Editorial Content for What It Was
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
I was going to start this review with the words “I don’t think anyone is writing crime fiction with quite the style and authority of George Pelecanos.” I changed my mind. One cannot limit the magic that Pelecanos works to crime fiction, as wonderful, deep and wide as that genre may be. His considerable talent has been exhibited over the last several years in novels, television and film while winning a number of awards for his efforts along the way. Read More
Teaser
In 1972, Derek Strange has left the police department and set up shop as a PI. His former partner, Frank "Hound Dog" Vaughn, is still on the force. When a young woman comes to Strange asking for his help recovering a cheap ring she claims has sentimental value, the case leads him onto Vaughn's turf, where a local drug addict has been murdered, shot point-blank in his apartment.
Promo
In 1972, Derek Strange has left the police department and set up shop as a PI. His former partner, Frank "Hound Dog" Vaughn, is still on the force. When a young woman comes to Strange asking for his help recovering a cheap ring she claims has sentimental value, the case leads him onto Vaughn's turf, where a local drug addict has been murdered, shot point-blank in his apartment.
About the Book
Washington, D.C., 1972. Derek Strange has left the police department and set up shop as a private investigator. His former partner, Frank "Hound Dog" Vaughn, is still on the force. When a young woman comes to Strange asking for his help recovering a cheap ring she claims has sentimental value, the case leads him onto Vaughn's turf, where a local drug addict's been murdered, shot point-blank in his apartment. Soon both men are on the trail of a ruthless killer: Red Fury, so called for his looks and the car his girlfriend drives, but a name that fits his personality all too well. Red Fury doesn't have a retirement plan, as Vaughn points out --- he doesn't care who he has to cross, or kill, to get what he wants. As the violence escalates and the stakes get higher, Strange and Vaughn know the only way to catch their man is to do it their own way.
Rich with details of place and time --- the cars, the music, the clothes --- and fueled by non-stop action, this is Pelecanos writing in the hard-boiled noir style that won him his earliest fans and placed him firmly in the ranks of the top crime writers in America.
Editorial Content for The Comedy Is Finished
Reviewer (text)
The first title released by Hard Case Crime in 2012 is a true literary find and masterpiece: the last unpublished novel by the three-time winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award and Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, Donald E. Westlake. THE COMEDY IS FINISHED is a brilliant work of nonstop suspense and richly developed characters. What is hard to believe is that it was sitting around unpublished for over three decades before the author’s untimely death on New Year’s Eve 2009. Read More
Teaser
In Donald E. Westlake's final unpublished novel, the year is 1977, and an aging, legendary Hollywood comedian is kidnapped by a revolutionary cell desperately trying to reignite the 1960s. The tension builds as the comedian struggles to survive, but nothing in this noir tale is as simple as it seems.
Promo
In Donald E. Westlake's final unpublished novel, the year is 1977, and an aging, legendary Hollywood comedian is kidnapped by a revolutionary cell desperately trying to reignite the 1960s. The tension builds as the comedian struggles to survive, but nothing in this noir tale is as simple as it seems.
About the Book
The year is 1977, and America is finally getting over the nightmares of Watergate and Vietnam and the national hangover that was the 1960s. But not everyone is ready to let it go.
Not aging comedian Koo Davis, friend to generals and presidents and veteran of countless USO tours to buck up American troops in the field. And not the five remaining members of the self-proclaimed People's Revolutionary Army, who've decided that kidnapping Koo Davis would be the perfect way to bring their cause back to life...
The final, previously unpublished novel from the legendary Donald Westlake!
Editorial Content for Blue Monday
Book
Reviewer (text)
Up until yesterday, I have always associated the term “Blue Monday” with the song popularized by Fats Domino. Given that that particular tune was released when I was in kindergarten, which was, uh, a few years ago, you can understand that it would take something of great magnitude to shake that association loose. That event has occurred. It is the publication of the novel BLUE MONDAY by Nicci French. Read More
Teaser
The abduction of a five-year-old provokes a national outcry and a desperate police hunt. When his face is splashed over the newspapers, psychotherapist Frieda Klein can’t ignore the coincidence: one of her patients has been having dreams in which he has a hunger for a child.
Promo
The abduction of a five-year-old provokes a national outcry and a desperate police hunt. When his face is splashed over the newspapers, psychotherapist Frieda Klein can’t ignore the coincidence: one of her patients has been having dreams in which he has a hunger for a child.
About the Book
The stunning first book in a new series of psychological thrillers introducing an unforgettable London psychotherapist
Frieda Klein is a solitary, incisive psychotherapist who spends her sleepless nights walking along the ancient rivers that have been forced underground in modern London. She believes that the world is a messy, uncontrollable place, but what we can control is what is inside our heads. This attitude is reflected in her own life, which is an austere one of refuge, personal integrity, and order.
The abduction of five-year-old Matthew Farraday provokes a national outcry and a desperate police hunt. And when his face is splashed over the newspapers, Frieda cannot ignore the coincidence: one of her patients has been having dreams in which he has a hunger for a child. A red-haired child he can describe in perfect detail, a child the spitting image of Matthew. She finds herself in the center of the investigation, serving as the reluctant sidekick of the chief inspector.
Drawing readers into a haunting world in which the terrors of the mind have spilled over into real life, BLUE MONDAY introduces a compelling protagonist and a chilling mystery that will appeal to readers of dark crime fiction and fans of IN TREATMENT and THE KILLING.
