I’m a former rock writer turned television critic, but in my teens, I became hooked on Raymond Chandler’s hardboiled Philip Marlowe detective sagas. The plotting was intricate, the writing exquisite and poetic. I also loved the no-nonsense pulp fiction of Mickey Spillane and his Mike Hammer character. So I’m always on the lookout for authors who combine realism and pace with great prose–like James Crumley, whose writing was like Chandler crossed with Hunter S. Thompson. Through journalism and band management, I came into contact with real gangsters and have always aspired to reflect their three-dimensional reality rather than glorifying them as television and Hollywood tend to do.
Part one of Winslow’s latest trilogy introduces us to a gangland war between Irish and Italian mobs in New England after their fragile peace is ruptured by a beautiful woman. The fall-out puts an end to Danny Ryan’s dream of going legit. It’s up to him to step up, take the lead, and save his family.
Winslow writes believable characters, marries action with heart, and consciously echoes Homer’s The Iliad, including a contemporary Helen of Troy.
"One of America's greatest storytellers." - Stephen King
"No one fuses action with emotion like Winslow." - The Times
The new thriller from the #1 international bestseller - the start of a brand new trilogy
'Superb. This is storytelling with a keen edge. City on Fire is exhilarating to read.' - Stephen King
A Times Best Book for 2022
Two criminal empires together control all of New England.
Until a beautiful woman comes between the Irish and the Italians, launching a war that will see them kill each other, destroy an alliance, and set a city on fire.
Luke Crosswhite, the sensitive non-violent son of brutal imprisoned gang leader Bobby Crosswhite, is thrown into his father’s vicious world when the family mob, The Combine, is threatened by neo-Nazi gang Aryan Steel. Helped by his childhood friend Callie, Luke gets a taste for his father’s business.
Brutal but beautifully written by former rock journalist Harper, best known for his work on TV shows The Mentalist and Gotham.
Sometimes to find yourself, you have to go back to where you came from. You just might not like what you find.
After failing in his new life, Luke decides to go home, back to the one place where he'd once felt he belonged. But that was a long time ago and now he has to face the life that he chose to run away from: The Combine. The gang that his uncle now leads, but which his father still runs from prison. Brutal, unforgiving . . . family.
The first female police detective in Acapulco, Emilia Cruz, dives into an ocean of secrets and lies when she is forced to lead the investigation into her own lieutenant's murder.
Caught between the powerful head of the police union and resentful colleagues, Emilia becomes a pawn in a game of…
‘Bug’ Montage was once the sharpest get-away driving east of the Mississippi, but he had put all that behind him to become a loving family man, getting by on an honest wage as a motor mechanic. When Bug’s respectable life starts to fall apart, a former associate offers him one last job with a huge payout.
The temptation of earning a quick buck is too strong to ignore, but can Bug survive?
*GUARDIAN BEST CRIME AND THRILLERS OF 2020* *LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER 2020*
'BLACKTOP WASTELAND may be the book of the year.' MICHAEL CONNELLY 'Sensationally good' LEE CHILD 'I loved BLACKTOP WASTELAND' STEPHEN KING 'Stunning. Can't remember the last time I read such a powerful crime novel' MARK BILLINGHAM
"Bug" Montage: honest mechanic, loving family man. He's no longer the criminal he was - the sharpest wheelman east of the Mississippi.
But when his respectable life crumbles, a shady associate comes calling with a one-time job promising a huge payout. Inexorably drawn to the driver's seat - and haunted by…
Definitely not a ‘caper’ novel, Judas Pig offers a gripping, authentic window into a London crime firm. A career of drug trafficking, armed robbery, kidnapping, and murder have made their top dogs, but successful hood Billy Abrahams is spooked by the behavior of his increasingly psychotic partner Danny and takes refuge in narcotics. A vicious and occasionally darkly humorous novel written by a former criminal under an alias.
This explosive and shocking book written by a reformed London career criminal exposes the inner workings of one of London's most feared crime families and comes with an authenticity stamped throughout that blows all the other so-called crime books out of the water
Mark Timlin 'I loved Judas Pig. Violent and twisted but full of real humanity and a great story.'
Maxim Jakubowski A gripping page-turner that lifts the lid on the London crime scene with much more power than the glossed-over memoirs of sundry Kray acolytes. There is no glamour here, just an ugly world of treachery, violence and…
Los Angeles private eye Happy Doll is ticking along nicely, subsidising his detective work by protecting the women at a Thai spa massage parlour from over-amorous clients.
Everything is hunky-dory until he gets into a ferocious fight with a customer who ends up dead. Well-crafted crime noir that manages to be witty and quirky as well as occasionally violent, with pleasing echoes of Marlowe and Lew Archer.
In this deliciously noir novel from the creator of HBO's Bored to Death, idiosyncratic private detective Happy Doll embarks on a quest to help a dying friend in a sun-blinded Los Angeles as "quirky, edgy, charming, funny and serious" as its protagonist (Lee Child).
Happy Doll is a charming, if occasionally inexpert, private detective living just one sheer cliff drop beneath the Hollywood sign with his beloved half-Chihuahua half-Terrier, George. A veteran of both the Navy and LAPD, Doll supplements his meager income as a P.I. by working through the night at a local Thai spa that offers its clients…
Harry Tyler is an undercover cop, generally regarded as the best in his field. Sharp-witted and cool-headed, Harry has the ability to infiltrate criminal gangs and blend in. Johnny Baker, known as Johnny Too, is a successful South London villain and the boss of the notorious Baker mob. He’s handsome, cunning, dangerous, and persuasive–a formidable target.
Tyler's job is to infiltrate the Bakers and take Johnny down. Determined to get a result, Harry goes deep undercover, immersing himself in a fast-paced gangland world of violence, drugs, sleazy pubs, women, cars, bullets, and betrayal. (The first of four Harry Tyler books to date).
With plot elements inspired by presidential elections in both the US and Mexico, Barracuda Bay follows Acapulco’s first female police detective, Emilia Cruz, as she investigates the murder of the mayor’s sister—only to become a fugitive hunted by killers disguised as cops in Washington, DC. The stakes couldn’t be higher…
