'Hello,' she said, wearing a skimpy red negligee meant to barely cover her, and doing a good job of it. 'Can I help you?' When it comes to emotional distress, there's nothing like a mourning widow. And let me tell you, Suzi Biggs was nothing like a mourning widow. She was more like a morning window. I could see right through her. Welcome to Testacy City, a seedy desert town where Ben Drake - a detective with a passion for small cigars and Old Grand-Dad and a weakness for women in trouble - is hired to dig up the who and why behind the brutal murder of local bowling hero Gentleman Joe Biggs.

By the Balls: A Novel by Dashiell Loveless

Literature & Fiction

Pascoe, Jim

Fassbender,Tom

Loveless, Dashiell

Contemporary

Uglytown Productions

Follow cigar-smoking, bourbon-drinking detective Ben Drake as he returns in this collection of murder-packed mystery capers. Includes "The Silent Ventriloquist," Death Plays a Foul Game," A Cold-Blooded Kidnapping," "Midnight Train to Nowhere," and the highly-anticipated case of "Raspberry Jack." Full-color cover and seven interior illustrations by Paul Pope.

Five Shots and a Funeral

Pope, Paul

United States

The murderous anthology featuring mysterious fiction from members of Sisters in Crime Los Angeles. They're seedy or glamorous ... Hollywood or Malibu ... cool, enraged, or totally fed up - meet a collection of fascinating culprits plotting deadly deeds in this anthology of gripping crime fiction from a thrill-minded group of Los Angeles writers. Includes stories by Kris Neri, Cory Newman, Nathan Walpow, Ekaterine Nikas, Gay Toltl Kinman, Jamie Wallace, Phil Mann, Kate Thornton, Lisa Seidman, Gayle McGary, Joan Myers and Dorothy Rellas.

A Deadly Dozen

Phil Mann

Kris Neri

Jamie Wallace

Cory Newman

Nathan Walpow

Kate Thornton

Goy Toltl Kinman

On a clear autumn L.A. morning, sitting in the front row of his best friend's funeral, professional loafer Quince Bishop can't think of anything more depressing than watching yet another loved one being lowered into the ground—until a band of guerilla environmentalists crash the ceremony to deliver a lecture on the high cost of dying in America. One violent impulse later, Quince finds himself up to his waist in dirt ... and he hasn't even begun to dig himself a hole. With the help of beautiful funeral-rights advocate Maria Casteneda—not to mention the complicated ambitions of reporter and perennial ex-girlfriend Melanie Roth—Quince learns just how an unscrupulous funeral director can turn death into a high-class living. Unable to let buried skeletons lie, Quince Bishop unwittingly sets himself on a collision course with two entrepreneurial ex-cons who are hatching a burial plot of their own. Chaos, confusion, and double-dealing are on the program, and only one thing is certain: all paths lead to the cemetery.

Dirt

Sean Doolittle

Rat City's the sort of town where a man can't even be sure of a good breakfast. At least that's what detective Jake Rossiter learns when the homicide-minded Big Ed drops by Rossiter's office one morning to punch his ticket. Rossiter's not one to go out easy, though, and he manages, reluctantly, to send Big Ed to the floor with a bullet in his chest. But who is Big Ed, anyway? And why does he want Rossiter pushing up daisies?

Rat City (A Jake Rossiter & Miss Jenkins Mystery)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Colbert, Curt

Mystery

Charlie Swift is an old school kind of guy. Runs a tight ship. Respects his boss. Takes care of his mom and kid brother. And, he's a stone cold killer. When a fancy new-wave hood, hungry for the primo Orlando territory Charlie enforces, offs most of Charlie's boys in a bloody mob takeover, our man steps in to make things right. But when word gets out that his boss has gone missing and there's a traitor among his crew of gun monkeys, Charlie knows payback ain't gonna be easy. Shot up, boozed up, and beaten up, Charlie finds the toughest challenge he's ever had to face isn't snuffing out life, but preserving it.

Gun Monkeys

Gischler, Victor

With the clock ticking, the story jumps off in the border town of Tijuana, Mexico. A smooth cat who labels himself an expeditor must survive a gauntlet of hitters and freaks to deliver his client alive to their destination. She's a high maintenance drug queen who's made a deal with the top cop in California's state capitol, Sacramento. By all means of transportation and dodging devastation, and busting some heads themselves, the two make their way north while behind-the-scenes machinations go down. Battered but not out, our man completes his assignment only to find out all ain't what it seems -- but then, he's not getting two million just to look good. And handling fools, no matter how they trip, comes with the territory.

The Perpetrators

Phillips, Gary

The city holds many dark secrets. Lives begin and end on its streeets and in its alleys. It's no place for a man to find peace. No place for a man to find love. 
Boyd's just a small town hood trying like hell to survive. But his tantalizing obsession with money keeps him held down, bound within the depths of the city's mysteries. Still, he's able to maintain balance, at least until Russ, the local crimeboss, gives Boyd a simple snatch-and-dash job. The job is no problem for Boyd, but when he catches a glimpse of the mysterious dark-haired Missy, his world begins to unravel. 
As visions of Missy haunt his dreams, Boyd, along with his fun-loving pal Vaughn, rides the fast-track up the organizational ladder. He reluctantly follows Russ's enforcer, the sadistic Clark, on errands of violence and brutality. The cash is good, but Boyd has changed; money is no longer his only obsession. 
As the nature of his crimes grows more severe, Boyd's inner turmoil grows too, threatening to smother him and destroy all that he's managed to hold onto. He'll find peace--one way or the other. Even if he has to kill for it...

An Occasional Dream

Lester, Mike

"They're after the Rose!" That's what the frightened woman said hours before her body was pulled from the local fish hatchery. Could a clue to the bejeweled foreigner's death be found in the puzzling note she left behind, sealed with the emblem of a rose? Rinnah Two Feathers and her friends Tommy Red Hawk and Meagen Paige are spending their summer vacation in Spearfish Canyon investigating. Ben Forrest, promising movie star turned construction worker, is Rinnah's prime suspect. Her curiosity about his fall from grace is further piqued when she uncovers a copy of his award-winning documentary on the Royals of Varna. She's fascinated by the Bulgarian story of greed, corruption, and murder. But it's the missing royal ruby that has the kids playing detective; the unique stone is rumored to be the largest in existence, its value priceless. And it's carved in the shape of a rose! There's also Tina Treadwell, the young art school graduate Mrs. Lane hired to help run her gallery. When a bouquet of roses is delivered to the "delightful girl," she immediately throws them away. Rinnah suspects that the flowers were a message, but about what? And from whom? Tina's suspicious behavior at the local coffeehouse leads Rinnah and her friends to believe that her mysterious boyfriend may be none other than Ben Forrest. What are those two up to? To make matters worse, Meagen finds out that her dad is dating again! Sandy Price, hospital administrator for Spearfish General, is taking up more than a little of Meagen's quality dad-time. It's all Rinnah can do to keep Meagen from a major melt down. When Meagen demands a background check on the new lady in her dad's life, the two girls uncover the woman's shocking ties to Varna. Perhaps the most unusual thing of all is what the medicine man knows. Ronnie Black Elk is the tribe's spiritual advisor and comes from a long line of Lakota medicine men. Why did he put rose petals in Rinnah's medicine bag? What tribal secret is he keeping, and why? And what does it have to do with the mysterious woman's murder? With each answer Rinnah uncovers, she comes closer and closer to the truth behind The Curse of the Royal Ruby.

The Curse of the Royal Ruby: A Rinnah Two Feathers Mystery

Rodney Johnson

Back in '68 they made killer music … now their music is killing them. Third book in the Joe Portugal mystery series. 
It's been thirty years since Joe Portugal put his electric guitar away. Maybe that's one reason he's suffering a serious case of the mid-life doldrums. Then Joe stumbles upon a chance to put the band he was in as a teenager back together. And maybe his life too. All he has to do is find the lead guitarist, who hasn't been seen since the 70s. But when he starts to look, it's quickly clear that someone doesn't want to see a reunion tour ... someone who's very handy with a gun.

One Last Hit: A Joe Portugal Mystery (Joe Portugal Mysteries)

Walpow, Nathan

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