Charles Willeford – författare

''No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford'' Elmore LeonardEx-con Freddy ''Junior'' Frenger lands in Miami with a pocketful of stolen credit cards and plans for a new life of crime, and disappears with a snatched suitcase, leaving the corpse of a Hare Krishna behind him.Homicide detective Hoke Moseley is soon on his case, chasing the immoral Junior and his hooker girlfriend through the Cuban ghettos, luxury hotels and seedy suburban sprawl of Miami in an increasingly perilous game of hide and seek.

''No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford'' Elmore LeonardIn an expensive Miami neighbourhood, Sergeant Hoke Mosely, Homicide Division, is called to investigate the lethal overdose of a young junkie. But what seems like a routine OD gives Moseley cause to doubt - particularly when he meets the dead kid''s stunning stepmother.And with his two teenage daughters dumped on him by his troublesome ex-wife, a new beat partner struggling with an unplanned pregnancy, and fifty cold cases to solve, it starts to feel like this little matter of a dead junkie and his beautiful stepmother might just be the answer to Hoke''s prayers . . .

''No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford'' Elmore LeonardIn a hot Florida summer, Sergeant Hoke Moseley''s life is going to hell: his ex-wife just remarried, his teenage daughters want to quit school and his beat partner is eight months pregnant - and living in his house. A break seems long overdue, so Hoke decides to bail out, give up police work and watch the ocean roll.But things don''t always work out. A handsome, cowboy-hatted psychopath is planning another armed robbery - one that will draw a retiree into a life of crime and leave half-a-dozen bystanders dead. It''s 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 no longer wants to be a cop.

''No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford'' Elmore LeonardSergeant Hoke Moseley is struggling: his division chief is making ominous plans for him, a man he sent to jail for murder has moved in across the street, and he''s stuck on one of his toughest cold cases yet. So the last thing he needs is to be sent undercover just as he''s beginning to make some headway with his work.South of Miami he is taken as a migrant worker to a farm where rumours of murder and slavery are rife. With only a Filipino prostitute and his own wits to protect him, Hoke faces vicious rednecks and his own scheming boss in this funny, vibrant masterpiece of hard-boiled fiction, the final Hoke Moseley.

''No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford'' Elmore LeonardRussell Haxby is a ruthless used-car salesman obsessed with manipulating and cavorting with married women. In this classic or hard-boiled fiction, Willeford crafts a wry, sardonic tale of hypocrisy, intrigue and lust set in San Francisco in the early fifties, in which every sentence masks innuendo and every detail hides a clue.

''No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford'' Elmore LeonardIn this riveting novel of psychological suspense, Charles Willeford charts a duel trajectory of alcoholic desire and destruction that is at once poignant, terrifying and utterly authentic.Prowling the grimy streets of San Francisco, Helen is a beautiful, sensuous drunk - and a pathetically easy pick-up. Harry just wants to help, but before long they are both adrift in a sea of alcohol - until Harry conceives the ultimate crime.

''No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford'' Elmore LeonardAmoral, sexy and brutal, Wild Wives was written in a sleazy San Francisco hotel in the early 1950s while Willeford was on leave from the army. This tale of deception features crooked detective Jacob C. Blake and his nemesis: a beautiful, insane young woman who is the wife of a socially prominent San Francisco architect.Blake becomes entangled in a web of deceit, intrigue and multiple murders in this exciting period tale.''Mr Willeford never puts a foot wrong, and this is truly an entertainment to relish'' New Yorker

''No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford'' Elmore LeonardBy day, Richard Hudson, woman-chaser and used-car salesman, works his crooked car lot with much success. By night, he returns home to a family of misfits. One day, seized by a feeling of terror and revulsion, he realises he''s wasting his life in the meaningless pursuit of money. His only hope, he decides, is to pursue his dream of making a movie.Richard completes his cherished project, but forces beyond his control swiftly reject and destroy it. As a result, enraged and humiliated, he goes on a bender of epic proportions, drinking his way through the underbelly of Los Angeles and exacting a monstrous revenge on all who have crossed him.

''No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford'' Elmore LeonardFrank 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 fast-paced, twisty thriller about an art heist that spins out of control with murderous results...Now a major film starring Elizabeth Debicki, Claes Bang, Donald Sutherland and Mick Jagger''No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford'' Elmore Leonard''Stunning'' NEW YORKERArt critic James Figueras 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. Figueras is after more than the man, however - he wants the work, and something more ... something more horrible than can be imagined.Crossing the art world with the underworld, THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY ranges from the upbeat Florida sunshine to an art collector who doesn''t care how his art is collected, even if it involves murder.

''I had a hunch that madness was a predominant theme and normal condition for Americans living in the second half of this century'' Charles WillefordWilleford''s pulp classic features six incisive tales as fresh as the day they were first published in 1963. Writing at a time when we still had some faith in our elected leaders, Willeford laid bare the American Dream - and 50 years later his revelations are as chilling and relevant as ever.

''No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford'' Elmore LeonardI Was Looking For a Street tells the story of the author''s childhood and adolescence as an orphan, as he moves from railroad yard to hobo tent citiy, to soup kitchen and desert around Los Angeles and across the United States. The ensuing tale is at once a picaresque adventure through Depression-era America and a portrait of the writer as a young man of seemingly little promise but great spirit.Written late in Willeford''s career, this memoir is the work of a writer at the height of his powers looking back without nostalgia or regret, and preserving in his clear and powerful prose the great American adventure of his youth.