Hard Boiled category: 6975 books

Race Williams had run across criminals before, and a few shots to the head always took care of such threats. But how can Race deal with four separate rogues at once? And what of their ultimate leader, The Hidden Hand? Story #19 in the Race Williams series. Carroll John Daly (1889–1958) was...

Class was stamped on every contour of her body, but the faint wisp of fear clung to her person. Gladys Pervins was a woman who had slipped on the path and was paying the price. Her husband, a reclusive yet extremely jealous scientist who spends his nights alone in the laboratory, gave her nothing...

Race Williams wouldn’t touch a divorce case with a ten-foot pole. But when Mr. Burkhart, the prosperous owner of the well-known Burkhart & Co. publishing company, oozes through his office door seeking help, Williams is only too quick to jump at the chance for easy cash. The problem? One hundred...

Race Williams was as free from money as an old maid from a pleasant thought. And the sweltering heat of the city only added to his anger, like a raging bull on a chain. So when he discovers and decodes a secret and ambiguous message in the newspaper, he follows the lead and the smell of cash. But...

Race Williams was a man not above using a gun, nor of making a quick buck. But there was one other—Sticker Haddock—who enjoyed murder like one does a game of checkers. So when Haddock’s employer, a well-off politician and bootlegging kingpin, approaches Williams out of fear for his own life,...

The mean streets have never been so divided, nor so willing, to pay Race Williams for his services. So when private investigators start turning up dead in Coburn, and a dirty gangster warns him not to go, Williams is only too curious to find out what’s amuck in the city. Yet, Race Williams doesn’t...

In the 3rd novel featuring Red Diamond, the downtrodden N.Y. cabbie turned hardboiled private eye is living in Los Angeles, and gets drawn into the world of rock and roll. Big Band forties meets big hair eighties, with the quest for lady love Fifi La Roche, and the vile machinations of arch villain...

This short fiction collection assembles 16 stories, most of them published from 2000-2010, by Ed Lynskey. The crime fiction first appeared in Shots, Thuglit, Mississippi Review Online, and Crime Scene Scotland. The editors selecting the stories include Sarah Weinman, Allan Guthrie, Anthony Neil Smith,...

After surviving a bad experience in his hometown, P.I. Frank Johnson moves away to Scarab, West Virginia, drawn by the promise of its leisurely days and the lure of its tranquil leafy mountains. Instead, while relaxing, what he finds is a Stinger rocket exploding over his cabin. The bestselling The...

A NEW YORK TIMES "NOTABLE" MYSTERY THRILLER. Here is the book that launched journalist turned crime novelist, Jerry Oster's, meteoric literary career and introduced his most unforgettable character, the sad-sack detective, Jake Neuman. When Neuman and his partner, Bobby Redfield,...

FIRST U.S. PUBLICATION OF THIS PRIZE WINNING CRIME NOVEL Jerry Oster is celebrated for creating memorable, vulnerable, quirky protagonists like Jake Neuman (Sweet Justice) and Joe Cullen (Internal Affairs). Now meet his most engaging, off-beat, reluctant hero yet, reporter Tom Gillette, in...

A SEARING NOVEL OF A DOWN-AND-OUT COP Award-wining mystery novelist Jerry Oster takes a major step forward in his most ambitious book yet. Busted Valentine is the story of Solitaire, a down-and-out cop with a busted heart, busted career, busted soul. Oster takes us inside Solitaire's melancholy...

Mick of Malvern lives a quiet life. Mainly due to a lack of clients. That all changes when Lady Gwendolyn enters his office and his life. An ailing queen. A missing princess. A chance to finally pay his bills. Quick wits, a custom crossbow, and ten silvers a day plus expenses. Join Mick on a quest to save his favorite person. Himself.

Inspired by Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio", the protagonist is perceived through the lens of the literary grotesque motif & that of Shakespeare's classic 'Fool' in a modern, speculative urban setting. "Rings on Her Fingers" is written in the heralded “Hard-Boiled”...