The ​Barbarous Coast

Ross Macdonald - A ​barbár part
"Talán ​ha a nyomában maradok, meg tudom akadályozni, hogy a vesztébe rohanjon. Született álmodozó vagyok." Nyomtalanul eltűnik egy szépséges, szőke műugró lány, aki hollywoodi karrierről álmodott. Forrófejű férje és "atyai" jóakarója felbéreli Lew Archert, a magánnyomozót, aki körbe is szimatol Malibuban, ahol minden drága selyemingen zsarolást, véren szerzett pénzt meg gyilkosságot orront. Züllött egykori zsaruk, egy kezdő filmcsillaggá vedlett veszedelmes bokszoló és egy sötét múltú hollywoodi filmcsászár akadályoznák a munkáját, Archer, miközben egyre szaporodnak a hullák, mégis rábukkan egy régóta rejtegetett mocskos gyilkosság titkára. A kaliforniai felső tízezer ebben a regényben sem legszebb oldalát mutatja, Ross Macdonald azonban, ahogy azt már megszoktuk tőle, itt is vérbeli irodalmi erényeket csillogtat.

Raymond Chandler - The ​High Window
Philip ​Marlowe's on a case: his client, a dried-up husk of a woman, wants him to recover a rare gold coin called a Brasher Doubloon, missing from her late husband's collection. That's the simple part. It becomes more complicated when Marlowe finds that everyone who handles the coin suffers a run of very bad luck: they always end up dead. That's also unlucky for a private investigator, because leaving a trail of corpses around LA gets cops' noses out of joint. If Marlowe doesn't wrap this one up fast, he's going to end up in jail or worse, in a box in the ground.

Raymond Chandler - The ​Little Sister
Her ​name is Orfamay Quest and she's come all the way from Manhattan, Kansas, to find her missing brother Orrin. Or least ways that's what she tells PI Philip Marlowe, offering him a measly twenty bucks for the privilege. But Marlowe's feeling charitable though it's not long before he wishes he wasn't so sweet. You see, Orrin's trail leads Marlowe to luscious movie starlets, uppity gangsters, suspicious cops and corpses with ice picks jammed in their necks. When trouble comes calling, sometimes it's best to pretend to be out.

Raymond Chandler - The ​Long Good-Bye
Down-and-out ​drunk Terry Lennox has a problem: his millionaire wife is dead and he needs to get out of LA fast. So he turns to his only friend in the world: Philip Marlowe, Private Investigator. He's willing to help a man down on his luck, but later, Lennox commits suicide in Mexico and things start to turn nasty. Marlowe finds himself drawn into a sordid crowd of adulterers and alcoholics in LA's Idle Valley, where the rich are suffering one big suntanned hangover. Marlowe is sure Lennox didn't kill his wife, but how many more stiffs will turn up before he gets to the truth!

Raymond Chandler - The ​Lady in the Lake
Derace ​Kingsley's wife ran away to Mexico to get a quickie divorce and marry a Casanova-wannabe named Chris Lavery. Or so the note she left her husband insisted. Trouble is, when Philip Marlowe asks Lavery about it he denies everything and sends the private investigator packing with a flea lodged firmly in his ear. But when Marlowe next encounters Lavery, he's denying nothing - on account of the two bullet holes in his heart. Now Marlowe's on the trail of a killer, who leads him out of smoggy LA all the way to a murky mountain lake

Janet Evanovich - One ​for the Money
THE ​BOOK THAT STARTED IT ALL... Witty, fresh, and full of surprises, One for the Money catapulted Janet Evanovich and her incomparable heroine Stephanie Plum into crime-writing superstardom. Watch out, world. Here comes Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter with attitude. She's from the "burg," a blue-collar pocket of Trenton, New Jersey, where cars are American, windows are clean, and dinner is served at six. No exceptions. Stephanie lives five miles from her parents, trying to sever the world's longest umbilical cord. Mom is a meddler, and eccentric Grandma Mazur is a few cans short of a case. Out of work, Stephanie blackmails her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, into giving her a try as an "agent." She knows zilch about the job, but she figures her new pal, fearless bounty hunter Ranger, can teach her whatever it takes. Her first assignment: nail Joe Morelli, a former cop on the run from a murder charge. He's also the irresistible jerk who took Stephanie's virginity and wrote the details on the bathroom wall of Mario's Sub Shop...and there's still powerful chemistry between the two. But chasing Joe could prove very dangerous -- while on the case, she encounters Benito Ramirez, a heavyweight boxer known for his brutality to women. His terrifying obsession with Stephanie complicates her manhunt, and it just might lead to murder. Meet Stephanie Plum in this thrilling, laugh-out-loud outing that made Janet Evanovich a household name.

Mario Puzo - The ​Godfather
The ​Godfather is an extraordinary novel which has become a modern day classic. Puzo pulls us inside the violent society of the Mafia and its gang wars. The leader, Vito Corleone, is the Godfather. He is a benevolent despot who stops at nothing to gain and hold power. His command post is a fortress on Long Island from which he presides over a vast underground empire that includes the rackets, gambling, bookmaking, and unions. His influence runs through all levels of American society, from the cop on the beat to the nation's mighty. Mario Puzo, a master storyteller, introduces us to unforgettable characters, and the elements of this world explode to life in this violent and impassioned chronicle.

Ross Macdonald - Ki ​így hal meg, ki úgy
Fehér ​homok borította a göndör, fekete fürtöket, fehér homok a szemgolyót. Bepillantottam a tátott szájba: vizes barna homokkal volt tele. Egy panzióvá átalakított, lerobbant Santa Monica-i házban Mrs. Samuel Lawrence öt megviselt tízdollárost nyom Lew Archer, a magánnyomozó kezébe. Azt kéri tőle, hogy kerítse elő elveszett ápolónő lányát, Galateát. Kolléganője szerint Galley bolondult a férfiakért, és nem válogatott. Az az ember, aki utoljára látta, azt mondja, a lány egy Joe Tarantine nevű kábítószeres gengszterrel hajtott el az illető sportkocsiján. A kihűlt nyomokat kutatva Archer először a San Franciscó-i nyomortanyák világába, majd a dúsgazdag Palm Springsbe vetődik: drog és vér és pénz urbánus vadonában keresi a kiutat. S ahogy a hullák szaporodnak, rá kell jönnie, hogy nincs az az angyalarc, amely ne rejtegethetne romlott szívet. Mrs. Samuel Lawrence rongyos ötven dollárja és e világ között ugyan milyen kapcsolat lehet? Ross Macdonald (1915-1983) Agatha Christie-hez és Raymond Chandlerhez hasonlóan elnyerte az Amerikai Krimiírók Szövetségének Nagymester-díját.

Karen M. McManus - One ​of Us Is Lying
The ​Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars, One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide. Pay close attention and you might solve this. On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app. Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose? Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

Raymond Chandler - Hosszú ​álom
Különös ​társaság szerepel ebben a feszült, izgalmas regényben: az agg, béna tábornok, aki petróleumból gazdagodott meg, s csak üvegháza trópusi hőségében érzi jól magát; két szabad erkölcsű leánya, a szőke, kokainista Carmen s az éjfekete, szenvedélyes hazárdjátékos Vivian; veje, Rozsdás, a tiszta lelkű szeszcsempész, aki egy nap otthagy csapot-papot, milliókat és gyönyörű feleséget, és nyomtalanul eltűnik. Egy ilyen család körül, melynek ennyi pénze, bűne és rejtett botránya van, elkerülhetetlenül gengszterek, zsarolók s hasonló figurák nyüzsögnek. Ezért jelenik meg Marlowe, a kitartó és hajthatatlan magándetektív, hogy felvegye a harcot, megküzdjön velük. Megbízatása kezdetben csak egy zsarolási ügy megoldása lenne, az ügyből azonban csakhamar gyilkosságok sorozata bomlik elő. Marlowe hideg elszántsággal veti magát a bűnök nyomába, s munkája a legváratlanabb végkifejlethez vezet. A regényből készült filmváltozat forgatókönyvének társszerzője William Faulkner, a világhírű, Nobel-díjas amerikai író volt.

Libba Bray - The ​Diviners
It's ​1920s New York City. It's flappers and Follies, jazz and gin. It's after the war but before the depression. And for certain group of bright young things it's the opportunity to party like never before. For Evie O'Neill, it's escape. She's never fit in in small town Ohio and when she causes yet another scandal, she's shipped off to stay with an uncle in the big city. But far from being exile, this is exactly what she's always wanted: the chance to show how thoroughly modern and incredibly daring she can be. But New York City isn't about just jazz babies and follies girls. It has a darker side. Young women are being murdered across the city. And these aren't crimes of passion. They're gruesome. They're planned. They bear a strange resemblance to an obscure group of tarot cards. And the New York City police can't solve them alone. Evie wasn't just escaping the stifling life of Ohio, she was running from the knowledge of what she could do. She has a secret. A mysterious power that could help catch the killer - if he doesn't catch her first.

Beth Flynn - Nine ​Minutes
On ​May 15, 1975, fifteen-year-old Ginny Lemon is abducted from a convenience store in Fort Lauderdale by a member of one of the most notorious and brutal motorcycle gangs in South Florida. From that moment on, her life is forever changed. She gets a new name, a new identity and a new life in the midst of the gang’s base on the edge of the Florida Everglades—a frightening, rough and violent world much like the swamps themselves, where everyone has an alias and loyalty is tantamount to survival. And at the center of it all is the gang’s leader, Grizz: massive, ruggedly handsome, terrifying and somehow, when it comes to Ginny, tender. She becomes his obsession and the one true love of his life. So begins a tale of emotional obsession and manipulation, of a young woman ripped from everything she knows and forced to lean on the one person who provides attention, affection and care: her captor. Precocious and intelligent, but still very much a teenager, Ginny struggles to adapt to her existence, initially fighting and then coming to terms with her captivity. Will she be rescued? Will she escape? Will she get out alive—or get out at all? Part psychological thriller, part coming-of-age novel, filled with mystery, romance and unexpected turns, Nine Minutes takes readers into the world of one motorcycle gang and inside the heart of a young girl, whose abduction brought about its fall.

Don Winslow - The ​Power of the Dog
From ​the New York Times bestselling author of The Cartel comes an explosive novel of the drug trade that takes you deep inside a world riddled with corruption, betrayal, and bloody revenge. The prequel to The Cartel, and set about 10 years earlier, The Power of the Dog introduces a brilliant cast of characters. Art Keller is an obsessive DEA agent. The Barrera brothers are heirs to a drug empire. Nora Hayden is a jaded teenager who becomes a high-class hooker. Father Parada is a powerful and incorruptible Catholic priest. Callan is an Irish kid from Hell’s kitchen who grows up to be a merciless hit man. And they are all trapped in the world of the Mexican drug Federación. From the streets of New York City to Mexico City and Tijuana to the jungles of Central America, this is the war on drugs like you’ve never seen it.

Erle Stanley Gardner - The ​Case of the Singing Skirt
Ellen ​Robb does more than just sing for her supper -- she also dances and sells cigarettes in a two-bit gambling parlor in a one-horse town. But when she hits a sour note with her scheming employer by refusing to help fleece a fat-cat customer in a crooked card game, she finds herself out of all three jobs. That's when she sings her song of woe to Perry Mason, who promises to turn her blues into greenbacks with the help of his crack team, Della Street and Paul Drake, and a hefty lawsuit. Things are humming along just fine -- until murder interrupts the merry melody of Mason's crafty legal maneuvers. When the vindictive wife of Ellen Robb's not-so-secret lover turns up shot to death, Mason is certain it's a frame-up -- and that his songbird client's belligerent boss is to blame. Until his own gun is found at the scene. The cocksure Mason will have to change his tune -- and do some quick thinking -- or else this case could be his swan song.

Paul Auster - The ​New York Trilogy
In ​three brilliant variations on the classic detective story, Paul Auster makes the well-traversed terrain of New York City his own, as it becomes a strange, compelling landscape in which identities merge or fade and questions serve only to further obscure the truth. What emerges in an investigation into the art of storytelling, notions of identity and the very essence of language.

Lawrence Block - The ​Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling
Bernie ​Rhodenbarr has gone legit -- almost -- as the new owner of a used bookstore in New York's Greenwich Village. Of course, dusty old tomes don't always turn a profit, so to make ends meet, Bernie's forced, on occasion, to indulge in his previous occupation: burglary. Besides which, he likes it. Now a collector is offering Bernie an opportunity to combine his twin passions by stealing a very rare and very bad book-length poem from a rich man's library. The heist goes off without a hitch. The delivery of the ill-gotten volume, however, is a different story. Drugged by the client's female go-between, Bernie wakes up in her apartment to find the book gone, the lady dead, a smoking gun in his hand, and the cops at the door. And suddenly he's got to extricate himself from a rather sticky real-life murder mystery and find a killer -- before he's booked for Murder One.

James Ellroy - L. ​A. Confidential
L.A. ​Confidential is epic "noir", a crime novel of astonishing detail and scope written by the bestselling author of The Black Dahlia. A horrific mass murder invades the lives of victims and victimizers on both sides of the law. And three lawmen are caught in a deadly spiral, a nightmare that tests loyalty and courage, and offers no mercy, grants no survivors.

Raymond Chandler - Farewell ​My Lovely
A ​warm day on Central Avenue, and Philip Marlowe's hunch about the man beside him is as vague as the heat waves that dance above the sidewalk. The way business is looking, even a hunch is enough. Moose Malloy stands six five and one-half and weighs two hundred and sixty-four pounds, without his necktie. After eight years in the pen, he wants little Velma back, and no cops or mobsters are ready to stand in his way. Marlowe's tough enough for the ride, but he can't help thinking there's never been a happy ending to the story of beauty and the beast ...

Raymond Chandler - Örök ​álom
Egy ​haldokló milliomos, akinek két problémás lánya van, felfogadja Philip Marlowe-t, a magándetektívet, hogy bánjon el a kisebbik lányát szorongató, piti bűnözővel. Marlowe hamarosan ráébred, hogy nem egyszerű zsarolásról van szó: emberrablás, pornó, csábítás és jónéhány gyilkosság szerepel a szövevényes ügyben, melynek felgöngyölítése még számára is komoly kihívást jelent... Az Örök álom máig bűnügyi történetek és filmek százait inspirálja. Philip Marlowe-t az első filmes adaptációban Humphrey Bogart alakította. Chandler regényei nemcsak krimiként, hanem szépirodalmi szövegként is megállták, és megállják a helyüket. "A legnagyobb élő amerikai író" - írta Chandlerről az 1940-es évek végén Evelyn Waugh. A 21. században sem maradhat ki a klasszikus krimik gyöngyszemeit bemutató sorozatunkból. A krimi mesterének ikonikus első regénye. Kalifornia az 1930-as években. Felbukkan Philip Marlowe, a városi magánnyomozó kvintesszenciája. "Philip Marlowe igazi hős." - Ian Fleming brit író

Lawrence Block - The ​Burglar in the Closet
Hired ​by his dentist to steal back some valuable diamonds from his ex-wife, Bernie Rhodenbarr is nearly discovered and hides in the closet, only to become the witness to the woman's murder.