The Bessie Blue Killer


Book Description

During World War II, due to a shortage of qualified pilots, Uncle Sam began a program of training thousands of military pilots. Among these were the Tuskegee Airmen, a unit of African-Americans eager to fly in combat. Fifty years later a Hollywood studio sets out to create a documentary about these brave airmen, featuring grizzled survivors of that long-ago era flying lovingly maintained vintage aircraft. And then...murder strikes on the movie set, and Hobart Lindsey, insurance investigator-turned-detective, enters the scene. Along with his sometime rival (and sometime love!), Marvia Plum, Lindsey plunges into a mystery with roots stretching half a century into the past. The third riveting entry in the Lindsay & Plum Detective Series!




The Emerald Cat Killer


Book Description

Hobart Lindsey and Marva Plum return in their final case! Hobart Lindsey is called back to the San Francisco Bay Area for one last case. A local book publisher is being sued over a novel that might actually be the last, lost work of a novelist killed over a year ago. "This is the eighth and final book in the series featuring Lindsey and Plum and provides series fans with a satisfying ending. There’s enough background in the book for newcomers to thoroughly enjoy the novel as a stand-alone." - Booklist




The Comic Book Killer


Book Description

He was a white, suburban bachelor. A total square. Lived with his mother. Worked for an insurance company. She was a black, tough, streetwise cop. Then somebody stole a quarter million dollars worth of rare comic books. And then people started getting murdered. Lindsey and Plum were like oil and water, but they had to work together, like it or not! Joe Gores, author of Hammett and other novels, said: "Lupoff writes with intelligence, humor, wisdom, and a zest for life. He had a lot of fun writing this book, and it shows; because of it, we have a lot of fun reading it." The Comic Book Killer is the first volume in Richard A. Lupoff's hugely popular Lindsey-and-Plum series. Readers will cheer the return of these grand characters and their exciting investigations.




The Radio Red Killer


Book Description

Bob Bjorner is the last of the "red hot lefties" at radio station KRED in Berkeley, Calif. His paranoia makes him bring his personal lock to keep intruders out of the studio while he's on the air--but they get to him anyway! He opens his lunch, takes his first mouthful of sashimi, and falls over dead. Homicide detective Marvia Plum scrambles to the station in time to see broadcasters, engineers, and administrators trying to figure out what to do next. Bob Bjorner, Radio Red himself, is clearly visible through the window between the on-air studio and the control room--and nobody can get to him! THE RADIO RED KILLER is the most baffling--and fascinating!--case yet in Richard A. Lupoff's irresistable "Killer" mystery series.




The Cover Girl Killer


Book Description

Who WAS that gorgeous model? When a helicopter loses power and plunges into the icy waters of scenic Lake Tahoe, killing its only passenger, millionaire Albert Crocker Vansittart, what looks like a routine claim against a life insurance policy turns into a mystery for investigator Hobart Lindsey and his sometime collaborator Marvia Plum. The reason: half a century ago, the youthful Vansittart had come across a hardboiled mystery novel and become obsessed with the glamorous model who'd posed for the cover painting. Now, Vansittart's multimillion dollar policy is to go to "the girl on the cover of Death in the Ditch." Lindsey's pursuit of the now-aged model (if she's even still alive!) leads him into a maze of violence and deception with its roots in the politics and wars of past decades. Another first-rate combination of crime, collectibles, and American history--and the fifth book in this bestselling series!




The Classic Car Killer


Book Description

A 1928 DUESENBERG! Most of them were rich, most of them were beautiful, and now one of them was dead in an unexpected and particularly nasty way. Oh, and a perfectly maintained, priceless 1928 Duesenberg Phaeton, the royalty of collectible, classic automobiles, had disappeared. Where do you hide a totally recognizable Dusie? Insurance man Hobart Lindsey is back on the case...along with his sometime sparring partner and lover, homicide investigator Marvia Plum, Lindsey’s troubled mother, and a cast of unforgettable characters. Introduced in The Comic Book Killer, Hobart Lindsey and the rest of those memorable characters return in a baffling, complex mystery with roots stretching back to the violent era of World War Two and the dark despair of the American Depression. Introduction by Donald E. Westlake.




The Sepia Siren Killer


Book Description

Prior to World War II, black actors were restricted to mainstream film roles as chauffeurs, maids, night club entertainers, and comic buffoons. But there was a second Hollywood, a BLACK Hollywood, where great producers and directors like Oscar Michaud created films with all-black casts for exhibition to black audiences. Some of the actors worked only in black productions. Others, like the talented Eddie Anderson, could play comic roles in white productions and serious roles in all-black films. When a cache of long-lost African-American films is discovered by cinema researchers, the aged director Edward "Speedy" MacReedy appears to reclaim his place in film history. But insurance investigator Hobart Lindsey and homicide officer Marvia Plum soon find themselves enmeshed in a mystery with its roots deep in the tragic events of a past era, as they seek out...THE SEPIA SIREN KILLER! The fourth entry in this compelling mystery series.




The Silver Chariot Killer


Book Description

WHEN A MAN’S PARTNER IS KILLED... So begins one of the most famous quotations in all of crime fiction. And just as the murder of Sam Spade's partner, Miles Archer, sets off the quest in the great Dashiell Hammett's greatest novel, so the murder of Hobart Lindsey's partner, Cletus Berry, sets off the quest in The Silver Chariot Killer, the sixth of Richard A. Lupoff's classic series of "Killer" mysteries. It's Christmas week in New York and Cletus Berry's body has been found literally frozen in the ice in an alley in Hell's Kitchen, a black circle marking the entry wound of the bullet that scrambled Berry's brain and ended his life. This wouldn’t normally be Lindsey's case, but "When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it." Earlier novels in the series built a popular following for Hobart Lindsey and Marvia Plum. Now Lindsey is on his own and on alien turf, and the action grows darker as Lindsey's world grows colder. The Silver Chariot Killer is a case unlike any that Lindsey has faced in the past, and unlike any that the reader is likely to have encountered until now. Great crime fiction by a master storyteller!




Killer's Dozen


Book Description

From the Introduction by Ed Gorman: If there's one thing Dick Lupoff understands (with perverse glee) it's the sorry state of the human condition. In this collection you'll find a wide variety of humans whose conditions leave much to be desired. A pit bull owner who's just as nasty as his dog A thief who believes his father-in-law was a real Nazi A dead-end boxer who has come back in a boxing movie A detective named Caligula Foxx who might be Nero Wolfe in drag A crooked corporal whose payoff is death Not only are the storylines original, the writing is indelibly stamped with Dick's vision and voice. Dick's writing talents really can't be defined by the usual means. Yes, he writes science fiction. Yes, he writes fantasy. Yes, he writes mystery. But what he really writes are Lupoffs. Long, short, hilarious, whimsical, dark, mysterious-they're all Lupoffs. Richard A. Lupoff is the author of many books including the popular Lindsey-and-Plum mysteries. The next of these, The Emerald Cat Killer, will be published by St. Martin's Press in October, 2010. His most recent collection of mysteries is Quintet: The Cases of Chase and Delacroix, published by Crippen & Landru.




Mystery Women, Volume Two (Revised)


Book Description

Many bibliographers focus on women who write. Lawyer Barnett looks at women who detect, at women as sleuths and at the evolving roles of women in professions and in society. Excellent for all women's studies programs as well as for the mystery hound. Look at the popularity of such reading guides as Willetta Heising's Detecting Women (3rd ed. 0-9644593-7-X) or Amanda Cross' fiction (Honest Doubt 0-345-44011-0 11/00).