Why am I passionate about this?

I have loved crime fiction since encountering it in college. After seeing the Bogart-Bacall version of The Big Sleep, I read the underlying Raymond Chandler novel and was hooked. I devoured Chandler’s other works and moved on to James M. Cain, Jim Thompson, John D. MacDonald, and others. Later I discovered the crime novels of Charles Williams, Day Keene, Gil Brewer, and other “pulp masters.” Loving those novels led me to try my hand at writing crime fiction, and Stark House Press has now published five of my novels with another on the way. My crime-writing career is an unusual path for someone whose M.A. thesis is on Jane Austen!


I wrote

Evil Intentions Come

By Timothy J. Lockhart,

Book cover of Evil Intentions Come

What is my book about?

When Pete Scarcelli agrees to represent Justine Kingman in divorcing her husband Ben—the richest man in town—he has no idea…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Double Indemnity

Timothy J. Lockhart Why did I love this book?

I have loved this novel since first reading it in college—probably when I should have been studying for exams! 

Double Indemnity is one of the first and best American noir novels and served as the basis for the 1944 film by the same name. The novel taught me about the classic noir trap: a basically good but flawed man helps a basically bad but attractive woman in an effort to murder her husband, the good/flawed man hoping to end up with both the woman and the money.

But things seem fated to go wrong, and what starts out as a bleak tale ends up even bleaker—at the dark end of a one-way street. Since reading this powerful novel—and seeing the equally powerful film with its crackling dialogue by famed hardboiled crime writer Raymond Chandler—I have never looked at life quite the same way again.

By James M. Cain,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Walter Huff is an insurance investigator like any other until the day he meets the beautiful and dangerous Phyllis Nirdlinger and falls under her spell. Together they plot to kill her husband and split the insurance. It'll be the perfect murder ...


Book cover of The Hot Spot

Timothy J. Lockhart Why did I love this book?

I think The Hot Spot is perhaps the best of several noir novels by Charles Williams, a writer who deserves to be better known. 

Originally published as Hell Hath No Fury, The Hot Spot, well filmed under that title in 1990, chillingly illustrates the claimed truth of the proverb about a woman scorned. As readers, we cannot help but like Harry Madox, a clever but semi-sleazy used-car salesman who robs a bank in a small Texas town and sleeps with his boss’s boozy wife before falling in love with a younger, more innocent woman.

Then Harry learns to his dismay that the boss’s wife is determined to keep him from having the things he now realizes he really wants. Re-reading this novel, I always root for Harry to escape from the deep pit he has dug for himself, and I keep turning the pages, hoping he will.

By Charles Williams,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Hot Spot as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A dark, brooding masterpiece of guilt, greed, and lust in a town ripe for felony.

Madox wasn't all bad.  He was just half-bad.  But trap a man like Madox in a dead-end job in a stultifying small town, introduce him to a femme fatale like the Harshaw woman, and give him a shot at a fast fifteen thousand dollars--in a bank just begging to be knocked over--and his better nature doesn't stand a chance.

Merciless in its suspense, flawless in its grasp of the ways in which ordinary people hurtle over the edge, The Hot Spot is a superb example…


Book cover of The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Timothy J. Lockhart Why did I love this book?

I regard The Friends of Eddie Coyle as the best American crime novel of the 20th century. 

This noir Friends is a fast-moving slither through Boston’s underworld with its colorful cast of bank robbers and victims, cops, and informers, and, above all, Eddie “Fingers” Coyle. Facing a long prison stretch, Coyle, a small-time gunrunner, is willing to do anything, including informing on a fellow armorer, to stay on the street. 

Told largely through realistic dialogue Higgins picked up as a federal prosecutor, Friends had huge influence, including on crime-novel master Elmore Leonard. I find that the novel passes the ultimate test of a great book: it not only bears but invites re-reading, rewarding me each time with something I had not previously seen in this short but beautifully layered novel.

I think that this novel is a must-read for aspiring writers of crime fiction.

By George V. Higgins,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Friends of Eddie Coyle as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Eddie Coyle is a small-time punk with a big-time problem - who to sell out to avoid being sent up again. Eddie works for Jimmy Scalisi, supplying him with guns for a couple of bank jobs. But a cop named Foley is onto Eddie, and he's leaning on him to finger Scalisi, a gang leader with a lot to hide. These and others make up the bunch of hoods, gunmen, thieves, and executioners who are wheeling, dealing, chasing, and stealing in the underworld of Eddie Coyle.


Book cover of The Crimes of Jordan Wise

Timothy J. Lockhart Why did I love this book?

I like The Crimes of Jordan Wise for several reasons.

First, the author accomplishes the difficult task of making us care about a male protagonist who, although smart and capable, is weaker in some ways than a typical noir “hero.” Second, the author takes the unusual tack of portraying a female protagonist who, while physically attractive and commendably frank, is not as irresistible as femmes fatales usually are. 

We know the two are not right for each other, but we cannot help following them as they go down their intersecting paths of darkness with Jordan Wise’s three perfect crimes—a theft and two murders—as plot points along the way. 

Third, the lovely Caribbean setting and Wise’s intriguing and mysterious sailing partner add some island spice and make the tale stand out from more prosaic noir novels.  I think this book is another one that rewards re-reading.   

By Bill Pronzini,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Crimes of Jordan Wise as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Jordan Wise is a mild-mannered accountant with a large San Francisco
engineering firm in the late 1970s. By his own admission, the first
thirty-four years of his life were dull, empty. But that all changes
when he meets and falls in love with Annalise Bonner, an ambitious
young woman who craves excitement, a life on the edge.

With her as the catalyst, Wise concocts and executes a meticulous
plan to steal more than half a million dollars from his firm. They
escape to the Virgin Islands, but their plans to live a life of quiet
luxury are beset by unexpected…


Book cover of More Better Deals

Timothy J. Lockhart Why did I love this book?

I admire this novel for its seamless blend of classic noir themes and, in an unusual aspect of such a novel, racial issues.

I find the narrator to be a near-perfect blend of intelligence, determination, and the fatal flaws of lust and greed.  The femme fatale shares those qualities but adds more than a touch of ruthlessness. The novel features a number of compelling, even frightening scenes—for example, a late night burial, or re-burial, in a pet cemetery.

The plot is beautifully crafted, with a number of twists and turns that on my first read I did not see coming. And the ending is pitch perfect, a satisfying mix of death, sadness, and justice but with a glimmer of hope that contrasts effectively with the noir themes and at least partially resolves the racial issues.    

By Joe R Lansdale,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked More Better Deals as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ed Edwards works in the dirty, tough world of used car sales,but feels sure he is destined for more in life.Dreaming of a brighter future for himself and his plucky little sister, Ed wants to get out of the game.

And when Dave, his lazy, grease-stained boss, sends him to repossess a Cadillac, the better deal Ed has been searching for suddenly seems in reach.

The Cadillac in question belongs to Frank Craig and his beautiful wife Nancy, owners of a local drive-in and pet cemetery. Ed knows Nancy well - too well. In the throes of their salacious affair,…


Explore my book 😀

Evil Intentions Come

By Timothy J. Lockhart,

Book cover of Evil Intentions Come

What is my book about?

When Pete Scarcelli agrees to represent Justine Kingman in divorcing her husband Ben—the richest man in town—he has no idea what he’s getting into.  But he soon learns that Justine has deadly plans for Ben.

As he begins to plot with Justine, Pete also has to navigate around Sally Carruthers, a prosecutor and Pete’s foe in the courtroom but a potential lover outside it. Her father, the chief of police, doesn’t want Pete anywhere near his daughter. And then there’s Jack Greese, a hardboiled private eye working both sides of the street. As Pete is drawn deeper into blackmail and murder, he learns the hard way that only the devil stands between him and Justine. And the devil is a slippery fellow indeed.

Book cover of Double Indemnity
Book cover of The Hot Spot
Book cover of The Friends of Eddie Coyle

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