Black Maps by Peter Spiegelman

FROM THE PUBLISHER
The stronghold of white-collar crime in the rarefied world of high finance - this is the setting for Peter Spiegelman's edgy, suspenseful, sharply honed debut novel.
At the center: John March, who walked away from his family's venerable merchant bank for the life of a rural deputy sheriff - a life that would explode in personal tragedy and professional disaster. Three years later, he's back in Manhattan, working as a PI and running from his grief and the expectations of his wealthy family.

March takes the case of Rick Pierro, a selfmade man who has everything - and who's in danger of losing it all. An anonymous, poisonous threat has implicated him in a vast money-laundering scheme already under investigation by the feds.

March's own investigation uncovers a bloodstained paper trail that leads him deep into the lives of both insiders and outcasts on the street. He discovers that his client may be the latest victim of a serial extortionist diabolically adept at psychological and physical intimidation, but the more March learns the more questions he has about Pierro, his wife, and the secrets hidden beneath the glossy surfaces of their lives. And the more he begins to fear that his own blood will be added to the trail before the case is closed.

Winner of the 2004 Shamus Award for First Novel

Moist by Mark Haskell Smith

FROM THE PUBLISHER
A comic rampage through the polyglot gutters of modern Los Angeles...

When a severed arm decorated with an erotic tattoo appears at an L.A. pathology lab, it's love at first sight. Bob's minimum wage job minding the slabs has never given him agita before, but now he won't rest until he finds the owner of the arm so he can get to the girl who posed for that unforgettable tattoo. But Bob isn't the only one with a stake in finding the arm's owner-the moment he sets off to find his true love, a colorful band of mobsters from Mexico and some of the L.A.P.D.'s finest cross his path in their desperate search for this peculiar piece of evidence.

From Amado, a one-armed murdered addicted to Mexican soap opera, to Martin, a Wharon graduate and cannabis aficionado, to Maura, a masturbation coach with unnatural urges, Bob finds himself entangled in a hilarious stew of murder, sex and mobster-style politics.

A first novel that is as sharp and biting as a salt-rimmed margarita,Faster, with a head-swiveling plot you'll love to untangle, Moist is whip-smart, stylish reading.

BODY OF TRUTH by David Lindsey

The New York Times bestselling author of Mercy returns with a beautifully crafted novel about a terrifying journey into the dark heart of human evil. The daughter of a prominent family goes out to meet an old friend and does not return. Three months later, homicide detective Stuart Haydon receives word that she has surfaced in Guatemala--a place where people never die . . . they simply disappear.

Fade by Kyle Mills

FROM THE PUBLISHER
"A secret Department of Homeland Security is recruiting agents to work undercover in the Middle East, and the director wants his second-in-command, Matt Egan, to bring aboard an old friend, Salam al Fayed - better known as Fade." "He seems perfect for the job: A New Yorker and ex-Navy Seal, he is the son of immigrants and he speaks perfect Arabic. Trouble is, he's "retired"; he got shot in the back in the line of duty, and the U.S. government refused to pay for the risky surgery that could have helped him." "Now Fade lives the life of a hermit, walking around with a bullet lodged near his spine and liable to shift at any moment, and the last thing he wants to hear is that his country needs him - least of all, his ex-best friend, Matt Egan, whom he sees as responsible for his present condition." Against Egan's wishes, the director forces the issue and tries none too subtly to "persuade" Fade to join the team. But Fade, angry and hopeless, is prepared to fight back at any cost, and the ensuing confrontation is a bloody one. And the chase is on - will Matt be able to find his friend-turned-fugitive before Fade can take the ultimate revenge?

Blood Atonement by Jim Tenuto

FROM THE PUBLISHER
Dahlgren Wallace, former football star, Gulf War veteran, and former member of the Marine Corps elite Force Recon, currently lives as a trout bum. He's put the world behind him and now guides on an expansive, private Montana river, owned by a media mogul. When the novel opens, he's guiding his boss's guest, a Mormon billionaire, down that river. It looks like an unexpected friendship is born--until the billionaire is bludgeoned to death, practically under Dahlgren's nose. By a twist of fate--or is it?--Dahlgren doesn't witness the murder. Instead, he's immediately suspected of the crime. He's been framed.

In an effort to defend himself, he must resort to the skills learned in Special Ops, skills he had hoped he'd never need again. As he delves further into the case, he finds himself embroiled with a band of neo-Nazi-type militia; a deadly serious, radical environmental movement; a colony of peaceful Hutterites; a kilt-wearing clandestine cattleman's organization; and the FBI. All the while, he is led down a twisted path of discovery and into the darkest moments of Mormon history.

Full of action, humor, tremendous suspense, and peopled with wonderfully surprising characters--from a Jewish deli-owner/scholar to a brilliant and taciturn ranch foreman to the former beauty-queen wife of the murder victim--Blood Atonement is a winner. Tenuto's agile style and lightning-fast pace will make the world impatient for the next Dahlgren Wallace mystery.

Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Dexter Morgan has been under considerable pressure. It's just not easy being an ethical serial killer - especially while trying to avoid the unshakable suspicions of the dangerous Sergeant Doakes (who believes Dexter is a homicidal maniac ... which, of course, he is). In an attempt to throw Doakes off his trail, Dexter has had to slip deep into his foolproof disguise. While not working as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami Police Department, he now spends nearly all his time with his cheerful girlfriend, Rita, and her two children, sipping light beer and slowly becoming the world's first serial couch potato. But how long can Dexter play Kick the Can instead of Slice the Slasher? How long before his Dark Passenger forces him to drop the charade and let his inner monster run free?" In trying times, opportunity knocks. A particularly nasty psychopath is cutting a trail through Miami - a man whose twisted technique leaves even Dexter speechless. As Dexter's dark appetite is revived, his sister, Deborah (a newly minted, tough-as-nails Miami detective), is drawn headlong into the case. It quickly becomes clear that it will take a monster to catch a monster - but it isn't until his archnemesis is abducted that Dex can finally throw himself into the search for a new plaything. Unless, of course, his plaything finds him first.

Police forensic technician dishes out his own version of vigilante justice to serial killers.

Death's Little Helpers by Peter Spiegelman

FROM THE PUBLISHER
"John March has been hired to find missing Wall Street analyst Gregory Danes. Once ubiquitous on television, Danes's star went into steep decline along with the stock market: now he's best known for his volatile temper and his obsession with restoring his tattered reputation." "His ex-wife, a fashionable painter, wants to know why the alimony checks have stopped arriving. But what appears to be a straightforward missing persons case quickly becomes something much more deadly. March unearths a rat's nest of family strife, business betrayals, and deceptions, and finds that Danes left a long line of enemies in his troubled wake - some of whom are also hunting for the missing man." March's investigation now takes on a terrifying urgency as it leads him through the corrupt corridors of white-collar crime and the underworld of the Russian mob, and into the more intricate maze of the human heart.

Dogged PI investigates the disappearance of a wallstreet analyst. Good storyline though it drags a little towards the middle. Not much in terms of action. Just a good narrative of PI work. Good job for a second novel.

If I like "x," what else will I like? - You Asked for It at BookSpot.com

If I like "x," what else will I like? - You Asked for It at BookSpot.com
Excellent resources for finding books and reading suggestions based on your preferences.
--
From Really-Usefull-Info-Dept.

Looking for "Flickr-like" functionality for books

Looking for "Flickr-like" sites but for books only. I would like to track what I have read which is basically this blog but now I need additional categorising functionality (by author, by genre, etc).

I had an account with Allconsuming.net but I found that it was too much work to enter stuff in it and also very slow.

Some sites I have found are

Bookswelike
bibliophil.org
listsofbests.com/


If running your own website.

tReadingList is a set of PHP4 scripts designed to provide a list of books read, with commentary, for websites. The system uses HTML based templates to specify formatting of the reading list pages, providing complete control of page appearance to the webmaster. The system's backend is provided by a MySQL database, and support is included for generation of both a list of recent books read and a list of older books, as well as integration with Amazon.com Associate Accounts. Reading list HTML pages are only regenerated when changes are made to books, so end users suffer no delays caused by database access or parsing of scripting code. tReadingList is licensed under the GNU GPL. View: Node 777: The Reading List

Setof PHP scripts if you want to run your site. This is exactly like this blog site with rating and review portion.

Cat Chaser by Elmore Leonard

FROM THE PUBLISHER
The hero of Cat Chaser, George Moran, isn't looking for trouble but finds it anyway when he winds up in bed with the wife of a drug-dealing mob-connected Dominican cop — vicious, macho and ready to follow George to the ends of the earth, which in this case means Miami. The hero of Cat Chaser, George Moran, isn't looking for trouble but finds it anyway when he winds up in bed with the wife of a drug-dealing mob-connected Dominican cop — vicious, macho and ready to follow George to the ends of the earth, which in this case means Miami.

The Death Collectors by Jack Kerley

FROM THE PUBLISHER
In 1972, on the day of his sentencing, renowned artist and serial killer Marsden Hexcamp is shot dead in the courtroom. Members of his Mansonesque band of followers are imprisoned or simply disappear. Fast-forward more than thirty years: A suspected prostitute is found murdered in a candlelit motel room, the first in a series of horrors suggesting Hexcamp's art remains alive and treacherous. Following a trail of beautiful - and profoundly disturbing - artwork, homicide detectives Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus descend into the shocking world of the Death Collectors, people who spend vast sums to collect serial-killer memorabilia. As Ryder and Nautilus race to solve a thirty-year conspiracy, it becomes evident that at the intersection of art and madness, death is beauty, tragedy a memento, and suffering suitable for framing.

Taut psychological killer that holds your attention till the very end.

Immoral by Brian Freeman
Good Debut by Brian Freeman. Keeps you guessing throughout. Grippong, Taut.

No Way Back by Michael Crow

From Publishers Weekly
Baltimore cop Luther Ewing, having just received a six-month suspension from his narc squad job, takes on a CIA mission to fill the down time. An ex–Special Forces spook with a long history of mass mayhem, Luther's now headed for a dicey bodyguarding scenario in Korea and Vladivostok. He suffers from a head wound that forces him to take medication four times a day, but the injury hasn't dulled his impressive skills. He's a master of any number of weapons systems, but the book, the third in a series (Red Rain; The Bite), focuses mostly on the setup and training for the mission. His controllers are two beauties, Nadya and Allison, and an old partner from his Bosnian days, Westley. Their job is to protect a wealthy South Korean making a mysterious deal with a pair of devious Russian generals. As always in these sorts of adventures, double-crosses, triple-crosses and more are expected and supplied. The real fun is in trying to figure out who's in charge, what the real game is and how to tell the good guys from the bad. Luther performs with his usual deadly grace, and Crow lays it all out with style and strength. The action takes a while to arrive, but once there it's swift, brutal and rewarding.
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