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

Accumulations last month included these six little beauties.....

A couple of purchases, one on spec., one after reading the first in a two book series, an Amazon freebie from an author I've been tempted by but never committed to before, my monthly Patreon reward book from Fahrenheit Press and two down to a bit of author generosity - hats off to Dave Putnam and Tom Pitts.....

Tony Spinosa - The Fourth Victim (2008) - purchased

Tony Spinosa aka Reed Farrel Coleman penned a couple of books with Joe Serpe and Bob Healy. I loved the first after waiting over ten years to read it - Hose Monkey

Several home heating oil delivery drivers have been robbed and murdered. Joe Serpe and Bob Healy, now partners in an oil company of their own, make sure their drivers are safe. But when Rusty Monaco, another ex-NYPD detective, becomes the killer's fourth victim, Serpe and Healy take matters into their own hands. In the course of their unofficial investigation they stumble upon a completely different set of crimes that lead both Serpe and Healy back onto the streets they protected as cops.

Ben Lieberman - Odd Jobs (2010) - purchased

Not an author I had previously heard of nor a book either. I think one of my Goodreads friends added it and I was intrigued.

Hauling cow carcasses through a freezing warehouse isn't Kevin Davenport's idea of summer fun. But it's not his first crappy job. And with tuition due and his widowed mom strapped for cash, he's in no position to turn down good pay. But there's more than meatpacking happening at Kosher World Meat Factory. And the truth isn't quite so - well - kosher. Turns out the business is a front for a criminal syndicate. While working at the corrupt meat factory, Kevin discovers who killed his father, and now all bets are off. Kevin finally has the chance to settle the score, and he'll tackle any job - club fighting, bookmaking, even drug dealing - to earn his revenge. But can he do it without becoming the very thing he's trying to destroy? Or, God forbid, flunking out of school? The Sopranos meets Animal House in this darkly comic coming-of-age novel about the price of vengeance - and the burden of truth.

Pete Brassett - Terminus (2017) - Amazon FREEBIE

A seven book long Scottish detective series that I've had an eye on, but never took the plunge. I'm usually a bit OCD with series books, preferring to go from first to wherever but I don't think I've time to read all seven.

Detective Munro is on the back foot when a dangerous killer always seems to be one step ahead.

Having been the victim of a hit and run accident, and despite being black and blue, DI Munro wastes no time in trying to find out the identity of the perpetrator.

In the meantime, a junior detective receives a call from a concerned member of the public, worried that a recently deceased friend's will had been unlawfully changed.

What connects these two events will be crucial to the detective's investigation. But when prime witnesses turn up dead, they'll discover they have a more serious case on their hands. With attempted murder upgraded to a full-scale murder investigation, can the police close in on a mysterious killer or will Munro be finally outwitted?

TERMINUS is the fifth book by Pete Brassett to feature detectives James Munro and Charlotte West.

Ian Patrick - Stoned Love (2018) - Fahrenheit Press monthly book

I have a copy of Ian Patrick's debut Rubicon on the device for a read sometime.

Detective Sergeant Sam Batford has been lying low at a remote safe house in the highlands of Scotland. He's doing his best not to attract the attention of the enemies he made, on both sides of the law, during his last under-cover operation but Batford knows he's just killing time until he's called to account.

Inevitably the sharks begin to circle and as Batford is called back to front-line action in London he's thrown into a deadly game of cat and mouse where it seems everyone is out to get him.

After having to endure a frustrating resolution to their previous undercover operation together DCI Klara Winter from the National Crime Agency is determined to prove that Batford has crossed the line into criminality and finally bring him to face justice.

All Sam Batford wants is to outwit his enemies long enough to stay alive and come out ahead of the game.

Ian Patrick's previous Sam Batford novel, RUBICON has been optioned by the BBC.

Praise from other authors.

'A taut, exciting and utterly authentic thriller with a compelling narrator' - Louise Voss

'A sharp, slick, gripping and compelling novel' - Jane Isaac

Tom Pitts - 101 (2018) - review copy from author

Tom Pitts has been enjoyed before with American Static read last year. A few more from him sit on the pile. This drops in November I believe.

On the cusp of pot legalization in California, Jerry runs afoul of some San Francisco bikers in the marijuana game. He flees straight up Highway 101 to Humboldt County to hide out deep in the hills at Vic's, a reclusive pot farmer and old pal of his tough-as-nails mother. But trouble finds Jerry no matter where he goes and soon the bikers, a pair of stone killers, and a Russian weed tycoon named Vlad the Inhaler are all hot on Jerry's trail.

Fallout from the unfolding chaos piques the interest of SFPD detective, Roland Mackie, when he learns Jerry's host, Vic, is somehow involved. It opens a twenty-year-old wound, an unsolved case called the Fulton Street Massacre, and Mackie is willing to do whatever it takes to get a pair of cuffs on the elusive Vic.

When Jerry and his protectors are chased off the mountain and back down the 101 to an inevitable showdown back in the Bay, he learns Vic is much more than his host, he's a mentor, his mother's hero, and the toughest man he's ever met.

With an unforgettable cast of characters and an action-packed plot, 101 is a wild ride through Northern California's "emerald triangle."

Lou Berney - November Road (2018) - thanks to the kindness of Dave Putnam

I've read Lou Berney before and his latest one is causing a stir over in the US at the minute. Author Dave Putnam (Bruno Johnson series) recommended this to me and kindly sent me his copy when I told him it drops in the UK in 2019. What a very nice man!

Lou Berney's earlier books on the blog - Gutshot Straight and Whiplash River

Set against the assassination of JFK, a poignant and evocative crime novel that centers on a desperate cat-and-mouse chase across 1960s America - a story of unexpected connections, daring possibilities, and the hope of second chances from the Edgar Award-winning author of The Long and Faraway Gone.

Frank Guidry's luck has finally run out.

A loyal street lieutenant to New Orleans' mob boss Carlos Marcello, Guidry has learned that everybody is expendable. But now it's his turn - he knows too much about the crime of the century: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Within hours of JFK's murder, everyone with ties to Marcello is turning up dead, and Guidry suspects he's next: he was in Dallas on an errand for the boss less than two weeks before the president was shot. With few good options, Guidry hits the road to Las Vegas, to see an old associate - a dangerous man who hates Marcello enough to help Guidry vanish.

Guidry knows that the first rule of running is "don't stop," but when he sees a beautiful housewife on the side of the road with a broken-down car, two little daughters and a dog in the back seat, he sees the perfect disguise to cover his tracks from the hit men on his tail. Posing as an insurance man, Guidry offers to help Charlotte reach her destination, California. If she accompanies him to Vegas, he can help her get a new car.

For her, it's more than a car - it's an escape. She's on the run too, from a stifling existence in small-town Oklahoma and a kindly husband who's a hopeless drunk.

It's an American story: two strangers meet to share the open road west, a dream, a hope - and find each other on the way.

Charlotte sees that he's strong and kind; Guidry discovers that she's smart and funny. He learns that's she determined to give herself and her kids a new life; she can't know that he's desperate to leave his old one behind.

Another rule - fugitives shouldn't fall in love, especially with each other. A road isn't just a road, it's a trail, and Guidry's ruthless and relentless hunters are closing in on him. But now Guidry doesn't want to just survive, he wants to really live, maybe for the first time.

Everyone's expendable, or they should be, but now Guidry just can't throw away the woman he's come to love.

And it might get them both killed.