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Suspended Sentences
A taut collection of razor-sharp stories of men at society’s edge Although best known as an author of westerns and espionage fiction, Brian Garfield is at heart an observer of human behavior. While traveling, he sometimes writes short fiction, usually setting the story in whatever city or country he just left. The eight stories in this slim volume are fine examples of Garfield’s keen eye. Mostly tales of crime and criminals, they star men like Deke Allen, a long-haired building contractor arrested after a rat-shoot for driving with his father’s shotgun on the seat. There are women like Vicky, a desperate con artist who engineers one of history’s most outlandish scams. But running throughout these suspenseful stories is the sensibility of a writer fascinated by the characters behind the crimes.
Death Sentence
In the sequel to Death Wish, Paul Benjamin continues his vigilante killing spree Paul Benjamin was an ordinary New Yorker until a gang of drug addicts killed his wife and raped his daughter. When the police proved helpless, Benjamin bought a gun and found his own vengeance, methodically tracking the addicts and killing them one by one. Now he is in Chicago, and the cycle of violence is about to begin anew. On his first night in the city, he stumbles out of a bar in a bad part of town, pretending to be drunk. When two thugs set upon him, they find their quarry sober and armed. He kills them both, escaping before the police arrive. They will not be the last of Chicago’s criminal class to suffer his wrath. Written by Garfield as “penance” for the success of the grisly film adaptation of Death Wish, this sequel shows that when a decent man relies on violence to settle scores, murder becomes addictive.
Hopscotch
Bored with retirement, an ex-spy embarks on a dangerous game, in this Edgar Award winner from a crime writer who is “one of the best” (The New York Times). Miles Kendig is one of the CIA’s top deep-cover agents, until an injury ruins him for active duty. Rather than take a desk job, he retires. But the tawdry thrills of civilian life—gambling, drinking, sex—offer none of the pleasures of the intelligence game. Even a Russian agent’s offer to go to work against his old employers seems dull. Without the thrill of unpredictable conflict, Kendig skulks through Paris like the walking dead. To revive himself, he begins writing a tell-all memoir, divulging every secret he accumulated in his long career. Neither CIA nor KGB can afford to have it in print, and so he challenges them both: Until they catch him, a chapter will go to the publisher every week. Kendig’s life is fun again, with survival on the line.
The Last Hard Men
DIVAfter breaking free from a chain gang, the prisoners seek refuge in the desert /divDIVZach Provo saw the dawn of the twentieth century from inside the walls of Yuma’s prison. After twenty-eight years on an Arizona chain gang, Provo seizes an opportunity to escape. He smashes one guard’s face with a rock, takes his shotgun, and blows the other guard away. Soon the twenty-eight men of the chain gang are on the loose. Provo sends most of them into the desert to hide, holding back the nine smartest fugitives. While the police hunt for the men who ran, his group waits for nightfall, hidden in the mud of a dry riverbed. At dark they sneak back into Yuma./divDIV /divDIVEscape was only the first part of Zach Provo’s plan. Now comes time to deal with the man who sent him away—and the bloody vengeance of which he has dreamed for decades./div
Death Wish
In the wake of a chilling attack, an ordinary man decides to take revenge When his wife and daughter are attacked in their home, Paul Benjamin is enjoying a three-martini lunch. A professional man, soft around the middle, Paul lives happily isolated from the rougher side of New York City. As he nurses his gin headache, a call comes from his son-in-law asking him to come to the hospital. In a few hours, his world will collapse around him. As Paul slurped down his lunchtime gin, drug addicts broke into his cozy Upper West Side apartment. For a handful of money, they savagely beat Paul’s wife and daughter, leaving his wife dead and his daughter comatose. After his shock wears off, and Paul realizes the police department is helpless, his thoughts turn to revenge—not just for him, but for every decent family broken by the dark forces of society.
The Villiers Touch
An unscrupulous businessman targets a family chemical company Though his business cards read “Mason Villiers,” that is not his name. His respectable lower-middle-class upbringing—with its innocent stories of hot rods and prom queens—is a lie. Though an expert on finance, he has no formal education. The man who calls himself Mason Villiers was raised on the streets of Chicago’s rough South Side, and once he clawed himself out of the gutter he decided no one should know where he came from. His past doesn’t matter. Villiers is headed for the top, no matter how many throats he must cut along the way. Having made a name for himself in swashbuckling business dealings, Villiers plans a hostile takeover of a family-owned chemical company. Although Melbard Chemical’s stock hovers at rock bottom, Villiers makes an astronomical offer. Melbard Chemical has a valuable secret, and there is no one more ready to exploit it than Villiers.
Necessity
DIVTo escape her husband, a wife embarks on a radical adventure /divDIVHer name is Jennifer Hartman, or perhaps Dorothy Holder. She has birth certificates that say both. She got the names from old obituary files, and then went to the county clerk to ask for new copies. Her real name doesn’t matter, because her former life is gone. Since she went on the run, she has surprised herself with her ingenuity. She makes her way to Los Angeles and takes a room in an unassuming, out-of-the-way motel. She destroys her credit cards but keeps her old driver’s license—she has one last use for it. She enrolls in flying lessons, taking three or four a week in order to master the small plane as quickly as possible. Her plan is complex but, if it works, brilliant./divDIV /divDIVShe is fleeing her husband. A single error will mean death, but she is through with mistakes./div
Fear in a Handful of Dust
DIVA mental patient escapes his institution in search of bloody vengeance/div DIVWhen rain falls on the mental hospital, Calvin Duggai knows it’s time to leave. Institutionalized after he abandoned five men to die in the Mojave Desert, he has spent years planning escape and revenge. For months he has tunneled through the asylum’s bathroom wall, waiting for a night when rain will cover his tracks. As water soaks the grounds of the silent institution, Duggai punches a hole in the stucco wall and creeps out onto the building’s ledge. After a mistimed leap, he limps to the chain link fence with a cracked knee./divDIV /divDIVAs he scales the twelve-foot barbed-wire fence, he ignores the searing pain. The men who sent him away must be punished. Duggai has four doctors to kill./div
Line of Succession
Five bombs upend the foundation of the American government Sturka is an artist with explosives. A sturdy man approaching middle age, he learned his trade on the darkest battlefields of the twentieth century: Indochina, Palestine, Guyana, Biafra, and the fetid jungles of South America, where he fought alongside Che Guevera but was quick enough not to die with him. He doesn’t know where his new employers hail from; he only knows how well they pay. Today he packs plastic explosive into the false bottoms of three handbags and two suitcases, to be left at strategic locations around Washington, D.C. But this is no ordinary café bombing. Today Sturka targets the men at the top of the American government. The attack causes a crisis of succession, the likes of which America has never seen. If the right man doesn’t take charge quickly, the country will tear itself apart.
The Hit and The Marksman
Two short novels from a master of hard-boiled storytelling Simon Crane is an ex-cop with a bad leg, a small pension, and a former lover, Joanne, who works for Sal Aiello, undisputed crime boss of a dusty southwestern city. When Aiello and his millions disappear, the city’s underworld whips into a frenzy that could get Joanne killed. To save her life, Crane must find the dead mobster’s cash before anyone else does. Somebody put a hit out on Aiello, and if Crane can’t find out who, he will be taking the bullet himself. In this special edition ebook, The Hit is paired with The Marksman, a tense novella about a combat veteran caught up in criminal dealings far more violent than anything he saw in the Middle East. Garfield’s prose is spare and his storytelling is electric from page one. Both novellas overflow with grim, relentless action.
