Burgade's Crossing by Bill Pronzini
John Frederick Quincannon, former United States Secret Service agent,
and Sabrina Carpenter, widow of a Pinkerton detective, joined forces to
form the firm of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective
Services. Quincannon would like for them to join forces in other, more
physical ways, but his partner valiantly resists.
True Detectives by Jonathan Kellerman
Bound by blood but
divided by troubles as old as Cain and Abel, Moses Reed and Aaron Fox
were first introduced in Kellerman’s bestselling Bones. They are sons of
the same strong-willed mother, and their respective fathers were cops,
partners, and friends. Their turbulent family history has set them at
odds, despite their shared calling. Moses—part Boy Scout, part bulldog,
man of few words—is a no-frills LAPD detective. Aaron, sharp dresser and
smooth operator, is an ex-cop turned high-end private eye. Usually they
go their separate ways. But the disappearance of Caitlin Frostig isn’t
usual. For Moses, it’s an ice-cold mystery he just can’t outrun, even
with the help of psychologist Alex Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis.
For Aaron, it’s a billable-hours bonanza from his most lucrative client.
Like it or not, Moses and Aaron are in this one together–and the
rivalry that rules them won’t let either man quit till the case is
cracked.
A straight-arrow, straight-A student from Malibu,
Caitlin has only two men in her life: her sullen single father and her
wholesome college sweetheart, who even the battling brothers agree seems
too downright upright to be true. Reluctantly tag-teaming in a
desperate search for fresh leads, Moses and Aaron zero in on Caitlin’s
white knight as their primary “person of interest,” hoping that, like
most people in L.A., he has a secret side.
But they uncover more
than just a secret as they descend into the sinister, seamy side of the
City of Angels after dark, populated by a Hollywood Babylon cast of the
glamorous and the damned: a millionaire movie director turned
hatemongering eccentric; a desperate Beverly Hills housewife looking for
an exit from the fast lane; a heartthrob actor being eaten alive by
personal demons; a hooker who’s probably seen it all . . . and might
just know too much. And at the center, a dead young woman whose downward
spiral and brutal end loom over Moses and Aaron like an omen of what
may come to be if the dark end of the street claims another lost soul.
The Litigators by John Grisham
The partners at Finley
& Figg—all two of them—often refer to themselves as “a boutique law
firm.” Boutique, as in chic, selective, and prosperous. They are, of
course, none of these things. What they are is a two-bit operation
always in search of their big break, ambulance chasers who’ve been in
the trenches much too long making way too little. Their specialties, so
to speak, are quickie divorces and DUIs, with the occasional jackpot of
an actual car wreck thrown in. After twenty plus years together, Oscar
Finley and Wally Figg bicker like an old married couple but somehow
continue to scratch out a half-decent living from their seedy bungalow
offices in southwest Chicago.
And then change comes their way.
More accurately, it stumbles in. David Zinc, a young but already
burned-out attorney, walks away from his fast-track career at a fancy
downtown firm, goes on a serious bender, and finds himself literally at
the doorstep of our boutique firm. Once David sobers up and comes to
grips with the fact that he’s suddenly unemployed, any job—even one with
Finley & Figg—looks okay to him.
With their new associate
on board, F&F is ready to tackle a really big case, a case that
could make the partners rich without requiring them to actually practice
much law. An extremely popular drug, Krayoxx, the number one
cholesterol reducer for the dangerously overweight, produced by Varrick
Labs, a giant pharmaceutical company with annual sales of $25 billion,
has recently come under fire after several patients taking it have
suffered heart attacks. Wally smells money.
A little online
research confirms Wally’s suspicions—a huge plaintiffs’ firm in Florida
is putting together a class action suit against Varrick. All Finley
& Figg has to do is find a handful of people who have had heart
attacks while taking Krayoxx, convince them to become clients, join the
class action, and ride along to fame and fortune. With any luck, they
won’t even have to enter a courtroom!
It almost seems too good to be true.
And it is.
Chumley's Gold: a Western Duo by Wayne D. Overholser
An exciting collection features two novels including "High Valley," in
which Joe Talbot, who works on the Wagon Wheel ranch, finds life getting
very tough and brutal when the ranch owner mysteriously dies, his widow
becomes determined to sell out, and outlaws from the valley prepare to
wage war on the ranch.
Calico Joe by John Grisham
Whatever happened to Calico Joe?
It began quietly enough with a pulled hamstring. The first baseman for
the Cubs AAA affiliate in Wichita went down as he rounded third and
headed for home. The next day, Jim Hickman, the first baseman for the
Cubs, injured his back. The team suddenly needed someone to play first,
so they reached down to their AA club in Midland, Texas, and called up a
twenty-one-year-old named Joe Castle. He was the hottest player in AA
and creating a buzz.
In the summer of 1973 Joe Castle was
the boy wonder of baseball, the greatest rookie anyone had ever seen.
The kid from Calico Rock, Arkansas dazzled Cub fans as he hit home run
after home run, politely tipping his hat to the crowd as he shattered
all rookie records.
Calico Joe quickly became the idol of every
baseball fan in America, including Paul Tracey, the young son of a
hard-partying and hard-throwing Mets pitcher. On the day that Warren
Tracey finally faced Calico Joe, Paul was in the stands, rooting for his
idol but also for his Dad. Then Warren threw a fastball that would
change their lives forever…