Great P.I. Hardboiled Fiction
Dive into the gritty world of Great P.I. Hardboiled Fiction with our curated list of top books. Explore thrilling tales of tough detectives, dark alleys, and suspenseful mysteries in classic hardboiled fiction.
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Brown's Requiem
by James Ellroy
Fritz Brown's L.A.--and his life--are masses of contradictions, like stirring chorales sung for the dead. A less-than-spotless former cop with a drinking problem--a private eye-cum-repo man with a taste for great music--he has been known to wallow in the grime beneath the Hollywood glitter. But Fritz Brown's life is about to change, thanks to the appearance of a racist psycho who flashes too much cash for a golf caddie and who walked away clean from a multiple murder rap. Reopening this cas could be Fritz's redemption; his welcome back to a moral world and his path to a pure and perfect love. But to get there, he must make it through a grim, lightless place where evil has no national borders; where lies beget lies and death begets death; where there's little tolerance for Bach or Beethoven and deadly arson is a lesser mortal sin; and where a p.i.'s unhealthy interest in the past can turn beautiful music into funeral dirge.
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The Wrong Case
by James Crumley
An extraordinary detective story from one of the great American crime fiction authors. Milo once had a thriving divorce-case business in the small town of in the Pacific Northwest, but because of liberal new divorce laws he has taken to drinking and staring out the window. He's up to his third drink of the morning when an attractive young woman walks into his office and asks him to find her brother. He takes on what seems a routine missing-person case in hopes of getting to know her better, but finds himself involved in what is most definitely the wrong case. Everyone is a victim, one way or another, of a crime that took place long before the novel begins.
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Blue Belle
by Andrew Vachss
Burke is one of the most cold-blooded yet strangely honorable heroes in the history of crime fiction, an outlaw who makes his living by preying on the most vicious of New York City’s bottom-feeders, those who thrive on the suffering of children. In Andrew Vachss’s tautly engrossing novel Burke is given a purse full of dirty money to find the infamous Ghost Van that is cutting a lethal swath among the teenage prostitutes in the ‘hood. He also gets help in the form of a stripper named Belle, whose moves on the runway are outclassed only by what she can do in a getaway car. But not even Burke is prepared for the evil that is behind the Ghost Van or for the sheer menace of its guardian, a cadaverous karate expert who enjoys killing so much that he has named himself after death.
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Eight Million Ways to Die
by Lawrence Block
Nobody knows better than Matthew Scudder how far down a person can sink in this city. A young prostitute named Kim knew it also—and she wanted out. Maybe Kim didn't deserve the life fate had dealt her. She surely didn't deserve her death. The alcoholic ex-cop turned p.i. was supposed to protect her, but someone slashed her to ribbons on a crumbling New York City waterfront pier. Now finding Kim's killer will be Scudder's penance. But there are lethal secrets hiding in the slain hooker's past that are far dirtier than her trade. And there are many ways of dying in this cruel and dangerous town—some quick and brutal ... and some agonizingly slow.
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The Glass Highway
by Loren D. Estleman
Television newscaster Sandy Broderick seems to be the type of guy who has it all: good looks, good hair, a deep voice, and great ratings. Unfortunately, he's also got a son who, more often than not, tends to find himself in the sort of trouble that only someone like private eye Amos Walker can fix. Walker takes the case, with two objectives: find Bud before all the drugs and women make for a fatal combination; and keep Bud's actions from ruining Broderick's reputation. What Walker finds, though, is more than he bargained for -- in a case that tests the very limits of his own reputation. . . .
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The Green Ripper
by John Dann MacDonald
A man seeks revenge on a group of terrorists responsible for the death of his girlfriend.
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Nick's Trip
by George P. Pelecanos
The second title in the Nick Stefanos series. Pelecanos is hot.
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The Last Good Kiss
by James Crumley
C.W. Sughrue, a Montana private eye, is hired to track down a failing author and winds up searching for Betty Sue Flowers, a woman missing for ten years in Haight-Ashbury.
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Hard Candy
by Andrew Vachss
In this mercilessly compelling thriller, Burke—the private eye, sting artist, and occasional hit man who metes out a cruelly ingenious vengeance on those who victimize children—is up against a soft-spoken messiah, who may be rescuing runaways or recruiting them for his own hideous purposes. But in doing so Burke becomes a target for an entire Mafia family, a whore with a heart of cyanide, and a contract killer as implacable as a heat-seeking missile. Written with Vachss's signature narrative overdrive—and his unnerving familiarity with the sub-basement of American crime—Hard Candy is vintage Burke.
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The Midnight Man
by Loren D. Estleman
"Look for us when the moon is new. Look for us, but keep your distance. We're the Midnight Men, and the prey we're stalking could be you." In the private eye business, mistakes can be fatal. Just ask Amos Walker. First, he pulls his gun on a man he thought was a member of a group of potential truck hijackers. Even goes so far as to fire a round at the suspicious driver to make him step from his car. Only trouble is, the guy -- Van Sturtevant -- is a cop. Then, after Sturtevant is crippled in a shootout with a gang of black militants, Walker -- figuring he owes the cop for letting him off the hook -- offers his investigatory services to the officer's pretty, blond wife, Karen. At no charge. If Walker had been paying attention, he would have seen the warning signs. But now bodies are going to start piling up, with politicians, private eyes, and members of Detroit's Finest on the giving and receiving ends. Yes, mistakes can be fatal. And if Walker doesn't watch his back, the next one will definitely be his last....
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Pale Gray for Guilt
by John D. MacDonald
With an introduction by CARL HIAASEN JOHN D. MacDONALD "...the great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller." --STEPHEN KING "...a master storyteller, a masterful suspense writer." --MARY HIGGINS CLARK "...a dominant influence on writers crafting the continuing series character." --SUE GRAFTON "...my favorite novelist of all time." --DEAN KOONTZ "...the consummate pro, a master storyteller and witty observer." --JONATHAN KELLERMAN "...remains one of my idols." --DONALD WESTLAKE THE TRAVIS McGEE SERIES "...one of the great sagas in American fiction." --ROBERT B. PARKER "...what a joy that these timeless and treasured novels are available again." --ED McBAIN
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Down by the River where the Dead Men Go
by George P. Pelecanos
Sleeping off a night of drinking in a public park, Nick Stefanos is awakened by a dull plopping sound and a quiet splash that turns out to be the murder of Calvin Jetter, and the beginning of a grim investigation.
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When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
by Lawrence Block
In the dark days, in a sad and lonely place, ex-cop Matt Scudder is drinking his life away -- and doing "favors" for pay for his ginmill cronies. But when three such assignments flow together in dangerous and disturbing ways, he'll need to change his priorities from boozing to surviving.
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Life's Work
by Jonathan Valin
Billy Parks, all-pro nose guard for the Cougars, has disappeared four weeks before the season's opening. The league has already suspended three of its players for possession of cocaine, so management will do anything to get Parks back. They hire Harry Stoner to track him down.