Books by Charles Salzberg

When rare photos¿ a scandalous diary¿ and a beautiful woman all go missing at once¿ the stage is set for three challenging cases for Henry Swann. It begins with an offer to partner up with his slovenly¿ unreliable frenemy¿ Goldblatt. The disbarred lawyer-turned-"facilitator" would provide the leads and muscle¿ while Swann would do all the fancy footwork. A lost diary by a free-loving Jazz Age flapper is worth enough to someone that Swann takes a beat down on an abandoned boardwalk. Pilfered photos of Marilyn Monroe propel him deep into the past of an alcoholic shutterbug¿ his wife; and he's hired to search for a lonely writer's runaway girlfriend. The cases converge and collide in a finale that lifts the curtain on crucial¿ deadly facts of life for everyone-including Swann himself. Praise for Swann's Lake of Despair... "Smart, satisfying, even profound, this is exactly what every mystery reader is looking for: A terrific story, full of wit and originality, and a master class in voice. Charles Salzberg is a true talent, and his Henry Swann is a classic - complex, hilarious, and completely charming." -Hank Phillippi Ryan, Mary Higgins Clark award winner for The Other Woman, Agatha winner for The Wrong Girl

A friendly poker game leads Henry Swann out to Hollywood where he tries to find the man, Rusty Jacobs, responsible for embezzling $1,000,000 from his client, and then bring back the dough. Swann finds Jacobs, but the mercurial wannabe film producer is involved in a "surefire" movie project aimed at the growing Christian market. And the money? Well, it seems to have vanished into thin air. At the same time, thanks to his irrepressible partner, Goldblatt, Swann finds himself knee-deep in the New York City art world, as he tries to get justice for another client who's possibly been defrauded on the purchase of a valuable painting that may or may not be a fake. As if this isn't enough to keep him busy, in the midst of these two troubling cases, Swann finds that the teenage son whom he hasn't seen in a dozen years has run away from his grandparent's Minnesota home and, chasing after a girl, has possibly become involved with a cult. And so, a guilt-ridden Swann has to take time out from his paying cases to find his son.

Millionaire lawyer Carlton Phillips has lost track of his daughter Marcy. Her last known whereabouts were at her school, Syracuse University. While trying to track down Marcy and/or her geeky boyfriend Sean Loomis on a quick trip upstate, Swann follows the clues to a sorority house, a pizza joint, and the office of a literature professor who is clearly hiding something. Armed with more questions than leads Swann flies up to Boston where he narrowly avoids the arms of a seductive and secretive librarian. Finally back in New York City, Swann tries to sort out the details of the case. Is Marcy Phillips a victim? What is the nature of her relationship to the sexy and cagey Elizabeth Lawson? Is Carlton Phillips somehow involved in this story? How are all of these people connected to the rare book world, and who is really trying to get away with something?

Skip tracer Henry Swann cares little about anything but money, so when a beautiful Upper East Side woman shows up in his office and hires him to find her missing husband, he smiles and takes the cash. But when this seemingly simple missing-person case turns into homicide, Swann finds himself trapped in a complex web of connections and multiple identities that takes him out of New York City and across two continents. Praise for SWANN'S LAST SONG ... "Swann's got the smarts and hard-boiled cynicism of Sam Spade, but he's also got a wicked sense of humor that keeps things cool even when the action gets hot." -Brian Kilmeade, author of New York Times bestseller The Games Do Count "Salzberg's a hell of a writer. He delivers thrills, insight and plenty of laughs. Swann is a very cool take on the classic P.I." -Andrew Klavan, author of True Crime and Don't Say a Word "A veritable travelogue of suspense, SWANN'S LAST SONG grabs hold of the reader and doesn't let go. Salzberg's anti-hero is a soulful investigator and one of the most paradoxically endearing characters I've come across. I hope this isn't Swann's last song." -Joy Behar (co-host of The View) "Salzberg defies expectations left and right in this subtly subversive, genre-twisting page turner. SWANN'S LAST SONG is where literature meets entertainment" -Mark Goldblatt, author of Africa Speaks

In the ballroom of a sparsely furnished Connecticut mansion, police find a shocking sight: four bodies lined up next to each other, three teenagers and a middle-aged woman, each lying on a blanket, each shot once in the head. In an upstairs bedroom: an elderly woman and the family dog, both of them shot as well. The only person missing is the husband, father, son, and prime suspect, John Hartman, who's got a three-week jump on the police.Through the eyes of almost two dozen characters, including the neighbor who reports the crime, Hartman's mistress, a dogged state investigator, the family minister, and some of the characters Hartman meets on his escape route, we piece together not only what happened and how these shocking murders affect the community, but how John Hartman evades capture, where he's headed, and maybe even why he committed this gruesome crime in the first place.Based on the notorious John List murders and already compared to works by Norman Mailer and Russell Banks, DEVIL IN THE HOLE is gripping, literate, and haunting.Praise for DEVIL IN THE HOLE ..."DEVIL IN THE HOLE is powerful stuff. Drawing on real events, Salzberg has crafted a mesmerizing tale in many voices. He masterfully drip-feeds the compelling story, funneling moments from disparate, scattered lives to define the personality of a madman. The overall effect is like slowly opening a beautifully wrapped box of poisoned chocolates." - Tim McLoughlin, editor Brooklyn Noir."Salzberg masterfully weaves together dozens of voices, including the killer's, in an effort to find out why a man would murder his entire family and then disappear. DEVIL IN THE HOLE is a haunting meditation on the thin, wavering line between sense and senselessness." - Kaylie Jones, author Lies My Mother Never Told Me: A Memoir, and Speak Now"The devil isn't in the details, but in a tony Connecticut town. Charles Salzberg's DEVIL IN THE HOLE is a fine piece of crime writing and a hell of a fun read." - Reed Farrel Coleman, three-time Shamus Award-winning author of Gun ChurchIn this smartly constructed crime novel, Salzberg uses multiple viewpoints to portray an unlikely killer who methodically slaughters his family ... an intriguing collage of impressions and personal perspectives for the reader to ponder. - Publishers Weekly"Salzberg does an ingenious job of weaving together the various voices - each distinct in its own right - and giving us the story as told by the people who experienced it. It paints a psychological picture of a murderer, while also telling the story of those left in the aftermath and how they were affected as well. Brilliant and captivating storytelling." - Erica Ruth Neubauer, Crimespree magazine"Salzberg has taken a true crime tale and made it into a compelling work of fiction that attempts to imagine the mind of a killer, not only through his own mind, but through the minds of many others. This is a novel which few readers will want to put down, turning pages mostly, I think, to find out how in the world the author pulls it off. 'How,' I kept asking myself, 'how can he finish this story?' The buildup becomes more and more absorbing because Charles Salzberg has a lot to say about human nature that is thought-provokingly wise and penetrating." - Duff Brenna, South Carolina Review"I am typically not a fan of books written in this manner but Salzberg masterfully uses this technique to create a novel that is different in an extremely good way. The author effortlessly blends the different perspectives, viewpoints, and impressions of each character into a brilliant tapestry that envelops the reader, while peaking interest and the desire for more information about the crime. DEVIL IN THE HOLE is one of the best books that I have read this year and I most highly recommend it." - Robin Thomas, New Mystery Review

Shadow towns, smugglers and secret notes-this trio of New York authors are a TRIPLE SHOT of twists and turns in three novellas Payback leads to an unmarked grave in Ross Klavan's Thump Gun Hitched. A freak accident forces two L.A. cops to play out a deadly obsession that takes them from back alley payoffs to hard time in prison, then deep into the tunnel networks south of the border to a murderous town that's only rumored to exist. Before the last shot is fired, everything they thought was certain proves to be a shadow and everything they trusted opens into a trap. Life was so much simpler for Tim O'Mara's marijuana-selling narrator in Smoked when all he had to worry about was keeping his customers, now ex-wife, and daughter satisfied. When he forges a reluctant alliance with his ex-wife's new lover, he realizes there's lots of money to be made from the world's number one smuggled legal product-cigarettes. Unfortunately, his latest shipment contained some illegal automatic weapons. Now he's playing with the big boys and finds the price of the game way over his head. Murder was never part of his business model. And finally in Twist of Fate, Charles Salzberg follows Trish Sullivan, an ambitious TV reporter working in a small, upstate New York market. She receives a note from Meg Montgomery, a beautiful young woman convicted of murdering her husband and two children. Montgomery claims she's innocent and Sullivan, smelling a big story that may garner some national attention, investigates and turns up evidence that the woman has, indeed, been framed. What happens next changes the life of both women in unexpected ways.