Download or read book Imposter A Gritty Hardboiled Crime Thriller written by Meghan O'Flynn and published by Pygmalion Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-23 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fiendishly clever, unique, and replete with twists and turns that keep readers glued to the pages, Imposter is a fast-paced crime thriller in the vein of Blake Pierce, Tana French, and Carolyn Arnold. Imposter is the eighth book in the Ash Park series, though all novels in the Ash Park world can be read as standalones. A kidnapped child. A detective on the edge. And a suicide that’s anything but. “Little Greggie” Boyle was the amazing reappearing child—a boy kidnapped and returned to his parents after five years in captivity. So what would make him take his own life? That’s the question hanging over Detective Petrosky’s head. It seems straightforward: the teenager was found suspended from the rafters in the foyer of his parents’ home, a rope around his neck. No signs of struggle. No note, though that isn’t uncommon despite what Hollywood says—those movie nitwits don’t know real crime from their left elbows. But something is wrong. The victim’s parents are stonewalling the police, and Gregory’s brother is cagey—even a little creepy. None of them seem interested in finding out what drove Gregory to kill himself. Or maybe they know something Petrosky doesn’t. Then forensic evidence turns the case on its head: the boy was drugged. The death wasn’t a suicide at all. Perhaps the kidnappers came back to make sure he stayed quiet…permanently. As the investigation continues, a darker pattern of abductions begins to emerge. Gregory wasn’t the only child taken, and it appears the kidnapper is cleaning house—are any of the other victims still alive? One thing seems clear: Petrosky and his partner aren’t just hunting a killer; they’re looking for more bodies. If they don’t hurry, the man who murdered Gregory Boyle will rip other children from their families—kids who will never again come home. And more dead children, especially on the anniversary of his daughter’s grisly murder, is more than Detective Petrosky can handle. He needs to catch the killer and ensure no more children fall prey to this maniac before he loses his own tenuous grasp on sanity. ​​​​​​​"A chilling and intricate web…spectacularly entertaining.” ~Bestselling Author Kristen Mae "Dark and twisty... a masterful procedural that explores identity and family secrets, Imposter is as surprising as it is addictive. A must-read!" ~Bestselling Author Wendy Heard  *** KEYWORDS: Vigilante justice, dark crime, serial killer, kidnapping, revenge, vengeance, hardboiled, mystery suspense thriller series, hard-boiled mysteries, female protagonist, pulp, murder, female lawyer protagonist, noir, noir thriller, crime noir, hard-boiled mystery, police procedural, mystery series, crime, noir, gritty detective novels, psychological thrillers, serial killers, crime thrillers, crime fiction, hard boiled detective, dark and suspenseful, hardboiled detective fiction, hard boiled noir, hard boiled crime, gritty mysteries, mystery series books, psychological thrillers, psychological suspense, psychological thriller books, noir, pulp, nail biter mysteries, wise cracking detective, detective partners, crime fiction, urban murder mystery, serial killer thriller, female protagonist, whodunit, whodunnit, nail-biter, intense mystery, suspense fiction, psychological domestic suspense, family drama

Download or read book Imposter written by Meghan O'Flynn and published by Ash Park. This book was released on 2022-04-28 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A chilling and intricate web... spectacularly entertaining." Bestselling Author Kristen Mae A kidnapped child. A detective on the edge. And a suicide that's anything but. "Little Greggie" Boyle was the amazing reappearing child--a boy kidnapped and returned to his parents after five years in captivity. So what would make him take his own life? That's the question hanging over Detective Petrosky's head. It seems straightforward: the teenager was found suspended from the rafters in the foyer of his parents' home, a rope around his neck. No signs of struggle. No note, though that isn't uncommon despite what Hollywood says--those movie nitwits don't know real crime from their left elbows. But something is wrong. The victim's parents are stonewalling the police, and Gregory's brother is cagey--even a little creepy. None of them seem interested in finding out what drove Gregory to kill himself. Or maybe they know something Petrosky doesn't. Then forensic evidence turns the case on its head: the boy was drugged. The death wasn't a suicide at all. Perhaps the kidnappers came back to make sure he stayed quiet...permanently. As the investigation continues, a darker pattern of abductions begins to emerge. Gregory wasn't the only child taken, and it appears the kidnapper is cleaning house--are any of the other victims still alive? One thing seems clear: Petrosky and his partner aren't just hunting a killer; they're looking for more bodies. If they don't hurry, the man who murdered Gregory Boyle will rip other children from their families--kids who will never again come home. And more dead children, especially on the anniversary of his daughter's grisly murder, is more than Detective Petrosky can handle. He needs to catch the killer and ensure no more children fall prey to this maniac before he loses his own tenuous grasp on sanity. Fiendishly clever, unique, and replete with twists and turns that keep readers glued to the pages, Imposter is a fast-paced crime thriller in the vein of Sidney Sheldon, Tana French, and Dean Koontz's Jane Hawk series.

Download or read book Recall A Gritty Hardboiled Crime Thriller written by Meghan O'Flynn and published by Pygmalion Publishing. This book was released on 2019-12-16 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wise-cracking detectives pursue a justice-driven killer with a vendetta in this shocking and suspenseful murder mystery. "A captivating thriller about the power of the things we wish we could forget." ~Bestselling Author Mary Widdicks Where is the line between killer and hero? Things are finally looking up for Detective Petrosky. Sure, his daughter’s still dead, his granddaughter’s in another state, and they keep putting lemon in his freaking water, but he’s sober, his ex-wife no longer hates him—as much—and his new partner is as good at police work as she is at matching his snarky comebacks. But criminals don’t take a break; those bastards never sleep. When a councilman’s son is brutally murdered, the city explodes into controversy. Though the teen appears to have been ambushed in a random attack, there’s no forensic evidence at the scene, and the boy’s neck was snapped as quickly and efficiently as if it were a professional hit. Was the murder politically motivated? Or was the victim involved in something else—something bigger? Perhaps the slaying is linked to the old crime scene photos the victim had been collecting, some from cases Petrosky himself worked. And whoever murdered their victim killed at least two others. Ash Park may be dealing with a serial killer five years in the making. But the victims from these older cases are far from innocent—each appears to have been killed during an attempted rape. Is their suspect a cold-blooded murderer, or a hero vigilante? And what does any of it have to do with the councilman’s son? All Petrosky knows is that until now, their perp has been protecting the most vulnerable citizens of Ash Park from the very worst of humanity—from the criminals Petrosky himself has spent his entire career trying to put away. And Petrosky isn’t sure he wants him to stop. Riveting, and as dark as it is mysterious, Recall pushes the boundaries of right and wrong and turns the notion of justice on its head. Recall is the seventh book in the Ash Park series, though all novels in the Ash Park world can be read as standalones. Fans of Harlan Corben, Lee Child, and Karin Slaughter will love the Ash Park series. *** KEYWORDS: Vigilante justice, dark crime, serial killer, revenge, vengeance, hardboiled, mystery suspense thriller series, hard-boiled mysteries, female protagonist, pulp, murder, female lawyer protagonist, noir, noir thriller, crime noir, hard-boiled mystery, military killer, police procedural, mystery series, crime, noir, gritty detective novels, psychological thrillers, serial killers, crime thrillers, crime fiction, hard boiled detective, hardboiled detective fiction, hard boiled noir, hard boiled crime, gritty mysteries, mystery series books, psychological thrillers, psychological suspense, dark and suspenseful, psychological thriller books, noir, pulp, nail biter mysteries, wise cracking detective, detective partners, crime fiction, urban murder mystery, serial killer thriller, female protagonist, whodunit, whodunnit, nail biter, intense mystery, suspense fiction, psychological domestic suspense

Download or read book Redemption A Gritty Hardboiled Crime Thriller written by Meghan O’Flynn and published by Pygmalion Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-09 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Ash Park Boxed Set Five Gritty Hardboiled Crime Thrillers written by Meghan O'Flynn and published by Pygmalion Publishing. This book was released on 2022-11-16 with total page 1828 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addictive, fearless, and immersive, the Ash Park hardboiled crime series by bestselling author Meghan O’Flynn is perfect for fans of Carolyn Kepnes, Gillian Flynn, and Criminal Minds. Do you love gritty crime thrillers that keep you guessing until the end? Get the Ash Park series, where nothing is ever as it seems. This 5 BOOK BOXED SET includes five thrillers in bestselling author Meghan O’Flynn’s Ash Park series — over 1,800 compulsively readable pages. “Dark, gritty and raw, O’Flynn’s Ash Park series will take your mind prisoner. This series will keep you awake far into the morning hours.” ~Bestselling Author Kristen Mae “Cunning, delightfully disturbing, and addictive, the Ash Park series is an expertly written labyrinth of twisted, unpredictable awesomeness!” ~Award-winning Author Beth Teliho FAMISHED Hannah hoped the suburbs would offer shelter from the darkness she left behind. When a bloodthirsty killer strikes close to home, the police chase an anonymous perp — but only Hannah knows the truth: Her past has caught up with her. CONVICTION District attorney Shannon Taylor learns she may have helped convict an innocent woman of murder — and her career nightmare turns personal when the real killer targets her family… Will her persistence free an innocent woman? Or will her pursuit of the truth turn her family into helpless targets in a madman’s game? REPRESSED When detective Curtis Morrison’s wife and daughter vanish, Curtis realizes the kidnapper is tied to his own unsavory, half-forgotten past. Now Morrison must explore a past he'd hoped he'd left behind to save the people he loves, awakening the beast he's tried so hard to forget. What he uncovers is far worse than he imagined, every clue dragging him away from the life he's painstakingly built and back to a place he'd very nearly succumbed. The clock's ticking. And this time, he might not make it out alive. HIDDEN After an elderly woman is murdered, detective Edward Petrosky must piece together the baffling clues — but the discovery of a new victim points toward the return of a ruthless killer from his past. Detective Petrosky must risk everything he holds sacred to track the most sadistic killer Ash Park has ever seen, a man whose thirst for carnage extends far beyond mere bloodletting. But saving innocent lives will require an unbearable sacrifice. One from which he may never recover. REDEMPTION For five long years, Detective Petrosky has been haunted with guilt over losing a woman he swore to protect to the clutches of a serial killer. But with his own daughter’s murderer still out there, tracking down the sadistic culprit could finally bring redemption. And when Petrosky goes, he’s taking that bastard with him. **** KEYWORDS: crime thriller boxed set, hard boiled detective boxed set, hardboard box set, detective series, serial killer series, vigilante justice, dark crime, serial killer, kidnapping, revenge, vengeance, hardboiled, mystery suspense thriller series, hard-boiled mysteries, female protagonist, pulp, murder, female lawyer protagonist, noir, noir thriller, crime noir, hard-boiled mystery, police procedural, mystery series, crime, noir, gritty detective novels, dark and suspenseful, psychological thrillers, serial killers, crime thrillers, crime fiction, hard boiled detective, hardboiled detective fiction, hard boiled noir, hard boiled crime, gritty mysteries, mystery series books, psychological thrillers, psychological suspense, psychological thriller books, noir, pulp, nail biter mysteries, wise cracking detective, detective partners, crime fiction, urban murder mystery, serial killer thriller, female protagonist, whodunit, whodunnit, nail-biter, intense mystery, suspense fiction, psychological domestic suspense, family drama, police stories

Download or read book Composed A Gritty Hardboiled Crime Thriller written by Meghan O'Flynn and published by Pygmalion Publishing. This book was released on 2020-06-22 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A riveting and original serial-killer saga that will keep you frantically turning pages to the hair-raising conclusion.” ~Bestselling Author Emerald O’Brien Detective Petrosky never wanted to be a killer. But he is. Fresh off leave after a justified shooting, Edward Petrosky is battling his own brain as much as he is the world around him. His ex-wife has finally stopped calling, and he’s even pulled away from his neighbors. The chief of police might be the only person helping to keep Petrosky sober. When a woman is found dead near a local running trail, the city goes on high alert. Not only was the victim posed, but her body had been altered as if a crazy plastic surgeon had taken a scalpel to her. This killer is meticulous, careful—in Petrosky’s experience, the most dangerous kind of psycho. But then a second victim turns up, and she hasn’t been mutilated in quite the same way. Strange for a perfectionist suspect. Had the perp been interrupted, or is there a more sinister explanation? Perhaps they’re dealing with a copycat, or a pair of killers—the citizens of Ash Park might be in more peril than Petrosky had anticipated. But when the chief of police is abducted, the case shifts into unchartered territory. The killer they’re after doesn’t just want to play with his victims—he wants notoriety. And the only way he’ll get it is if Petrosky opens up about the case, a move that could put the chief’s life in more danger. And that’s a risk Petrosky cannot take. Petrosky’s only shot is to find their perp before the maniac slices into his boss—the only friend he hasn’t managed to push away. Can he catch the killer and muzzle his demons? Or will this case awaken the devil he’s been trying to silence? Composed is a dark, twisted, thrill ride from bestselling author Meghan O’Flynn. Like all books in the Ash Park world, this ninth installment of the Ash Park series can be read as a standalone. If you like J.D. Robb, Gilly Macmillan, or Claire Mackintosh, you’ll love this addictive mystery! *** KEYWORDS: Vigilante justice, dark crime, serial killer, kidnapping, revenge, vengeance, hardboiled, mystery suspense thriller series, hard-boiled mysteries, female protagonist, pulp, murder, female lawyer protagonist, noir, noir thriller, crime noir, hard-boiled mystery, police procedural, mystery series, crime, noir, gritty detective novels, psychological thrillers, serial killers, crime thrillers, crime fiction, hard boiled detective, hardboiled detective fiction, hard boiled noir, hard boiled crime, gritty mysteries, mystery series books, dark and suspenseful, psychological thrillers, psychological suspense, psychological thriller books, noir, pulp, nail biter mysteries, wise cracking detective, detective partners, crime fiction, urban murder mystery, serial killer thriller, female protagonist, whodunit, whodunnit, nail-biter, intense mystery, suspense fiction, psychological domestic suspense, family drama, detective fiction partners

Download or read book Witness An Unpredictable Hardboiled Crime Thriller written by Meghan O'Flynn and published by Pygmalion Publishing. This book was released on 2020-08-24 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Sharp and engrossing, Witness is pure suspense…an exploration of dark family secrets that reminds us that no lie is without consequence.” ~Bestselling Author Kristen Mae A missing victim. A deceitful family. And a detective too close to come out unscathed. Detective Edward Petrosky has seen his share of horrors—abused children, terrified assault victims, and of course, the vicious predators who don’t stop killing until someone like Petrosky puts them away. It’s no wonder he needs a little whiskey to take the edge off. So he’s relieved when he gets a call on a burglary—he’ll take stolen laptops over dead bodies any day. But he quickly learns this is no ordinary housebreak. There’s a considerable amount of blood at the scene, though the owner doesn’t appear injured. And Petrosky recognizes him as a man accused of sexual assault years prior; his psycho relatives are more cult than family. When the neighbors identify their burglary suspect, the case goes sideways—it’s not possible. How could a woman who burned to death along with her husband nearly a decade before, a relative of the homeowner, be the one fleeing the crime? If the witnesses are correct, and the woman faked her death…that means she murdered her own husband. What possible reason could she have to return? It doesn’t help that Shannon, Petrosky’s surrogate daughter and wife of his murdered partner, appears to be at the center of the conspiracy. Years of deception have masked a far more intricate web of lies, filled with secrets that implicate the people Petrosky loves most. And with these criminals tying up loose ends, Shannon’s life is at stake. Petrosky must decide how deep he’s willing to go, knowing that exposing the truth could rip apart a terrified woman’s family…and his own. Addictive, fast-paced, and unforgettable, Witness is an electrifying ride through a maze of family secrets, desperation, and perseverance. For fans of Criminal Minds and The Blacklist, this thriller will keep you guessing until the last page. Witness is the tenth novel in the Ash Park series, though all novels in the Ash Park world can be read as standalones. *** KEYWORDS: Vigilante justice, dark crime, serial killer, kidnapping, revenge, vengeance, hardboiled, mystery suspense thriller series, hard-boiled mysteries, female protagonist, pulp, murder, female lawyer protagonist, noir, noir thriller, crime noir, hard-boiled mystery, police procedural, mystery series, crime, noir, gritty detective novels, psychological thrillers, serial killers, crime thrillers, crime fiction, hard boiled detective, hardboiled detective fiction, dark and suspenseful, hard boiled noir, hard boiled crime, gritty mysteries, mystery series books, psychological thrillers, psychological suspense, psychological thriller books, noir, pulp, nail biter mysteries, wise cracking detective, detective partners, crime fiction, urban murder mystery, serial killer thriller, female protagonist, whodunit, whodunnit, nail-biter, intense mystery, suspense fiction, psychological domestic suspense, family drama

Download or read book The Ash Park Series Books 1 3 written by Meghan O'Flynn and published by . This book was released on 2020-02 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Ash Park Series Boxed Set 3 Three Unpredictable Hardboiled Thrillers written by Meghan O'Flynn and published by Pygmalion Publishing. This book was released on 2023-05-01 with total page 864 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you love twisted crime thrillers that keep you guessing? The third boxed set in the Ash Park series is hardboiled suspense that doesn’t let up. Addictive and fearless, these unputdownable thrillers are perfect for fans of Gillan Flynn, Caroline Kepnes, and Criminal Minds. RECALL: Where is the line between killer and hero? When a councilman’s son is murdered, Detective Petrosky suspects there may be more to the death — which looks like a professional hit — than meets the eye. Can Petrosky discover the truth in this dark and immersive crime novel? IMPOSTER: A kidnapped child. A detective on the edge. And a suicide that’s anything but. Greg Boyle is a miracle child: Kidnapped and held captive for five years, the boy eventually was able to return to his parents. So when the teenager is found hanged in his family home, Detective Petrosky is convinced it wasn’t a suicide — and his investigation soon begins to reveal a chilling pattern. COMPOSED: A ruthless serial killer. A tormented detective. One chance to save his best friend. As gruesome killings terrorize the citizens of Ash Park, detective Edward Petrosky struggles to overcome his own demons. But when the chief of police — Petrosky’s only ally — is abducted, can Petrosky pull himself together to catch the killer and save his best friend? “Petrosky is one of my favorite cops in literature. Flawed. Relatable. Rough. Endearing. Recall gives him some new character scenery, though he never chews it. Instead, the story unfurls in a fluid cascade of page-turning suspense. I love how current events wind through the story in unexpected ways. If you are not reading this series, you are missing out.” ~New York Times Bestselling Author Andra Watkins “Dark and twisty… a masterful procedural that explores identity and family secrets, Imposter is as surprising as it is addictive. A must-read!” ~Bestselling Author Wendy Heard “A riveting and original serial-killer saga that will keep you frantically turning pages to the hair-raising conclusion.” ~Bestselling Author Emerald O’Brien

Download or read book Conviction A Crime Thriller with a Romantic Suspense Twist written by Meghan O’Flynn and published by Pygmalion Publishing. This book was released on 2016-09-09 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Shadow s Keep A Gritty Psychological Crime Thriller written by Meghan O'Flynn and published by Pygmalion Publishing. This book was released on 2018-05-12 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compulsively readable small-town thriller in the vein of Gillian Flynn, Carolyn Arnold, and Karin Slaughter, Shadow’s Keep is a mind-bending exploration of obsession, desperation, and how far we’ll go to protect those we love. "Dark, intense, and addictively twisted.” ~Bestselling Author Kristen Mae WHAT YOU CAN'T SEE CAN KILL. Deputy Sheriff William Shannahan doesn’t feel like a detective, at least not like the ones he admires on TV. Not that he needs to be; the small town of Graybel, Mississippi, is a peaceful place, with acres of farmland, neighbors who always take care of their own, and noise from the outside world muted by a hundred miles of forest. That silence is about to be broken. When a child is found dead in the woods, the medical examiner deems it a dog attack. But the paw prints belong to something far larger than any creature in the Mississippi forests, and what animal would remove the victim’s eyes? Though no one believes him, William can’t shake the feeling that a human killer lurks in the shadowed woods. And his girlfriend, Cassie, has a son the same age as the victim. Cassie Parker was raised amid horrors she’s long pushed from her mind, but her scars won’t let her forget. Nor do the hallucinations, dreams so vivid she can feel and smell and taste them. And no one is more terrified than Cassie when another victim is found mauled to death—because this body has been drained of blood. She knows exactly what type of person would sacrifice a child, and why they’re after hers. But how can she explain it to William? This is William’s chance to act like a detective, to protect the woman and child he’s desperate to save. Pushing back against prejudice and presumption, he uncovers a trail of cruelty that spans decades, but each clue brings him closer to a truth more horrifying than killer beasts in the forest. For concealed beneath small-town politics is knowledge that will shatter everything he knows to be true about his town—and the people in it. “O’Flynn weaves elements of the procedural and the occult into a masterful psychological thriller replete with staggering, unpredictable twists. Readers should beware any notion that they can predict the ending of Shadow’s Keep. Believe me, reader, you cannot.” ~Bestselling Author Wendy Heard *** KEYWORDS: female protagonist, serial killer novels, female serial killer, amateur sleuths, whodunnit mystery, whodunit thriller, psychological suspense, suspense fiction, suspense book, nail biting fiction, nail biter mystery, vigilante justice, edge of your seat suspense, dark crime, serial killer, kidnapping, revenge, vengeance, hardboiled, mystery suspense thriller series, hard-boiled mysteries, female protagonist, pulp, murder, noir, noir thriller, crime noir, hard-boiled mystery, police procedural, crime, noir, gritty detective novels, psychological thrillers, serial killers, crime thrillers, crime fiction, hard boiled detective, hardboiled detective fiction, hard boiled noir, hard boiled crime, gritty mysteries, mystery books, psychological thrillers, psychological suspense, psychological thriller books, noir, pulp, nail biter mysteries, wise cracking detective, detective partners, crime fiction, murder mystery, serial killer thriller, whodunit, whodunnit, nail-biter, intense mystery, suspense fiction, family drama, small town mystery, occult thriller, occult mystery, dark and suspenseful

Download or read book Hunting Annabelle written by Wendy Heard and published by MIRA. This book was released on 2018-12-18 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Her scream echoes in my memory. I know what happened. Whether anyone believes me or not, I know.” Sean Suh is done with killing. After serving three years in a psychiatric prison, he’s determined to stay away from temptation. But he can’t resist Annabelle—beautiful, confident, incandescent Annabelle—who alone can see past the monster to the man inside. The man he’s desperately trying to be. Then Annabelle disappears. Sean is sure she’s been kidnapped—he witnessed her being taken firsthand—but the police are convinced that Sean himself is at the center of this crime. And he must admit, his illness has caused him to “lose time” before. What if there’s more to what happened than he’s able to remember? Though haunted by the fear that it might be better for Annabelle if he never finds her, Sean can’t bring himself to let go of her without a fight. To save her, he’ll have to do more than confront his own demons… He’ll have to let them loose. A chilling, deeply suspenseful page-turner set in the 1980s, Hunting Annabelle is a stunning debut that will leave you breathless to the very end.

Download or read book Hardboiled written by Bill Pronzini and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-05-29 with total page 541 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 Philop 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 evolutiuon 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 creation, the cryptic Lew Archer, and "The Screen Test of Mike Hammer" by the one and only Micky 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 oursleves.

Download or read book The Last Good Kiss written by James Crumley and published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. This book was released on 2016-04-20 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME • One of the most influential crime novels ever written, by a legend of the genre. Tough, hard-boiled, and brilliantly suspenseful, The Last Good Kiss is an unforgettable detective story starring C. W. Sughrue, a Montana investigator who kills time by working at a topless bar. Hired to track down a derelict author, he ends up on the trail of a girl missing in Haight-Ashbury for a decade. The tense hunt becomes obsessive as Sughrue takes a haunting journey through the underbelly of America's sleaziest nightmares.

Download or read book Clockers written by Richard Price and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-03-04 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Crack-dealers known as "Clockers" are at the bottom of the drug-dealing ladder, and they must commit murder to rise higher.

Download or read book Zero Avenue written by Dietrich Kalteis and published by ECW Press. This book was released on 17-10-03 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ÒIf you like your crime hard and fast, Kalteis is for you.Ó Ñ The Globe and Mail Set to the cranking beat and amphetamine buzz of VancouverÕs early punk scene, Zero Avenue follows Frankie Del Rey, a talented and rising punk star who runs just enough dope on the side to pay the bills and keep her band, Middle Finger, together. The trouble is sheÕs running it for Marty Sayles, a powerful drug dealer who controls the Eastside with a fist. When Frankie strikes up a relationship with Johnny Falco, the owner of one of the only Vancouver clubs willing to give punk a chance, she finds out heÕs having his own money problems just keeping FalcoÕs Nest open. Desperate to keep his club, Johnny raids one of the pot fields Marty Sayles has growing out past Surrey, along Zero Avenue on the U.S. border. He gets away with a pickup load and pays back everybody he owes. Arnie Binz, bass player for Middle Finger, finds out about it and decides that was easy enough. But he gets caught by MartyÕs crew. Johnny and Frankie set out to find the missing Arnie, but Marty Sayles is pissed and looking for who ripped off his other field Ñ a trail that leads to Johnny and Frankie.

Download or read book Red Harvest written by Dashiell Hammett and published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. This book was released on 2010-12-29 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The steadfast and sturdy Continental Op has been summoned to the town of Personville—known as Poisonville—a dusty mining community splintered by competing factions of gangsters and petty criminals. The Op has been hired by Donald Willsson, publisher of the local newspaper, who gave little indication about the reason for the visit. No sooner does the Op arrive, than the body count begins to climb . . . starting with his client. With this last honest citizen of Poisonville murdered, the Op decides to stay on and force a reckoning—even if that means taking on an entire town. Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain.