Author: Jeanne M. Dams
Publisher: SCB Distributors
ISBN: 1564747514
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 222
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Book Description
Hilda Johansson, expecting her first child and miserable in the summer heat, turns to crime investigation to occupy her mind. It’s a heat wave in more ways than one in the summer of 1905, as strikes, arson, and train wrecks threaten the fabric of civilized society in South Bend, Indiana. In the tumultuous first years of the twentieth century, anarchy seems to rule, with the assassination of an American president and labor unrest like the Anthracite Coal Strike bringing misery to millions. From St. Petersburg, Russia, to Chicago, U.S.A., the army, police, and strike-breakers battle workers in the streets, resulting in many deaths. How can a Swedish immigrant like Hilda Johansson, formerly a housemaid, possibly affect these conditions? Making deductions worthy of Sherlock Holmes-and using her own “Baker Street Irregulars”-Hilda recognizes a pattern to the disturbing events. Even though confined to her home by pregnancy, she draws from the town’s varied social strata and enlists allies to try to put an end to disruption and find justice for all. “Absorbing. . . . Well-portrayed characters and a final surprise sure to please series fans make this a winner.” -Publishers Weekly
Author: Bill Holchak
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 9780738863757
Category : Detective and mystery stories, American
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Milllionaire playboy/detective Bill Chak volunteers to help his alma mater, the University of Texas, solve the mystery of the shooting death of their prize high school football recruit, Charlie Gonzalez, and his father, Abel Gonzalez, on their remote ranch in southwest Texas. His allies in the search are Booth Davis, the crusty county sheriff, and Rafael Ortiz, a Piedras Negras brothel operator who handles Chak's detective business in Mexico. Chak patiently pursues three leads which eventually prove to be false. First, a high school rival of the murdered boy is suspected. Then the arrow of suspicion points to Hamp MacGillicuddy, a rabid alumnus of Texas A & M who has gotten his school in trouble on several occasions with his unethical recruiting practices. The third suspect is the mother of Charlie Gonzalez and ex-wife of Abel Gonzalez, who hated him for divorcing her and taking up with an Anglo mistress. But the investigation abruptly changes course when a rented car is discovered in a deep water hole in the Frio River near the Gonzalez Ranch. There had been heavy rain and severe flooding the night of the murder, and the car had been washed off a low-water crossing into the river. It is a rental car from an agency at the San Antonio Airport. No body is found in the vicinity, so Chak and Davis assume that the driver escaped. The contents of the vehicle was soaked, but the searchers found a shotgun which had been fired five times, and one valuable clue - - a map of New York City with a location marked at the Washington Square Arch in Greenwich Village. The detective and the Sheriff interview personnel at the San Antonio agency which rented the car and get a good description of the driver. They then fly to New York City and check out the location of the X on the map. To their surprise, they find that an NYU professor, Murray Glass, was making a speech under the arch on Lincoln's birthday and was shot dead from the fire escape of a nearby building. They talk to the NYPD lieutenant who investigated the murder and are surprised to find that the FBI has taken over the case as a federal matter. They also learn that nobody can trace the professor's history back more than 10 years. Back in Texas, Chak enlists Rafael Ortiz to set up a meeting with the Gonzalez widow in Monterrey, Mexico. She is ambivalent about the murders - - angry and aggrieved by the death of her beloved son, Charlie, but glad that her conniving husband is dead. When the widow hears the description of the suspected murderer - - the man whose rent car was found in the Frio River - - she becomes furious and offers to help any way she can. Under questioning by Chak, she reveals that she and Mr. Gonzalez were originally wealthy Hondurans who owned a large plantation near the Nicaraguan border. When the U.S. set up the Palmerola air base in Honduras to supply the Contra rebels in the 1980's, they leased part of their plantation to U.S. agents for location of warehouses and refueling tanks. She explains that a small group of American and Hispanic men often came to their home for dinner, and that her husband told her that two of the men were wholesale drug dealers. The FBI agent in charge in San Antonio sets up a meeting with the Sheriff and the detective and orders them to drop their investigation, but they refuse. Chak then offers a compromise - - that the two sides work together and set a trap for the killer or killers. His idea is that Mrs. Gonzalez and her sleep-in companion, an Albino man named Chi-Chi, move to the Gonzalez ranch. Chak will act as their agent, announcing that the widow is writing a "tell all" book about her husband's activities, and will hold a news conference at the ranch in one month. In the mean-time, no news media persons will be allowed to interview her. The FBI, the Sheriff, and the Texas Rangers set up an elaborate undercover protective network to intercept any suspicious persons who show up in the
Author: Charles Willeford
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 1647001897
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 188
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Book Description
A driven art critic’s plan to steal a painting leads to murder in this classic neo-noir novel by the author of the Hoke Moseley series. Fast-talking, backstabbing, womanizing, and fiercely ambitious art critic James Figueras will do anything—blackmail, burglary, and beyond—to make a name for himself. When an unscrupulous collector offers Figueras a career-making chance to interview Jacques Debierue, the greatest living—and most reclusive—artist, the critic must decide how far he will go to become the art-world celebrity he hungers to be. Will Figueras stop at the opportunity to skim some cream for himself or push beyond morality’s limits to a bigger payoff? Crossing the art world with the underworld, Willeford creates a novel of dark hue and high aesthetic polish. The Burnt Orange Heresy—the 1970s crime classic now back in print—has lost none of its savage delights as it re-creates the making of a murderer, calmly and with exquisite tension, while satirizing the workings of the art world as the ultimate con. Now a major motion picture starring Donald Sutherland and Mick Jagger Praise for The Burnt Orange Heresy “Stunning . . . A novel full of genuine fun that also manages to make a level statement about the art world and its hermetic credulities.” —New Yorker
Author: David Handler
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312307356
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 310
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Book Description
Old-couple Berger and Mitry are back in a new spin on the classic locked-roommystery.
Author: David Lehman
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501763644
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 294
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Book Description
From Sherlock Holmes to Sam Spade; Nick and Nora Charles to Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin; Harry Lime to Gilda, Madeleine Elster, and other femmes fatales—crime and crime solving in fiction and film captivate us. Why do we keep returning to Agatha Christie's ingenious puzzles and Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled murder mysteries? What do spy thrillers teach us, and what accounts for the renewed popularity of morally ambiguous noirs? In The Mysterious Romance of Murder, the poet and critic David Lehman explores a wide variety of outstanding books and movies—some famous (The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity), some known mainly to aficionados—with style, wit, and passion. Lehman revisits the smoke-filled jazz clubs from the classic noir films of the 1940s, the iconic set pieces that defined Hitchcock's America, the interwar intrigue of Eric Ambler's best fictions, and the intensity of attraction between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer, Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. He also considers the evocative elements of noir—cigarettes, cocktails, wisecracks, and jazz standards—and offers five original noir poems (including a pantoum inspired by the 1944 film Laura) and ironic astrological profiles of Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich, and Graham Greene. Written by a connoisseur with an uncanny feel for the language and mood of mystery, espionage, and noir, The Mysterious Romance of Murder will delight fans of the genre and newcomers alike.
Author: Rodney A. Smolla
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 296
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Book Description
The riveting account of the landmark "Hit Man Case"--involving a man who hired a contract killer to execute his ex-wife, his severely brain-damaged son, and the boy's nurse--written by a noted First Amendment attorney who risked his reputation and career to take on the case.
Author: Charles Willeford
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 9781409196785
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 192
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Book Description
A fast-paced, twisty thriller about an art heist that spins out of control with murderous results... Now a major film starring Elizabeth Debicki, Claes Bang, Donald Sutherland and Mick Jagger 'No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford' Elmore Leonard 'Stunning' NEW YORKER Art critic James Figueras is a psychotic, an amoral unrepentant killer. Out to make a lasting name for himself, he seeks out the greatest painter in the world, now a hermit in the Florida swamplands. Figueras is after more than the man, however - he wants the work, and something more ... something more horrible than can be imagined. Crossing the art world with the underworld, THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY ranges from the upbeat Florida sunshine to an art collector who doesn't care how his art is collected, even if it involves murder.
Author: Sarah J. Harris
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501187910
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 368
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Book Description
A boy with synesthesia—a condition that causes him to see colors when he hears sounds—tries to uncover what happened to his beautiful new neighbor—and if he was ultimately responsible in this “compelling and emotionally charged mystery that warrants comparisons to Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” (Library Journal). In this highly original “fantastic debut” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), thirteen-year-old Jasper Wishart lives in a world of dazzling color that no one else can see, least of all his dad. Words, numbers, days of the week, people’s voices—everything has its own unique shade. But recently Jasper has been haunted by a color he doesn’t like or understand: the color of murder. Convinced he’s done something terrible to his neighbor, Bee Larkham, Jasper revisits the events of the last few months to paint the story of their relationship from the very beginning. As he struggles to untangle the knot of untrustworthy memories and colors that will lead him to the truth, it seems that there’s someone else out there determined to stop him—at any cost. Full of page-turning suspense and heart-wrenching poignancy—as well as plenty of humor—The Color of Bee Larkham’s Murder is “completely original and impossible to predict” (Benjamin Ludwig, author of Ginny Moon) with a unique hero who will stay with you long after you turn the last page.
Author: Jim Cavanaugh
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Josh Myers is the Detective Lieutenant of Police in a small sun-drenched beach town on the Gulf of Mexico. Murder is normally not normal here. However, things have changed. The winds and waves of crime have been delivered to his doorstep. Josh is personally and professionally entangled in a sailor's knot of sex, romance, broken hearts, deceit, blackmail, greed and homicide. The beach town has never felt so dark. The swirling hurricane of events threatens to destroy the happiness of this vacation destination paradise. Grab your beach chair, sunglasses and umbrella and follow Josh's journey beyond the sea.
Author: Margaret Atwood
Publisher: New Canadian Library
ISBN: 1551995530
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 92
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Book Description
First published in 1983, Murder in the Dark is Margaret Atwood's seventh work of fiction or her tenth book of poetry, depending on how you slice it. These short prose forms range from fictionalized autobiography through prose-poetry, mini-romance, and mini–science fiction. A feast of comic entertainment, Murder in the Dark is Atwood at her wittiest, most thoughtful, and most provoking.
