Donald E. Westlake
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In New York City, a movie critic has just murdered his girlfriend - well, one of his girlfriends (not to be confused with his wife). Will the unlikely crime-solving partnership he forms with the investigating police detective keep him from the film noir ending he deserves? On the opposite coast, movie star Dawn Devayne - the hottest It Girl in Hollywood - gets a visit from a Navy sailor who says he knew her when she was just ordinary Estelle Anlic...
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Sara Joslyn is fresh from journalism school and ready to take on the world. Unfortunately, she has to settle for the galaxy-the Weekly Galaxy, to be precise, the sensational gossip rag where no low is too low, and no story is too outlandish to print. From finding a dead body in a car before she even finds her desk to making her bones by interviewing a pair of one-hundred-year-old twins (never mind that one of them is dead) and jockeying for brownie...
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J. Eugene Raxford is not what anyone would call a debonair man of action. He has no class, no skills, and all the physical prowess of a napping tree sloth. James Bond would think twice before letting him park the Aston Martin.
Though he is a devoted pacifist, Raxford is also-thanks to a tragically consequential typo-the supposed leader of a half-baked and violent radical organization. That's why the FBI wants him to go undercover and spy on the...
4) Get real
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Reluctantly agreeing to allow his gang to appear in a reality television cop show that promises a lucrative payout and legal protection, luckless thief John Dortmunder and his partner, Kelp, devise a secondary plot to deceive case-cracking television viewers.
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The year is 1977, and America is finally getting over the nightmares of Watergate and Vietnam and the national hangover that was the 1960s. But not everyone is ready to let it go. Not aging comedian Koo Davis, friend to generals and presidents and veteran of countless USO tours to buck up American troops in the field. And not the five remaining members of the self-proclaimed People's Revolutionary Army, who've decided that kidnapping Koo Davis would...
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This time out John Dortmunder and his merry band of crooks return to the scene of the crime world in an attempt to steal a fleet of automobiles that would leave the Sultan of Brunei blushing. The mark is Monroe Hall, corrupt CEO of a now defunct conglomerate, who spent more of his company's money on himself than the boys at Enron and WorldCom combined. Having escaped prosecution, Hall is holed up on his massive Pennsylvania farm and Dortmunder, as...
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All it takes is a few underhanded moves by a tough ex-cop named Eppick to pull thief John Dortmunder into a game he never wanted to play. With no choice, he musters his always-game gang and they set out on a perilous treasure hunt for a long-lost gold and jewel-studded chess set once intended as a birthday gift for the last Romanov czar, which unfortunately reached Russia after that party was over. From the moment Dortmunder reaches for his first...
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The critically acclaimed, bestselling author of The Ax and The Hook is back in rare form as he introduces Meehan, a character who keeps the lid from blowing off Washington politics. Meehan, a career thief staring at life without parole, is awaiting sentencing at the Manhattan Correctional Center when he is called to a meeting by someone masquerading as his lawyer. The man, it turns out, represents the presidential reelection campaign committee now...
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If there is a scam operating anywhere, sooner or later it will find Fred Fitch. The pure-hearted, gullible man seems to get taken every time he turns around. At this point, he's been ripped off so many times he's got a regular contact at New York's bunco squad. Now Fred's late Uncle Matt, who he never even heard of before, has willed him $317,000. Along with the inheritance comes the devoted Gertie Divine, Uncle Matt's old friend who is all too willing...
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Darwyn Cooke, Eisner-Award-winning writer/artist, sets his artistic sights on bringing to life one of the true classics of crime fiction: Richard Stark's Parker. Stark was a pseudonym used by the revered and multi-award-winning author, Donald Westlake. The Hunter, the first book in the Parker series, is the story of a man who hits New York head-on like a shotgun blast to the chest. Betrayed by the woman he loved and double-crossed by his partner in...
12) Wax Apple
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At a mental institution, Mitch Tobin searches for a patient with a violent sense of humor Mitch Tobin is about to be committed. Since his abrupt dismissal from the NYPD, Tobin's nerves have been frayed, and if it wasn't for his work as a private detective, he might well be in need of actual psychiatric care. But during his stay at the Midway, a halfway house for those recovering from mental illness, he'll only be impersonating a patient while trying...
13) Nobody's Perfect
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An art collector hires Dortmunder to steal one of his own paintings It would take a miracle to keep Dortmunder out of jail. Though he cased the electronics store perfectly, the cops surprised him, turning up in the alley just as he was walking out the back door, a television in each hand. Already a two-time loser, without divine intervention he faces a long stretch inside. Then God sends J. Radcliffe Stonewiler, a celebrity lawyer who gets Dortmunder...
14) The Busy Body
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A mob boss's right-hand man must track down a missing cache of heroin The corpse isn't anybody special-a low-level drug courier-but it has been so long since the organization's last grand funeral that Nick Rovito decides to give the departed a big send-off. He pays for a huge church, a procession of Cadillacs, and an ocean of flowers, and enjoys the affair until he learns the dead man is going to his grave wearing the blue suit. Rovito summons Engel,...
15) Ex Officio
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An ailing ex-president attempts to return to the world stage Few retirements are tougher than that of a former president. For more than a decade, the once-powerful Bradford Lockridge, whose presidency was cut short after one term, has slipped further and further into obscurity. At his lowest point, he flies to California to attend the opening of a supermarket, just for a chance to get some sunshine. After the ceremony ends, Lockridge faints, waking...
16) Comfort Station
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In the comfort station at Bryant Park, worlds collide and lives are changed forever Look past the grandeur of the famous New York Public Library and you will see the true architectural marvel of Forty-Second Street: the comfort station. A small building, modest in its proportions but undeniable in its importance, its handful of stalls and urinals provide a haven for rich and poor alike. The restroom's keeper is Mo Mowgli, a meek man whose only trouble...
17) High Adventure
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Kirby Galway may be a low-level marijuana smuggler in Belize, but the man has a dream-to make lots and lots of money. So when a local official offers him a back-jungle tract of land he swears would make a perfect cattle ranch, Kirby jumps at the opportunity. Unfortunately, he lands himself in a swamp-that he now owns. Kirby begins selling homemade "artifacts" from his property to American museums and witless tourists, even building a fake ancient...
19) A Jade in Aries
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To find a gay man's killer, Mitch Tobin looks to the stars Disgraced ex-cop Mitch Tobin is digging in his basement when he meets Ronald Cornell. A gay man from downtown Brooklyn whose partner was recently murdered, Cornell wants Tobin's assistance in an investigation that the NYPD has declared hopeless. Tobin sympathizes-he once lost a partner of his own, a fellow cop whose death he was partially responsible for-and asks how he can help. Cornell has...
20) The Scared Stiff
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Attempting a worldwide insurance scam in South America, a con artist finds the natives less than friendly After more than a decade of skipping out on their debts, Lola and Barry owe a lot of money to the wrong people. To escape the loan sharks, Barry decides it's time for one of them to die-or at least to pretend to. As the venue for this insurance fraud, they choose Lola's home country, Guerrera, where death certificates come cheap and government...