crime

Hardcover. NY, Random House, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unc;ipped dust jacket. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line plunges readers deep into a bustling Indian eneighborhood to trace the unfolding of a tragedy through the eyes of a child as he has his first perilous collisions with an unjust and complicated wider world. Young Jai drools outside sweet shops, watches too many reality police shows, and considers himself to be smarter than his friends Pari (though she gets the best grades) and Faiz (though Faiz has an actual job). When a classmate goes missing, Jai decides to use the crime-solving skills he has picked up from TV to find him. He asks Pari and Faiz to be his assistants, and together they draw up lists of people to interview and places to visit.But what begins as a game turns sinister as other children start disappearing from their neighborhood. Jai, Pari, and Faiz have to confront terrified parents, an indifferent police force, and rumors of soul-snatching djinns. As the disappearances edge ever closer to home, the lives of Jai and his friends will never be the same again. Clean copy.

Softcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, reprint, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 521 pages. The fourth volume in Frank's monumental five part biography of the great Russian writer. Covers the six most remarkably productive years in the novelist's entire career. It was in this short span of time that Dostoevsky produced three of his greatest novels--Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Devils--and two of his best novellas, The Gambler and The Eternal Husband. All these masterpieces were written in the midst of harrowing practical and economic circumstances, as Dostoevsky moved from place to place, frequently giving way to his passion for roulette. Having remarried and fled from Russia to escape importuning creditors and grasping dependents, he could not return for fear of being thrown into debtor's prison. He and his young bride, who twice made him a father, lived obscurely and penuriously in Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, as he toiled away at his writing, their only source of income. Clean copy.

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, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Paul Mann. In New York City, a movie critic has just murdered his girlfriend--well, one of his girlfriends (not to be confused with his wife). Will the unlikely crime-solving partnership he forms with the investigating police detective keep him from the film noir ending he deserves? On the opposite coast, movie star Dawn Devayne--the hottest It Girl in Hollywood--gets a visit from a Navy sailor who says he knew her when she was just ordinary Estelle Anlic of San Diego. Now she's a big star who's put her past behind her. But secrets have a way of not staying buried. These two short novels, one hilarious and one heartbreaking, are two of the best works Westlake ever wrote. And fittingly, both became movies--one starring Jack Ryan's Marie-Josee Croze, and one starring Fargo's William H. Macy and Desperate Housewives' Felicity Huffman. Like new.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday Crime Club, 1928, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover. Previous owner's signature on front end paper. Otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, HarperCollins, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 518 pages with index. B&w illustrations. The allied bombing of Dresden created a massive fire that swept the city center, killing thousands of people and destroying its medieval heart. Debate began almost immediately: Was the destruction of this seemingly civilian city necessary militarily, or was it, some asked, equivalent to a war crime? Not just another in an endless parade of books on Dresden, Taylor's account may go a long way toward putting such questions to rest. It opens with the start, by British bombers, of the nighttime attack, and immediately turns to the past, meandering through several centuries of Dresden history, from its founding in the Middle Ages to the 20th century and the rise of the Nazis. Taylor, translator of The Goebbels Diaries, also covers the history of aerial bombardment and its international laws; gives glimpses of life under the Nazi regime; details the Allied bombing campaign against Germany; and, most excitingly, puts forth new information concerning Dresden's part in the German war effort, which turns out to be much greater than postwar information generally portrays. Clean copy.

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Gregory Manchess. On a secret island in the Caribbean, bioengineers have devised a vacation resort like no other, promising the ultimate escape. But when Dr. Roger Clark investigates, he discovers the dark secret of Eden Island and of Advance Biosystems, the shadowy corporation underwriting it. Like new.

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Glen Orbik. Beneath the sands of the Egyptian desert lies treasure beyond imagining. And when a professor of archaeology finds clues to the location of a Pharaoh's lost tomb in ancient hieroglyphs, he hatches a plan to find the burial site--and plunder it. But can a five-man team of smugglers and thieves uncover what the centuries have hidden? And even if they find it, can they escape with it...and with their lives? Like new.

Hardcover. London, Crime Club, 1st, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Nice, bright copy. Lacks dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, WW Norton & Co, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 580 pages, 16 pages of illustrations. Eternity Street tells the story of a violent place in a violent time: the rise of Los Angeles from its origins as a small Mexican pueblo. In a masterful narrative, John Mack Faragher relates a dramatic history of conquest and ethnic suppression, of collective disorder and interpersonal conflict. Eternity Street recounts the struggle to achieve justice amid the turmoil of a loosely governed frontier, and it delivers a piercing look at the birth of this quintessentially American city. In the 1850s, the City of Angels was infamous as one of the most murderous societies in America. Saloons teemed with rowdy crowds of Indians and Californios, Mexicans and Americans. Men ambled down dusty streets, armed with Colt revolvers and Bowie knives. A closer look reveals characters acting in unexpected ways: a newspaper editor advocating lynch law in the name of racial justice; hundreds of Latinos massing to attack the county jail, determined to lynch a hooligan from Texas. Murder and mayhem in Edenic southern California. "There is no brighter sun...no country where nature is more lavish of her exuberant fullness," an Angeleno wrote in 1853. "And yet, with all our natural beauties and advantages, there is no country where human life is of so little account. Men hack one another to pieces with pistols and other cutlery as if God's image were of no more worth than the life of one of the two or three thousand ownerless dogs that prowl about our streets and make night hideous." Like-new.

Hardcover. Chicago, University Of Chicago Press, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 236 pages. A butler school in Houston, a livestock auction in Little Rock, a home for "frozen guys" in California, JFK's humidor in Manhattan--all are jumping off points for Friedman's baleful and sharply satirical scrutiny of American life and behavior in the second half of the twentieth century. Travel with Friedman from Harlem to Hollywood, from Port-au-Prince to Etta's Eat Shop in Chicago. In these pieces, which were published in literary and mass-circulation magazines from the 1960s to the 1990s, you'll meet such luminaries as Castro and Clinton, Natalie Wood and Clint Eastwood, and even Friedman's friends Irwin Shaw, Nelson Algren, and Mario Puzo. Friedman is a master of the essay, whether the subject is crime reporting ("Lessons of the Street"), Hollywood shenanigans ("My Life among the Stars"), or his outrageous adventures as the editor of pulp magazines (the classic "Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos"). We could sing his praises as a journalist, humorist, and social critic. But, as Buckley tells us, being Bruce Jay Friedman is enough. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, MacMillan, 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 246 pages, b&w photos. Light wear to pictorial dust jacket. Overall a nice, clean copy. Ignoring death threats and a foiled bomb plot, Ms. Baker stalked the back alleys and Maoist communes of Berkeley and Oakland, pointing the way for police and other reporters assigned to the story. Now, Ms. Baker tells the story as she couldn't tell it on the air--the twisted story of the seven-headed cobra and the conversion of the mild apolitical heiress into the armed and dangerous Tania.

Hardcover. NY, Weybright and Talley, 1st US, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, lavender cloth with gilt tile on spine, 338 pages. Previous owner's name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean. No dust jacket but flaps laid-in.

Hardcover. The Woodlands TX, New Century Books, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 585 pages. INSCRIBED BY EDITOR to fellow publisher Paul Erikkson and his wife. The kidnapping of the first son of aviator Charles Lindbergh became the crime of the century and defined 'media circus.' As much as the world in the 1930's loved 'Lucky Lindy' for his flight from New York to Paris, so the world despised the kidnapper of the Lindbergh's child. Although the crime occurred in New Jersey, the FBI maintained complete files on the case, because ransom money crossed state lines. These are the complete, never-published, FBI files on the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. The files end with the single word PENDING, as the case was still in progress. This is time stopped in 1934.

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday Doran, 1st US, 1928, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 302 pages. Hardcover. Previous owner's inscription, bookplate. Clean copy. Classic early 20th century Crime Club mystery series volume, this set in England with the opening chapter at the narrator's "club", "In Which I make Drummond's Acquaintance".

Softcover. London, Hard Case Crime, 1st thus, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, colorful wraps with a retro-style illustration by Glen Orbik. First publication ever! By the Edgar award-winning author of SONGS OF INNOCENCE and LITTLE GIRL LOST (written as "Richard Aleas")Told in 50 chapters, each chapter named after one of the first 50 books in the series.Featuring a full-color insert section containing images of the first 50 Hard Case Crime covers! Publishers Weekly on FIFTY-TO-ONE: "High-speed action and nonstop thrills highlight the 50th novel from Hard Case Crime...Ardai sets an impressive standard for the new wave of pulp crime fiction...Breathless action and entertaining characters make this a page-turner from start to finish. " Like new.

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Brothers, 1st, 1957, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, edgeworn dust jacket with light chipping. This is a historical mystery novel about a police officer who is transported back in time to 1829 when the British police was first formed. Carr considered this one of his best impossible crime novels.

Hardcover. Montreal, Drawn & Quarterly, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 140 pages. Hardcover NO dust jacket. Black and white comic. Clean, unmarked copy with minor wear to boards. Award-winning comix-journalist Joe Sacco goes behind the scene of war correspondence to reveal the anatomy of the big scoop. He begins by returning us to the dying days of Balkan conflict and introduces us to his own fixer; a man looking to squeeze the last bit of profit from Bosnia before the reconstruction begins. Thanks to a complex relationship with the fixer Joe discovers the crimes of opportunistic warlords and gangsters who run the countryside in times of war. But the west is interested in a different spin on the stories coming out of Bosnia. Almost ten years later, Joe meets up with his fixer and sees how the new Bosnian government has "dealt" with these criminals and Joe ponders who is holding the reins of power these days...

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, Harper, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 541 pages. Hardcover. Ivory & black cloth covers with gilt titles to spine. Black & white illustrations throughout. Bright dust jacket with only marginal wear to edges. Clean, light toning, a nice copy. A masterful storyteller, Simon Baatz has written a gripping account of the infamous Leopold and Loeb case. Using court records and recently discovered transcripts, Baatz shows how the pathological relationship between Leopold and Loeb inexorably led to their crime.

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.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 2nd pr., 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 197 pages. Forged explores art forgery from ancient times to the present. In chapters combining lively biography with insightful art criticism, Jonathon Keats profiles individual art forgers and connects their stories to broader themes about the role of forgeries in society. From the Renaissance master Andrea del Sarto who faked a Raphael masterpiece at the request of his Medici patrons, to the Vermeer counterfeiter Han van Meegeren who duped the avaricious Hermann G?ring, to the frustrated British artist Eric Hebborn, who began forging to expose the ignorance of experts, art forgers have challenged "legitimate" art in their own time, breaching accepted practices and upsetting the status quo. They have also provocatively confronted many of the present-day cultural anxieties that are major themes in the arts. Keats uncovers what forgeries --and our reactions to them-- reveal about changing conceptions of creativity, identity, authorship, integrity, authenticity, success, and how we assign value to works of art. The book concludes by looking at how artists today have appropriated many aspects of forgery through such practices as street-art stenciling and share-and-share-alike licensing, and how these open-source "copyleft" strategies have the potential to make legitimate art meaningful again. Clean copy.

Softcover. A. J. Cornell Publications , 1st thus, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 189 pages. Cornell Woolrich, best known as the author of "Rear Window," is unsurpassed in his ability to create and sustain sheer suspense. In his tales of terror, ordinary people find themselves in the most extraordinary circumstances--and, as readers, we share their spine-tingling tension every step of the way. Collected here are four of his most nail-biting novellas: EYES THAT WATCH YOU: Greedy Vera Miller plots her husband's murder right under the nose of her mute, paralyzed mother-in-law. After all, the old lady won't be able to tell anyone about the crime. Or will she? THE NIGHT I DIED: Nice guy Ben Cook, goaded by his scheming common-law wife, fakes his own suicide and moves to another town--all to trick his life insurance company into making a large payout. No one en route or at the new address will recognize him, will they? YOU'LL NEVER SEE ME AGAI": Ed Bliss's new bride, miffed by her husband's insults about her biscuits, promises that Ed will never have to see her again--and storms out! When she doesn't return within a few days, Ed begins to suspect foul play--but when he reports the crime to the police, he's the first one they suspect! MURDER ALWAYS GATHERS MOMENTUM: For his wife's sake, Dick Paine approaches a former employer for back wages he is owed--but things go terribly wrong and the old boss ends up dead. Now the guilt-ridden Paine, who'd never before committed a crime, is convinced that people will figure out what happened. As his paranoia gathers momentum, anyone he meets is at risk of becoming his next victim.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, When Bill Browder's young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in a Moscow jail, Browder made it his life's mission to go after his killers and make sure they faced justice. The first step of that mission was to uncover who was behind the $230 million tax refund scheme that Magnitsky was killed over. As Browder and his team tracked the money as it flowed out of Russia through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas, they were shocked to discover that Vladimir Putin himself was a beneficiary of the crime. As law enforcement agencies began freezing the money, Putin retaliated. He and his cronies set up honey traps, hired process servers to chase Browder through cities, murdered more of his Russian allies, and enlisted some of the top lawyers and politicians in America to bring him down. Putin will stop at nothing to protect his money. As Freezing Order reveals, it was Browder's campaign to expose Putin's corruption that prompted Russia's intervention in the 2016 US presidential election. Clean copy.