The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice • A one-volume selection of four novels in the legendary detective series—blistering, groundbreaking capers set in Harlem's criminal underworld—by master crime writer Chester Himes. With an introduction by New York Times bestselling author S.A. Cosby. “[Himes] put a spin on crime fiction—emphasizing urban atmosphere, street smarts, and uptown carryings-on—unlike anything the genre had previously seen.” —The Boston Globe “Himes’s Harlem saga vies with the novels of David Goodis and Jim Thompson as the inescapable achievement of postwar American crime fiction.” —The New York Times "His implacable drive to examine the Black experience, the disingenuous nature of the American Dream, the reality of pain and sorrow and what it does to the soul, that is what makes [Himes] the bard of the existential African American psyche." —S.A. Cosby, from his Introduction Here in one volume is an exceptional selection from Chester Himes's acclaimed Harlem Detectives series. Winner of France's prestigious Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and lauded by Jean Cocteau as a "prodigious masterpiece," A Rage in Harlem introduces detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson in a searing escapade. In The Real Cool Killers, the duo investigates a shooting and discovers an unsettling personal connection. In The Crazy Kill, a man is found in a breadbasket, stabbed to death, leaving Himes's detectives to find out who among the many suspects did it. And in Cotton Comes to Harlem, the brazen robbery of a notorious con man running a back-to-Africa scam sets off a hunt for a bale of Southern cotton. These masterful novels exhibit Himes's evocative, baroque descriptions of Black life in Harlem and his famously blistering social commentary. Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket. Contemporary Classics include an introduction, a select bibliography, and a chronology of the author's life and times. "The best writer of mayhem yarns since Raymond Chandler." —San Francisco Chronicle

First in a new series by bestselling author J.R. Ripley! Jane Bright is a college-educated news reporter with loads of talent and determination. But she’s stuck writing a gardening and southern living column for a local South Florida paper. Jane wants more. Lots more. James Stewart, on the other hand, hasn’t been able to figure out what to do with his life. He’s a law school dropout. And this whole struggling musician thing has proven to be too much of a struggle. Jane and James stumble onto each other and into a murder case. And detective school. Bruno Caliostro’s School of Detection, located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to be precise. If you’re going to be a PI, you’ve got to be precise, right? Neither Jane nor James quite knows what they are doing when it comes to the detective biz. They are going to have to learn fast if Jane wants to get her story and James, framed for a murder he didn’t commit, wants to figure out the real killer’s identity so he doesn’t end up trading a classroom for a prison cell.

In a spellbinding new masterpiece by author H. A. Bryant, Matt Kelly undertakes a high-stakes investigation. The legendary PI and kickboxer Matt Kelly has at long last severed ties with his friends in Tokyo and settled quietly in Nagoya, the only place where he thinks he can ever truly know peace. His beautiful girlfriend, Mitsuko, has taken over the day-to-day management of a dress shop in the neighborhood of Marunouchi, Naka-ku, Nagoya. But when a mother, a Mrs. Nishimoto, asks Matt to investigate the circumstances surrounding the disappearance and possible abduction of her daughter, he is drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse where nothing is as it seems. For his part, Matt spends his days first in Hakusanbora, Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, and later in Sakae’s streets and alleys looking for the missing woman. And later back to Tokyo to get help from some new friends. As Matt delves deeper into the investigation, he uncovers layers of corruption and deceit that reach far beyond the missing woman and the Chubu-kai yakuza. He finds himself in a dangerous game of wits against some of the most powerful and dangerous people in the country, and realizes that he will have to use all of his skills and intelligence to stay one step ahead of his enemies and uncover the truth. With the help of his friends in Tokyo, including a former lawyer and a brilliant investigator, Matt races against time to find the missing woman and bring those responsible for her disappearance to justice. Along the way, he must navigate the complexities of Japanese society, from the glamorous nightclubs of Sakae to the seedy back alleys of Nagoya, in order to piece together the puzzle and stay alive. The deeper Matt delves into the investigation, the more he realizes that nothing is what it seems, and that the truth is far more sinister than he ever imagined. Will he be able to uncover the truth and bring those responsible to justice, or will he become just another pawn in a deadly game of power and deceit?

It’s the twenty-first century and the ugliness of war no longer exists, except on a very personal level. Nowadays, people like Marcello Polletti, seller of Roman sunsets, and Caroline Meredith, lithe, beautiful, blond, and backed by corporate sponsors and the Roy Bell Dancers, hunt, chase, and kill one another for sport and for the entertainment of the masses—until something oddly like personal human feelings pops up to confuse the players and up the stakes as each of them seeks to kill a tenth victim and rise in the ranks of the hunters. From the very beginning of his career, Robert Sheckley was recognized by fans, reviewers, and fellow authors as a master storyteller and the wittiest satirist working in the science fiction field. Open Road is proud to republish his acclaimed body of work, with nearly thirty volumes of full-length fiction and short story collections. Rediscover, or discover for the first time, a master of science fiction who, according to the New York Times, was “a precursor to Douglas Adams.”

Hamilton Cleek is a consulting detective and also known as "the man of the forty faces" for his incredible skill at disguise. Cleek is himself a reformed criminal and now helps Inspector Narkom of Scotland Yard in solving crimes in Clarges Street, London. "After due reflection over the question of disguise, Cleek determined for the present to revive that of Lieutenant Deland, and it was as that smart young officer that he once more took up his quarters in Clarges Street, in a house not very far from that which had been wrecked by Margot and her gang of Apaches. That they, too, were on his track was ascertained by Dollops, who traced them down to their lairs of Soho like a bloodhound scenting his quarry . . ." (Excerpt from "Cleek's Government Cases".) Thomas W. Hanshew (1857-1914) was an American author best known for his Hamilton Cleek Detective Series.