James Sallis
1) Sarah Jane
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Sarah Jane Pullman is a good cop with a complicated past. From her small-town chicken-farming roots through her runaway adolescence, court-ordered Army stint, ill-advised marriage and years slinging scrambled eggs over greasy spoon griddles, Sarah Jane unfolds her life story, a parable about memory, atonement, and finding shape in chaos. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she is named the de facto sheriff of a rural town, investigating the mysterious...
2) Moth
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
Lew Griffin, now fifty years old, has abandoned his former career as a New Orleans private investigator for the safety of teaching. But his old life draws him back.
One of the very few lights from Lew Griffin’s dark and violent past has flickered out. His one-time lover, LaVerne Adams, is dead—and her daughter, Alouette, has vanished into a seamy, dead-end world of users and abusers, leaving behind a critically fragile...
One of the very few lights from Lew Griffin’s dark and violent past has flickered out. His one-time lover, LaVerne Adams, is dead—and her daughter, Alouette, has vanished into a seamy, dead-end world of users and abusers, leaving behind a critically fragile...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
As much a classic detective story as it is a literary masterpiece, The Long-Legged Fly introduces us to Lew Griffin: tough, smart, and living in a corner of society where life is fought for as much as it is lived.
In steamy New Orleans, black private detective Lew Griffin has taken on a seemingly hopeless missing-person case. The trail takes him through the underbelly of the French Quarter with its bar girls, pimps, and tourist attractions....
In steamy New Orleans, black private detective Lew Griffin has taken on a seemingly hopeless missing-person case. The trail takes him through the underbelly of the French Quarter with its bar girls, pimps, and tourist attractions....
Author
Series
Publisher
Walker & Co
Pub. Date
2004.
Language
English
Description
The small town where Turner has moved is one of America's lost places, halfway between Memphis and forever. That makes it a perfect hideaway: a place where a man can bury the past and escape the pain of human contact, and where Turner hopes to forget that he has been a cop, a psychotherapist, and, always, an ex-con. There is no major crime to speak of until Sheriff Lonnie Bates arrives on Turner's porch with a bottle of Wild Turkey and a problem:...
5) Drive
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
"Fans of mysteries featuring literary figures as crime-solvers will thoroughly enjoy this series." -Booklist
It's 1927, and "the Ferber season on Broadway" is about to begin. The musical adaptation of Show Boat by Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern opens on December 27, and The Royal Family, her comedy of manners written with George Kaufman, opens the following night. But despite the excitement, author Edna Ferber misses both opening nights. She has...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"In his celebrated career, James Sallis has created some of the most finely drawn protagonists in crime fiction, all of them thoughtful observers of the human condition: Lew Griffin, the black New Orleans private investigator; retired detective John Turner; the unnamed wheelman in Drive. Dr. Lamar Hale will now join the ranks of Sallis's finest characters. In the woods outside the town of Willnot, the remains of several people have suddenly been discovered,...
Author
Series
Pub. Date
2006.
Language
English
Formats
Description
James Sallis' stories about ex-cop, ex-con, and ex-psychotherapist Turner have garnered starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly. Back working as a deputy in a small Tennessee town, Turner's hands are full when the sheriff and the only other deputy are shot and the shooter escapes the county jail. Tracking the criminal to Memphis, Turner uncovers disturbing connections to organized crime.
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
John Turner, deputy sheriff of a small town near Memphis, confronts trouble in the persons of the sheriff's long-lost son, who arrives in what appears to be a stolen car, and old friend Eldon Brown, who is a suspect in a murder he does not know if he committed.
9) Driven
Author
Series
Publisher
Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date
2012.
Language
English
Description
"A PERFECT PIECE OF NOIR FICTION" NEW YORK TIMES * NAMED BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
"Drive is full of sly humor, poetic details and plenty of rude violence...The novel is a terrific ride." Los Angeles Times
I drive. That's what I do. All I do.
Originally written in 2005, Drive by James Sallis is the inspiration for the iconic 2011 film starring Ryan Gosling in the role of the man known only as 'Driver', a Hollywood...
Author
Publisher
Walker & Company
Pub. Date
2001.
Language
English
Description
"In this literary biography, acclaimed poet, critic, and novelist James Sallis explores Himes's life as no other writer has attempted before. Combining the public facts with fresh interviews with the people who knew him best, including his second wife, Lesley, Sallis casts light onto the contradictions, self-interrogations, and misdirections that make Himes such an enigmatic and elusive subject." "Chester Himes: A Life is a definitive study not only...
Author
Publisher
Walker Pub. Co
Pub. Date
2011.
Language
English
Description
Shortlisted for the Anthony, Nebula, Edgar, Shamus, and Gold Dagger Awards, best-selling author James Sallis is a master of the gritty crime drama. The Killer Is Dying tracks the fortunes of three men of vastly different ages, backgrounds, and ambitions. Though they never meet, a hired killer on his last job, a burned out detective, and a young boy plagued by nightmares have their lives intersect in compelling ways in the scorching metropolis of Phoenix,...
Author
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Formats
Description
The journey of the Mexico City-bound Pullman seems ill-fated from the outset -- what with the engine troubles and the threat of an impending railway strike -- but no one aboard expects the terror that will descend upon the luxury train between Laredo and its destination. First a man dies as the vehicle passes through a dark tunnel and then, just as United States Customs Agent Hugh Rennert begins to investigate, the train comes to a screeching halt...
Author
Series
Publisher
Walker & Co
Pub. Date
2001.
Language
English
Description
The mystery of Lew Griffin is revealed in this concluding novel of an honored series. In his old house in uptown New Orleans, Griffin is alone. His relationship with Deborah is falling apart; his son, David, had disappeared again. And Lew is directionless: he hasn't written anything in years, he no longer teaches. Now he stands in a dark room, staring out the window. Behind him, on the bed, is a body. He thinks if he doesn't speak, doesn't think about...
Author
Publisher
Bloomsbury
Pub. Date
2013.
Language
English
Description
At age eight, Jenny Rowan was abducted and kept for two years in a box beneath her captor's bed. Eventually she escaped and, after living for eighteen months on scraps at the local mall, was put into the foster care system. Now an adult, she works as a production editor for the local public TV station, and is one of the world's good people. One evening she returns home to find a detective waiting for her. He asks if she can help with a young woman...
Author
Series
Lew Griffin ; 4
Publisher
Walker and Co
Pub. Date
1997.
Language
English
Description
As he searches for missing children and battles muggers who are terrorizing a district of New Orleans, the African-American private eye, Lew Griffin, reflects on life and the art of fiction. A former detective who became a novelist, Griffin teaches writing.
Author
Series
Publisher
Walker and Co
Pub. Date
1999.
Language
English
Description
In New Orleans, black writer Lew Griffin searches for men who tried to kill him. He was wounded while leaving a bar in the company of a white woman. A mystery whose villains are white supremacists. By the author of Eye of the Cricket.
17) Black hornet
Author
Series
Publisher
Carroll & Graf Publishers
Pub. Date
1994.
Language
English
Description
In New Orleans, Lew Griffin, a black freelance investigator, goes after a black sniper terrorizing the city. He successfully accomplishes his mission with the aid of a great deal of booze, some good books and the love of a whore. By the author of The Long-Legged Fly.
Author
Publisher
St. Martin's Press
Pub. Date
1997.
Language
English
Description
David, as he's currently known, was a member of an elite corps of spies trained during the coldest days of the Cold War. But those days are long gone, and for almost a decade he has been out of the rat race and working as a sculptor. Then a phone call in the middle of the night awakens him: the only other survivor from that elite corps has gone rogue-and they need David to stop him. What ensues is an existential cat-and-mouse game played out across...
20) Potato tree
Author
Publisher
Host Publications
Pub. Date
[2007]
Language
English
Description
A collection of short stories.