Ray Dudgeon is a Chicago PI hired to guard a Hollywood location manager who witnessed the Outfit at work. The client is murdered, Ray gets caught up in a Mafia power struggle, and the body count rises.
A well-written, fast-paced story that I gobbled up.
New private investigator Sam Ireland is hired to track down a gangster-turned-memoirist. She can't find him, but she's not the only one looking. His lethal nephew also wants to find him, after dealing with two hit men. All of this searching is drawing unwelcome attention to long-held secrets, and more blood will be shed.
A darkly amusing, frenetic tour through Glasgow's underbelly.
Nick Sharman is a washed up London PI, living with two strippers and drinking himself into oblivion. He used to be a promising Detective Constable, and a bad case from that time comes back to haunt him. The teenaged daughter of an inspector died after being raped twelve years ago. His sergeant fitted up a local flasher and Sharman reluctantly went along. Now Sailor Grant is out and wants to clear his name. Sharman refuses to get involved; Grant is murdered; and Sharman's former sergeant beats him half to …continue.
Ten years ago, Rommy "Squirrel" Gandolph—generally regarded as a harmless thief not playing with a full deck—confessed to three murders. Now he's about to be executed and Arthur Raven, his court-appointed attorney, believes his protestations of innocence. The book follows Arthur, who finds an ally in Gillian Sullivan, the disgraced ex-judge who presided over Gandolph's trial, and the prosecutor, Muriel Wynn, and the detective, Larry Starczek.
Turow digs deep into the characters of his four protagonists, as they struggle with each other and with the revelations of the case. They are all …continue.
The President of France must decide whether to commute a death sentence. A senior civil servant, finding both his wife and his daughter in flagrante delicto with an artist, shot them all dead. Inspector Henri Castang, the investigating officer, is summoned to the Élysée Palace. There is no doubt as to the accused's guilt. He admits it and seems to welcome the death sentence.
Freeling's novel examines the French judicial system. We've all heard that the Napoleonic Code says that a man is presumed guilty until proven innocent, but in fact, under …continue.
Glasgow DI Alex Morrow is trying to put a dangerous criminal back in prison, but she can't explain how his prints were found at the scene of a recent murder when he was already in custody. Fifteen years ago, when Rose Wilson was a sexually abused 14 year old, she was responsible for two deaths in one night, but only did time for one culpable homicide. Now the lawyer who saved her is dead and coverups are unraveling.
In other hands, this …continue.
Burke Devore is a middle-aged middle manager at a paper mill, who's been laid off for some time. There are too many others like him and they're beating him out for the few positions in his field. In desperation, he decides to eliminate the competition by placing a fake job advertisement for others with similar skills and by killing them off.
Westlake is known for a variety of crime novels, including the light-hearted, humorous Dortmunder books. There's humor here, but in a very dark vein, and …continue.
Joe Kurtz is marked for death after the events of Hardcase. And a concert violinist is convinced that he just saw the man who murdered his teenaged daughter 20 years earlier, who was thought dead. More mayhem.
Joe Kurtz is a hardboiled ex-PI who just spent eleven years in Attica for killing the men who killed his partner. He's out now, investigating the disappearance of a mob accountant, and he quickly makes new enemies. Mayhem ensues.
Someone keeps throwing the events of Dr Thomas Wayne's life into his son Bruce's face. The murder of his parents when he was a boy ultimately led to his becoming the Batman. Now he realizes that he knew less than he had thought about his father.
Hickham does a good job of filling out the story of the Wayne family and the mark they left on Gotham.