Greg Spain is not only a successful ad exec and senior partner at one of New York’s finest advertising agencies, but he’s also the most beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating man you’ll ever meet. To look at him – with his loose tie, his shirt constantly creeping out of his pants – you might think he’s a slob, but you couldn’t be more wrong. He’s what they call an independent spirit, who walks the world alone until he finds himself strolling through a park one night to get to a taxi stand on the other side ... and meets the devil. With a bolt of lightning in the shape of a pitchfork, Greg finds he’s made a deal with the devil. Now he’s cursed with a split ego, both man and animal in one form. Before he knows it, he’s caught up in full moons, dark streets, bloody trails, and prey beneath him. To make matters worse, he meets a man would might be his soul mate, and even though his impulsive, reckless side causes his passion to burn bright, both know their love can’t be kept on a leash. Every time they get together, their love is accompanied by a dangerous passion that includes bites, blood, and scars, and Greg is haunted by one question. Is it possible for him to be tamed enough for a serious relationship, or will he forever be The Blond Satan?

Private Eyes is the complete map to what Raymond Bhandler called "the mean streets," the exciting world of the fictional private eye. It is intended to entertain current PI fans and to make new ones.

Read this classic romance by USA Today bestselling author Carole Mortimer, now available for the first time in e-book! The devil to pay… Sabina couldn’t completely blame her controlling father for her current predicament. Finding famous singer-songwriter, Joel Brent, in his secluded Scottish cottage, is the best thing to ever happen to her. But now she’s being forced into a loveless marriage and her father has ruined her chance at happiness with Joel—by leading him to believe that Sabina is a reporter for a tacky scandal magazine! Can Sabina find the strength to escape her emotional captivity and convince Joel of her true feelings? Originally published in 1981

Nominated, 2024 Edgar Allan Poe Award in the category of best critical/biographical, Mystery Writers of America Shortlisted, 2024 Agatha Awards - Best Mystery Nonfiction, Malice Domestic Posthumous Winner - 2023 IFCA Book Prize, International Crime Fiction Association Narrative innovation is typically seen as the domain of the avant-garde. However, techniques such as nonlinear timelines, multiple points of view, and unreliable narration have long been part of American popular culture. How did forms and styles once regarded as “difficult” become familiar to audiences? In Perplexing Plots, David Bordwell reveals how crime fiction, plays, and films made unconventional narrative mainstream. He shows that since the nineteenth century, detective stories and suspense thrillers have allowed ambitious storytellers to experiment with narrative. Tales of crime and mystery became a training ground where audiences learned to appreciate artifice. These genres demand a sophisticated awareness of storytelling conventions: they play games with narrative form and toy with audience expectations. Bordwell examines how writers and directors have pushed, pulled, and collaborated with their audiences to change popular storytelling. He explores the plot engineering of figures such as Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Highsmith, Alfred Hitchcock, Dorothy Sayers, and Quentin Tarantino, and traces how mainstream storytellers and modernist experimenters influenced one another’s work. A sweeping, kaleidoscopic account written in a lively, conversational style, Perplexing Plots offers an ambitious new understanding of how movies, literature, theater, and popular culture have evolved over the past century.

A GOOD MAN WAS HARD TO FIND… Especially for Mercy Fairweather, whose preacher father kept her well hidden. Mercy was innocence, smarts and beauty—tempting to the Devil himself. But even an angel deserved some fun. So when cowboy Sam Devlin asked her to dinner, she found a way to say yes. Sam Devlin knew a pretty lady when he saw one, and Mercedes LaFleche was one such woman. He'd heard she was "particular" with her favors, but he'd never wined and dined a more blushing, naive little gal, and he was beginning to wonder if this was, indeed, the infamous soiled dove…. Don't miss this new tale by READER'S CHOICE award nominee Laurie Grant

The hard-boiled private detective is among the most recognizable characters in popular fiction since the 1920s--a tough product of a violent world, in which police forces are inadequate and people with money can choose private help when facing threatening circumstances. Though a relatively recent arrival, the hard-boiled detective has undergone steady development and assumed diverse forms. This critical study analyzes the character of the hard-boiled detective, from literary antecedents through the early 21st century. It follows change in the novels through three main periods: the Early (roughly 1927-1955), during which the character was defined by such writers as Carroll John Daly, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler; the Transitional, evident by 1964 in the works of John D. MacDonald and Michael Collins, and continuing to around 1977 via Joseph Hansen, Bill Pronzini and others; and the Modern, since the late 1970s, during which such writers as Loren D. Estleman, Liza Cody, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton and many others have expanded the genre and the detective character. Themes such as violence, love and sexuality, friendship, space and place, and work are examined throughout the text. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Often typecast as a menacing figure, Peter Lorre achieved Hollywood fame first as a featured player and later as a character actor, trademarking his screen performances with a delicately strung balance between good and evil. His portrayal of the child murderer in Fritz Lang's masterpiece M (1931) catapulted him to international fame. Lang said of Lorre: "He gave one of the best performances in film history and certainly the best in his life." Today, the Hungarian-born actor is also recognized for his riveting performances in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The Maltese Falcon (1941), and Casablanca (1942). Lorre arrived in America in 1934 expecting to shed his screen image as a villain. He even tried to lose his signature accent, but Hollywood repeatedly cast him as an outsider who hinted at things better left unknown. Seeking greater control over his career, Lorre established his own production company. His unofficial "graylisting" by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, however, left him with little work. He returned to Germany, where he co-authored, directed, and starred in the film Der Verlorene (The Lost One) in 1951. German audiences rejected Lorre's dark vision of their recent past, and the actor returned to America, wearily accepting roles that parodied his sinister movie personality.The first biography of this major actor, The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre draws upon more than three hundred interviews, including conversations with directors Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, John Huston, Frank Capra, and Rouben Mamoulian, who speak candidly about Lorre, both the man and the actor. Author Stephen D. Youngkin examines for the first time Lorre's pivotal relationship with German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, his experience as an émigré from Hitler's Germany, his battle with drug addiction, and his struggle with the choice between celebrity and intellectual respectability.Separating the enigmatic person from the persona long associated with one of classic Hollywood's most recognizable faces, The Lost One is the definitive account of a life triumphant and yet tragically riddled with many failed possibilities.

Over the course of its illustrious and often controversial history, Playboy magazine has published the works of some of the world’s greatest writers, from Beat poets to Nobel laureates. In 1979, Hugh M. Hefner addressed a reunion of Playmates in Los Angeles. “Without you,” he said. “I’d have a literary magazine.” This anthology presents an amazingly diverse selection of a half century’s worth of entertaining stories, journalism, humor, and cartoons. Featuring articles and interviews drawn from more than five decades; fiction from the likes of Woody Allen, Saul Bellow, Michael Chabon, Robert Coover, Jonathan Safran Foer, David Mamet, Jay McInerney, Joyce Carol Oates, Jane Smiley, Scott Turow; and cartoons from the likes of Gahan Wilson, Shel Silverstein, and Jules Feiffer, this volume will serve as a perfect bedside companion.

Alone in the Night For a thousand years, the vampire Lucita has lived under the shadow of her tyrannical sire Monçada. Now, the monster who defined her existence is gone, destroyed in no small part thanks to her efforts. All she wishes, is to at last find a place for herself in these Final Nights. But to the rest of the Clan Lasombra, she is a rogue and a killer, a rebel who has assassinated one of their greatest elders. The hunt is on.