Blake opened the door and took his first step into Hell. He had come to his apartment with a lilt in his walk, pleasantly burdened with candy and flowers. This was to be a reconciliation with his wife, Stella. Stella, who hated private investigators—“private snitches,” she called them.So he had resigned from the firm of Bricker and Blake: Investigators. Too bad it had to be in the middle of the tough Arrenhower job. But Stella was worth it.The room was in shambles. There was Stella, battered and bloody, sprawled on a chair. She had been brutally bludgeoned to death.I’m dead, Steve black thought, and I can’t cry. Who will I cry for? For Stella, who’d never hear me now? Maybe I’ll cry for the man who killed her. Maybe I’ll cry for him when I find him—and maybe God himself will cry for him before I’m through...

Curt Carmic had crashed in his private plane on an Everglades hunting trip. After a week of intensive searching, the Coast Guard had abandoned him as dead. That's why his wife wanted to hire Jim Norton — to find him, dead or alive. A Classic short story, originally published in 1957.

Retail AZW3

Homicide Detective Barney Manton had a simple theory about catching murderers. Just beat, torture, and hound your suspect until his life becomes completely unbearable. Stay on top of him every hour of every day until he yearns for release—even release via the death chamber. Presto! You have your confession, the law has its “murderer” and the case is closed...He was just a little guy called Sam Gowan. He was holding an empty automatic in his hand. At his feet lay the body of a man who had been shot through the head. Sam Gowan’s clothes were covered with the man’s blood—Sam Gowan’s senses reeled with panic—one thought came through—Escape! Cover your tracks and escape!...Sam Gowan had never heard of Homicide Detective Barney Manton—Manton never knew that a little guy called Sam Gowan existed. Capricious fate decreed that the two men meet in a deadly, unequal contest, a cat and mouse struggle with all the resources of the police department arraigned on the side of the powerful and sadistic Homicide Detective.

Retail AZW3TROUBLE RIDES TALL Bryant Shafter is the trouble marshal. Town leaders call him in when they need a gun to quiet things down. Which is why Bry settled in Pony Wells. But now the town is under control. They don’t need him anymore—more particularly, they don’t need to be paying his salary. Even his young deputy, Zach Adams, thinks it’s time he moved on. So when three businessmen from Gravehead make him an offer to leave Pony Wells to clean up their town, he’s sorely tempted—holding down the law is what Bry does best. Until a young prostitute named Glory is found murdered. Until the town bosses hire their own guns. Until a young buck named Rio, out to prove himself, comes gunning for him. Now Bry’s got a townful of trouble. CROSS THE RED CREEK Jim Gilmore is on the run from the rumors that plague him. When he is mistaken for a bank robber in Kiowa, Wyoming, he decides to take a stand. He knows he’s innocent, so he turns himself in—and is acquitted. But he remains guilty in the eyes of the town folk. Still, Gilmore is looking for a place to settle down, and decides that Kiowa is no worse than anywhere else. People will talk wherever you go. But trouble seems to follow Gilmore, and he is soon accused of another robbery. This time he figures it’s personal, and if he doesn’t find out who’s trying to frame him, he might find himself at the end of noose instead. DESERT STAKE-OUT There is an epidemic at San Carlos, and Blade Merrick is riding the medicine wagon across Apache territory. That’s when he meets up with Hardhead Charley Clinton, his son Billy, and Perch Fisher… and Valerie, headed out West with her husband. They had all just met when they were attacked by Apaches. Merrick leads them to a water hole he knows about. Merrick has been here before—this is where he found the bullet-ridden body of his brother. Now, he has a new problem, because the Clinton gang wants to go to Fort Ambush, in the opposite direction. And they’ve got the guns to back up their request. Merrick finds himself torn between the returning Apaches, the desperation of three hardened men, and the most desirable woman he has ever met in his life.

“Tell yourself the cold truth—she’s a tramp!”Clay Stuart flinched. “I guess we’ve been enemies too long to be polite to each other, Kay.”Kay’s voice was heated. “For years I’ve been your doormat, secretary, armor, weapon...everything you needed.” But Kay knew that was not entirely true. Even that first time they’d gone to bed—and how many women had he had since?—he’d been a blister of hurt and rages, ready to burst, and even then she’d known he needed something more.And now he had it—in Joanne Stark, tease and tramp. And Joanne Stark was destroying him—destroying Clay Stuart, the guy who was known as Big Daddy Sex, sniffing out all the broads for miles around.“If you ever manage to get rid of her,” Kay said, “you’ll never know how lucky you are.”“Yeah,” Clay said. “God knows I’m lucky. I stink with luck.”

Hell broke loose in a heavenly way when he first laid eyes on the girl. She was ravishing and rare—a Cuban blonde with olive skin and deep, dark eyes.A simple conquest—until he made the mistake of falling in love with her.

Says Joe R. Lansdale in his introduction: "Fires That Destroy is like so many of the best noir novels, the sort where you see the main character climb on a fast train with a straight track and no detours, even though like all noir characters of this sort, they should be able to look far enough ahead to realize that the track falls off into an abyss." She was the victim of her own lust and greed Bernice, a young secretary living in New York, is frustrated by the fact that the pretty girls in her company get all the promotions. When she discovers that her blind boss has hidden away a large amount of cash, she decides that money will be her ticket to the life she desires. But by bringing death to one man so that she can live with another, she finds herself married to the devil.

Mike Ballard #2 Mike Ballard works homicide, demoted from lieutenant four years ago for accepting bribes. When District Attorney Tom Flynn, who was the one pursuing Ballard, tries to enlist him in his fight against corruption, Ballard wants nothing to do with it. The next day Flynn turns up dead — with the cops overeager to insist he committed suicide despite the bullet hole in the back of his head. Then there's Lupe, pregnant by the son of one of the most influential men in town, who wants Ballard's help. And Naomi, who knows exactly what she wants. There's only so much a man can take, and when Ballard's drinking friend is threatened and the cops don't seem interested in giving him protection, Ballard decides to strike back against the new crime machine.

As Public Relations Director for Twenty Grand Studios, Sam Howell knew that movie stars would do anything for their front-page write-up. So when Jack Roland got himself charged with murdering a scandal magazine publisher, Sam just groaned. It was so obviously a press-agent's stunt.Only one thing didn't fit. The police were buying it, lock, stock and barrel. And then it suddenly hit Sam that as much as he knew about the antics of filmland, he was a novice to the vicious racket of the newsstand scandal-mongers. There were too many influential people who didn't want the dead publisher's confidential files aired. It was no longer a question of innocence or guilt; it was simply a matter of hushing the crime up quickly.Sam Howell was right in the middle of that squeeze. If he backed out now, an innocent film star would take the rap. If he butted in, he would never live through ONE DEADLY DAWN.

The vision of Liza Flynn was burned into my mind. My heart pounded. Here it was. Just what I had always been seeking. The big thrill.I was going to find who killed her husband and the prize would be the loveliest woman I had ever seen. A woman who'd never been touched, really. I could look at her and sense that it was all there, waiting. The hellfire and the thrill and the excitement. It was going to be pure hell for the guy who really woke her up. And I was the guy that was going to do it!

Only three survivors of the airliner crash landed on this deserted tropical island:Webb, who bore in his heart the festering wound of an unfaithful woman.Fran, who sought love and found only inescapable domination.Krayer, whose hands and glands obeyed the icy laws of his inhuman logic.They managed to survive the violence of nature only to face the fiercer violence of human passions. For their need of each other was only exceeded by their hate.