Mildred Pierce is a happily married woman with two kids, living in the suburbs of sunny California. She secretly takes a job as a waitress so that she can pay for piano lessons and expensive clothes for her eldest daughter, Veda. Her growing financial independence permits her to open her own restaurant, and eventually a chain of eateries. She has divorced her intolerant first husband, and married well-connected Monte in order to get Veda into high...

Sitting between the great cities of New York and Philadelphia, New Jersey has been by tradition a heavily "organized" Mafia state, as it was at one time a northern outpost of the Ku Klux Klan, with a concentration of members in Trenton, Camden, Monmouth County, and South Jersey . . . In such ways, the most civilized and "decent" among us find that we are complicit with the most brutal murderers. We enter into literally unspeakable alliances--of which...

"A riveting collection of five of the most famous crime novels of the 1920s, presenting anew some of the most admired authors of the era... Each of the five novels included is presented in its original published form, with extensive historical and cultural annotations and illustrations..." --

"Manila--the walled city recently freed from a dictator's iron-fisted rule--is a magical metropolis where monsters roam the neon-lit streets. In this noir-tinged graphic novel, the capital exists in an alternate reality where myth and fantasy collide. Tensions between the human and nonhuman realms are about to hit a breaking point in a city now governed by the mysterious Societies. Who will prevail?"--Back cover.

"A lonely maintenance worker gets tangled in an anti-corporation operation"--

John Forbes is a family man who's tired of the 9 to 5 humdrum of his job an insurance company executive. Life gets a little more exciting for him when he calls upon femme fatale Mona Stevens. Her boyfriend has robbed a store insured by Forbes' company and has showered her with gifts using the loot. Forbes comes to collect the ill-gotten gifts, but the boyfriend is in jail, and Forbes falls hard for Mona and begins an affair.

"Through mesmerizing flashbacks, the story is told of Marian Washburn, a once-prominent singer who begins to lose her voice. To continue her unfulfilled dreams, she coaches Susan Caldwell, a coarse and promiscuous singer, into the big time. But then Caldwell rebels against her mentor, and we soon learn that Caldwell has been shot. Even though Washburn confesses that she pulled the trigger, the murder and events leading up to it remain a baffling mystery"--Container....

Following the success of Dennis Lehane's best-selling Boston Noir, the Akashic Noir Series delves deeper into New England's underbelly.

The hitch-hiker: While on their way to a fishing trip, two men pick up a hitchhiker -- not knowing that he is a sadistic and psychopathic killer. Detour: After he is picked up while hitchhiking, Al Roberts' samaritan dies of a heart attack. Afraid of being accused of the murder, he ditches the body, then takes the man's clothes, wallet, and car.

Crime wave: Three San Quentin escapees kill a cop in a gas-station holdup. Wounded, one of the escapees flees through black-shadowed streets to the handiest refuge: with former cellmate Steve Lacey. Steve is paroled, with a new life and lovely wife, and can't afford to be caught associating with old cronies. But homicide detective Sims wants to use Steve to help him catch the other 2 escapees, who in turn extort his help in a bank job. Decoy: Gangster...