End of the Tiger and Other Stories, a classic collection of short fiction from crime writer John D. MacDonald, the beloved author of Cape Fear and the Travis McGee series, is now available as an eBook.As prolific a novelist as John D. MacDonald was in his time, his output as a short-story writer is simply astonishing. All told, just a fraction of the five hundred pieces he produced as a working writer were anthologized, and End of the Tiger and Other Stories is the first of just a few such collections. Although renowned primarily as a noir author, these fifteen handpicked gems showcase MacDonald's tremendous range. Written between 1947 and 1966, during the golden age of short fiction in America, and appearing in such national magazines as Cosmopolitan, The Saturday Evening Post,Collier's, and Ladies' Home Journal,* these stories are a timeless testament to a writer at the top of his craft.This collection includes "Hangover," "The Big Blue," "The Trouble with Erica," "Long Shot," "Looie Follows Me," "Blurred View," "The Loveliest Girl in the World," "Triangle," "The Bear Trap," "A Romantic Courtesy," "The Fast Loose Money," "The Straw Witch," "End of the Tiger," "The Trap of Solid Gold," and "Afternoon of the Hero." Features a new Introduction by Dean KoontzPraise for John D. MacDonald"The great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller." - Stephen King"My favorite novelist of all time." - Dean Koontz"To diggers a thousand years from now, the works of John D. MacDonald would be a treasure on the order of the tomb of Tutankhamen." - Kurt Vonnegut"A master storyteller, a masterful suspense writer . . . John D. MacDonald is a shining example for all of us in the field. Talk about *thebest." - Mary Higgins Clark

"She turned her head, young, pale, with enormous black eyes. She looked at me, but she didn't see me. I saw her: the round smooth face and the deep black eyes and the full curved glossy mouth, a red underlip protruding in a pout that flicked at your libido despite the flung-about furniture and the dead man turned to the ceiling and the narrow wind pushing in through the broken window and the blue gun in both her hands."Meet Stella, whose eighteen-year-old cry is that Cleopatra was Queen of Egypt at seventeen.Stella, who makes the merely voluptuous seem passé. But then, she is only a teen-ager, and doesn't even a Private Richard have a conscience?

Lieutenant Fred O'Connor of the NYPD Narcotics Bureau has a secret: an apartment on Central Park West, jointly purchased with ill-gotten gains by Fred and a corrupt fellow officer. The place is a refuge for Fred from a society he finds repellently ill-ordered. But his own equilibrium is disturbed, first by a series of brutal murders of his colleagues, then by the appearance at the apartment's door of wan Leo Smith, who claims to be the cop-killer... 'Fleetwood is a compulsive pattern-maker, and a master of the ambiguous thread which finally pulls all together. It is a rich, gruesome, irresistibly readable book.' Times 'Fleetwood can write like a dream... and really get into your head. He reaches down and stirs with venomous delight the nameless, faceless things swimming far below the level of consciousness.' Scotsman

The Allied Occupation of Japan was more than an amazing military operation: it also created one of the most singular civilizations of modern history. It was made up of some of America's best minds and some of its worst, of some genuine idealists and some who simply "never had it so good," of women hungry for men, men hungry for power, and a fortunate leavening of ordinary, decent people. It was an astonishing and often terrifying little empire—now as dead as those of the Medes and Persians.All these characters—and many more—are skillfully set into the living mosaic which was the Occupation of Japan, in a dramatic story which pulls no punches. And if the reader thinks he detects himself or his friends (or enemies) among its pages, he will agree this historical novel is quite historical. But it's not often that history gets such controversial, sometimes infuriating, often hilarious, and always stimulating novel—which builds up to a final climax...

THE SHOOTIST is John Bernard Books, a man of principle and the only surviving gunfighter in a vanishing American West.He rides into El Paso in the year 1901, on the day Queen Victoria died, there to be told by a doctor that he must soon confront the greatest shootist of all: Death himself. In such a showdown, against such an antagonist, he cannot win.Most men may end their days in bed or take their own lives, but a man-killer has a third option, one which Books decides to exercise. He may choose his own executioner.As word spreads that the famous assassin has reached the end of his rope, an assortment of vultures gathers to feast upon his corpse - among them a gambler, a rustler, an undertaker, an old love, a reporter, even a boy. Books outwits them, however, by selecting the where, when, who, and why of his death and writing in fire from a pair of Remingtons the last courageous act of his own legend. The climatic gunfight itself is an incredible performance by an incredible man, and by his creator, Glendon Swarthout.THE SHOOTIST will rank with such classics as Shane and The Ox-Bow Incident, but is is much more than a Western. When, in the final afternoon of his life, J. B. Books crosses a street and enters a saloon to make something of his death, we cross, we enter, with him. He is us.

What readers first notice about Bill Bradley's exceptional book about his life as a pro-athlete, key basketball player for the New York Knicks, is his incredible candor. Bradley holds nothing back—giving us the straight story, describing in full detail the physical and emotional position on the court, to what was said and how it was said, to the somewhat surreal experience of seeing and experiencing the fans in their seats as they applaud or throw things.Bradley's on-court writing is as fast and direct and full of vigor as the game of basketball. The book conveys to us what it was really all about: how it felt to be him in the moment. And he succeeds. What is more striking perhaps is that Bradley balances this with his off-court writing: scenes of driving on the bus with the team through a grey downtown Cleveland as they make their way to the airport—industrial cities that have long ago burnt out, he tell us, the car wheels sucking on the wet pavement. Bradley...

Kenway Holland is a respectable bank teller who is alone in the city since his wife is visiting her mother. Kenny’s friend Parker convinces him to take advantage of the situation inviting him to phone a “very special” call girl. That’s the worse movement in his life, because the girl will be murdered and Kenny will become the main suspect.

On September 9, 1919, an American nightmare came true. The entire Boston police force deserted their posts, leaving the city virtually defenseless. Women were raped on street corners, stores were looted, and pedestrians were beaten and robbed while crowds not only looked on but cheered. The police strike and the mayhem that followed made an inconspicuous governor, Calvin Coolidge, known throughout America, turning him into a national hero and, eventually, a president. It also created a monster: for two days, more than 700,000 residents of Boston's urban core were without police protection, and the mob ruled the streets.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Unseen by an apathetic society, a stupendous battle is being waged between good and evil. In the center of an unassuming town, gathered in a nondescript hotel, are the most powerful forces of time eternal: the thirteen black covens. On All Hallow's Eve they unite to summon the Black Magician, the darkest and deadliest being of all time They are a rag-tag group of misfits: an inexperienced but lovely witch, an ancient sorcerer obsessed with math, and a private detective who can't seem to solve a case, but they are humanity's only hope. The world is unaware of the battle, but it will suffer the ultimate consequence if the war is won by the black evil. Can a group of social rejects save the world? Or will humanity plunge forever into the abyss?

GASLIGHT BELLA WAS TRAPPED IN THE EVIL MANSION ON ANGEL STREET—A HELPLESS VICTIM WHOSE SAFETY AND SANITY WAS AS UNCERTAIN AS THE FLICKERING GASLIGHT THAT FILLED HER WITH HORROR! Lying in drugged terror in her bedroom, beautiful Bella suspects that her own husband, sinister Mr. Manningham, is driving her mad. But can she be sure? As she fights the whirlpool of insanity, again and again Mr. Manningham threatens to put her into an asylum. Suddenly Bella sees one last chance to save herself. If she fails, she knows she will never leave the house on Angel Street alive.