An unidentifiable body is found in an Indianapolis park, deliberately arranged so that police know it's not just a random crime. Former cop Frank Behr, now a P.I. with no cases, no money and no options, finds himself chasing down the disappearance of a wayward young woman who's been missing for months in a futile attempt to collect a reward. With assistance from his few remaining contacts on the force, Behr follows the tenuous thread of his case into the world of small-time prostitution-and discovers a possible connection to the body in the park. When another murder victim turns up, it's clear there's a serial killer at work, but this predator seems to be invisible, camouflaged by his perfectly normal-looking life. Behr's relentless quest for the missing girl and his parallel pursuit of the killer become entangled with the official police investigation. Ultimately, Behr's obsession with the truth will lead him into the darkest places, and force him to make an unavoidable and devastating decision.

April 1945 - the last act of the war... The Allied stranglehold on Berlin is tightening by the day, as the escape corridor to the Bavarian Alps and the Swiss border is narrowing. In the maze of ruins that Berlin has become, a man of appalling ingenuity, with a ruthless sense of self-preservation, contrives his escape. He is the secret policeman Ernst Sch�ller. In his shabby, shiny suit with its sagging pockets, he is not immediately recognizable as someone of importance, but as the Reich Special Investigator he has long been checking up on the highest in the land, and there is nothing he doesn't know. Using his position of knowledge, he begins to bargain for his life with the Allies. The man with whom the bargain must be made is Allen Welsh Dulles, chief of the O.S.S. in Switzerland and President Roosevelt's personal representative. With chilling pragmatism, he sees that the longer the German surrender is delayed the deeper the Communist penetration of Europe will be. In order to stop Tito's seizure of Trieste, he is ready to talk to the devil himself. Sch�ller and Dulles, both professionals and practical men, arrive at an arrangement of expediency in Berne. 'A first-class political thriller, at once literate, provocative and exciting' - The Sunday Telegraph 'Blends fact and fiction in such a way that you really can't see the join. The final irony is profound indeed.' - Sunday Times 'Very convincing' - The Guardian Providing an accurate reconstruction of real life events, The Day Before Sunrise is a masterly piece of story-telling, recreating in minute detail the terrible last days of the Third Reich. Thomas Wiseman was born in Vienna in 1931 and came to England at the age of seven. He was a columnist on the Evening Standard from 1953 until 1961, when he became film critic for the Sunday Express. Later he wrote a weekly column for the Guardian. He wrote his first novel, Czar , in France after giving up full-time journalism. His novel The Romantic Englishwoman was recently filmed by Joseph Losey, and his study of Vienna under the Nazis received critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic.

Once an accomplished plastic surgeon, Trevor Lucas started using his scalpel to do very bad things... Locked in a Boston psychiatric hospital, Lucas is holding the ward hostage-and performing grisly "operations" on his prisoners... Lucas, calling for forensic psychiatrist Frank Clevenger, is willing to strike a deal... What Lucas knows about Clevenger could ruin the psychiatrist. What Clevenger can find out about Lucas could save the hostages. And he's got 24 hours to do it... As Clevenger feverishly delves into Lucas' past, what he discovers is chilling, disturbing, and all too familiar. For Clevenger can't help but wonder if his proximity to killers and madmen in coincidence, or something much more complex: Projection.

"An extravaganza . . . fertile invention and forceful style . . . Mr. Kersh's many admirers will undoubtedly devour this highly flavoured hotch-potch with avidity." - Julian Maclaren-Ross, Sunday Times "[F]irst-rate Kersh, richly peopled with the odd bit roles he sketches so well and written with style and individuality." - Anthony Boucher, New York Herald Tribune "Sometimes funny, sometimes nightmarish, always first-class entertainment." - Basil Davenport, New York Times Journalist George Oaks and his friend Albert Kemp, a mystery novelist, are on their way to meet their friend, the celebrated philosopher Dr. Monacelli. But when a clerical mix-up leads to their meeting the American gangster Monty Cello instead, Oaks and Kemp quickly find themselves caught up in a bizarre and dangerous plot involving a murdered reporter, a missing scientist, and a group of powerful madmen with a plan to destroy the world as we know it. It's a race against time as Oaks and Kemp must infiltrate the villains' stronghold and save humanity before it's too late! Equal parts hard-boiled crime novel and apocalyptic science fiction tale, The Great Wash (1953) is one of the most exciting novels by Gerald Kersh (1911-1968), who is best known for his classics Night and the City (1938) and Fowlers End (1957). Fowlers End and four volumes of Kersh's strange and brilliant short fiction are also available from Valancourt.

"After narrowly escaping with his life at the hands of a murderous Hollywood pimp, detective Happy Doll, bullet-ridden but healing, has landed on a remote Mexican beach. In a humble shack and with his dog for company, Doll settles into a peaceful idyll of Buddhist study. But then trouble, as it always does, comes to paradise. Doll is the witness to a murder for which he is framed, and now, with an expired passport and the Mexican authorities on his tail, he must sneak across the border back to L.A. by any means necessary, with the goal of bringing the true murderer to justice. But it's not just trouble that expels Doll from paradise! His dark past reaches for him, like a hand from the grave, old enemies want him dead, including the Jalisco Cartel, and Doll, a reluctant instrument of mayhem, yearns to end this cycle of violence and tip the karmic scales in his favor. But how can he do this without getting blood on his hands? Karma Doll marks the third installment in a madcap, bloody, and impossibly fun series, bringing us back in the good company of Happy Doll: a beloved, introverted anti-hero who has taken more hits to the head than a linebacker, yet still always manages to come out on top." -- Amazon.

He was a tall, cleanly attractive young man, the kind you'd like to have for a neighbor. Press the wrong button and he'd mow you down with the ruthlessness of a Sherman tank. His name was Daniel Port. He was a gangster, the brain and spirit behind the machine that milked the dirty pennies from the city. Now Port wanted out. He had a bellyful of corruption, a one-way ticket to New York, and a dark, shining girl to go along with it. The problem was to get there alive, because the one way out for Daniel Port was over his own freshly dug grave...

Vera Caspary, the famed author of Laura , gives us another gripping crime drama, told through shifting points of view. John Ansell, young and idealistic editor of Truth and Crime magazine, wants to breathe new life into the stale and formulaic publication. Instead of rehashing a story that's already been proven popular elsewhere, he finds a fresh one: the murder of Warren G. Wilson, famed figurehead of a correspondence course. The murder itself isn't too remarkable--just a bullet in the back--but the victim is another case, as it becomes apparent that despite having a household name, nothing is known about him. Perhaps even more peculiar is how Ansell's boss absolutely refuses to run the story and, soon thereafter, Ansell is poisoned. Caspary masterfully allows the truth to slowly untangle in this incredibly woven mystery, finally available as an ebook.

Pander wore dark glasses and fancy suspenders and he moved into the San Pietro rackets like a sandblaster gone berserk. Fell, the boss, was mysteriously away, and Pander grabbed the chance to bury his hands in the heavy money. Then Fell came back. At his side was Cripp, the human adding machine with the beautiful face and the twisted leg. With them came murder... wholesale.

Charley's Rope was about frayed out. The caribinieri were after him, he had a bullet in his hip and no goddamn passport. Charley needed a passport bad. He needed that intricate piece of paper--signed, sealed, and innocent looking--the way only a G.I. in italy could need one. A G.I. deserter with a sweet fortune in blackmail lire and the carabinieri lusting to lay hands on him...

The Big Fix by Ed Lacy Author of the 1958 Edgar Award-winning novel Room to Swing! On the night Irish Tommy Cork's murder was planned, nothing very much out of the ordinary happened. Tommy was in the ring, taking a pasting-as usual. Back to the ropes, almost sitting on the second strand, Tommy crouched, gloved hands up in front of his face like a leather fence. He was fighting a strong youngster who was now whaling away with both hands in a moment of wild enthusiasm. Most of his blows were blocked, or ducked by Tommy's weaving head, but those few that didn't miss landed with loud thud sounds on the kidneys, head, or in the stomach, visibly shaking up the pale "old man."

Aus dem Buch: "Sie hatten ohnehin ein wenig Aufsehen erregt. Man ist zwar in Paris an sehr vieles, das andernorts Zusammenrottungen verursachen würde, schlechtweg gewöhnt; ein höchst nachlässig gekleidetes Paar aber fällt in einem erstklassigen Mode-Restaurant auch in Paris auf. Ihre Gesichter, die in diesem Milieu sofort sozusagen dominierten, und das sichere Auftreten Fecs hatten den Maître d'Hôtel jedoch schnell entwaffnet; die Lebhaftigkeit ihrer Unterhaltung, welche durchaus gegen die Lokalusancen verstieß, besonders das überaus kräftige Mienenspiel Bichettes hatten dann aber neuerdings unliebsame Aufmerksamkeit hervorgerufen." Walter Serner (1889-1942) war ein Essayist, Schriftsteller und Dadaist.

A washed up TV reporter stumbles onto a corruption scandal in Western China. Pursued through the desert by a psychotic spin-doctor and a world-weary cop, he discovers the real China: illegal metal mines, a fashion-crazed gang of girl bikers, a whole commune of Tiananmen Square survivors and the up-market sleaze-joints of Beijing.

Death By Deadline is a mystery thriller that takes you deep into the heart of local TV News, with heroes, villains, and a look at how the battle to be first with a story can climax in unbelievable catastrophe. Can local news kill people? That's the essential question as the author takes you through a mosaic of politics. the underworld, government, and the life of a big city as seen through the prism of courageous journalists and their corrupt and devious counterparts. Death by Deadline is a story of murder, mayhem, and hope. accompanied by unforgettable characters, and some of the most unusual newsroom humor that you will ever read. This is not for the fainthearted, but is IS for people who want to walk the fine line between solid reporting and the tragedy of journalistic deceit. The people are not real. Can it happen? Maybe, on some dark day in the future, unless it is too late. "Too late" is a real possibility. But in the meantime, the thread of corruption, sexual tension, heroes and villains fighting an internal struggle, produces a newsroom full of tightrope walkers in a novel with so many surprises, that the reader must be prepared to face the unthinkable.

THE MEN FROM THE BOYS Marty Bond had been a famous cop in New York. But that was before he was "retired" from the force. Now he's a house dick at a crummy hotel, pimping, rousting, drinking too much. His stomach is killing him, and it comes as no surprise when the doctor says it might be a tumor. Knowing he must have cancer, Marty starts to plan a quicker exit. That's when his stepson comes to him. An auxiliary cop working the streets, Lawrence thinks there was something fishy in a meat seller who cries robbery one minute, then changes his mind the next. Marty tells him to forget about it. But the kid investigates anyway, and is almost beaten to death. Now Marty figures it's time to take Lawrence's suspicions seriously. But what can an ex-cop on the skids do when all he has left are a few old skills, a cynical heart, and the little time remaining?

She was an expensive call girl and spending a night with her came high. But he never figured on a price as high as murder. The photograph did justice to her generous statistics. Any private eye would enjoy tracking her down, and Hal Darling was no exception. Her name was Marion Lodge. She'd put her impressive body to good use as a call girl before she'd dropped out of sight almost a year before. Hal was being paid a fortune to find her. But someone else was also looking for Marion-with a knife. Hal had to get her fast, or the killer would strike first.

It was a few minutes before eleven when I unlocked our door. The dumb lamp we had in the two-by-four "foyer" was on. The lamp looked like a drippy flower and cost fifty-seven bucks strictly because it was imported from Denmark. If all their lamps are like this job they must be blind over there. I could just about make out the couch opened as a bed, was surprised Mary was in the hay so early. I called out softly, "Babes?" She didn't answer.

Originally published in 1952. An open and shut case of murder! Matt Ranzino had sworn off sleuthing; he'd had a bellyful of violence. But when a beautiful blonde was murdered and Matt was asked to solve the crime, he took the job. When the blonde's husband committed suicide, the cops named him the killer and closed the case. But Matt smelled a put-up job. He knew the real killer -- but why risk his life to prove it? Then he met Mady, the only dame he ever really wanted. Wild, willing, and all woman, she wanted someone who was all man. There was just one hitch: Mady was linked to the murderer....

An elderly amateur detective visiting his family in the Hamptons over the summer becomes involved in a murder mystery.

I sat there, waiting in this dull Bronx back yard, the gun in my right pocket, safety off. It was simple... wait till he was on top of me, one shot in the heart... then run across the lot to the car. Sid had an ordinary looking heap; nobody would notice it, or the license number. The license number-that was one of the chances I had to take-one of the too-many chances. But this would work, if my luck held out. IF... IF... Damn, I hoped to hell he didn't have a wife and kids, looked too young for that, but even if he did-I had a wife and kid, too. God knows I didn't want to kill this detective, but I was caught in this web, had to do it. Had to... No point in thinking about that-more important to think of some way of disposing of the gun. Couldn't pull the same gag about losing it on Tony again. Well, have to work that out, somehow. Sloppy thinking on my part not to plan.... Hell with plans, no time for it. Not like the other one. Marshal Jameson, the promising young sculptor, sitting on his butt in a strange Bronx back yard on a sunny afternoon... carefully planning his second murder. I grinned, a sour, nervous grin-I was damn near bawling. Me, who'd never hurt a fly, waiting with a gun for a... I heard a car stop in front of the house. It was five to three. The dick was on time. I stood up and peered around the corner of the alley. He was alone. I waited: no running from this, no backing out. Or was killing the easy way out for me?

Clayton Biner had it all--swimming pools in California, haciendas in Mexico, blue evenings on the French Riviera, all the women he could use. But he wanted more. And he got it when he became involved with a vicious syndicate peddling heroin--the big H, the white Horse. Now he was really in the big money--a three-million-dollar bundle of danger and death. Ed Lacy is one of America's all-time best selling authors, with sales of his famous, nerve-chilling books in the millions. Shoot It Again is a powerful, haunting novel of an international crime syndicate and a man trapped by his own greed and passion. (Originally published as The Sex Castle.)