Daniel Woodrell

Heavy Paperback (2 to 4 lbs)

New Jersey

Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and the Ones You Do

A hard-hitting, critically acclaimed trilogy of crime novels from an author about whom New York magazine has written, "What people say about Cormac McCarthy ... goes double for [Woodrell]. Possibly more." In the parish of St. Bruno, sex is easy, corruption festers, and double-dealing is a way of life. Rene Shade is an uncompromising detective swimming in a sea of filth. As Shade takes on hit men, porn kings, a gang of ex-cons, and the ghosts of his own checkered past, Woodrell's three seminal novels pit long-entrenched criminals against the hard line of the law, brother against brother, and two vastly different sons against a long-absent father. THE BAYOU TRILOGY highlights the origins of a one-of-a-kind author, a writer who for over two decades has created an indelible representation of the shadows of the rural American experience and has steadily built a devoted following among crime fiction aficionados and esteemed literary critics alike.

The Bayou Trilogy

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Joe R. Lansdale

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

This Edgar Award winner is "equal parts morality tale and page-turning thriller" (Denver Post)--classic American storytelling in its truest, darkest, and most affecting form, with echoes of William Faulkner and Harper Lee. 

Its 1933 in East Texas and the Depression lingers in the air like a slow moving storm. When a young Harry Collins and his little sister stumble across the body of a black woman who has been savagely mutilated and left to die in the bottoms of the Sabine River, their small town is instantly charged with tension. When a second body turns up, this time of a white woman, there is little Harry can do from stopping his Klan neighbors from lynching an innocent black man. Together with his younger sister, Harry sets out to discover who the real killer is, and to do so they will search for a truth that resides far deeper than any river or skin color.

The Bottoms

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Donald Ray Pollock

Spanning the era from the 1960s to the late 1990s, a collection of stories journeys inside the world of the diverse inhabitants of Knockemstiff, a tough, Midwestern town, as their lives change and intertwine, capturing such characters as the father who pumps his son full of steroids to relive his own days as a body builder, a psychotic rural recluse, and an incestuous pair of siblings. Reprint.

Knockemstiff

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Mo Hayder

Detective Inspector Jack Caffery must confront the demons of his own past while searching for the psychopathic killer responsible for the brutal murders and mutilations of five young women, all of whom had worked at a strip club.

Birdman

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Garbage Man

The Adventures of Ned the Seal

Cross-pollinating famous 19th-century fictional characters and historical figures from disparate sources, this wild, steampunk fantasy presents two consecutive tales of madcap adventure. Hilarious and unpredictable, the first section follows Wild Bill Hickock, Annie Oakley, George Custer, Sitting Bull, and Buffalo Bill Cody's head?which is affixed to the top of a mechanical body?as they take the Wild West Show to Japan by zeppelin. Further exploits involve Frankenstein as an aphrodisiac for a local shogun, encounters with Captain ?Bemo” and his submersible, and a trip to the ?island of Dr. Momo.” The second phase of this nonstop romp?partly inscribed by a courageous young seal on his trusty notepad?accompanies Mark Twain and Jules Verne against the backdrop of a Martian invasion. Escaping the carnage on a speedboat converted into a touring balloon, the boisterous group encounters more perilous experiences in the form of an island of pirates, a steam-powered robot, a Kong-sized ape, and multiple tears in the space-time continuum. Raucous and inventive, this dime-store pulp parody is rife with absurdist comedy while maintaining a literary scope.

Flaming Zeppelins

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Harry Crews

In a dozen novels and his non-fiction books and articles, Harry Crews has shown himself to be a true American original. With Scar Lovers he returns to the familiar, unmistakable "Crews territory"--a Southern landscape peopled by quirky, odd, and oddly appealing individuals--to explore the realities of redemption and the power of love without boundries of fear.

Scar Lover

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Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

"Poppet . . . oozes sinisterness from the first page. . . . [Its] high-wire tension . . . never wavers."--Tina Jordan, Entertainment Weekly

Mo Hayder has for years been a master of chilling, seamlessly plotted thrillers that keep the reader glued to the page long after lights out. Her world-class body of work has netted international renown, numerous awards and accolades, and a devoted following of readers around the globe. Recently awarded the Edgar Award for Best Novel for Gone, Hayder is at the top of her game, and Poppet is Hayder at her most terrifying: a gripping, edge-of-your-seat novel set in a high-security mental health ward.

Something is not right at Beechway psychiatric unit. First one resident turns violently to self-harm, then another to suicide--both recalcitrant patients with no prior history of self-directed violence. Whispers between the inmates have traveled to the staff that the place is being terrorized by a creature called The Maude. Clinic higher-ups dismiss this as superstition, but the surviving victim certainly saw something. And what of the drawing the dead woman left behind, showing the creature wearing the sweater of a recently released patient? When staff Nurse AJ LeGrande calls on Detective Jack Caffery to investigate, what he learns about what's going on inside and outside the hospital will shock readers and place individuals beyond the ward walls in danger. And what of Flea Marley, the police diver whose dark secret Caffery has been keeping? Can he save her from herself, or will she take him down with her?

Mo Hayder is renowned for conjuring nightmares that sink under the skin. In Poppet she has delivered a taut, unbearably suspenseful novel that will not let readers go.

"Mo Hayder has written some of the grisliest crime fiction in recent memory. . . . Nowhere is Hayder's portrayal more nuanced and compelling than in Poppet. . . . A compelling mystery that will cause fans and new readers alike to ponder not just who did it, but why."--Paula L. Woods, Los Angeles Times

"Poppet is a seriously dark piece of work, but that's what Mo Hayder does best. . . . A truly frightening, and at times grotesque, read."--Sherryl Connelly, New York Daily News

Poppet

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"[A] destined-to-be classic . . . Hayder's work and characters are worth the unending nightmares they will inspire."--The New York Times Book Review

Edgar Award winner and international best-seller Mo Hayder is known for her nightmarishly dark, impeccably-plotted thrillers. In Wolf, now in paperback, Hayder ratchets up the terror yet another notch with a bone-chilling novel about a family held hostage in their country home. When a vagrant--the Walking Man, a recurring character in Hayder's fiction--finds a dog wandering alone with a scrap of paper with the words "HELP US" attached to its collar, he's sure it's a desperate plea from someone in trouble and calls on Detective Inspector Jack Caffery to investigate. Caffery is reluctant to get involved--until the Walking Man promises in exchange new information regarding the childhood disappearance of Caffery's brother. Meanwhile, the Anchor-Ferrers, a wealthy local family, are fighting for their lives in their remote home ten miles away. As their ordeal becomes increasingly bizarre and humiliating, the family begins to wonder: is this really a random crime, or have they been chosen for a reason?

"The home invasion novel to end all home invasion novels . . . Not unlike John Connolly's Charlie Parker novels or T. Jefferson Parker's Charlie Hood books. Wolf is exceptionally original in premise and nightmarish in its rendering." --BookPage

"Mo Hayder is a master of ratcheting up tension throughout a book--to the point that one must simply finish it before doing anything else. Such is the case with Wolf." --Deadly Pleasures (Rating: A-)

"Mo Hayder's books featuring Jack Caffery are always an entertaining and engaging read, and this one doesn't disappoint."--Euro Crime


Wolf

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"Hayder . . . outdoes herself, flip-flopping the supernatural and the explainable like a cycle of poison and antidote that will remain with the reader long after the final page."--Booklist (starred review)

Just after lunch on a Tuesday in April, nine feet underwater, police diver Flea Marley closes her gloved fingers around a human hand. No body is attached. Even more disturbing is the discovery, a day later, of the matching hand--recently amputated, and removed while the victim was still alive. Detective Jack Caffery of the Major Crime Investigation Unit in Bristol is called in to investigate, and he and Marley soon establish that the hands belong to a young man who has recently disappeared. Their search for him--and for his abductor--lead them into the darkest recesses of Bristol's underworld, where street-kids sell themselves for a hit, and where one of Africa's most disturbing rituals may be making an unexpected appearance. The first novel to feature the investigative team of Flea and Jack, Ritual is a masterpiece of suspense that will keep readers guessing until the last breath.

"Hayder . . . moves to another level in this spellbinder. With characters so complex, so fascinating that they could populate a dozen novels, she sends readers into a demimonde of ritual magic, desperation, guilt, and death, all exquisitely composed. . . . Ritual is brilliant, dense, scary; definitely one of the best crime novels of [the year]."--The Globe and Mail

"Ritual moves from the eerie and dangerous to the downright ferocious as steadily as an oncoming train. . . . This is one you'll hate to put down and hate to finish. But you're going to love the ride."--Jack Ketchum, author of The Lost and The Girl Next Door


Ritual

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Investigating a serial carjacker whose actual targets are young children in back seats, Jack Caffery teams up once again with police diver Sergeant Flea Marley, whose life is endangered by a discovery in an abandoned, half-submerged tunnel. By the author of The Devil of Nanking. Reprint.

Gone

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In her eerie and hair-raising thriller Skin, Mo Hayder trails her two unforgettable protagonists as they race to staunch a rising tide of blood in a sweltering port town. When the decomposing body of a young woman is found, the wounds on her wrists suggest an open-and-shut case of suicide. But Jack Caffery is not so sure. Other apparent suicides are cropping up, and they all have a connection to Elf's Grotto, a nearly bottomless network of flooded quarries just outside the city. Caffery begins to suspect a shadowy and sinister predator, someone--or something-- that can disappear into darkness and slip into houses unseen. Working alongside Caffery is rough-and-tough police diver Flea Marley, but while pursuing her investigation, she stumbles upon something far too close to home that no one--not even Caffery--can help her face. Skin is a penetrating dissection of family, friendships, and the evil that can tear them apart--or bind them together. Devious and disturbing, it introduces one of Hayder's most horrifying villains yet.

Skin

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Hayder's second novel after the hair-raising Birdman, The Treatment brings Detective Jack Caffery back to investigate the abduction of a little boy, a crime with disturbing parallels to Caffery's own troubled past.

In a quiet residential area in London, a couple is discovered bound and imprisoned in their own home. Savagely battered and severely dehydrated, the worst revelation is yet to come: their eight-year-old son has been abducted. But when the body is found and forensic evidence turns the case on its head, revealing disturbing parallels to events in Detective Caffery's own past, he realizes he's dealing with much more sinister forces than he'd anticipated--and finds it increasingly difficult to maintain his professional distance. As the evidence mounts and Caffery struggles to hold his own life together, the case hurtles toward a shocking conclusion.


The Treatment

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Harold Schechter

The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men

In the pantheon of serial killers, Belle Gunness stands alone. She was the rarest of female psychopaths, a woman who engaged in wholesale slaughter, partly out of greed but mostly for the sheer joy of it. Between 1902 and 1908, she lured a succession of unsuspecting victims to her Indiana "murder farm." Some were hired hands. Others were well-to-do bachelors. All of them vanished without a trace. When their bodies were dug up, they hadn't merely been poisoned, like victims of other female killers. They'd been butchered. Hell's Princess is a riveting account of one of the most sensational killing sprees in the annals of American crime: the shocking series of murders committed by the woman who came to be known as Lady Bluebeard. The only definitive book on this notorious case and the first to reveal previously unknown information about its subject, Harold Schechter's gripping, suspenseful narrative has all the elements of a classic mystery--and all the gruesome twists of a nightmare.

Hell's Princess

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Tom Franklin

A Novel

In the 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals in a small town in rural Mississippi. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry was the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, black single mother. But then Larry took a girl to a drive-in movie and she was never seen or heard from again. He never confessed . . . and was never charged. More than twenty years have passed. Larry lives a solitary, shunned existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has become the town constable. And now another girl has disappeared, forcing two men who once called each other "friend" to confront a past they've buried for decades.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

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Nicholas Nicastro

"Welcome to the bloody end of bleeding Kansas..." Based on true events, this unforgettable novel tells the story of the Bloody Benders, a family of grifters and thieves running an isolated feed store on the Kansas plains, boarding travelers along the Great Osage Trail. Beautiful Kate Bender was mysterious and well-versed in the dark arts; Ma and Pa were quiet and foreboding, speaking in guttural tones; and young John Bender was thought to be insane. On land soaked with the blood of conflict, the Benders made their home. And one by one, prairie travelers began to disappear... Rooted in history, this is a vivid tale of the Benders' origins, and how they became some of the most horrific figures in early post-Civil War America. "This meticulously researched, vividly told story marries an almost biblical poetry to the rough action of a Western. Readers who can stomach its violence will find a bleak beauty in this portrayal of one of the American prairie's ugliest stories. A heavenly retelling of a hellish tale." - Kirkus Reviews "'Hell's Half-Acre' is a powerful and involving work. Nicastro's anti-heroine, Kate Bender, is so winningly characterized he made me pull for her in a very unexpected way. But what sticks with me most is the land as the austere staging for this drama. The world is a stage and it's as stark as all of Kansas with nowhere to hide. Nicastro's language is equal to it." - Lamar Herrin, author of "The Unwritten Chronicles of Robert E. Lee" and "The Lies Boys Tell"

Hell's Half-Acre

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Undying Love 

Demonic possession. Exorcism. Haunted Houses. Satanic Rituals.

For most people this is the stuff of nightmares, horror movies, folklore, and superstition. For New York City police Sergeant Ralph Sarchie, it's as real--and dangerous--as midnight patrol . . .

A sixteen-year NYPD veteran, Ralph Sarchie works out of the 46th Precinct in New York's South Bronx. But it is his other job that he calls "the Work": investigating cases of demonic possession and assisting in the exorcisms of humanity's most ancient--and most dangerous--foes. Now he discloses for the first time his investigations into incredible true crimes and inhuman evil that were never explained, solved, or understood except by Sarchie and his partner. Schooled in the rituals of exorcism, and an eyewitness to the reality of demonic possession, Ralph Sarchie has documented a riveting chronicle of the inexplicable that gives a new shape to the shadows in the dark.

In Deliver Us from Evil, he takes readers into the very hierarchy of a hell on earth to expose the grisly rituals of a Palo Mayombe priest; a young girl whose innocence is violated by an incubus; a home invaded by the malevolent spirit of a supposedly murdered nineteenth-century bride; the dark side of a couple who were literally, the neighbors from hell; and more. Ralph Sarchie's revelations are a powerful and disturbing documented link between the true-crime realities of life and the blood-chilling ice-grip of a supernatural terror.

Deliver Us from Evil: a New York City Cop Investigates the Supernatural

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It started with a beautiful woman and a challenge. As a gift for her husband, Alyssa Bradford approaches Eric Shaw to make a documentary about her father-in-law, Campbell Bradford, a 95-year-old billionaire whose past is wrapped in mystery. Eric grabs the job even though there are few clues to the man's past--just the name of his hometown and an antique water bottle he's kept his entire life. In Bradford's hometown, Eric discovers an extraordinary history--a glorious domed hotel where movie stars, presidents, athletes, and mobsters once mingled, and hot springs whose miraculous mineral water cured everything from insomnia to malaria. Neglected for years, the resort has been restored to its former grandeur just in time for Eric's stay. Just hours after his arrival, Eric experiences a frighteningly vivid vision. As the days pass, the frequency and intensity of his hallucinations increase and draw Eric deeper into the town's dark history. He discovers that something besides the hotel has been restored--a long-forgotten evil that will stop at nothing to regain its lost glory. Brilliantly imagined and terrifyingly real, So Cold the River is a tale of irresistible suspense with a racing, unstoppable current.

So Cold the River

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#paperback #fiction #thespectacularnow #juvenilefiction #movieadaptation #bookstomovie #contemporary #movie 

In the last months of high school, eighteen-year-old Sutter Keely lives in the present, staying drunk or high most of the time, but that could change when he starts working to boost the self-confidence of a classmate, Aimee.

The Spectacular Now

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#paperback #classic #fiction #horror #horrorfiction 

Some believe Bedford, Maine, is cursed. Its bloody past, endless rain, and the decay of its downtown portend a hopeless future. With the death of its paper mill, Bedford's unemployed residents soon find themselves with far too much time to dwell on thoughts of Susan Marley. Once the local beauty, she's now the local whore. Silently prowling the muddy streets, she watches eerily from the shadows, waiting for . . . something. And haunting the sleep of everyone in town with monstrous visions of violence and horror. Those who are able will leave Bedford before the darkness fully ascends. But those who are trapped here—from Susan Marley's long-suffering mother and younger sister to her guilt-ridden, alcoholic ex-lover to the destitute and faithless with nowhere else to go—will soon know the fullest and most terrible meaning of nightmare.

The Keeper

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She's had no education, and you can't call what her father's been trying to give her love. So at seventeen, Fay Jones leaves home, carrying a purse with half a pack of cigarettes and two dollar bills. She's headed for the bright lights and big times of Biloxi, and even she knows she needs help getting there. But help's not hard to come by when you look like Fay. There's a highway patrolman who gives her a lift, with a detour to his own place. There are truck drivers who pick her up, no questions asked. There's a crop duster with money for a night or two on the town. There's a strip-joint bouncer who deals on the side. And in the end, there are five dead bodies stacked in Fay's wake. Fay is a novel that could only have been written by Larry Brown, whom the Boston Globe called one of our finest writers -- honest, courageous, unflinching.

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THRILLINGLY DANGEROUS, WORRYINGLY LIKEABLE: SOME SIBLINGS ARE BETTER KEPT APART * NOW A FILM, DIRECTED BY SARAH LANCASTER



Beautiful, brilliant, and inseparable, Josie and Jack Raeburn live a secluded, anarchic existence in their decaying western Pennsylvania home. The only adult in their lives is their rage-prone father, a physicist, whose erratic behavior finally drives them away. Without a moral compass to guide them, Jack leads Josie into a menacing world of wealth, eroticism, and betrayal. His sociopathic tendencies emerge, and soon Josie must decide which is stronger: the love and devotion she feels for her brother or her will to survive.

From its opening page to its shocking climax, this contemporary Hansel and Gretel story is compulsively readable and hugely entertaining.

Josie and Jack

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A breakthrough novel that pits young kingpins against a Mexican drug cartel, Savages is a provocative, sexy, and sharply funny thrill ride through the dark side of the war on drugs and beyond.

Part-time environmentalist and philanthropist Ben and his ex-mercenary buddy Chon run a Laguna Beach-based marijuana operation, reaping significant profits from their loyal clientele. In the past when their turf was challenged, Chon took care of eliminating the threat. But now they may have come up against something that they can't handle--the Mexican Baja Cartel wants in, and sends them the message that a "no" is unacceptable. When they refuse to back down, the cartel escalates its threat, kidnapping Ophelia, the boys' playmate and confidante. O's abduction sets off a dizzying array of ingenious negotiations and gripping plot twists that will captivate readers eager to learn the costs of freedom and the price of one amazing high.

Following "the best summertime crime novel ever" (San Francisco Chronicle on The Dawn Patrol), bestselling author Winslow offers up a smash hit in the making. Savages is an ingenious combination of adrenaline-fueled suspense and true-crime reportage by a master thriller writer at the very top of his game.

Browse by categories

Daniel Woodrell

The Bayou Trilogy

Joe R. Lansdale

The Bottoms

Donald Ray Pollock

Knockemstiff

Mo Hayder

Birdman

Joseph D’Lacey

Garbage Man

Joe R. Lansdale

Flaming Zeppelins

Harry Crews

Scar Lover

Mo Hayder

Poppet

Mo Hayder

Wolf

Mo Hayder

Ritual

Mo Hayder

Gone

Mo Hayder

Skin

Mo Hayder

The Treatment

Harold Schechter

Hell's Princess

Tom Franklin

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

Nicholas Nicastro

Hell's Half-Acre

Ben Harrison

Undying Love

Ralph Sarchie; Lisa Collier Cool

Deliver Us from Evil: a New York City Cop Investigates the Supernatural

Michael Koryta

So Cold the River

Tim Tharp

The Spectacular Now

Sarah Langan

The Keeper

Larry Brown

Fay

Kelly Braffet

Josie and Jack

Don Winslow

Savages

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