Hard Case Crime imprint: 76 books

It's 1954, and a rabble-rousing social critic has declared war on comic books - especially the scary, gory, bloody sort published by the bad boys of the industry, EF Comics. But on the way to a Senate hearing on whether these depraved publications should be banned, the would-be censor meets a violent...

HE AGREED TO PROTECT HER FROM A VENGEFUL MOBSTER.   HE JUST DIDN’T REALIZE HE’D HAVE TO JOIN THE MOB TO DO IT. Ray Corson came to Hollywood to be a screenwriter, not hired muscle. But when money’s tight and a beautiful woman asks for your help, how can you say no? But going up...

A *NEW *NOIR MASTERPIECE BY THE AUTHOR OF THE CLASSIC 1953 BESTSELLER ANYONE’S MY NAME Fifteen years ago, teenager Alan Benning jogged off a beach – and into a nightmare.  Because what awaited him in the Cape Cod woods was an unspeakable temptation, a moment of panic, and a brutal memory...

It’s normal to see bodies on the set of an adult film. But when they’re dead bodies – and the cast and crew discover they’re trapped in a house with a serial killer – Quarry’s got his work cut out for him. NOW A CINEMAX TELEVISION SERIES! The longest-running series from Max...

ASK NOT WHO YOU CAN KILL FOR YOUR COUNTRY Now retired and happily married, Quarry turns down a million-dollar contract to assassinate a presidential candidate. It’s not the sort of assignment you can just walk away from without consequences—but coming after Quarry has consequences, too.

HER WEALTHY STEPFATHER WAS DYING – BUT NOT QUICKLY ENOUGH What beautiful 18-year-old would want to spend her life taking care of an invalid? Not Shirley Angela. But that’s the life she was trapped in – until she met Jack. Now Shirley and Jack have a plan to put the old man out...

THEY THOUGHT SHE’D BE EASY. THEY THOUGHT WRONG. It all began with the phone call asking former porn star Angel Dare to do one more movie. Before she knew it, she’d been shot and left for dead in the trunk of a car. But Angel is a survivor. And that means she’ll get to the bottom of what’s been done to her even if she has to leave a trail of bodies along the way…

What will a group of monks do when their century-old monastery in New York City is threatened with demolition to make room for a new high-rise? What will a group of monks do when their two-century-old monastery in New York City is threatened with demolition to make room for a new high-rise?...

A HIT. AND A MISS. Quarry doesn't kill just anybody these days. He restricts himself to targeting other hitmen, availing his marked-for-death clients of two services: eliminating the killers sent after them, and finding out who hired them…and then removing that problem as well. So...

AFTER 16 YEARS ON THE RUN,  WOULD NOLAN BURY THE HATCHET WITH THE MOB… OR WOULD THEY BURY HIM FIRST? They don’t come tougher than Nolan – but even a hardened professional thief can’t fight off the entire Chicago mafia.  So when an old friend offers to broker a truce, Nolan accepts...

Lost for more than 75 years, The Knife Slipped was meant to be the second book in the series, but shelved when Gardner’s publisher objected to (among other things) Bertha Cool’s tendency to “talk tough, swear, smoke cigarettes, and try to gyp people.” But this tale of adultery and corruption,...

Miranda Sugarman was supposed to be in the Midwest, working as an eye doctor.  So how did she end up shot to death on the roof of one of New York City’s seediest strip clubs? It’s John Blake’s job to find out – not just because he’s a private investigator, but because ten years earlier,...

He’d been a promising piano prodigy, once. Now he was just an addict, scraping to get by, letting his hunger for drugs consume him. But a man’s life can always get worse - as Ray Stone discovers when he wakes up beside a beautiful nightclub singer only to find her dead... and 16 ounces of pure...

NO MAN COULD RESIST HER. BUT COULD ANY MAN EVER HAVE HER? After years at sea, Swede Nelson just wanted to find a nice girl and settle down. But what he found instead was Corliss Mason: beautiful, sensual, irresistible – and nothing but trouble.   It begins with a bar fight that lands...