Book picks similar to
The Guns of Heaven by Pete Hamill
hard-case-crime
fiction
mystery
crime
Two for the Money
Max Allan Collins - 1973
AFTER 16 YEARS ON THE RUN, WOULD NOLAN BURY THE HATCHET WITH THE MOB… OR WOULD THEY BURY HIM FIRST?They don’t come tougher than Nolan – but even a hardened professional thief can’t fight off the entire Chicago mafia. So when an old friend offers to broker a truce, Nolan accepts the terms. All he has to do is pull off one last heist – and trust the Mob not to double cross him.Fortunately, Nolan has a couple of things going for him: an uncanny knack for survival and an unmatched hunger for revenge…Books #1 and #2 in the Nolan series
Bust
Ken Bruen - 2006
When you hire someone to kill your wife, don’t hire a psychopath.2. Drano is not the best tool for getting rid of a dead body.3. Those locks on hotel room doors? Not very secure.4. A curly blond wig isn’t much of a disguise.5. Secrets can kill.
Fright
George Hopley - 1950
After strangling his blackmailing mistress on the day of his wedding, Prescott Marshall goes on the run with his new wifebut are the police on his trail?
The Wounded and the Slain
David Goodis - 1955
But in the slums of Kingston James found himself fighting for his life – while Cora found her own path to destruction, in the arms of another man. Available for the first time in more than 50 years, this lost novel by legendary pulp author David Goodis is a stunning, shocking tale of cruelty, danger, desperationâ�¦and the possibility of redemption.
False Negative (Hard Case Crime #107)
Joseph Koenig - 2012
The worst was bad enough to get him fired - but the best landed him a new job, penning lurid articles for Real Detective magazine, one of the last of the true-crime pulps. Only the case they've got him working on, involving a beauty pageant contestant found dead on an Atlantic City beach, is one some very powerful men would rather see covered up than covered. And if Adam keeps digging, he may find he's digging his own grave...
Kiss Her Goodbye (Hard Case Crime #8)
Allan Guthrie - 2005
When they don't pay it back, they get a visit from Joe Hope. — But now Joe's got troubles of his own. His teenage daughter's found dead, an apparent suicide. Then the police arrest him for murder. But for once, Joe's innocent--and with help from Scotland's hardest men (and one of Scotland's hardest women), he sets out to find who's framed him and deliver his own brutal brand of justice.
Grifter's Game
Lawrence Block - 1961
The first novel published by Block under his own name is now available in this complete, unabridged edition.
The Murderer Vine (Hard Case Crime #43)
Shepard Rifkin - 1970
They were never seen again. The father of one of the boys has hired New York private eye Joe Dunne to find the men responsible and kill them.
Passport To Peril
Robert B. Parker - 1951
— From the corridors and compartments of the Orient Express to the shadowy, ruined streets of Budapest -- which he saw firsthand as a foreign correspondent during World War II -- Parker takes you on a nightmare tour of a land where life is cheap, old hatreds run strong, and a couple of Americans can find themselves in more danger than they ever imagined. With all the immediacy of the wartime dispatches Parker filed from Turkey, Danzig, Warsaw, and Bucharest and all the authority of a man who himself spent three years crossing borders without a passport and narrowly avoiding arrest by the Gestapo, PASSPORT TO PERIL paints a heart-stopping picture of desperate men in a desperate time.
Lucky at Cards
Sheldon Lord - 1964
Together they hatch an ingenious scheme to get rid of her husband. But in life as in poker, the other player sometimes has an ace up his sleeve.
The Confession
Domenic Stansberry - 2004
But he’s also got a mistress. And when Jake’s mistress is found strangled to death with his necktie, it’s up to him to prove he didn’t do it. But how can he, when all the evidence says he did? Jake races to reveal the secret conspiracy against him. But with every step, the noose is tightening, and all of Jake’s resourcefulness may not be enough to save him?
The Cocktail Waitress
James M. Cain - 2012
At the job she encounters two men who take an interest in her, a handsome young schemer who makes her blood race and a wealthy but unwell older man who rewards her for her attentions with a $50,000 tip and an unconventional offer of marriage...
361
Donald E. Westlake - 1962
When Ray Kelly woke up in the hospital, it was a month later, he was missing an eye, and his father was dead. Then things started to get bad.From the mind of the incomparable Donald E. Westlake - Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster and Academy Award nominee for the screenplay of The Grifters - comes a devastating story of betrayal and revenge, an exploration of the limits of family loyalty and how far a man will go when everything he loves is taken from him.