Charles Willeford

Page Updated: 05/03/03

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Charles Willeford - Page 2

New Hope for the Dead

Miami Blues

Sideswipe

Wild Wives

A Charles Willeford Omnibus

Paperback - No Exit Press (2001)

New Hope for the Dead
See Review by John Baker
Hoke Moseley's boss has dumped fifty "cold cases", old unsolved homicides, on his desk. His ex-wife has dumped his two teenage daughters on his doorstep. His voluptuous partner, Cuban Ellita Sanchez has been kicked out of her house for immoral goings-on. The Miami police chief is kicking Hoke out of his house for illegal goings-on. Happily, however, the wanton stepmother of the OD'd teenage junkie wants Hoke in her bed. But that could just turn out to be the biggest shocker of all.
'The Pope of Psych-Pulp' Time Out
‘A master’s insight into the humid decadence of south Florida. Nobody does that as well as Mr Willeford’ New York Times
‘Hoke Moseley is a magnificently battered hero. Willeford brings him to us lean and hard’ Donald E. Westlake
‘...better than Hall and Hiaasen and as good as Elmore Leonard at his best’ Time Out
"A top notch crime novel...tough and funny." Washington Post

Paperback - No Exit Press (2001)

Miami Blues
See Review by John Caven
Freddy "Junior" Frenger, a blithe psychopath fresh out of San Quentin, flies into Miami airport with a pocketful of stolen credit cards and disappears, leaving behind the corpse of a Hare Krishna. Soon homicide detective Hoke Moseley is pursuing Fenger and his airhead hooker girl-friend through the posh hotels, Cuban Ghettos and seedy suburban malls of Miami, the setting of their dangerous game of hide and seek, and of this searing and brilliant novel.
'No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford. Miami Blues is the real stuff' Elmore Leonard
'I've just taken down Miami Blues in one fevered gulp and must tell you that it is absolutely brilliant in every regard - the definitive Miami novel.' Stanley Ellin
‘Miami seems to have eclipsed L.A. & New York as the crime capital, so it’s fitting that the best book on the mystery racks these days should be Charles Willeford’s Miami Blues’ Village Voice
‘Bone-deep satire ...a harrowing and surprisingly amusing story ...a terrific thriller.’ Publishers Weekly

Paperback - No Exit Press (2001)

Sideswipe
A nervous breakdown, two daughters who want to quit school and a pregnant unmarried partner tells Hoke Moseley it is time to simplify his crazy life. Moving out of Miami to manage a small hotel seems a good idea - until psycho career criminal, Troy Louden, happens along with his makeshift gang that includes a little old man, a no-talent artist, a disfigured stripper and drags Hoke back to the job he thought he had left behind for ever.
'A blend of gripping action and wry off-beat humor' The Washington Post

Paperback - No Exit Press (2001)

Wild Wives
'She wasn't wearing much beneath the skirt. In an instant it was all over. Fiercely and abruptly.'
A classic of Hard-boiled fiction, Charles Willeford's Wild Wives is amoral, sexy and brutal. Written in a sleazy San Francisco hotel in the early 1950s, while on leave from the army, Willeford creates a tale of deception featuring the crooked detective Jacob C. Blake and his nemesis - a beautiful, insane young woman who is the wife of a socially prominent San Francisco architect who entangles Blake in a web of deceit, intrigue and multiple murders.
'Mr Willeford never puts a foot wrong, and this is truly an entertainment to relish' The New Yorker
'Wow! He gives you… the viewpoint of the most fascinating asocial trash' Tony Hillerman

British Pbk Original - No Exit Press (1995)

A Charles Willeford Omnibus
Pick-up
Prowling the grimy streets of San Francisco low-life, Helen is a beautiful, sensuous drunk - and a pathetically easy pick-up. That is, until she meets Harry, who buys her a coffee and takes her home with him. Harry just wants to help, but before long he and Helen are both adrift in a sea of alcohol - until Harry conceives the ultimate crime . . . . The Burnt Orange Heresy
Art critic James Figueras is a psychotic, an amoral unrepentant killer. Out to make a lasting name for himself, he seeks out the greatest painter in the world, now a hermit in the Florida swamplands. Figueras is after more than the man, however - he wants the work, and something more . . . . something more horrible than can be imagined. Cockfighter
Frank Mansfield is the cockfighter, a man obsessed with an illegal sport which is unspeakably cruel, unthinkably bloody - and incredibly exciting. His pursuit of the champion's medal takes him into the seamy underbelly of rural Southern life . . . . into the hot, dusty small-town circuits, where greed and corruption vie only with lust and violence . . . .