Cockfighter (Vintage crime)

Literature & Fiction

WILLEFORD, CHARLES

Literary

Vintage

Way We Die Now

1st Arrow trade 1992 edition paperback vg+ book In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

TRAFALGAR SQUARE +

[Read by Stephen Bolby]Chronically depressed, constantly strapped for money, always willing to bend the rules a bit, Hoke Moseley is hardly what you'd think of as the perfect cop, but he is one of the greatest detective creations of all time. After a brutal day investigating a quadruple homicide, Detective Hoke Moseley settles into his room at the un-illustrious El Dorado Hotel and nurses a glass of brandy. With his guard down, he doesn't think twice when he hears a knock on the door. The next day, he finds himself in the hospital, badly bruised and with his jaw wired shut. He thinks back over ten years of cases, wondering who would want to beat him into unconsciousness, steal his gun and badge, and most importantly, make off with his prized dentures. But the pieces never quite add up to revenge, and the few clues he has keep connecting to a dimwitted hooker, her ex-con boyfriend, and the bizarre murder of a Hare Krishna pimp.

Miami Blues

Genre Fiction

Ballantine Books

Beware of the cop. He bites. Hoke Moseley never saw him coming: the person who crashed into his squalid little hidey-hole in the Eldorado Hotel. When his assailant was was done, Hoke's pride and joy, his dentures, were gone. So were his gun and his badge. Recovering from the brutal beating, Hoke tried to figure out who had administered it. The one place he didn't look was at a pair of ill-suited lovers: an ex-con from California and a simpleminded whore was was studying business management at Miami-Dade college. What the two had in common was a demented interest in haiku, a Hare Krishna who died of a broken finger at a Miami airport, and the acquaintance of a cop without any teeth: the very cop who, as soon as he remembers, will hunt them down. All the way down.

Miami homicide detective Hoke Moseley is called to a posh Miami neighborhood to investigate a lethal overdose. There he meets the alluring stepmother of the decedant, and begins to wonder about dating a witness. Meanwile, he has been threatened with suspension by his ambitious new chief unless he leaves his beloved, if squalid, suite at the El Dorado Hotel, and moves downtown. With free housing hard to come by, Hoke is desperate to find a new place to live. His difficulties are only amplified by an assignment to re-investigate fifty unsolved murders, the unexpected arrival of his two teenage daughters, and a partner struggling with an unwanted pregnancy. With few options and even fewer dollars, he decides that the suspicious and beautiful stepmother of the dead junkie might be a compromised solution to all of his problems. Packed with atmosphere and humor, New Hope for the Deadis a classic murder mystery by one of the true masters of the genre. Now back in print, Charles Willeford’s tour de force is an irresistible invitation to become acquainted with one of the greatest detective characters of all time. From the Trade Paperback edition.

New Hope for the Dead

Florida homicide detective Hoke Moseley's life suddenly went to bell one morning. His ex-wife had married a big-time pro ballplayer. His two teenage daughters moved in. And his lieutenant had dumped ever? unsolved murder in Miami on him. So Hoke decided to bail out stretch out on Singer Island, give up police work, and watch the ocean roll. But trouble wasn't going to let Hoke get away. Not a stone's throw from his laid-back new life, a slick, handsome psychopath was planning his next armed robbery. The heist would suck a curmudgeon retiree into a life of crime, blast a half-dozen people, off the planet, and leave nary a clue behind. It was a case right up Hoke's alley: weird enough to catch his attention, personal enough to make him mad, and twisted enough to make Hoke forget he didn't want to be a cop...a good guy in a world gone very, very bad.

Sideswipe

From Publishers Weekly\nWilleford joined the Army when he was 16, in the depth of the Depression, and was assigned to the Air Corps. He spent most of his three-year hitch in Manila, "a place where interesting things can happen to a man." This memoir by the author of Miami Blues and The Burnt Orange Heresy is so brutally frank about drinking and whoring in the prePearl Harbor Army that it becomes hilarious when the author remarks, "If a man wasn't careful the Army could coarsen him, and I had to protect my sensitivity if I was ever going to write anything first-rate." Discharged in 1938, Willeford found himself in trouble with the police on Los Angeles's Skid Row, and decided to reenlist. His autobiography is hardboiled and certainly authentic, but short on substance. 
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.\nFrom Library Journal\nWilleford joined the U.S. Army in 1935 at the age of 16. He spent time in the Philippines, in the air corps, and later at Fort Riley, in the cavalry. He recalls some of the less savory aspects of the Depression army, and explains in great detail just how the enlisted men lived. In the four years covered here, he fits in about as many sexual, alcoholic, and military adventures as a young man could reasonably hope to survive. Although this memoir captures the spirit of the prewar army well, its tone of mild braggadocio and its uninspired prose will limit its appeal. For specialized collections of military memorabilia only. Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army TRALINET Ctr., Fort Monroe, Va. 
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Something About a Soldier

Look the Part. Die the Part. A three-year-old murder case was coming together nicely. A killer Hoke had once put in prison has moved into the house across the street. And Hoke Moseley's daughter has blue hair. But now Hoke has to walk away from his life and pretend to be a bum. Turns out it isn't hard. Hoke hands over his teeth, wallet, and gun on the hot Tamiani Trail -- the highway that connects Miami and Naples by way of the alligator-infested Everglades. Hoke's boss, Major Willie Brownley, has arranged this little undercover adventure. And what an adventure it will be. In a dusty corner of South Florida, Hoke enters a world of Haitian migrant workers, soup kitchens, and forgotten whores. And in the searing heat he'll meet the man he's been sent to kill -- the most vicious beast in the land...

The Way We Die Now (Hoke Moseley)

In one edition, three cult classics from Charles\nPick-Up - Prowling the grimy streets of San Francisco low-life, Helen is a beautiful, sensuous drunk - and a pathetically easy pick-up. That is, until she meets Harry, who buys her a coffee and takes her home with him. Harry just wants to help, but before long he and Helen are both adrift in a sea of alcohol - until Harry conceives the ultimate crime...\nThe Burnt Orange Heresy - Art critic James Figureas is a psychotic, an amoral unrepentant killer. Out to make a lasting name for himself, he seeks out the greatest painter in the world, now a hermit in the Florida swamplands. Figureas is after more than the man, however - he wants the work, and something more...something more horrible than can be imagined.\nCockfighter - Frank Mansfield is the cockfighter, a man obsessed with an illegal sport which is unspeakably cruel, unthinkably bloody - and incredibly exciting . His pursuit of the champion's medal takes him into the seamy underbelly of rural Southern life...into the hot, dusty small-town circuits, where greed and corruption vie only with lust and violence.

A Charles Willeford Omnibus

London: Macdonald, 1991

Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include companion materials, may have some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, may not include CDs or access codes. 100% money back guarantee.

Biographies & Memoirs

Random House]

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Books by WILLEFORD, CHARLES

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by WILLEFORD, CHARLES. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Cockfighter (Vintage crime)

Way We Die Now

Miami Blues

Miami Blues

New Hope for the Dead

Sideswipe

Something About a Soldier

The Way We Die Now (Hoke Moseley)

A Charles Willeford Omnibus

Something About a Soldier