Book picks similar to
Liz / Syndicate Girl by Frank Kane


noir
two-fers-blue-fers
beat-other
crime-fiction-all

Thunder Storme (Wyatt Storme Mystery #5)


W.L. Ripley - 2020
    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.

You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up


Eric Knight - 1938
    When Dick commits one crime and plans another, the police arrest him for a crime he actually did not commit. Dick attempts to reconcile with his family and find his way out of LA’s seedy underworld. You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up was a bestseller when originally published in 1938 and is a noir classic.

Curse of the Phoenix (The Arcane Irregulars Book 1)


Dan Willis - 2021
    When one of his officers calls him out to an unusual crime scene, Danny realizes that it’s terrifyingly similar to something the department thought was dead and buried. Now he has to find a madman before the story hits the papers and the city explodes into chaos.Across town, Agent William “Buddy” Redhorn of the FBI has two problems. He’s been assigned a potentially career-ending case with magical ties, and his sorceress boss is out of town. The case involves a stolen statue that belongs to the government of Brunei, but the more he chases the thieves, the more bodies begin to drop. Bodies affected by a strange, unknown magic.Resolving to work together, Danny and Redhorn have to catch a cold-blooded killer, recover a stolen artifact, all while keeping everything out of the press. If they don’t, it will be more than their careers that will die when the curse of the Jade Phoenix descends on New York. Important Note: Curse of the Phoenix takes place in the Arcane Casebook universe. If you haven't read any of those, you might want to start there.

Down Among the Jocks (Hardman Book 5)


Ralph Dennis - 1974
    They're back in the fifth adventure in the beloved and acclaimed series that influenced generations of crime writers. Retired pro football star Ed Cross did most of his scoring between bed posts with other player's women, including Hump's ex-girlfriend. That was bad enough. But, just to rub it in, Cross sends Hump an x-rated birthday skin flick of him celebrating in bed with two women. Hump goes looking for blood... and finds it. Cross is murdered and Hump becomes the prime suspect. Hardman works to clear Hump and discovers there's plenty of murderous hate for Cross out there...from the top of the sports world to the pits of Atlanta's illegal gambling scene... and revealing it could get them both killed. This new edition includes an Afterword from Ben Jones, the Dukes of Hazzard actor and former U.S. Congressman from Georgia. PRAISE FOR THE HARDMAN NOVELS "Like Chandler and Hammett before him, Dennis was trying to do something different with what was thought of as throwaway literature.” Joe R. Lansdale, New York Times bestselling author of the Hap & Leonard series “The Hardman books are by far the best of the men’s action-adventure series.” Mother Jones Magazine “Among the best series books around.” Philadelphia Daily News

The Harry Palmer Quartet


Len Deighton - 2013
    When Len Deighton wrote THE IPCRESS FILE, HORSE UNDER WATER, FUNERAL IN BERLIN and BILLION-DOLLAR BRAIN he not only reinvented spy fiction, but he created a style icon and literary legend: ‘Harry Palmer’. The nameless, working-class spy of the books was given a face and identity when he was played by Michael Caine in three classic films. Since then both the books and the character have become international icons. Now it’s your chance to delve into the mysteries of the four ‘Secret Files’ as Harry Palmer investigates conspiracies, secret experiments and even a deadly virus, with all the cockiness and dry wit a reluctant spy can muster.

Jack O' Judgement


Edgar Wallace - 1920
    We are carried, spell-bound, through every page of what can justly be described as one of the late Edgar Wallace's best and most exciting thrillers.

The New Yorker


NOT A BOOK - 1925
    The New Yorker offers a signature mix of reporting and commentary on politics, international affairs, and the arts, along with fiction, poetry, humor, and cartoons. Founded in 1925, The New Yorker has received more National Magazine Awards than any other magazine. Notable work in recent years includes coverage of the war on terror by George Packer, Jane Mayer, Lawrence Wright, Steve Coll, and Seymour M. Hersh; reports from the front lines of the Middle East by Jon Lee Anderson, Dexter Filkins, and Wendell Steavenson; Malcolm Gladwell on "the tipping point"; Anthony Lane on movies; James Wood on books; Elizabeth Kolbert on the environment; Atul Gawande on health care; fiction by Jonathan Franzen, Edwidge Danticat, Zadie Smith, and Haruki Murakami; humor by David Sedaris and Andy Borowitz; and cartoons by Roz Chast.

The One That Got Away


Joe Clifford - 2018
    Only one girl survived: Alex Salerno. The killer, Ken Parsons, was sent away. Life returned to normal. No more girls would have to die. Until another one did.It’s been twelve years since Kira Shanks was reported missing and presumed dead. Alex Salerno has been living in New York City, piecemealing paychecks to earn a livable wage, trying to forget those three days locked underground and her affair with Sean Riley, the married detective who rescued her. When Noah Lee, hometown reporter with a journalistic pedigree, requests an interview, Alex returns to Reine and Riley, reopening old wounds. What begins as a Q&A for a newspaper article soon turns into an opportunity for money, closure and—justice. The disappearance of Kira Shanks has long been hung on Benny Brudzienski, a hulking man-child who is currently a brain-addled guest at the Galloway State Mental Hospital. But after Alex reconnects with ex-classmates and frenemies, doubts are cast on that guilt. Alex is drawn into a dangerous game of show and tell in an insular town where everyone has a secret to hide. And as more details emerge about the night Kira Shanks went missing, Alex discovers there are some willing to kill to protect the horrific truth.In the modern vein of Girl on the Train and The Bone Collector, The One That Got Away is a dark, psychological thriller, featuring a compelling, conflicted heroine and a page-turning narrative that races toward its final, shocking conclusion.

Ghalib Danger


Neeraj Pandey - 2013
    What seems like a good deed however has a cruel payback andin a single moment, Kamran loses everything dear to him. This is whenMirza, in gratitude, takes Kamran under his wing and the young man getsdrawn into the mafia boss’s dangerous world of cops and rival gangsters,eventually taking over from him.Kamran also inherits Mirza’s philosophy that all of life’s problems can besolved through Ghalib¹s poetry.Soon, the innocent taxi driver has cops, criminals and even cabinetministers at his beck and call.And he has a new name—Ghalib Danger.

The Tightrope Men / The Enemy


Desmond Bagley - 2009
    But it is only the beginning of a hair-raising adventure in which Denison finds himself trapped with no way to escape. One false move and the whole delicately balanced power structure between East and West will come toppling down…THE ENEMYWealthy, respectable George Ashton flees for his life after an acid attack on his daughter. Who is his enemy? Only Malcolm Jaggard, his future son-in-law, can guess, after seeing Ashton's top secret government file. In a desperate manhunt, Jaggard pits himself against the KGB and stalks Ashton to the silent, wintry forests of Sweden. But his search for the enemy has barely begun…Includes a unique bonus - Desmond Bagley's pen portrait, written for the original publication of The Tightrope Men.

Just Like That


Les Edgerton - 2011
    The scenes in Pendleton are also based on true experiences he had while incarcerated. Approximately 85% of the novel is taken from real life. Jake and his pal Bud's journey begins six months after he is released on parole and is occasioned when his girlfriend Donna dumps him and aborts their child. After an aborted suicide attempt where the Norelco shaver cord he used to hang himself broke, on an impulse-the source of the title; everything in Jake's life happens "just like that"-he calls up Bud, who lives by the same credo, and the two take off with no particular destination in mind. They're just going "south"--somewhere where it's warm. An hour before they leave, Jake on another impulse, holds up a convenience store to get some traveling money. Ultimately, they end up in New Orleans and then Lake Charles, Louisiana and from there, back to Indiana. Along the way are many "watercooler" moments, such as when an inmate sinks a meat cleaver into another inmate's blue-clad stomach, a physical encounter with two rednecks in Kentucky where Bud shoots one of the men, the bullet bouncing harmlessly off the man's thick skull, Jake's ongoing romance with Donna, the funeral of Jake's father which he attends with a whore, multiple burglaries, armed robberies, a brief affair with a black woman, and an adventure with a drunk Santa Claus. Near the end Jake takes another fall when he is caught burglarizing a bar back in Ft. Wayne, Indiana and gets shot in the leg and is returned to Pendleton where he kills the inmate he'd had a nasty encounter during his first stay in prison. In the process, Jake's philosophy of life undergoes a sea change and he comes up with this: Portions of JUST LIKE THAT have previously appeared as short stories in the literary magazines High Plains Literary Review, Murdaland, and Flatmancrooked. The story that appeared in High Plains was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was selected for inclusion in Houghton-Mifflin's "Best American Mystery Stories, 2001." As a note of possible interest, Cathy Johns, the P.R. Director and Assistant Warden of The Farm (the infamous Louisiana state prison at Angola) read this novel and told Edgerton that he'd captured the true spirit of the criminal mind better than anything she'd ever read.

No House Limit (Hard Case Crime #45)


Steve Fisher - 1958
    Casino owner Joe Martin faces down a Syndicate-backed gambler in a marathon craps game, with millions of dollarsand possibly even his lifeat stake.

Witness to Myself (Hard Case Crime #19)


Seymour Shubin - 2006
    When he was a teenager, his family rented a camper for a few weeks during a summer vacation and traveled to Cape Cod. During that brief stay on a quiet stretch of sandy beach, Alan -- whose adolescent life was characterized by "bewilderment and self-loathing" -- stumbled across a young girl trying to get a kite out of a tree. But instead of helping the girl, he sexually assaulted her. When the girl started screaming, he panicked and silenced her with an act of violence. He ran back to his family's camper, and they eventually returned home as if nothing had happened. Now Alan is assailed by guilt: Did he kill the girl or not? He has to know More than a half century after Shubin's crime fiction classic Anyone's My Name (1953), this novel takes a decidedly restrained look at pulp mystery. The brutal sexual crime -- which is the linchpin for the whole story -- is quickly glossed over in a few paragraphs and hardly ever mentioned again. As a result, the story line loses much of its knuckles-to-jawbone intensity, and instead of developing into an adrenaline-fueled whodunit, Witness to Myself becomes more of a psychological study in guilt, paranoia, and, ultimately, redemption -- a rare bullet-free Hard Case Crime release that is as melancholic as it is disturbing. Paul Goat Allen

Making Her Bones (Stephanie Chalice Thrillers Book 8)


Lawrence Kelter - 2021
    

Bye Bye Baby


Allan Guthrie - 2010
    not a word is wasted." -- Ian RankinAn Amazon top ten bestseller with sales of over 50,000 copies, BYE BYE BABY is a short novella that packs a big punch.When a seven-year-old boy disappears after school, the case is handed to Detective Frank Collins. He's been looking to lead a high-profile case for a while, and sets out determined to prove his worth. But the missing schoolboy is only a trigger for another crime. Someone is intent on exploiting the boy's grief-stricken mother. And they have plans for Frank Collins too.Praise for BYE BYE BABY"A terrific read and a great premise from an excellent writer." -- Stuart MacBride"The approach is so fresh that it makes the whole thing feel like the first time I've read a police story." -- Do Some Damage"a purely original, funny, sharp piece of writing. It has a plot that develops in an unorthodox, non-linear fashion -- hardly resembling many of the police procedurals I've read. It's often noted that Guthrie is one of the top working mystery writers, and he certainly lives up to that reputation ..." -- Death By Killing"A story that moves quickly, in short chapters of crisp prose, with plenty of plot turns to hold the attention, and characters you can love and others you can hate... Like Guthrie's full-length novels, Bye Bye Baby is sly, noir as all hell (more noir than some, actually), and it just might bring a tear of pity to your eyes. It's a police procedural filled with incident and back story, and man, what an ending." -- Detectives Beyond Borders"a dark, clever, funny and sad story which races along to reach a smart conclusion. A tough and lovely slice of the hard side of life." -- You Would Say That, Wouldn't You?Praise for SLAMMER"SLAMMER is the most relentlessly page-turning novel this reviewer has come across in a long, long time, but Guthrie does so much more than just throw visceral action and sharp banter at the reader, teasing and cajoling us with red herrings and subtle foreshadowing, delving deep inside a mind that is quickly unravelling into psychotic madness. At SLAMMER's core is a surprisingly subtle examination of what it means to be good or evil, and how easily that distinction can become blurred. Guthrie creates empathy for all his characters -- there are no faceless monsters here -- and in portraying the prisoners and their guards as two sides of the same human coin, he nails a universal truth about the nature of life and about the way we differentiate good and bad, sanity and madness." -- The Scotsman"This is Guthrie's masterpiece to date, grim and brutal in tone, cunning in design and flawless in the telling. Guthrie keeps the numerous plot turns both exciting and believable. There is a surprise twist in the middle of the novel that stuns the reader and makes the pace even faster ... SLAMMER is not only artful, it's real art." -- Bookgasm"an absolute masterpiece, really should be at the top of everyone's "must-read" list" -- Eurocrime"Guthrie's prose is a series of short, sharp shocks, reeking of the visceral brutality of the toughest contemporary noir ... those who enjoy the darker side of the genre are in for some serious thrills." -- The GuardianABOUT THE AUTHORAllan Guthrie is an award-winning Scottish crime writer. His debut novel, TWO-WAY SPLIT, was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger award and went on to win the Theakston's Crime Novel Of The Year.