But that's the life she was trapped in - until she met Jack.Now Shirley and Jack have a plan to put the old man out of his misery and walk away with a suitcase full of cash. But there's nothing like money to come between lovers – money, and other women...

    One of them had slain a helpless man to hide the secret of his identity. And he was quite prepared to kill the girl if she tried to double-cross him. But he’d reckoned without that terrible accident — and he was totally unprepared for the insane murderer who made death a ritual with a silver-handled knife.

    Ex-marine Jimmy Boone-former bodyguard to Los Angeles's rich and famous-is fresh out of Corcoran, on parole, and trying to keep his nose clean until he figures out his next move. He has a job tending bar on Hollywood Boulevard, serving drinks to tourists, and is determined to put the past behind him. But trying to do the right thing has always been Boone's downfall. When he backs up a buddy on a hero-for-hire gig-looking into the mysterious death of a kid on a downtown bus-he once again finds himself in a world of trouble. As Boone learns more about the boy, an innocent who got involved with the wrong people, his investigation becomes a mission. Along the dangerous margins of Los Angeles, he encounters down-on-their-luck drug dealers, a vengeful stripper, a dog-fighting ring, a beautiful ex-cop, a vicious crime boss and his crew, and a fortune in counterfeit bills. Before long, Boone realizes that his quest to get at the truth about a ruthless murder may also turn out to be his last chance at redemption. "This Wicked World "is a knock-out blend of superb writing and breakneck storytelling that grabs you by the collar and makes it impossible to stop reading.

    But what if, instead of having been founded 50 books ago, Hard Case Crime had been founded 50 years ago, by a rascal out to make a quick buck off the popularity of pulp fiction? Such a fellow might make a few enemies – especially after publishing a supposed non-fiction account of a heist at a Mob-run nightclub, actually penned by an 18-year-old showgirl. With both the cops and the crooks after them, our heroes are about to learn that reading and writing pulp novels is a lot more fun than living them...

    Or the dead guy. Or the steamer trunk. Or the rag doll. If only he hadn’t found any of these things, everything might have been okay. But he had found them. All of them. Now Carson Halliday is on the run, trying his damnedest to keep one step ahead of a dangerous gang of outlaws and mad men. A run leading him from town to town in the dry wasteland of the southern New Mexico desert, over dark hills and dangerous plains, through shantytowns and city streets, and, most frightening of all, into the mysterious depths of the human heart."One of the best of the new breed of writers." —Joe R. Lansdale"A powerful and good writer." —Neil Gaiman"Trent Zelazny is the best hard-boiled noir writer of this generation!" —Sarah L. Covert, Editor of She Never Slept

    His prospects at the job are pretty miserable and, what’s more humiliating, his wife’s prospects at her job are pretty good. Richie knows he’s a good salesman, but he just can’t seem to land an account. And he’s starting to drink again. And worry about whether Paula’s seeing that old high school flame, or maybe someone new. It’s a little early, at thirty-four, for a mid-life crisis, but that’s pretty much what it feels like. And there’re those unwelcome memories of the neighborhood bully, Michael Rudnick and what he did to Richie when he was thirteen. Richie Segal’s feeling, well, abused.Just when Richie’s about as low as he can get, he runs into Rudnick on the street and knows exactly what he needs to do. And suddenly things seem to be going much better. That is until they get much, much worse. In the classic tradition of Jim Thompson and James M. Cain, Hard Feelings is novel that lets us into the mind of an ordinary guy capable of things that even he couldn’t have imagined.

    

    Time was he worked homicide in Houston’s Fifth Ward, but that was years ago. Nowadays he’s living a quieter life, running a little one-man operation in LaBorde, Texas. You might think a sleepy East Texas town wouldn’t rate its own PI, but there’s just about enough to keep Hanson going. Lawyers need things looked into; suspicious wives need their husbands tailed, and vice versa; ordinary folks get interested in things the cops don’t care to pursue. Today, it’s a missing persons case. Mildred “Babe” Craver’s not long for this earth, but she wants Hanson to find her son Tom, or find out what happened to him. He was a good-for-nothing jailbird, but he was her son after all. Problem is, Tom’s been missing for twenty-five years, so it’s a stone cold trail. Whatever Hanson finds out, it’s not likely to make anyone happy. Still, there’s something to be said for knowing.This 2012 novella revisits Marvin Hanson, decades after the events of Act of Love; fans of Lansdale’s Hap and Leonard series have also encountered him as the boys’ sometime-employer. At its core, A Bone Dead Sadness is a good old-fashioned locked room mystery, wrapped up in noir and tied with a Dixie-scented bow. It’s Lansdale.

    Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city.Brand-new stories by: Jane Hamilton, Reed Farrel Coleman, Valerie Laken, Matthew J. Prigge, Shauna Singh Baldwin, Vida Cross, Larry Watson, Frank Wheeler Jr., Derrick Harriell, Christi Clancy, James E. Causey, Mary Thorson, Nick Petrie, and Jennifer Morales.From the introduction by Tim Hennessy:Presently, Milwaukee is going through a renaissance—abandoned factories being converted to condos, craft breweries and distilleries pushing out corner taverns—yet at the same time it is among the most segregated and impoverished big cities in the country. The gentrification of neighborhoods outside of downtown bear the impact of twentieth-century redlining efforts, forcing residents out due to housing demand, adding fuel to the affordable-housing crisis. Such an environment and atmosphere make excellent fodder for noir fiction . . .The book you’re holding is the first of its kind—a short fiction collection about Milwaukee, by writers who’ve experienced life here. The crime/noir genre at its best can be one of the purest forms of social commentary. I’ve gathered contributors who can tell not just a fine story, but who can write about the struggles and resilience of the people who live here . . . I’m honored to compile a body of work that represents what I love, and fear, about Milwaukee. I love my city’s lack of pretension; its stubbornness and pride in the unpolished corners. I fear that my city faces an uncertain future—that as it becomes more divided it may push our best and brightest to find somewhere else to shine.

    As a Family Liaison Officer he is always the bearer of bad news - it is his job to tell the friends and family of victims the fate of their loved ones.But Tom is weighted down by crimes both old and new - haunted by the death of his best friend Dani, whose murder has never been solved.When a rare opportunity emerges for Tom to take the lead in a horrific murder investigation, he is determined to get justice for the victim. A young girl has been found in her own home, cut so badly - and so carefully - that she has bled to death, leaving a deliberate pool of blood in the shape of angel wings....

    It begins with a beautiful woman dead, murdered—Vassilia Caroline Baird, known to all simply as V. That’s where this extraordinary novel begins. But the story it tells begins years earlier, on a struggling farm in the shadow of the Great Depression and among the brawling "cat skinners" of Southern California, driving graders and bulldozers to tame the American West. And the story that unfolds, in the masterful hands of acclaimed author Oakley Hall, is a lyrical outpouring of hunger and grief, of jealousy and corruption, of raw sexual yearning and the tragedy of the destroyed lives it leaves in its wake. Unpublished for more than half a century, SO MANY DOORS is Hall’s masterpiece, an excoriating vision of human nature at its most brutal, and one of the most powerful books you will ever read.

    "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

    Released as one of a limited number of digital shorts released to celebrate the publication of Jeffrey Archer’s magnificent seventh short-story collection, Tell Tale.Taken from And Thereby Hangs A Tale, Jeffrey Archer’s sixth collection of short stories, High Heels is a fantastic short read featuring Archer’s trademark wit and deft plotting.Loss Adjuster Alan Penfold has a case he will never forget when a family owned shoe manufacturer burns to the ground. With no signs of arson it seems like an open-and-shut case. But Penfold becomes suspicious when the owner reacts calmly to the devastating loss of a business that has been in his family for generations. Penfold, with his wife’s help, vows to uncover the truth . . .

    

    Nobody wants Joe to hang around, not his ex-wife, his parents or his former colleagues. Meanwhile, local mafia don Manny Vassey is dying of cancer and keen to cut a deal with God. He’s thinking of singing to the DA if this will set him up for a better afterlife. And he knows stuff that will send Joe down again for a very long time.Set in the pressure cooker of a very small town, Small Crimes is an explosive thriller that brings the claustrophobic hell of Jim Thompson and James M. Cain right up to date.