Bill Crider

For lovers of romantic 1940s mysteries, Humphrey Bogart gets a chance to go beyond his tough-guy screen persona and actually help solve a blackmail and murder plot-with him as the intended victim Humphrey Bogart and down-and-out Hollywood private-eye Terry Scott team up to thwart a scheme to blackmail Bogie for murder and find themselves tangling with gangsters and trying not to trip over corpses. Their investigation takes them to glamorous restaurants like the Brown Derby, where the stars go to be seen, and to other, darker, more dangerous places where names are changed and faces are hidden from public view.As Bogie and Terry dig deeper, they uncover too many secrets that someone doesn't want known, and they find themselves the targets of a killer. Getting through alive will take all the smarts, toughness and grit of a character in a Humphrey Bogart movie.We'll Always Have Murder is for fans of Raymond Chandler and L.A. Confidential, and is a mystery treat of the first order.

Lizzie Randall, the preacher’s pretty daughter, has been discovered brutally murdered. The young Mexican boy Paco Morales is found close to the scene making him a convenient scapegoat to hang for the heinous crime. When the town drunkard Willie Turner claims that Morales is innocent, Sheriff Ward Vincent is forced to investigate the heinous crime more closely. As his investigation progresses, the dark underbelly of the small western town is exposed, and the guilty seem to outnumber the innocent.

When Ryan came riding back into Tularosa people gawped in disbelief. The power-players in town wanted him out of town—whether by horse or by casket. His old friends welcomed him, but their faces were shadowed with doubt and hard questions. Why could he make it back to town to see his sister’s killer hang when he couldn’t be bothered to stay and support her against the treacherous Kane brothers when she was still alive? It doesn’t take Ryan long to realize that Billy Kane, who stands to hang, is not his sister’s killer. He focuses his attention on the men who first ran him out of town, certain that they know the killer’s identity. No matter how long it takes, Ryan is determined to avenge his sister’s death and bring her murderer to justice. This time he’s not going to allow the powerful forces that control most everything in Tularosa hide the truth.

Lee Strate has been shot and left for dead by two men who stole every penny of his $5000 fortune. His life is saved by Jack, a freed black man who agrees to help him track down his money. Heading to Galveston, they discover the thieves are working for the powerful Colonel Benson. Lee and Jack discover that Colonel Benson is involved in agitating racial tension among Galveston’s dock workers, the Cotton Jammers. Telling the white workers that the blacks are trying to take over, and telling the blacks that the whites are taking unfair advantage of them, Benson has worked both parties into a frenzy. The unrest is likely to come to a head just when President Grant is due in town.The hunt for the thieves becomes deadly, and Lee and Jack begin to realize the shattering implications of the sinister political plot that has enmeshed them all.

Ray Storey left Kansas for one reason: revenge. Assuming the role of Kit Carson in a Medicine Show that travels to small towns around East Texas, he hunts down Sam Hawkins, the brutal murderer of Storey's innocent younger brother. As Ray finally arrives in the same town as his quarry, he is faced with the harsh reality that he might not have the wit or courage to bring the cruel Hawkins brothers to justice. When a man is killed and a woman kidnapped, Storey must throw away his act and shoot with real bullets, or his own life and honor will be forfeit.

As he flees to the sanctuary of Mexico, Chacho Fernandez is unaware of the fuel he has added to the already simmering racial hatreds in and around the quiet town of Domingo, Texas. Through events set in motion by a misunderstanding, Chacho becomes a folk hero to his people and a dangerous fugitive to a group of zealous lawmen.First published in 1974 by Ballantine Books, "Manhunters", the tale of Chacho's legendary flight, was inspired by the story of controversial Mexican fugitive Gregorio Cortez. In 1901 Cortez, a young horseman, shot a sheriff during an argument, leading to the largest concerted manhunt in Texas history.This novel is alive with the idiom of Kelton's native West Texas and freely punctuated with his trademark wry humour. His characters, both the ignorantly petty as well as the quietly strong, ring true to life.