My illiterate grandparents taught me to love learning. A librarian who shared books and food with a ragged, hungry kid cemented my love of books. My fifth-grade teacher in a ghetto school took unpaid time to encourage my writing. My mother taught me to never give up my dreams. Dogs taught me the meaning of unconditional affection and loyalty. And nowadays, when I lose faith in myself, it is my wife’s love and belief in me that keeps me going. Love, in its many forms, has shaped my life.
I liked the protagonist, Kate Delafield, immediately for her straightforward manner. Within very few pages, Katherine painted a picture of the neighborhood and the bar where a murder occurred in its back parking lot, yet she never caused the story to drag. Katherine pulled me in with her succinct description of the murder scene. It was as if I stood beside Kate Delafield.
As the detectives entered the bar, I felt lesbian history reverberating down through the years. As a lesbian, I identified with Kate Delafield and with the milieu within which she had to live and do her job as a police detective. I also understood the hostility of the bar patrons—all lesbians—toward the police. Without preaching, Katherine described the larger conflict inherent in the situation.
This book was so well-written that I “felt” the emotions of the characters; the sadness that a young life had been destroyed way…
Dory Quillin, nineteen-years old, her white-blonde hair ruffled by the gentle breezes of a June evening, lies dead in the parking lot of a lesbian bar. Her bewildered silver-blue eyes stare beseechingly into the mind and soul of the woman who kneels beside her: LAPD homicide detective Kate Delafield.
The investigation is far from a simple matter. Kate uncovers shocking facts about the brief life of the murdered young lesbian. She finds her road to the killer obstructed by Dory’s uncooperative, judgmental parents, the waning interest of her own partner, and most frustrating of all, the open hostility of women…
I'm a novelist and screenwriter best known for my fourth novel, Under Color of Law, which features Black detective Trevor "Finn" Finnegan of the LAPD. I'm a lover of crime fiction, preferably noir, that works to entertain and enlighten readers by exploring the topical issues of today. I hold an MFA in Writing from Otis College and I’ve taught college-level English and creative writing courses for over ten years.
A solid police procedural that influenced my own book, the novel explores race relations in Los Angeles amid the 1992 Uprising spurred by the beating of motorist Rodney King. Detective Charlotte Justice not only is tasked with solving the murder of a man responsible for killing her family but also contends with the misogynistic, racist, and overall toxic good old boy culture of the LAPD. The novel delivers a twisty mystery and deconstructs an event that should have served as the tipping point for police reform in America.
Meet Detective Charlotte Justice, a black woman in the very white, very male, and sometimes very racist Los Angeles Police Department. The time is 48 hours into the epochal L.A. riots and she and her fellow officers are exhausted. She saves the curfew-breaking black doctor Lance Mitchell from a potentially lethal beating from some white officers - only to discover nearby the body of one-time radical Cinque Lewis, a thug who years before had murdered her husband and young daughter. Was it a random shooting or was Mitchell responsible? And what had brought Lewis back to a city he'd long…
I
invented a category called Best Offbeat Memoirs because I’d written one.
Fearless about showing her flaws, Patchett was saved from illiteracy by a
determined nun. If not for her dazzling self-discipline she might have remained
a crackerjack waitress. When nobody showed up at a book signing, she looked
around to observe what makes an independent bookstore tick.
When book banners
certain that first-year students at Clemson University would be turned into sex fiends,
homosexuals, and drug addicts if they read her assigned book (sound familiar?)
she gave the “kick-ass” speech printed here. Her three proud fathers adored
her. Patchett’s no-nonsense but caring nature and sense of humor are the
narrative thread that holds these diverse pieces together, making this a book
to treasure.
'So compellingly personal you feel you're looking over her shoulder as she sits down to write' New York Times
'Electrically entertaining ... Funny, generous, spirited and kind' The Times
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is an irresistible blend of literature and memoir revealing the big experiences and little moments that shaped Ann Patchett as a daughter, wife, friend and writer.
Here, Ann Patchett shares entertaining and moving stories about her tumultuous childhood, her painful early divorce, the excitement of selling her first book, driving a Winnebago from Montana to Yellowstone Park, her joyous discovery of opera, scaling…
I’m agnostic to book genre. If I see it, I will try it. I read all over the place. I just finished a book on online dating and race, the buzzy fiction of the moment, and a self-help book. There are two genre’s that are my absolute favorites, though, women’s fiction, and police procedurals. I’ve read Elizabeth George, Julia Spencer Fleming, Michael Connelly, and Tana French since they started publishing. While I enjoy the whodunit nature of the books, my favorite parts are those quiet moments of pure, unfettered relations between people who care for each other in an otherwise chaotic world. It’s what I write and what I read.
The Harry Bosch series has been long and often predictable.
Bosch has a strong belief that if everybody doesn’t count, nobody counts. He has to hold up his image of justice against an LAPD that plays politics, and a city populace easily swayed by the latest headlines.
What I love about The Last Coyote is that it’s a very personal novel where Bosch examines his relationship with his deceased mother Marjorie Phillips Lowe, a prostitute who was brutally murdered. While on psychiatric leave, Bosch takes on the case of his mother’s unsolved murder.
It’s a wonderfully nuanced exploration of the relationship between a mother and son, a cop and his own psyche, and a city and its most reviled citizens.
LAPD detective Harry Bosch is down on his luck - his house is condemned in the aftermath of the earthquake, his girlfriend has left him and he has been suspended for attacking his superior officer.
To occupy time, he examines the old case files covering a murder which took place on October 28, 1961. The victim was Marjorie Phillips Lowe - his mother . . .
The case forces Bosch to confront the demons of the past, and as he digs deeper into the case, he discovers a trail of cover-ups that lead to the high-ups in the Hollywood Hills…
As a romance, romantic comedy, and cozy mystery writer, I not only have a passion for the swoon-worthy moments when I’m creating them but crave them as a reader. There are so many great books out there but chemistry, particularly between a main character and her love interest, is what really makes me want more of a series. It’s not always easy to create that sigh-worthy-make-you-smile element of romance and love in a book that is geared toward solving a murder so I really appreciate when it’s done well. It’s not only enjoyable for me as a reader but a great example for me as a writer.
This book is adorable and hilarious. My favorite cozies have a heavy punch of romance and sparks in them and this one definitely fits the bill. Maddie lands herself in all the wrong places, at all the wrong times, with all the wrong people. Watching her back, and the rest of her, is an LAPD detective who doesn’t want to fall for her charms but, like readers, absolutely can’t help himself.
#1 Amazon, New York Times & USA Today Bestselling series! High Crime meets High Fashion when shoe designer turned amateur sleuth Maddie Springer is on the case...with laugh-out-loud results!
Struggling LA shoe designer, Maddie Springer, lives her life by three rules: Fashion. Fashion. Fashion. But when her boyfriend suddenly disappears--along with $20 million in embezzled funds--her life takes an unexpected turn from Manolos to murder. Now her every move is under scrutiny by the LAPD's sexiest cop, dead bodies are dropping around her faster than last season's trends, and the deeper she digs the more she realizes maybe she didn't…
Ever since taking a college course in film noir, I've been in love with the cigarette-smoking, fedora-wearing, wisecracking tough guys (and gals) who inhabit the darkest corners of the modern world’s back alleys. The protagonist of Tears for the Dead, Bonnie Parker – named for the distaff half of Bonnie and Clyde – is my modest way of paying homage to this tradition, and incidentally having a lot of fun in the process.
Gerald Petievich must have used a crystal ball when writingEarth Angels in 1989, because only nine years later, all the basic elements of the story would hit the headlines, as rogue elements within the LAPD were exposed in a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy known as the Rampart scandal. The book’s eerie prescience is only one reason it’s a modern classic. Its depiction of police procedure is almost unmatched in accuracy and detail, and it perfectly captures the dark, gritty side of Los Angeles, far away from the bright lights of movie premieres. If I ever need to remind myself why I left L.A. after twelve years, I only need to revisit Petievich’s open-eyed exposé of official corruption, casual lawlessness, and random violence.
Detective Sergeant Jose Stepanovich and his elite tactical team were the toughest cops in the Los Angeles police force, handed the toughest jobs, like going up against the city's most vicious criminal element - the street gangs of East L.A. But somewhere along the lines the cops broke a few rules, turning a job into a personal vendetta, and suddenly it wasn't only the gangs they were fighting. It was the community, the media, and their own brass, who decided they were expendable. Hard-boiled Detective Stepanovich - returning to the barrio where he grew up to battle the criminals he…
I’ve always enjoyed murder mysteries, with spy novels coming a very close second. I like the puzzle aspect of the story and the unravelling thereof. From early in my childhood I have written and it has never occurred to me to write in any other genre than Crime Fiction. I do like, however, both in my own output and that which I read, to gain an insight into other people’s lives and histories. I like to learn about the surroundings in which the stories are set. Also, for me a must, the characters have to be rounded and three dimensional.
This is the first Alex Delaware book that I read, and I became immediately hooked. Delaware is a psychologist-detective based in Los Angeles, who works very closely with his good friend, Milo Sturgis, a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. This story has them both looking back in time to a murder that Milo failed to solve. Between them they scour the “City of the Angels” and get to grips with this old case that never quite went away.
Twisting, brutal and terrifying but ultimately redemptive, THE MURDER BOOK by New York Times No. 1 bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman, author of KILLER and BREAKDOWN, is recommended for fans of David Baldacci and Harland Coben. 'Optimism is a feature of The Murder Book although the premise is macabre . . . Kellerman ameliorates the horror with a surprising number of generous characters' (Telegraph)
Alex Delaware's relationship with his long-term partner is on the rocks. He is floored when Robin announces she's heading off on a three-month music tour.
But he soon has other things to think about. He is sent…
For me, fascinating characters are the best part of a crime novel, and I love Maggie. She may be a dog, but she's smart and quite willing to tell you exactly what she's thinking.
Injured while working as a bomb sniffer dog in Afghanistan, Maggie has now recovered, and she adores her new handler, LAPD K9 Specialist Scott James. She loves helping him capture bad guys, in this case, an obsessive-compulsive egomaniac who builds bombs in his house and sells them to terrorists.
Mr. Rollins has strict rules, and he will kill anyone who doesn't obey them, including Maggie and her beloved handler. Don't miss the thrilling showdown between Mr. Rollins and Maggie.
'One of the most entertaining thrillers of the year... THE PROMISE is filled with suspense, surprises and ably-drawn characters. ... putting him in the company of such greats as James Lee Burke, Sue Grafton, Stephen King and Elmore Leonard. THE PROMISE shows once again why he belongs there' WASHINGTON POST
Loyalty, commitment, the fight against injustice - these are the things that have always driven Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. If they make a promise, they keep it. Even if it could get them killed.
When Elvis Cole is hired to locate a woman who may have disappeared with a…
Part
of the LAPD Harry Bosch (#23)/Renee Ballard (#4) police procedural series, The
Dark Hours, is primarily told from Ballard’s POV.
The dark hours is cop-speak for midnight to seven on the night shift, but the title equally sums up
Ballard’s struggles in her personal life and career. Perfect narration by Titus
Welliver (Bosch) and Christine Lakin (Ballard), with Connelly at his best. I
love the way he’s allowed his characters to not just grow older, but to change
and evolve through the years. Brilliant.
A Wall Street Journal and South Florida Sun-Sentinel Best Book of the Year
“A masterpiece”—LAPD detective Renée Ballard must join forces with Harry Bosch to find justice in a city scarred by fear and social unrest after a methodical killer strikes on New Year’s Eve (Publishers Weekly).
There’s chaos in Hollywood at the end of the New Year’s Eve countdown. Working her graveyard shift, LAPD detective Renée Ballard waits out the traditional rain of lead as hundreds of revelers shoot their guns into the air. Only minutes after midnight, Ballard is called to a scene where a hardworking auto shop…
I’m an Associate Professor in the University of Alabama’s Department of Philosophy. I worked as an FBI Special Agent before making the natural transition to academic philosophy. Being a professor was always a close second to Quantico, but that scene in Point Break in which Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze fight Anthony Kiedis on the beach made it seem like the FBI would be more fun than academia. In my current position as a professor at the University of Alabama, I teach in my department’s Jurisprudence Specialization. My primary research interests are at the intersection of philosophy of law, political philosophy, and criminal justice. I’ve written three books on policing.
I love this book because it reminds us of the many ways that technology can affect justice.
It is tempting to think sophisticated tactics such as “predictive policing” can solve all problems relating to human bias. However, Brayne shows that data and algorithms do not eliminate bias and discretion. Instead, high-tech police tools simply make bias less overt and visible, which erodes the public’s ability to hold the police accountable.
I especially enjoyed how the book flips the script, considering diverse ways to use these tools to help the public. For example, how can municipalities use technology to analyze the underlying factors that contribute to policing problems in the first place?
The scope of criminal justice surveillance, from the police to the prisons, has expanded rapidly in recent decades. At the same time, the use of big data has spread across a range of fields, including finance, politics, health, and marketing. While law enforcement's use of big data is hotly contested, very little is known about how the police actually use it in daily operations and with what consequences.
In Predict and Surveil, Sarah Brayne offers an unprecedented, inside look at how police use big data and new surveillance technologies, leveraging on-the-ground fieldwork with one of the most technologically advanced law…
