Books to Look Forward to from Titan Books Incl (Hard Case Crime)

January 2020

The Manifestation of Sherlock Holmes is by James Lovegrove. Tales of treachery, intrigue and evil… Maverick detective Sherlock Holmes and his faithful chronicler Dr John Watson return in twelve thrilling short stories.  The iconic duo find themselves swiftly drawn into a series of puzzling and sinister events: an otherworldly stone whose touch inflicts fatal bleeding; a hellish potion unlocks a person’s devilish psyche; Holmes’s most hated rival detective tells his story; a fiendishly clever, almost undetectable method of revenge; Watson finally has his chance to shine; and many more – including a brand-new Cthulhu Casebooks story.

February 2020

What’s hidden behind the silver screen? In New York City, a movie critic has just murdered his girlfriend – well, one of his girlfriends (not to be confused with his wife). Will the unlikely crime-solving partnership he forms with the investigating police detective keep him from the film noir ending he deserves?  On the opposite coast, movie star Dawn Devayne – the hottest It Girl in Hollywood – gets a visit from a Navy sailor who says he knew her when she was just ordinary Estelle Anlic of San Diego. Now she’s a big star who’s put her past behind her. But secrets have a way of not staying buried…  Double Feature is by Donald Westlake.

The Big Bang is by Micky Spillane and Max Allan Collins.  It’s the middle of the Swinging Sixties in midtown Manhattan. Hammer, recuperating from a near fatal mix-up with the Mob, disturbs some drug dealers assaulting a young motorbike messenger who was transporting medicine for a hospital. He saves the kid but the muggers are not so lucky. The Mob and a new young breed of drug trafficker assume he will target them, and they target him right back, with a street-corner knife attack. Hammer and his beautiful, deadly partner Velda take on the drug racket in New York. In a world of flashy discos, swanky bachelor pads and the occasional dark alley, Hammer deals with doctors, drug addicts and hit men, and meets changing times with his trademark brand of violent vengeance.

The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Martian Menace.  A new addition to the Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series from science fiction and crime author Eric Brown. A deadly plot. For the second time in human history, Martian invaders occupy planet Earth. After a common terrestrial virus thwarted the first deadly invasion, another Martian armada arrived six years later to make peace. Now, mankind enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the aliens' scientific wonders and technology, and an entente exists between the two races. But when Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson are called upon to investigate the death of an eminent Martian philosopher, they unravel an intricate web of betrayal and murder that leaves no one - human or Martian - beyond suspicion...

Mike Hammer, the iconic PI created by hard-boiled crime master Mickey Spillane and written by New York Times bestseller Max Allan Collins, returns in Masquerade for Murder. Hammer is at a high society party when a wealthy and well-respected man, Colby, is hit by a car and badly injured. When all he expected was a night on the town, Mike is hired to find out who was driving the car. His search leads him on a trail of murders, the victims often exhibiting the same kind of strangulation as the cause of death. How are they connected to an accident involving Corby, and why is the man himself acting so strangely?

FBI agent Reed Markham is haunted by one painful unsolved mystery: who murdered his mother? Camilla was brutally stabbed to death more than forty years ago while baby Reed lay in his crib mere steps away. But a shattering family secret changes everything Reed knows about his origins, his murdered mother, and his powerful adoptive father, state senator Angus Markham. Now Reed has to wonder if his mother’s killer is uncomfortably close to home.  Reed enlists his friend, suspended cop Ellery Hathaway, to join his quest in Vegas. Ellery has experience with both troubled families and diabolical murderers, having narrowly escaped from each of them.   Far from home and relying only on each other, Reed and Ellery discover young Camilla had snared the attention of dangerous men, any of whom might have wanted to shut her up for good. They start tracing his twisted family history, knowing the path leads back to a vicious killer―one who has been hiding in plain sight for forty years and isn’t about to give up now.  All The Best Lies is by Joanna Schaffhausen

March 2020

Are Snakes Necessary is by Brian de Palma and Susan Leham.  When the beautiful young videographer offered to join his campaign, Senator Lee Rogers should've known better. But saying no would have taken a stronger man than Rogers, with his ailing wife and his robust libido. Enter Barton Brock, the senator's fixer. He's already gotten rid of one troublesome young woman -- how hard could this new one turn out to be? Pursued from Washington D.C. to the streets of Paris, 18-year-old Fanny Cours knows her reputation and budding career are on the line. But what she doesn't realize is that her life might be as well...

April 2020

Sherlock Holmes acquires a new client when a beautiful young woman, Isabel Stone, faints on the steps of his Baker Street rooms. She has come to beg his assistance in reclaiming some priceless jewels kept from her by her tyrannical stepfather, Captain Grimbold Pratt. But shortly after agreeing to take her case, Captain Pratt comes to Baker Street, not quite so tyrannical as Isabel would have them believe. Holmes and his cousin, Dr Henry Vernier, must unravel a tense family mystery dating back to the Indian Mutiny, where neither of them is sure who to believe... The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Venerable Tiger is by Sam Siciliano

July 2020

She Lies Close is by Sharon Doering.  Five-year-old Ava Boone has been missing for six months. There are have been no leads, no arrests, no witnesses. The only suspect was quiet, middle-aged Leland Ernest.  And Grace Wright has just bought the house next door. Recently divorced, Grace uprooted her two small children to start again and hopes the move will reset her crippling insomnia. But now she understands bargain-price for her beautiful new house.  With whispered neighbourhood gossip and increasingly sleepless nights, Grace develops a fierce obsession with Leland and the safety of her children. Could she really be living next door to a child-kidnapper? A murderer?  With reality and dream blurring more each day, Grace desperately pursues the truth – following Ava’s family, demanding answers from the police – and then a body is discovered…

You Again is by Debra Jo Immergut.  Abigail Willard first spots her from the back of a New York cab: the spitting image of Abby herself at age 22 – right down to the silver platforms and raspberry coat she wore as a young artist with a taste for wildness. But the real Abby is now 46, married with a corporate job and two kids. As the girl vanishes into a rainy night, Abby is left shaken. Was this merely a hallucinatory side-effect of working-mom stress? A message of sorts, sent to remind her of passions and dreams tossed aside? Or something more dangerous?  As weeks go by, Abby continues to spot her double around her old New York haunts—and soon, despite her better instincts, Abby finds herself tailing her lookalike. She is dogged by a nagging suspicion that there is a deeper mystery to figure out, one rooted far in her past. All the while, Abby’s life starts to slip from her control: her marriage hits major turbulence, her teenage son drifts into a radical movement that portends a dark coming era. When her elusive double presents her with a dangerous proposition, Abby must decide how much she values the life she’s built, and how deeply she knows herself.

TITAN CELEBRATES MICKEY SPILLANE’S 100th ANNIVERSARY

To celebrate the centenary year of Mickey Spillane, Titan Comics is excited to announce Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, a brand-new Hard Case Crime comic book series, based on a story originally written by Mickey Spillane and adapted by Max Allan Collins (Road To Perdition, Quarry’s War) – coming in June 2018.

Following his debut novel, I, The Jury in 1947, Mickey Spillane became one of the best-selling novelists of all-time, with more than 225 million copies of his books sold internationally. Famed, yet controversial for the depictions of sex and violence in his novels, Spillane created Mike Hammer, one of the most famous of all fictional detectives, and even starred as Hammer in one of the many movies made from his books.

 

Mickey Spillane's tough-talking, brawling, skirt-chasing private detective Mike Hammer returns to comics in Titan’s new Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer series. When a chance encounter with a captivating femme fatale leads to a violent mob retaliation, hard-boiled detective Mike Hammer finds himself dodging both bullets and broads as he undertakes the most dangerous case of his career.

Entitled “The Night I Died,” Titan’s new comic series is based on an un-produced 1950s Spillane screenplay. Now, with this new comic book series, readers can experience an authentic yet brand-new take on the bestselling writer's much-loved detective – written by Collins with art by rising star Marcelo Salaza and colorist Marcio Freire.

“Spillane’s contributions to the genre are without parallel,” said Titan Comics editor Tom Williams. “What better addition to the Hard Case Crime comics family than his signature character, Mike Hammer? Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer is sure to become a hard-boiled classic.”

Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer is part of Titan Publishing’s wider year-long celebration of Spillane’s work and legacy which includes the Titan Books and Hard Case Crime publication of Killing Town,  the very first Mike Hammer novel, begun by Spillane around 1945 and recently completed by Collins. Killing Town had been set aside by Spillane to write his and Hammer’s famous 1947 debut, I, The Jury; and The Last Stand -- Spillane’s never-before-published final novel -- was completed by Spillane just before his death in 2006.

"I am thrilled to join Marcelo and Marcio in bringing Mickey Spillane to the comic book form -- particularly since Mickey was a top Golden Age comic book writer himself,” said series writer Max Allan Collins. “His Mike Hammer -- probably the most influential private eye of all -- was initially created with comics in mind. "

“It’s a privilege to work with Max Allan Collins, Mickey’s hand-picked successor and fellow Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, to celebrate the Spillane Centenary,” said Hard Case Crime editor Charles Ardai, “No one could be a better choice to shepherd Mickey’s legendary detective, Mike Hammer, onto the comic book page than the author behind Road to Perdition, Dick Tracy, Wild Dog and Ms. Tree.”

Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer is part of Titan’s new Hard Case Crime comics imprint, which has seen recent publications including Quarry’s War written by novel series creator Max Allan Collins, Triggerman by visionary director Walter Hill (The Warriors), Peepland, by crime author Christa Faust and Gary Phillips, a new adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Millennium, Normandy Gold by crime authors Megan Abbott and Alison Gaylin, and Babylon Berlin – a graphic novel adaptation of the book that inspired the new TV show currently showing on Netflix.

Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer Issue #1 is available to order from the April edition of Diamond Previews.

Look out for more exciting announcements from Titan Comics and Hard Case Crime soon.

Books to Look Forward to from Titan Books

January 2017

London, 1887. Victorian adventuress and butterfly hunter Veronica Speedwell receives an invitation to visit the Curiosity Club, a ladies-only establishment for daring and intrepid women. There she meets the mysterious Lady Sundridge, who begs her to take on an impossible task—saving society art patron Miles Ramsforth from execution. Accused of the brutal murder of his artist mistress Artemisia, Ramsforth will face the hangman’s noose if Veronica cannot find the real killer.  But Lady Sundridge is not all that she seems, and unmasking her true identity is only the first of the many secrets Veronica must uncover. Together with her natural historian colleague Stoker, Veronica races against time to find the true murderer… A Perilous Undertaking is by Deanna Raybourn.

February 2017

Snatch is by Gregory McDonald.  Whether it’s a Middle East oil crisis in the 1970s or the London Blitz during WWII, world events have a way of breeding trouble on the home front, too. That’s how Toby Rinaldi, son of a U.N. Ambassador, wound up kidnapped on his way to a California amusement park, and how Robby Burnes, orphaned son of British nobility, wound up snatched on the snowy streets of New York City. But as Robby’s famous namesake taught us, the best-laid plans don’t always work out as intended. Especially not when you’re a kidnapper in the hands of Gregory McDonald.

The Threateners is a Matt Helm novel by Donald Hamilton.  A ruthless South American drug lord has a plan to bring the United States to its knees. A group of renegade American agents has plans to smash the kingpin and his cartel, by any means necessary. Caught in the middle, Matt Helm’s got to do double duty to stop them both, and to protect a woman with information both sides would kill for…

The Killing Bay is by Chris Ould.  When a group of international activists arrive on the Faroe Islands, intent on stopping the traditional whale hunts, tensions between islanders and protestors run high. And when a woman is found murdered only hours after a violent confrontation at a whale drive, the circumstances seem purposely designed to increase animosity between the two sides. For English DI Jan Reyna and local detective Hjalti Hentze, the case quickly exposes personal connections and con icts of interest. But as they dig deeper it becomes increasingly clear that the murder has other, more sinister aspects to it. Knowing evidence is being hidden from them, neither policeman knows who to trust, or how far some people might go to defend their beliefs.

The aristocratic Charles Bromley arrives at 221B Baker Street to beg Sherlock Holmes for his help. Bromley believes that his wife is in danger, as she has refused an offer to sell the Moonstone, a fabulous diamond that has been in her family for generations but which is said to be cursed. When a jeweller is found murdered, it seems as if the Moonstone deserves its reputation. Then the diamond is stolen, and Holmes must try to unravel a mystery centuries in the making. The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Moonstone’s Curse is by Sam Siciliano.

March 2017

Private Investigator George Kocharyan is on the trail of a runaway maid, the employee of a famous TV surgeon and his beauty-queen wife. The maid is accused of stealing confidential documents, and Kocharyan’s investigation leads him to the city’s Filipino community, where he discovers the risks faced by those working far from home. Meanwhile, the discovery of a teenager’s body brings the permanently unpleasant DI Vicky Stubbing back into George’s life, and as two violent strangers cross his path also looking for the missing maid, he begins to wonder if his celebrity employers are everything they seem. The Surgeon’s Case is by E G Rodford.

Follow Me Down is by Sherri Smith.  Mia Haas has built a life for   As Mia re-evaluates their difficult, shared history and launches her own investigation into the grisly murder, she uncovers secrets that could exonerate Lucas—or seal his fate. In a small town where everyone’s history is intertwined, Mia will be forced to confront her own demons, placing her right in the killer’s crosshairs herself far from the small town where she grew up, but when she receives word that her twin brother is missing, she’s forced to return home. Once hailed as the golden boy of their community, Lucas Haas disappeared the same day the body of one of his teenage students is pulled from the river. Trying to wrap her head around the rumours of Lucas’s affair with the teen, and unable to reconcile the media’s portrayal of Lucas as a murderer with her own memories of him, Mia is desperate to find another suspect.  All the while, she wonders, if he’s innocent, why did he run?

Sherlock Holmes: A Betrayal of Blood is by Mark A Latham.  It is 1894, and the news of a Transylvanian nobleman’s death at the hands of a certain Professor Van Helsing is the talk of London.  Unsatisfied at the acquittal of the professor, Mycroft Holmes asks Sherlock to investigate what truly led to the deaths of Lucy Westenra and the mysterious aristocrat. The newspapers are full of inconsistencies and wild supernatural theories, and as Holmes digs deeper, he suspects that those hailed as heroes are not what they seem. The clues point to an innocent man framed and murdered for crimes he did not commit, and Holmes and Watson find themselves targeted at every turn, as what began as a quest to clear one man’s name reveals a conspiracy that draws them to the mountains of Transylvania and the infamous Castle Dracula.

How far would you go to provide for your child?  Adam Shaw is dying, and knows he’ll leave his disabled son with nothing. His solution? Rob a bank. It’s no surprise that things go wrong. What is surprising is that when another customer is accidentally shot, no one in the bank is in a hurry to hand Adam over to the police. There’s the manager who’s desperate to avoid an audit, the security guard with a serious grudge against the dead man, and the woman who knows exactly how bad the victim really was...  Eight people, twelve hours, one chance to cover up a murder. But it’s not just the police they have to fool. When many lives intersect, the results can be explosive. Parallel Lines is by Steven Saville.

Taking a midnight stroll along the Hudson River, Mike Hammer gets more than he bargained for: a partial corpse on an ice floe. The body is that of an ex-police captain, who spent the last years of his life as a butler to a millionaire—also now deceased.  Were both master and servant murdered? Captain Pat Chambers thinks so. But to prove it Hammer must travel to upstate New York to investigate the dead man’s family, all of whom have a motive for murder.  The Will to Kill is a Mike Hammer novel by Micky Spillane and Max Allan Collins.

April 2017

The Age of Olympus is by Gavin Scott.  Duncan Forrester’s research on an Aegean island is interrupted first by the murder of a British archaeologist, and then by the outbreak of the Greek Civil War. The worship of ancient gods may provide a clue to the murderer, but in such a tumultuous time, little is what it seems.

Fatal Music is by Peter Morfoot.  Captain Paul Darac of the Brigade Criminelle is called to a potential crime scene - an elderly woman found dead in her hot tub. At first it is thought that she died of natural causes, but a surprising link with Darac’s own life leads him to dig deeper. In doing so he uncovers disturbing proof that there may have been a motive to kill the woman, and there is no shortage of suspects. Allegiances past and present must be set aside to unravel a tale of greed, deception and treachery that spans the social spectrum. It is among the winding streets of his own neighbourhood in Nice’s old town, the Babazouk, that Darac faces his severest test yet.

May 2017

Two Lost Boys is by L F Robertson.  Janet Moodie has spent years as a death row appeals attorney. Overworked and recently widowed, she’s had her fill of hopeless cases, and is determined that this will be her last. Her client is Marion ‘Andy’ Hardy, convicted along with his brother Emory of the rape and murder of two women. The brothers were tried separately, and Emory received a life sentence, while Andy got the death penalty, labelled the ringleader despite his low IQ and Emory’s dominant personality.  Convinced that Andy’s previous lawyers have missed mitigating evidence that would have spared him the death penalty, Janet investigates Andy’s past, revealing a sordid and damaging upbringing, a series of errors on the part of his previous council, and most worrying of all, the possibility that there is far more to the Hardy family than was first thought. Andy may be guilty, but of what?

His first adventure consisted of the search for a rare record; his second begins with the discovery of one. When a mint copy of the final album by “Valerian”—England’s great lost rock band of the 1960s—surfaces in a charity shop, all hell breaks loose.  Finding this record triggers a chain of events culminating in our hero learning the true fate of the singer Valerian, who died under equivocal circumstances just after—or was it just before?— The abduction of her two-year-old son.  Along the way, the Vinyl Detective finds himself marked for death, at the wrong end of a shotgun, and unknowingly dosed with LSD as a prelude to being burned alive. And then there’s the grave robbing… But he does find out what happened to the missing child, and it wasn’t what anyone expected—or wanted—to hear.  The Vinyl Detective: The Run-Out Groove is by Andrew Cartmel

June 2017

Fight or Die is by James Hilton When the Gunn brothers Danny and Clay answer a call to help old friends, they are plunged into a volatile and potentially deadly situation. Larry and Pamela Duke own one of the most popular nightclubs in the Spanish resort town of Ultima, but a local gang known as the Locos are determined to take it for themselves. Danny and Clay are hired to protect the club, but soon new adversaries enter the game. Against such odds there are only two choices: fight or die..

The game’s afoot once more as Holmes and Watson face off against Moriarty’s gang, the Pinkertons, flesh-eating horses, a parliament of imps, boredom, Surrey, a disappointing butler demon, a succubus, a wicked lord, an overly-Canadian lord, a tricycle-fight to the death and the dreaded Pumpcrow. Oh, and a hell hound, one assumes.  Warlock Holmes: The Hell-Hound of the Baskervilles is by G S Denning

July 2017

A mysterious Catholic priest arrives at 221B Baker Street, only to utter the words ‘il corpe’ before dropping dead. Though the man’s death is attributed to cholera, when news of a similar case in Bristol reaches Holmes, he becomes convinced that the priests have been poisoned. He and Watson learn that the men were on a mission from the Vatican to investigate a miracle; it is said that the body of an eighteenth-century philanthropist and slave trader Edwyn Warwick has not decomposed. But should the Pope sanctify a man who made his fortune through slavery? And when Warwick’s body is stolen, it becomes clear that the priests’ mission has attracted the attention of a deadly conspiracy... Sherlock Holmes: Cry of the Innocents is by Cavan Scott.