Jack Dwyer is a former cop who got the acting bug after he was cast in a local public safety commercial. He started acting lessons, quit his job, and applied for his private investigator’s license (in very nearly that order). He also took a security guard job to keep the wolves away. The novel opens with Dwyer on a riverside park murder site. He was called there by a panicked former girlfriend. A girlfriend who left him for another man, and a girlfriend Dwyer isn’t quite over.The w...

At a car dealership's big opening day, the festivities are marred by the discovery of a corpseIt is September 1957, and America is waiting to meet the Edsel, Ford's top-secret new automobile, whose promotional campaign has redefined the word hype. Sam McCain, lawyer, detective, and car fiend, has been dreaming of the Edsel for months. But when the sheet comes off Ford's new creation, the car is a nightmare. Pastel colored, bulky, and with a distinctively ug...

With the nation's eye on Black River Falls, McCain chases a snake handler's killerFundamentalist preacher John Muldaur isn't afraid of snakes—he uses them every week in his services—but he's convinced that the Pope is trying to kill him. Iowa lawyer Sam McCain, the poorest attorney in a thriving town, listens patiently to the self-declared reverend's outlandish theories about being targeted by a papal hit squad, and agrees to investigate the matter simply to get Mul...

Award-winning author Ed Gorman is back with political consultant and troubleshooter Dev Conrad, in this riveting sequel.When Dev Conrad agreed to work with Congresswoman Susan Cooper, member of a prominent political family, he didn't know that the worst threat her reelection campaign would face would come from Cooper herself. The congresswoman has a secret she's not willing to share with Dev, forcing him to follow her the way a detective would. But the campaign is burdened with oth...

An assassination attempt on a U.S. congresswoman spells danger for Dev Conrad.Political consultant Dev Conrad is doing his best to help secure a re-election victory for congresswoman Jessica Bradshaw, who's fighting a fierce battle with her far-right opponent, Michael Dorsey.But the campaign is thrown into chaos when an assassination attempt is made on Jessica's life. She survives, and finds herself leading the race, but when the shotgun used in the shooting is found in the...

A "genuinely affecting" mystery set in small-town Iowa in the 1950s ( The Wall Street Journal).Sam McCain loves Buddy Holly because he's the only rock-and-roll star who still seems like a dweeb, and Sam knows how that feels. With the unrequited love of his life at his side, Sam drives more than three hours through the snow to watch his idol play the Surf Ballroom. That night, Buddy Holly dies in the most famous plane crash in music history, but Sam has no ...

Sam McCain investigates the murder of a friend involved in an anti–Vietnam War group in this thrilling series finale by the Shamus Award–winning author.Iowa, 1971. When we last encountered Sam McCain, in author Ed Gorman's "absorbing mystery" Ticket to Ride, he had been drafted to fight the war in Vietnam ( Booklist). But Sam's military career ended in boot camp when he was accidentally shot in the head...

The murder of a wealthy young woman in 1960s Iowa sparks backlash against a hippie commune in this mystery by the New York Times–bestselling author.Iowa, 1968. A hippie commune has invaded the small Midwestern town of Black River Falls. While the majority of the townspeople believe the bohemians, despite their bizarre ways, have the right to stay, there are s...

Award-winning author Ed Gorman is back with political consultant and troubleshooter Dev Conrad, in this riveting sequel.When Dev Conrad agreed to work with Congresswoman Susan Cooper, member of a prominent political family, he didn't know that the worst threat her reelection campaign would face would come from Cooper herself. The congresswoman has a secret she's not willing to share with Dev, forcing him to follow her the way a detective would. But the campaign is burdened with oth...

Jack Dwyer is a former cop who got the acting bug after he was cast in a local public safety commercial. He started acting lessons, quit his job, and applied for his private investigator's license (in very nearly that order). He also took a security guard job to keep the wolves away. The novel opens with Dwyer on a riverside park murder site. He was called there by a panicked former girlfriend. A girlfriend who left him for another man, and a girlfriend Dwyer isn't quite over.The w...

When his client becomes the prime suspect in a murder case, political consultant Dev Conrad's campaign is thrown into chaos.Political Consultant Devlin Conrad had the feeling that his very married client Senator Robert Logan was a lot more involved with the beautiful and mysterious Tracy Cabot than he wanted to admit. But he learned too late that the Cabot woman was a spy working for a shadowy right-wing organization—too late because by then she'd been found murdered in Senator Log...