The war is over, but that doesn't mean things are getting better for PR man Wayne Ogden or any of the returning vets. The town of Wichita, Kansas--built around the industry of Collins Aircraft and its wealthy founder, Everett Collins--is not how they remember it. Against the background violence committed by the returning soldiers trying to make an adjustment back into civilian life, Wayne attempts to destroy his former mentor and take down Collins Aircraft--the once fabled company that provided planes to Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, and Wiley Post. All along the way he is haunted by...

In Scoundrels, an all-original anthology featuring bestselling and Edgar and Shamus award-winning writers, you'll read stories of desperate grifters, brokers hedging big bets for the big take, schemers working the long con for the sure money, used car salesman with golden dreams and rusted hopes, crooked lawyers and bent clients, one percenters hustling for that last half-percent, kind-hearted killers and the lonely hearted who tell themselves any lie as the double down for the long count.

The landscape of contemporary Paris, the best restaurants, the trendiest bars and clubs, is usually filled with the wealthy, the famous, and le rake or le roue, the charming, educated sophisticate with little or no conscience. Into this cushy world bursts "Dr. Crandall Taylor"--or rather the actor who plays him--the star of a dated American soap opera that is now one of the hottest primetime shows in France. And this newfound fame, as enriching as it is unexpected, is not wasted on Crandall, eager to put his dark and often violent American past behind him and enjoy all the...

Cottonwood (2004) was a huge step forward for the burgeoning king of noir Scott Phillips, and his dark and gritty take on the western earned him starred reviews and praise from crime masters Michael Connelly and George Pelecanos. That novel featured the Kansas town beginning in 1872 when it was just a small community of run down farms, dusty roads, and two-bit crooks. Saloon owner and photographer Bill Ogden thought it could be more and allied with wealthy developer Marc Leval to capitalize on the advent of the railroad and the cattle trail that soon turned Cottonwood into a wild...