Red dress, black hair, body like a knife. He takes her back to his room and wakes the next morning in a bathtub full of blood and ice, missing a kidney.Dragging himself from a hospital bed, Phineas discovers he wants to be with Jude like a hunger -- and he wants to find her and kill her. Falling for her is the start of a twisted love story that takes him from the snowy streets of Denver to the high plains of Texas where the boundaries between torturer and victim, killer and accomplice, become nightmarishly distorted.

    A prequel and sequel to the 1933 novel that introduced King Kong blends the talents of a renowned fantasy artist with those of a top science fiction writer to create a worthy and long-awaited successor to the Depression-era fantasy that spawned numerous feature-length films.

    Meanwhile, an L.A. playboy beds a gorgeous redhead and wakes up with a psychopath trying to kill him. Neither Val nor Kilo know it yet, but they are on a collision course with a sexy marine biologist and one lethally dysfunctional family in this "dark, comic tour de force" (James Ellroy).

    Reeling from shock, Lang realizes all of her perfect arrangements (from the caramel cake in the freezer for his first Christmas without her to love letters for his first anniversary alone) are in utter disarray. A mute stray dog posts itself on her front porch and a grammar-butchering fashion plate posts herself in Lang's kitchen, regularly revealing too much information. Lillian, Lang's long-lost mother, reappears for the funeral and is as obnoxious as ever. Her son, Teddy, has his own ideas of how she should manage her life, and they don't include cavorting about with a veterinarian who resembles Wimpy. Lang's granddaughter is a bright spot in her life, and Lang can't imagine life without her.With her historical family estate in jeopardy, Lang discovers her husband wasn't as perfect as she thought. Is she strong enough to keep her husband's secret from destroying her life?

    She was never successful in this, but her Chandler-influenced novel No Good From a Corpse was so impressive in its hard-boiled dialogue that Howard Hawks insisted its author, unseen, be brought in to work on the screenplay adaption of The Big Sleep (together with a fella by the name of Faulkner.) Though Hawks was stunned to discover that Leigh was a woman, she got the job, and worked on what was probably the best film adaptation of a Chandler novel. No Good From a Corpse offers hard-boiled private eye Ed Clive, who gets involved with a dead girl, and suspects every one of her boyfriends--an ex-husband, a playboy, a blackmailer and a brute. There's a woman suspect as well, and a long chase through Sunset Strip.

    There they will confront madness, murder, and the ultimate evil so that their billionaire host might find the key to life beyond the grave. But as they learn, dead souls dwell in The Pines. And death is just the beginning...

    

    But when Lady Clifton dies soon after giving birth, Sir George hands the child over to be brought up on Beeswing Farm. John Hoverton and Laurie Clifton are raised as brothers.

    They resorted to dacoity and theft in nearby localities for their living. They hardly ever dreamt of stable life.

    After being kicked out of a Catholic orphanage when it is discovered that he is of Jewish descent, a confused and deeply distraught Frankie turns to a life of crime, the only life he knows, and he’s good at it. Frankie quickly makes a name for himself and becomes one of New York’s most dangerous men, ruling the city with an iron fist and indulging in his passion for sex, power and the best things life has to offer—regardless of whether they’re for sale.In Stiletto, Cesare Cardinale is an amoral, aristocratic Italian playboy—an entrepreneur and race car driver who wants for nothing—whether it’s fast cars, beautiful women, or orgies of debauchery. Cesare, however, has two dirty secrets: First, he has a penchant for violence that borders on the sadistic and sociopathic; second, he owes his extravagant life to a Sicilian Mafia don, creating a seemingly perfect relationship—as he leads a double life as a Mafia assassin.“Robbins’s books are packed with action, sustained by strong narrative drive, and are given vitality by his own colorful life.” —The Wall Street JournalThe Harold Robbins Organized Crime Double includes: Never Love A Stranger and Stiletto.

    When an informant reveals the crook is planning to get hitched at a certain Vegas wedding chapel, Steve sees an opportunity to get his man. But he didn't expect the undercover assignment to include being the Elvis impersonator... or that the wedding director Gracie would make him want to practice his hip moves.Gracie Sergeant is tired of coordinating ceremonies for other couples--she wants her own dream wedding. Her new coworker Steve is a hunk of burning love, but there's something off about him, something she can't quite put her finger on... although she'd like to!A romantic comedy to brighten your day!(Note: This story was original released in 2005; Stephanie has updated and revamped the story, adding 10,000 words for this modern re-release!)

    But when for the first time in Doc's long criminal career, his shot doesn't hit the mark, everything begins to fall apart. And Doc begins to realize that the perfect bank robbery isn't complete without the perfect getaway to back it up.THE GETAWAY is the classic story of a bank robbery gone horribly wrong, where the smallest mistakes have catastrophic consequences, and shifting loyalties lead to betrayals and chaos. The basis for the classic Steve McQueen film of the same name, as well as a 1994 remake with Alec Baldwin, Thompson's novel set the bar for every heist story that followed--but as Thompson's proved time and again, nobody's ever done it better than the master.

    The author of the award-winning Blue Angel now offers the trenchant, bitingly funny adventures of a Haitian au pair in an eccentric upper-class Hudson Valley household.

    And The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death is the type of story–swift, twisted, hilarious, somehow hopeful—that only he could dream up.The fact is, whether it’s a dog hit by a train or an old lady who had a heart attack on the can, someone has to clean up the nasty mess. And that someone is Webster Fillmore Goodhue, who just may be the least likely person in Los Angeles County to hold down such a gig. With his teaching career derailed by tragedy, Web hasn’t done much for the last year except some heavy slacking. But when his only friend in the world lets him know that his freeloading days are over, and he tires of taking cash from his spaced-out mom and refuses to take any more from his embittered father, Web joins Clean Team—and soon finds himself sponging a Malibu suicide’s brains from a bathroom mirror, and flirting with the man’s bereaved and beautiful daughter.Then things get weird: The dead man’s daughter asks a favor. Her brother’s in need of somebody who can clean up a mess. Every cell in Web’s brain tells him to turn her down, but something else makes him hit the Harbor Freeway at midnight to help her however he can. Is it her laugh? Her desperate tone of voice? The chance that this might be history’s strangest booty call? Whatever it is, soon enough it’s Web who needs the help when gun-toting California cowboys start showing up on his doorstep. What’s the deal? Is it something to do with what he cleaned up in that motel room in Carson? Or is it all about the brewing war between rival trauma cleaners? Web doesn’t have a clue, but he’ll need to get one if he’s going to keep from getting his face kicked in. Again. And again. And again.Full of black humor, stunning violence, singular characters, and neon dialogue, The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death is classic Charlie Huston: a wild ride that’ll leave you breathless and shaken, grinning and begging for more.

    He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. This is the Code of the Private Eye as defined by Raymond Chandler in his 1944 essay 'The Simple Act of Murder.' Such a man was Philip Marlowe, private eye, an educated, heroic, streetwise, rugged individualist and the hero of Chandler's first novel, The Big Sleep. This work established Chandler as the master of the 'hard-boiled' detective novel, and his articulate and literary style of writing won him a large audience, which ranged from the man in the street to the most sophisticated intellectual.