Showing results by author "John Lutz" in All Categories

Private eye Fred Carver investigates the slaughter of an ex-cop, the murder of a man who was found stuffed to the gills with cocaine, and other crimes.

Ernie, a down-on-his-luck gambler who owes the wrong people $1,000, is visited by two enforcers. To escape them, he climbs out onto a narrow building ledge, where he is unseen by the people far below. His only hope of survival lies in his imaginative way with a deck of cards.

Fred Carver, an Orlando cop until a gunman's bullet shattered his kneecap, acquires a cane and a new career, private investigating. From beach resorts and luxury condos, to the swamps and smuggler's coves of the Everglades, Carver looks for a man who police think committed suicide.

Mary Arlington only feels alive when she is dancing. The rest of her life, dominated by a violent boyfriend and a mother intent on drinking herself to death, isn’t worth being awake for, but when she dances the tango her troubles disappear. She’s gotten so good that her studio is taking her to the national competition in Ohio, where she will prove to the world and to herself that her hobby is more than a pastime. That is, if she can stay alive until the music starts to play.

Private detective Fred Carver becomes embroiled in another strange case. A new client in an unusual situation leaves Carver's office and gets into his car. The car explodes upon ignition and only a charred corpse remains. Identify questions develop and Carver's case turns into murder.

Thirty-five short stories by Edgar-winning novelist Lutz are included here, following a perceptive introduction by Nevins. Reflecting the ingenious plotting and characterizations in Tropical Heat, Nightlines and the author's other full-length adventures, these entries are a bonanza for discriminating listeners.

Alo Nudger, the St. Louis ex-cop is both the most normal of all fictional private eyes and the most surprising. He's got an uncertain stomach he doses with nonstop antacids; he doesn't like guns or violence; and since he doesn't feel any special affinity for what he does, from nosing into people's dirty laundry to confronting perps with the consequences of their misdeeds, and makes more than his share of mistakes, it's only natural that his business cards identify him in typographical error as a private defective.

St. Louis PI Nudger is called to help stop a man from jumping to his death. The man has asked for Nudger by name, and when Nudger fails to save him, he feels responsible for the death and tries to find out what was behind the suicide. He turns up a fellow detective who leads him on a trail of greed and blackmail.

He mutilates his victims. Slices their throats. And carves an X into their flesh. Five years ago, he claimed the lives of six women. Then the killings abruptly stopped - no one knows why. Ex-homicide detective Frank Quinn remembers - which is why he's shocked to see one of the dead women in his office. Actually, she's the identical twin of the last victim, and she wants Quinn to find her sister's murderer. But when the cold case heats up, it attracts the media spotlight - and suddenly the killings start again....

No one thought Curtis Colt had been railroaded for the shooting of a liquor store owner, least of all St. Louis private investigator Alo Nudger. It had been an open-and-shut case of cold blooded murder, and the people of Missouri were just waiting for Colt to be strapped into the electric chair - after all, three eyewitnesses couldn't be wrong. But as time runs out on the convicted killer, Nudger receives a call from Candy Ann Adams, Colt's finance, who insists he's innocent, because she knows who really pulled the trigger.

Er war die Ausgeburt der Hölle, der Sohn des Teufels: Lazarus, der Seelenlose. Auf einer Insel hatte er unzählige Jünger um sich geschart und bereitete dort im Geheimen den Angriff auf die Menschheit vor. Warum ich das weiß? Ich erfuhr auf einer Schiffsreise davon, bei einer schicksalhaften Begegnung mit einem Geistlichen. Reverend Malligan teilte mir dort mit, dass es meine Bestimmung war, gegen diesen mächtigen Feind alles Guten anzutreten, denn nur ich sollte ihn der Überlieferung nach an der Ergreifung der Weltherrschaft hindern können.

Seit Anbeginn der Zeit lauert das Böse im Verborgenen, immer wieder versuchen die Mächte der Finsternis die Menschheit zu unterjochen und die Macht zu erlangen. Ob bei der Kreuzigung des Heilands oder den Kreuzzügen im Mittelalter, immer wieder hatten die dunklen Mächte ihre Finger im Spiel. Doch tapferen Menschen gelang es stets, gegen die Mächte der Finsternis zu obsiegen. Im Jahre 1876 versucht Lazarus, der Sohn des Teufels, ein weiteres Mal die Macht über die Welt an sich zu reißen. Doch diesmal gibt es nur einen Menschen, der sich ihm entgegenstellen kann.