Once upon a time, a fellow named Richard Bachman wrote Blaze on an Olivetti typewriter, then turned the machine over to Stephen King, who used it to write Carrie. Bachman died in 1985 (“cancer of the pseudonym”), but this last gripping Bachman novel resurfaced after being hidden away for decades an unforgettable crime story tinged with sadness and suspense. Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., was always a small-time delinquent. None too bright either, thanks to the beatings he got as a kid. Then Blaze met George Rackley, a seasoned pro with a hundred cons and one big idea. The kidnapping should go off without a hitch, with George as the brains behind their dangerous scheme. But there's only one problem: by the time the deal goes down, Blaze’s partner in crime is dead. Or is he?Includes a previously uncollected story, “Memory” the riveting opening to Stephen King's new Scribner hardcover novel, Duma Key.

A simple case of blackmail gets lethally complicated when “Nameless,” Bill Pronzini’s seasoned private-eye, exposes a nasty scam that involves junior accounts executive Jay Cohalan, his unhappy wife, and a mistress with a serious drug problem. It’s the kind of case “Nameless” likes, because bleeders — the blackmailers, extortionists, small-time grifters, and other opportunists who prey on the weak and gullible — sit near the top of his most-worthless-human-beings list. So he contemplates with pleasure the prospect of putting another one or two of these parasites out of commission, and then returning the $75,000 in cash to its rightful owner.“Nameless” discovers, though, that he is not going to be able so easily to close his Cohalan file — not when he finds his client face down in the middle of a four-poster bed with a bloody, powder-scorched hole behind the right ear. And only by a hair’s breadth does “Nameless” himself escape a similar fate. Aggrieved, cut to the psychological quick by his close brush with death, “Nameless” embarks on a relentless hunt for his unknown assailant in San Francisco’s shadowy underworld. There he encounters bleeders of every ilk — like the loan shark Nick Kinsella, drug dealer Jackie Spoons, punch-drunk boxer Zeke Mayjack, and crankhead Charlie Bright — before he tracks down his quarry.At a deserted backcountry road stop “Nameless,” packing his long-unused .38, attends to the last of a bad business and, in a climax as powerful as it is unexpected, finally confronts his own demons. He maybe even conquers them.

Michael Weston is an assassin with a problem. His latest job has been carried out with customary precision. Yet it has led the police straight to him. Has he been set up? Why? And by Whom? To answer these questions he must first track down his paymasters.

The suspects multiply like a particularly vicious virus. When Weston’s bullet hit home, the diplomat and a British junior minister, both with target. But the victim had enemies too, personal and professional. Weston knows his own reputation is at stake. He made a mistake once before and is still paying for it. Now he must become a different kind of hunter, working through his victim’s past towards the answers.

The trail will take him from Europe to North America, charting a grand conspiracy and the involvement of a pernicious religious cult. And all the time the hunter is also the hunted. Hoffer is an ex-cop with an obsession, hired to find the assassin and enact a dreadful revenge. But Hoffer has only one advantage over the rest... he knows the assassin’s weakness that could prove all too fatal.

What happens when the killer becomes a target? When he takes more risks than he should? If he’s not careful, someone is going to bleed Michael Weston dry.

The mayor of New York has a daughter who's missing and in danger. Detective Michael Bennett has a son who's in prison. The two strike a deal.  Bennett and the mayor have always had a tense relationship, but now the mayor sees in Bennett a discreet investigator with family worries of his own.

Just one father helping another.

The detective leaps into the case and sources lead him to a homicide in the Bronx. The victim has ties to a sophisticated hacking operation—and also to the mayor's missing daughter, Natalie, a twenty-one-year-old computer prodigy. The murder is part of a serial killing spree, one with national security implications. And suddenly Bennett is at the center of a dangerous triangle anchored by NYPD, FBI, and a transnational criminal organization.

Michael Bennett has always been an honorable man, but sometimes—when the lives of innocents are at stake—honor has to take a back seat. Survival comes first.

**The mayor of New York has a daughter who's missing and in danger. Detective Michael Bennett has a son who's in prison. The two strike a deal.** Bennett and the mayor have always had a tense relationship, but now the mayor sees in Bennett a discreet investigator with family worries of his own. *Just one father helping another.* The detective leaps into the case and sources lead him to a homicide in the Bronx. The victim has ties to a sophisticated hacking operation—and also to the mayor's missing daughter, Natalie, a twenty-one-year-old computer prodigy. The murder is part of a serial killing spree, one with national security implications. And suddenly Bennett is at the center of a dangerous triangle anchored by NYPD, FBI, and a transnational criminal organization. Michael Bennett has always been an honorable man, but sometimes—when the lives of innocents are at stake—honor has to take a back seat. Survival comes first.

The plan was simple at first, and then, when we started, I knew that this conspiracy to hijack the Syndicate was the master of all of us. But I was smart... so damned smart, and I knew we could play with murder and not get burned!

Blondes’ Requiem is a thriller with a surprise, by a writer who can always hold the suspense to the end.When Marc Spewack, private investigator, arrives in Cranville, he is aware of the terror, violence and sudden death that are to come. He has been engaged by Lewes Wolf, Czar of Cranville, to investigate a series of mysterious disappearances. No less than five young girls have vanished without trace, and the panic-stricken citizens of Cranville are demanding immediate action to find the girls and bring their kidnapper to justice.Wolf is determined to be elected mayor of Cranville and he has only hired Spewack to gain favour with the voters. The two other candidates for the election, Esslinger, the City’s mortician, and Starkey, a gambler, also make plans to find the missing girls. It soon becomes obvious that whoever is the first to solve these mysterious disappearances will become mayor.Esslinger engages Audrey Sheridan, a woman investigator, and Starkey relies on the crooked police chief to find the missing girts. The case is complicated enough by itself without rival investigators stealing each other’s clues and double-crossing each other at every turn of the game. Despite these handicaps, Marc Spewack succeeds in breaking the case.The story is full of fast dramatic action, grotesque situations and weird characters who will leave the reader with an eerie sensation he will not soon forget.

Genealogist Nigel Barnes's second case leads him into the dark heart of the Mormon church and a gruesome, century-old secret.Detective Chief Inspector Grant Foster is called to a homicide at the home of a single mother in Queens Park, London. Her throat has been cut from ear to ear and her body dumped in the garden. Her daughter and only child, Naomi, who has just turned fourteen that day, is missing. As the hours tick by, the feeling grows among Foster's colleagues that this is most likely becoming a double-murder inquiry. With nothing in the present to indicate a motive, Foster decides to delve into the dead woman's past only to find out she does not have one. He calls on genealogist Nigel Barnes. The trail takes Barnes back to late Victorian England where it abruptly ends with a young couple who came from the United States to England. Nigel's quest takes him on trip through the violent history of the Mormon church as he and Foster race to solve a shameful, long-kept secret that is about to have bloody repercussions in the present, and for which someone is seeking vengeance.Dan Waddell delivers another gritty, suspenseful mystery that will keep readers guessing until the last page.

THE BIG PAY OFFFrank Nolan had been on the outside a long time. But now the Family was split in two, the doors to power were open, and Nolan walked in — right into a sizzling crossfire of doublecross, danger and death. Nolan didn’t know who wanted him out of the way. He just knew he had a sweet young swinger named Sherry for unlimited aid and comfort, a well-worn and trusted.38 for limited security, and an old score that could only be settled with BLOOD MONEY.