When Valerie Sabatino arrives at his home on Oahu, the last thing Harry Pines wants is missing-persons action. There are two reasons why Harry’s not the kind of guy who knocks on doors looking for business with his hat in his hand, and the other one is he doesn’t wear a hat. But when he learns the missing person is the son of Harry’s long-ago cellmate, he has no choice but to strap it on. Helping friends is how Harry pays back. It also doesn’t hurt that Valerie is the kind of woman who could bring drool to a statue’s chin. Harry’s only human.

In AN ICE COLD PARADISE Harry and his handy band of friends in Chicago and Hawaii peel back the curtain on a world of runaway girls turned into hookers and of soldiers paying off their gambling debts by stealing firearms. The stolen goods are used to fuel the mean little army of a loony Mormon Fundamentalist named Orrin Massey, who thinks he’s the “One Mighty and Strong” right out of the original Mormon playbook.

Before it ends, Harry has fallen hard for Valerie and doesn’t take kindly to it when Massey kidnaps her for one of his wives. Harry can bring a lot of pain when he gets in a bad mood. If he has to put together a small army of his own and lead them to a mountaintop redoubt in northern Idaho to get Valerie back and settle the score, the degree of difficulty makes it all the sweeter.

Harry Pines is the enormously entertaining creation of Terry Holland, who arrives here walking in the footsteps of Hammett, Chandler, Spillane, MacDonald, and Parker.

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809572427
• ISBN-13: 978-0809572427
• Price: $17.95

Josh Becker has been making movies since he was a teenager. His first film was made at age thirteen, and by 9th grade he was tackling Oedipus Rex with future cult-icon Bruce Campbell. Since then he has written and directed numerous short films, four feature films, several television movies and worked on successful tv shows. RUSHES is at heart a passionate, honest and opinionated look behind the scenes of writing, producing and directing low-budget movies.

From Josh’s early days working with future Spider-Man director Sam Raimi on his original Evil Dead to his days writing and directing Xena: Warrior Princess in New Zealand and beyond, RUSHES is filled with stories.

Whether you’re a budding thespian, scriptwriter, director or you simply just love movies, you’ll find insights, frustrations and answers to your questions in the experiences Josh has enjoyed and endured in his three and a half decades of filmmaking trenches. His supporting cast in these adventures include aforementioned Sam Raimi and frequent collaborator Bruce Campbell, as well as stars small and great like Anthony Quinn, Lucy Lawless, Rob Tapert, Renee O’Connor, Gary Jones, Scott Spiegel, Joe LoDuca, Rick Sandford, Mariah Carey, Stephen Baldwin, John Cassavetes and many, many others.

“There are plenty of folks putting out filmmaking ‘theory’ books, but Josh got his know-how from over twenty-five years of being in the filmmaking trenches. I’ve worked with him during every phase of production—from generating the kernel of an idea, to putting on final touches in post-production—and he’s as committed a filmmaker as you’ll find … As a filmmaker, he favors a well-planned, fiscally responsible approach to telling stories. As a person, he’s encyclopedic, bright and brutally honest. What’s not to love?”
BRUCE CAMPBELL
Actor, Director, Best-Selling Author

“It’s just fine as a historical document, and the quirky characters, the downward spiral, and the wry Willeford observations make this one worth reprinting and reading. Check it out.” (full review)
Bill Crider

“…a valuable contribution to the body of Willeford’s in-print work and shows that even when Willeford was not mining his signature themes of obsession and maintaining artistic integrity in the face of an indifferent world as deeply as he could, he still managed to keep them in mind and in print.” (full review)
Nathan Cain, Independent Crime

“[Made in Miami] is a tawdry, compelling read.”
Mike White, Cashiers du Cinemart

“MADE IN MIAMI is a great discovery, bristling with Willeford prose throughout, and shows the writer that he’d become … if you’ve never tried any of his stuff, this is a great starting point in a career that just got better with age. (full review)
Bruce Grossman, Bookgasm

“It’s just fine as a historical document, and the quirky characters, the downward spiral, and the wry Willeford observations make this one worth reprinting and reading. Check it out.” (full review)
Bill Crider

“…a valuable contribution to the body of Willeford’s in-print work and shows that even when Willeford was not mining his signature themes of obsession and maintaining artistic integrity in the face of an indifferent world as deeply as he could, he still managed to keep them in mind and in print.” (full review)
Nathan Cain, Independent Crime

Art student Ralph Tone is working in Miami as a bellboy. He meets Hollywood hopeful Maria Duigan and falls head over heels for the ambitious beauty. As Ralph fuels his obsession by booze, pills, and lack of sleep, they both quickly become entangled with sleazy pornographer Donald McKay.

Charles Willeford’s MADE IN MIAMI was originally released to the unsuspecting masses in 1958 under the title LUST IS A WOMAN by a publisher incapable of spelling the author’s name correctly on the cover. Written in white heat by “the unlikely father of Miami crime fiction” (Atlantic Monthly) to match the requirements of the market, the book remains a textbook example of lurid 1950s pulp fiction. It was also a springboard to the author’s later masterpieces MIAMI BLUES and SIDESWIPE.

This edition is the first reprinting of the original novel.

“No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford.” Elmore Leonard

More details at the Rap Sheet.

“James Reasoner’s Dust Devils is a hardboiled gem. A Texas set tale of a heist gone wrong, this short novel is the equal of anything written by masters like Westlake and Leonard … Dust Devils is one of the best novels of the year.”

(full review)

ThePilot.com
“Those who enjoy this genre will like this gritty PI.”

Duffbert’s Random Musings
“This is one of the grittiest novels I’ve read in a long time.”

Mystery Books Review
“The Blue Cheer is a P. I. novel at its best and deserves to be recognized as such.”

Book Reporter
“THE BLUE CHEER may well be the novel that brings Lynskey the attention he deserves. Though the book starts slowly, he demonstrates soon enough that he is capable of catching readers totally off-guard. Lynskey also is not one to shy away from controversy, and before the story ends, he touches on an issue of racial politics — not a simple topic by any means — that is rarely raised or discussed but that is integral to one of the novel’s more challenging subplots. His talent runs deep and dark, revealed full force in a tale you will not forget. ”

Blogs:

Berkeley Heights Public Library Book Blog
“…mystery fans who like character-driven suspense and more great lines in the tough-guy style, should get on the reserve list for this author who is getting consistently great reviews.”

Library Goddesses Adult Fiction
“This would be a good, quick read for lovers of hard-boiled detective stories or thrillers.”

Westport Public Library
“If you are a fan of the noir mystery, you might want to fall into step with Johnson, beginning with the Dirt-Brown Derby, an earlier Johnson mystery set among the Virginia horsey set…Not the horsey set, however, of Rita Mae Brown’s cozy Crozet folk, by any means.”

“Zackel’s novel is a perfect period piece, capturing the aimlessness and permissiveness of the 70’s, not to mention the sideburns and mustaches. The rainy, empty streets of San Francisco at New Year serve as a perfect setting for a story of ruined dreams and doomed love.”

(full review)

“The Dorothy Parker of Scotland.”
Ken Bruen, author of Priest

“The humour is black, the narrative surreal, the author insane. Helena Handbasket elbowed her way into my fantasy life, replacing several Hollywood starlets at one stroke.”
John Baker, author of White Skin Man

“It’s like having Groucho Marx feeding you one-liners over your shoulder the entire trip. Author Donna Moore’s debut is a laugh-riot of a read.”
Charlie Stella, author of Shakedown

“…Go To Helena Handbasket is a hilarious send up of the mystery genre. Donna Moore, with her trademark wit, has created a fast and funny read. I absolutely devoured it and anxiously await an encore.”
Devoted Fan, Barbara Seranella, author of the Munch Mancini crime novels.

“We all may very well be going to hell in a handbasket, but if we take Donna Moore’s riotously funny …Go To Helena Handbasket along for the ride, at least we’ll go down laughing. Sam Spade in a skirt on acid.”
Reed Farrel Coleman, author of The James Deans

“Bridget Jones meets Raymond Chandler meets Jeffrey Dahmer in …Go To Helena Handbasket, Donna Moore’s brilliant absurd romp of a detective novel. Kudos to PointBlank Press for unearthing yet another gem.”
Jason Starr, author of Lights Out

“Donna Moore’s debut rattles along at a manic pace. Sharp, snappy and very witty, the story starts at a sprint and never lets up its relentless pace. Moore is definitely one to keep an eye on.”
John Rickards, author of The Touch Of Ghosts

“Sharp, smart and flat out funny. Donna Moore knows the genre, and she knows right where to stick the knife. The comedic debut of the year.”
Victor Gischler, author of Suicide Squeeze

Donna Moore was born in 1962 and led a sheltered childhood in a small English village. A crime fiction fan from a young age, Donna wanted to be one of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and fight crime with the aid of only a basket of cucumber sandwiches and a bottle of ginger beer. She spent her spare time following mysterious strangers around the village - especially those with cockney accents and a couple of days’ growth of stubble - until a complaint from the new local vicar put a stop to her sleuthing career.

She now lives in Glasgow, where she has a thrilling dual career as a mild-mannered pension consultant by day, and an unemployed superhero by night. For relaxation she listens to Dean Martin and The Ramones, watches screwball comedy and film noir, and enjoys salsa, cha cha cha and merengue - despite having two left feet.

“…Go To Helena Handbasket” is her first book.