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Calamity at the Continental Club: a Washington whodunit (A Washington Whodunnit #3)
By Colleen J. Shogan. 2017
Congressional chief of staff Kit Marshall is reluctantly spending two precious vacation days with her future in-laws attending a meeting…
of the Mayflower Society at D. C.'s Continental Club, while fending off attempts to arrange a posh wedding. Then Kit finds the leader of the society dead, and begins sleuthing. Some strong language. 2017Homicide in the house (A Washington Whodunit #2)
By Colleen J. Shogan. 2016
After the murder of her senator boss in Stabbing in the Senate (DB 83491), staffer Kit Marshall landed a job…
with freshman congresswoman Maeve Dixon. But when Dixon is found standing over the corpse of the Speaker of the House's top staffer--after their public argument--Kit must investigate again. Some strong language. 2016The golden age of murder: the mystery of the writers who invented the modern detective story
By Martin Edwards. 2015
Study of an elite, mysterious social network of crime writers called the Detection Club, which began in 1930, and the…
group's continuing influence on print and film storytelling. Founding members Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, and Julian Symons presided over the club for nearly forty years. 2015Talking about detective fiction
By P. D. James. 2009
British author of The Private Patient (DB 67910) and other mysteries examines the genre of detective fiction. Discusses the style,…
plotting techniques, protagonists, and talent of past and current authors, including Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Dashiell Hammett, and Josephine Tey. Also describes her own methods. 2009Twenty-three authors, including Alexander McCall Smith and Robert B. Parker, use various methods to describe the creation of their crime…
series protagonists. Jeffery Deaver provides a lengthy obituary for quadriplegic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme, while Lee Child explains the marketable Jack Reacher. Strong language. 2009City of glass (New York Ser.)
By Paul Auster. 1985
Volume I of the New York trilogy. A wrong number in the middle of the night ensnares Daniel Quinn (once…
a serious poet and essayist, now author of pulps), in a case far more bizarre than any he has invented in his fiction. The caller seeks the Paul Auster Agency, even though Paul Auster is not a detective but a young writer who strongly resembles the Paul Auster who wrote this book. Ultimately, the obsessed Quinn, impersonating Auster, descends into madness. A fast-paced thrillerThe best American essays 2020 (Best American)
By Robert Atwan. 2020
Twenty-four previously published essays spanning a variety of life experiences. Rabih Alameddine discusses living in San Francisco during the height…
of the AIDS crisis, his love of soccer, and working in an English pub-themed diner in "How to Bartend."Strong language, some violence, and some descriptions of sex. 2020The best American essays 2018 (The best American series)
By Hilton Als, Robert Atwan. 2018
Collection of twenty-four previously published essays exploring different areas of life. Includes authors such as Noam Chomsky, author of Who…
Rules the World? (DB 86717), and Edwidge Danticat, author of The Art of Death (DB 91841). Strong language, some violence, and some descriptions of sex. 2018The best American essays 2021 (The best American series)
By Kathryn Schulz, Robert Atwan. 2021
Collection of twenty previously published essays covering topics many experienced in some form during 2020. Authors include Gabrielle Hamilton, author…
of Blood, Bones, & Butter (DB 73318); Patricia Lockwood, author of Priestdaddy (DB 88242); and Jesmyn Ward, author of Salvage the Bones (DB 74033). Violence and strong language. 2021The best American essays 2019 (Best American series)
By Robert Atwan. 2019
Collection of twenty previously published essays featuring works by Rabih Alameddine, Alexander Chee, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Jia Tolentino. In "Obituary…
for Dead Languages," Heather Altfeld reflects on the deaths of languages when the last speaker dies and the impact of their loss. Violence and strong language. 2019The figure of the detective: a literary history and analysis
By Charles Brownson. 2014
"This book begins with a history of the detective genre, coextensive with the novel itself, identifying the attitudes and institutions…
needed for the genre to emerge in its mature form around 1880. The theory of the genre is laid out along with its central theme of the getting and deployment of knowledge. Sherlock Holmes, the English Classic stories and their inheritors are examined in light of this theme and the balance of two forms of knowledge used in fictional detection--cool or rational, and warm or emotional. The evolution of the genre formula is driven by changes in the social climate in which it is embedded. These changes explain the decay of the English Classic and its replacement by noir, hardboiled and spy stories, to end in the cul-de-sac of the thriller and the nostalgic Neo-Classic. Possible new forms of the detective story are suggested." -- Provided by publisherEntanglement
By Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Zygmunt Miloszewski. 2007
Praise for Entanglement:"An exquisite contemporary crime story. Polish literature boasts a real master."--Jerzy Pilch, author of The Mighty Angel"A tightly…
plotted mystery novel, dark humor and contemporary Warsaw perfectly rendered."--Przekrój MagazineThe morning after a group psychotherapy session in a Warsaw monastery, Henry Talek is found dead, a roasting spit stuck in one eye.Public prosecutor Teodor Szacki, world-weary, suffering from bureaucratic exhaustion and marital ennui, feels that life has passed him by. But this case changes everything. Because of it he meets Monika Grzelka, a young journalist whose charms prove difficult to resist, and he discovers the frightening power of certain esoteric therapeutic methods. The shocking videos of the sessions lead him to an array of possible scenarios. Could one of the patients have become so absorbed by his therapy role-playing that he murdered Telak? Szacki's investigation leads him to an earlier murder, before the fall of Communism.And why is the Secret Police suddenly taking an interest in all this? As Szacki uncovers each piece of the puzzle, facts emerge that he'd be better off not knowing, for his own safety.Zygmunt Miloszewski, born in Warsaw in 1975, is an editor currently working for Newsweek. His first novel, The Intercom, was published in 2005 to high acclaim. Entanglement followed in 2007, and the author is now working on screenplays based on The Intercom and Entanglement as well as on a sequel to the latter, also featuring Teodor Szacki.In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero
By Lawrence Block, Max Allan Collins, Ed Gorman, Jeremiah Healy, S. J. Rozan, Otto Penzler, Dennis Lehane, Brendan Dubois, Ace Atkins, Parnell Hall, Lyndsay Faye, Reed Farrel Coleman, Gary Phillips, Matthew Clemens, Loren D Estleman. 2012
When Robert B. Parker passed in early 2010, the world lost two great men: Parker himself, iconic American crime writer…
whose books have sold more than 6 million copies worldwide, and his best-known creation, Spenser. Parker's Spenser series not only influenced the work of countless of today's writers, but is also credited with reviving and forever changing the genre.In Pursuit of Spenser offers a look at Parker and to Spenser through the eyes of the writers he influenced. Editor Otto Penzler-- proprietor of one of the oldest and largest mystery specialist bookstores in the country, New York's The Mysterious Bookshop, and renowned mystery fiction editor whose credits include series editor for the Best American Crime Writing and Best American Mystery Stories, among many others (and about whom Parker himself once wrote, "Otto Penzler knows more about crime fiction than most people know about anything")-- collects some of today's bestselling mystery authors to discuss Parker, his characters, the series, and their impact on the world.From Hawk to Susan Silverman to Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall, from the series' Boston milieu to Parker's own take on his character, In Pursuit of Spenser pays tribute to Spenser, and Parker, with affection, humor, and a deep appreciation for what both have left behind.Westwind: The classic lost thriller
By Ian Rankin. 2019
It always starts with a small lie. That's how you stop noticing the bigger ones.After his friend suspects something strange…
going on at the launch facility where they both work - and then goes missing - Martin Hepton doesn't believe the official line of "long-term sick leave"...Refusing to stop asking questions, he leaves his old life behind, aware that someone is shadowing his every move.The only hope he has is his ex-girlfriend Jill Watson - the only journalist who will believe his story.But neither of them can believe the puzzle they're piecing together - or just how shocking the secret is that everybody wants to stay hidden...A gripping, page-turning suspense masterclass - experience the brilliance of the iconic Ian Rankin.How to be Nowhere
By Tim MacGabhann. 2020
Life is finally on the right track for reporter and recovering addict Andrew: he is slowly coming to terms with…
the murder of his photographer boyfriend Carlos, pursuing sobriety and building a new home with a new partner. Andrew has almost forgotten about the story that ruined his life - but that story hasn't forgotten about him, and a series of deadly threats forces him into helping the very man whose gang murdered his boyfriend and left him homeless.A literary take on the classic chase movie, HOW TO BE NOWHERE is the sequel to Tim MacGabhann's genre-busting and critically-acclaimed debut CALL HIM MINE, and a blistering thrill-ride deep into the fog of Central America's murky present and tragic future.Ashes
By Sergios Gakas. 2011
When Sonia Verika, a former actress who takes solace in alcohol and isolation, is pulled from the fire, her body…
is burned almost beyond recognition. The house she shared with a retired director and a small family of African refugees is entirely destroyed, and she is the only survivor. For her ex-lovers, Police Inspector Chronis Halkidis and Simeon Piertzovanis, a failed lawyer and the landlord of the gutted property, her fate is a heavy reckoning. Reflection gives way to guilt, and then to a fanatical desire to uncover the truth behind the blaze and hold those responsible to account - by any means necessary. But with corruption rife throughout the force, Chronis soon finds his investigation shackled from within. Fuelled by their need for revenge, and by their twin addictions to alcohol and cocaine, Simeon and Chronis must resort increasingly to violence if they are to unmask a conspiracy that unites church and state against the interests of justice. A classic noir thriller, Ashes is unflinching in its examination of the violence and extortion bred by corruption, but at the same time tender in its treatment of human weaknesses, of guilt, addiction and regret.The Grifters
By Jim Thompson. 1963
Reissue of a true classic - 'One of the toughest crime novels ever' (Newsweek).'Jim Thompson is the best suspense writer…
going, bar none' NEW YORK TIMESRoy Dillon is young, good-looking and devastatingly charming. He's also a completely amoral con man. Lily, his mother, works for the mob. Moira Langtry, Roy's mistress, is always looking for the main chance, and so is Carol Roberg, the nurse brought in to look after Roy when a bad choice of mark means he has an unfortunate encounter with a baseball bat and a bad case of internal bleeding. The Grifters, one of the best novels ever written about the art of the con, is an ingeniously crafted story of deception and betrayal that was the basis for Stephen Frears' and Martin Scorsese's critically-acclaimed film of the same name.Double Indemnity
By James M. Cain. 1964
A true crime masterpiece, and highly acclaimed 1940s movie'DOUBLE INDEMNITY is among the finest of all American novels, regardless of…
genre or style' LA TIMES'Cain is the master' Tom WolfeDOUBLE INDEMNITY is the classic tale of an evil woman motivated by greed who corrupts a weak man motivated by lust.Walter Huff is an insurance investigator like any other until the day he meets the beautiful and dangerous Phyllis Nirdlinger and falls under her spell. Together they plot to kill her husband and split the insurance. It'll be the perfect murder . . .The Impossible Dead
By Ian Rankin. 2011
Malcolm Fox returns in the stunning second novel in Ian Rankin's series... 'Criminally good' WOMAN & HOMEFrom the No.1 bestselling…
author of A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES.'Excitingly gripping storytelling' THE TIMESMalcolm Fox and his team are back, investigating whether fellow cops covered up for Detective Paul Carter. Carter has been found guilty of misconduct, but what should be a simple job is soon complicated by a brutal murder and a weapon that should not even exist.A trail of revelations leads Fox back to 1985, a year of desperate unrest when letter-bombs and poisonous spores were sent to government offices, and kidnappings and murders were plotted. But while the body count rises the clock starts ticking, and a dramatic turn of events sees Fox in mortal danger.Let It Bleed (A Rebus Novel)
By Ian Rankin. 1995
The seventh Inspector Rebus novel from the No.1 bestselling author of A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES.'Rankin continues to be…
unsurpassed among living British crime writers' THE TIMESStruggling through another Edinburgh winter Rebus finds himself sucked into a web of intrigue that throws up more questions than answers. Was the Lord Provost's daughter kidnapped or just another runaway? Why is a city councillor shredding documents that should have been waste paper years ago? And why on earth is Rebus invited to a clay pigeon shoot at the home of the Scottish Office's Permanent Secretary?Sucked into the machine that is modern Scotland, Rebus confronts the fact that some of his enemies may be beyond justice...