The Blackmail

The Blackmail
Author: M. Ravenel
Publisher: Chikara Press
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2022-09-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1736491334

Another case has fallen onto the desk of Tootsie Carter; a female detective armed with a snub-nosed Colt .38, unmatchable wit, and a pocketful of Tootsie Rolls. New York City, 1975 When a photo she took ends up splashed across a sleazy tabloid, Tootsie launches into an investigation to figure out who leaked it. Pounding the pavement, she follows the leads to a seedy massage parlor. One step inside and she knows something isn’t right. The women there need help, and Tootsie is determined to set them free. But it won’t be easy. Sinister forces, who will stop at nothing to keep their income of dirty money flowing, are at work. Can Tootsie break the women out of their violent shackles? Or will she find herself trapped alongside them?

Seven Versions of an Australian Badland

Seven Versions of an Australian Badland
Author: Ross Gibson
Publisher: Univ. of Queensland Press
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2002
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780702233494

"To travel this long, lonely road is to traverse a stretch of brutal history and to enter a gigantic crime scene. The landscape itself holds a million clues to a horror story blazing across two centuries. Winding through a haunted place that is forever frontier territory, this road is the scene of casual as well as callous murder whether from the 1970s, the 1960s or the 1860s. Not for nothing is it known as the 'Horror Stretch'. In this compulsively readable new book, Ross Gibson drives right back along that dangerous stretch and finds himself deep in the Badland. Part road movie, part memoir, part murder mystery, Seven Versions of an Australian Badland embarks on an enthralling journey through time, into the realms of myth and magic, narcissism and genocide."--Publisher's website.

The Luzern Photograph

The Luzern Photograph
Author: William Bayer
Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2015-12-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1780107080

An infamous nineteenth-century photograph is the key to a modern murder mystery in this “clever psychological thriller” from the Edgar Award winner (Library Journal, starred review). In 1882, the young Lou Andreas-Salomé—writer, psychoanalyst and femme fatale—appears with Friedrich Nietzsche and another man in a bizarre photograph taken in Luzern, Switzerland. Over thirty years later, an art student in Freud’s Vienna presents Lou Salomé with his own drawing based on the infamous photograph. In present-day California, performance artist Tess Berenson learns that the previous occupant of her downtown Oakland loft was a professional dominatrix named Chantal—who apparently left in a hurry. Instantly fascinated, Tess’s curiosity only intensifies when Chantal’s body is discovered in the trunk of a stolen car at Oakland airport. Embarking on an obsessive investigation, Tess discovers a link between Chantal and the original Luzern photograph. But as she gets closer to the shocking truth, Tess finds that she too is in jeopardy . . . “Edgar winner Bayer continues his romance with psychoanalysis with a riff on Lou Andreas-Salomé’s persona as analyst and femme fatale . . . Nazis, sadomasochism, and psychoanalysis always provide a heady mix, and a little murder thrown in pushes Bayer’s latest into the radioactive zone.” —Kirkus Reviews “Bayer chillingly and skillfully depicts the divide between good and evil. Suggest to Thomas Harris and Michael Connelly devotees.”—Library Journal (starred review) “[A] crafty whodunit . . . Bayer keeps the suspense high as he artfully toggles among story lines and thoughtfully develops his characters” —Publishers Weekly

Surrogate Evil

Surrogate Evil
Author: Aimée Thurlo
Publisher: Forge Books
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2006-11-28
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1466815701

It's frustrating for local law enforcement to come up against a piece of scum like Newton Glover. He's dirty as hell, everyone knows that—breaks into and vandalizes his neighbors' homes; cheats and steals from everyone; folks suspect he deals drugs and porn. He's even killed a man and gotten away with it. He gets away with all of it, hinting that he has a secret government background and that he's "protected" by the Powers That Be. Glover may finally have gone too far. He's suspected of kidnapping a young teenage boy to use for child porn and a pedophile sex-ring. There's no proof, but this time, Albuquerque police are determined to nail Glover to the wall. Lee Nez, a Navajo state police officer, and Diane Lopez, an FBI agent, go undercover in Glover's trailer park. Lee and Diane find that their growing attraction for each other is heightened by their posing as husband and wife, but do not allow that to distract them from their mission. They soon learn that not long ago, Glover's neighbors tried to take the law into their own hands—they dragged Glover from his home and beat him to death, leaving him in a shallow grave. To everyone's shock, a few days later Glover reappeared with not a mark on him. Lee and Diane are no strangers to the supernatural—Lee is a Navajo vampire and Diane's last FBI partner was killed by a werewolf. Whatever Glover is, they'll deal with it. When a second child goes missing and clues link her to Glover, Lee and Diane know they are running out of time. Glover may be some kind of un-dead, but soon those children will be really dead, or worse. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Negative Girl

Negative Girl
Author: Libby Cudmore
Publisher: Watkins Media Limited
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2024-09-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1915523346

For fans of Cottonmouths by Kelly J. Ford comes Negative Girl: an evocative, moody, neo-noir thriller that explores obsession and people dying across America's forgotten spaces. Martin Wade lived hard in his youth, but unlike many of his former bandmates and roadie friends, he didn’t die young. Instead he hit the recovery path, cleaned up his life, and became a private investigator in a dying city in upstate New York. When his heavily tattooed and scarred assistant Valerie sets up an appointment with a young woman who needs help keeping her biological father away from her, none of the three realize that the father is Martin’s old bandmate, still using, and on a destructive path that will soon be headed straight for Martin’s clean life. As Martin struggles, Valerie becomes increasingly obsessed with their new client’s life.

Man in a Suitcase: ITC-land Volume 1

Man in a Suitcase: ITC-land Volume 1
Author: Rodney Marshall
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2015-06-28
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1326325175

Lew Grade's pioneering ITC company created a production line of quirky new drama series for British Independent Television in the 1960s, fulfilling a vision of providing entertaining, colour film series for a global market. In the first of a proposed series of critical guides, Avengers expert Rodney Marshall and television historian Matthew Lee explore ITC's Man in a Suitcase. Their book offers new, inventive readings of all thirty episodes. Man in a Suitcase is a product of its mid-1960s context, exploring themes such as Cold War espionage and Swinging Sixties playgirls, yet most of the stories also have a timeless feel to them: political corruption, blackmail, murder, missing persons or money, art theft. Despite the private detective/bounty hunter formula, there are welcome elements of playfulness, quirkiness, surrealism and a healthy abundance of social and political critique. Man in a Suitcase cannot be simplistically labelled as 'light entertainment' given the dark subject matter and its treatment.

Big Red Tequila

Big Red Tequila
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Bantam
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2013-01-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0804151938

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series Everything in Texas is bigger . . . even murder. Meet Tres Navarre—tequila drinker, Tai Chi master, and unlicensed P.I., with a penchant for Texas-size trouble. Jackson “Tres” Navarre and his enchilada-eating cat, Robert Johnson, pull into San Antonio and find nothing waiting but trouble. Ten years ago Navarre left town and the memory of his father’s murder behind him. Now he’s back, looking for answers. Yet the more Tres digs, trying to put his suspicions to rest, the fresher the decade-old crime looks: Mafia connections, construction site payoffs, and slick politicians’ games all conspire to ruin his homecoming. It’s obvious Tres has stirred up a hornet’s nest of trouble. He gets attacked, shot at, run over by a big blue Thunderbird—and his old girlfriend, the one he wants back, is missing. Tres has to rescue the woman, nail his father’s murderer, and get the hell out of Dodge before mob-style Texas justice catches up to him. The chances of staying alive looked better for the defenders of the Alamo. “Riordan writes so well about the people and topography of his Texas hometown that he quickly marks the territory as his own.”—Chicago Tribune Don’t miss any of these hotter-than-Texas-chili Tres Navarre novels: BIG RED TEQUILA • THE WIDOWER’S TWO-STEP • THE LAST KING OF TEXAS • THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO AUSTIN • SOUTHTOWN • MISSION ROAD • REBEL ISLAND

The Heaven Stone

The Heaven Stone
Author: David Daniel
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Total Pages: 255
Release: 1994
Genre: Cambodian Americans
ISBN: 0312112823

In an small industrial town in Massachusetts, PI Alex Rasmussen probes the death of a Cambodian immigrant involved in jade smuggling. The story takes place amid a clash of cultures between immigrants and Yankees.

A Memorable Murder

A Memorable Murder
Author: John Schlarbaum
Publisher: eBookIt.com
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2015-07-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1456605488

A Memorable Murder A Jennifer Malone Mystery Payback's a bitch . . . in a blue and white dress On a cool October morning, viewers are transfixed to their televisions for details of a gangland-style murder carried out during the live broadcast of The Nation Today. Upon identifying the dead man as Robert Barker, CEO of the country's largest pharmaceutical company, the police quickly discover clues indicating the killer is none other than his wife, Lynn. While authorities attempt to locate Mrs. Barker, intrepid newspaper reporter Jennifer Malone uncovers information the shooting is possibly related to a new memory wonder drug. Yet the harder she digs, the more twists and turns she unearths. Had Robert found out about Lynn's affair with the presidential candidate - a show guest that fateful morning? Or was it business related, as the candidate is the powerful Chairman of the Health and Welfare Committee that oversees the drug industry? A Memorable Murder is a story of greed, revenge, political cover-up, and a country's insatiable appetite for tabloid-worthy news stories. It is also a novel you won't soon forget.

Cockroaches

Cockroaches
Author: Jo Nesbo
Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2014-02-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0345807162

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this installment of the New York Times bestselling series, Inspector Harry Hole heads to Thailand to investigate the murder of a Norweigian ambassador. "Nesbø never lets a page go by without making characters and situations vivid."—Houston Chronicle “I can’t think of anyone who makes my skin crawl like Nesbo."—The New York Times Book Review When the Norwegian ambassador to Thailand is found dead in a Bangkok brothel, Inspector Harry Hole is dispatched from Oslo to help hush up the case. But once he arrives Harry discovers that this case is about much more than one random murder. There is something else, something more pervasive, scrabbling around behind the scenes. Or, put another way, for every cockroach you see in your hotel room, there are hundreds behind the walls. Surrounded by round-the-clock traffic noise, Harry wanders the streets of Bangkok lined with go-go bars, temples, opium dens, and tourist traps, trying to piece together the story of the ambassador’s death even though no one asked him to, and no one wants him to—not even Harry himself.