David Dodge – författare

It takes a thief…“Le Chat” (“The Cat”), an infamous thief, has come out of retirement and is again liberating expensive jewelry from wealthy tourists on the FreRch Riviera. Or is it a “copycat” who is stealing fortunes? John Robie thought he had left his larcenous past behind. Once responsible for a string of daring thefts and escapes, he was caught and sent to prison just before the outbreak of World War II. Freed during the German occupation of France, Robie joined the French Resistance and received unofficial amnesty after the war ended. He retired to a simple life in the country where he befriended the local commissaire, Oriol, and tended his gardens. Now it's 1951, and someone has been at work using his old MO. When the police come to arrest him, Robie escapes to Cannes. There, he reconnects with his former comrade Bellini, who convinces Robie to help catch the copycat. Disguised as a pudgy, middle-aged American businessman, Robie scouts the local nightclubs and casinos and tries to outthink the new thief. When he meets Francie Stevens, the daughter of a wealthy tourist, she becomes Robie's unwelcome ally, and together they hatch a dangerous plan to catch the thief at a gala party. But soon they both realize that Robie really is a thief at heart. With Oriol and the police on his trail, will he escape capture? Will the real thief be caught? And will Robie give up the thief?

The classic mystery that inspired the Academy Award-winning film by Alfred Hitchcock. “Le Chat” is a legend.  He is a mystery.  He is a jewel thief, famous and elusive for being able to swipe anything and get away clean.  He is John Robie, retired and living a quiet life, tending his rose garden in the South of France. But his retirement plans are thrown for a loop when a series of robberies too closely resemble the work of “Le Chat,” and the police start digging into Robie’s past.  To keep himself free, and with the help of an equally mysterious young woman, John Robie will have to catch the true thief, before the police catch him.

Globetrotting detective Al Colby makes his debut in this dazzling mystery from the author of To Catch a Thief.   Al Colby, an American expatriate working as a private investigator in Mexico City, is contacted by an old acquaintance in Los Angeles who hands him a cold case involving a missing person. Robert Parker’s mysterious disappearance is tying up a family fortune and is enraging his abandoned wife who can’t tap the family coffers without proof of death. The case sounded routine enough, right up his alley, but the trail for the missing Mr. Parker leads Colby down a rabbit hole winding through a number of South American countries, each one a dead end. Running out of funds and clean shirts, Colby is ready to throw in the towel, but the stakes are too high and his client fuels the search with additional cash.   The deeper Colby digs the more entangled he becomes in a decades old mystery of misplaced loyalties, family secrets, and riches in nitrate ore. In between tequila shots and beautiful women, Al Colby has a case that drags him in deeper with each step. But can he piece it all together before the quicksand swallows him whole?

A CPA in 1940s San Francisco searches for his partner’s killer in this witty and “hard-hitting” mystery by the author of the classic To Catch a Thief (Time).   The first in the series of noir mysteries starring hard-drinking accountant Whit Whitney, Death and Taxes follows the calculating amateur detective as he looks into the murder of George MacLeod—a top tax consultant who was a close colleague of Whitney’s, at least until his body was stuffed into a bank vault.   A fast-paced, sharp-witted tale involving everything from pretty blondes to bootleggers to tangles with the Treasury Department, Death and Taxes “winds up at a lightning pace . . . Fast and easy to read” (New York Herald Tribune).   “Rapid-fire action in the manner of Dashiell Hammett.” —The Detroit News

This globe-spanning treasure-hunt adventure is filled with “action, suspense, and excitement . . . Pure escape” (San Francisco Chronicle).   Al Colby should never have said yes. When asked to smuggle a package from Chile to Peru, he should have run in the other direction. But he needed money, and he wanted the adventure. Now a man is dead, and two beautiful women seem out to seduce Al or kill him—or maybe both.   A handful of gunmen, however, definitely aren’t planning on seducing him first. And it all has something to do with that package, an ancient manuscript that reads like a treasure map . . .   From the bestselling author of the classic To Catch a Thief—the basis for the Hitchcock film—this is an entertaining, fast-paced story of international intrigue and danger.

This witty novel of a con man on the run, from the author of To Catch a Thief, “ends with a gratifying twist” (Publishers Weekly).   When a handsome swindler working the French Riviera meets a beautiful heiress on the beach at Cannes, sparks fly. But so do bullets—and soon he’s forced to flee the country with both the police and the heiress on his trail.   From the casinos of Monaco to the jungles of Brazil, from Tangier to Marrakech to Peru, the chase is on. And not even a veteran of Monte Carlo’s baccarat tables would dare to place odds on where it will end . . .   “A master hand at dangers and hair-raising near misses.” —San Francisco Chronicle   “The pulp era may have been over, but Dodge was still writing like it was in full swing, peppering the story with snappy patter. . . . Great fun.” —Booklist

Category Is: Cocktails! features original recipes for 60 cocktails and zero-proof drinks, alongside beautifully-rendered illustrations and profiles of the personalities who inspired them. The drag legends here run the gamut: designers, dancers, comedians, community activists, contortionists, Emmy winners, and Broadway actors. The book includes drag’s big names, such as stars of reality TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race Kim Chi, Trixie Mattel, and Latrice Royale, to scene stalwarts Divine and Peaches Christ, to international performers like Pabllo Vittar and Pangina Heals—as well as culturally significant figures, like vaudevillian king Annie Hindle and activist Stormé DeLarverie. While the drinks in most drag bars could easily fuel a transatlantic flight, this collection puts forth a radical thought: drag performers and their fans deserve better. The tipples here are equal parts delicious and quirky, featuring unusual but easily-sourced ingredients. Along with straightforward recipes, the authors cover the basics of preparing, garnishing, and serving mixed drinks. Armed with these brilliant concoctions and some deep-dive diva trivia, this terrific resource will make you the life of your next cocktail party.

A visual love letter to the food carts, market stalls, and sidewalk entrepreneurs that give New York City its flavor, grit, and humanity. From halal trucks in Queens to mango stands in the Bronx, churro sellers in Brooklyn to taco bikes in Manhattan, NYC Street Vendors features over 150 of the city’s most beloved curbside operations.Illustrator Joel Holland captures the soul of New York’s informal economy through bold, expressive drawings which are paired with insightful, engaging text penned by local writer David Dodge. Building on the success of the duo’s earlier books, which covered storefronts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, this volume shifts focus to the vibrant community of rolling kitchens, pop-up stands, and independent sellers.Alongside longtime fixtures like NY Dosas, Mister Softee, and the Arepa Lady, readers will discover Japanese musubi carts, knife-sharpening trucks, Jamaican jerk vendors, mobile bookstores, and bustling hubs like the Union Square Greenmarket. Many of the entrepreneurs featured are immigrants whose work has helped shape the cultural fabric of the five boroughs—making the project a powerful reminder of the essential role they play in New York’s identity.