Violence is My Business / Turn Left for Murder (Stark House Mystery Classics) [Paperback]

Stephen Marlowe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 2006 | Series: Stark House Mystery Classics

VIOLENCE IS MY BUSINESS Duncan Lord has everything to live for—a professorship at a prestigious college, the prospect of a top government job, an apparently happy marriage. Yet Chester Drum, hired to find out who the professor is sleeping with, penetrates a police cordon just in time to see Lord jump to his death from a fourth-floor ledge in the midst of Homecoming festivities. When Drum is accused of using his knowledge to blackmail the professor, his private investigator's license is lifted. The only way he can get it back is to learn what drove Lord to suicide. Was it an obsession with the call girl Bobby Hayst? Or was there something far more sinister? To find the truth, Drum must dodge a sadistic sheriff, a vengeful fellow professor, and a crooked investigator with the highest Washington connections—all conspiring to make Drum’s exit from his line of work a permanent one! TURN LEFT FOR MURDER As a teenager on the mean streets of Brooklyn, Norm Fisher had found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He'd witnessed a gangland killing. Worse, he'd driven the getaway car for Big Danny Cooper and Buggsy. They wanted him in the gang, but Fisher joined the Army instead. Now he’s out, married with one kid and another on the way, and Buggsy wants him back. Buggsy has a particular hit in mind—the special prosecutor for gangbusting!—and he’ll do whatever it takes to bring Fisher into it. Big Danny, execution expert for the mob’s Brooklyn branch, has plans for Fisher too, and between them they give him no choice. The lives of his wife and child hang in the balance, and no matter which way he turns, the road leads to murder.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Not only the best of the Chet Drums but for me his best crime novel period." -- Ed Gorman

"Not only the best of the Chet Drums but for me his best crime novel period." --Ed Gorman

"Very few writers of the tough-private-eye story can tell it more acutely than Mr. Marlowe." -- Anthony Boucher, New York Times

"Very few writers of the tough-private-eye story can tell it more acutely than Mr. Marlowe." --Anthony Boucher, New York Times

"Violence Is My Business is a masterpiece of atmosphere, plot, and genuine anxiety." -- Max Allan Collins

"Violence Is My Business is a masterpiece of atmosphere, plot, and genuine anxiety." --Max Allan Collins

"Violence Is My Business is a masterpiece of atmosphere, plot, and genuine anxiety." --Max Allan Collins

"Not only the best of the Chet Drums but for me his best crime novel period." --Ed Gorman

About the Author

Stephen Marlowe was born in New York in 1928 and educated in Virginia. He began his career by writing science-fiction for the pulps under his natal name, Milton Lesser, and various pen names. After army service during the Korean War, he adopted the Marlowe name for his mystery fiction and created his detective Chester Drum in 1955 with The Second Longest Night. Having changed his name legally, Stephen Marlowe wandered the world in search of material for his equally peripatetic detective. He was awarded France's Prix Gutenberg du Livre in 1988, and in 1997 the Private Eye Writers of America conferred on him their Life Achievement Award. He and his wife Ann live, for now, in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 253 pages
• Publisher: Stark House Press (January 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933586028
• ISBN-13: 978-1933586021
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)