Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 256 pages. In this unique blend of historical fiction and cutting-edge suspense, author Diane Wei Liang succeeds in delivering an incredible mystery veiled behind the red curtain of contemporary Chinese life and culture. Set in Beijing "The Eye of Jade" introduces readers to the enigmatic Mei Wang, the country's first successful female private investigator, and her struggle to uncover the location of a rare and treasured artifact that is believed to have been absconded from the Luoyang Museum during the Cultural Revolution. For Wang this is a task of special importance, and can only stand to make her later life and reputation glimmer, but as she soon finds in the back alleys, this is not going to be easy. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Little, Brown & Company, reprint, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 209 pages. Originally published in paperback by Lion Books, March 1954. "Gizmo" is the GI term for the unidentifiable -- and that's the way that Toddy Kent has begun to think of the reasons behind the rapid swing of his days. Somehow, Kent seems always to find himself regularly confronted with The Big Break every man would kill for -- only to see it slip through his fingers. Kent's grinding out a paycheck buying gold on the cheap and selling it for the slimmest of profits when he stumbles into his latest, almost mythical discovery -- pure, unadulterated gold in the form of a priceless watch he didn't exactly mean to steal. Soon Kent finds himself at the center of a whirlwind of danger involving everyone from the woman he can't seem to shake, bail bondsmen who get word of Kent's discovery, the Treasury Department, his pawnbroker, and a devious old man with a dog that may or may not be able to speak English, in a rip-roaring comedy of errors and would-you-believe-it bad luck unlike anything you've ever read. Who ever knew one lousy watch could bring so much trouble? And how many times can Kent avoid getting killed before his luck runs out for good?Clean, unread copy.

Softcover. NY, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, reprint, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 189 pages. Roy DIllon seems too handsome and well-mannered to be a professional con man. Lilly Dillon looks too young--and loves Roy a little too intensely--to be taken for his mother. Moira Langtry is getting too old to keep on living off the kindness of male strangers. And Carol Roberg seems too innocent to be acquainted with suffering. This was filmed in 1990 by Stephen Frears, with a screenplay by Donald E. Westlake and starring Anjelica Huston, John Cusack and Annette Bening. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Little, Brown & Company, reprint, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 235 pages. Luane Devore's days are numbered. All her neighbors in the declining seaside resort town of Manduwoc want her dead. Some, like her young husband Ralph and his girlfriend Danny, want the thousands of dollars she keeps hidden under the mattress she spends her days resting on. Others want her to stop her malicious gossip--some of which could ruin lives. Told from multiple perspectives, The Kill-Off tells the story of a woman not long for this earth--but who will finally take matters into their own hands, and when? THE KILL-OFF was the basis of Maggie Greenwald's critically acclaimed film of the same name. Clean, unread copy.

Softcover. NY, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, reprint, 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 244 pages. Lou Ford is the deputy sheriff of a small town in Texas. The worst thing most people can say against him is that he's a little slow and a little boring. But, then, most people don't know about the sickness--the sickness that almost got Lou put away when he was younger. The sickness that is about to surface again.

Softcover. NY, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, reprint, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 244 pages. 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. aclean copy.

Softcover. NY, Fawcett Gold Medal, reprint, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, mass market paperback, 255 pages. A lovely young girl steps in front of Travis McGee's headlights. McGee misses the girl but lands in ten feet of swamp water. As he's limping along the deserted road, someone in an old truck takes a few shots at him. And, when he goes to the local sheriff to complain, the intrepid Travis McGee finds himself arrested and charged with murder. And he can't help but ask himself, is this what they call southern hospitality...? Mild wear to covers, otherwise VG, clean.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 2020, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. This installment in the delightful, internationally acclaimed series featuring Chief of Police Bruno will take all of Bruno's resolve and quick thinking to untangle a mystery that will reach its deadly denouement at the chateau of an aging rock star. But in true Bruno fashion, at least lunchtime is never in danger. It's summer in the Dordogne and the heirs of a modest sheep farmer learn that they have been disinherited. Their father's estate has been sold to an insurance company in return for a policy that will place him in a five-star retirement home for the rest of his life. But the farmer dies before he can move in. Was it a natural death? Or was there foul play? Chief of Police Bruno Courreges is soon on the case, embarking on an investigation that will lead him to several shadowy insurance companies owned by a Russian oligarch with a Cypriot passport. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Little, Brown & Company, reprint, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 238 pages. Originally published in paperback by Signet Books, December 1961. Deputy sheriff Tom Lord knows by now that far-west Texas is the place he'll always call home. He's spent too much time in the region's small towns to adapt to another place. And that's all right with him. What's not all right is being a deputy sheriff, where if it weren't for family misfortune, he might have been a doctor instead. Lord's got one ace-in-the-hole -- the land deed that makes him the biggest landowner in the county, just as the oil companies have started to move in. When Tom's approached by Aaron McBride of Highlands Oil and Gas with a contract to set up pipelines on his property, he's more than happy to sign on the dotted line with barely more than a cursory glance at the paperwork -- it just might be Lord's way out of a life he never wanted in the first place. But when Lord finds out just what that contract entailed, things start to go sour for Aaron McBride -- and fast. Because in this Texas town, Lord's the law -- and there's nothing more dangerous than a cop with nothing left to lose. Clean, unread copy.

Softcover. NY, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, reprint, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 245 pages. In a rundown house in Santa Monica, Mrs. Samuel Lawrence presses fifty crumpled bills into Lew Archer's hand and asks him to find her wandering daughter, Galatea. Described as 'crazy for men' and without discrimination, she was last seen driving off with small-time gangster Joe Tarantine, a hophead hood with a rep for violence. Archer traces the hidden trail from San Francisco slum alleys to the luxury of Palm Springs, traveling through an urban wilderness of drugs and viciousness. As the bodies begin to pile up, he finds that even angel faces can mask the blackest of hearts.Filled with dope, delinquents and murder, this is classic Macdonald and one of his very best in the Lew Archer series. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Carroll & Graf, reprint, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, mass market paperback, 192 pages. The Woman-Chaser has one of the most interesting plots ever for a crime thriller. Richard Hudson, a crooked, arrogant and vicious car salesman who is really good at his job panics at a meeting of aspiring young reps. He realizes that he is wasting his life in the 9 to 5 grind. It dawns on him that we are on this planet to be creative. So he writes a script with help from his step-father and decides to direct a film based on the script. But when his edited film fails to meet the six reel 90 minute length standard, the studio tries to interfere in the film's future. The crazed car salesman/movie director embarks on a rampage of destruction. Bookseller's stamp on inside front cover, otherwise a clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. UK, The Chicken House, 1st UK, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 348 pages, hardcover with dust jacket. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on half title page. First English translation of German mystery novel. Faint age toning to top and bottom text block edges. Scarce. A tight copy.

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing, 1st, 1956, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 192 pages. Paperback. Dell Book #894.Minor wear to paper wrappers. Creasing to covers and spine.

Softcover. New York, A Signet Book, 1st, 1956, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 144 pages. Paperbook. Signet Book #1434. Light wear on edges. Light creases on wrapper corners and spine.

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing, 1st, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 192 pages. Paperback. Dell Book #8949. Minor wear to paper wrappers. Cover art by Robert McGinnis.

Softcover. New York, Pocket Book, 2nd, 1945, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 249 pages. Paperback. Pocket Book #237. Light soil to rear wrapper, spine creasing and fading. Tight copy.

Softcover. New York, Ace Books, 1st, 1958, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Paperback. Double Novel. 135/121 pages. Ace Double Novel #D-321. Previous owner's markings on first pages of each side. Light wear to pictorial wrappers. Pages lightly tanned. Creasing and wear to spine.

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing, 1st, 1959, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 192 pages. Paperback. Dell Book #D280. Minor wear to paper wrappers. Light crease and fade to spine and front cover. Small notation on first page.

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing, 1st, 1953, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 224 pages. Paperback. Dell Book #745. Minor wear to paper wrappers. Chipping to top corner. Light wave to pages.

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing, 1st, 1958, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 159 pages. Paperback. Dell Book #978. Minor wear to paper wrappers. Photographic cover art. Light crease to spine and front cover.

Softcover. New York, Dell Publishing, 1st, 1963, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 192 pages. Paperback. Dell Bo0k #768. Minor wear to paper wrappers. Cover art by Robert Stanley.

Softcover. New York, Popular Library Mystery, 1st, 1946, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 220 pages. Popular Library Mystery # 72. Light wear to paper wrappers. Pages tanned.

Softcover. NY, Little, Brown & Company, reprint, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 241 pages. In trouble more often than not, guilty of assault, manslaughter, and honorably discharged from the military by the skin of his teeth, David "Bugs" McKenna can't seem to help doing the right thing at the wrong time--or the wrong thing, every chance he gets. But when he drifts his way into Ragtown, Texas, things seem to finally be turning around for Bugs. He gets his first job in years as the hotel detective of the landmark Hanlon Hotel. But now that Bugs owes deputy sheriff Lou Ford a favor, things are likely to get ugly, fast--and odds are, it'll have something to do with the bombshell wife of his Bugs' new employer. In WILD TOWN, Jim Thompson returns to the characters from THE KILLER INSIDE ME that made his reputation, in a virtuoso, multi-character portrait of how one man's life can take a turn for the worse. Clean, unread copy.