Murder Room

12 total works

Wild Wives

by Charles Willeford

Published 1 August 1990

Jake Blake is a private detective short on cash when he meets a rich and beautiful young woman looking to escape her father’s smothering influence. Unfortunately for Jake, the smothering influence includes two thugs hired to protect her—and the woman is in fact not the daughter of the man...Read more

Jake Blake is a private detective short on cash when he meets a rich and beautiful young woman looking to escape her father’s smothering influence. Unfortunately for Jake, the smothering influence includes two thugs hired to protect her—and the woman is in fact not the daughter of the man she wants to escape, but his wife. Now Jake has two angry thugs and one jealous husband on his case. As Jake becomes more deeply involved with this glamorous and possibly crazy woman, he becomes entangled in a web of deceit, intrigue—and multiple murders. Brilliant, sardonic, and full of surprises, Wild Wives is one wild ride.

Miami Blues

by Charles Willeford

Published 11 July 1985

'No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford' Elmore Leonard

Ex-con Freddy 'Junior' Frenger lands in Miami with three stolen wallets and plans for a new life of crime, and leaves the airport with a snatched suitcase and the corpse of a Hare Krishna behind him....Read more

'No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford' Elmore Leonard

Ex-con Freddy 'Junior' Frenger lands in Miami with three stolen wallets and plans for a new life of crime, and leaves the airport with a snatched suitcase and the corpse of a Hare Krishna behind him. Homicide detective Hoke Moseley is soon on his case, chasing the utterly immoral Junior and his hooker girlfriend through the Cuban ghettoes, luxury hotels and seedy suburban sprawl of Miami in a game of hide and seek that will leave Hoke beaten, robbed - but determined to get his man.

A brutal, thrilling ride, Miami Blues is a classic of Florida crime fiction, revealing the sordid side of the Sunshine State.

'Pure pleasure... Mr. Willeford never puts a foot wrong' The New Yorker

This is the first in the Hoke Mosely series; other titles in Penguin Modern Classics include New Hope for the Dead, Sideswipe and The Way We Die Now, while fans of the books include Quentin Tarantino, Elmore Leonard and James Lee Burke.

The Woman Chaser

by Charles Willeford

Published 1 March 1990

Richard Hudson, woman chaser and used car salesman, possesses a pimp's understanding of the ways in which women (and men) are most vulnerable. One day Richard decides to make an ambitious film, which turns into a fiasco. Enraged, he exacts revenge on all who have crossed him. "No one...Read more

Richard Hudson, woman chaser and used car salesman, possesses a pimp's understanding of the ways in which women (and men) are most vulnerable. One day Richard decides to make an ambitious film, which turns into a fiasco. Enraged, he exacts revenge on all who have crossed him. "No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford. " -- Elmore Leonard

Cockfighter

by Charles Willeford

Published 18 August 1987

'No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford' Elmore Leonard

Frank Mansfield is the cockfighter, a man obsessed with an illegal sport which is unspeakably cruel, unthinkably bloody - and incredibly exciting. His pursuit of the champion's medal takes him into the seamy underbelly of rural Southern life...

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'No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford' Elmore Leonard

Frank Mansfield is the cockfighter, a man obsessed with an illegal sport which is unspeakably cruel, unthinkably bloody - and incredibly exciting. His pursuit of the champion's medal takes him into the seamy underbelly of rural Southern life - into the hot, dusty small-town circuits, where greed and corruption vie only with lust and violence . . .

The Way We Die Now

by Charles Willeford

Published 1 March 1989

Hoke Moseley, the Miami homicide cop first introduced in "Sideswipe", is posted to the migrant farms of the Florida Everglades, where rumours of slavery and murder are rife. He must deal in turn with vicious criminals, the manipulations of his commander and the unwelcome attention of a con artist....Read more

Hoke Moseley, the Miami homicide cop first introduced in "Sideswipe", is posted to the migrant farms of the Florida Everglades, where rumours of slavery and murder are rife. He must deal in turn with vicious criminals, the manipulations of his commander and the unwelcome attention of a con artist. Charles Willeford has also written "Miami Blues".

Sideswipe

by Charles Willeford

Published 1 March 1988

Hoke Moseley has had enough. Tired of struggling against alimony payments, two teenage daughters, a very pregnant, very single partner, and a low paying job as a Miami homicide detective, Hoke moves to Singer Island and vows never step foot on the mainland again. But on the street, career...Read more

Hoke Moseley has had enough. Tired of struggling against alimony payments, two teenage daughters, a very pregnant, very single partner, and a low paying job as a Miami homicide detective, Hoke moves to Singer Island and vows never step foot on the mainland again. But on the street, career criminal Troy Louden is hatching plans of his own with a gang including a disfigured hooker, a talentless artist, and a clueless retiree. But when his simple robbery results in ruthless and indiscriminate bloodshed, Hoke quickly remembers why he is a cop and hurls himself back into the world he meant to leave behind forever.

A masterly tale of both mid-life crisis and murder, Sideswipe is a page-turning thriller packed with laughs, loaded with suspense, and featuring one of the truly original detectives of all time.

Pick up

by Charles Willeford

Published 18 August 1987

In Pick-Up, Charles Willeford has created a work of psychological suspense that is at once poignant, terrifying, and utterly authentic in its depcition of alcoholic desire and destruction.

I Was Looking for a Street

by Charles Willeford

Published 25 April 1991

'No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford' Elmore Leonard

I Was Looking For a Street tells the story of the author's childhood and adolescence as an orphan, as he moves from railroad yard to hobo tent citiy, to soup kitchen and desert around Los Angeles and across...

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'No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford' Elmore Leonard

I Was Looking For a Street tells the story of the author's childhood and adolescence as an orphan, as he moves from railroad yard to hobo tent citiy, to soup kitchen and desert around Los Angeles and across the United States. The ensuing tale is at once a picaresque adventure through Depression-era America and a portrait of the writer as a young man of seemingly little promise but great spirit.

Written late in Willeford's career, this memoir is the work of a writer at the height of his powers looking back without nostalgia or regret, and preserving in his clear and powerful prose the great American adventure of his youth.

Burnt Orange Heresy #

by Charles Willeford

Published 18 August 1987

Crossing the art world with the underworld, Willeford expands his noir palette to include hues of Florida and tints of Surrealism when Figueras takes a job for an art collector who doesn't care how his art is collected, even if it involves murder.

High Priest of California

by Charles Willeford

Published 1 January 1980

'No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford' Elmore Leonard

Russell Haxby is a ruthless used-car salesman obsessed with manipulating and cavorting with married women. In this classic or hard-boiled fiction, Willeford crafts a wry, sardonic tale of hypocrisy, intrigue and lust set in San Francisco in the...

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'No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford' Elmore Leonard

Russell Haxby is a ruthless used-car salesman obsessed with manipulating and cavorting with married women. In this classic or hard-boiled fiction, Willeford crafts a wry, sardonic tale of hypocrisy, intrigue and lust set in San Francisco in the early fifties, in which every sentence masks innuendo and every detail hides a clue.

New Hope for the Dead

by Charles Willeford

Published 19 February 1987

Hoke Moseley's boss has dumped fifty 'cold cases', old unsolved homicides, on his desk. His ex-wife has dumped his two teenage daughters on his doorstep. His voluptuous partner, Cuban Ellita Sanchez, has been kicked out of her house for immoral goings-on. The Miami police chief is kicking Hoke out...

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Hoke Moseley's boss has dumped fifty 'cold cases', old unsolved homicides, on his desk. His ex-wife has dumped his two teenage daughters on his doorstep. His voluptuous partner, Cuban Ellita Sanchez, has been kicked out of her house for immoral goings-on. The Miami police chief is kicking Hoke out of his house for illegal goings-on. Happily, however, the wanton stepmother of the OD'd teenage junkie wants Hoke in her bed. But that could just turn out to be the biggest shocker of all.

The Machine in Ward Eleven

by Charles Willeford

Published 5 July 2001

'I had a hunch that madness was a predominant theme and normal condition for Americans living in the second half of this century' Charles Willeford

Willeford's pulp classic features six incisive tales as fresh as the day they were first published in 1963. Writing at a time when we still...

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'I had a hunch that madness was a predominant theme and normal condition for Americans living in the second half of this century' Charles Willeford

Willeford's pulp classic features six incisive tales as fresh as the day they were first published in 1963. Writing at a time when we still had some faith in our elected leaders, Willeford laid bare the American Dream - and 50 years later his revelations are as chilling and relevant as ever.