Mysterious Press introduced two crime novel trilogies today, available to download as ebooks at a special price.
One is the collection of three mysteries featuring PI Holland Taylor by David Housewright, the first of which, Penance, won the 1996 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. The three books were published between 1995 and 1999. Housewright currently writes a series featuring ex-St. Paul police detective Rushmore McKenzie.
The other is a collection of three mysteries featuring PI Jack LeVine by Andrew Bergman, originally published between 1974 and 2001.
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The Holland Taylor Trilogy
David Housewright
The Holland Taylor Mysteries (Books 1 through 3)
Holland Taylor is comfortable in interrogation rooms. For years the cold, dark cells of the Minneapolis homicide squad were his turf, and with the help of his partner he wrung confessions out of countless killers. But that was long ago.
In Penance, Taylor is on the other side of the desk. Tonight he is the suspect.
Taylor's career in the department ended after his wife and daughter were killed in a drunk driving accident. The culprit, John Brown, was sentenced to a measly six years for vehicular manslaughter, and Taylor vowed bloody vengeance in front of open court. After a few months of freedom, Brown is shot dead, and Taylor, now a private investigator, is called in as the obvious suspect. He didn't kill Brown, but he will find out who did — even if it means tearing Minneapolis apart from the inside out.
In Dearly Departed, Holland Taylor discovers a recording made by a woman named Alison Emerton explaining that if she is missing, it is because Raymond Fleck killed her. Fleck, a convicted rapist, lost his job at a kennel after Alison accused him of sexual harassment and stalking. She vanished soon after, leaving behind her wallet, coat, and boots, on a night when twenty-three inches of snow fell on Minneapolis. Her lawyer has hired Taylor to find her. But as Taylor digs into Alison's past, he learns that Fleck was not the only person who wanted her dead.
In Practice to Deceive, Florida widow and retiree Irene Gustafson is rich and alone. Following the advice of Ann Landers, Gustafson hands her money over to an investment manager. The returns are steady until he starts investing in Willow Tree, a low-income housing development on the fringes of the Twin Cities. The money vanishes, and the widow is destitute. That's where Holland Taylor, Minneapolis private detective, comes in. His recently retired parents are her neighbors, and they want Taylor to recover the old lady's money. It seems impossible, but as he investigates Willow Tree he finds a twisted real-estate conspiracy with deep roots in city politics — and a vicious killer hired to protect the secret.
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The Jack LeVine Trilogy
Andrew Bergman
The Jack LeVine Mysteries (Books 1 to 3)
Stocky, sweaty, and bald, LeVine is a Jewish private detective who makes a living by being polite. But underneath his smile lies a bulldog.
In The Big Kiss-off of 1944, fledgling actress Kerry Lane comes to Jack LeVine when a blackmailer demands a payoff to keep a series of stag films from her past out of the public eye. Lured by long legs and a roll of crisp twenties, LeVine takes Kerry's case. But before he can speak to the blackmailer, the crook turns up dead. As LeVine hunts for Kerry's old films, he finds that the heart of this case is even uglier than greed, lust, or murder. It's politics.
In Hollywood and LeVine, screenwriter Walter Adrian seeks the advice of high school buddy Jack LeVine. Studio execs suspect that Adrian is a Communist, and they're lowballing his salary as a result. Though he insists he isn't a Red, Adrian has no way of proving it. LeVine is broke, and has no sympathy for his wealthy friend, but he agrees to fly west to investigate his old classmate's trouble. When he arrives, Adrian hangs dead from the gallows at the Western set on the Warners' backlot. Behind his friend's death, LeVine finds a shadowy Cold War conspiracy, and a city far darker than anything Hollywood puts on screen.
In Tender Is LeVine, Jack LeVine is just emerging from a vicious funk after the 1948 death of his father. His first client is a German violinist, who visits LeVine out of concern for his maestro, Toscanini, the famous conductor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The maestro's memory is slipping, his conducting style has changed, and his eyesight is suddenly vastly improved. The violinist suspects that the conductor has disappeared and been replaced by a double. It's an outlandish suspicion, but LeVine takes the case. After all, somebody has to pay for his new office. Soon enough, LeVine finds out that organized crime is playing the tune …
