The first hard-boiled detective Race Williams, runs up against the Klan in his premiere adventure, which leads him to fast and tragic action. Plus two other early Daly hard-boiled classics: "The False Burton Combs" and "Dolly." Story #1 in the Race Williams series. Carroll John Daly (1889–1958) was the creator of the first hard-boiled private eye story, predating Dashiell Hammett's first Continental Op story by several months. Daly's classic character, Race Williams, was one of the most popular fiction characters of the pulps, and the direct inspiration for Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer.
An unstoppable anthology of crime stories culled from Black Mask magazine the legendary publication that turned a pulp phenomenon into literary mainstream. Black Mask was the apotheosis of noir. It was the magazine where the first hardboiled detective story, which was written by Carroll John Daly appeared. It was the slum in which such American literary titans like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler got their start, and it was the home of stories with titles like “Murder Is Bad Luck,” “Ten Carets of Lead,” and “Drop Dead Twice.” Collected here is best of the best, the hardest of the hardboiled, and the darkest of the dark of America’s finest crime fiction. This masterpiece collection represents a high watermark of America’s underbelly. Crime writing gets no better than this. Featuring • Deadly Diamonds • Dancing Rats • A Prize Fighter Fighting for His Life • A Parrot that Wouldn’t Talk Including • Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon as it was originally published • Lester Dent's Luck in print for the first time
In Gumshoe America Sean McCann offers a bold new account of the hard-boiled crime story and its literary and political significance. Illuminating a previously unnoticed set of concerns at the heart of the fiction, he contends that mid-twentieth-century American crime writers used the genre to confront and wrestle with many of the paradoxes and disappointments of New Deal liberalism. For these authors, the same contradictions inherent in liberal democracy were present within the changing literary marketplace of the mid-twentieth-century United States: the competing claims of the elite versus the popular, the demands of market capitalism versus conceptions of quality, and the individual versus a homogenized society. Gumshoe America traces the way those problems surfaced in hard-boiled crime fiction from the1920s through the 1960s. Beginning by using a forum on the KKK in the pulp magazine Black Mask to describe both the economic and political culture of pulp fiction in the early twenties, McCann locates the origins of the hard-boiled crime story in the genre’s conflict with the racist antiliberalism prominent at the time. Turning his focus to Dashiell Hammett’s career, McCann shows how Hammett’s writings in the late 1920s and early 1930s moved detective fiction away from its founding fables of social compact to the cultural alienation triggered by a burgeoning administrative state. He then examines how Raymond Chandler’s fiction, unlike Hammett’s, idealized sentimental fraternity, echoing the communitarian appeals of the late New Deal. Two of the first crime writers to publish original fiction in paperback—Jim Thompson and Charles Willeford—are examined next in juxtaposition to the popularity enjoyed by their contemporaries Mickey Spillane and Ross Macdonald. The stories of the former two, claims McCann, portray the decline of the New Deal and the emergence of the rights-based liberalism of the postwar years and reveal new attitudes toward government: individual alienation, frustration with bureaucratic institutions, and dissatisfaction with the growing vision of America as a meritocracy. Before concluding, McCann turns to the work of Chester Himes, who, in producing revolutionary hard-boiled novels, used the genre to explore the changing political significance of race that accompanied the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the late 1950s and the 1960s. Combining a striking reinterpretation of the hard-boiled crime story with a fresh view of the political complications and cultural legacies of the New Deal, Gumshoe America will interest students and fans of the genre, and scholars of American history, culture, and government.
Hawk Knight takes place in the mayan land, shortly after the olmecas, the toltecas and the teotihuacanos had vanished, destroyed by the Akabil, messenger from the Nine Dark Lords that want the world disappearing the humanity, trying to run over the Knights of Kukulkn, Order founded by the very god to teach in the city-school of Chichn Itz, where the Knights train their chosen apprentices to create new Knights. Now a new apprentice had arrived along a new ascention of the Akabil, a Knight apostatize the Order and his Master looks for eliminate him, the young Florid Field has decisions to take and his Master tries to fi nd out the new champion of the order.
The beloved Sparhawk undertakes a perilous new quest in the Tamuli series from New York Times bestselling author David Eddings. Danger stalked Queen Ehlana’s realm. It began with peasants whispering that the bloody heroes of old would rise again. Soon outlaw bands were ravaging the hill country, while the Trolls disappeared from their icy northern haunts—and none could say where they had gone. Then came an ambassador from the far-off Tamul empire, begging aid. Monsters, ancient warriors, and foul magics were tearing their empire apart. Sparhawk, Ehlana’s champion and Prince Consort, was the Emperor’s last hope, for surely the knight who had killed the evil God Azash could prevail against the terror in Tamuli. Thus did Sparhawk and his Queen begin the perilous trek to the far-distant empire of the east. With them journeyed a handful of trusted companions: the stalwart champions of the four Militant Orders, the knight Berit, Mirtai the giantess, Princess Danae, and the young thief Talen. At the journey’s end waited a glittering court seething with corruption, treachery—and the greatest danger Sparhawk would ever face!
The fourth novel of the galaxy-spanning Sun Eater series merges the best of space opera and epic fantasy, as Hadrian Marlowe continues down a path that can only end in fire. Hadrian Marlowe is trapped. For nearly a century, he has been a guest of the Emperor, forced into the role of advisor, a prisoner of his own legend. But the war is changing. Mankind is losing. The Cielcin are spilling into human space from the fringes, picking their targets with cunning precision. The Great Prince Syriani Dorayaica is uniting their clans, forging them into an army and threat the likes of which mankind has never seen. And the Empire stands alone. Now the Emperor has no choice but to give Hadrian Marlowe—once his favorite knight—one more impossible task: journey across the galaxy to the Lothrian Commonwealth and convince them to join the war. But not all is as it seems, and Hadrian’s journey will take him far beyond the Empire, beyond the Commonwealth, impossibly deep behind enemy lines.
Curses, Wards, and Endless Hordes prevent the casual adventurer from getting very far. At least, not without employing a Ranger... and their services do not come cheap. A Young Knight undertakes an impossible quest deep into the fabled and perilous Fenrirfang in order to protect his sister from a conspiracy that involves the Church that he has sworn to serve. A seasoned Ranger who believes she has seen everything the wilds have to offer soon discovers that she faces something altogether different with this journey. BEYOND THE SPIRE OF NAVARENE is the first entry in the DEAD MEN ARE DYING saga. Set in a world where humans born with a celestial mark are instilled with powerful, game-changing abilities. And those without... survive as best they can.
Plagued with a responsibility to his creator he never wanted or asked for, Ulfric and the Knights Corporealis are forced to face a new enemy…and one of their oldest companions. Book Two in the Shackled Verities Series. An epic fantasy with magic, monsters, and a Cosmos-crossing adventure. Still shackled to his celestial creator Vaka Aster, Ulfric can take a moment of solace in knowing his world is safe from the usurper, and the Knights can mourn their lost companion. Their peace, however, is short-lived. Arch Keeper Beatte is a querulous monarch. When she demands more from Vaka Aster than she’s owed, Ulfric has to decide whether to reveal his new but unsought power and take his place as the leader the people of Vinnr seek, or to abandon them completely in their desperate struggles. That choice is made for him when betrayer Knight Eisa Nazaria of Dyrrakium returns and reveals a historic deception…and an even greater threat. The exiled empire of Dyrrakium and its thousands of warriors now await Ulfric’s command to conquer the rest of Vinnr. If he refuses, what price will he pay? If he capitulates, what blood will be on his hands? And if Balavad returns, how will the vulnerable and deeply divided realm possibly face the usurper a second time? But what if Balavad never left… What people are saying about the Shackled Verities Series: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I can’t wait to find out what happens next in this epic series.” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Compelling plot, intriguing characters and a pretty spectacular world.” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Such a fantastic ride for this new promising series.... cannot recommend this enough!!” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “… a brilliantly executed novel.” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Honestly I’d read a grocery list if Ms. Salyer wrote it.” The Shackled Verities Series: A Knight's Calling: A Shackled Verities Story Knight Chosen: The Shackled Verities (Book One) Knight Redeemed: The Shackled Verities (Book Two) Knight Exiled: The Shackled Verities (Book Three) Knight Awoken: The Shackled Verities (Book Four) Fans of the following authors may also enjoy this epic fantasy series: A.C. Cobble Anne McCaffrey Benjamin Ashwood Brandon Sanderson Brent Weeks Christopher Paolini D.K. Holmberg Daniel Arenson David A Wells David Eddings David Estes Duncan M. Hamilton Eric T Knight Fritz Leiber Glen G. Thater Jeff Wheeler Jessica Wayne Joe Abercrombie Jonathan Renshaw L.R.W. Lee Lindsay Buroker Marion Zimmer Bradley Mark Lawrence Meg Cowley Michael G. Manning Michael J. Sullivan Michael Wisehart Morgan Rice Patrick Rothfuss Peter V. Brett Philip C. Quaintrell R. Scott Bakker R.A. Salvatore Robert J. Crane Robert Jordan Robin Hobb Scott Lynch Scott Sigler Stephen Donaldson Fans of the following books and series may also enjoy this epic fantasy series: A Quest of Heroes Age Of Myth An Elemental Warrior Series Assassin's Apprentice Darkest Designs Dawn Of Wonder Defender Dragon's Reach Dragonlance Chronicles Dragonriders of Pern Dragons of Autumn Twilight Dragons of Eden Dragons of Pern Dragons of Spring Dawning Dragons of Winter Night Dragons Rioting Dragonsworn Elfstones of Shannara Fate Of Dragons Fatemarked Game of Thrones Immortality And Chaos Series Knight's Ransom Mageborn Magic of Recluce Magic Tree House Rise of the Dragons Rise Of The Ranger Shannara Chronicles Shattered A Ya Urban Fantasy Novel Sovereign Of The Seven Isles Sword of Shannara The Aldoran Chronicles The Belgariad The Blacksmith's Son The Dragon's Blade Trilogy A Complete Epic Fantasy Series The Echoes Saga The Elenium The Fire Within The First Argentines The Furyck Saga The Kingshield Series The Knights Of Dragonwatch The Legends Of The First Empire The Magelands The Mallorean The Sanctuary Series The Tainted Crown The Wakening The White Tower Thinblade Warrior Of Magick Wolf Of The North Keywords related to this epic fantasy series: Arthurian Fantasy, Complex Magical Systems, Conjuring, Dark Fantasy, Dragon, Dragon Series, Dragons And Mythical Creatures, Empires And Kingdoms At War, Epic Battle Fantasy, Epic Fantasy Adventure, Epic Fantasy Saga, Epic Fantasy Series, Epic Sagas, Epic Sword And Sorcery, Essential Reads, Fantasy Adventure, Fantasy Adventure With Battles And Monsters, Fantasy Series, Fantasy Thriller, Gods And Goddesses, Gritty Fantasy Epic Series Books Adventure, High Fantasy, High Fantasy Adventure, Magic, Medieval Fantasy, Medieval Sword And Sorcery, Metaphysical Fantasy Ebooks, Military Fantasy, Military Fantasy Books, Military Fantasy Series, Myths And Legends, Popular Series, Quest, Running Sword Fight, Science Fantasy, Strong Female Lead, Suspenseful Medieval Political Intrigue, Sword And Sorcery, Sword And Sorcery Adventure, Teen & Young Adult Epic Fantasy Ebooks, Teen & Young Adult Medieval Fiction Ebooks, Top Rated Books, Ya Fantasy, Ya Fantasy Books, Young Adult Series
New York Times and USA Today Bestseller! Royal protector. Loyal servant. Forgotten hero. A penniless young knight with few prospects, William Marshal is plucked from obscurity when he saves the life of Henry II's formidable queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. In gratitude, she appoints him tutor to the heir to the throne, the volatile and fickle Prince Henry. But being a royal favorite brings its share of danger and jealousy as well as fame and reward. A writer of uncommon historical integrity and accuracy, Elizabeth Chadwick resurrects the true story of one of England's greatest forgotten heroes in a captivating blend of fact and fiction. The Greatest Knight restores William Marshal to his rightful place at the pinnacle of the Middle Ages, reflecting through him the triumphs, scandals, and power struggles that haven't changed in eight hundred years. WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ELIZABETH CHADWICK AND THE GREATEST KNIGHT: The Greatness of William Marshal: The descendants of the Greatest Knight himself include George Washington and Winston Churchill, as well as the Stuart kings of England and Scotland. He was partly responsible for the Magna Carta. He vowed his body to the Templars and is buried in Temple Church in London. The Appeal of the Time Period: There are very few novels about Marshal, and no one has covered him as in depth as Elizabeth Chadwick has. In addition, unlike the Tudor era, there are not extensive amounts of historical fiction set in the 13th century. The Integrity of the Research: Elizabeth Chadwick's research is impeccable. She not only visited many locations, but she re-enacted with a living history society where a quarter of the membership are either historians or archaeologists, and she collected and used replica artifacts from the period and engaged in experimental archaeology. She has taken courses in various medieval studies to facilitate her knowledge. The Breadth of the Audience: Readers who are fans of Sharon Kay Penman, Anya Seton, Diana Gabaldon, Phillipa Gregory, and Jean Plaidy will like Elizabeth Chadwick. She appeals to readers who are looking for historical accuracy and strong, believable characters, readers who want to feel that they are being immersed in the period with well-rounded characters. PRAISE FOR ELIZABETH CHADWICK: Chadwick's novel immerses readers in Marshal's life and times, which should prove intriguing to any fan of historical fiction. The royals, and especially Eleanor, are particularly fascinating characters whom Chadwick employs to great effect. —Publishers Weekly "The best writer of medieval fiction currently around." — Richard Lee, founder of the Historical Novel Society "The reader is well aware on every page that this is life as it was lived eight hundred years ago, yet the characters are a fresh and natural as if they were living in the present time..." —The Historical Novels Review "There's no better writer of medieval fiction than the marvelous Elizabeth Chadwick." —Lancashire Evening Post "Elizabeth Chadwick is a gifted novelist and a dedicated researcher; it doesn't get any better than that."— Sharon Kay Penman, bestselling author of Devil's Brood
