Ross Thomas
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Would you be wary if someone gave you the assignment of delivering five million dollars to a Philippine terrorist—never mind from whom or why? Booth Stallings, a terrorism expert just fired from his job at a bashful organization that never admitted its mount in the Washington merry-go-round, is wary. So wary that he cuts in con man "Otherguy" Overby, who in turn involves Artie Wu, pretender to the throne of China, and his partner, Quincy
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The town's mayor, plucky Barbara Huckins, and its chief of police, Sid Fork, are part-time lovers and ex-San Francisco hippies who drifted into Durango 20 years back. The action begins when Jack Adair, an acid-tongued judge falsely accused of taking a big bribe, drops into Durango to hide from whoever wants him silenced. Poor Adair already has a daughter in a mental hospital, a disbarred attorney for a son-in-law and a gay son who committed suicide...
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First in the series from an Edgar Award–winning author of “stylish, well-told suspense novels enlivened with a dash of wit” (The New York Times).
Philip St. Ives is the kind of man who can convince a vice cop and a paroled mobster to sit down to a hand of poker. Once he was a reporter with a daily column, a fat Rolodex, and a reputation for indifference to criminal behavior. Now he is a go-between,...
Philip St. Ives is the kind of man who can convince a vice cop and a paroled mobster to sit down to a hand of poker. Once he was a reporter with a daily column, a fat Rolodex, and a reputation for indifference to criminal behavior. Now he is a go-between,...
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St. Ives goes to London on a job for the least trustworthy con artist he knows. Philip St. Ives has only been in the pub a few minutes before he realizes his whiskey is drugged. Instantly sick, he's vomiting on the sidewalk when the muggers appear. He fights as best he can in his drugged state, and only when he feels the handcuffs does he realize his assailants aren't muggers, they're cops. He wakes in a dingy cell to the knowledge that English...
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A freelance fixer comes out of retirement to rescue the President's kidnapped brother American agents abduct a high-profile terrorist in broad daylight on the streets of London, subduing him with a tranquilizer. He dies a few hours later on a flight back to Washington, DC, and the body is dropped into the ocean. Hours later, the President's brother-a political powerhouse in his own right-boards a plane to Las Vegas that doesn't land in Nevada....
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An old friend draws barman Mac McCorkle into a deadly international game As the saying goes, you can't pick your friends. If you could, Mac McCorkle would disown Padilla. They owned a bar together in Bonn, the West German capital, and stayed partners even after Padilla's sideline as a CIA operative got the bar blown up. Padilla was thought to be dead and erased from the CIA's files-but now he's back on the agency's turf. Mac moved to Washington,...
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Missionary Stew follows political fundraiser Draper Haere on a quest to uncover the secret behind a right-wing coup in an unnamed Central American country. Haere seeks the information in order to get dirt on his boss's opponent in the 1984 US Presidential election. Haere's pursuit of the truth repeatedly puts Haere's life in danger, as the powers-that-be stop at nothing to keep the episode buried. Along the way, Haere carries on an affair with the...
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"America's best storyteller." -The New York Times Book Review
From Edgar Award-winning author Ross Thomas comes Briarpatch, a thrilling mystery of one man's personal mission to find justice for his family. Now the basis for the USA Network television series executive produced by Sam Esmail, creator of Mr. Robot.
A long-distance call from his small Texas hometown on his birthday gives Benjamin Dill the news that his sister Felicity-born on the same...
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When his old boss is kidnapped, St. Ives reluctantly agrees to free him. Philip St. Ives loses his first job in journalism as soon as he realizes he hates the man who gave it to him. Chicago Post editor Amfred Killingsworth is a pompous blowhard, and fires his newest reporter for failing to fawn over him. St. Ives goes to New York, where he lands a daily column and the close friendship of an assortment of crooks. Killingsworth goes in a less respectable...
10) Ah, Treachery!
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Ah, Treachery!, the last novel Thomas wrote before his death, tells the story of one Captain Edd "Twodees" Partain, drummed out of the Army and hounded by rumors of his involvement in a secret operation in El Salvador. Twodees gets hired on to help a fundraiser for the "Little Rock folks" recover funds that were stolen from an illicit stash used to smooth over problems and pay off hush money. Meanwhile, Partain is involved in a storefront operation...
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A stuntman searches for a colleague whom he thought he killed long ago Two pirates do battle on an old junk ship in Singapore Harbor. They leap nimbly from deck to rigging, crossing swords like fencing masters. And then one surprises the other, slicing a rope and sending the unfortunate pirate tumbling into the bay. This is how stuntman Angelo Sacchetti dies. Edward Cauthorne was his opponent, a fellow stuntman whose career died along with Sacchetti....
12) The Porkchoppers
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Two hard-nosed bosses scrap for control of America's largest union Born to a steelworker but harboring theatrical aspirations, Donald Cubbin grew up tempted by two careers. A Hollywood scout finally notices him, but Cubbin has already taken a job with the local union boss. He's always regretted that decision-especially now. After decades climbing the ranks, Cubbin runs the show as the union's president. An election looms, and his opponent proves...
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A bungled hand-off lands St. Ives in jail on suspicion of murder. It's three in the morning, and Philip St. Ives has come to the all-night Laundromat to meet a thief. His laundry bag isn't carrying dirty clothing; it's stuffed with $90,000 cash. But he finds his contact, Bobby Boykins, in no state to talk. Bobby has been beaten, strangled, and stuffed behind a washing machine; Philip is inspecting the corpse when the police find him. Standing in a...
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With eviction looming, St. Ives searches for a big payday and a rare book. Philip St. Ives has no love for New York's drafty, broken-down Adelphi Hotel, but he is in no mood to be evicted from it. His cash dwindling, he is happy to learn about a job that calls for his specific talents as a mediator between thieves and their victims. It sounds like the set-up to a bad joke: A thief, an insurance salesman, and the Library of Congress call Philip's lawyer...
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Clinton Shartelle doesn't seem like a good choice to run a political campaign in Albertia. For one thing, he's American, and Albertia is a small coastal republic in Africa, about to be cut loose from the English Crown. For another, Shartelle is Southern and fiercely proud of it, and his ideas about racial politics veer unpredictably from progressive to rigidly old-fashioned. But, Shartelle is the best, and the political future of Albertia is too important...
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An ace campaign operative comes out of retirement to investigate a chilling disappearance There are few jobs that Harvey Longmire hasn't had. He's been a crime reporter, Louisiana state legislator, foreign correspondent, and-briefly-a decoy for the CIA. But he made his name as campaign trail fixer, an expert in the art of exploiting an enemy's secrets. For nearly a decade, Harvey was the sharpest man in the Beltway, but he quit in 1972, trading political...
17) The Eighth Dwarf
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Searching for a killer of Nazi war criminals, an ex-spy finds an unlikely ally Nicolae Polscaru, a three-and-a-half-foot-tall dwarf, is tossed into a Hollywood swimming pool by four drunken screenwriters, who take bets on how long he can tread water. Minor Jackson, his OSS training still fresh a year after World War II's end, beats the bullies senseless and pulls Nicolae from the water. A friendship is born. Jackson is broke, his spying days over,...
18) The Backup Men
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A saloon owner and a former CIA agent team up to help a pair of assassins escape death The twins who walk into Mac McCorkle's bar look identical, despite their differing genders. Their names are Wanda and Walter Gothar, and from the steel in their eyes it's apparent that their business isn't the friendly kind. They've come seeking help from Mac and his partner, Padilla, an ex-CIA agent who has skulked in the world's darkest corners. Anxious for...
20) Briarpatch
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The red-headed homicide detective climbed into the two-door Honda at the corner, threw in the clutch, and detonated a charge of C-4 plastic that obliterated car and detective. Harold Snow, the only witness, remarked: "Someone just blew away the landlady."