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The Face of the Earth & Other Imaginings Those who are acquainted with Blackwood’s work will know that he did not write simple ghost stories. From his childhood Blackwood had a love for the natural world and for much of his life, whenever he could, he would escape the city and the town and take himself into the remotest corners of the world, there to commune not simply with Nature, but with the very Spirit of the Earth. Blackwood firmly believed that the human race had become too civilized, its senses and its soul dulled by the modern world, with all its conveniences and technological progress. It was only by returning to Nature that our senses would be reawakened and become more aware of the full scale of the world about us.   The stories and essays included in this book are the products of his most imaginative years. And so this collection came together, a blend of eighteen short stories, most of them previously uncollected, and twelve essays, none of which has been reprinted—the whole seeking to show the range of Blackwood’s early work and the source of his inspiration: just what it was that made his imagination awake. --from “Introduction: Imagination Inspired” by Mike Ashley

The final three gangster novels in the Dan Port series.

Three gangster novels from the late 1950s featuring Daniel Port.

NOTHING IN HER WAY When Michael Belen runs into the cherubic con man named Wolford Charles in New Orleans, he has no idea he had just opened the door to his ex-wife Cathy. She and Charles and Judd Bolton are working a con on a man named Goodwin, who had been a partner with a contractor named Lachlan down in South America. Lachlan had worked a swindle which had wiped out Cathy and Michael’s parents, and now as far as Cathy is concerned, it’s payback time. From Goodwin to Lachlan, Belen commits himself to Cathy and her scheme. When a drug-addled gangster named Donnelly starts threatening her, Belen takes care of him. When Charles and Bolton try to work a double-cross, Cathy matches them with a cross of her own. They are the perfect team. Until they go up against Lachlan—and then all bets are off. RIVER GIRL All deputy sheriff Jack Marshall wants to do is escape his troubles when he heads upriver for a little fishing. What he finds instead is Doris, who lives in a shack on a small island with her sullen husband, Roger Shevlin. Back in town, Marshall can’t stop thinking about Doris, and keeps coming back to her shack while Shevlin is away, always looking for an excuse to visit. But Shevlin grows wise to his visits, and Marshall is forced to make a decision—to take Doris away or fight for her. Marshall’s decision is complicated by the fact that Sheriff Buford and his office are coming under close scrutiny for graft. Somebody needs to disappear before it all blows up, and Marshall begins to hatch a scheme—if he can pull it off, he can escape with Doris and they can both have their freedom. But things are never as easy as they seem...

PAPERBACK CONFIDENTIAL: Crime Writers of the Paperback Era by Brian Ritt These are the authors who turned out the dark noirs and hardboiled thrillers, private detective puzzles and psychological suspense, police procedurals and backwood melodramas, stories of passion… and cold-blooded murder. 132 profiles of the men and women who wrote the books that became the backbone of the Pulp and Paperback Era from the 1930s through the 1960s. Here you will find information on the acknowledged masters like Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain and Cornell Woolrich….and the rack mainstays like Gil Brewer, Brett Halliday, Day Keene and Charles Williams…plus the more obscure, ripe for rediscovery, like Malcolm Braly, Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, Ennis Willie and Douglas Sanderson. Each profile contains details about the author's life and explores key works, with special attention paid to series characters. Also covered are screenplay and teleplay work, as well as movies based on the authors' stories. Paperback Confidential also includes a handy PseudoDex with all the various names these authors wrote under, and a section for each author with further recommendations for the reader’s consideration. 

“California Cornerstone” began as a semi-weekly column in The Daily Democrat in Woodland, California, where Bill Shepard worked as a reporter in the 1960’s. In these vignettes, Bill wrote about the early California settlers in the 1800’s, before and after the Gold Rush. Here are the stories of the miners and the Native Americans, the saloon gals and prostitutes, the financiers and the laborers; the bandits and claim jumpers, the pioneers and the proprietors, the con artists and entrepreneurs. They came on horseback, by ship, overland in wagons. They came to stake their claim in paradise. For California is rich in tales, each small town a nugget of history--each ghost town a sad reminder of sudden success and faded glory. These are the cornerstones of California history.

BAT WING Occult detective Paul Harley is presented with his toughest case when he is asked to investigate a case of Voodoo magic at an estate in Surrey. He and his partner, Malcolm Knox, are contacted by wealthy land baron, Colonel Menendez, who is convinced that his life is in peril. He is certain that an Obeah threat has followed him from Cuba when a bat wing is found nailed to his door. When Harley and Knox arrive at Cray’s Folly they find a household filled with vague menace. Mendendez’s cousin, Madame de Stämer, is putting on a brave front, but her companion, Val Beverley, knows that someone has been wandering the halls at night. And why does their neighbor, Colin Camber, hate the Colonel so much? Is there any significance in their shared ties to Voodoo? And can Harley find out what is behind these threats before this case ends in murder? FIRE-TONGUE Paul Harley is takes on a new client when Sir Charles Abingdon, a retired bone specialist, appears at his door one evening. Abingdon believes his life to be in danger and asks for Harley’s aid. He believes he is being followed though he can get no clear look at his pursuer. A manuscript of his has gone missing, and he has been recently attacked in the street. He asks Harley to dine with him that night and upon arriving, Harley senses an atmosphere of danger but can pick up nothing specific. Sir Charles further confesses that he is distressed by the attentions a distinguished Persian gentleman has been showing his daughter, Phyllis Abingdon. And now, as they sit to dinner, Sir Charles is gripped by a sudden seizure, rasping out the words, “Fire-Tongue….Nicol Brinn,” before collapsing into his chair. Harley discovers all too soon that Sir Charles’ sudden death isn’t from natural causes, and that a larger mystery looms over them all.

ONE IS A LONELY NUMBERThey cut out part of his tubercular lung in prison. But after the breakout, all Larry Camonille can do is run and keep on running. He's ready to die rather than go back inside. Mexico looks good, where the weather is more accommodating to a man with bad lungs. He wants to stay in Chicago and take care of that lying tramp who promised to keep the getaway money for him. But Chicago is too hot. On the lam, Camonille bums it down to Ohio. That's where he meets Vera, a used-up lush with a warm and inviting manner. And Jan, fresh and young and boy-crazy. They all want something from Camonille, but all he has to give is his life.BLACK WINGS HAS MY ANGEL When Ken first meets Virginia, he's fresh off a jail break and a gig on an oil rig. She’s his first woman after months on the water but how could he know she'd get under his skin so quickly? That instead of ditching her he'd come to need her, not only for himself but for the foolproof robbery scheme his cellmate had cooked up before he was shot to death going over the wire? Ken has a plan, and Virginia can handle a Packard like a pro--and she wants the bucks even more than he does. They stay together, they plan together, and before long they're on the run together. But can either one of them really love the other? Or trust the other? 

EDDIE'S WORLD Eddie Senta is in the middle of a midlife crisis. His wife's biological clock is ticking and she wants a baby. She also wants him to start making some money. And his career as a word processor is going nowhere. Even his old gig as a runner for the mob holds no excitement for him anymore. Eddie feels trapped. So when an old friend shows up with an opportunity to make an easy score with a quick robbery, he takes it. It's more the thrill than anything that appeals to him. But the robbery's a bust, and now he's involved in a triple murder case with the FBI after him, a crazy killer under the federal witness protection on his ass, and two New York detectives and a Russian mobster not far behind. Eddie's life just got interesting.

 TURNABOUTFormer cop Frankie O’Neil’s best friend has just taken a high dive out of a plane–without a chute. He’d been working with a couple of cops, Hill and Fetterman, to figure out a complicated scheme involving a shady business at a financial services company. Using a computer system to hide what’s been going on, the police needed help to figure out their scheme. With O’Neil’s friend gone, they turn to him as a replacement. The trouble is, O’Neil doesn’t trust anybody except his young protégé, and together they set out to find out who was really responsible for what happened to Tim Clayton. There’s money involved, and lots of it. When O’Neil’s wife is suddenly taken, he has no choice but to unravel the tangled skein of corruption and missing money made possible by a mix of old-fashioned corruption and a new breed of high-tech criminal. SHALLOW SECRETSA captured killer implicates an impossible suspect. A cop’s career is ruined. When James Robinson abruptly leaves the force, he walks away from law enforcement forever, disgraced publicly and privately, his life in complete shambles. Or so he thinks. Years later, another killer is caught, and when lovely reporter Sabrina Wells seeks his help, Robinson won’t even listen. Until she shows him a note in his own handwriting, tying him to a victim he’d long since thought put to rest. Haunted by a promise from his past, Robinson and Sabrina travel north to Baker County, Florida, where they uncover a nest of seemingly unconnected murders. Or are they? Past and present come together in a sweltering mix of passion and murder. Can Robinson escape the sins of his past and catch a killer, or killers, in the process? Or will he himself fall victim to a stalker who knows more about him than he ever dreamed? 

Jeff Prentiss’s life is a mess. As a homicide detective working in St. Petersburg, he knows he’s made too many mistakes and made too many enemies. When his wife’s ex-husband, Roy Lee Evans, is released from prison and threatens his family, Jeff does what he must to keep them safe. Now fighting for his career, his wife Lori believes he knows more about Evans’ whereabouts than he’s willing to say. With his family life strained to the breaking point, a “celebrity” thief is found dead, and Jeff and his new partner find themselves roasting in the media spotlight. There’s a disc that ties the dead man to a political bigshot in Tampa, but the link doesn’t make any sense.Everything keeps coming back to Lori’s missing ex, even as the case points to an organized crime operation. Jeff compounds old mistakes with new ones and as the investigation continues, he begins a slow descent into his own darkened version of Hell. Should he share everything with his partner, be honest with Lori? Only she’s disappeared and Jeff is a man in search of the truth, but he knows that if he finds it, it just might kill them all.