A “genuinely affecting” mystery set in small-town Iowa in the 1950s (The Wall Street Journal). Sam McCain loves Buddy Holly because he’s the only rock-and-roll star who still seems like a dweeb, and Sam knows how that feels. With the unrequited love of his life at his side, Sam drives more than three hours through the snow to watch his idol play the Surf Ballroom. That night, Buddy Holly dies in the most famous plane crash in music history, but Sam has no time to grieve. Because there are too many lawyers in this small town, Sam makes a living as a PI, doing odd jobs for an eccentric judge—whose nephew, it seems, has a problem only a detective could solve. His trophy wife has been murdered, and as soon as Sam arrives, the nephew kills himself, too. The police see this as a clear-cut murder-suicide, but Sam wants to know more, diving into a mystery by Ellery Queen Award–winning author Ed Gorman that will get dangerous faster than you can say “bye-bye, Miss American Pie.”

Leo Guild, sometime bounty hunter, has spent the previous three weeks riding shotgun for one of the last stage lines remaining in the Midwest. But jobs were few and far between and Guild was nearly broke. So it was foolish for Guild to contemplate refusing the simple job he’s asked to take—finding a missing prizefighter. Guild had always hated boxing; he considered it primitive and repellant. Now he finds himself taking an even more intense dislike to John T. Stoddard, the boxing promoter who wants to hire him. Still, the money is good for a few hours’ work, and Guild decides to take the job. Guild quickly finds the fighter holed up in the home of his Mexican girlfriend, but the fighter has some grievances with Stoddard and he takes them out on Guild. After getting soundly beaten by the angry fighter, Guild should have called it a day. He never anticipated the trouble he signed up for when he foolishly agreed to guard the fighter and the purse.

The small western town of Claybank erupts with murders, arsons, and kidnappings in the space of days. Deputy Tom Prine must find out why before he becomes the next victim. Original.

Save The Last Dance For Me by Ed Gorman released on Jun 24, 2003 is available now for purchase.

Spur Award-Winning Author ED GORMAN The money is phony but the murders are real… A COUNTERFEITING RING WITH MORE THAN INK ON ITS HANDS... Secret Service Agent Dev Mallory didn't get to be the best playing by the rules. He's trained to kill, but only as a last resort—because murder has a way of coming back at you... Not too many counterfeiters have outwitted Secret Service Agent Dev Mallory. President Cleveland handpicked him to shut down an elaborate counterfeiting scheme in Denver before it floods the West with funny money and collapses the U.S. economy. The Denver operation might be the best Dev has ever seen, thanks to a corrupt government engraver who's probably outlived his usefulness. Suspected ring members are already turning up dead-and a trusted Secret Service agent has been murdered. But when unexpected ties and betrayals from the past catch up with Dev, the cost of solving this counterfeiting case could include his own life... "Simply one of the best Western writers of our time."—Rocky Mountain News "An underappreciated master."—Booklist

Leo Guild didn’t figure on running into his former wife Sarah again. Years earlier she’d left him for a gunfighter named Frank Evans. Guild is putting up in a river town, and hears Sarah is staying in a local hotel—she’s been looking for him. Leo’s heart soars, until she tells him that Frank Evans has left her for a younger woman, Beth. Unfortunately for Frank, Beth’s former lover is also a gunfighter who has sworn to kill Evans. Sarah has forgiven Frank, and she wants Guild to broker a peace between the gunfighters so Frank can return to her, unharmed. At the same time, a rich man named Adair has caught wind of the conflict and he invites both gunfighters to his ranch for a birthday celebration—their gunfight will be the main attraction for the guests who are arriving from all over the country. The winner will get $10,000 and Beth, the loser… Guild reluctantly gets pulled into trying to stop the fight—but matters of the heart are never resolved simply and Guild has a foreboding sense that a tragic ending will be unavoidable.

“Gorman’s writing is strong, fast and sleek as a bullet. He’s one of the best.”—Dean Koontz It all started so innocently. It was just a group of buddies meeting for a weekly poker game. No harm done—until the night an intruder broke in while they were playing. They didn't mean to kill him, that was an accident. They thought if they threw the body in the river no one would ever know. That's where they were wrong. Dead wrong. The intruder hadn't come alone. His friend was waiting for him outside the house and he saw it all. Suddenly the game had changed. What had started out as a simple poker game now became a game of cat and mouse. The stakes were raised too—to life and death. And it looked like the attacker in the shadows held all the cards. "Scary because it's so plausible, and because Gorman knows exactly how to keep the reader on the edge of his seat."—Science Fiction Chronicle “One of Gorman’s strongest yet . . . a sense of menace that grows until it becomes almost palpable.”—Forthcoming Mysteries

“The kind of hero any small town could take to its heart.” —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times A hippie commune has invaded Black River Falls. While the majority of the townspeople believe that the bohemians have to right to stay—despite how bizarre some of their ways can seem—as always there is a minority that constantly accuses them of everything from criminal activities to Satanism. As usual, lawyer and private investigator Sam McCain finds himself in the middle of the controversy, especially when the teenage daughter of Paul Mainwaring, one of the town's wealthiest men, is found murdered in the commune's barn. A deeply troubled young man (and Vietnam vet) named Neil Cameron is immediately charged with the crime but Sam has serious doubts. In this lively and atmospheric new mystery novel, Ed Gorman offers readers his richest portrait yet of Black River Falls and its people.