Waler Lippit makes music all over town. He owns the juke boxes that play the tunes that keep the bars and the diners hopping. Jack St. Louis works for Lippit, smoothing the customers and keeping the nickels coming. But then along comes Benotti and the Chicago syndicate to louse up the operation. It's everything Jack can do to stay one step ahead. One step ahead of Benotti's gang, Lippit, and Lippit's willing wife Patty, who wants to be a singer and is convinced that Jack can make that happen too. And maybe he can. It's all in a week's work.

Sam Jordan never lets emotion interfere with his work. He is a precise and ruthless killing machine, dealing out death for hire. But his last job had ended wrong for Jordan, and now Sandy is sending him out again - without a break, yet - to take care of someone named Kemp. Hell, he even has to case the job himself. The whole thing feels jinxed. That’s when Jordan meets Betty, who works at the diner. To her he is Mr. Smith, a button salesman. But to Jordan, Betty is a sweet moment in his life, a safe haven. And that’s where he makes his first mistake - he allows himself to feel human.

Quinn thought he had all the angles figured. After all, taking over the Organization should be a piece of cake for such a smart guy. But what he didn’t figure was that boss Ryder would stuff him in a large crate with enough food and water to sustain him - and ship him around the world. When the freighter ports at the North African town of Okar, the captain of the boat decides it's time to unload the box. It's starting to make noises, and it smells bad. What emerges from this wooden coffin looks barely human. But once Quinn recovers, he starts to look around. Is this a new chance at life, or an opportunity to cash in on another racket, halfway around the world?

SOME MEN AND SOME MERCHANDISE ARE JUST TOO HOT TO HANDLE All Tony Catell knew when he broke into the university science lab was that they had a gold ingot on the premises for some sort of experiment. So he stole it. What he didn’t know was that the experiment involved nuclear power – and that the gold was dangerously radioactive. Now the cops and the FBI are on Tony’s trail, Tony’s underworld contacts don’t want anything to do with him, and the loot he’s lugging around is leaving a swath of radiation sickness and death in his path. And since he’s just come from his third stint in prison, if they catch him, he’s not going back to jail – he’s going to the electric chair…

"Collection of published and unpublished gems: a memoir about learning to write, an imaginary interview between Westlake's various identities, essays on writing, introductions, and letters to writers like Stephen King and Brian Garfield. A true miscellany, this includes a piece by Abigail Westlake, a recipe for "May's Famous Tuna Casserole" and a 'Midnight snack'."--From the publisher.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this Pulitzer Prize-winning follow-up to The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers and “should further cement Whitehead as one of his generation's best" (Entertainment Weekly). Look for Colson Whitehead’s bestselling new novel, Harlem Shuffle!

For a century the iconic Grand Raj Palace Hotel has welcomed the world's elite. From film stars to foreign dignitaries, anyone who is anyone stays at the Grand Raj. The last thing the venerable old hotel needs is a murder. . . When American billionaire Hollis Burbank is found dead -- the day after buying India's most expensive painting -- the authorities are keen to label it a suicide. But the man in charge of the investigation is not so sure. Inspector Chopra is called in -- and discovers a hotel full of people with a reason to want Burbank dead. Accompanied by his sidekick, baby elephant Ganesha, Chopra navigates his way through the palatial building, a journey that leads him steadily to a killer, and into the heart of darkness . . .

Everett Larkin works for the Cold Case Squad: an elite—if understaffed and overworked—group of detectives who solve the forgotten deaths of New York City. Larkin is different from others, but his deduction skills are unmatched and his memory for minute details is unparalleled. So when a spring thunderstorm uproots a tree in Madison Square Park, unearthing a crate with human remains inside, the best Cold Case detective is assigned the job. And when a death mask, like those prominent during the Victorian era, is found with the body, Larkin requests assistance from the Forensic Artists Unit and receives it in the form of Detective Ira Doyle, his polar opposite in every way. Factual reasoning and facial reconstruction puts Larkin and Doyle on a trail of old homicide cases and a murderer obsessed with casting his victims’ likeness in death. Include some unapologetic flirting from Doyle, and this case just may end up killing Everett Larkin. Also available as an audiobook! Memento Mori series reading order: #1 Madison Square Murders #2 Subway Slayings #3 Broadway Butchery Same Universe Spin-offs: Southernmost Murder (standalone) Snow & Winter series reading order: #1 The Mystery of Nevermore #2 The Mystery of the Curiosities #3 The Mystery of the Moving Image #4 The Mystery of the Bones #5 The Mystery of the Spirits #1 Interlude (Snow & Winter short story collection) An Auden & O'Callaghan Mystery series reading order: #1 A Friend in the Dark #2 A Friend in the Fire Keywords: gay romance, police procedural, slow burn, opposites attract, detective, whodunit, serial killer, partners-in-crime, mm romance, medical condition, grumpy sunshine

Stella Nickell's small-time world was one of big-time dreams. In 1986, her biggest one came true when her husband died during a seizure, making her the beneficiary of a $175,000-plus insurance payoff—until authorities discovered Bruce Nickell's headache capsules had been laced with cyanide. In an attempt to cover her tracks, Stella did the unconscionable. She saw to it that a stranger would also become a "random casualty" of cyanide-tainted painkillers. But Stella's cunning plan came undone when her daughter Cynthia notified federal agents. And troubling questions lingered like the secret of bitter almonds... What would turn a gregarious barfly like Stella into a cold-hearted killer overnight? Why would Cynthia, a mirror image of her mother, turn on her own flesh and blood? Did Cynthia reveal everything she knew about the crimes? The stunning answers would unfold in a case that sparked a national uproar, dug deep into a troubled family history, and exposed an American mother for the pretty poison she was. Gregg Olsen's Bitter Almonds is true crime writing at its best.