The place: Detroit. The time: World War II. While most of the police department is fighting overseas, the four men of the Racket Squad struggle to keep a lid on a powderkeg stuffed with draft-dodging troublemakers, Black Market gangsters, enemy saboteurs, and a mixed bag of racial and ethnic groups working uneasily side by side in defense plants run by the automobile industry. With blackjacks, brass knuckles, tommy guns, and their bare fists, Lieutenant Max Zagreb, Sergeant Starvo Canal, and detectives McReary and Burke—known collectively as the "Four Horsemen"—battle their way through ten gritty stories in the hardest-boiled town during the twentieth century's hardest-boiled decade.

A Tough Town In A Tough Time -- Detroit during World War II was where the United States' furious effort to out-manufacture the Germans and Japanese occurred. Industry imported workers to replace men gone to war -- Southern whites and blacks working side by side fo the first time. Detroit had it all: rationing, the black-market, the Mafia, fortunes to be made, a new kind of jazz for seething summer nights -- it was a powder keg.Through this tense, troubled world cuts a killer, a self-appointed soldier savaging ordinary people, the elderly and the defenseless. Lieutenant Zagreb's most important job is to keep the city from exploding, then to catch a mad killer with a cop roster of 4Fs and near-retirees. And finally, he must save his own soul. He cannot succeed at all three.Wartime Detroit is dazzingly recreated in Loren Estleman's latest tour de force crime novel. Great auto manufacturers labor mightily; blacks struggle for an economic toehold; whites strive for decent lives in the chaos. The climax, during America's nastiest race riots, is unforgettable.Amazon.com ReviewOne of the most interesting new trends in crime fiction is the regional historical thriller, and nobody does it better than Loren D. Estleman, whose books about Detroit's past--Aces and Eights, Billy Gashade, City of Widows, Edsel, Red Highway, Stamping Ground, Stress--turn that city's muscular and often bloody heritage into absorbing fiction.In Jitterbug, Estelman shows us Detroit during World War II, where Lieutenant Maximillian "Zag" Zagreb heads up a team of overage misfits at the police department's racket squad. A particularly nasty killer called Kilroy appears to be targeting and then slicing up hoarders of ration coupons, and Lieutenant Zagreb's investigators are the thin red line deployed to stop him. They use some extremely unorthodox tactics and find themselves in the midst of a race riot, but Kilroy continues to elude them and fight his private war against profiteers. The heavy is a masterful creation, a believable psychopath who wears a stolen Army Air Force uniform and has made up a heroic career to cover his rejection by military psychiatrists. "On those rare occasions when he did not stand outside himself," Estelman writes, "he could hear the thump of the mortars and chomping of the heavy machine guns behind their sandbags on the hills." --Dick AdlerFrom Publishers WeeklyWriting with wit and carefully crafting a chilling suspense plot, Estleman (Journey of the Dead) delivers another spine-tingling crime novel set in Detroit. This time, however, unlike in his Amos Walker novels (Never Street, 1997, etc.), the action tales place during WWII. The heat is on Racket Squad leader Lieutenant Maximilian Zagreb and his three detectives (known collectively as The Four Horsemen for their unorthodox, brutal, mostly illegal methods) when someone starts killing people for hoarding ration coupons. Using some artful manipulation and some very unsubtle pressure, Zagreb leans on a couple of unlikely sources for help. Frankie "The Conductor" Orr, a local mob boss, and Dwight Littlejohn, a black riveter in an airplane factory, are unwilling participants in Zagreb's efforts to smoke out the killer dubbed Kilroy by the newspapers. As the cops twist arms and Kilroy's victims pile up, Detroit explodes in a bloody race riot that summer of 1943, making Zagreb think that Anzio might be safer. Terrific, tough characters, snappy dialogue, crackling action and some imaginative applications of the third degree, make this a triumph for Estleman. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Greatest Western Writer Of The 21st Century National bestselling author William W. Johnstone and Fred Austin write about the wild American West as if they dodged every bullet ever fired in those bygone times—and the legendary Frank Morgan, the Last Gunfighter, is one of their deadliest, most unstoppable heroes . . . Bullets Are His Business For Frank Morgan, a reunion with his estranged son brings back bittersweet memories of another time and place. Conrad Morgan is an Eastern businessman trying to build a railroad through an untamed corner of New Mexico Territory. Even though Frank has revenge-hungry killers on his trail, his kin needs him now. So with a gun-toting, hard-loving beauty named Rebel by their side, father and son ride straight into a pitched battle with hired killers and furious Apache warriors. It's a firestorm more treacherous and evil than Frank Morgan has ever faced. Because a criminal...

The Greatest Western Writer Of The 21st CenturyIn the bestselling novels of William W. Johnstone, mountain man Smoke Jensen is a legend. Now, Johnstone presents the adventures of Smoke's long-lost brother Luke, who was reported killed during the Civil War. The war is over and Luke is very much alive, his soul forged by the violence he witnessed on the battlefields. His job is now tracking down the worst outlaws—by any means necessary.Protect The InnocentGloria Jennings went on the run when she was accused of murdering her wealthy husband back east. And when she's accused of killing her new rancher husband in West Texas, Luke is able to track her down. But when he does, he surprises himself by not bringing her in—and actually helping her face down rival ranchers and other threats. Getting to know her, Luke doesn't believe Gloria is a killer. But there are others that do. And when they show, Luke is going to have to go gun to gun with a pack of...

The Ballad of Black Bart: a riveting western novel from Spur Award-Winning Author Loren D. Estleman."Loren Estleman is my hero."—Harlan CobenBetween July 1875 and November 1883, a single outlaw robbed the stagecoaches of Wells Fargo in California's Mother Lode country a record of twenty-eight times. Armed with an unloaded shotgun, walking to and from the scenes of the robberies, often for hundreds of miles, and leaving poems behind, the infamous Black Bart was fiercely hunted. Between robberies, Black Bart was known as Charles E. Bolton, a distinguished, middle-aged man who enjoyed San Francisco's entertainments in the company of socialites drawn to his quiet, temperate good nature and upper-class tastes.Meanwhile, James B. Hume, Wells Fargo's legendary chief of detectives, made Bart's apprehension a matter of personal as well as professional interest. The Ballad of Black Bart is a duel of wits involving two adversaries of...

Johnny Vermillion's theater troupe brings masterpieces to the Wild West. The four actors are versatile enough to wear many costumes and play many roles. A few props, a little makeup, a costume and—voilà—applause on the rugged frontier.Johnny also arranges a special attraction for each town. While his actors bustle in and out of costumes, on and off the stage in many roles, one plays the villain in the bank. Then the actors take their curtain calls and railroad away.Who? Us? Rob a bank? But you saw all of us on stage. When could we have done that?A Pinkerton man becomes the troupe's severest critic: He notices the news reports of stage performances one day and bank robberies the next. He follows the troupe, packing his suspicions. Finally, he sets a clever trap.Johnny Vermillion is one of the most entertaining rogues ever to turn a dishonest dollar. Any audience will love a troupe that can transform A Midsummer Night's Dream...

THE GREATEST WESTERN WRITERS OF THE 21ST CENTURY National bestselling author William W. Johnstone is the premier chronicler of the glory days of the brutal American West—and Frank Morgan, the Last Gunfighter, is one of his greatest sharpshooting legends . . . EVERY BODY DESERVES A BULLET In the Mongollon Rim country of Arizona, Frank Morgan walked into a blood feud between two powerful cattle barons. When the shooting stopped and the smoke cleared, Morgan had killed one of the men. Now, the dead man's family wants revenge and the surviving rancher wants to silence Frank Morgan forever. Suddenly, the last gunfighter is on his own against a devil's brew of murderous enemies. And amidst the lying and the killing is the beautiful young woman whose father Frank shot down-and one last thing worth dying to defend . . .

The Greatest Western Writer Of The 21st CenturyWilliam Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone are the acclaimed masters of the American frontier and national bestsellers. Now, they take on the deadliest and most feared outlaw to ever walk the Old West—John Wesley Hardin.First he became a killer.Then he became a legend.He was 15 when he killed his first man. Before his murderous ways ended, Hardin killed 42 men in cold blood—one, the legend goes, because he snored too loudly. From then on John Wesley Hardin stayed true to his calling, killing man after man after man, spending most of his life being pursued by both local lawmen and federal troops.Hardin lived a fever dream of lightning fast draws and flying lead. By the age of seventeen, Hardin earned a deadly reputation for cold-blooded killing that drew traitors, backstabbers and wanna-be gunslingers—all for a chance to gun down the man who had turned killing into an all-American legend...

THE GREATEST WESTERN WRITER OF THE 21ST CENTURY When an old friend's family is massacred, legendary mountain man Smoke Jensen hits the vengeance trail. He's soon riding into a bloody Colorado war that has militia cavalry volunteers and Kiowa warriors stalking each other across the territory—matching kill for kill, outrage for outrage. Defying both sides, Smoke uncovers a sinister conspiracy to set ranchers and Kiowas at each other's throats. It turns out that the war's been cooked up by renegade Jack Tatum and his outlaw band, who stand to reap a fortune in gold by selling illegal guns and whiskey to the Indians. High atop the Rockies, a blizzard's white hell sets the stage for the final showdown with Tatum's bloody gang, as the mountain man unleashes an avalanche of destruction. Now his enemies are about to learn that the only thing Smoke Jensen sells is death...wholesale.

THE GREATEST WESTERN WRITER OF THE 21ST CENTURY William Johnstone single-handedly shaped the landscape of frontier fiction with his classic Mountain Man series. Now he returns to the West with a gritty, realistic tale of blood struggles, revenge, and honor—the saga of a man whose legend would spread across a brave new land. Rescue In California, Frank Morgan nearly found a home. But now he's pulled up stakes and hit the road again, aiming to reach the high desert of Arizona. For Frank, the plan changes when he steps into a saloon in a dusty boomtown called Los Angeles. That's where he learns that his nemesis, Val Dooley, has found a new business: the selling of young women into prostitution, with the victims as young as twelve years old, and the survivors ending up drugged and beaten. Frank wastes no time tracking his enemy, traveling from California to New Mexico and West Texas. What he doesn't know is that Val Dooley has...

"I usually give the enemy one chance to surrender. After that, I don't take prisoners." --Ben RainesD-DAY 2.0Having reclaimed American soil from the savage armies of terrorists, lawless street gangs, and mutant Night People, Ben Raines and his Rebel army have a new mission: to free the British Isles from a tyranny of evil oppression. After Rebel forces establish a beachhead at the Irish seaport of Galway, Raines orders a massive armored assault to drive out the mercenary army of the insidious warlord Jack Hunt. The Rebels' search-and-destroy mission crushes enemy resistance. . .but reinforcements for Hunt's crumbling army bring with them the most hideous foe Ben Raines has yet faced. Raines and his Rebels must choose between saving themselves or sacrificing their cause to save the lives of innocent civilians trapped in a beleaguered land.

Young Matt Bodine and Sam Two Wolves became blood brothers on the day the rancher's son saved the halfbreed's life, forging a bond no one could ever break. As years passed a legend grew of the breed and the white man who rode together--and could jerk killing iron with the best of them...Shootout At Cold CreekMatt Bodine and Sam Two Wolves don't look for trouble--it's usually there when they wake up in the morning. When they ride into the little gold mining town of Jordanville, high in the Colorado Rockies, all they want is a hot meal and something cold to wash it down. When they see an unarmed man getting brutally beaten by a hard case with a bullwhip, their plans suddenly change. Before they can spit, the blood brothers find themselves in the middle of a violent land war and up to their noses in claim jumpers and hired guns itching to open fire. Most men would hightail it out of town instead of poking into the biggest...

When a Massachusetts boy is accused of mass murder, his socially prominent grandmother, who hires Spenser to investigate, is convinced of his innocence. But Spenser isn't convinced of anything—except that there's trouble ahead...