Showing results by author "John Lutz" in All Categories

Fred Carver, an Orlando cop until a gunman's bullet shattered his kneecap, acquires a cane and a new career, private investigating. From beach resorts and luxury condos, to the swamps and smuggler's coves of the Everglades, Carver looks for a man who police think committed suicide.

Alo Nudger, the St. Louis ex-cop is both the most normal of all fictional private eyes and the most surprising. He's got an uncertain stomach he doses with nonstop antacids; he doesn't like guns or violence; and since he doesn't feel any special affinity for what he does, from nosing into people's dirty laundry to confronting perps with the consequences of their misdeeds, and makes more than his share of mistakes, it's only natural that his business cards identify him in typographical error as a private defective.

He comes out when the sun goes down. He delivers death from the barrel of a rifle. He's made New York City his shooting gallery. Men and women, natives and tourists, young and old, have all been his victims. The press has named him The Night Sniper. He taunts those who would try to stop him, threatening to increase the body count unless legendary retired homicide detective Vin Repetto is willing to engage him in a lethal game of cat and mouse.

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When the men find him, the boy’s legs look like they were run through a wood-chipper. He’s bleeding heavily and near death, but he still has strength to tell them of the monster that attacked him: a dark, massive creature that emerged from the bottom of the lake. The child dies before he can say more. Sheriff Billy Wintone has seen too much superstition, drunkenness, and rage in this small Ozarks town to believe the delirious boy’s tale of a monster lurking under the lake’s dark waters. Like it or not, however, Wintone must scour the woods for the man or beast who killed the child before the start of fishing season.

Twelve tales of mystery from the pen of best-selling author John Lutz, Shadows Everywhere collects much of the author's early work. You'll meet everyone from a “hardscrabble farm woman” to a volatile trucker with an explosive cargo, a cliff driver with dreams of gold, and women who are digging for it. Not every PI is a good guy, and not every villain gets his due. These tales twist and turn, surprise and entertain. Flowing from the imagination of a master story-teller, the stories in Shadows Everywhere are a classic glimpse into the worlds of a rare talent.

Private detective Fred Carver becomes embroiled in another strange case. A new client in an unusual situation leaves Carver's office and gets into his car. The car explodes upon ignition and only a charred corpse remains. Identify questions develop and Carver's case turns into murder.

Martin Karpp was Alan Hobson, a compulsive thief. He was Willy Bennet, a flagrant homosexual. He was Jay Jefferson, a fanatic right-winger. He was Paul Liggett, who hid his true nature behind a mask of mystery. Martin Karpp was in the nation's top maximum security prison, convicted of assassinating a presidential candidate. That should have been the last the world would ever have to fear from this madman and his many personalities.

When he meets Bob Ghostly, it’s hardly the first time that Fred Carver has been asked to find a missing spouse. But Ghostly’s tale about a beautiful woman who fled for no apparent reason doesn’t quite convince Carver, who presses for more detail. Finally Ghostly admits it: His wife was beautiful, intelligent, and kind, but she was also a heroin addict. She fled their Florida home with half their savings - nearly $10,000 - and he’s afraid she’s going to put it straight into her veins.

Joel Brandt swears he’s never met the woman before. His wife dead six months before, the small-time businessman is perplexed when Del Moray police inform him that a local woman, Marla Cloy, has accused him of harassing her. According to her, Joel has been lurking outside of her house, following her car, even assaulting her at the grocery store. Brandt says it’s all a lie, but the police don’t believe him. He goes to Fred Carver, an ex-cop turned PI, for help clearing his name.

Fred Carver is hired by his good friend, Lieutenant Alfonso DeSoto of the Orlando police, to investigate the death of his uncle at Sunhaven, a local nursing home. Carver is harassed by Raphael Ortiz, a viciously depraved thug bent on discouraging Carver from investigating Sunhaven.

Ernie, a down-on-his-luck gambler who owes the wrong people $1,000, is visited by two enforcers. To escape them, he climbs out onto a narrow building ledge, where he is unseen by the people far below. His only hope of survival lies in his imaginative way with a deck of cards.

Twenty-Seven short stories from Edgar Award-winning author John Lutz. Private Eyes, mysteries, and memorable characters.

Mary Arlington only feels alive when she is dancing. The rest of her life, dominated by a violent boyfriend and a mother intent on drinking herself to death, isn’t worth being awake for, but when she dances the tango her troubles disappear. She’s gotten so good that her studio is taking her to the national competition in Ohio, where she will prove to the world and to herself that her hobby is more than a pastime. That is, if she can stay alive until the music starts to play.

A serial killer is on the loose, a maniac wielding a homemade flame thrower fashioned from a scuba tank. He has murdered three people - and one of them is private detective Fred Carver's eight-year-old son. Carver will do anything to find his son's killer and exact a father's revenge.

Seit Anbeginn der Zeit lauert das Böse im Verborgenen, immer wieder versuchen die Mächte der Finsternis die Menschheit zu unterjochen und die Macht zu erlangen. Ob bei der Kreuzigung des Heilands oder den Kreuzzügen im Mittelalter, immer wieder hatten die dunklen Mächte ihre Finger im Spiel. Doch tapferen Menschen gelang es stets, gegen die Mächte der Finsternis zu obsiegen. Im Jahre 1876 versucht Lazarus, der Sohn des Teufels, ein weiteres Mal die Macht über die Welt an sich zu reißen. Doch diesmal gibt es nur einen Menschen, der sich ihm entgegenstellen kann.

Er war die Ausgeburt der Hölle, der Sohn des Teufels: Lazarus, der Seelenlose. Auf einer Insel hatte er unzählige Jünger um sich geschart und bereitete dort im Geheimen den Angriff auf die Menschheit vor. Warum ich das weiß? Ich erfuhr auf einer Schiffsreise davon, bei einer schicksalhaften Begegnung mit einem Geistlichen. Reverend Malligan teilte mir dort mit, dass es meine Bestimmung war, gegen diesen mächtigen Feind alles Guten anzutreten, denn nur ich sollte ihn der Überlieferung nach an der Ergreifung der Weltherrschaft hindern können.

From master mystery author John Lutz comes this collection featuring a gripping man-on-the-run novel and four of his best pieces of short fiction. In The Truth of the Matter, Lou Roebuck is a successful advertising man with all the trappings - prestige, position, a flashy car, money, and a beautiful woman on his arm. He's also a compulsive liar, and what begins as a fib on his expense account leads to trouble that compounds like loan shark interest. His past, and the people in it, has caught up with him, again.

St. Louis PI Nudger is called to help stop a man from jumping to his death. The man has asked for Nudger by name, and when Nudger fails to save him, he feels responsible for the death and tries to find out what was behind the suicide. He turns up a fellow detective who leads him on a trail of greed and blackmail.

A major casino robbery turns sour when the getaway car breaks down in the desert. The robbers come across a nearby cabin but it is inhabited by an old loner. The three robbers try and hold him hostage, but he escapes. It becomes their biggest mistake.