Сью Графтон3.8 Она - женственная красавица с неженской профессией. С опасной профессией. Она - лучшая из частных детективов штата Калифорния. Штата хищниц-кинозвезд, акул-продюсеров, амбициозных режиссеров. Штата богатства и роскоши, изощренных интриг и закулисных войн.Это - ее новое дело. Дело, которое кажется абсолютно простым. Всего-то - отыскать то ли сбежавшую, то ли по каким-то причинам не подающую о себе вестей девушку. Однако неожиданно дело начинает набирать обороты - и становится лишь первым шагом в запутанном лабиринте преступлений. Преступлений опасных, изощренных и на первый взгляд не связанных между собой...
Роберт Браун Паркер4.3 Сильные мира сего сами себе творят законы и сами же их нарушают. Однако ничто не вечно, и существует определенная грань, за которую заходить нельзя. Ибо некоторых людей обижать крайне опасно…
Билл Пронзини0.0 An old grave opens a new case of murder. Recent murders are difficult but not unsolvable. This time Nameless is called upon to solve a murder that happened four decades ago. Called to do the impossible, he takes the case merely because the victim was a pulp writer. Nameless of course is a pulp fan. We follow Nameless in his quest of trying to quell the questions of a neurotic son determined to find out how his writer-father really died. Was it a suicide or murder?
"Pronzini makes people and events so real that you're living those explosive days of terror."
—Robert Ludlum
"Pronzini delivers breathtaking suspense"
—San Francisco Examiner
Эрл Эмерсон0.0 "Emerson is at the top of his game, and very few are better."
--Mostly Murder
As sole heir to his beloved granddaddy's fortune, noble and naive Lance Tyner wants to use the money for the good of mankind. But some not-so-good specimens of the species--including Lance's conniving father, sleazy brother, and spoiled sister--have much more selfish plans in mind.
Now Lance has vanished. And P.I. Thomas Black must follow his trail into the sad and scary places where the dregs of humanity struggle to stay alive--and where men like Lance and Black too often end up dead. . . .
"Emerson is carving his own special niche among a new generation of private eye writers."
--The Washington Post Book World
Эрл Эмерсон0.0 "Earl Emerson is one of the best of the new private eye writers."
--Chicago Sun-Times
Something made Melissa Nadisky flee her husband and their daughter. The note she left behind paints a picture of a woman haunted by a private hell. Now Thomas Black's friend, Kathy Birchfield, wants him to find Melissa--before she's consumed by her secret, terrifying demons.
Yet the straightforward missing persons case turns deadly when a killer starts silencing key witnesses in Black's investigation. But there's no turning back--especially after the sometimes-psychic Kathy tells him about her terrifying vision: a weeping little girl and a pit full of human bones. . . .
"Emerson is right up there with the best in the genre when it comes to bringing the elements of mystery to a rolling boil."
--Mostly Murder
Уоррен Мерфи0.0 Thomas Collins is a commercial real estate agent with an insatiable sexual appetite. He'd do unspeakable things with a snake, a friend confides, if only he could get that low. Normally, that'd just be Mrs. Collins's business, but Mr. Collins is a policyholder of the Garrison Fidelity Insurance Company. A policyholder who seems to have disappeared.
San Francisco, 1985. The Mission was run-down, bean sprouts were a punchline, and Devlin "Trace" Tracy was on vacation. Until Groucho called and actually said "please." Being an insurance investigator on retainer means making certain sacrifices, and if Trace has to interview all the winsome, willing women in Thomas Collins' little black book?
Well, duty calls.
This is the award-winning fourth entry in the Trace series of mystery/suspense novels.
Ed Gorman0.0 Jack Dwyer is a former cop who got the acting bug after he was cast in a local public safety commercial. He started acting lessons, quit his job, and applied for his private investigator’s license (in very nearly that order). He also took a security guard job to keep the wolves away. The novel opens with Dwyer on a riverside park murder site. He was called there by a panicked former girlfriend. A girlfriend who left him for another man, and a girlfriend Dwyer isn’t quite over.
The woman is nearly comatose when Dwyer arrives. She is distraught with grief and fear. The man who replaced Dwyer in her life is dead in the grass, and the gun that killed him is in her hand. The police arrive and everything fits neatly into a little package. No real investigation, other than into Jane Branigan—the girlfriend—and the case seems open and shut, but something about it bothers Dwyer. That something may be nothing more than his feelings for Jane, but Dwyer doesn’t think she did it.
New, Improved Murder is a seriously good private eye novel. Jack Dwyer is a likable, compassionate, sometimes self-doubting reluctant good guy, who tends to stand on the outside. He is working class top to bottom, and the world through his eyes is a harsh, troubled place, with just enough hope and romanticism to keep him from the maudlin.
The story is a straight shot. It is fast, dirty, and entertaining. The mystery is fine edged with enough clues for the reader to guess the killer, but nothing is in plain sight and it is doubtful most readers will guess it before the final pages. The supporting cast is a mixture of blackmailing psychopaths, prostitutes, nasty businessmen, broken children, and everyman scared; scared of life, death, and nearly everything else. The amazing thing, it is all this and funny, too. Not the story, or the characters, but rather Dwyer’s take on the world as seen through his semi-smart ass commentary and dialogue.
