Dutch Uncle (Peter Pavia)

Dutch Uncle

Peter Pavia

Blurb: Three days out of prison and trying to stay on the right side of the law, Harry Healy doesn't really want to get involved with Manfred Pfiser's drug deals. But he needs the money - so he agrees to make one simple delivery.

Simple, that is, till Harry stumbles across a dead body. It's the result of a robbery cooked up by one of his old cellmates, together with an over-the-hill high school baseball star, a trigger-happy sociopath, and a beach bunny who just can't seem to keep her clothes on.

Now they're all on the run - from the Miami police, from the drug kingpins they ripped off, and from each other...

ISBN: 9780843953602 (Paperback)

Year: 2005

Publisher: A Hard Case Crime Novel

Pages: 256 (Fiction)

Links

1. Goodreads page

2. Review of the book

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Official site of the book series

5. Mini review of the book

Delusion in Death - In Death #35 (J.D. Robb / Nora Roberts)

Delusion in Death - In Death #35

J.D. Robb / Nora Roberts

Blurb: 'What would cause someone to want so many people, surely many of them strangers, to slaughter each other?'

The scene that greets Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her team one terrible evening in New York is more shocking than any of them have ever witnessed. A usually comfortable downtown bar is strewn with bodies - office workers who have been sliced, bludgeoned or hacked to death with the nearest weapon available. It appears they all turned on each other in a desperate blinding rage.

As Ever and her husband Roarke - who owned the bar among his many properties - investigate the big-business workers of the city, they link the attacks back to the Urban Wars and the chemical warfare used all those years ago. With another slaughter imminent, Eve must turn to unexpected sources in order to stop a killer who is getting revenge by creating mass carnage...

ISBN: 9780749955120 (Paperback)

Year: 2012

Publisher: Piatkus

Pages: 388 (Fiction)

Links

1. Goodreads page

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Author's official site

4. Review of the book

5. Another review

Nightlife (Thomas Perry)

Nightlife 

Thomas Perry

Blurb: Perry's new thriller takes us on a dangerous cat-and-mouse game that pits two women against each other: one a beautiful, highly manipulative serial killer, the other the detective who is determined to stop her.

This murderer changes her appearance and identity with every kill, moving from Portland to San Francisco, to LA, to Las Vegas, with Catherine Hobbs, Portland homicide detective, always just one step behind. Catherine must use everything she has as a woman as well as a detective to stop her. She must learn how to read the murderer's mind. And she is up against a killer who turns to stalking her.

Delving deep inside the female psyche, reinterpreting conventions and confounding expectations, this is Perry at his critically acclaimed best.

ISBN: 9781847241153 (Paperback)

Year: 2006

Publisher: Quercus

Pages: 489 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Review of the book

3. Publisher's page for the book

4. Goodreads page for the book

5. Wikipedia page for the author

Underbelly #1 (John Silvester & Andrew Rule)

Underbelly #1

John Silvester & Andrew Rule

Blurb: He did lunch. Now he's doing time.

Drug dealer Attila Erdel walks from a restaurant after bragging he'd killed a man with his bare hands. He doesn't know his fellow diner is an undercover policeman. It's costing him 17 years inside to find out. As the straight world goes about its business, cops and criminals engage in a deadly battle of wits.

This is Australia's Underbelly.

ISBN: 9780980697117 (Paperback)

Year: 1997

Publisher: Sly Ink

Pages: 232 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Wikipedia page for the author

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Australian Crime page for the author

4. Article on the author

5. Article on the screen adaption of the series

Gentle Satan: My Life with Abe Saffron (Alan Saffron)

Gentle Satan: My Life with Abe Saffron

Alan Saffron

Blurb: Abe Saffron was Australia's most notorious underworld figure, for decades known as 'Mr Sin' and the 'King of King's Cross'. His wife called him something different: 'Gentle Satan'. This fascinating memoir by his son Alan tells us why, for the first time, revealing the truth about the man and his crimes - both professional and personal.

Growing up, Alan counted the money from Abe's brothels and hotels, and frequented his illegal bars and strip clubs, including the famous Les Girls, The Roosevelt and the Pink Pussycat. He describes Abe's corrupt deals with premiers, police commissioners and a prime minister - many of whom he met - as well as the real estate deals that 'legitimised' Abe's fortune.

But Alan's most compelling stories are about his own highly volatile relationship with is authoritarian father, and his mother's struggle to deal with Abe's affairs, including the attention he gave to his 'second' family, up till his death and beyond.

An incredible story of family loyalties, betrayals, illegitimate sibling and contested inheritance, all in the powerful grip of a flawed millionaire patriarch.

ISBN: 9780143010715 (Paperback)

Year: 2008

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 311 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Review of the book

2. Wikipedia page on Abe

3. Google books page

4. Another review

5. Buy from QBD

Split Second - Maggie O'Dell #2 - Alex Kava

Split Second (Maggie O'Dell #2)

Alex Kava

Blurb: They dubbed him the Collector - and now he's on the loose again...

Criminal profiler Maggie O'Dell had been instrumental in putting Albert Stucky, the notorious collector, away. Named for his ritual of collecting victims before disposing of them in the most heinous ways possible, he's on the loose again. But O'Dell feels she's lost her edge, tortured by the nightmares and guilt for the ones she couldn't save.

As the death toll increase, Maggie becomes the FBI's best hope to hunt this man down. Only she can't see into this psychopath's twisted mind. And Albert Stucky wouldn't have it any other way.

ISBN: 9781741166972 (Paperback)

Year: 2001

Publisher: MIRA

Pages: 408 (Fiction)

Links

1. Good reads page

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Author's official site

4. Review of the book

5. Wikipedia page for the author

Postcard Killers (James Patterson & Liza Marklund)

Postcard Killers

James Patterson & Liza Marklund

Blurb: NYPD detective Jacob Kanon is on a tour of Europe's most gorgeous cities. But the sights aren't what draw him - he sees each museum, each cathedral, and each cafe through the eyes of his daughter's killer.

Kanon's daughter, Kimmy, and her fiance were murdered while on holiday in Rome. Since then, young couples in Madrid, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Berlin, Athens and Paris have been found dead. Little connects the murders, other than a postcard sent to the local newspaper prior to each attack.

Now Kanon teams up with the Swedish reporter, Dessie Larsson, who has just received a postcard in Stockholm - and they think they know where the next victims will be.

ISBN: 9781846057670 (Paperback)

Year: 2010

Publisher: Century

Pages: 420 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Blog on the book

3. Another review

4. Author's official site

5. Google books page

Private (James Patterson with Maxine Paetro)

Private

James Patterson with Maxine Paetro

Blurb: The police can't help you, the press will destroy you. Only one place to turn: Private.

Former US Marine Jack Morgan runs Private, a renowned investigation company with branches around the globe. It is where you go when you need maximum force and maximum discretion. The secrets of the most influential men and women on the planet come to Jack daily - and his staff of investigators use the world's most advanced forensic tools to make and break their cases.

In L.A., Jack is already deep into the investigation of a multimillion-dollar NFL gambling scandal and the unsolved slayings of eighteen schoolgirls, when he learns of a horrific murder close to home: his best friend's wife, Jack's former lover, has been killed. It nearly pushes him over the edge. Instead, Jack pushes back and devotes all of Private's resources to tracking down her killer.

But Jack doesn't have to play by the rules. As he closes in on the killer and chooses between revenge and justice, Morgan has to navigate a workplace love affair that threatens to blow the roof off his plans.

With a plot that moves at death-defying speeds, Private is James Patterson's sleekest, most exciting thriller ever.

ISBN: 9781846057694 (Paperback)

Year: 2010

Publisher: Century

Pages: 385 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's official site

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Review of the book

4. Wikipedia page for the author

5. Google books page

Double Dexter (Jeff Lindsay)

Double Dexter

Jeff Lindsay

Blurb: A witness. Such a simple concept, and yet for Dexter Morgan - a perfectly well-disguised serial killer - the possibility of a witness is terrifying.

As an upstanding blood-spatter analyst for the Miami Police, Dexter has always managed to keep the darker side of his life out of the spotlight. An expert at finding truly bad people - murderers who've long escaped justice - and giving them his own special attention. But now someone has seen him in the act. Dexter is being followed, manipulated and mimicked, leading him to realise that no one likes to have a double - especially when his double's goal is to kill him.

Like the five perviously bestselling novels in the Dexter series, in Double Dexter Jeff Lindsay demonstrates the witty, macabre originality that has propelled him to international success.

ISBN: 9781409113508 (Paperback)

Year: 2011

Publisher: Orion Books

Pages: 337 (Fiction)

Links

1. Publisher's page for the book

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Wikipedia page for the author

4. Blog on the series

5. Review of the book

Collins Street Whores (Peter Ralph)

Collins Street Whores

Peter Ralph

Blurb: Someone has plans for Carmen Minelli...

Attaining a senior position with eminent stockbrokers K.D. Ford and Co. is a major coup for the bright, ambitious and beautiful Carmen Minelli.

Carmen soon discovers the firm has a client with a dubious background and seeks to end the relationship. Surprisingly, the partners of J.D. Ford do not support her.

Someone powerful and ruthless is trying to manipulate her and perpetrate a gigantic fraud. Carmen begins to fear for her life after her predecessor disappears in mysterious circumstances.

Slowly she uncovers a world of secrets, lies and breathtaking greed, and realises she is in great danger.

ISBN: 1877059552 (Paperback)

Year: 2004

Publisher: Sid Harta Publishers

Pages: 401 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's official page

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Review of the book

4. Goodreads page for the author

5. Publisher's page

Razor: Underbelly (Larry Writer)

Razor: Underbelly

Larry Writer

Blurb: In the 1920s and '30s in inner Sydney, some of the most terrifying criminals in Australia's history waged war with razor and gun over the spoils of illegal drugs and alcohol, prostitution, gambling and extortion.

Ruling this savage nether world of ramshackle terraces, alleys, crime dens and nightclubs were the legendary vice queens Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, and gangsters Norman Bruhn, Frank Green, Squizzy Taylor, Guido Calletti, 'Snowy' Cutmore and Big Jim Devine. As gang fought gang, the streets ran with blood.

The award-winning Razor chronicles this dark past with vivid detail and a brilliantly compelling narrative.

ISBN: 9781742610702 (Paperback)

Year: 2001

Publisher: Pan

Pages: 419 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Official site for the TV series

2. Wikipedia page on the gangs from the book

3. Review of the book

4. Google books page

5. Buy the book from iTunes

King of the Cross (Mark Dapin)

King of the Cross

Mark Dapin

Blurb: 'Think Nick Hornby on a meth binge and you've got the style. Think Underbelly 2, but so much more real, and you've got the content...fun and compelling and just thinly veiled enough to make it so real.' Melbourne Times

'A fantastic work of crime fiction... a brilliantly funny yet violent and intriguing novel.' Launceston Examiner

'Will have you rolling in laughter... an outrageously uninhibited account of Sydney's most infamous nether world.' Sun-Herald

'...punctuated by lacerating comic dialogue and scenes of explosive violence, full of the kind of inventive word play and thinly veiled social commentary that makes Florida-based crime author Carl Hiaasen so much fun to read - and, as with Hiaasen, there's ample substance beneath the dialogue.' The Age

'Violent funny and poignant by turn; if you liked Underbelly, you'll love this.' Grazia Magazine

'I laughed out loud... the publisher's blurb says the book is 'crime fiction as it's never been written before', and that is a fair call. Dapin brings to the book the quirky, insightful turn of phrase that makes his newspaper columns for Good Weekend mandatory readying.' Stephen Romei, Australian Literary Review

'Dapin is a writer who punches with both hands and winks at the crowd while he's at it. His protagonist is part punk, part pug, part poet - an anti-hero who reveals his own back story as he gets the King of the Cross to unravel the eerily familiar tale of his unlikely rise.' Andrew Rule, author of Underbelly.

'Explosive, gritty, hilarious and - best of all - truly origianly. This book detonates while you're reading it.' Robert Drewe

ISBN: 9780330426121 (Paperback)

Year: 2009

Publisher: Pan

Pages: 311 (Fiction)

Links

1.Author's official site

2. Author's Wikipedia page

3. Blog on the book

4. Buy from Readings

5. Review of the book

Flesh House (Stuart MacBride)

Flesh House

Stuart MacBride

Blurb: Panic strikes the Granite City...

When an offshore container turns up at Aberdeen Harbour full of human meat, it kicks off the largest manhunt in the Granite City's history.

Twenty years ago 'The Flesher' was butchering people all over the UK - turning his victims into oven-ready joints - until Grampian's finest put him away. But eleven years later he was out on appeal. Now he's missing and people are dying again.

When members of the original investigation start to disappear, Detective Sergeant Logan McRae realises the case might not be as clear cut as everyone thinks...

Twenty years of secrets and lies are being dragged into the light. And the only thing thats certain is Aberdeen will never be the same again.

ISBN: 9780007244553 (Paperback)

Year: 2008

Publisher: Harper

Pages: 595 (Fiction)

Links

1. Review of the book

2. Author's official page

3. Wikipedia page for the author

4. Buy from Amazon

5. Another review

Deadly Beloved (Max Allan Collins)

Deadly Beloved

Max Allan Collins

Blurb: Marcy Addwater killed her husband - there's no question about that. Shot him dead in the motel room where he was trysting with a blonde hooker. Shot the hooker, too.

But where the copts might see an open-and-shut case, private eye Michael Tree - Ms. Michael Tree - sees a conspiracy. For Ms. Tree, digging into it could mean digging her own grave...and digging up her own murdered husband's.

Based on the longest-rinning private-eye comic book series of all time, DEADLY BELOVED brings you an all-new adventure of the legendary Ms. Tree - the groundbreaking female P.I. who put the 'graphic' into graphic novel...

ISBN: 9780843957785 (Paperback)

Year: 2007

Publisher: Dorchester Publishing

Pages: 203 (Fiction)

Links

1. Review of the book

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Author's Wikipedia page

4. Good reads page

5. Excerpt from the book

Devil Bones - Temperance Brennan Book #11 (Kathy Reichs)

Devil Bones - Temperance Brennan Book #11

Kathy Reichs

Blurb: An underground chamber is exposed in a seedy, dilapidated house with sagging trim and peeling paint.

In the dark cellar, a ritualistic display is revealed. A human skull rests on a cauldron, surrounded by slain chickens and bizarre figurines. Beads and antlers dangle overhead.

Called to the scene is forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan. Boney architecture suggests that the skill is that of a young, black female. But how did she die? And when? Then, just as Tempe is working to determine the post-mortem interval, another body is discovered: a headless corpse carved with Satanic symbols.

As citizen vigilantes, blaming Devil-worshippers, being a witch-hunt, intent on revenge, Tempe struggles to keep her emotions in check. But the truth she eventually uncovers proves more shocking than even she could have imagined...

ISBN: 9780099533641 (Paperback)

Year: 2008

Publisher: Arrow Books

Pages: 370 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's official page for the book

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Wikipedia page for the author

4. Good reads page for the book

5. Review of the book

Lucky's Lady (Tami Hoag)

Lucky's Lady

Tami Hoag

Blurb: Lucky's Lady was originally published in 1992 and established Tami Hoag as the queen of crime. It is still the benchmark in the very best in thriller writing and has made Tami a worldwide multi-million-copy bestseller author.

Serena Sheridan is devastated when her grandfather mysteriously vanishes in the dangerous Louisiana swamps. But is she prepared to lose everything, possibly even herself, to find him...

ISBN: 0752865587 (Paperback)

Year: 1992

Publisher: Orion

Pages: 368 (Fiction)

Links

1. Review of the book

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Google books page for the book

4. Buy the ebook from the publisher

5. Another review

Cut and Run: CSI Miami (Donn Cortez)

Cut and Run: CSI Miami

Don Cortez

Blurb: By air, sea, and land the members of the Miami-Dade Crime Lab are called out. In a field outside the everglades a ballon has just set down; the lone man inside the basket is dead - an apparent suicide. A yacht riddled with bullets limps into the Port of Miami; only a gravely wounded hijacker survives, confessing that their are drugs somewhere on board, but he can't find them. A local journalist, looking to break out of the rat race with a novel based on the people he covers on his beat, is found dead.

In the yacht's gallery is a record-setting sunfish that seems to be the key piece of evidence to just what was being smuggled on the shop, yet the lab is stumped when they discover no more than the normal parasites infesting the fish. A raunchy video of a citrus heiress having sex in a public place gives her the motive to kill the journalist-turned-novelist, but she has an alibi. All small pieces of the puzzles that Horatio Caine and the member of his team have to unravel to find out why all these people were killed. Before it is over the members of the Miami-Dade Crime Lab are caught up in the intrigue that reaches to the heart of Castro's Cuba.

ISBN: 9781847390646 (Paperback)

Year: 2008

Publisher: Pocket Books

Pages: 345 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Good reads page

3. Publisher's page of the book

4. Fan wiki of the book and TV series

5. Urban dictionary definition for Horatio

The Watcher (Grace Monroe)

The Watcher

Grace Monroe

Blurb: When you see him - it's already too late...

A Young woman's corpse is found within the groups of Edinburgh Castle with the message 'More Will Die' written on her body in blood. Soon, the prophecy is fulfilled as the death toll rises and more young women disappear - all redheads - their bodies found bludgeoned to death, their feet severed.

Quickly dubbed 'The Edinburgh Ripper' by the media baying for the killer's blood, the murders bring the city to its knees.

Headstrong lawyer Brodie McLennan teams up with DI Duncan Bancho in an effort to discover the identity of this warped killer. Soon, their investigations uncover an Eastern European ring of human traffickers and a depraved internet chat room.

Unbeknownst to Brodie, the killer's web is spinning ever closer to her teenaged sister Connie, recently back in her life. When Connie is reported missing, Brodie must uncover the Ripper's identity - before her own flesh and blood becomes the latest victim.

ISBN: 9781847560421 (Paperback)

Year: 2008

Publisher: AVON

Pages: 390 (Fiction)

Links

1. Author's Wikipedia page

2. Goodreads page for the book

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Get the ebook for Kobo

5. A look at the book

Squizzy Taylor: The Rise and Fall of a Larrikin Crook (Hugh Anderson)

Squizzy Taylor: The Rise and Fall of a Larrikin Crook

Hugh Anderson

Blurb: Guns were fired in Fitzroy vendettas, police were killed in armed robberies and gangs operated in hotels and brothels - Melbourne in the 1920s was a crime-ridden city in which no one was safe.

Through it all strode the notorious crook Leslie 'Squizzy' Taylor, artfully dodging conviction with his calculated plans and foolproof alibis. Daily newspapers eagerly reported his crimes to a public fascinated by his larrikin wit and blatant contempt for the law.

In this classic account of gangland murder and greed, author Hugh Anderson brings Australia's infamous criminal mastermind to life amid car chases, robberies and cold-blooded murders.

Who was Squizzy Taylor really? A heroic symbol of resistance and king of the Melbourne underworld who died a tragic death? Or a bloody-minded criminal who got what he deserved?

ISBN: 9781742662282 (Paperback)

Year: 1971

Publisher: Pier 9

Pages: 267 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Abe books

2. State Library of Victoria page on Squizzy Taylor

3. Buy from Amazon

4. Wikipedia page on Squizzy Taylor

5. Biography of Squizzy Taylor

Freezer Burn (D.H. Dublin)

Freezer Burn - A C.S.U. Investigation

D.H. Dublin

Blurb: It's hot in Philly - but murder has a way of giving you the chills.

Crime Scene Investigation: The scientific examination of the physical evidence at a crime scene, including, but not limited to, evidence photography and collection, fingerprint processing, blood and fluid-splatter interpretation, and forensic pathology.

Crime Scene Unit (C.S.U.): A group of forensic investigators who use cutting-edge technology to carry out crime scene investigations, helping to bring killers to justice.

A trash bag full of hacked-off body parts. A dead man thrown from a moving car. A young gang member, brutally tortured and killed. And a yellow, shrivelled corpse oozing something other than blood.

The cases seem to have nothing to do with one another, but together they point to a plot more elaborate - and more sinister - than anything C.S.U. rookie Madison Cross has ever seen. To investigate, she'll have to descend into Philly's seedy underworld of gang brutality and then rise to the highest echelons of organised crime - though there are members of both worlds who hope to see her eliminated, once and for all...

ISBN: 9780425221945 (Paperback)

Year: 2008

Publisher: Berkley Books

Pages: 300 (Fiction)

Links

1. By at Amazon

2. Myspace page for the book

3. Review of the book

4. Reviews at goodreads

5. Author's website