APRIL 2018 - ADDITIONS TO THE LIBRARY - 6 OF THE BEST!

Six more featured from last month's expansion of the collection.......

Larry D. Sweazy - See Also Proof (2018) - from publisher Seventh Street Books

Third in the series with Marjorie Trumaine, I've enjoyed all of the Sweazy books I've read thus far....

Marjorie Trumaine, a freelance indexer from rural North Dakota in the 1960s, risks her life to help local law enforcement track down a missing, disabled girl.

Dickinson, North Dakota, 1965. It's a harsh winter, and freelance indexer Marjorie Trumaine struggles to complete a lengthy index while mourning the recent loss of her husband, Hank. The bleakness of the weather seems to compound her grief, and then she gets more bad news: a neighbor's fourteen-year-old disabled daughter, Tina Rinkerman, has disappeared. Marjorie joins Sheriff Guy Reinhardt in the search for the missing girl, and their investigation quickly leads to the shocking discovery of a murdered man near the Rinkermans' house. What had he been doing there? Who would have wanted him dead? And, above all, is his murder connected to Tina's disappearance?

Their pursuit of answers will take Marjorie all the way to the Grafton State School, some six hours away, where Tina lived until recently. And the information she uncovers there raises still more questions. Will the murderer come after Marjorie now that she knows a long-hidden secret?

Tom Leins - Meat Bubbles & Other Stories (2018) - PDF file from Henry Roi at publishers Near to the Knuckle


I've enjoyed Leins before - Skull Meat was a down and dirty offering. This looks to be of a similar ilk and up my same dark alley. Only problem, do I read it before or after - Snuff Racket?

Synopsis-

Still licking his wounds after the brutal events of SKULL MEAT, Paignton private investigator Joe Rey is reluctant to take on another case that could have violent repercussions. However, a lucrative pay-day from a soon-to-retire cop tests his resolve, and Rey quickly finds himself on the trail of a deranged plastic surgeon with a queasy line in body modification procedures. Over the course of a long, bloody summer, Rey tangles with rogue ex-cops, suburban hitmen, neo-Nazi scumbags and even Paignton’s richest man – a notorious hoarder of unknown horrors. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it…

Praise for Meat Bubbles-

Benedict J. Jones, author of Pennies For Charon and The Devil’s Brew (Crime Wave Press):

“Welcome to the nightmare factory – there’s dark and then there’s Tom Leins’ Paignton… By parts a mix of the brutality of Hubert Selby Jr and the pure noir-ish banter of Ray Banks with more than a dash of the good old ultra-violence. Thirteen brutal shorts and then the extended nightmare of Snuff Racket. You’d have to go a long way to beat the sheer violence, brutality, humour and brilliance of Meat Bubbles.”

Larry Enmon - Wormwood (2017) - from publisher Bloodhound Books

New-to-me author and one I like the look of......

A twisty & darkly compelling read you won't be able to put down

In Dallas, Texas, Katrina Wallace goes missing. As the mayor's daughter, her kidnapping triggers mounting political pressure and forces the Chief of Police to put two senior detectives on the case. Rob Soliz and Frank Pierce have done the impossible in the past, but their methods are unconventional.

The only evidence at the scene is a Bible found in the girl's car and soon Frank and Rob find themselves involved in a disturbing investigation shrouded by Bible prophecy, doomsday cults, and murder.

Is Katrina still alive? And what exactly is Wormwood?

As the trail leads them into the woods of rural East Texas, Frank must deal with his lingering religious doubts and solve the case. His worst fears will be realised when he must discover the ugly truth about Wormwood. But he and Rob will have to get out alive to tell the story…

What readers are saying:
"The pace of the story is maintained throughout, and builds up to a tension-filled ending which had me wondering how the hell is anyone going to survive?" Mark Tilbury - Author

Edwin Torres Q &A (1977) - Amazon purchase

Bought after a shout-out at David Nemeth's Unlawful Acts site. Torres also wrote Carlito's Way, something else which languishes on the TBR pile.....

The basis for the hit film "Q & A" directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Nick Nolte. Written by Edwin Torres, the author of After Hours which was the basis for the hit film "Carlito's Way" starring Al Pacino and Sean Penn. 

The minute he steps down the alleyway, Tony Roman knows it's a setup. The first bullet tears through his cheekbone; the second pierces his brain. The big man is dead before he hits the ground. When the crowd pours out of the nightclub to see what happened, the killer flashes a badge. He's the NYPD's Lt. Brennan, and he plans to get away with murder.

Assistant District Attorney Al Reilly is called in to investigate the shooting. Everyone in the department expects Reilly, an ex-cop whose father was killed in the line of duty, to support Brennan's claim of self-defense. But the evidence doesn't add up. As Reilly digs deeper into the events of that snowy night in the darkened alley, he finds that in the NYPD, there is no crime worse than investigating a crooked cop.

Chris Roy - Her Name is Mercie (2018) - copy received from Rachel Gilbey at Rachel's Random Resources

Not an author I've tried yet, though his other books look interesting - Sharp as a Razor, Shocking Circumstances.....

Roy delivers on the edge of your seat storytelling with rough edges, crooked cops and a tiny light at the end of the tunnel that is never quite extinguished. 

— Tom Vater, co–founder of Crime Wave Press.

Her Name Is Mercie is a fast furious ride into an inferno of the highest tension you are likely to encounter this year. Where noir meets thriller, toss a coin. Dive in. And unplug your phones, pcs tablets and keep reading deeper and deeper, until the final pages.

— Richard Godwin, author of Apostle Rising.

Mercie Hillbrook lives a simple, quiet life working as a gas station attendant. Then her parents are killed. Her home is taken. The people responsible are excused for just doing their job. When an attempt to get justice her way lands her in trouble with the law, Mercie realizes she still has something to lose: her own life. 

Then she finds reason to believe her parents were murdered… and she doesn't care anymore

Kenneth Cook - Wanted Dead (1963) - Amazon purchase

An Australian author I've read previously - Fear is the Rider



Special Constable Riley is pitted against desperate men in his battle to make the peace in the wild rugged bush of colonial New South Wales.


In this exciting thriller by Kenneth Cook, author of Wake in Fright, the black and desperate deeds of our brutal past are recorded for the enjoyment of the modern reader.