Book 1

The Wrong Case

by James Crumley

Published 28 June 1976

Milo Milodragovitch is a once-successful divorce lawyer, who now prefers to spend his days drinking and staring out the window. That all changes when Helen Duffy walks into his office and asks him to find her missing brother.

Though it's not his usual line of work, Milo agrees to help - he needs the money, and he wants to spend more time with this beautiful woman. But this is far from a routine case, and whispers of a long-past crime haunt Milo's every move . . .

'As sweetly profane a poet as American noir could have asked for' Ian Rankin

'Like James Ellroy, he is a master of American vernacular, turning tough-guy slang into something like poetry' Independent


Book 2

The Final Country

by James Crumley

Published 23 October 2001

A Byzantine tangle of crime, sex, drugs, violence and retribution in red-neck Texas from the ultimate hard-boiled writer

Milo Milogragovitch, Crumley's uncontrollable, cocaine-snorting Montanan, takes centre stage in this adrenaline-fuelled thriller by the master of hard-boiled fiction. This time Milo's trying to find his feet in Texas, earning a living as a bar owner and a PI on the side.

A tedious job tracking down a runaway wife takes a violent turn when he finds himself in a bar with ex-con Enos Walker, who's out for revenge on the partners who turned him in. Turning a gun on Walker, bar manager Billy Long has accidently shot himself and the police are only too keen to add his murder to the long list of crimes Walker's in the frame for. Only Milo's testimony can save him from a death sentence, but Milo's got problems of his own in the shape of sultry lawyer Molly McBride.

Hurtling from the plains of Texas to the desert town of Las Vegas, from the freezing Montana mountains to the Gulf of Mexico and the final bloody showdown, The Final Country is a non-stop roller-coaster ride that will leave you breathless.


Book 3

Bordersnakes

by James Crumley

Published 31 December 1996

‘Crumley in scintillating form: an anarchic, savagely violent and brilliantly written lament for a vanishing past’ Evening Standard

James Crumley is the king of hard-boiled noir, credited with inspiring the next generation of crime writers – including Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly – and best known for his two private detectives, Milo Milodragovitch and C. W. Sughrue. He brought them together for one wild, pulse-pounding ride. This is that story.

Someone shot Sughrue and left him for dead, and someone stole Milo’s $3million inheritance. And they’re not the kind of men to let it go. They’ve joined forces in El Paso and they’re set for a wild ride across America. They’re out for revenge…

‘No one in American crime fiction writes sharper, more authentic dialogue, nor more exciting action, nor, beneath the tough façade, has a greater feel for the values and mores that really matter’ The Times