In his impressive and confident debut, Michael Wiley delivers a thrilling tale about how greed and revenge play out on the streets of Chicago. Private eye Joe Kozmarski has just been asked to clear his childhood friend Bob Piedras of murder. Bob's latest girlfriend, a young Vietnamese-American beauty, has turned up dead in an airport hotel. No one's very surprised. She had a taste for hard liquor, drugs, and stripping in front of a camera. And Bob has a history of violence. But Bob's boss, retired judge Peter Rifkin, is convinced Bob is innocent and he thinks Joe is the one to find the real killer. But Joe's life is complicated. He hasn't spoken to Rifkin for fifteen years---ever since his father, now dead, found out that the judge had double-crossed him. The dead woman's brothers, a pair of tough guys, are bent on being the first to find and punish her murderer. On top of that, Joe and his wife have separated and his mother has dropped his eleven-year-old nephew on him. But the more obstacles Joe encounters, the more determined he becomes to see this case through. Since its beginning, the PWA/SMP Best First Private Eye Novel Contest has accomplished its mission of finding amazing new talent in mystery writing. With vividly realized characters and a page-turning story line, The Last Striptease is the latest in what has become a long tradition of excellent crime fiction.

The Last Striptease

Literature & Fiction

Wiley, Michael

Contemporary

Minotaur Books

Winner of the Shamus Award for Best Novel
Working late-night surveillance at a luxury condominium development, Chicago private investigator Joe Kozmarski encounters a burglary crew. Two of the crew members show up in a police cruiser dressed in uniform. In the chaos that follows, Kozmarski shoots and kills one of the thieves, who, like the rest of the crew, is one of Chicago's Finest. And just like that Kozmarski finds he’s in for many a bad night’s sleep. Kozmarski joins the burglary crew, working as an inside agent for his old friend Lieutenant Bill Gubman. Facing dangerous suspicions from both the criminal gang and the uncorrupted ranks of the police department, uncertain about who wishes to help him stay alive and who wishes to kill him, Kozmarski takes his wildest ride yet. A Bad Night's Sleep pushes full throttle through the streets of Chicago to a stunning conclusion.

A Bad Night's Sleep: A Mystery (Joe Kozmarski Series)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

Michael Wiley's first novel, The Last Striptease, was nominated for a Shamus Award and hailed as "riveting" (The Chicago Tribune), "delightful" (Toronto Globe and Mail), and "hard-boiled fiction with tenderness and compassion" (New York Newsday). Now he offers another exciting, fast-paced page-turner with The Bad Kitty Lounge.
Greg Samuelson, an unassuming bookkeeper, has hired Joe Kozmarski to dig up dirt on his wife and her lover Eric Stone. But now Samuelson has taken matters into his own hands. It looks like he's torched Stone's Mercedes, killed his boss, and then shot himself, all in the space of an hour.
The police think they know how to put together this ugly puzzle. But as Kozmarski discovers, nothing's ever simple. Eric Stone wants to hire Kozmarski to clear Samuelson. Samuelson's dead boss, known as the Virginity Nun, has a saintly reputation but a red-hot past. And a gang led by an aging 1960s radical shows up in Kozmarski's office with a backpack full of payoff money, warning him to turn a blind eye to murder.
At the same time, Kozmarski is working things out with his ex-wife, Corrine, his new partner, Lucinda Juarez, and his live-in nephew, Jason. If the bad guys don't do Kozmarski in, his family might.

The Bad Kitty Lounge (Joe Kozmarski Series)

'Excellent noir that will attract readers who appreciate the anguished protagonists of Steve Hamilton and Loren D. Estleman" - Library Journal Starred Review Introducing homicide detective Daniel Turner and his troubled friend 'BB' in the first of this atmospheric crime noir series. Summoned by his old friend, homicide detective Daniel Turner, to identify the trussed-up, naked body of a woman, found wrapped in cellophane amongst a pile of garbage on Blue Avenue, a down-at-heel area of Jacksonville, Florida, businessman William Byrd or ‘BB’ is in for a shock. He recognises the dead woman as Belinda Mabry, the girl with whom he spent an intense and passionate summer twenty-five years before. What’s more, as Daniel informs him, she’s the third victim to have met such a hideously gruesome end. Determined to find out what happened to Belinda Mabry and where she’d been for the past twenty-five years, BB must revisit his own troubled past – and discover more than he ever really wanted to know about the woman he once loved. But his investigations are causing serious ripples amongst prominent members of the local community. Has BB found himself on a road of no return?

Blue Avenue (A Daniel Turner Mystery, 1)

United States

Severn House

An intriguing mystery featuring homicide detective Daniel Turner in the second of this atmospheric crime noir series, following Blue Avenue. When one of her students is found dead, English teacher Lillian Turner and her husband, Navy war veteran Johnny Bellefleur, are drawn into the investigation. Having made a macabre discovery which throws a disturbing new light on the case, Johnny and Lillian find themselves involved in something darker and more dangerous than they could have imagined. With their marriage cracking under the strain and Johnny’s sanity under threat, the pair is warned to stay out of the case by Lillian’s brother, homicide detective Daniel Turner. Just what is Daniel’s connection to the dead girl? Does he know more than he’s letting on? Can Lillian trust her own brother?

Second Skin (A Daniel Turner Mystery, 2)

Homicide detective Daniel Turner revisits an 18-year-old unsolved case in the third of this intriguing and atmospheric crime noir series. We had set out from Atlanta to kill my mother and her husband. A slow kill. Oren has returned to the family home he last saw when he was eight years old. Eighteen years later, he is bent on an elaborate scheme of revenge. Homicide detective Daniel Turner was never able to forget the unsolved case, the disappearance of Amon Jakobsen all those years ago. Convinced the man was murdered, he was never able to prove it. Now he has returned to the isolated house on Black Hammock Island following reports of a disturbance. Is this his chance to find out what really happened to Amon eighteen years before? And will he be in time to prevent history repeating itself?

Black Hammock (A Daniel Turner Mystery, 3)

Introducing former death-row inmate turned private investigator Franky Dast in the first of an intriguing new crime noir series. Having spent eight years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit, Franky Dast now works as an investigator for the Justice Now Initiative, seeking to help others in the same situation. But when he learns that Bill Higby, the detective whose testimony helped convict him, is facing his own murder charge, Franky is torn. Should he help the man he hates more than any other, the man who remains convinced of Franky’s guilt to this day? As Franky delves further, he comes to realize that in order to prove Higby’s innocence, he must also prove his own. Unless he finds out what happened that fateful night eight years before, the night 15-year-old Duane Bronson and his 13-year-old brother were murdered, Franky will always be under suspicion, and the real killer will remain free. What really happened that dark, wet night on Monument Road? And is Franky prepared for the shocking truth? Will appeal to fans of GREG ILES and MICHAEL CONNELLY

Monument Road (A Franky Dast Mystery, 1)

Introducing maverick Chicago private investigator Sam Kelson in the first of a hardhitting new crime noir series. Sam Kelson is a PI like no other. As a consequence of being shot in the head while working undercover as a Chicago cop, he suffers from disinhibition: he cannot keep silent or tell lies when questioned. But truth be told - and Kelson always tells the truth - he still feels compelled to investigate and, despite the odds, he's good at his job. Hired by Trina Felbanks to investigate her pharmacist brother, whom she suspects is dealing drugs, Kelson arrives at Felbanks' home to make a shocking discovery. Arrested on suspicion of murder, he makes an even more startling discovery concerning his client's identity. Kelson would appear to have been set up ... but by whom, and why? As events spiral out of control and the body count rises, Kelson realizes he's made a dangerously powerful enemy. Will he survive long enough to discover who has targeted him - and what it is they want?

Trouble in Mind (A Sam Kelson mystery, 1)

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

A case of stolen shoes leads maverick Chicago PI Sam Kelson into something far darker and deeper in the second of this hardhitting crime noir series.\n"My boyfriend's been stealing my Jimmy Choos." Genevieve Bower has hired private investigator Sam Kelson to recover her stolen shoes from her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend. The problem is that no one's seen Genevieve's boyfriend for the past two weeks.\nEvents take a disturbing twist when, in his search for the shoes, Kelson comes across a body, shot in the head. A clear-cut case of suicide - or is it? Has Kelson's client been wholly honest with him? What is this case really about?\nAt the same time, an explosion rips through one of the city's public libraries, leaving a friend's nephew critically injured. Could there be a connection? If there is, Kelson's determined to find it. But Kelson's not like other investigators. Taking a bullet in the brain during his former career as a Chicago cop, he suffers from disinhibition: he cannot keep silent or tell lies when questioned - and his involuntary outspokenness is about to lead him into dangerous waters . . .

Lucky Bones (A Sam Kelson mystery, 2)

Chicago private investigator Sam Kelson uncovers more than he bargained for when he investigates a series of suspicious deaths at the Clement Memorial Hospital. "My friend, this place is killing people." While in the hospital recuperating from a gunshot wound, Chicago PI Sam Kelson is approached by a nurse who's troubled by three recent deaths. No pattern, no connection - except that three patients died when they shouldn't have. Initially skeptical, Kelson starts asking questions - and the more he uncovers, the clearer it becomes that something isn't right. What exactly has been going on at Clement Memorial Hospital? Has someone been killing patients? If so, why? As Kelson digs deeper, he comes to realize that someone is determined to prevent him finding out the truth. Whatever it takes.

Head Case (A Sam Kelson mystery, 3)

Genre Fiction

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