Book picks similar to
Brothers Keepers by Donald E. Westlake
hard-case-crime
fiction
mystery
humor
Wild Justice
Phillip Margolin - 2000
After five subsequent New York Times bestsellers, Margolin now returns to the haunting terrain of Gone, but Not Forgotten with a mesmerizing tour de force of psychological suspense, an electrifying tale of revenge and retribution that shows a master storyteller at the very peak of his craft.Thursday: Subject is still combative after four days of applied pain, sleep deprivation and minimal food.Vice squad detective Bobby Vasquez, for months on the trail of a slippery underworld figure, receives an anonymous tip that directs him to a mountain cabin. He races through the idyllic Oregon woods, expecting to close the book on a long-standing vendetta. What he finds instead opens a Pandora's box of horror that will haunt him to his dying day.8:10: Subject bound and gaffed and placed in upstairs closet at end of hall. Turned out lights in house, drove off, then parked and doubled back. Watched from woods.Within hours, Vincent Cordoni -- a brilliant surgeon with a history of violence and drug abuse -- is arrested for a heinous crime. Facing a seemingly insurmountable wall of evidence, he turns to Portland's top criminal defense attorney, Frank Jaffe-who, along with his ambitious daughter, Amanda, must put on an inspired defense. Amanda's first taste of criminal defense work is as intoxicating as it is chilling, but it raises moral questions she's loath to address. Is she defending an innocent man? Or is she using her considerable skills to set a monster free? Then Cardoni disappears under bizarre circumstances. Four years later, a second set of murders has begun ....8:55: Subject exits house, naked and barefoot, armed with kitchen knife. Remarkable strength of character. Breaking her will be a challenge.Has Cardoni resurfaced to ply his deadly trade anew? Is there a copycat killer? Or has the real killer been someone else all along? The police will do everything they can to stop Cardoni -- but they have to find him first.Following a twisting trail of clues, including a harrowing diary that clinically records the killer's horrible deeds, Amanda Jaffe and Bobby Vasquez join the hunt-and themselves become targets of the twenty-first century's first genuinely monstrous psychopath.:
The Gun Seller
Hugh Laurie - 1996
Within hours Lang is butting heads with a Buddha statue, matching wits with evil billionaires, and putting his life (among other things) in the hands of a bevy of femmes fatales, whilst trying to save a beautiful lady ...and prevent an international bloodbath to boot.
The Peddler (Hard Case Crime #27)
Richard S. Prather - 1952
His territory: the brothels of San Francisco. But the path was littered with bodies and broken dreams - some of them his. 1952 under alias Douglas Ring. 1963 as self Richard S. Prather.
Losers Live Longer (Hard Case Crime #59)
Russell Atwood - 2009
The death of legendary private eye George Rowell looked like an accident; but searching for the truth behind it will put down-and-out East Village detective Payton Sherwood on the corpse-littered trail of a runaway investment scam artist, a drug-addicted reality TV star, and the bewitching beauty whose appearance set it all in motion...
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?
Baby Moll
Steve Brackeen - 1958
Stalked by a vicious killer and losing his hold on power, Mallorys old boss needs helpthe kind of help only a man like Mallory can provide. But behind the walls of the fenced-in island compound he once called home, Mallory is about to find himself surrounded by beautiful women, by temptation, and by dangerand one wrong step could trigger a bloodbath
Black Friday
James Patterson - 1986
Blue: Welcome to James Patterson's classic superthriller, Black Friday. A courageous federal agent, a powerful and resourceful woman lawyer - only they can possibly stop the unspeakable from happening. New York City is under siege by a secret militia group - and that's just the beginning of the relentless terror of Black Friday.
I love to lose myself in a thriller — especially the rare one that moves along like an out-of-control freight train. The thriller that actually got me started writing was The Day of the Jackal.
With Black Friday, I wanted to concoct a shamelessly manipulative story that the reader couldn't wait to finish, but didn't want to end. Now get on this freight train!--- James PattersonOriginally published in 1987 as Black Market, also by James Patterson.
Die for You
Lisa Unger - 2008
Then one ordinary morning, her husband, Marcus, picks up his briefcase, kisses her good-bye, and simply vanishes.That day, all her calls to him go straight to voice mail; the messages she leaves at his office go unreturned, too. Panicking after finally receiving a call from his cell phone in which all she can hear is a man's terrified cry, Isabel calls the police. But they aren't interested. Men leave, they tell her. They leave all the time. Desperate to find her husband, Isabel races to his office. But instead of finding him, she finds herself in the middle of an FBI raid. Hours later, she awakens in the hospital with a severe concussion and a homicide detective by her bedside waiting to question her about Marcus Raine-the real Marcus Raine.Now the only thing Isabel knows for sure is that her husband of five years is gone. Where is he and who is he are questions no one seems able to answer. But Isabel will not rest until she discovers the truth about the man she loves, even if it means risking everything--including her own life.New York Times bestselling master of suspense Lisa Unger takes us on a nightmarish journey from bustling, glamorous New York City to the twisted streets of Prague, seeking an answer to one bone-chilling question: What if the man you love, the one sleeping beside you, is a stranger?
The Nice Guys: The Official Movie Novelization
Charles Ardai - 2016
Jackson Healy is the tough guy who put him in a cast. Not the two most likely men to team up to hunt for a missing girl, or look into the suspicious death of a beautiful porn star, or go up against a conspiracy of the rich and powerful that stretches from Detroit to D.C. Hell, they’re not the most likely pair to team up to do anything. But there you go. And if they somehow survive this case, they might just find they like each other.But let’s be honest. They probably won’t survive it. Copyright © 2016 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.THE NICE GUYS and all related characters and elements © Silver Pictures Entertainment.WB SHIELD: ™ & © WBEI. (s16)
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
Driving Force
Dick Francis - 1992
Transporting racehorses is big business for ex-jockey Freddie Croft. But when one of his drivers breaks a cardinal rule--never pick up a hitchhiker--the results are fatal. Now strange nighttime stalkers and unseen conspirators are weaving a web of deceit and danger that Freddie might never escape.
Say It With Bullets
Richard Powell - 1953
Leaving a trail of bodies in his wake, Bill Wayne journeys across the West to discover which one of his former army buddies shot him in the back and left him for dead.
Getting Off
Jill Emerson - 2011
She goes to bed with him, and she likes that part. Then she kills him, and she likes that even better. On her way out, she cleans out his wallet. She keeps moving, and has a new name for each change of address. She's been doing this for a while, and she's good at it.And then a chance remark gets her thinking of the men who got away, the lucky ones who survived a night with her. She starts writing down names. And now she's a girl with a mission. Picking up their trails. Hunting them down. Crossing them off her list...
A Killing in Comics
Max Allan Collins - 2007
Manhattan, 1948. America's most famous exstriptease artist, glamorous Maggie Starr, now runs her late husband's newspaper syndicate, distributing the Wonder Guy comic strip. Wonder Guy, soaring superhero, represents all that is good about postwar America. But when the cartoon character's publisher winds up dead, Maggie finds herself working with her stepson Jack Starr (also her V.P. and chief troubleshooter) to find a killer among cartoonists, wives, mistresses and minions of a different sort of "syndicate"-suspects with motives that are anything but superheroic.