. . Except he's not good at any of that. He's been in jail twice (and the state's got a bad attitude about seeing someone the third time); that bug he just felt crawling up his neck is most likely the first installment of the DTs; and Dumas recently delivered a fairly emphatic payment-due reminder: a couple of his goons busted two of Jeffty's fingers. The fact is, Jeffty's a loser, big as they come, and things aren't about to change up for him anytime soon: "I would've felt . . . near terminally depressed," he tells us as his story begins to unfold, "but I was so used to my life all I felt was content." Then he stumbles on salvation: a dirt-caked, street-hardened, exquisitely beautiful young homeless woman named Mona--Jeffty prefers to think of her as Angel--who inspires both his love and the idea for the perfect con. It's Jeffty's chance to hit it big, and to be set for good in his new life with his new love. "The thing about love," Jeffty declares, "is no matter how twisted, or wrong, or evil, it never dies." But as the momentum of the con carries him closer and closer to what he imagines will be a moment of blissed-out consummation with his angel Mona, Jeffty discovers there are some severe exceptions to his rule.Smart, edgy, caustically funny, Love Is a Racket puts John Ridley in a darkly comic league of his own.From the Hardcover edition.

    Taken from Little Tales of Misogyny, Highsmith's satirical, cultish short-story collection, these dark and often funny sketches reveal how your lover may not always have your best interests at heart...

    

    Over 1,000 pages of action and adventure from San Francisco’s top special agent. The Peyton Brooks, FBI series follows the career of Special Agent Peyton Brooks and her team, the Ghost Squad, as they tackle crimes around the world. This compilation includes titles: Zombies in the Delta, Mermaids in the Pacific, Werewolves in London, Vampires in Hollywood, and Mayan Gods in the Yucatan.