The best crime fiction sagas with cops in pursuit of the bad guys

Why am I passionate about this?

My passion is writing crime fiction and more. William J. Warner is my name. I am a retired FBI Agent who worked violent crime cases. I developed a wealth of experience interviewing seedy people around the globe. As such, I love writing their dialogue and incorporating it with those of good intentions. I’ve written seven books. My degrees are in business, forensic psychology, and law. My novels include Holdup Number Six, Appalachian Impasse, Gold Line to Lenox, Going Knee to Knee with FBI Polygraph, Ohio Boys, Hoosier Fields, and Jewels In The Sand where I digressed into a love & war saga with a tear-jerking finish.


I wrote...

Gold Line to Lenox: An Odyssey of Crime, Love & Betrayal

By William J. Warner,

Book cover of Gold Line to Lenox: An Odyssey of Crime, Love & Betrayal

What is my book about?

Giselle Trudeau, a ginger-haired law clerk, is passionate for Chance and sees him as her dashing hero in the mold, if only she can find her way out from a devastating and perfidious marriage to George. The pompous and menacing federal judge, George Washington Trudeau, finds himself named as the next FBI director despite the hideous schoolings he so brutally lays on to the once devoted Giselle. As for Chance, he is in the chase for her but must manage a series of chaotic policing events which envelop him in life-and-death struggles with Giselle too often in the middle of the mayhem.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Prince of Thieves

William J. Warner Why did I love this book?

Having worked bank robberies as a former FBI Special Agent, I have a keen sense as to what makes these people tick. Most are quite ignorant, however, occasionally clever planning takes place by those as brazen as Hogan has portrayed here. A true masterpiece, Chuck Hogan does a splendid job bringing his characters to life in all the real-life depictions you will enjoy. This is a gut-wrenching roller coaster mixing crime with romantic infatuation to the point you can’t stop reading. I’ll admit, once the movie came out, I had to get the book and now it’s one of my all-time favorite crime thrillers.

By Chuck Hogan,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Prince of Thieves as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the author of The Strain comes a tense, psychologically gripping, Hammet award-winning thriller.

Four masked men—thieves, rivals, and friends from the tough streets of Charlestown—take on a Boston bank at gunpoint. Holding bank manager Claire Keesey hostage and cleaning out the vault were simple. But career criminal Doug MacRay didn't plan on one thing: falling hard for Claire. When he tracks her down without his mask and gun, their mutual attraction is undeniable. With a tenacious FBI agent following his every move, he imagines a life away from his gritty, dangerous work—a life centered around Claire. But before that…


Book cover of The Chase

William J. Warner Why did I love this book?

My Clive Cussler favorite, The Chase kept me in pursuit of the villain with all the suspense and adventurous imagination I’ve come to expect from Cussler’s long line of good guy/bad guy novels. I identified with Detective Isaac Bell as I, too, once pursued bank robbers and killers from one State to another while employed as an FBI agent. In this story, Bell is put to the challenge in an audacious plot of robbery and murder. To identify this despicable felon, Bell finds that a woman plays into it adding intrigue to the outcome.

By Clive Cussler,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Chase as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14.

What is this book about?

Turn-of-the-century detective Isaac Bell pursues a blood-thirsty bank robber-and perhaps one of the world's first sociopaths-in the first novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series.

In 1906, the western states of America suffer a string of bank robberies by a single man who then cold-bloodedly murders any and all witnesses, and vanishes without a trace. Fed up by the depredations of "The Butcher Bandit," the U.S. government brings in the best man it can find: a tall, lean, no-nonsense detective named Isaac Bell, who has caught thieves and killers from coast to coast.

But Bell has never had a…


Book cover of The Cartel

William J. Warner Why did I love this book?

If you’re looking for someone who can develop characters, it’s Don Winslow. I chose Winslow’s novel, The Cartel, due to my close association with drug enforcement while employed as an FBI agent. The choice I made couldn’t have been more fascinating. The character descriptions were so well written that I felt I was in the same room with them as they carried out their riveting schemes. Winslow employs betrayal, corruption, and dialogue in ways that bind you, as the reader, to the pages with all the tenacity and veracity you can handle. A dramatic and deep insight into the drug trade with all the realism you can imagine. This book is thorough and I was very impressed.

By Don Winslow,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Cartel as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The New York Times bestselling second novel in the explosive Power of the Dog series—an action-filled look at the drug trade that takes you deep inside a world riddled with corruption, betrayal, and bloody revenge.

Book Two of the Power of the Dog Series

It’s 2004. Adán Barrera, kingpin of El Federación, is languishing in a California federal prison. Ex-DEA agent Art Keller passes his days in a monastery, having lost everything to his thirty-year blood feud with the drug lord. Then Barrera escapes. Now, there’s a two-million-dollar bounty on Keller’s head and no one else capable of taking Barrera…


Book cover of A Line to Kill

William J. Warner Why did I love this book?

From the days of my youth, I’ve always had an interest in stories relating to the pursuit of murderers by a Sherlock Holmes type of character. Anthony Horowitz excels in this novel with his character, Daniel Hawthorne, an ex-detective who is determined to solve the mystery Horowitz so artfully lays out. While attending a literary festival at an island once held by the Nazis, two murders take place which throw shadows over those attending as they each are faced with Hawthorne, now on loan by the police, to aid in finding the killer. As a former federal investigator, I found myself relating to the characters, their personalities, and how they parlayed back and forth with Hawthorne. As such,  I heartedly recommend it.

By Anthony Horowitz,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A Line to Kill as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Pre-order the brand new Anthony Horowitz novel The Twist of a Knife, coming August 2022!

'EASILY THE GREATEST OF OUR CRIME WRITERS' Sunday Times

'A homage to the Golden Age of mystery - it is pure delight.' NEW YORK TIMES
'This is crime fiction as dazzling entertainment' SUNDAY TIMES
'Witty, wry, clever, a fabulous detective story and perfect summer reading' KATE MOSSE
'Funny, intriguing, thrilling and thought-provoking: a marvellous mystery' ADAM HAMDY
'A golden-age whodunnit on steroids' KIRKUS REVIEWS
'My favourite literary hero at the moment is Anthony Horowitz' SHARI LAPENA
__________________

Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne and the writer Anthony…


Book cover of No Country for Old Men

William J. Warner Why did I love this book?

Once the movie came out and I viewed it twice, I had to have the book. Now that I have it, I’ve read it twice as well. Cormac McCarthy has written a gem. A genius storyteller, his villain grips you with the way he so ruthfully takes people out while pursuing his lost drug money. Regardless of where you’re from, you’ll find this tale of Texas and it’s border with Mexico intriguing, desolate, and frightening when McCarthy’s characters go full-tilt with no mercy in mind. It’s all about an innocent find of two million dollars and what an impossible task it will be to hold on to it. You’ll read it like the wind.

By Cormac McCarthy,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked No Country for Old Men as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Llewelyn Moss, hunting antelope near the Rio Grande, instead finds men shot dead, a load of heroin, and more than $2 million in cash. Packing the money out, he knows, will change everything. But only after two more men are murdered does a victim's burning car lead Sheriff Bell to the carnage out in the desert, and he soon realizes that Moss and his young wife are in desperate need of protection. One party in the failed transaction hires an ex-Special Forces officer to defend his interests against a mesmerizing freelancer, while on either side are men accustomed to spectacular…


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A House on Liberty Street

By Neil Turner,

Book cover of A House on Liberty Street

Neil Turner Author Of A House on Liberty Street

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Reader Traveler Inquisitive Family guy Writer

Neil's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Meet Tony Valenti. His high-flying corporate law career just cratered. His society marriage blew up in a bitter divorce. He's returned to the Chicago suburbs to lick his wounds and regroup in the haven of the Valenti family home. But time to heal isn't in the cards.

Tony's elderly father inexplicably shoots a sheriff's deputy on their front porch. Nobody knows why, and Papa isn't talking. Then their house becomes an unlikely target for condemnation and expropriation by corrupt local officials and their cronies.

With money and hope dwindling, Tony steps up to defend his father and take to city hall, and quickly finds himself in peril when he unearths sinister connections between the cases. The audacity of the plot against them fuels a gritty determination to get to the bottom of what really happened—regardless of the risks and ultimate cost to himself. To win, Tony must earn his father's trust and outwit his wily opponents.

A House on Liberty Street

By Neil Turner,

What is this book about?

A father. A son. A murder.

Meet Tony Valenti. His high-flying corporate law career just cratered. His society marriage blew up in a bitter divorce. He’s returned to the Chicago suburbs to lick his wounds and regroup in the haven of the Valenti family home. But time to heal isn’t in the cards.

Tony’s elderly father inexplicably shoots a sheriff’s deputy on their front porch. Nobody knows why, and Papa isn’t talking. Then their house becomes an unlikely target for condemnation and expropriation by corrupt local officials and their cronies.

With money and hope dwindling, Tony steps up to defend…


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