Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2021, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration. In the aftermath of a bloody heist, Nolan and Jon find themselves flying home to count their ill-gotten gains--but a skyjacker taking the same flight has other plans. Meanwhile, in Des Moines, someone is offing members of the Mob-connected DiPreta family and the Mob thinks maybe Nolan can make it stop. Maybe he can--for a six-figure fee. Originally published as two separate novels (and unavailable in bookstores for 40 years!), DOUBLE DOWN finds Nolan and Jon pursuing the American dream in their inimitable criminal fashion. Flying high off his recent return after more than three decades in SKIM DEEP, Nolan is one of MWA Grand Master Max Allan Collins' most unforgettable characters, and DOUBLE DOWN is Nolan at his hard-boiled best. Like new.
Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Robert McGinnis. It begins on Death Row, with a condemned man refusing the services of the lawyer assigned to defend him. It begins with a beautiful woman dead, murdered--Vassilia Caroline Baird, known to all simply as V. That's where this extraordinary novel begins. But the story it tells begins years earlier, on a struggling farm in the shadow of the Great Depression and among the brawling "cat skinners" of Southern California, driving graders and bulldozers to tame the American West. And the story that unfolds, in the masterful hands of acclaimed author Oakley Hall, is a lyrical outpouring of hunger and grief, of jealousy and corruption, of raw sexual yearning and the tragedy of the destroyed lives it leaves in its wake. Unpublished for more than half a century, SO MANY DOORS is Hall's masterpiece, an excoriating vision of human nature at its most brutal, and one of the most powerful books you will ever read. Like new.
Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Chuck Pyle. Anita Carbone was a good girl--and it bored her.That's why she took the long subway ride down to Greenwich Village, home of the Beats and the stoners, home to every kind of misfit and dropout and free spirit you could imagine. It was where she met Joe Milani, the troubled young war veteran with the gentle touch. But it was also where she met his drug-dealing roommate--a man whose unnatural appetites led to murder. Like new.
Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Robert McGinnis. The ruthless professional killer known as Quarry long ago disappeared into a well-earned retirement. But now a media magnate has lured the restless hitman into tackling one last lucrative assignment. The target is an unlikely one: Why, Quarry wonders, would anyone want a beautiful young librarian dead? And why in hell does he care?On the 30th anniversary of the enigmatic assassin's first appearance, bestselling author Max Allan Collins brings him back for a dark and deadly mission where the last quarry may turn out to be Quarry himself. Like new.
Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Robert McGinnis. When the man he worked for abruptly exits the business, Quarry finds himself in the crosshairs as a rival tries to take over. But what does Quarry have that the new man wants? And how did the beautiful blonde in the swimming pool become a target? Like new.
Hardcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket featuring a retro-style illustration by Paul Mann. In the late 90s, the producers of the James Bond movies hired legendary crime novelist Donald E. Westlake to come up with a story for the next Bond film. The plot Westlake dreamed up--about a Western businessman seeking revenge after being kicked out of Hong Kong when the island was returned to Chinese rule--had all the elements of a classic Bond adventure, but political concerns kept it from being made. Never one to let a good story go to waste, Westlake wrote an original novel based on the premise instead--a novel he never published while he was alive. Hard Case Crime gives that novel its first publication ever, together with a brand new afterword by one of the movie producers describing the project's genesis, and to give fans their first taste of the Westlake-scripted Bond that might have been.
Softcover. NY, Pegasus Books, 2nd pr., 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 300 pages. In this classic crime novel, a panic-stricken young wife races against time to prove that her convicted husband did not murder his mistress. Writing in first person from the wife?s viewpoint, Woolrich evokes her love and anguish and, finally, desperation as she becomes an avenging angel in her attempt to rescue her husband from execution. Clean copy.
Softcover. NY, Carroll & Graf, reprint, 1989, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, mass market paperback, 181 pages. A radio soap-opera scriptwriter finds himself in the thick of murder when an unknown killer begins acting out scripts that were written but never shown to everyone. Light wear, bookstore stamp on title page.
Hardcover. NY, Bantam Books, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY CANNELL on title page. Clean, like new. An Ellie Haskell mystery, now the mother of infant twins who feels like the magic has gone out of her life. The fifth mystery by Cannell.
Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's Press, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Cartoonist Jack Deacon is astonished when a colleague he had not seen in years, Mutt Shermer, dies in his yard from gunshots. He is even more surprised when he finds beautiful Sally Westerland hiding in his closet. Jack and his fellow cartoonists ponder these events at a Connecticut diner, but it is not until a package addressed to Sally arrives at Jack's house, where Sally once lived, that things fall quickly into place. In the package is a "Tijuana bible," and in its pages is a coded map leading to a collection of "Golden Age" comics worth millions. Clean, like new.
Hardcover. NY, Atheneum, 1st, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. "A tour de force of black humor, Easeful Death pits a "dead" man against his double-dealing, back-stabbing family and fans in an offbeat, ironic game of subterfuge." Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, William Morrow , 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. INSCRIBED BY LEVINE on the half-title page. Pro football player turned lawyer Jake Lassiter is savoring a drink at a South Beach bar when a beautiful young woman shoots the man on the next bar stool and faints in Lassiter's arms. It's one way to get clients, he figures. The woman, Chrissy Bernhardt, is charged with the first-degree murder of her father, whom Chrissy believes abused her as a child. Lassiter takes the case, which is complicated by the fact that Chrissy's repressed memories of her father's abuse have been "unlocked" with the help of a therapist who turns out to be her late mother's former lover. The seventh Lassiter novel continues the series' steady improvement. Lassiter is smart, tough, funny, and very human. He's coming on fast as one of the most entertaining series characters in contemporary crime fiction. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Library of America, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 1199 pages, ribbon marker. In Raymond Chandler's hands, the pulp crime story became a haunting mystery of power and corruption, set against a modern cityscape both lyrical and violent. Now Chandler joins the authoritative Library of America series in a comprehensive two-volume set displaying all the facets of his brilliant talent. In his first novel, The Big Sleep (1939), the classic private eye finds his full-fledged form as Philip Marlowe: at once tough, independent, brash, disillusioned, and sensitive--and man of weary honor threading his way (in Chandler's phrase) "down these mean streets" among blackmailers, pornographers, and murderers for hire.In Farewell, My Lovely (1940), Chandler's personal favorite among his novels, Marlowe's search for a missing woman leads him from shanties and honky-tonks to the highest reaches of power, encountering an array of richly drawn characters. The High Window (1942), about a rare coin that becomes a catalyst by which a hushed-up crime comes back to haunt a wealthy family, is partly a humorous burlesque of pulp fiction. All three novels show Chandler at a peak of verbal inventiveness and storytelling drive. Stories and Early Novels also includes every classic noir story from the 1930s that Chandler did not later incorporate into a novel--thirteen in all, among them such classics as "Red Wind," "Finger Man," The King in Yellow," and "Trouble Is My Business." Drawn from the pages of Black Mask and Dime Detective, these stories show how Chandler adapted the violent conventions of the pulp magazine--with their brisk exposition and rapid-fire dialogue--to his own emerging vision of twentieth-century America. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Pocket Books, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. SIGNED BY SHANKMAN on title page.Distraught over her ex-boyfriend, Harry's new girlfriend, Samantha Adams, is eager to forget her troubles at a friend's blowout engagement party but finds them multiplying when the prospective groom is kidnapped and held for ransom. Sixth novel in the Samantha Adams series - this one is set in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Clean, like new.
Hardcover. NY, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1st, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, price-clipped dust jacket. The third Florida based thriller from this highly praised author: Hillerman called him "the Mark Twain of the crime novel" and Elmore Leonard described this book as "the funniest I've read in a long,long time." In this book, he skewers the cosmetic surgery industry.
Hardcover. Boston, G K Hall & Co, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 585 pages. Lists and provides the reader with descriptions of 1440 titles, 121 authors, with a brief plot summary. If you love the classic English mystery novels of the first half of the 20th century, this is a great book to have on your shelf. It chronicles all of the authors, novels and lead characters from these books. Special features include a list of 100 classics of the genre, explanations and charts of England's Police and class system, and maps of Great Britan and Ireland. Dust jacket with minor edgewear, otherwise clean.
Hardcover. NY, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. In Earthly Remains, the twenty-sixth novel in this series, Brunetti's endurance is tested more than ever before. During an interrogation of an entitled, arrogant man suspected of giving drugs to a young girl who then died, Brunetti acts rashly, doing something he will quickly come to regret. In the fallout, he realizes that he needs a break, needs to get away from the stifling problems of his work.
Hardcover. Roslyn NY, Walter J. Black, Book Club Ed., 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards. Three mystery novels in one volume. Detective Book Club Series. Clean, bright copy. No markings.
Hardcover. Roslyn NY, Walter J. Black, reprint, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, illustrated boards. Three complete unabridged mysteries in one volume. Detective Book Club Edition. Clean, bright copy.
Hardcover. Roslyn NY, Walter J. Black, reprint, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, illustrated boards. Three complete unabridged mysteries in one volume. Detective Book Club Edition. Clean, bright copy.
Hardcover. Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott, 1st, 1837, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 300 pages, with a dust jacket that has light fading to spine and top edge of front panel. Unclipped. The final Colin Gray novel, set in the Indian Himalayas. Contains elements of mysticism and fantasy. Clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. NY, Hyperion, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. The wise-cracking private eye with a tough exterior and a soft heart returns in a mystery involving a crazed housewife, Cajun thug, and menacing, hundred-year-old river turtle named Luther. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, reprint, 1929, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, frontis. with tissue guard., 277 pages. Original blind decorated black cloth with embossed illustration to front board. A mystery novel by the author of The Phantom of the Opera, one of the first in the 'locked room' sub-genre, first published in 1908 by Daily Mail (UK) and Brentano's (US) (Adey [Locked Room Murders] 1201). It has been adapted to film several times. The S.S. Van Dine Detective Library edition. Name and address on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.
Hardcover. NY, Mysterious Press, Ltd. Ed., 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, black cloth. Limited Issue, one of 100 numbered copies specially bound and signed by the author, this being copy #40. Titles stamped in gilt on spine; publisher's matching cloth slipcase with a small bump/nick to the top corner.
Hardcover. NY, Scribner, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. McKinty's second novel is a brutal tale of revenge starring a young illegal immigrant from Ireland who chooses a criminal career in New York over unemployment in Belfast. Arriving in the city in the early 1990s, the antihero Michael Forsythe lands a spot as an enforcer for Irish mobster Darkey White. Though Forsythe at first keeps his hands relatively clean, he soon racks up a significant number of kills in skirmishes with rival crews as well as with Dominican gangs warring for control of the streets. An affair with his boss's girlfriend leads to a setup: he and his mates are trapped in a drug sting in Mexico and abandoned in a remote prison. "If someone grows up in the civil war of Belfast in the seventies and eighties, perhaps violence is his only form of meaningful expression," McKinty writes early in the novel, and the bulk of the story recounts Forsythe's grisly efforts to escape and avenge himself, including a stint with a Dominican group seeking to oust Darkey White. The pace is brisk and energetic, but Forsythe remains a cipher-a self-educated intellectual who listens to Tolstoy on tape during a stakeout but exhibits puzzlingly little interest in finding an alternative to the gun and the knife. Clean copy.
Softcover. Ann Arbor MI, University of Michigan Press, reprint, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 316 pages. The first known mystery written by an African-American, set in 1930s Harlem. Rudolph Fisher, one of the principal writers of the Harlem Renaissance, weaves an intricate story of a native African king, who, after receiving a degree from Harvard University, settles into Harlem in the 1930s. He becomes a "conjure-man," a fortune-teller, a mysterious figure who remains shrouded in darkness while his clients sit directly across from him, singly bathed in light. It is in this configuration that one of these seekers of the revelation of fate discovers he is speaking to a dead man. Thus a complex mystery begins, involving suspects and characters who are vividly and richly portrayed, and who dramatically illuminate for the reader a time, a place, and a people. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, St. Martin's Press, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 273 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR. Two private investigators--Bill Smith and Lydia Chin--investigate a construction site plagued by thieves and a murder, in a case that leads them into the darkest depths of the underworld.
Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st, 1998, Book: Near Fine, Dust Jacket: Near Fine, Hardcover, 198 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. Beautiful copy in clear mylar sleeve. Mystery novel featuring Victor Platz, sidekick of series character Charlie Bradshaw, who agrees to collect a suspicious suitcase in Montreal & winds up in a mess of trouble.
Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1st, September 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 218 pages. A very clean, tight copy in a bright dust jacket.
Hardcover. New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1st, 1927, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 279 pages. Black cloth with green lettering and design. Light rubbing to front cover, spine and back cover. Light tanning to front end papers and slight foxing to back endpapers. light musty odor.
Hardcover. New York, St. Martin's, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a dust jacket, 180 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR ON TITLE PAGE. Clean, bright copy.
Hardcover. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2nd issue, 1928, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 388 pages. Hardcover. Previous owners name in pencil on front endpaper and dedication in ink on inside front cover. The second issue or state of the first edition with "Copyright, 1927, 1928, by Charles Scribner's Sons" on the copyright page. Dust jacket with chipping and wear along edges - jacket now protected with clear plastic cover. Clean, unmarked text.
Hardcover. New York, Mysterious Press, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 294 pages. Advertisement and biographical brochure from publishers laid-in. Light blue boards, illustrated dust jacket with mylar protective covering. Clean boards and dust jacket, pages crisp and unmarked, stiff binding; a very clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. NY, Scribners, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclpped dust jacket. 306 pages. Summoned to the scene of a ghastly crime in her remote Appalachian village, Laura Bruce, the new minister's wife, realizes that Sunday school teacher Nora Crumb's dark visions have come true.
Hardcover. NY, Scribners, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclpped dust jacket. When her revenge-hungry ex-husband, Jilly, is unexpectedly released from jail, Ann Kalkadonis fights for her four-year-old daughter's life when the latter is kidnapped by Jilly and a former cellmate.
Hardcover. London, Faber & Faber, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, BOOKPLATE SIGNED BY DIBDIN on front fly leaf.