been retrieved, there is one devastating exception.
Enough narcotic to kill thousands has disappeared into inner city Montreal. With the deadly drug about to hit the streets, Gamache races for answers.
As he uses increasingly audacious, even desperate, measures to retrieve the drug, Armand Gamache begins to see his own blind spots. And the terrible things hiding there.
Winner of the Audiofile Magazine 2018 Earphones Award for Fiction For fans of Lauren Oliver and Kazuo Ishiguro, The Last to See Me is a spellbinding American ghost story deftly weaving past and present into an unforgettable narrative about a young woman's fight for a life of her own--long after her life is over. Over one hundred years ago, Emma Rose Finnis was born and died in the remote northern California town she now haunts. When she was alive, she was a lowly chambermaid and worse, a Finnis. Now, no one remembers her hardworking life and her grand dreams--because there are none left to remember. In a world where phantoms are considered "unclean," the spirits of her town have already been removed. All except Emma Rose. But when a determined hunter arrives with instructions to extinguish her once and for all, Emma Rose refuses to be hounded from her haunt, the stately Lambry Mansion. She's earned her place and she'll keep it--even if it means waging a war on the living. After all, she's got nothing left to lose. The same might not be said for those who still enjoy the luxury of a breath . . .
FIRST BOOK IN A NEW BEACHSIDE COZY MYSTERY SERIES!
When a body turns up on the boardwalk outside Everly Swan's iced tea shop and café, she becomes the number one suspect in a murder case. Can she bag the culprit, prove her innocence, and dish up the real killer before it's too late?
Hitting All the sweet-tea spots, this series is:
Life hasn't been so sweet for Everly Swan over the past couple of years, but now she's back in her seaside hometown of Charm, North Carolina. The proud new owner of Sun, Sand, and Tea--a café right on the beach--Everly thinks that things are finally starting to look up. Until a grouchy customer turns up dead on the boardwalk with a jar of one of her specialty teas lying right next to him! When an autopsy reports poison in his system, things don't look good for Everly or her tea shop.
As the townspeople of Charm, formerly so welcoming and homey, turn their back on Everly, she fights to dig up clues about who could have had it in for the former town councilman. With the maddeningly handsome Detective Grady Hays discouraging her from uncovering leads and a series of anonymous attacks on Everly and her tea shop, it will take everything she's got to keep this murder mystery from boiling over.
INCLUDES DELICIOUS FOOD AND DRINK RECIPES
Gerald Butler (1907-1988) was a British crime, mystery, thriller, and pulp writer. Mad with Much Heart, his third novel, was the basis of the 1951 film On Dangerous Ground, which starred Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan.
1st American edition, featuring a beautiful dust jacket by I.N. Steinberg; dj in protective mylar cover; edges shelfworn and browned; green cloth with gilt lettering on spine and cover; top edge of front cover discolored; small area on top edge of rear cover discolored; endpapers foxed; binding tight; text clean. G/G
In this riveting mystery from New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Winspear, Maisie Dobbs is hired to unravel a case of wartime love and death, an investigation that leads her to a doomed affair between a young cartographer and a mysterious nurse. Now available as a limited Olive Edition from Harper Perennial.
August 1914. As Michael Clifton is mapping land he has just purchased in California's beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, war is declared in Europe--and duty-bound to his father's native country, the young cartographer soon sets sail for England to serve in the British army. Three years later, he is listed as missing in action.
April 1932. After Michael's remains are unearthed in France, his parents retain London psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs, hoping she can find the unnamed nurse whose love letters were among their late son's belongings. It is a quest that leads Maisie back to her own bittersweet wartime love--and to the stunning discovery that Michael Clifton was murdered in his dugout. Suddenly an exposed web of intrigue and violence threatens to ensnare the dead soldier's family and even Maisie herself as she attempts to cope with the impending loss of her mentor and the unsettling awareness that she is once again falling in love.
In the tradition of Arianna Franklin and C. J. Sansom comes Samuel Thomas's remarkable debut, The Midwife's Tale
It is 1644, and Parliament's armies have risen against the King and laid siege to the city of York. Even as the city suffers at the rebels' hands, midwife Bridget Hodgson becomes embroiled in a different sort of rebellion. One of Bridget's friends, Esther Cooper, has been convicted of murdering her husband and sentenced to be burnt alive. Convinced that her friend is innocent, Bridget sets out to find the real killer.
Bridget joins forces with Martha Hawkins, a servant who's far more skilled with a knife than any respectable woman ought to be. To save Esther from the stake, they must dodge rebel artillery, confront a murderous figure from Martha's past, and capture a brutal killer who will stop at nothing to cover his tracks. The investigation takes Bridget and Martha from the homes of the city's most powerful families to the alleyways of its poorest neighborhoods. As they delve into the life of Esther's murdered husband, they discover that his ostentatious Puritanism hid a deeply sinister secret life, and that far too often tyranny and treason go hand in hand.
Originally published in England in 1934 with the title Parker Pyne Investigates, this first U.S. edition titled Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective, collects 12 stories about the detective whose favorite quote and sales pitch is always "Are you happy? If not consult Mr Parker Pyne, 17 Richmond Street."
1st U.S. edition. No dust jacket; orange cloth with black lettering on cover and spine; spine faded; binding tight; text clean and bright. VG
Mrs. Murdock is the wife of the famous photographer, Kent Murdock who solves crimes with his camera. When Kent refuses to take on a case, Mrs. Murdock investigates a double murder involving two girls who are trying desperately to prove the innocence of a suspected murderer.
1st edition; dust jacket in protective mylar cover; 2" x 1" area of bottom front cover worn away; smaller area of rubbing at top of front cover; spine chipped; edges shelf worn; beige cloth with multicolor speckles and red lettering on cover and spine; endpapers tanned; small stain on text foredge near rear of book. G/G-
WINNER OF THE LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR MYSTERY/THRILLER
FINALIST FOR THE 2019 WOMEN'S PRIZE
Korede's sister Ayoola is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola's third boyfriend in a row is dead, stabbed through the heart with Ayoola's knife. Korede's practicality is the sisters' saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood (bleach, bleach, and more bleach), the best way to move a body (wrap it in sheets like a mummy), and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures to Instagram when she should be mourning her "missing" boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit. Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she's exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola's phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she's willing to go to protect her.
Singing specters, secret passageways, unsolved clues, abandoned mansions, old photo albums and hidden motives are all found in the four stories making up this unique collection, Mysterious Tales of the Unexplained. A young sleuth solves a mystery surrounding a creepy, community theatre in Break A Leg & Knock 'Em Dead. She then goes on to investigate the apparent suicide of a wealthy factory owner in House up on the Hill. In Picture on the Wall, a mother/daughter restoration team experience ghostly encounters in an old, abandoned mansion. And six young friends go on a mystery weekend at a spooky inn, deciphering clues and exploring the mysterious property, only to find much more going on than they thought.
#1 New York Times Bestseller - #1 USA Today Bestseller - #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller
Now you see her. Now you don't. THE NEW GIRL. A thriller of deception, betrayal, and vengeance.
She was covered from head to toe in expensive wool and plaid, the sort of stuff one saw at the Burberry boutique in Harrods. She carried a leather bookbag rather than a nylon backpack. Her patent leather ballet slippers were glossy and bright. She was proper, the new girl, modest. But there was something else about her ...
At an exclusive private school in Switzerland, mystery surrounds the identity of the beautiful raven-haired girl who arrives each morning in a motorcade fit for a head of state. She is said to be the daughter of a wealthy international businessman. In truth, her father is Khalid bin Mohammed, the much-maligned crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Once celebrated for his daring social and religious reforms, he is now reviled for his role in the murder of a dissident journalist. And when his only child is brutally kidnapped, he turns to the one man he can trust to find her before it is too late.
What's done cannot be undone ...
Gabriel Allon, the legendary chief of Israeli intelligence, has spent most of his life fighting terrorists, including the murderous jihadists financed by Saudi Arabia. Prince Khalid--or KBM, as he is known--has pledged to finally break the bond between the Kingdom and radical Islam. For that reason alone, Gabriel regards him as a valuable if flawed partner. Together they will become unlikely allies in a deadly secret war for control of the Middle East. The life of a child, and the throne of Saudi Arabia, hang in the balance. Both men have made their share of enemies. And both have everything to lose.
Filled with dark humor, breathtaking twists of plot, and an unforgettable cast of characters, The New Girl is both a thrilling, page-turning tale of entertainment and a sophisticated study of political alliances and great-power rivalries in a dangerous world. And it is once again proof that Gabriel Allon is "one of fiction's greatest spies" (Kirkus) and Daniel Silva is "quite simply the best" (Kansas City Star) writer of foreign intrigue and suspense at work today.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Soon to be a Hulu original series
In the second book of the popular Seaside Café Mysteries, No Good Tea Goes Unpunished, Everly Swan caters a high-profile beach wedding where the groom doesn't make it to the altar before the wedding bells ring.
Hitting All the sweet-tea spots, this series is:
Catering her childhood friend's beachfront wedding was a dream come true for Sun, Sand and Tea Shop and Café owner Everly Swan--and the hundreds of guests in attendance would be great exposure for her new business. But when the well-to-do groom is found floating facedown in the surf, the coastal vibes of a beach wedding disappear and the locals of Charm, North Carolina turn their suspicions to his new bride. Could she have been so desperate to lay her hands on his fortune that she arranged for his murder before they even set off on their honeymoon?
Everly knows her love-struck friend couldn't be behind the murder, but with clues pointing in several directions, she can't decide which wedding guest is the most likely culprit. Meanwhile, the frustratingly handsome Detective Hays has made it clear that Everly should stay out of the investigation altogether. But with a killer on the loose and a feeling that someone is watching her café very closely, Everly knows that if she can't solve this murder soon, her cake might be iced for good. This new addition to Bree Baker's cozy mysteries will keep you coming back for more!
INCLUDES DELICIOUS FOOD AND DRINK RECIPES
For fans of The Haunting of Hill House comes a dark tale of a mansion haunted by a legacy of tragedy and a family trapped by lies.
Margot and Myron Spielman move to a new town, looking for a fresh start and an escape from the long shadow of their past. But soon after they buy Rawlingswood, a foreclosed mansion rumored to be haunted, they realize they're in for more of the same...or worse.
After a renovation fraught with injuries and setbacks, the Spielmans move in to the century-old house, and their problems quickly escalate. The home's beautiful facade begins to crumble around them when their teenage son uncovers disturbing details of Rawlingswood's history--a history of murder, betrayal, and financial ruin. The Spielmans' own shameful secrets and lies become harder to hide as someone or something inside the house watches their every move.
As tensions build between the family members, the home's dark history threatens to repeat itself. Margot and Myron must confront their own ghosts and Rawlingswood's buried past before the house becomes their undoing.
William Riley (W.R.) Burnett (1899-1982) was an American novelist and screenwriter, best known for his crime novel Little Caesar, the film adaptation of which was considered to be the first of the classic American gangster movies. Burnett's characters exist in a world of twilight morality — virtue can come from gangsters and criminals, malice from guardians and protectors. Above all his characters are human and this could be their undoing. Nobody Lives Forever tell the story of a group of con-men and a particularly ambitious con.
1st edition; dust jacket in protective mylar cover; head and heel of spine chipped; edges and corners shelfworn; gray cloth with dark gray decoration and writing on cover and spine; endpapers tanned; binding tight; text clean. G/G
In the third novel of this bestselling series, London investigator Maisie Dobbs faces grave danger as she returns to the site of her most painful WWI memories to resolve the mystery of a pilot's death.
A deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton to seek the aid of Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator. As Maisie soon learns, Agnes Lawton never accepted that her aviator son was killed in the Great War, a torment that led her not only to the edge of madness but to the doors of those who practice the dark arts and commune with the spirit world. In accepting the assignment, Maisie finds her spiritual strength tested, as well as her regard for her mentor, Maurice Blanche. The mission also brings her together once again with her college friend Priscilla Evernden, who served in France and who lost three brothers to the war--one of whom, it turns out, had an intriguing connection to the missing Ralph Lawton.
Following on the heels of Jacqueline Winspear's triumphant Birds of a Feather, PARDONABLE LIES is the most compelling installment yet in the chronicles of Maisie Dobbs, "a heroine to cherish" (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review).
James M. Cain (1892-1977) was a novelist whose "violent, sexually obsessed, and relentlessly paced melodramas epitomized the “hard-boiled” school of writing that flourished in the United States in the 1930s and ’40s. He was ranked with Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler as one of the masters of the genre. Three classics of the American screen were made from his novels: Double Indemnity (1936; film 1944), Mildred Pierce (1941; film 1945, TV miniseries 2011), and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934; stage version 1936, films 1946, 1981)." [https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-M-Cain].
In Past All Dishonor, a Confederate spy risks his life to win the heart of a fallen woman. Early in the Civil War, the Confederacy sends Roger Duval to Sacramento, to keep an eye on the situation in California in hopes of turning the Western territory towards the Southern cause. It’s a plush assignment, well out of the line of fire, but Duval hasn’t been there long before he comes into mortal danger. On a swim in the Sacramento River, he gets knocked on the head by a paddleboat, and is drowning in the muck when Morina, a quick-witted woman of the night, tosses him a rope. Suffocated by instant, irresistible love, Roger follows Morina to her home turf: Virginia City, Nevada. For the miners, gamblers, and gunfighters who populate this hardscrabble town, her price is negotiable. But for a man in love, she charges a thousand dollars. Roger will sacrifice body, mind, and soul to get that money—but will his sacrifice be enough to make her love him?
Dust jacket in protective mylar cover; head of spine torn above lettering; bottom of spine and corners chipped; red cloth with gilt lettering on spine; previous owner's signature in ink on front pastedown; binding tight; text clean and bright. G/G
Reality is broken. At first, it looks like a disease. An epidemic that spreads through no known means, driving its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. But the force that's sweeping the world is no pathogen. It's just the first shock wave, unleashed by a stunning discovery--and what's in jeopardy is not our minds but the very fabric of time itself. In New York City, Detective Barry Sutton is closing in on the truth--and in a remote laboratory, neuroscientist Helena Smith is unaware that she alone holds the key to this mystery . . . and the tools for fighting back. Together, Barry and Helena will have to confront their enemy--before they, and the world, are trapped in a loop of ever-growing chaos.
Praise for Recursion "An action-packed, brilliantly unique ride that had me up late and shirking responsibilities until I had devoured the last page . . . a fantastic read."--Andy Weir, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Martian "Another profound science-fiction thriller. Crouch masterfully blends science and intrigue into the experience of what it means to be deeply human."--Newsweek "Definitely not one to forget when you're packing for vacation . . . [Crouch] breathes fresh life into matters with a mix of heart, intelligence, and philosophical musings."--Entertainment Weekly "A trippy journey down memory lane . . . [Crouch's] intelligence is an able match for the challenge he's set of overcoming the structure of time itself."--Time "Wildly entertaining . . . another winning novel from an author at the top of his game."--AV Club
"An elegant and complex thriller...ingenious...harrowingly beautiful." -- New York Times Book Review
The third novel in the brilliant and epic Harry Hole series from the author of The Snowman--now available in a limited Olive Edition.
Detective Harry Hole embarrassed the force, and for his blunders he's been reassigned to mundane surveillance tasks. But while monitoring neo-Nazi activities in Oslo, Hole is inadvertently drawn into a mystery with deep roots in Norway's dark past, when members of the government willingly collaborated with Nazi Germany. More than sixty years later, this black mark won't wash away--and disgraced old soldiers who once survived a brutal Russian winter are being murdered, one by one.
Now, with only a stained and guilty conscience to guide him, an angry and erratic policeman must make his way safely past the traps and mirrors of a twisted criminal mind. For a conspiracy is taking rapid and hideous shape around Hole...and Norway's darkest hour may be still to come.
--New York Times Book Review
It will be good news to many devotees of the deductive story — particularly the pastiche of Sherlock Holmes — that Solar Pons is back in a third major collection after a lapse of seven years. In his introduction to this collection, Mr. Smith echoes the sentiments of many readers when he writes, "These pastiches come the closest of any that have been written, consistently, to capturing the true flavor of the Holmesian Saga, and to making its people and its places and its happenings entirely credible."
There are thirteen tales in this collection, ranging from the complex problem set forth in "The Adventure of the Lost Dutchman" to the sanguine events chronicled in "The Adventure of the Swedenborg Signatures". Here are such provocative exploits as "The Adventure of the Penny Magenta", "The Adventure of the Trained Cormorant", "The Adventure of the Little Hangman", "The Adventure of the Remarkable Worm", "The Adventure of the Camberwell Beauty". Here is a puzzle with supernatural overtones — "The Adventure of the Devil's Footprints", and here, too, another which touches upon the early exploration of atomic secrets — "The Adventure of the Rydberg Numbers". And one of these entertaining accounts is a double pastiche — not only of the Master of Baker Street, but also of the sinister Oriental of Limehouse! These tales will bring back long-missed Baker Street days, for No. 7 Praed Street bears a striking resemblance to 221B Baker Street, and Solar Pons and Dr. Parker seem often interchangeable with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. No living writer has equaled August Derleth's achievement in these pastiches, offered to readers with no intention to deceive, but only to entertain. Here once again is London of decades ago, and here, once again, "the game is afoot."
1st edition; Mycroft and Moran, 1958. Signed by author. Introduction by Edgar W. Smith. Dust jacket artwork by Frank Utpatel; dj in protective mylar cover; top edge chipped; water stains on back cover; black boards with bright green lettering on spine; water damage to portions of front and rear covers near foredge; text slightly warped. G-/G
Before Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, Before Dashiell Hammett’s The Red Harvest, there was Carroll John Daly’s The Snarl of the Beast, the first true hard-boiled detective novel. Featuring Race Williams, a private detective afraid of no man, it is a complex story of murder and inheritance in which Williams must outwit not only the police and a beautiful blonde cat burglar, but a homicidal maniac reputed to be bullet proof. Will his ready fists and forty-four revolvers be up to the task of confronting his foes against the background of deceit, double-crossing, and gunplay? And ultimately will he silence . . . The Snarl of the Beast?
1st edition; Edward J. Clode, Inc., New York, 1927; no dust jacket; flap removed and pasted on endpaper facing title page; green cloth with black and red decoration and lettering on cover and spine; small area of top of front cover faded; spine shelf worn; text clean. G
Lawyer and hard-boiled detective Scott Jordan returns for another mystery by Harold Masur.
1st edition; "A Scott Jordan Story," "An Inner Sanctum Mystery." Dust jacket in protective mylar cover; cover creased; head of spine torn; inside edges foxed; yellow cloth with green spine; black lettering and decoration on cover and spine; endpapers lightly soiled with some foxing. G/G-
Winner of the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it's a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.Still Life introduces not only an engaging series hero in Inspector Gamache, who commands his forces---and this series---with integrity and quiet courage, but also a winning and talented new writer of traditional mysteries in the person of Louise Penny.
New York Times and USA Today Bestseller
An NPR's Best Book of the Year
A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick!
The 2017 Girly Book Club Book of the Year!
A Summer Book Pick from Good Housekeeping, Parade, Library Journal, Goodreads, Liz and Lisa, and BookBub
In this enthralling novel from New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women--a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947--are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.
1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She's also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie's parents banish her to Europe to have her little problem taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.
1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she's recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she's trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the Queen of Spies, who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy's nose.
Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn't heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth...no matter where it leads.
"Both funny and heartbreaking, this epic journey of two courageous women is an unforgettable tale of little-known wartime glory and sacrifice. Quinn knocks it out of the park with this spectacular book!"--Stephanie Dray, New York Times bestselling author of America's First Daughter
When Althea Leary abandons her nine-year-old son, Jasper, he's left on his uncle's farm with nothing but a change of clothes and a Bible.
It's 1952, and Jasper isn't allowed to ask questions or make a fuss. He's lucky to even have a home and must keep his mouth shut and his ears open to stay in his uncle's good graces. No one knows where his mother went or whether she's coming back. Desperate to see her again, he must take matters into his own hands. From the farm, he embarks on a treacherous search that will take him to the squalid hideaways of Detroit and back again, through tawdry taverns, peep shows, and gambling houses.
As he's drawn deeper into an adult world of corruption, scandal, and murder, Jasper uncovers the shocking past still chasing his mother--and now it's chasing him too.
This breathtaking debut, winner of the Costa First Novel Award, is a murder mystery that travels across the Atlantic and through the darkest channels of history. A brilliant, searing depiction of race, class, and oppression that penetrates the skin and sears the soul, it is the story of a woman of her own making in a world that would see her unmade.
All of London is abuzz with the scandalous case of Frannie Langton, accused of the brutal double murder of her employers, renowned scientist George Benham and his eccentric French wife, Marguerite. Crowds pack the courtroom, eagerly following every twist, while the newspapers print lurid theories about the killings and the mysterious woman being tried at the Old Bailey.
The testimonies against Frannie are damning. She is a seductress, a witch, a master manipulator, a whore.
But Frannie claims she cannot recall what happened that fateful evening, even if remembering could save her life. She doesn't know how she came to be covered in the victims' blood. But she does have a tale to tell: a story of her childhood on a Jamaican plantation, her apprenticeship under a debauched scientist who stretched all bounds of ethics, and the events that brought her into the Benhams' London home--and into a passionate and forbidden relationship.
Though her testimony may seal her conviction, the truth will unmask the perpetrators of crimes far beyond murder and indict the whole of English society itself.
As Europe buckles under Nazi occupation, Maisie Dobbs investigates a possible murder that threatens devastating repercussions for Britain's war efforts in this latest installment in the New York Times bestselling mystery series.
October 1941. While on a delivery, young Freddie Hackett, a message runner for a government office, witnesses an argument that ends in murder. Crouching in the doorway of a bombed-out house, Freddie waits until the coast is clear. But when he arrives at the delivery address, he's shocked to come face to face with the killer.
Dismissed by the police when he attempts to report the crime, Freddie goes in search of a woman he once met when delivering a message: Maisie Dobbs. While Maisie believes the boy and wants to help, she must maintain extreme caution: she's working secretly for the Special Operations Executive, assessing candidates for crucial work with the French resistance. Her two worlds collide when she spots the killer in a place she least expects. She soon realizes she's been pulled into the orbit of a man who has his own reasons to kill--reasons that go back to the last war.
As Maisie becomes entangled in a power struggle between Britain's intelligence efforts in France and the work of Free French agents operating across Europe, she must also contend with the lingering question of Freddie Hackett's state of mind. What she uncovers could hold disastrous consequences for all involved in this compelling chapter of the "series that seems to get better with every entry" (Wall Street Journal).
Many mystery buffs have credited Louise Penny with the revival of the type of traditional murder mystery made famous by Agatha Christie. . . . The book's title is a metaphor not only for the month of April but also for Gamache's personal and professional challenges---making this the series standout so far.
--Sarah Weinman
It's spring in the tiny, forgotten village; buds are on the trees and the first flowers are struggling through the newly thawed earth. But not everything is meant to return to life. . .
When some villagers decide to celebrate Easter with a séance at the Old Hadley House, they are hoping to rid the town of its evil---until one of their party dies of fright. Was this a natural death, or was the victim somehow helped along?
Brilliant, compassionate Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec is called to investigate, in a case that will force him to face his own ghosts as well as those of a seemingly idyllic town where relationships are far more dangerous than they seem.
2014 Winner — Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award — Grand Prize and Mystery & Thriller Fiction Winner
It’s 1998, and for years the old First Bank of Cleveland has sat abandoned, perfectly preserved, its secrets only speculated on by the outside world.
Twenty years before, amid strange staff disappearances and allegations of fraud, panicked investors sold Cleveland’s largest bank in the middle of the night, locking out customers and employees, and thwarting a looming federal investigation. In the confusion that followed, the keys to the vault’s safe-deposit boxes were lost.
In the years since, Cleveland’s wealthy businessmen kept the truth buried in the abandoned high-rise. The ransacked offices and forgotten safe-deposit boxes remain locked in time, until young engineer Iris Latch stumbles upon them during a renovation survey. What begins as a welcome break from her cubicle becomes an obsession as Iris unravels the bank’s sordid past. With each haunting revelation, Iris follows the looming shadow of the past deeper into the vault—and soon realizes that the key to the mystery comes at an astonishing price.
It is August, 1645, one year since York fell into Puritan hands. As the city suffers through a brutal summer heat, Bridget Hodgson and Martha Hawkins are drawn into a murder investigation more frightening than their last. In order to appease God's wrath--and end the heat-wave--the city's overlords have launched a brutal campaign to whip the city's sinners into godliness. But for someone in York, this is not enough. First a prostitute and her client are found stabbed to death, then a pair of adulterers are beaten and strangled. York's sinners have been targeted for execution.
Bridget and Martha--assisted once again by Will, Bridget's good-hearted nephew--race to find the killer even as he adds more bodies to his tally. The list of suspects is long: Hezekiah Ward, a fire and brimstone preacher new to York; Ward's son, Praise-God, whose intensity mirrors his father's; John Stubb, one of Ward's fanatic followers, whose taste for blood may not have been sated by his time in Parliament's armies. Or could the killer be closer to home? Will's brother Joseph is no stranger to death, and he shares the Wards' dreams of driving sin from the city.
To find the killer, Bridget, Martha, and Will must uncover the city's most secret sins, and hope against hope that the killer does not turn his attention in their direction, in The Harlot's Tale by Sam Thomas.
This mystery is the second to feature writer Asa Baker and police officer Jerry Burke, written by Davis Dresser using the pseudonym Asa Baker (more popularly known by his Brett Halliday name).
1st edition; published by Carlyle House Publishers, New York, 1939; "The New Jerry Burke Mystery." Dust jacket in protective mylar cover; edges worn; green cloth with red letters and decoration; water damage stain on bottom edges of covers and bottom of spine; some stains in text. G-/G-
A Mexican-American cop must track down a psychotic killer terrorizing Arizona, in a taut suspense drama incorporating the viewpoints of five main characters.
1st edition; "A Guilt-Edged Mystery." Dust jacket in protective mylar cover; minor shelf wear to edges; blue-gray cloth with black decoration and lettering on cover and spine; head and heel of spine worn; corners bumped; endpapers lightly foxed. G/G
Crime fiction master Raymond Chandler's fifth novel featuring Philip Marlowe, the "quintessential urban private eye" (Los Angeles Times).
In noir master Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister, a movie starlet with a gangster boyfriend and a pair of siblings with a shared secret lure private eye Philip Marlowe into the less than glamorous and more than a little dangerous world of Hollywood fame. Chandler's first foray into the industry that dominates the company town that is Los Angeles.
1st printing; Dust jacket in protective mylar cover; dust jacket by Boris Artzybasheff; head of spine torn at author's first name; edges shelf worn; orange cloth with blue decoration on cover and lettering on spine; top of spine faded; binding tight; text clean and bright. G+/G-