16 results for "Love"

Gun, with occasional music

Lethem, Jonathan
Gumshoe Conrad Metcalf has problems-there's a rabbit in his waiting room and a trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. Near-future Oakland is a brave new world where evolved animals are members of society, the police monitor citizens by their karma levels, and mind-numbing drugs such as Forgettol and Acceptol are all the rage. Metcalf has been shadowing Celeste, the wife of an affluent doctor. Perhaps he's falling a little in love with her at the same time. When the doctor turns up dead, our amiable investigator finds himself caught in a crossfire between the boys from the Inquisitor's Office and gangsters who operate out of the back room of a bar called the Fickle Muse. Mixing elements of sci-fi, noir, and mystery, this clever first novel from the author of Motherless Brooklyn is a wry, funny, and satiric look at all that the future may hold.
Harcourt Brace 1994 262 pages

Cinnamon kiss

Mosley, Walter
It is the Summer of Love and Easy Rawlins is contemplating robbing an armored car. It's farther outside the law than Easy has ever traveled, but his daughter, Feather, needs a medical treatment that costs far more than Easy can earn or borrow in time. And his friend Mouse tells him it's a cinch. Then another friend, Saul Lynx, offers a job that might solve Easy's problem without jail time. He has to track the disappearance of an eccentric, prominent attorney. His assistant of sorts, the beautiful "Cinnamon" Cargill, is gone as well. Easy can tell there is much more than he is being told-Robert Lee, his new employer, is as suspect as the man who disappeared. But his need overcomes all concerns, and he plunges into unfamiliar territory, from the newfound hippie enclaves to a vicious plot that stretches back to the battlefields of Europe.
Little, Brown 2005-09-19 312 pages

Blonde Faith

Walter Mosley,Walter
Easy Rawlins comes home one day to find Easter, the daughter of his friend Christmas Black, left on his doorstep. Easy knows that this could only mean that the ex-marine Black is probably dead, or will be soon.Easter's appearance is only the beginning, as Easy is immersed in a sea of problems. The love of his life is marrying another man and his friend Mouse is wanted for murder. As he's searching for a clue to Christmas Black's whereabouts, two suspicious MPs hire him to find his friend Black on behalf of the US Army. Easy's investigation brings him to Faith Laneer, a blonde woman with a dark past.As Easy begins to put the pieces together, he realizes that Black's dissappearance has its roots in Vietnam, and that Faith might be in a world of danger.
Orion Publishing Group, Limited 2008-08-05 320 pages

After that, the dark

Klavan, Andrew
Former government assassin Cameron Winter thinks he's finally found peace--and love--with therapist Gwendolyn Lord. But when she tells him about a baffling "locked room" murder in Tulsa, Winter's instincts pull him back into the shadows. The deeper he investigates, the more dangerous the case becomes--linking two impossible murders, a ruthless billionaire, and a ghost from his past. As his old life collides with his new one, Winter must decide how far he's willing to go to protect the woman he loves.
The Mysterious Press 2025-10-14 336 pages

Farewell, Amethystine

Mosley, Walter
From New York Times bestselling author Walter Mosley, Detective Easy Rawlins’ latest client sends him down a warren of memory and nostalgia―blinding him to reason and risk. January 1970 finds Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, LA’s premier Black detective, at 50 years of age despite all expectations. He has a loving family, a beautiful home, and a thriving investigation agency. All is right with the world ... and then Amethystine Stoller, his own personal Helen of Troy, arrives. Her ex-husband is missing. A simple enough case. But even as Easy takes his first step in the investigation he trips. He falls into the memory of things past. Little things, like loss, love, a world war, and a hunger that has eaten at him since he was a Black boy on his own on the streets of Fifth Ward, Houston, Texas. The missing ex, a young white man named Curt Fields, is found dead. Easy’s only real friend in the LAPD, Melvin Suggs, has gone into hiding rather than allow his femme fatale wife to go to the gas chamber. And that’s only the beginning. Easy finds himself pressed into a reckoning. All of his success cannot succor his heart. The 1970’s have ushered in new expectations of men and women, Black and White, and Easy has to make a choice that will almost certainly hasten a permanent descent, one that might sunder his soul. Shamus Award Finalist for Best Hardcover PI Novel
Little, Brown Paperbacks 2025-06-03 336 pages

Ancient Enemy

Robert Westbrook
"Fans of Hillerman will love this unique and quirky detective duo."-Leslie Glass, bestselling author of Tracking Time A Howard Moon Deer Mystery In San Geronimo, New Mexico, a bizarre murder unearths the ancient secrets of the Anasazi. And rumors of evil flesh-eating spirits run rampant....The murder of an esteemed archaeologist is fueling an already heated war between natives and the academics who excavate their land. And when the coroner confirms that the victim was cannibalized, the story takes a twisted turn.... Private eye Howard Moon Deer and ex-police chief Jack Wilder are on the case. The killing appears to be a modern mimicry of the Anasazi's rumored past-one the tribe thinks would be best left buried. But Howard and Jack must search for clues even if it means digging up sacred land. As they struggle to fight tribal politics, the killer strikes again. And now they must race to solve the crime before fear swallows the town whole.... "Westbrook...possesses a masterful sense of narration."-The Washington Post Book World "A racy and readable writer."-The New York Times Book Review
Speaking Volumes, LLC 2018-01-24 328 pages

Damnation Street

Andrew Klavan
They are two sworn enemies with a single obsession: a woman on the run from them both. Scott Weiss is a private detective. John Foy is a professional killer. The woman is Julie Wyant, a hooker with the face of an angel. Julie spent one night with Foy--a night of psychopathic cruelty that Foy called love. Desperate to get away from him, she vanished without a trace. And Foy wants her back. There's only one man who can find her: Weiss, the best locate operative in the business. She's begged him not to look for her, fearing he'll bring the killer in his wake. But Weiss can't stay away. Now, from a town called Paradise, through a wilderness that feels like hell, Weiss searches for Julie--and the killer follows, waiting for his chance. They are two expert hunters matching move for move--until it ends on Damnation Street.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2007-09-10 320 pages

When the thrill is gone

Mosley, Walter
The economy has hit the PI business hard, and Leonid McGill is getting job offers only from the criminals he's worked so hard to leave behind. So how can he say no to the beautiful young woman who walks into his office with a stack of cash? She's an artist, she tells him, who's escaped poverty via marriage to a rich collector. A rich collector with two ex-wives whose deaths are shrouded in mystery. She says she fears for her life, and needs Leonid's help. Though Leonid knows better than to believe every word, this isn't a job he can afford to turn away. Meanwhile, Leonid's personal life grows ever more chequered: his favourite stepson, Twill, drops out of school for mysteriously lucrative pursuits; his wife takes a new lover, infuriating the old one and endangering the whole family; and Leonid's girlfriend, Aura, is back but intent on some serious conversations... Is the client at his door who she seems and - if his family's misadventures don't kill him first - will sorting out the woman's crooked tale bring Leonid straight to death's door?
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2011 359 pages

Red hook

Nadelson, Reggie
It's a summer Sunday in downtown New York City and Artie Cohen is getting married... A message from his old friend Sid McKay asks Artie to come out to Red Hook in Brooklyn. It's his wedding day, but Artie goes - and finds a dead man spread-eagled in the water off the old docks. When Sid shows up he's scared and edgy; Artie suspects he's holding something back... It's not his case, but it drags him in, threatening his friends and a former lover. In the tense pre-election atmosphere, Artie becomes involved in uncovering the betrayals that have led to death on the Red Hook waterfront...
Charnwood 2006 392 pages

Disturbed Earth

Unknown Author,Reggie Nadelson
Reggie Nadelson's new Artie Cohen mystery begins when a jogger finds a child's clothes drenched in blood and buried in the half frozen earth near Brighton Beach - the Atlantic coast of Brooklyn. When another child goes missing, all the city's fears and insecurities, still reeling from 9/11, and with barricades and barriers and soldiers with AKs still part of the domestic landscape, are brought to the surface. Drawn into the case and reeled back in by Brooklyn's Russian community, his own people, Artie becomes personally involved-As powerful a presence as Edinburgh for Ian Rankin, here is New York as a city of islands and rivers, of bridges and tunnels, as Artie travels between downtown Manhattan, still traumatized by the loss of the Twin Towers, and Brooklyn's Long Island seafronts: Brighton Beach, all boardwalk, beach and Russians; Coney Island with its wrecked amusement park; Sheepshead Bay with its inlets and fishing boats. A gripping mystery and a love-song to a side of New York we really see, Reggie Nadelson and Artie Cohen are at their wise-cracking best.
Arrow 2005-05

Warrior Circle

Robert Westbrook
"Fans of Hillerman will love this unique and quirky detective duo."-Leslie Glass, bestselling author of Judging Time A Howard Moon Deer Mystery In the deserts of New Mexico, someone has just discovered his inner child . . . and it's about to throw a deadly temper tantrum. When Howard Moon Deer's girlfriend Aria storms from his cabin in the middle of the night, he just considers it another conflict in their tempestuous relationship. But when he finds her Jeep abandoned down the road with no sign of her nearby, his instincts lead him on an investigation that uncovers the dark underbelly of a trendy southwestern town. With the help of blind ex-detective Jack Wilder, Howard follows a trail of clues leading to a men's encounter group known as the Warrior Circle. Its members are prosperous local businessmen and upstanding members of the community . . . or are they? As the pair edge closer to the truth about Aria's disappearance, one thing becomes crystal clear-someone is acting out a murderous fantasy of power and revenge-and Howard and Jack may be the next victims! "Westbrook knows how to mix satire with action."-New York Times Book Review "Westbrook possesses a masterful sense of narration." -Washington Post, Book World
Speaking Volumes, LLC 2017-07-13 284 pages

Red Moon

Robert Westbrook
"Fans of Hillerman will love this unique and quirky detective duo."-Leslie Glass, bestselling author of Judging Time A Howard Moon Deer Mystery In San Geronimo, New Mexico, the rich and famous mingle with the down and out-and the secrets of the past collide with the crimes of the present.... Shortly after private eye Howard Moon Deer decides to settle down with his latest lady love, he accepts a new case that takes him away from the homefront-and introduces him to the dangerous passions that drive San Geronimo's thriving art scene.... Howard and ex-police commander Jack Wilder have been hired to investigate Sherman Stone, a man notorious for his torrid liaisons and low-life friends. Rumor has it that he's planning to have his wealthy wife killed. But before Howard can separate fact from fiction, a local hobo is murdered-and then Sherman himself meets an untimely end. Now Howard and Jack must follow a sinister trail of clues that leads them into the past-to the night when a precious painting was stolen and a murderous legacy was born.... "Robert Westbrook is a wise, witty, and wonderful writer."-Judith Van Gieson "Westbrook writes with authority and amusement."-Los Angeles Times "Westbrook possesses a masterful sense of narration."-Washington Post, Book World
Speaking Volumes, LLC 2017-12-05 310 pages

Cooperman Variations A Benny Cooperman Mystery

Howard Engel
Benny Cooperman's favourite lunch counter and diner have closed down and the fittings have been sold to Americans. The nation mourns the accidental death of its greatest artist, cellist Dermot Keogh. It's April and there's already a heat wave. Things are just not the way they used to be. Alas, not just the plots and settings have changed in Howard Engel's 10th Benny Cooperman mystery. While Canada's favourite fictional detective is still his smart-alecky but unsophisticated self ("Dim Sum may be unknown in Grantham, Mr. Cooperman, but we in Toronto have had it for nearly forty years"), his talents seem washed out, if not washed up, in this nasty little mystery set in the high-tech, high-pressure world of a Toronto TV station far up the road from his native Grantham. All the stock figures are the former high school love goddess who calls at the detective's office wondering if she's in the path of a killer, the small-town lawyer, the slobbish cops, the heavies in dark glasses. What's missing are the gritty small-town ambience and naked class antagonisms that drive best hard-boiled detective fiction, including Engel's early novels. Burdened with the bland homogeneity of the contemporary city and with convoluted literary references, the tale becomes progressively less gripping. In fact Cooperman hasn't been himself since 1990's Dead and Buried , when his creator first fell for the suits and the happy ending. The warning of his first sentence--"I should have seen the writing on the wall"--should have been a message to readers as well. --Robyn Gillam
Penguin Canada 2002 279 pages

Treadmill

Warren Adler
Jack Cooper is an unhappy man-mind, body, and spirit. He has lost his longstanding job to the economy, his mother to illness, and his wife to her secret lover. All in the blink of an eye. Beaten, broken and crippled by tragedy, Jack withdraws into total isolation, narrowing his life down to the simplest routines to block out the pain. His day begins with a strenuous workout at the Bethesda Health Club, his oasis. There, his mind and body can be free. His day ends in his tiny apartment, where he escapes from reality with his books until he can lose himself in sleep. Rinse and repeat. That is until he meets the enigmatic Mike Parrish. Parrish has no official identification. He was stolen from the hospital as a newborn and passed around from household to household. To the government and the world at large, he does not exist. He is an anonymous drifter but also the first person who breaks through Cooper's emotional confinement. Cooper finds solace in his friendship with Parrish, a man who understands his plight and is sympathetic to his pain. But then Parrish suddenly disappears, leaving Cooper to search for a virtually invisible man. As he looks for clues as intangible as ghosts and chases down leads as fleeting as shadows, his search leads him back to the one place he called his refuge: the Bethesda Health Club. How much can be taken from a man before he has nothing to lose?
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2016-06-17 272 pages