But will Max be able to do the same when pursued by bank robbers, Nazi spies, and enemies from his past?One part thriller, one part meditation on a life of violence, PULP is unlike anything award-winning BRUBAKER & PHILLIPS have ever done before. This celebration of pulp fiction set in a world on the brink is another must-have hardcover from one of comics' most acclaimed teams.

    ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS, the modern masters of crime noir, bring us the last thing anyone expected from them—a good guy. A bold new series of original graphic novels, with three books releasing over the next year, each a full-length story that stands on its own. Meet Ethan Reckless: Your trouble is his business, for the right price. But when a fugitive from his radical student days reaches out for help, Ethan must face the only thing he fears…his own past.“Oh man this book pushed EVERY crime fiction button for me. Working class setting covering up for a deeper societal rot, a battered, damaged (literally) protagonist against the beast, and all of it squirming and lunging through an over-lit early 80s L.A. Noir bleached to bleakness. Bliss." —Patton Oswalt “Imagine Redford at his peak, ambling through sun-drenched, eighties L.A. in a serpentine plot that is equal parts Long Goodbye and Point Break. No one does crime fic like BRUBAKER and PHILLIPS and their collaboration has never felt more new. Explosive. Vital. And yes...reckless. I love this book.” —Damon Lindelof (Lost, HBO’s Watchmen) "RECKLESS is an absolute rush: on the same level as golden age Travis McGee novels and the hardest-hitting Richard Stark stories. This one comes at you as fast as Steve McQueen in a souped-up Mustang and as hard as Charles Bronson with a baseball bat. You gotta have it." —Joe Hill (Locke & Key, N0S4A2) Look for Book Two in the RECKLESS series in April 2021!

    But Teeg's son Ricky and his friends are starting down the same dark path their fathers are on, and this is about to become the worst summer of their lives.An epic tale of tragedy handed down from generation-to-generation, CRUEL SUMMER is a crime comic masterpiece from the most-celebrated noir masters in the industry, creators of CRIMINAL, FATALE, KILL OR BE KILLED and THE FADE OUT. Collects CRIMINAL issues 1 and 5 - 12 in a beautiful new hardback edition, with additional behind the scenes material.

    The scrappy lead columnist for the Chicago Journal normally writes about politics, and, rather than shying away from fights, she tends to pick them, but every once in a while, Deuce’s search for a good story brings her face to face with more trouble than she was really looking for. In Award-winning journalist Jean Heller’s first action-packed mystery featuring the intrepid sleuth, Deuce learns in short order that if you mess with organized crime, you have to be tough—and you’d better be as much detective as reporter. The second volume finds Deuce on the wrong side of the NSA, the FBI and the CIA. At a minimum. Exhausted by these two white-knuckle investigations in one year, Deuce is content to focus on her column until she gains information that could help catch the relentless arsonist whose Burning Rage is consuming Chicago. The Ill Wind sweeping Chicago threatens to blow in a bloody mob war. Fans of hard-boiled female protagonists should hang onto their fedoras—this one’s an action-packed extravaganza!THE SOMEDAY FILEDeuce uncovers a series of crimes committed over nearly six decades, and, as her human interest story morphs into a hard-boiled, action-packed mystery, she finds herself dead center in a storm of threats and reprisals from the mob. Fortunately, she has many allies, but at least one of them, she suspects, is hiding a secret–- corruption? Murder? The veteran reporter knows: if you’re talking Chicago crime scene—it’s probably both.THE HUNTING GROUNDThe grisly discovery of a human bone while Deuce is out for a hike with handsome arson investigator Mark Hearst leads to the unearthing of a vast burial field, a human trafficking ring, and international intrigue. The pull-no-punches columnist—and meticulous detective—keeps turning up information, but the Journal’s lawyer appears daily, bringing warnings about “national security.” What, Deuce seethes, could be a greater matter of national security than the safety of the city’s children, who are being kidnapped and murdered?BURNING RAGEWhole blocks of Chicago real estate are falling to an arsonist, but no one knows why and everyone suspects the worst—terrorism. But no terrorist group has claimed the mayhem. From the moment she hears the earliest details of the first fire, her detective-instincts say the pieces don’t fit, and every other instinct tells the hard-hitting reporter she can’t walk away from the story—even though she knows she’ll regret it.ILL WINDIn the cold blustery dawn, reporter Deuce Mora stands looking up at a body swinging from the window of a downtown Chicago federal building. The dead man was her friend, and she knows to a certainty that this is not, as the police claim, a suicide. But the death scene was triple-locked–—from the inside.Deuce suspects his death is tied to his investigation of organized crime, a viewpoint that is strengthened by the arrival in Chiago of a Washington reporter who's been following the story. They work the story together as it erupts into a bloody mob war in the streets.WHO WILL LIKE IT: Fans of Chicago private investigators VI Warshawski and Libby Fischer Hellman’s Georgia Davis, get-the-story-or-die reporters like Hank Philippi Ryan’s Jane Ryland and Kelly Lange’s Maxi Poole, hard-boiled female protagonists like Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone and Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan; and anyone who admires tough-minded women sleuths who’re good in a fight.

    Desperate to solve her murder and versed in the ways of the Immortals, her heartbroken uncle calls on the Reaper of Vengeance to aid him. In his obsession, following this twisted path may lead to his undoing.THE RAT collects issues 1-5.

    Wyatt and Chick save the woman and are swept into a violent battle for control of a new casino and all the riches and power it will bring. The Kansas City mob, the Dixie Mafia and the local syndicate have them out-numbered and out-gunned but it's the gangsters who should be worried. There's a deadly storm coming...and his name is Wyatt.

    The target he’s chasing may be wanted for murder, but his bills aren’t going to pay themselves.As it turns out, he probably should've been more selective. When he tracks down Cameron Kovak, the wanted man turns out to be no man at all.Gunn finds himself face to face with a tentacled creature out of Ridley Scott’s worst nightmare - a baby Cthulhu, wearing his target's skin like a onesie. And that's just the start of it. Aliens have their eyes on us, and Gunn finds himself swept up in their mysterious plans.Experience the start of The Gunn Files, a sci-fi thrill ride that will have you wondering if aliens truly walk among us. It's perfect for fans of Men in Black and The X-Files.Also available on Audible, narrated by Oliver Wyman (Monster Hunter International).

    He silently hopes his life choices aren’t a reflection of what he sees wrong in others.Detective Bobbi Marshal is an attractive woman whose beauty turns heads. Ironically, she and her partner comprise the LAPD Wilshire Division sex team. Bobbi, mature, sophisticated, capable and compassionate, finds herself working and competing in a man’s world.Detective Sergeant Stryker and Detective West are a “Salt & Pepper” team, one white, one Black. Besides race, there’s one crucial difference between the men…at End of Watch, Stryker drives out of the ghetto into a White community where he lives. West has a much shorter drive, his home is in the ghetto.Now, it’s just a matter of time and cunning …and who makes the first fatal mistake. City on Fire includes: City of Passion, Badge of Honor, Deadly Justice, See the Woman and Yesterday Is Dead.

    The Boy with the Narwhal Tooth introduces many new and interesting characters, together with a few familiar faces making cameo appearances in the series.The Greenland Missing Persons stories are set prior to The Ice Star and Seven Graves, One Winter.

    Others might refer to him as a criminal or a pimp or an extortionist or all of these things, if they knew what he was doing at night. His income is derived from a number of brothels and gambling parlors that are secreted behind iron doors in what appear to be typical apartment buildings. The police—whom he refers to as “the machos”—are oblivious of his enterprises, but he was incarcerated years ago and is uncommonly careful. When Tasking cannot convince someone to do something he wants, he alters that person’s life—elaborately and maliciously—until that person yields to his wishes. He is oblique and autonomous, and he is successful. Daily, his plots, parlors, and prostitutes bring him closer to the large dollar amount that is his ultimate career goal. Things start to change when he walks into the Cherry Red strip club for the first time and meets the dancer, Erin Green. . . .

    Black Irish Blues is the return-to-origin story of Caesar Stiles, an erstwhile runaway who returns to his hometown with plans to buy the town's only tavern and end his family's Sicilian curse.Caesar's attempt for redemption is complicated by the spectral presence of his estranged father, reparation seekers related to his corrupt older brother, a charming crime boss and his enigmatic crew, and - most significantly - a stranger named Dinny Tuite whose disappearance under dubious circumstances immerses Caesar in a mystery that leads into the criminal underbelly of industrial New Jersey, the flawed myth of the American Dream, and his hometown's shameful secrets.Black Irish Blues is a poetic, gritty noir full of dynamic characters, a page-turning plot, and the further development of a unique American character.

    Celebrating Ray Bradbury's centenary, this collection commemorates his finest crime stories – tales as strange and wonderful as his signature fantasy.Time travellers…dark carnivals…living automata…and detectives? Honouring the 100th birthday of Ray Bradbury, renowned author of Fahrenheit 451, this new, definitive collection of the master's less well-known crime fiction features classic stories and rare gems, a number of which became episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Ray Bradbury Theater, including the tale Bradbury called ‘one of the best stories in any field that I have ever written’.Is it murder to destroy a robot if it looks and speaks and thinks and feels like a human being? Can a ventriloquist be incriminated by the testimony of his own dummy? Can a time traveller prevent his younger self from killing the woman they both loved? And can the survivor of a pair of Siamese twins investigate his own brother's murder? No other writer has ever rivalled the imagination and narrative gifts of Ray Bradbury, and the 20 unforgettable stories in this collection demonstrate this singular writer's extraordinary range, influence and emotional power.

    But beneath the neon glare of a sprawling Sonaya, he soon discovers the backstreets are bursting with strange new shadows. Confronting plucky street orphans, bitter biker girls and down-and-out expats, Dag is swiftly embroiled in a fresh homicide case – and finds his murky past isn't done with him yet.“The Rivers. A spiderweb of alleys for the drunk and destitute, weaved together from stones and shadow. Winding backstreets forking off like rotten veins plunging into every shady corner. The greasy smell of glass noodles and exhaust fumes from late night scooters. Neon blinking on every grimy surface and crooked alleys disappearing into a black and sorry night. Home.”- Daganae Kawasaki, This Ragged, Wastrel Thing -

    an old man goes in search of his son in the aftermath of a terrible storm, a couple down on their luck make a life-changing discovery and an ex-cop has one last impossible decision to make...

    Crucial Larsen, a veteran of the brutal Consolidation Wars, is working as a labor cop on Earth. The planet is a toxic dump and billions of people are miserable, but so what? It's none of his business. He's finally living a good life, or good-enough. But then his beloved kid sister, Essential, disappears on Mars, and he's summoned up-universe to aid the investigation. When Crucial demands to know why Halo, the all-powerful artificial-intelligence overseeing Earth and Mars on behalf of the ruling Five Families, can't (or won't) locate his sister, he comes face to face with a life-threatening and apathy-ending realization: Essential is a revolutionary. Blending science-fiction with elements of classic hard-boiled detective stories, Gates of Mars, the first book of The Halo Trilogy, is the eighth novel by Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall.

    An assassinated mayor, the mob, and corruption that reaches the highest levels of government takes Duke on a journey that brings him face to face with his past. All the answers he seeks are in an elusive ledger that he must bring to light.

    When they do, it's a good idea to pay attention, since they offer a window into the casual cruelty of our social economy, which much fiction eschews. Christopher Chambers' new mystery Scavenger offers just such a window." —Washington City Paper In the streets of the nation’s capital, a homeless man must quickly learn the ropes of being a detective after a wealthy ex-government official sets him up to take the fall in a cat-and-mouse game of greed, deceit, and murder. Dickie Cornish’s lives in a homeless camp dotting the Smithsonian’s Museum of National History, addled by the K2 and liquor he prays will blunt the pain of a harsh winter, the cruelty of Donald Trump’s capital, and the enduring nightmares from his youth. He makes a few dollars a day turning the possessions of evicted tenants into curb flotsam, scavenging what he can from the wreckage of other lives to save his.On one expedition Dickie gets lucky as he uncovers a treasure in the trash of a wealthy ex-Homeland Security Secretary, Jamie Bracht. But his joy is short-lived, when he simultaneously finds out that his dear friends who escaped the shelters for a decent life have been murdered. In fury, he attacks the local cops, lands in jail, then is plucked out by Bracht, who has a job for him: find a woman using the sub-level network of the streets and the underground world of undocumented immigrants. In return, Bracht promises Dickie a fresh, clean start at a new life.Before long, Dickie discovers that the woman he is supposed to locate guards another treasure that Bracht will stop at nothing―even murder―to retrieve. In his achingly amateur role as sleuth and guardian, Dickie must quell his demons and use his scavenger skills and street smarts to deny Bracht his prize…and save himself from the big frame-up.SCAVENGER is a 21st century take on the noir, hardboiled tales of the 20th, with both bleak and colorful backdrops in the nation’s capital of today. It is layered with characters whose damage outlines why they love, lose, double-cross, and even kill. Dickie Cornish is a new kind of detective: one who is a street-wise local and a neophyte detective, learning to play a new game as it unfolds.

    Hollywood fashion expert Kimberly Truhler explores twenty definitive film noir titles from 1941 to 1950 and traces the evolution of popular fashion in the decade of the ’40s, the impact of World War II on home-front fashion, and the influence of the film noir genre on popular fashion then and now. Meet not only the fabulous women of noir, including Betty Grable, Veronica Lake, Gene Tierney, Lauren Bacall, Barbara Stanwyck, Ava Gardner, and many others, but also the costume designers that created and recreated these famous stars as killers—and worse—through the clothes they wore. See how Hollywood sold sex and sin in the 1940s through the ingenious style and symbolism of Hollywood’s most talented costume designers.

    It's true, if you want to place a friendly side wager, Joe will take your bet. He's a community leader, a player in the local politics of Capital City on Beta Prime. But nobody really knows Joe Maynard, where he came from and what his past is. Don't ask Joe about it either, he won't tell you. If you're like most people, your curious. You want to know what mysterious past Joe Maynard, the owner of Joe's Place, is hiding. Why don't you scratch that itch? Read Friends in Low Places to find out what it is Joe doesn't want to talk about. In fact, if you want to get the dirt on other friends of Inspector Thomas Sullivan, Sully to those few he calls friends, check out the other stories in Capital City Characters.

    Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot — Martin Terrier, killer-for-hire, needs just one more big job so that he can turn in his guns for good and return home to marry his childhood sweetheart. But soon, he’s on the run — not only from the authorities and his treacherous ex-clients, but also from a crime syndicate seeking revenge for an earlier hit on one of theirs. In Run Like Crazy, Run Like Hell, philanthropist Michael Hartog hires Julie, just out of a psychiatric asylum, as a nanny. But he plans to fake the kidnapping of his son, Peter — and frame Julie for it. But Julie is no pushover, and soon, Julie and Peter are on the run, pursued by the police, and by Hartog’s enforcer, the hulking contract killer, Thompson.

    The haunting, powerful new thriller by Ralph Dennis, author of the legendary Hardman series of crime novels Wilton Drake's hip was shattered by a sniper's bullet in Lebanon...and his heart was ripped apart by the wife who left him as lay in a military hospital. Now, after fiteen years in the Navy, he's returned to Edgefield, North Carolina a broken man, looking for a way to hold himself together. He finds it in a bottle...and behind a badge as Webster County's newly elected Sheriff...but his forbidden attraction to a mysterious stripper and his harrowing investigation into a horrific string of child murders might destroy what's left of him, body and soul."Ralph Dennis has mastered the genre and supplied top entertainment." New York Times"His prose is muscular, swift and highly readable. " Joe R. Lansdale, author of the Hap & Leonard novels, the basis for the hit TV series."Exceptional characterization, strong and vigorous prose, and a glimpse into a place and time that has long since disappeared." Mystery Scene Magazine"An underappreciated master." Robert J. Randisi, founder of the Private Eye Writers of America. "Straight-up, hardboiled crime fiction, written in a tight, evocative voice with a wicked, dark sense of humor." Lee Goldberg, #1 New York Times bestselling author of True Fiction and Lost Hills.

    Her worried parents hire detectives Lars and Elin to find their daughter. The two of them do just that and very quickly. However, Hanna’s problems are far from over – she is trapped in the clutches of a “loverboy”. Just a couple of months later, the two private detectives are asked to help once again, because now Hanna is facing a much more serious issue. This difficult assignment pushes everyone involved to their limits …GUILTY? is the fourth, standalone book from Christer Tholin’s Stockholm Sleuth Series.

    And what better place to find one than on a cruise along the coast of Norway? During the voyage Agnes meets her ideal man, a handsome Norwegian widower named Einar. The only problem is that Einar prefers Pamela—Agnes’ new best friend.When Pamela’s body washes ashore almost a year later, her daughter visits Agnes to ask questions about the cruise. Their conversation becomes a cat-and-mouse game where Agnes bends the facts to avoid revealing the truth about Pamela’s disappearance and death.A psychological thriller set in the cozy atmosphere of a cruise ship, The Woman Who Went Overboard is a story of romantic obsession, and a haunting tale of how far one woman will go to get the man of her dreams.

    Bound by time, integrity, and the reality of life in Central City, Bayonne and Kane made peace with the past. Now, gang tension spirals from corrupt to deadly, and a series of murders stresses Kane and Bayonne’s uneasy alliance. Kane balances on a razor’s edge to protect his bar, power, life, and family, and Bayonne hustles to keep another lonely man from being strangled.Central City is a city struggling for identity. The cops protect the rackets, and the criminals shelter the injured. Innocence is only an appearance, and rage finds a voice.

    He joins forces with headstrong investigative reporter Deepa Banwait to track down the killer.But when a second murder follows close on the heels of the first, with a similar MO, Danny suspects a dangerous serial killer is at work.How do you catch a serial killer who strikes seemingly at random?Is it random, though? Danny and Deepa have their theories. But they have to find a way to work together to track down the fiend with a vendetta against postal workers and couriers before he or she strikes again. And they might succeed, if only they could stop arguing… but with Danny’s overconfidence and Deepa’s driving quest for a story, what could go wrong?And then it becomes personal…

    It doesn’t help that Lily’s husband, Jack, takes their daughter’s side.Taking refuge in her work at a law firm in the City, Lily’s growing feelings for her married boss soon provides a dangerous distraction.Will Lily be able to resist temptation? Or will the decisions made by these ordinary people lead them down an extraordinary path that could destroy them all?Mine – a powerful story of class, ambition and sexual politics.

    After a tourist is murdered at the famous plane wreckage, he is hired to catch the killer. When he arrives to the scene of the crime, local police officers reveal a clear pattern between this and previous murders around the country, Gulliver is certain about the killer's identity, and things are getting personal. He must act fast and take serious measures.

    But when he releases the slippery power of Erichsen’s words, he must use Arctic magic to overcome them, before he can continue his journey.The Fjord of Evil Winds is a fictitious novella inspired by the Danish Literary Expedition to Greenland, 1902-04.

    It's the people who live there.Starting with Joe Maynard, the proprietor of Joe's Place, learn the story of some of the most interesting characters who call Capital City on the frozen world of Beta Prime home.Want to find out how a sexy female cyborg made friends with a pair of illegal clones?Ever wonder how young Josephson decided to become a cop?Why is Sarah, Sully's beautiful partner, so elusive about her tragic past?How did Father Nathan, an ex-mercenary, become an Anglican priest and come to Beta Prime?To find out, order your Capital City Box Set: Episodes 1-5 now!Included in the box set:Friends in Low Places (Joe Maynard's story)Dolls, Dames, and Danger (Jennifer's story plus Katrina Vanzetti and Sarah)The Young Detective (Josephson's story)The Girl Who Wasn't There (Sarah's life story before she met Sully)Incident on Damascus II (Father Nathan's story)

    A disgraced private eye with a bad-boy boyfriend. A femme fatale in search of an ancient artifact. A supernatural horror lurking, growing… waiting for the time to strike! The reimagined noir adventure, complete in one volume, with 40 pages of new stories and an introduction by Steve Orlando

    His first stop is Brownsville, Texas, where he meets the sender, half-Mayan Luci Bolon, her ancient but feisty great-uncle Ernesto, and Miss Mango, a bright-orange Kubota tractor. Ernesto’s dream is that Miss Mango be driven to Belize and given to the family he left behind nearly seventy years ago. Colin agrees to join Luci on the long journey through Central America.In 1949, seventeen-year-old Belizean Ernesto falls painfully in love with Michaela, an American redhead nearly twice his age. Their brief but intense affair changes everything Ernesto has ever known. When she leaves, Ernesto is devastated. Determined to find her, he “borrows” a donkey from his uncle and starts off for Texas. He meets a flamboyant fellow traveler, and the three of them—two young men and the donkey they name Bee—make their way to America.The past and present unfold through two journeys that traverse beautiful landscapes. Painful histories are soothed by new friendships and payments of old debts.

    The place is Miami, Florida. Recent college graduate, Rem Rasso, is there for one reason only, to get his movie made. He has the passion, the knowledge, and he has the script. Then, when he meets the alluring femme fatale Valerie, he has the ultimate leading lady — both for his movie and his life. But then, in a desperate move to get the movie launched, he turns to a notorious local gangster for financing. Things get complicated and dangerous as Rem's life becomes more dramatic and deadly than the fictional movie he is trying to create.Miami Noir is a vivid, page-turning, sexy thrill ride from the imagination of James J. Caterino, the author of Super Hornet 1942, The Mesomorph, the Green Girl, and Rollercoaster.

    My seven-year-old son shaking me awake. My head fuzzy with sleeping pills. The hallway flashing with blue light. This morning my life will change forever.Alex Kendrew is juggling single parenthood, work and dating; with a wild, impetuous streak that’s hard to keep in check, she struggles to find a balance and feels perpetually guilty for the choices she makes.In K.A. Masson’s domestic noir thriller, Alex begins a passionate affair when an old flame gets in touch. But one morning, the police arrest her for his attempted murder. Someone is framing her; can she prove her innocence as the evidence mounts against her?

    Griffu is soon ensnared in a deadly web of sexual betrayal, real estate fraud, and murder. In West Coast Blues, a young sales executive goes to the aid of an accident victim, and finds himself sucked into a spiral of violence involving an exiled war criminal and two hired assassins. This volume also offers a bonus, 21-page unfinished story by Manchette and Tardi, as well as a single page introduction to another incomplete story, both appearing in English for the first time.

    Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.Brand-new stories by: Oto Oltvanji, Misha Glenny, Kati Hiekkapelto, Vesna Goldsworthy, Mirjana Đurđević, Vladan Matijević, Muharem Bazdulj, Vladimir Arsenijević, Dejan Stojiljković, Miljenko Jergović, Aleksandar Gatalica, Vule Žurić, Verica Vincent Cole, and Goran Skrobonja.From the introduction by Milorad Ivanović:It was summer 1997, two years after the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, and two years before the war in Kosovo and NATO’s bombardment of Belgrade. Serbia was under sanctions and life was difficult. I had been working as a journalist for two short months when my editor sent me to cover the suicide of a famous Serbian painter. The crime scene was terrifying--in front of the elevator lay the body of the artist covered in blood. In one hand, he held a plastic bag containing the bread and milk he had purchased just a few minutes before in a nearby supermarket, and in the other he gripped a pistol that was still pressed against his forehead. Neighbors told us that just a few moments before he had sat in a kafana, drinking šljivovica. As I continued documenting the scene, a brand-new red Mazda pulled up and parked in front of the building. Two neat, clean-shaven, dangerous-looking men in very expensive suits exited the car, approached the policemen conducting the investigation, and showed their Serbian secret service IDs.“Keep doing your job, we’re here on other business,” they said. The police officers stepped aside, allowing the men to enter the building. A few minutes later the agents reemerged accompanied by one of, at the time, the biggest stars of turbo-folk music. Dressed in a luxurious coat, and caked in makeup, her high heels elegantly stepped through the blood pooled in front of the elevator. She paid no attention to the macabre scene accented by the fresh dead body lying in front of her as she entered the red Mazda.If you read the previous paragraphs, and you fully comprehended them—recognized turbo-folk, reminisced about your favorite kafana, recalled the sort of sanctions Serbia lived under, and remembered why one European capital was bombed in 1999—then you will find it easy to understand the fourteen short noir stories in this anthology. If you did not, this will be a great opportunity to learn about and understand the city that Momo Kapor, one of the most famous Serbian authors, described as “a low-budget New York.”

    Perfect for fans of Lovecraft and noir!

    Unable to trust the authorities, Jones and his colleagues at The Washington Street have mere days to unravel JANUS's secrets.Enter The Whisper, a mysterious vigilante who saves Jones's life before throwing him further into danger. Using futuristic devices to walk through walls and turn invisible, the Whisper can go anywhere and inform on anyone. Nevertheless, Jones never knows when he can count on the Whisper's assistance, or whose side the Whisper is on. As the clock runs out, Jones finds himself homeless, penniless, and on the run from the police, the NSA, and the FBI. While JANUS and the Whisper do battle using impossible weapons of tomorrow, Jones must somehow uncover a conspiracy, prevent a murder, and survive long enough to let the truth be known.

    Drawing on a wealth of journalistic sources, Smoodin recounts the ways films moved through the city, the favored stars, and what it was like to go to the movies in a city with hundreds of cinemas. In a single week in the early 1930s, moviegoers might see Hollywood features like King Kong and Frankenstein, the new Marlene Dietrich and Maurice Chevalier movies, and any number of films from Italy, Germany, and Russia. Or they could frequent the city's ciné-clubs, which were hosts to the cinéphile subcultures of Paris. At other times, a night at the movies might result in an evening of fascist violence, even before the German Occupation of Paris, while after the war the city's cinemas formed the space for reconsolidating French film culture. In mapping the cinematic geography of Paris, Smoodin expands understandings of local film exhibition and the relationships of movies to urban space.