The most notorious love letters in American history--supposedly destroyed a century ago--mysteriously reappear, and become the coveted prize in a fierce battle for possession that brings back to life the lawless world evoked in the letters themselves. Lisa Balamaro is an ambitious arts lawyer with a secret crush on her most intriguing client: former rodeo rider and reformed art forger, Tuck Mercer. In his newfound role as expert in Old West artifacts, Tuck gains possession of the supposedly destroyed correspondence between Doc Holliday and his cousin and childhood sweetheart, Mattie--who would become Sister Mary Melanie of the Sisters of Mercy. Given the unlikelihood the letters can ever be fully authenticated, Tuck retains Lisa on behalf of the letters' owner, Rayella Vargas, to sell them on the black market. But the buyer Tuck finds, a duplicitous judge from the Tombstone area, has other, far more menacing ideas. As Lisa works feverishly to make things right, Rayella secretly enlists her ex-marine boyfriend in a daring scheme of her own. When the judge learns he's been blindsided, he rallies a cadre of armed men for a deadly standoff reminiscent of the moment in history that made Doc famous: The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday

Literature & Fiction

David Corbett

United States

Suspense Publishing

The Devil's Redhead

Dan Abatangelo and Shel Beaudry are two 'for life' lovers, whose adventures as the last of the independent 'gentleman' marijuana smugglers ('no violence - it's all about the money') come to an abrupt end with their arrest in Las Vegas. Dan pleads guilty and receives a ten-year sentence in exchange for a more lenient term for Shel. Released from prison, Shel struggles to keep her life on track without Dan's emotional support. Succumbing to a weakness for 'strays' she becomes the sole caregiver of Frank Maas, a psychologically scarred and unstable loner on the fringes of a crime ring operating in the delta. With Dan's release from prison imminent, Frank plans a quick, ill- conceived score, hoping with money in hand to persuade Shel to disappear with him. The plan backfires miserably, and Frank, Shel and Dan are caught up in an inferno they cannot hope to survive.

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

ORION PAPERBACKS

Satisfaction is a commodity in short supply for the myriad characters populating Done for a Dime , private eye-turned-author David Corbett's affecting follow-up to his debut novel, The Devil's Redhead . Among the significantly short-changed is Raymond "Strong" Carlisle, an irascible black saxophonist who used to play with the giants of blues music, but now does only about four gigs a year, "if he's lucky, with a bunch of sorry old men the business forgot long ago." When Carlisle is shot dead at his home in Rio Mirada, an increasingly crime-plagued burg north of San Francisco, the cops, including lead detective Dennis Murchison and his racist partner, Jerry Stluka, figure it's the tragic result of a nightclub fight he'd provoked the evening before. Their two prime Arlie Thigpen, a gang tough employed by a local drug dealer; and Toby Marchand, Carlisle's musician son, who'd chafed under his elder's incessant tauntings, and whose white teenage lover, Nadya Lazarenko, witnessed the homicide--but is too traumatized to remember anything about it. However, Carlisle's death is merely a harbinger of worse troubles to come, among them a neighborhood-destroying fire engineered by greedy developers. Regrettably, that cinematic hillside conflagration diverts attention from Corbett's more interesting study of people trying to cope with the inequitable vicissitudes of life. Murchison, for instance, comes off as a conflicted mix of determination and desperation, a man terminally unable to fulfill the expectations of his wife and parents. For Marchand, the challenge is to reject his late father's cynicism and find hope in Nadya's embrace, even as she refuses to trust in something so ephemeral as happiness. Other well-formed players here--from a suspect's strong-willed mother, to a smart and fetching lawyer who confuses Murchison's heart, to a cop-turned-hired killer who isn't so transparently evil as he initially appears--struggle to achieve their own forms of justice in an unjust world. Corbett has a sharp ear for street dialogue and an even sharper understanding of human emotion and pain. For a book that's all about dissatisfaction, Done for a Dime is decidedly satisfying. --J. Kingston Pierce

Done for a Dime

Orion an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd

Phelan Tierney helps people who hope to start their lives over. When Jacquelina Garza, a young woman he’s taken under his wing, disappears, the former lawyer devotes himself to finding her—despite her secretive and puzzlingly unhelpful family.Jacqi has been to hell and back. Abducted by a child predator when she was eight years old, she still, years later, bears the scars of the incident and its very public aftermath. Her life takes an even steeper downward spiral when she witnesses the murder of a man it seems everyone wanted dead. But no one, not even the police, wants to hear her version of what actually happened.Can these two wayward souls find redemption amid the convenient lies and difficult truths that have followed them for so long?David Corbett, award-winning author of four previous novels, has written his most personal and powerful work to date, a story of haunting suspense with characters you will never forget.

Mercy of the Night, The

Mystery

BRILLIANCE AUDIO ^

Raymond Strong Carlisle made his mark as an ace sideman to the biggest names in R&B. Now he lies in the mud outside his home, shot dead from behind. He's the first official casualty in a dirty war for control of Rio Mirada: a low-rent city in transition at the northernmost point of the San Francisco Bay, beset by drug dealers, arsonists, squatters, and restless developers. And now a murderer. In Rio Mirada, the truth is in short supply. What's plentiful are people with all the reasons in the world to make sure the murder of Strong Carlisle remains unsolved. And the harder Detective Dennis Murchison pushes for answers, the clearer it becomes that this single, brutal homicide is just the tip of an iceberg in a town where small-time crime and big-time corruption are about to collide with explosive consequences.

Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by David Corbett. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by David Corbett

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by David Corbett. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday

The Devil's Redhead

Done for a Dime

Mercy of the Night, The

Done for a Dime