Jonathan Latimer: 9 books

Just days from meeting the reaper, a convicted murderer hires Chicago’s most hard-boiled PI to save his neck—before the executioner can claim it Robert Westland’s death is just around the corner when he finally decides to fight the murder rap that’s sending him to the electric chair....

A reporter becomes his own story when he wakes up next to a corpse Sam Clay wakes with a dry mouth, a hammering headache, and only the faintest memory of what he did the night before. He remembers dancing, jazz, taxi rides, and a brandy-fueled ride on a roller coaster, but he has no idea how...

In an eerie country house, a cruel old man is decapitated When Peter Coffin’s mysterious great-uncle Tobias summons the family to his manor in the wilds of Michigan, his aunt warns him to stay away. Peter goes anyway, arriving at the edge of the sprawling estate well after midnight. Wading...

The job was supposed to be simple, but in this shady midwestern town, nothing is as it seems Hard-living private detective Karl Craven didn’t ask for trouble when he arrived in Paulton, Missouri—but trouble found him anyway. First it was his partner, Oke Johnson, shot in the head by a silenced...

In sun-soaked Florida, Crane pursues a kidnapper in between drinks It does not take much to lure Bill Crane to Florida in the wintertime. The weather would be temptation enough, but the fact that there is money to be made and gin to be drunk makes a trip to Key Largo irresistible. His ever-soused...

A vanished corpse leads a hard-drinking PI on a madcap chase More than forty corpses fill the cold Chicago basement, but no crime has been committed here. After all, there are supposed to be bodies in the city morgue. Tonight, one is attracting particular attention: a beautiful young woman...

To catch a thief, a detective has himself committed to a high-class asylum The orderlies do not need a straitjacket for Bill Crane. He is not violent, although he does have a bad habit of making embarrassing deductions about the doctors. This sarcastic, hard-drinking man has deluded himself...

In Hollywood, a screenwriter gets involved in an impossible murder In a steamy tropical jungle, a sinister American woman pushes the natives too far and gets exactly what she deserves: a rusty knife buried deep in her back. At least, that is the way the movie is supposed to end. But when the...

On a mad mission in the African jungle, a photographer loses his way Lew Cable is an impulsive man, lazy and violent, especially when he has been drinking. He is a rotten choice to lead a scientific expedition, but his wife’s money convinces the exploration committee that he is the man for...