Best of
Hard-Boiled

2013

Nothing but Memories


Derek Fee - 2013
    Detective Chief Inspector Ian Wilson is tasked with the unenviable job of finding the killer with tensions running high throughout the city. In the powder keg that is the Northern Irish political scene, Wilson needs to discover the reason behind the seemingly random killings, and quick, in order to prevent the troubles from breaking out on the streets of Belfast again. A powerful, and exciting, thriller Nothing but Memories is a tour-de-force by Derek Fee, author of Cartel.

Hot Sinatra


Axel Howerton - 2013
    He’s smart, talented, sometimes even charming. You’d think he could find a better gig than carrying on his grandfather’s legacy as a ‘Private Dick.’Cole is out of money, out of ideas, and out of his league. That’s why he’s stuck looking for a stolen Sinatra record… a record that may be just a figment of an old man’s imagination.Of course, if that were true, Moss wouldn’t have so many people busting down his door.A vivacious redhead, a foul-mouthed Irish rock star, and a whip-smart little girl only complicate the job, when all Cole wants is a good cup of coffee and some Hot Sinatra.If only he can stay alive—and in one piece—long enough to find it. Advance Praise for HOT SINATRA:“Axel Howerton is one of the best new crime fiction writers out there—hell, one of the best writers, period. Do yourself a favor and settle into Axel’s groove.” – Scott S. Phillips, Author of Squirrel Eyes and Tales of Misery & Imagination, and Writer/Director of Stink of Flesh and Gimme Skelter“Moss Cole sizzles hotter than bacon.” – Red Tash, Author of Troll, Or Derby and This Brilliant Darkness

The Last Watchman Still Rides


Jonathan Watkins - 2013
    His history is stained with blood and violence. Released from prison after another man died under his fists, he's found some semblance of peace as a private detective. Sometimes he's hired to solve a problem. Sometimes he's hired to do something mean. He prefers the one, but he isn't above the other. When he's hired to locate a gorgeous banking executive's missing niece, Roarke suspects the case might be just another ugly custody fight between the girl's parents. A single gunshot aimed his way proves him wrong, and convinces him to give the missing girl his undivided attention. Soon, Roarke finds himself drawn away from his Detroit lair and into the northern wilderness where a group of heavily armed militiamen calling themselves the Sons of Michigan are holding the girl. Lead by a silver-tongued preacher and a remorseless killer called the Last Watchman, the Sons are waiting for him. They think they can bargain with him. They think he can be reasoned with. They're wrong.

The Dashiell Hammett Megapack


Dashiell Hammett - 2013
    "The Dashiell Hammett Megapack" collects 20 early and rare stories by the famous mystery writer, plus one poem.Included in this volume are: AFRAID OF A GUNARSON PLUSTHE NEW RACKETBODIES PILED UPDEATH ON PINE STREETTHE MAN WHO KILLED DAN ODAMSMIKE, ALEC, OR RUFUSNIGHT SHOTSNIGHTMARE TOWNONE HOURTHE ROAD HOMERUFFIAN'S WIFETHE SECOND-STORY ANGELTHE TENTH CLUEWHO KILLED BOB TEAL?ZIGZAGS OF TREACHERYTHE WAGES OF CRIMENIGHT SHADETHE PARTHIAN SHOTIMMORTALITYCURSE IN THE OLD MANNER

Redemption of the Dead


Luke Delaney - 2013
    The Parkside rapist has been terrorising the women of South London, and Detective Chief Superintendent Charlie Bannen is in need of a secret weapon if he's going to catch this particular monster. When fresh-faced PC Sean Corrigan is transferred to join the team, Bannen immediately spots his potential. Soon Sean will find himself exploring the scars his own dark past has left him in the race to help his new mentor catch their quarry before he goes on to commit more, and worse crimes...

The Other Side Of Bad


R.O. Barton - 2013
    Weeks after Tucker foils an assassination attempt on a client, he's confronted at his remote country home by men intent on killing him. Meanwhile, Tucker is forced to relive his secret violent past during an interview with a Nashville billionaire who wants his wife's "accidental" death investigated. But, before Tucker can take on a new assignment, he must deal with who wants to kill him and why. Praise for "The Other Side of Bad" The Other Side of Bad, by R.O. Barton, like its title, is a gotcha; gotcha and won't let you go until you've been through an assassination attempt in Nashville, a face-off in a Louisiana biker bar, the mother of all drug-deals-gone-bad in the wilds of Mexico, and more between the scenes action than a Rambo night out.Barton casts his characters with disarming frankness-characters large and eccentric-with arcane talents and a taste for brinkmanship. The Other Side of Bad is visual, visceral, and a trip to the other side.-Steven Prati Author of, Cheers from the Bull & Finch Pub

The Paul Cain Omnibus: Every Crime Story and the Novel Fast One as Originally Published (Black Mask)


Paul Cain - 2013
    The protagonists of ambiguous morality who populate Cain’s work are portrayed with a cinematic flair for the grim hardness of their world. Fast One, Cain’s only novel, was originally serialized in Black Mask in the 1930s. It introduces us to Gerry Kells, a hard-nosed criminal who still holds fast to his humanity in a Los Angeles that’s crooked to the core.This collection presents Cain’s classic crime writing to a contemporary audience.This ebook features an introduction by Boris Dralyuk.

A Citizen Of Nowhere (Salazar, #1)


Seth Lynch - 2013
    1930. Salazar is an English detective haunted by his experiences of the Great War, who wiles away the days playing chess and taking on as little work as possible. When the alluring Marie Poncelet hires him to find a missing man he quickly realises it's a case he wishes he'd refused. Finding a missing man isn't anything like finding a man who doesn't want to be found and Gustave Marty has covered his tracks with a smokescreen that will push Salazar beyond the limits of physical endurance and to the edge of insanity. As he's drawn deeper into the shadowy underbelly of the City of Light, Salazar's closed, structured world is blown apart by the arrival of a friend from his pre-war youth, the beautiful Megan Fitzwilliam, whose tenderness and love of life is a stark contrast to the brutal violence that lies within him. When that violence threatens to engulf them both, Salazar must seek redemption or lose the very thing that has finally made his life worth living. PRAISE FOR CITIZEN OF NOWHERE “Salazar is richly cinematic and completely enthralling with a great sense of time and place, as well as a great deal of wry humour.” “Knowing well the parts of France where the story unfolds, I realize that this book has been meticulously researched, and the pictures painted and the setting of the characters are perfectly described and richly amplified. Lynch has created a lead character in Salazar that is up there with the Colombos and the Wallanders of this genre, and I look forward impatiently to the second book, in what I'm sure will be a long-lived series.” “Fans of Highsmith's Ripley or Chandler's Marlow will love this book as much as just about anybody simply looking for an absorbing holiday read.” “A real page turner. Salazar is so much more than a crime novel and a real insight into the minds and lives in those post war Paris years, accompanied by knowledgeable descriptive detail of people and places.” “An enjoyable read that takes you on a trip back to 1930 Paris. Salazar is on a mission to find more than just a man but his new identity in a turbulent time and place.”

The Crime Films of Anthony Mann


Max Alvarez - 2013
    But there is more to Mann's cinematic universe than those tough Wild West action dramas featuring conflicted and secretive heroes. This brilliant Hollywood craftsman also directed fourteen electrifying crime thrillers between 1942 and 1951, among them such towering achievements in film noir as T-Men, Raw Deal, and Side Street. Mann was as much at home filming dark urban alleys in black-and-white as he was the prairies and mountains in Technicolor, and his protagonists were no less conflicted and secretive than his 1950s cowboys.In these Mann crime thrillers we find powerful stories of sexual obsession (The Great Flamarion), the transforming images of women in wartime and postwar America (Strangers in the Night, Strange Impersonation), exploitation of Mexican immigrants (Border Incident), studies of the criminal mind (He Walked by Night), and Civil War bigotry (The Tall Target). Mann's forceful camera captured such memorable and diverse stars as Erich von Stroheim, Farley Granger, Dennis O'Keefe, Claire Trevor, Richard Basehart, Ricardo Montalb�n, Ruby Dee, and Raymond Burr.The Crime Films of Anthony Mann features analysis of rare documents, screenplays, story treatments, and studio memoranda and reveals detailed behind-the-scenes information on preproduction and production on the Mann thrillers. Author Max Alvarez uses rare and newly available sources to explore the creation of these noir masterworks. Along the way, the book exposes secrets and solves mysteries surrounding the mercurial director and his remarkable career, which also included Broadway and early live television.

A Very Scottish Murder


William Meikle - 2013
    When the body surfaces in a bunker on the Old Course at St. Andrews, murder takes the town by storm. Soon bodies pile high as the trail leads Royle to a gangster, greed, and evil motives. It becomes the case he’s always wanted, and the one he wish he never accepted. The very future of St. Andrews is at stake and he’s determined to uncover the truth.