Lawrence Block - Böcker

The sixteenth Parker novel, "Butcher's Moon" is more than twice as long as most of the master heister's adventures and absolutely jammed with the action, violence, and nerve-jangling tension readers have come to expect. Back in the corrupt town where he lost his money, and nearly his life, in Slayground, Parker assembles a stunning cast of characters from throughout his career for one gigantic, blowout job: starting - and finishing - a gang war. It feels like the Parker novel to end all Parker novels, and for nearly twenty-five years that's what it was. After its publication in 1974, Donald Westlake said, 'Richard Stark proved to me that he had a life of his own by simply disappearing. He was gone.' And readers waited. But nothing bad is truly gone forever, and Parker's as bad as they come. According to Westlake, one day in 1997, 'suddenly, he came back from the dead, with a chalky prison pallor' - and the resulting novel, "Comeback", showed that neither Stark nor Parker had lost a single step. Knocking over a highly lucrative religious revival show, Parker reminds us that not all criminals don ski masks - some prefer to hide behind the wings of fallen angels.Backflash followed soon after, and it found Parker checking out the scene on a Hudson River gambling boat. Parker's no fan of either relaxation or risk, however, so you can be sure he's playing with house money - and he's willing to do anything to tilt the odds in his favor. Featuring three new introductions by Westlake's close friend and writing partner Lawrence Block, these classic Parker adventures deserve a place of honor on any crime fan's bookshelf.

Drawing on his experience in creating fictional bad guys, crime novelist Lawrence Block surveys the underside of American history through fifty of its most infamous characters. Some, like Jesse James, Bonnie Parker, and Joe Colombo, led a life of crime; others, like John Wilkes Booth and John White Webster, committed one notorious act. Some, like Pretty Boy Floyd or the elusive thief Railroad Bill, have become folk heroes, whether or not the real details of their lives matched the myths they inspired. Others, like Ed Gein and Ted Bundy, will be forever reviled. Block introduces each biography with a writer's eye for character and a good story. He begins the book with a short essay that considers how Americans have defined and regarded villains through history.The biographies, culled from the pages of the American National Biography and illustrated with archival photographs, describe each villain's background, exploits, and eventual fate--often with unexpected details. The convicted killer Nathan Leopold, for example, became the administrator of a leprosy hospital after his parole. The gangster Dutch Schultz was known not only for his bootlegging expertise but also for his cheap, ill-fitting clothes. The stagecoach bandit Black Bart fancied himself a poet (or, as he put it, "PO8"). And when outlaw Bill Doolin finally met his end, only a rusting buggy axle marked his grave. Ideal for readers of true crime, crime fiction, and history, Gangsters, Swindlers, Killers, and Thieves brings a fresh perspective to American's fascination with crime and its perpetrators.

A blistering Matt Scudder novel.Matt Scudder is well and truly off the booze, but he still spends time with some of his old drinking pals including Mick Ballou - an Irish American who operates more often than not on the wrong side of the law.Mick is worried - a garage full of bourbon has been ripped off and two of his henchman killed in cold blood. Somebody is muscling in on Micks patch and he wants Scudder to look into it. Matt reluctantly agrees to take a look but won't promise a result. On the way home he is attacked by somebody wants him off Mick's case. The following weekend Matt's mentor from AA is shot dead at point blank range when Scudder is in the men's room of the restaurant where the 2 had met for dinner - Matt knows it should have been him. Now the case is personal and no matter that he's warned off by his ex-colleagues in the NYPD and his wife Elaine, this is one he is going to see out to the end.