St. Ives goes to London on a job for the least trustworthy con artist he knowsPhilip St. Ives has only been in the pub a few minutes before he realizes his whiskey is drugged. Instantly sick, he's vomiting on the sidewalk when the muggers appear. He fights as best he can in his drugged state, and only when he feels the handcuffs does he realize his assailants aren't muggers—they're cops.He wakes in a dingy cell to the knowledge that English Eddie Apex has pulled a fast one on him. English Eddie is not English, but talks with a British accent that once made him New York's most refined con artist. In retirement and living in London, he had hired St. Ives—a professional mediator between crooks and their marks—to come to England to help him recover a stolen painting. The drugged whiskey won't be the last surprise St. Ives gets in Blighty, and the police won't be the only ones who try to cause him pain.

When his old boss is kidnapped, St. Ives reluctantly agrees to free himPhilip St. Ives loses his first job in journalism as soon as he realizes he hates the man who gave it to him. Chicago Post editor Amfred Killingsworth is a pompous blowhard, and fires his newest reporter for failing to fawn over him. St. Ives goes to New York, where he lands a daily column and the close friendship of an assortment of crooks. Killingsworth goes in a less respectable direction, becoming the US ambassador to Yugoslavia. By the time the ambassador gets himself kidnapped, the only man who can save him is his former cub reporter.The kidnappers demand the release of a Slavic poet in exchange for the ambassador, and St. Ives goes behind the Iron Curtain to arrange the hand-off. To protect a trove of ugly Washington secrets, he’ll have to save the life of a universally disliked man.Review“Ross Thomas is without peer in American suspense.” —Los Angeles Times“What Elmore Leonard does for crime in the streets, Ross Thomas does for crime in the suites.” —The Village Voice“Ross Thomas is that rare phenomenon, a writer of suspense whose novels can be read with pleasure more than once.” —Eric AmblerAbout the AuthorThe winner of the inaugural Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award, Ross Thomas (1926–1995) was a prolific author whose political thrillers drew praise for being witty as well as suspenseful. Born in Oklahoma City, Thomas grew up during the Great Depression and served in the Philippines during World War II. After the war, he worked as a foreign correspondent, public relations official, and political strategist before publishing his first novel, The Cold War Swap (1967), based on his experience working in Bonn, Germany. The novel was a hit, winning Thomas an Edgar Award for Best First Novel and establishing the characters Mac McCorkle and Mike Padillo.He followed it up with three more novels about McCorkle and Padillo, finishing the series in 1990. He wrote nearly a book a year for twenty-five years, occasionally under the pen name Oliver Bleeck, and won the Edgar Award for Best Novel with Briarpatch (1984). Thomas died of lung cancer in California, a year after publishing his final novel, Ah, Treachery! 

Two hard-nosed bosses scrap for control of America’s largest unionBorn to a steelworker but harboring theatrical aspirations, Donald Cubbin grew up tempted by two careers. A Hollywood scout finally notices him, but Cubbin has already taken a job with the local union boss. He’s always regretted that decision—especially now. After decades climbing the ranks, Cubbin runs the show as the union’s president. An election looms, and his opponent proves to be a dangerously loose cannon. Cubbin made dozens of enemies over the years, and one has just engaged a hired killer. The fight for Cubbin’s job starts with muckraking but could end in murder. "A first-rate political novel of manners...the pace is superb, the plot brilliantly intricate, the dialogue crackling and witty." The National Review.

"Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?" -- Mark TwainRoss Thomas chose the quotation from Huckleberry Finn as the text of his post World War II story as well as for the title. When Lucifer Dye is released from three months in a Hong Kong prison, debriefed, handed a false passport, a new wardrobe and a $20,000 check, his haughty control makes it clear that Dye's career with his country has been permanently terminated. But a good agent is always in demand, and just a few hours later Dye is being interviewed for a highly ingenious position. Victor Orcutt, although a not very good imitation of a British pre-war gent, has creative talents of his own. He has his sights a small southern city, with the ordinary run-of-the-mill corruption one would expect in such a place. The canny Orcott knows there's no profit in that . His creed is "To get better, it must be much worse." He and his two associates have...

The Fourth Durango is not your ordinary Durango. It's not in Spain, or Mexico, and it's not a ski town in the Colorado Rockies, although Durangos do exist in all of those places. This Durango has an industry, albeit a rather odd one – it is a hideout business, a place where people pay to find sanctuary from former friends and associates who are either trying to kill them or have them killed. Into this Durango comes a former chief justice of a state supreme court, followed by son-in-law Kelly Vines to act as his emissary to the beautiful and savvy mayor. It takes a Ross Thomas to stir these characters into a witty and ingenious mix readers will not be able to – and certainly would not want to – resist

An old friend draws barman Mac McCorkle into a deadly international gameAs the saying goes, you can’t pick your friends. If you could, Mac McCorkle would disown Padilla. They owned a bar together in Bonn, the West German capital, and stayed partners even after Padilla’s sideline as a CIA operative got the bar blown up. Padilla was thought to be dead and erased from the CIA’s files—but now he’s back on the agency’s turf.Mac moved to Washington, DC, after the trouble in Bonn to get married and open his bar anew. His new bride is beautiful, the bar is a success, and Padilla’s reappearance threatens everything. A group of African terrorists want Padilla to assassinate the prime minister of their small sub-Saharan republic—and they’ve kidnapped Mac’s wife to use as leverage.Review“Ross Thomas is without peer in American suspense.” — The Los Angeles Times “What Elmore Leonard does for crime in the streets, Ross Thomas does for crime in the suites.” —The Village Voice “Ross Thomas is that rare phenomenon, a writer of suspense whose novels can be read with pleasure more than once.” —Eric Ambler, author of The Mask of DimitriosAbout the AuthorThe winner of the inaugural Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award, Ross Thomas (1926–1995) was a prolific author whose political thrillers drew praise for their blend of wit and suspense. Born in Oklahoma City, Thomas grew up during the Great Depression, and served in the Philippines during World War II. After the war, he worked as a foreign correspondent, public relations official, and political strategist before publishing his first novel, The Cold War Swap (1967), based on his experience working in Bonn, Germany. The novel was a hit, winning Thomas an Edgar Award for Best First Novel and establishing the characters Mac McCorkle and Mike Padillo. Thomas followed it up with three more novels about McCorkle and Padillo, the last of which was published in 1990. He wrote nearly a book a year for twenty-five years, occasionally under the pen name Oliver Bleeck, and won the Edgar Award for Best Novel with Briarpatch (1984). Thomas died of lung cancer in California in 1995, a year after publishing his final novel, Ah, Treachery!

Would you be wary if someone gave you the assignment of delivering five million dollars to a Philippine terrorist—never mind from whom or why? Booth Stallings, a terrorism expert just fired from his job at a bashful organization that never admitted its mount in the Washington merry-go-round, is wary. So wary that he cuts in con man “Otherguy” Overby, who in turn involves Artie Wu, pretender to the throne of China, and his partner, Quincy Durant. Obviously, good patriots don’t want to hand over all that money to bad guys. Better they keep it for themselves. Which inevitably raises the question: Who among them will end up with the money?The award-winning author of the bestselling Briarpatch delivers a brilliant, highly acclaimed new thriller about an American con man embroiled in a multimillion-dollar plot to overthrow the Aquino government. "Mr. Thomas has never been more devious and duplicitous."--The New Yorker.