Case of the Imaginary Detective

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Daniel Pyne

Marginal Hollywood actor Jack Baylor ends an affair with the wife of his best friend, Tory, and knowing Torys anger-management issues, he retreats to the California desert town of Twentynine Palms to let the metaphorical dust settle. There he promptly begins an affair with Mona, a young mother of two. But Tory arrives in the town bent on revenge, Mona and her kids disappear, and Jacks motel room is awash with blood. Jack is promptly arrested and must escape to clear himself.

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Steve Martini

Attorney Paul Madriani reluctantly takes on the case of Judge Armando "The Coconut" Acosta, an old enemy accused of soliciting prostitution in a police sting operation and of the murder of the policewoman set to testify against him.

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Joseph Hansen

'After forty years, Hammett has a worthy successor' The Times Dave Brandstetter stands alongside Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade and Lew Archer as one of the best fictional PIs in the business. Like them, he was tough, determined, and ruthless when the case demanded it. Unlike them, he was gay. Joseph Hansen's groundbreaking novels follow Brandstetter as he investigates cases in which motives are murky, passions run high, and nothing is ever as simple as it looks. Set in 1970s and 80s California, the series is a fascinating portrait of a time and a place, with mysteries to match Chandler and Macdonald. John Oats is dead; drowned in the treacherous waves of the Pacific. But was it accident, suicide, or murder? Between the mysteriously absent son, the bitter ex-wife and the current lover, there are plenty of people with reason to lie to Dave about what really happened that night - and why.

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Stephen Greenleaf

Detective John Marshall Tanner must track down California model Teresa Blair, the only reliable witness to a hit-and-run "accident" perpetrated by Mob boss Tony Fluto.