Cashiered U.S. Army major Edd “Twodees” Partain is working as a clerk in Wanda Lou’s Weaponry in Sheridan, Wyoming. That is, he works there until the tall man in the lamb’s wool topcoat walks into the shop and announces that a certain secret operation that took place in El Salvador is about to hit the media fan. For Partain, the visit from the man in gray leads to an unforeseen career move. Flying to L.A., the ex-major is grilled by a woman hiding out — in a $2000-a-day hospital room — from the “Little Rock folks.” Millicent Altford is a rainmaker, and a good one. adept at shaking the money tree for deserving politicos. Her secret war chest is missing $1.2 million, and she wants Partain to ride shotgun while she gets it back. And that leads Partain across the continent to Washington, where the blunders of U.S. covert action in Central America are at last percolating up through the political ranks. A storefront organization called VOMIT — Victims of Military Intelligence Treachery — is trying to defend a network of former intelligence operatives, soldiers, and covert warriors, including Partain himself, from a plot to keep the truth buried. VOMIT has its hands full. Because Twodees Partain is making even more enemies than he used to, a number of bags containing $1.2 million are floating around, and some old El Salvador hands are stirring up the ashes of political sin — with corpses sprawling from Georgetown to Beverly Hills

A car bomb explodes in a white-orange flash, blowing a pretty young homicide detective to bits. A thousand miles away in Washington, Benjamin Dill learns of his sister’s murder and returns to their hometown to find out who killed her and why. Dill, a consultant to an obscure Senate investigating subcommittee, has another task to perform. He must obtain evidence from an old boyhood friend, Jake Spivey, about the illegal arms deals that have made Jake a multimillionaire, evidence that would send Jake’s former partner, the sinister Clyde Brattle, to jail for the rest of his life. Are Spivey and Brattle somehow connected to his sister’s death? Why was she leading a strange double life with her boss, Gene Colder, the dapper captain of the squad? Searching for answers to these questions, Dill uncovers an unsavory nest of petty thieves, hired guns, crooked cops and corrupt politicians — all with motives to murder his sister, and each other. He meets the smart, beautiful Anna Maude Singe, who falls in love with him. And in one brief, brutally hot weekend, they are swept up in a vortex of intrigue, betrayal and violence, risking their lives as the mystery reaches its surprising and spellbinding climax. Savage, sexy, sardonic, sophisticated — Briarpatch is all these, and more. Crackling with swift action and sharp dialogue, stinging in its satirical view of a small Midwestern city and its eccentric inhabitants, the novel is a dazzling display of Ross Thomas’s genius as a master storyteller

In his brilliant first novel, The Cold War Swap, Ross Thomas introduced two witty characters named Mac McCorkle and Michael Padillo, a barkeep and a government agent, who become partners in a saloon and in the deadly game of espionage. The response of readers and critics to both the novel and the characters was extraordinary, and some reviewers hoped in print for another Thomas novel featuring the pair. Cast a Yellow Shadow is it. McCorkle and Padillo are back — McCorkle with a saloon, Padillo with trouble — this time in Washington, D.C. Padillo, who had dropped out of sight over a year before in Germany, suddenly turns up in Washington, stabbed but alive. Mac, tending to Padillo, discovers that his own wife has been kidnapped and is being secretly held by officials of a South African nation who want Padillo to assassinate their prime minister. To reveal more is unnecessary. Readers of Ross Thomas will expect excitement, violence, and unexpected twists, told with wit and skill — and they will get them and more in Cast a Yellow Shadow

Thus begins what may be the most popular of Ross Thomas’s unique stories. The combination of Wu, pretender to the Imperial throne of China, and Quincy Durant, who has his own colorful past, makes for a heady experience. After starting with the deceased pelican on a California beach, the plot mixes in the disappearance of a large sum of money that should have been buried in Vietnam, and the search for the missing member of a trio of singing sisters from the Ozarks. Only Thomas could have stirred this concoction with the style, humor, and suspense that captures the reader at the very beginning and doesn’t let go until the last word

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of city-based noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with BROOKLYN NOIR. Each book is comprised of stories set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book. The original D.C. NOIR, a groundbreaking collection of new fiction by sixteen different writers, displayed the curatorial prowess of best-selling author George Pelecanos. In D.C. NOIR 2: The Classics, Pelecanos once again assembles an enchanting array of dark and subversive stories, this time selecting the very best of Washington’s historical literary legacy

Hired by a political kingmaker to investigate a cocaine war, journalist Morgan Citron uncovers a scandal involving the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. It’s a story that will make Watergate look like a parking ticket — if Citron lives to tell about it

Shadowy and well-financed interests want to funnel five million dollars to rebels in the Philippine mountains, to fund the violent revolt against the fledgling Aquino government. But the rebel leader trusts no one but Booth Stallings, a terrorism expert who fought by his side during World War II. Stallings isn’t interested in Philippine power squabbles, but he is deeply interested in five million dollars. In order to reroute the cash to his own pocket, Stallings needs the kind of help that can only be provided by the most inventive confidence artists in the hemisphere: the wily Artie Wu, pretender to the throne of China, and his occasionally explosive partner Quincey Durant. The trail to the Chinese mastermind goes through the number one connection in the U.S., Otherguy Overby — a legendary con man in his own right. But before Stallings finds Wu, he discovers that the money men have provided an obstacle. Georgia Blue, the toughest lady bodyguard in Washington, has been assigned to stick to him until he reaches the rebel camp. Throw in a depraved Australian by the name of Boy Howdy, an unpredictably volatile young woman with ties to the rebel leader, a pair of CIA operatives, an assortment of killings, and you have the most intricate labyrinth ever penned by Ross Thomas

A saloon owner and a former CIA agent team up to help a pair of assassins escape death The twins who walk into Mac McCorkle's bar look identical, despite their differing genders. Their names are Wanda and Walter Gothar, and from the steel in their eyes it's apparent that their business isn't the friendly kind. They've come seeking help from Mac and his partner, Padilla, an ex-CIA agent who has skulked in the world's darkest corners.   Anxious for a big payday, the twins took an assignment out of their depth, working as bodyguards for a Saudi prince who came to Washington to sign an oil deal. The job fell apart, and now the twins are being pursued by the world's two finest killers­—who take out Walter without breaking a sweat. Now Mac and Padilla are faced with a choice: Save Wanda, or join her in the grave

The day Mike Padillo walk into Mac’s Place in West Germany, everything changes. A customer is assassinated in the bar and owner Mac McCorkle discovers that Padillo, whom he has taken on as a business partner, is a spy for the U.S. Government. From a rather complex past. Mac has managed to establish himself in a simple, uncomplicated present. He likes his life — from the cheerful ringing of the cash register to the equally cheerful response of women to his charm and affluence. Now overnight, thanks to Padillo, he is thrust into a world more likely to end with a bang than a whimper. For what appears to be a routine assignment turns out to be a deadly game of espionage — a game in which the dealing is always double and the cards are often slipped from the bottom of the deck. Writing with polish and wit, Ross Thomas weaves his story with ingenuity and steadily mounting suspense to a chilling climax. His men are cool and intelligent, his women delightful, his plot full of unexpected twists. The Cold War Swap is a brilliant debut into the genre of espionage novels

Set in California, Mexico, Washington, D.C., and Germany in 1946, The Eighth Dwarf centers around a struggle among three intelligence agencies, each seeking the same man. Minor Jackson, and ex-OSS operative, is thrown into this conflict with only his wits, a dwarf and an almost-beautiful woman to help him. Jackson is broke when he pulls the dwarf, Ploscaru, out of a Beverly Hills swimming pool. Ploscaru — Romanian aristocrat, genius-spy, love-object for fascinated women — has an almost-legal scheme to make both of them rich. Kurt Oppenheimer's relatives, says the dwarf, will pay them handsomely to find Kurt, who disappeared in Germany during the war. Unknown to Jackson, Oppenheimer is a slightly crazed, but highly efficient assassin, who has continued to murder ex-Nazi leaders after the war, and who is being sought by the British, the Russians, the Americans and, quite possibly, this Israelis, all of whom have their reasons for wanting the killer — and alive. As Oppenheimer, a master of disguises and dialects, skillfully steals across a divided Germany finding his victims, the dwarf plays one country against another in a dangerous game of intrigue, pursuit and entrapment with a totally unexpected conclusion

Lucifer Dye, born in Montana and educated in (among other places) Shanghai’s most distinguished bordello, is in San Francisco being debriefed following his dismissal from Section Two, a secret American intelligence agency. Dye and Section Two are parting company because of the sudden and unexpected death of an important Red Chinese double agent that resulted in Dye’s spending three months in a Singapore prison. Unemployed, but with a passport, a certified severance check, and his wits, Dye is approached by a man named Victor Orcutt. Orcutt is in the business of cleaning up corrupt cities through the application of “Orcutt’s First Law,” which is “To get better, it must get much worse.” Victor Orcutt’s proposal is that he will pay Dye $50,000 to corrupt an entire American city. Dye accepts the proposal, and so begins Ross Thomas’s most exciting, violent, and suspenseful novel yet, a masterwork from “a master of escape and adventure” (Pasadena Star-News)

The Fourth Durango is not your ordinary Durango. It's not in Spain, or Mexico, and it's not a ski town in the Colorado Rockies, although Durangos do exist in all of those places. This Durango has an industry, albeit a rather odd one – it is a hideout business, a place where people pay to find sanctuary from former friends and associates who are either trying to kill them or have them killed. Into this Durango comes a former chief justice of a state supreme court, followed by son-in-law Kelly Vines to act as his emissary to the beautiful and savvy mayor. It takes a Ross Thomas to stir these characters into a witty and ingenious mix readers will not be able to – and certainly would not want to – resist

In London, the legendary freedom fighter Gustavo Berrio-Brito, also known as “Felix,” is kidnapped. A romantic figure in the Che tradition, Felix is particularly close to the current Libyan dictator, Mourabet, who ascended to power after the untimely death of Qaddafi. In Los Angeles, a high-level Libyan delegation is on an unofficial junket touring American defense plants, hosted by the President’s brother and mentor, Bingo McKay. When word reaches Mourabet that Felix has been kidnapped, he immediately concludes that the CIA is responsible and instructs his delegation to kidnap Bingo. In Washington, the President receives grim evidence that his brother has been abducted — the Libyans send him Bingo’s ear, wrapped in a Gucci box, along with a polite proposal that an exchange of prisoners take place. Felix has actually been kidnapped by Leland Timble, a Robert Vesco-type character who has been convicted in absentia for a daring bank scam. Timble wants to use Felix as a weapon to buy his reentry into the United States. Enter Chubb Dunjee, the Mordida Man — ex-congressman, ex-UN representative, expatriate and bribery (“mordida” in Spanish) expert. Through an intermediary, the President engages Dunjee to find his brother, and what follows is an intricately plotted, immensely entertaining novel — Ross Thomas’ most stunning work to date

In the mode of The Fools in Town Are on Our Side, Ross Thomas’s best-selling novel to date, The Porkchoppers takes an inside look at corruption — this time in an American labor union. The result is Thomas’s toughest and most entertaining book. Donald Cubbin is president of a 990,000-member American labor union, and he faces a tough, dirty campaign for reelection against Sammy Hanks, the union’s secretary-treasurer. When both Cubbin and opponent pull out the stops to defeat each other, the action — including election-stealing and assassination-comes fast and nasty, with unexpected results, all served up in the incomparable Ross Thomas style

A provocative and entertaining novel of political adventure in contemporary Africa... Clinton Shartelle, a Southern gentleman partial to seersucker, is the best rough-and-tumble political campaign manager in the United Stares. Peter Upshaw, the narrator, is a public relations man who searches out Shartelle and persuades him to run a very unusual campaign. The candidate is Chief Sunday Akomolo. and the office sought is the premiership of Albertia, an African colony soon to achieve independence. THE SEERSUCKER WHIPSAW is an exciting and suspenseful story, full of wild but wise humor and penetrating insights into American and African attitudes. But it is Clinton Shartelle, the Seersucker Whipsaw, who animates the entire narrative with his wit, charm and cunning. Whether he is planning his opponents’ mistakes or performing a drunken cakewalk, Shartelle is the unique character who makes this novel unforgettable

Starting in Los Angeles and moving to Washington and Singapore, this new Thomas thriller involves the reader in a fascinating story of intrigue as an ex-Hollywood stunt man searches for another man he thought he had killed two years before. What is “the Singapore Wink?” We won’t tell you here, but it involves blackmail, murder, a most unusual FBI agent, and the sexy daughter of a crime czar — to name but a few of the ingredients in Ross Thomas’s wildest adventure yet

Few seem to notice or even care when fifty-seven-year-old Steadfast Haynes, a veteran CIA hired hand, dies quietly — even discreetly — in a $185-a-day Hay-Adams Hotel room commanding a fine view of the White House. But official indifference turns quickly into panic when it’s discovered that Haynes’ estranged son, a Los Angeles homicide detective turned actor, has been offered $100,000 for all rights to his father’s memoirs — sight unseen-by an anonymous bidder. Realizing that someone wants to bury the memoirs as deeply as possible, the thirty-two-year-old Granville Haynes seeks guidance from McCorkle and Padillo, the owners of Mac’s Place, a Washington bar and grill that some regard as an undesignated landmark and others as a notorious nest of intrigue. Accompanied at times by McCorkle and Padillo, and frequently by McCorkle’s stunning young daughter Erika, the enigmatic Granville Haynes moves out of the twilight of Mac’s Place and into a dark Washington labyrinth of deceit, treachery, and murder

Wudu, Ltd. is not exactly a private investigation agency, and the overhead's too high for con men. It's "a closely held limited liability company that does for others what they cannot do for themselves." says Arthur Case Wu — ex-carny, pretender to the Chinese Emperor’s throne, and chief executive officer of Wudu, Ltd. In other words, they solve big problems for big bucks. When German entrepreneur Enno Glimm, who insists upon pronouncing the company name as “Voodoo," arrives in London to strike a deal with Quincy Durant, the arrangement comes just in time to move Wudu's accounts into the black. Glimm's problem: two kinky British hypnotists have vanished, leaving his client, actress-director lone Gamble, in the lurch. Only the hypnotists can prove that the star did not gun down her loathsome billionaire ex-fiancé in his $13-milllon Malibu “beach shack." For Durant and Wu, it means enlisting the help of some old cronies, like the dubious Otherguy Overby, terrorism expert Dr. Booth Stallings, and the overtly sensual Georgia Blue. Together, they must weave a bit of their black magic in the world of excess bounded by Hollywood, Santa Monica, and Malibu. But the stakes double when a whole lot of illicit cash starts flashing in the California sun. And with some of the most dangerous people in the world gathered in such close proximity, Wudu, Ltd. may just start needing some protection... from one of its own

Former political campaign manager Harvey Longmire is enjoying a pleasant semi-retirement with his wife on an 80-acre farm in Virginia when he is visited by two old friends. They are working for a millionaire who has set up a foundation to investigate conspiracies and want to hire Longmire to look into the disappearance of a famous union leader. When Longmire accepts the job, he and the reader are off on the damndest adventure of conspiracy and murder ever, told as only Ross Thomas can tell it, with nonstop action and terrific suspense

В сборник детективов США вошли произведения классиков американского «крутого детектива» Э.С.Гарднера «Дело воющей собаки» и Хью Пентикоста «И пусть я погибну», а также роман Росса Томаса «Каскадер из Сингапура»

В настоящий сборник детективов США вошли, повесть одного из лучших мастеров короткой криминальной повести Хью Пентикоста «Любитель шампанского» и политический роман писателя Росса Томаса «Выборы»

Богатый и влиятельный некогда сенатор, ушедший в отставку не дожидаясь предъявления обвинений во взяточничестве, казалось бы исчез уже из новостей. Но популярный газетный обозреватель пристально следит за ним, особенно после неожиданного убийства, жертвой которого стала дочь сенатора. Он нанимает Дика «Декатура» Лукаса для расследования и сбора материала…

Кем только не был Харви Лонгмайр! Криминальный репортер, член законодательного собрания штата Луизиана, иностранный корреспондент… довелось даже поработать на ЦРУ. Он имел репутацию успешного следователя и специалиста в области добывания секретов противника. Но однажды он бросил все и стал вести спокойную жизнь на ферме. И вот в его жизни вновь появляются старые приятели и уговаривают Харви заняться поисками пропавшего Арча Микса, тоже старого знакомого Харви. Его след еще не остыл… Теперь либо Харви найдет Микса, либо сам исчезнет бесследно…

Росс Томас (1926–2000) – автор почти тридцати романов, написанных, в основном, в жанре детектива. Томас много повидал на своем веку – во время Второй мировой войны сражался с японцами на Филиппинах в рядах ВМС США, был корреспондентом радио и газет, освещая события в Европе, состоял советником у племенного вождя в Нигерии. Знание жизни придает его остросюжетной прозе особую убедительность. Роман `Каскадер из Сингапура` написан в 1968 году

Американские журналисты Дэвид Уайз и Томас Росс на обширном фактическом материале раскрывают подробности операций и деятельности невидимого правительства — Центрального разведывательного управления США периода холодной войны. Авторы отмечают, что ЦРУ включает также множество других подразделений и агентств и отдельных лиц, которые внешне кажутся обычными членами обычного правительства. В книге детально рассказывается об истории создания системы разведывательных органов США, их структуре, технической оснащенности и методах работы. Подрывная деятельность против стран Восточной Европы, вторжение на Кубу, разбойничья политика в Бирме, Лаосе, Вьетнаме, Гватемале — неполный список «заслуг» американской разведывательной деятельности. Шантаж и провокации, шпионаж и диверсии, заговоры и военные авантюры, направленные на свержение неугодных правительств, — таковы методы, с помощью которых разведка пытается укрепить позиции США на мировой арене

Еще один остросюжетный роман о нечистоплотном мире профсоюзов. Президент одного из крупнейших профсоюзов Америки надеется на переизбрание, но он не имеет ни малейшего представления о том, что его противник готов на все…

В настоящее время Росс Томас бесспорно является крупнейшим мастером авантюрного жанра американской литературы. Для его романов характерны блестяще построенный сюжет, динамичное развитие событий, жесткая и мужественная манера письма. В книгу, предлагаемую вниманию читателей, вошли три наиболее известных и многократно переиздаваемых на Западе романа писателя("Щит Компорена", "Шпион и ресторатор", "Смерть в Сингапуре")

В романе «Супершпион, числящийся в мертвых» знаменитого американского писателя Росса Томаса действуют профессиональный агент Падильо и «любитель» Маккоркл. В своей деятельности они сталкиваются и с предательством одних, и с мужественным поведением других, и с безжалостностью и сребролюбием третьих. Действуя в условиях бескомпромисного противостояния разных спецслужб, они оказываются в гуще жестоких схваток и интриг, участвуя в погонях, похищениях, убийствах... Второй роман «Самые искусные воры» посвящен событием, связанным с похищением древнего африканского щита — символа власти, сравнимого с английской короной... Содержание: Супершпион, числящийся в мертвых (роман, перевод В. Вебера) Самые искусные воры (роман, перевод В. Вебера)

Богатый и влиятельный некогда сенатор, ушедший в отставку не дожидаясь предъявления обвинений во взяточничестве, казалось бы исчез уже из новостей. Но популярный газетный обозреватель пристально следит за ним, особенно после неожиданного убийства, жертвой которого стала дочь сенатора. Он нанимает Дика «Декатура» Лукаса для расследования и сбора материала…

В очередной том серии вошел роман известного американского писателя Росса Томаса «Четвертый Дюранго», в котором в жанре мелодраматического триллера рассказывается не только о загадочных убийствах и их расследовании, но и о перипетиях судьбы бывшего главного судьи одного из штатов