Search Results: CALIFORNIA from Murder By The Book

N.Y.: Henry Holt & Co, 1987. 1st ed., with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in dust jacket, not price clipped, with protective mylar cover. 2nd James Reed title. California and Las Vegas. "Sangster's ex-London policeman James Reed (Snowball), now living in Malibu and divorced from his wealthy actress wife, makes a welcome second outing here. The novel's facile, casual style quickly draws the reader into a satisfying and well-constructed Chandleresque plot dealing with the corruptions of wealth and the deceit it inspires. When Reed plays the good samaritan for an inebriated neighbor he discovers a naked girl going through the man's bedroom safe. The next thing Reed knows, the girl has charged him with rape; which quite sets Reed's temper on edge. The drunk turns out to be reclusive multibillionaire Harold J. Everly, and, in his determination to even the score, Reed unofficially begins working for the tycoon. Almost immediately events escalate and Reed finds… Read More

New York, New York, U.S.A.: Doubleday, 1987. First edition, so stated. Author's 1st book .. Fine in fine dust jacket, small nicks at head and foot of spine, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. Rancho Esquon was a quiet little community in Northern California's vast Sacramento Valley. With its green neon palm, the Oasis Diner attracted tired truckers passing through on the long stretch of highway. The downtown movie theater was open only on Friday and Saturday nights to show films in Spanish to the migrant farm workers. And a small airstrip on the outskirts of town serviced crop dusters and private pilots who gave flying lessons to bored ranchers' wives. Then one blustery afternoon Michael Morrissey's Cessna Skyhawk plummeted to the runway in a blaze of sparks, and Rancho Esquon would never be the same. Donny Cannon knew Morrissey wasn't going to make it when he pulled him out of the plane's wreckage. But it wasn't the crash that took his best friend's… Read More

NY: Harper & Row, 1989. 1st ed. with complete number line beginning with 1. Minute soiling at page edges else fine in dust jacket, not price clipped, with protective mylar cover. Author's 1st book. San Francisco. EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE for Best First Novel. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Little Brown & Company, 1998. 1st ed. Near fine in dust jacket. Nominated for the 1997 MWA Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel. WINNER of the GRAND PRIX, ANTHONY and MACAVITY AWARDS for Best Novel. The first novel introducing ex-FBI investigator Terrell McCaleb. The basis for the film starring Clint Eastwood. "Connelly follows up Trunk Music with a tautly paced, seductively involving thriller about a murder that is less random than it seems. Ex-FBI agent Terry McCaleb is recuperating from a heart transplant when beautiful Graciela Rivers walks up to his San Pedro houseboat, tells him that the donor of his new heart, her sister Gloria, was murdered in a convenience-store robbery and asks him to find the killer. Although his doctor warns him against it, McCaleb can't resist the case (any more than he could resist the serial-murder cases that caused his heart attack in the first place). With no license and little cooperation from the police, McCaleb reviews the… Read More

NY: Random House, 1976. 1st ed. Pages beginning to brown else about fine in very lightly soiled dust jacket. Private eye Max Roper returns to investigate the murder of a Mr. Universe body-builder which takes place in the gym where Max works out. Front dust jacket is photo of Mr. Olympia and future governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Near Fine. Book.

New York, New York, U.S.A.: E P Dutton, 1994. 1st. edition February 1994, with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, with protective mylar cover. . First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.

N.Y.: Morrow, 1956. 1st edition. Very good copy with light wear at edges, glue remains at ep, probably a lending library copy but not stamped or marked as such. Dust jacket with a couple of large chips along bottom, and at spine, nicked and creased, not price clipped ($2.95 price intact). Previous owner's name on front pastedown. L.A. setting. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Good. Book.

N.Y.: Walker, 1992. First edition with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. "Computer whiz Jack B. Noble has a nice little scam going. Tapping into the central data system of his employer, Metrobank, he controls a high-tech pyramid that moves CD funds into a dummy account he has set up electronically to collect interest. But this is nothing compared to the multimillion-dollar leak Metrobank's auditors have discovered. Most of the intrigue in this fast-paced L.A. crime novel involves Jenny Harris, the boss's wife, who piques Jack's interest when he looks inside a bag of her personal effects mistakenly left at the office and discovers $25,000 in crisp new bills. Soon Jack finds himself following Jenny, rescuing her from a suicide attempt and falling in love with her. Trying to help her fend off a blackmail attempt, he becomes the prime embezzlement suspect and a murder target; he must elude the police and the… Read More

N.Y.: Viking Penguin, 1990. 1st. Fine in dj. Brandstetter, officially retired as a private eye, accedes to his lover Cecil's request to investigate the death of Vaughn Thomas, a co-worker at Channel 3 shot in a "combat pursuit" game by a real gun, not a paintball. Traveling to the home town of the young woman Thomas lived with, Brandstetter arrives just after she's murdered and her young son wounded. On a course marked by a right-wing paramilitary group, a jealous ex-husband and Thomas's hard-driving marketing-consultant stepmother (none of them nice), Hansen guides us in spare, smooth prose to a satisfying conclusion. Brandstetter's homosexuality is treated lightly--a boy in the paramilitary group has "pretty arms"--and his age isn't avoided: he needs his reading glasses. A worthy addition to classic Southern California detective stories. . First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.

N.Y.: Delacorte, 1991. 1st edition, February 1991, so statedwith complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in near fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. "Pronzini's "Nameless" San Francisco detective and his partner Eberhardt are trying to prove that their client Thomas Lujack did not mow down his business partner with his car. Although he suspects his client's guilt early on, the 58-year-old gumshoe spends three weeks looking for flaws in the testimony of the hit-and-run's sole witness. Then Lujack is found murdered, the witness disappears, and the detective, instead of being asked to step up his investigation, is discharged by the victim's brother Coleman. In full moral outrage, the veteran detective bulldogs his way through the case, uncovering evidence about the brothers' employment of illegal immigrants. Two-time Shamus Award-winner Pronzini ( Shackles ) delivers rapid-fire dialogue, surprising plot twists and even satisfying… Read More

N.Y.: Delacorte, 1991. 1st edition, February 1991, so stated with complete number line beginning with 1. About fine in dust jacket with light wear at edges,light rubbing, and one small tear. A nameless private eye in San Francisco, California, is featured in the nineteenth book in this series. "Pronzini's "Nameless" San Francisco detective and his partner Eberhardt are trying to prove that their client Thomas Lujack did not mow down his business partner with his car. Although he suspects his client's guilt early on, the 58-year-old gumshoe spends three weeks looking for flaws in the testimony of the hit-and-run's sole witness. Then Lujack is found murdered, the witness disappears, and the detective, instead of being asked to step up his investigation, is discharged by the victim's brother Coleman. In full moral outrage, the veteran detective bulldogs his way through the case, uncovering evidence about the brothers' employment of illegal immigrants. Two-time… Read More

London: Allison & Busby, 1986. 1st Printing. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall, trade size, reading creases, wear along edges a few creases else very good in wraps. Allison & Busby American Crime Series #14. SHAMUS AWARD NOMINEE.. 1st Prtg. Pictorial Wrappers. Very Good. Trade Paperback.

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Pocket Books, 1987. 1st edition, October 1987, with complete number line beginning with 1. Reading crease, very light wear else a near fine copy of this Paperback Original mystery featuring Jerry Zalman, L.A. lawyer. Author's first mystery. Nominated for an EDGAR AWARD for Best Paperback Original.. First Edition. Mass Market Paperback. Near Fine. Paperback Original.

New York, New York, U.S.A.: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1992. 1st ed. Fine in dust jacket very light wear, one small crease. Highly regarded first book as it was an AGATHA; an ANTHONY and a MACAVITY AWARD FINALIST. This is the first in the Claire Sharples series of mysteries. "While this first novel has a satisfying mystery at its center and enough potential villains to keep both its heroine and readers guessing, its real charm lies in the less-than-perfect romance that blossoms between microbiologist Claire Sharples and her often enigmatic co-worker Sam Cooper. Claire flees her stifling life as a research scientist at MIT for a job at an agricultural research center in central California, a region she soon concludes is a cultural outback. Her growing attraction to Sam, a field scientist who seems to resent her, is also frustrating, but their relationship becomes warmer as they try to solve the problems of a Mexican farm family whose crops seem immune to any chemical remedies for… Read More

Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.A.: Poisoned Pen Press, 2002. 1st. Ed. FINE/FINE. SIGNED COPY. Mary Ryan and pastry chef Johnson, try to make thier bistro popular despite some of the deadly ingredients surrounding them.. Signed by Author. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Pocket Books, 1997. 1st edition, June 1997, with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine,as new, in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. Publishers sheet laid in. The author's critically acclaimed first book, an EDGAR AWARD Finalist. "This jaunty, humorous, and captivating first novel features a cast of quirky California characters and their misadventures. Lush-bodied Marianna picks on middle-aged co-worker Harold?who wrote a tell-all book about used cars?for help when a car salesman cheats her. Thus begins an itinerant tale of scam and counterscam, car distribution corruption, tender-hearted strippers, attempted murder, accidental murder, car chases, outwitted hoodlums, vituperative ex-wives, pot-smoking brothers, and incipient love. Quick shifts of scene steadily increase the suspense, but this is one of those books that ends too soon." --- LIBRARY JOURNAL. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.

NY, NY: St Martins Press, 1988. 1st. Ed. FINE/FINE. A historical novel dealing with the Japanese internment in California during WW II. Author's 1st book.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine.

Don Mills, ON, Canada: Harlequin Enterprises, Limited, 2003. 1st ed. Fine in dust jacket. Comic thriller about a ground breaking discovery that could revolutionize energy markets. "Some authors know how to have fun. R.J. Kaiser is one of them."--Detroit News. Dated and SIGNED by the author on title page plus a SIGNED letter to bookstore owner from the author. 456 pages. Attempting to get his miserable life back on track, Jonas Lamb, seeking to redeem himself in the eyes of his son Patrick and his ex-wife, helps Patrick, a brilliant genetic engineer, find financial backing for a revolutionary new energy source, but instead finds himself immersed in a volatile international conspiracy. . Signed by Author. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Doubleday, 1997. 1st ed. fine in dust jacket, Review copy. Third novel in the mystery series featuring Fremont Jones, an independent woman with a typewriter service in turn of the century San Francisco.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Review Copy.

New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. 1st ed. Near fine in dust jacket. WINNER of the EDGAR AWARD for BEST MYSTERY NOVEL. "In her seventh outing (after Liar, 1998), journalist Irene Kelly is part of the investigative team on the hunt for serial killer Nicholas Parrish's many victims. Their graves are in California's Sierra Nevada mountains, and Parrish, having entered a plea bargain, is there too, leading the team to the women's corpses in exchange for a life sentence instead of the death penalty. But Parrish has planned a surprise or two. When a grave explodes, most of the team are killed, Irene flees, and the killer escapes. Back home, Irene continues to work at the behest of Gillian Sayre, the daughter of one victim. Her hunt for Parrish is made considerably easier by his growing obsession with her. A cunning psychopath with a calm demeanor, Parrish heavily resembles Hannibal Lecter. Rather than eat his victims, however, he tortures and dismembers them..." -- PUBLISHERS… Read More