Mystery Protags Who Dont eat Quiche...but arent cavemen either
Discover gritty, sophisticated mystery protagonists in this curated book list—featuring Ken Bruen, Lawrence Block, and Robert B. Parker. These detectives skip the quiche but aren't cavemen either. Explore must-read crime fiction like *The Guards* and *When the Sacred Ginmill Closes* for complex, hard-boiled heroes.
Book
Cinnamon Skin
by John Dann MacDonald
Chilean terrorists come close to ending Travis McGee, but he survives for one more adventure.
Book
A Savage Place
by Robert B. Parker
TV reporter Candy Sloan has eyes the color of cornflowers and legs that stretch all the way to heaven. She also has somebody threatening to rearrange her lovely face if she keeps on snooping into charges of Hollywood racketeering. Spenser's job is to keep Candy healthy until she breaks the biggest story of her career. But her star witness has just bowed out with three bullets in his chest, two tough guys have doubled up to test Spenser's skill with his fists, and Candy is about to use her own sweet body as live bait in a deadly romantic game--a game that may cost Spenser his life.
Book
Promised Land
by Robert B. Parker
Spenser is good at finding things. But this time he has a client out on Cape Cod who is in over his head. Harvey Shepard has lost his pretty wife -- and a very pretty quarter million bucks in real estate. Now a loan shark is putting on the bite.Spenser finds himself doing a slow burn in the Cape Cod sun. The wife has turned up as a hot suspect in a case of murder one...the in-hock hubby has 24 hours before the mob makes him dead...and suddenly Spenser is in so deep that the only way out is so risky it makes dying look like a sure thing. "Spenser is the sassiest, funniest, most-enjoyable-to-read private eye around today." (The Cincinnati Post)
Book
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.
Book
The Guards
by Ken Bruen
In this mesmerizing work of crime fiction, an ex-member of The Guards--Ireland's police force--is approached in a Galway bar by a dazzling woman with a strange request and a rumor about his talent for finding things.
