Category: Crime

The Far Empty by J. Todd Scott / Z-View

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The Far Empty by J. Todd Scott

Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

First sentence…

My father has killed three men.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

J. Todd Scott pulls us in from the first sentence and proceeds to unfold his story from the perspective of believable characters with a slow burn to a dramatic conclusion that leaves us satisfied and yet hoping for more. (Rest easy, more stories are coming about those who survive.)

The Far Empty is a modern day western-noir wrapped around a mystery (mysteries) with enough action and suspense to satisfy the most critical reader.

 When Chris Cherry, a new deputy in Murfee, Texas, finds the handcuffed, skeletal remains of a body in a remote area not far from the Mexico/Texas border, he starts an investigation.  It’s an investigation that will uncover secrets best left hidden and may cost him his life.

The Far Empty hooked me from the first sentence.  I loved every page and give it my highest recommendation.  J. Todd Scott is the real deal.

Rating:

The Last Good Guy by T. Jefferson Parker

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Coming on August 13th from T. Jefferson Parker is The Last Good Guy.

In this electrifying new thriller from three-time Edgar Award winner and New York Times bestseller T. Jefferson Parker, Private Investigator Roland Ford hunts for a missing teenager and uncovers a dark conspiracy in his most personal case yet.

When hired by a beautiful and enigmatic woman to find her missing younger sister, private investigator Roland Ford immediately senses that the case is not what it seems. He is soon swept up in a web of lies and secrets as he searches for the teenager, and even his new client cannot be trusted. His investigation leads him to a secretive charter school, skinhead thugs, a cadre of American Nazis hidden in a desert compound, an arch-conservative celebrity evangelist–and, finally, to the girl herself. The Last Good Guy is Ford’s most challenging case to date, one that will leave him questioning everything he thought he knew about decency, honesty, and the battle between good and evil…if it doesn’t kill him first.

Love that title and T. Jefferson always delivers.  The Last Good Guy is on my to-buy list.  If it makes yours, then click here.

Trouble is What I Do by Walter Mosley

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Walter Mosley is coming back with a new Leonid McGill yarn.  Trouble is What I Do is such a classic title.  Here’s the synopsis…

From innovative bestselling novelist Walter Mosley comes the return of the beloved Leonid McGill detective series featuring a morally ambiguous P.I. who solves crimes and whose victims are society’s most downtrodden.

Leonid McGill’s spent a lifetime building up his reputation in the New York investigative scene. His seemingly infallible instinct and inside knowledge of the crime world make him the ideal man to help when Phillip Worry comes knocking.

Phillip “Catfish” Worry is a 92-year-old Mississippi bluesman who needs Leonid’s help with a simple task: deliver a letter revealing the black lineage of a wealthy heiress and her corrupt father. Unsurprisingly, the opportunity to do a simple favor while shocking the prevailing elite is too much for Leonid to resist.

But when a famed and feared assassin puts a hit on Catfish, Leonid has no choice but to confront the ghost of his own felonious past. Working to protect his client, and his own family, Leonid must reach the heiress on the eve of her wedding before her powerful father kills those who hold their family’s secret.

Joined by a team of young and tough aspiring investigators, Leonid must gain the trust of wary socialites, outsmart vengeful thugs, and, above all, serve the truth– no matter the cost.

Trouble is What I Do is available for pre-order now.   Deal me in.

Dark Duet: Two Noir Novellas by Eric Beetner

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I just put in my order for Dark Duet: Two Noir Novellas by Eric Beetner.

For the first time in print two novellas in the pulp paperback tradition of fast and no-punches-pulled noir.

In White Hot Pistol Jacy needs to get out of town and away from her stepfather, Brian. The only one she can turn to is her estranged brother, Nash. But getting away won’t be easy. Throw in a bag of cash, dark family secrets and a town cop who doesn’t want them to leave–who also happens to be the very man they’re trying to escape–and you’ve got a pulpy ride down the dark alleys of Noir. First time in paperback.

In Blood on Their Hands Garret and his friends get more than they bargained for with a teenage prank gone wrong. Now killers are after them and the one man who could help them can never know. Friendships will be tested and these young men will see what they’re really made of and if they’ll even make it out of their teen years alive. It’s a violent coming-of-age story and pulp fiction at its action-packed best. Never before published.

If this sounds like something you’d dig, here’s your shovel.

Coffin Bound by Waters, Dani, Simpson and Bidikar

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Coffin Bound by Dan Waters (writer), Dani (artist) and Brad Simpson (colorist) is a new series coming from Image Comics.  It doesn’t look or sound like a typical comic…

Chased by an unstoppable killer, Izzy Tyburn has decided that if the world won’t have her in it, it can have nothing of her at all. She’s retreading her life, leaving nothing but burned rubber, ash… and the sun-scorched bones of those who get in her way.

“This is a book all about the inevitability of death, and the choice each of us faces between coming to terms with it, or trying to deny it,” said Watters. “This is a book drawn beautifully by Dani, with Brad Simpsons’ filthy bright colors. This is a book about cars, guns, and sex—and how each of those things does little to stave off the bottomless void waiting just beyond the veil of our known existence. What was the question again?”

Image has an eight page preview that you can see here.  I’m on board.

The “Killerman” Trailer is Here!

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I like this trailer for Killerman.

Blue Fox Entertainment
In theaters on August 30th

Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Emory Cohen, Diane Guerrero, Nickola Shreli, Suraj Sharma, Mike Moh, Zlatko Buric

Directed By Malik Bader

In KILLERMAN, a New York City money launderer named Moe Diamond (Liam Hemsworth) desperately searches for answers after waking up with no memory, millions in stolen cash and drugs, and an insane crew of dirty cops violently hunting him down.

Sebela and Visions: New Supernatural Crime Series!

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Trust Fall by Christopher Sebela (writer) and Chris Visions (artist) is a new comic series that’s worth a look.  Here’s how Aftershock describes it…

Ash Parsons was raised to believe she’s special. As someone with a quirk of genetics that lets her teleport things, she’s the golden goose of her family — the foundation of a struggling criminal outfit.

Ash is able to pop out whole fleets of cars and entire bank vaults. But while she can teleport valuables and her accomplices, she can’t teleport herself — making every job a trust fall with her family there to catch her and escort her to safety. It’s a perfect setup, but as things begin to change and the Parsons move up in the world, Ash will find herself pushing back against her golden cage, with deadly results.

Dead Letters’ Christopher Sebela (COLD WAR, Shanghai Red) and Chris Visions (Spider-Gwen, Bitch Planet) reunite for a criminally provocative tale of give-and-take with a style all its own.

If you’d like to see a preview of Trust Fall, you’re in luck because Syfy has an exclusive nine page preview!

“Alfred Hitchcock Presents” Trivia

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Jake Rossen and Mental Floss present 10 Facts About Alfred Hitchcock Presents.  I love AHP… especially the half hour episodes.  Here are my top three facts from a very good list…

5. IT COULD HAVE BEEN TITLED HENRY SLESAR PRESENTS.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents drew primarily from published short stories it optioned from writers. One such author, Henry Slesar, was a frequent contributor to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, the monthly short story collection that had the director’s endorsement. When producer Norman Lloyd realized the prolific Slesar and three other authors had a story in the magazine every month, he invited all four of them out to California for a meeting about writing teleplays based on their stories. According to Lloyd, only Slesar showed up. This was because the other three writers were all his pseudonyms. Slesar ended up writing 55 scripts for the series, the most of any contributor.

3. HITCHCOCK’S DIRECT INVOLVEMENT IN THE SERIES WAS VERY LIMITED.
In style and substance, Alfred Hitchcock Presents shares a lot in common with Hitchcock’s films, particularly the scheming characters with murder on the mind in 1948’s Rope and 1951’s Strangers on a Train. Despite the Hitchcock aesthetic, his direct involvement in the show was limited. Because he was so busy with his movie career, he was convinced by MCA executive Lew Wasserman that lending his name and likeness to the series would not take up much of his time. Producers and frequent Hitchcock collaborators Joan Harrison and Norman Lloyd handled most of the production chores, though Hitchcock did direct 17 episodes over the course of the series. The director later said his supervision of the show extended to delivering “fatherly words of advice without trying to usurp their position.”

Viewers, however, seemed to infer he wrote and directed much of what they saw, sending fan letters to the director stating as much. While his effort was not as significant as they believed, it proved to be lucrative. Hitchcock drew a reported $129,000 per episode from CBS and sponsor Bristol-Myers.

8. ONE EPISODE WAS DEEMED TOO GRUESOME TO AIR.
While none of the criminal deeds depicted in Alfred Hitchcock Presents were explicit, one episode in season 7 written by Psycho author Robert Bloch inferred something so disturbing that it was kept off the air by NBC. (Spoilers follow.) In “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” a boy who dreams of becoming a magician is coerced into murdering his stage idol by the performer’s cheating spouse. She convinces him to do it by telling the boy—who is none too quick of mind—that he will absorb her husband’s “powers” once the deed is done. He believes it, and proceeds to saw her in half despite not having much of an idea about how the illusion is actually supposed to work. At the conclusion, Hitchcock makes a characteristically grim observation that the scheming widow must be “beside herself.” The episode later ran in syndication.