Michael A. Black – författare

Set in the latter half of the fabulous 1940s, Pope's Last Case and Other Stories details the adventures of tough, hardboiled, ex-Private Eye Vince Pope and his lovely, rich, socialite wife, Laura. Vince, a veteran of WW II, has hung up his PI shingle in favor of a life of leisure, but old pals and new troubles keep interfering. Written as an homage to Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man, this collection of short stories deftly captures the mood and optimism of the country after the Second World War when men were men and the ladies were gorgeous. Join Vince and Laura as they confront gangsters, crimes of passion, crooked politicians, and even a serial killer in this thrill-packed collection of stories that also has the continuity of a novel.Stories included in this collection:Whodunit?A Girl's Best FriendBetween Two WorldsLost WeekendNo PromisesBitter AlmondsKnockoutsPope's Last Case

Fourteen tales guaranteed to keep you riveted to your seat.A World War II rescue-extraction ventures into madness and the heart of darkness…A CIA operative desperately tries to escape from Cuba after Castro's takeover…An American hitman in Japan finds himself bringing a gun to a swordfight…A band of criminals planning a heist from a casino get an assist from a mermaid…A long simmering western tale of vengeance unfolds in the early days of the movie industry…A brutal tale of life and death unfolds on the street of a small town in the Old West…A former boxer reluctantly recalls his past as he is thrust into an unwelcome comeback…A prescient country and western song foretells a tale of murder and revenge…A tough guy private eye battles Nazi spies for control of a superweapon…A time warp sends a group of scientists back to the Jurassic age with disastrous results…A legendary hero struggles to defeat evil in ancient Greece…A beautiful seductress has deadly plans for her troubled bodyguard…A kidnapping turns out to be far more involved than is first believed…A trip downstate immerses a Chicago cop in a sinister network of conspiracy and murder…During the days of the pulps, thrillers came in various genres, but they always delivered exciting entertainment. This collection includes a variety of stories guaranteed to keep you turning those pages. Enter a world of adventure, intrigue, and murder: a World War II mission involving headhunters and a trip into the heart of darkness; a time warp that puts a group of scientists face to face with a Tyrannosaurus Rex; some unscrupulous dealings endanger a Chicago cop in southern Illinois.Award-winning author Michael A. Black, best known for his novels, began his writing career with short stories. Many of these tales appeared in such prestigious magazines as Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, as well as numerous anthologies. Now The Thrillers collects all of these mesmerizing stories in a single volume, ranging from espionage to westerns to science fiction and a whole lot more.

The case wasn't just cold -- it was ice-cold. But the murder of Miriam Walker had a pretty high profile in the middle of a tough re-election campaign, so the Cook County sheriff assembled a task force to get results... and put Sergeant Frank Leal on it. Leal is still getting over the death of his partner and some wounds of his own, both emotional and physical, so working as part of a team might be tough. It doesn't help that a lot of people don't really want the case solved, including Miriam Walker's husband and the men he hired to take care of Miriam for him. Leal isn't even sure he can trust the rest of the team, but he's got a job to do, and he's not going to quit until he finishes it, no matter who gets in his way.

Something's happening in the underworld of Cook County. Tensions are rising between two rival drug lords, and the streets are their battleground. Sergeant Frank Leal and his former partner, Olivia "e;Ollie"e; Hart, get involved when one of their informants turns up dead with his ear cut off. When one drug lord decides its time to eliminate the competition completely, the takeover becomes very hostile indeed. As blood flows in the gutter and retaliation rules the day, Leal and Hart have to stop two criminal armies before they meet in an all-out war with the innocents caught in between.

Shade's investigation takes a walk on the seedy side, and begins to attract the attention of some very powerful enemies. But whenever Shade gets close to the truth, somebody seems to end up dead, and he suddenly finds himself the prime suspect in a homicide investigation.

The case wasn't just cold -- it was ice-cold. But the murder of Miriam Walker had a pretty high profile in the middle of a tough re-election campaign, so the Cook County sheriff assembled a task force to get results...

Something's happening in the underworld of Cook County. Tensions are rising between two rival drug lords, and the streets are their battleground. Sergeant Frank Leal and his former partner, Olivia "e;Ollie"e; Hart, get involved when one of their informants turns up dead with his ear cut off. When one drug lord decides it's time to eliminate the competition completely, the takeover becomes very hostile indeed. As blood flows in the gutter and retaliation rules the day, Leal and Hart have to stop two criminal armies before they meet in an all-out war with the innocents caught in between.

Things couldn't be worse for Sergeant Frank Leal. He's assigned a homicide at a seedy motel that suddenly develops into a "e;heater."e; Leal's regular partners Olivia Harts is reassigned to the SWAT team. He's also saddled with a college intern tweeting his every moves and Hart's replacement is a rubber-gun-squad candidate who has conversations with a hand-puppet named Oscar. Hart's secretly assigned to an internal affairs investigation to determine which members of the SWAT team are stealing the money during drug raids. She's thrust into a non-stop series of dangerous raids that require all of her skills. After a few more murders by a ruthless street gangs Leal wonders if they'll end up as sacrificial offerings in the escalating conflict.

It started as a simple missing person case. Maria Castro came to private detective Ron Shade because her friend Juanita was desperate to find her fiance It all seemed pretty standard...until the missing fiance was found floating in a canal. From there the search for something resembling the truth led Shade deeper and deeper into the darkness, in a world of murder, conspiracy and cover-ups. But Shade won't be satisfied with the truth. He's looking for justice.