Join ex-Air Force reserve officer turned private detective Richard Martinez as he investigates real-life criminal and moral cases in this captivating (and sometimes comedic) book. With a background as personal security staff for Boris Johnson, Martinez brings a unique perspective to his work as a private detective. From catching cheats and fraudsters to using hi-tech surveillance gadgets and forensics, he uses his expertise and a variety of evidence gathering techniques to solve cases involving phone hackers, honour killers, and more. Along the way, he helps locate missing people and protects individuals from sex-mad stalkers. Follow Martinez on his thrilling journey as a private detective.

First in the Hackney McTrite Series. Murder Adultery Conspiracy Wrap these treacheries with a web of intrigue and this enticing PI adventure boils. Add the charm and uniqueness of New Orleans and Paris and enchantment is spawned. Sprinkle it with Letitia, a saucy Italian-American seeking a divorce from her mob-boss husband Alphonse Infantino, and you have cunning and deceit. Complete the characters with a down on his luck private dick who uses cliches with every breath and your funny bone gets tickled. Add it all together and Walker Jackson's fast moving thriller portraying McTrite's close encounters with the New Orleans Mob leap from the pages. My first agent said, I was taken by it. So will you. Get hooked.

Derrick Steele, a hard-drinking, lusty private detective working for Steele Investigations, is being framed for the murder of a hustler in downtown Los Angeles. Despite Derrick's efforts to solve the crime and clear his name, the body count continues to rise. It quickly becomes apparent that Derrick is facing the most dangerous adversary of his career. The action escalates when best friends Daniel McAllister, a New York private investigator, and Derrick's brother, Nathan, return to Los Angeles and join the agency. Still reeling from a tragic past relationship, Derrick struggles with his developing feelings for the handsome detective McAllister, who is equally smitten with the over-sexed Derrick. In addition to the blossoming romance, the arrival of Daniel and Nathan reveals a Steele family secret that will change Derrick's life forever. The action catapults to an explosive climax as the three detectives race to solve the murders, exonerate Derrick, and protect the lives and legacy of the Steele family.

Jack Trumane is a 1930s-era private detective constantly struggling to make ends meet. A beat cop, in any US city, who feels his career as a police detective was taken from him by Irish immigrants who filled a majority of law enforcement rolls during the early 1900s. Through this lighthearted yet intriguing book, you will meet Ethel, who is Jack’s love interest; Mildred, who works behind the lunch counter at Woolworths and has a soft spot for Jack; Bruce, the pawnshop owner who enjoys a love/hate relationship with our protagonist; and many other characters that contribute to each Jack Trumane, Private Dick novella. Jack occasionally has “flash-forwards” to the late 1990s early 2000s via musical interludes. If you’re paying attention, you will notice that while the story has a specific running timeline of a few days or weeks, references are made to holidays and months that could not possibly fit the time frame. Sexual overtones abound. These are all for comedic value. Relax and enjoy the world of Jack Trumane—Private Dick!

How do we explain the lurid fascination that most people experience when confronted by real or simulated acts of violence, murder, horror, and crime? This is the subject examined in this candid assessment of our dark vicarious thrills. Based on a series of interviews with perpetrators, victims, and "consumers" of violence, including several celebrities, the author of a best-selling book on serial killers explores what there is about this subject that draws such a wide audience. Unlike many other books that attempt to probe the murky psyches of deviant individuals, this book focuses on normal, average people who, despite themselves, enjoy getting close to the most forbidden, perverse side of destruction and evil. The persons interviewed range from homicide detectives and emergency room personnel to a heavyweight boxer and groupies of serial killers on death row. The author considers ideas from a variety of theories and research to explain our responses to violence, raises questions about the shifting line between normal and abnormal, evaluates the confusion and ambivalence that many people feel when witnessing others'' suffering, and suggests future trends in society''s attitudes toward violence.

This rollercoaster ride through the colorful history of slang—from highwaymen to hip-hop—is a fresh and exciting take on the subject: entertaining and authoritative without being patronizing, out-of-touch or voyeuristic. Slang is the language of pop culture, low culture, street culture, underground movements and secret societies; depending on your point of view, it is a badge of honor, a sign of identity or a dangerous assault on the values of polite society. Of all the vocabularies available to us, slang is the most alive, constantly evolving and—as it leaks into the mainstream and is taken up by all of us—infusing the language with a healthy dose of vitality. Witty, energetic and informative Vulgar Tongues traces the many routes of slang, beginning with the thieves and prostitutes of Elizabethan London and ending with the present day, where the centuries-old terms rap and hip-hop still survive, though their meanings have changed. On the way we will meet Dr. Johnson, World War II flying aces, pickpockets, schoolchildren, hardboiled private eyes, carnival geeks and the many eccentric characters who have tried to record slang throughout its checkered past. If you’re curious about flapdragons and ale passion, the changing meanings of punk and geek, or how fly originated on the streets of eighteenth-century London and square in Masonic lodges, this is the book for you.

Selected as a "sizzling beach read" by the New York Daily News, Richard Murphy's debut novel explains what it really means to be a full-service contractor. Henry Sullivan has spent seventeen years renovating houses for wealthy women, and he owes his success to a few simple rules: don't take on too many jobs at once-and don't sleep with clients. Over the course of one complicated summer, Henry breaks those rules when he works on the houses of two very different women who used to be friends. Henry falls for both women, and finds himself erecting an emotional house of cards as he attempts to complete their jobs while piecing together the mysterious events that demolished the women's friendship.