James Crumley
James Arthur Crumley was the author of violent hardboiled crime novels and several volumes of short stories and essays, as well as published and unpublished screenplays. He has been described as "one of modern crime writing's best practitioners", who was "a patron saint of the post-Vietnam private eye novel"and a cross between Raymond Chandler and Hunter S. Thompson.His book The Last Good Kiss has been described as "the most influential crime novel of the last 50 years." Crumley, who was born in Three Rivers, Texas, grew up in south Texas, where his father was an oil-field supervisor and his mother was a waitress. Crumley was a grade-A student and a football player, an offensive lineman, in high school. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology on a Navy ROTC scholarship, but left to serve in the U.S. Army from 1958 to 1961 in the Philippines. He then attended the Texas College of Arts and Industries on a football scholarship, where he received his B.A. degree with a major in history in 1964. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at the University of Iowa in 1966. His master's thesis was later published as the Vietnam War novel One to Count Cadence in 1969. Crumley had not read any detective fiction until prompted to by Montana poet Richard Hugo, who recommended the work of Raymond Chandler for the quality of his sentences. Crumley finally picked up a copy of one of Chandler's books in Guadalajara, Mexico. Impressed by Chandler's writing, and that of Ross Macdonald, Crumley began writing his first detective novel, The Wrong Case, which was published in 1975. Crumley served on the English faculty of the University of Montana at Missoula, and as a visiting professor at a number of other colleges, including the University of Arkansas, Colorado State University, the University of Texas at El Paso, Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. From the mid-80s on he lived in Missoula, Montana, where he found inspiration for his novels at Charlie B's bar. A regular there, he had many longstanding friends who have been portrayed as characters in his books. Crumley died at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Montana on September 17, 2008 of complications from kidney and pulmonary diseases after many years of health problems. He was survived by his wife of 16 years, Martha Elizabeth, a poet and artist who was his fifth wife. He had five children – three from his second marriage and two from his fourth – eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
30 Books Written
Detective Milo Dragovitch spends too much time boozing until he gets caught up in a case involving two-bit criminals and an old lady on the run.His friends call him Milo. No one has ever called him Bud except his father, long dead, and now Sarah Weddington, stirring painful memoires and offering him his first case since he abandoned his private practice and took a job marking time on the night shift for Haliburton Security. The case seems almost too easy, hardly worth the large fee, just to satisfy this old woman's curiosity. But things are soon exploding all over the place and Milo is turning up grenades, machine guns, a kilo of marijuana and a bag of coke . . . and suddenly Milo is on the run.
An unforgettable detective story starring C.W. Sughrue, a Montana investigator who kills time by working at a topless bar. Hired to track down a derelict author, he ends up on the trail of a girl missing in Haight-Ashbury for a decade. The tense hunt becomes obsessive as Sughrue takes a haunting journey through the underbelly of America's sleaziest nightmares.
An extraordinary detective story from one of the great American crime fiction authors. Milo once had a thriving divorce-case business in the small town of in the Pacific Northwest, but because of liberal new divorce laws he has taken to drinking and staring out the window. He's up to his third drink of the morning when an attractive young woman walks into his office and asks him to find her brother. He takes on what seems a routine missing-person case in hopes of getting to know her better, but finds himself involved in what is most definitely the wrong case. Everyone is a victim, one way or another, of a crime that took place long before the novel begins.
Ex-private eye C.W. Sughrue has been depressed, jobless and living in the basement of a morgue, but now a job has come up. He sets off on an odyssey of liquor, sex and gunplay to find a missing woman who has eluded the FBI and cocaine dealers.
When a fickle twist of fate foils two assassins from snuffing out Detective C.W. Sughrue, P.I. Milo Milodragovich joins Sughrue in tracking down the would-be killers. The two men sweep across America and Mexico on a wild journey of hardcore violence, sex, and cyberspace--a journey that traverses the thin, volatile line between best friends, countries--and life and death.
James Crumley is one of the most revered practitioners of post-Chandler crime fiction, praised by the likes of Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly as a major influence. C. W. Sughrue is Crumley's most indelible creation. Now Sughrue is back, in a searing thrill ride of a novel that has the seen-it-all Montana private eye trying to find out which of a small-town shrink's bizarre patients has made off with some highly confidential files. Fast-paced, brutal, melancholy, and ruefully funny, The Right Madness is Crumley at his uncompromising best.
It's been too long since James Crumley's last Milo Milodragovitch adventure, but the wait was worth it. The Final Country is a fully satisfying read with plenty of action, even more sex, and superb characterization. "A chase after money and revenge had brought me to Texas, and a woman had kept me here," Milo explains. But trying to salvage a love affair, keep his PI business going, and run a tavern (whose real business is laundering drug money) hasn't kept trouble from following Milo--or maybe it's the other way around. When a man kills a drug dealer right in front of him, Milo can't help but track the shooter down, if only to keep the Texas cops from railroading him into the death chamber. Soon one beautiful woman frames Milo for the murder of a well- connected Texan, and another one with ties to both killings disappears, setting up the intricately plotted action of this fast-paced thriller. Crumley's narrative gifts and poetic talents set this crazy-funny mystery apart. Milo is a consistently interesting protagonist, especially here, as Crumley depicts him in the fullness of middle age, a hard-boiled, bruised, and battered dick who, despite all evidence to the contrary, still believes in the redemptive powers of love--not to mention liquor, cocaine, and sex. Texas may not be Milo's natural habitat, but it's a big enough backdrop for his unique talents, and for Crumley's, too. --Jane Adams
Author's debut novel, set during the Vietnam War. Crumley's disturbing Vietnam novel. In '62, Sergeant Krummel assumes command of a crew of rebellious, drunken enlistees. Surviving military absurdities only to be shipped to Vietnam, Krummel's band confront their worst fears while losing faith in Americ
"Sure to be of regional interest and to appeal to fans of noir or 'dark' fiction, this spicy black brew of sinister thrills is not for the squeamish or the easily offended."-- Library Journal "Unsettling and shivery."-- Kirkus Reviews "Crime, like politics, is local. The folks at Akashic Books understand this . . . "Lone Star Noir" is a solid collection. Heck, it better be -- the state's red clay looks like dried blood. Noir grows out of the ground here."-- Austin American-Statesman "What makes Texas noir different from any other noir? Is it just that the gumshoes wear cowboy boots? . . . Akashic Books finally turns its attention to the biggest state in the Lower 48, but all that land just means more places to bury the bodies. As father-son editing partnership Bobby and Johnny Byrd observe in their introduction, this isn't J.R. Ewing's Lone Star State. This is the Texas of chicken shit bingo, Enron scamsters, and a feeling that what happens in Mexico stays in Mexico. […] So what defines Texas noir? Who knows, but you better pray that blood doesn't stain your belt buckle."-- Austin Chronicle Includes brand-new stories by: James Crumley, Joe R. Lansdale, Claudia Smith, Ito Romo, Luis Alberto Urrea, David Corbett, George Weir, Sarah Cortez, Jesse Sublett, Dean James, Tim Tingle, Milton Burton, Lisa Sandlin, Jessica Powers, and Bobby Byrd.Bobby Byrd is the co-publisher of Cinco Puntos Press in El Paso, Texas. As a poet, Byrd is the recipient of an NEA Fellowship, the D.H. Lawrence Fellowship awarded by the University of New Mexico, and an International Residency Fellowship.John Byrd, co-publisher of Cinco Puntos Press, is co-editor (with Bobby Byrd) of the anthology Puro Border: Dispatches, Snapshots & Graffiti from La Frontera. He is also a Spanish-to-English translator and a freelance essayist.
Gathers six magazine articles, eight short stories, an interview with the author, and the beginnings of two novels
A collection of the author's short fiction and nonfiction including an interview, and a piece on the joys of living in Houston
Collected together in this volume are three crime novels - The Wrong Case, featuring Milo Milodragovitch, an investigative newcomer, The Last Good Kiss, in which C.W. Sughure, a man with a fondness for drink, attempts to track down a writer and Dancing Bear, with Milo again.
Pendant l'été 1983, un ami de James Crumley lui demanda s'il voulait écrire un scénario pour un film dont la vedette serait Don Emilio Fernandez, un des plus grands acteurs et metteurs en scène mexicains que Crumley admirait beaucoup. Comme ça se passe souvent, l'argent disparut et le film ne fut jamais tourné. Mais le scénario existe... Et c'est du Crumley au meilleur de sa forme qui nous raconte une superbe histoire qui se déroule South of the Border.
C'est sur un fond de country music, cette musique de l'Amérique profonde, que se déroulent les nouvelles de ce recueil. Elle rythme les journées du jeune soldat John Robert en permission chez ses parents, comme elle accompagne l'histoire tragique de Benbow, un pauvre type amoureux d'une femme qu'il aurait mieux fait d'éviter... Avec une tendresse bourrue pour ses héros désespérés, James Crumley nous offre trois textes rares.
Dans la tranquille petite ville de Meriwether, Montana, le privé Milo Milodragovitch est sur le point de se retrouver au chômage technique.Ne lui reste qu'à s'adonner à son activité favorite, boire. S'imbiber méthodiquement, copieusement, pour éloigner le souvenir cuisant de ses propres mariages ratés, de la décadence de sa famille, de son héritage qui restera bloqué jusqu'à ses cinquante-trois ans - ainsi en a décidé sa mère.C'est alors que la jeune et très belle Helen Duffy pousse sa porte : son petit frère, un jeune homme bien sous tous rapports, n'a plus donné signe de vie depuis plusieurs semaines.Milo s'engage alors sur une piste très glissante.
The Muddy Fork: A Work in Progress
by James Crumley
One of 50 deluxe numbered copies signed by Crumley on a special page at the beginning of the book. Quarter leather and marbled boards as issued with gold stamping on the spine without dust jacket as issued.
我ひとり永遠(とわ)に行進す
by James Crumley
Cairn
by James Crumley
酔いどれの誇り
by James Crumley
明日なき二人
by James Crumley
The muddy fork & other things: Short fiction and nonfiction
by James Crumley
La contrée finale
by James Crumley
La quatrième et dernière aventure de Milo Milodragovitch.Nouvelle traduction de Jacques Mailhos et 17 illustrations inédites de Baudoin.« Une course après l'argent et la vengeance m'avait amené au Texas, et une femme, Betty Porterfield, m'y avait fait rester. »Mais Milo, désormais propriétaire d'un bar et de quelques cheveux blancs, demeure un incorrigible agité, incapable de se contenter d'une vie prévisible. De toute façon, un homme marié cinq fois ne peut pas être un modèle de stabilité.Milo reprend donc une licence de détective privé et, très vite, est témoin du meurtre d'une ordure notoire. Au lieu de se mêler de ses affaires, il décide de retrouver avant tout le monde l'assassin, lui-même fort peu recommandable, pour lui épargner une mort certaine.Bien sûr, Milo se doute qu'il va au-devant d'énormément d'ennuis, mais en fait, il aime bien ça, et quand on a un grand cœur...Pour sa dernière enquête, l'inoubliable Milo Milodragovitch s'embarque dans une aventure tortueuse jalonnée de drogue, d'alcool et de femmes fatales, qui le ramène jusque dans le Montana.
Le canard siffleur mexicain
by James Crumley
Le privé C.W. Sughrue a de gros soucis d'argent.Son vieil ami Solly, un avocat toxico, lui dégote alors une mission insolite : récupérer des poissons tropicaux rares auprès d'un mauvais payeur, le chef d'un gang de bikers connu sous le nom de Norman l'Anormal.Après une confrontation musclée à coups de mitrailleuse, l'affaire prend un tour inattendu, et Norman engage Sughrue pour rechercher sa mère, kidnappée par son mari.C'est le début d'une course effrénée qui mènera Sughrue des montagnes du Montana aux immensités désertiques du Nouveau-Mexique.La deuxième enquête de C.W. Sughrue, privé iconoclaste du légendaire James Crumley.
Dépossédé par un escroc de son héritage, Milo Milodragovitch finit par débusquer son vieux pote Sughrue au fin fond du Texas. Le plan est simple : à eux deux, ils vont mettre à profit leur expérience d'enquêteurs borderline pour retrouver l'escroc et rendre une justice exemplaire.Et Sughrue a lui aussi quelque chose à demander à Milo. Toujours incontrôlable, il s'est en effet mis à dos une bande sacrément dangereuse, les « serpents de la frontière ». Des serpents connus pour ne pas faire de quartier.Mais Sughrue n'a pas le sens de la mesure, et puisque Milo est là...Milo Milodragovitch et C.W. Sughrue unissent leurs forces pour une mission suicide.
La danse de l'ours (Les enquêtes de Milo Milodragovitch)
by James Crumley
L'ancien privé Milo Milodragovitch s'est assagi. Son job paisible d'agent de sécurité à Meriwether, Montana, lui permet d'attendre patiemment l'héritage parental prévu pour le jour de ses cinquante-deux ans.Mais une riche vieille dame, autrefois maîtresse de son père, vient remuer de vieux souvenirs et lui confier une enquête à la fois facile et lucrative. Milo saute sur l'occasion.Bien sûr, la prétendue mission de routine se met à exploser en tous sens et se transforme sans tarder en une course frénétique entre voitures en feu, lancers de grenades, tirs de mitrailleuses et rails de cocaïne.Tout l'humour et le désespoir de Crumley dans une nouvelle enquête de Milo Milodragovitch.
Le dernier baiser (Les enquêtes de C.W. Sughrue)
by James Crumley
À la demande de son ex-épouse, le privé C.W. Sughrue se lance sur la piste d'un romancier en cavale.Il le retrouve sans trop d'efforts dans un bar décati de Californie, où l'écrivain se soûle à la bière, un bulldog alcoolique à ses pieds.Consciente de sa chance, la barmaid le charge d'une nouvelle enquête : retrouver sa fille Betty Sue qui s'est volatilisée dix ans auparavant.Sughrue a envie d'un peu de compagnie, il embarque donc romancier et bulldog dans son périple. Sans prévoir sa fascination grandissante pour la disparue ni les ramifications sans fin de cette affaire où tous semblent se jouer de lui.La première enquête de C.W. Sughrue. Mauvais pour le foie, mais jubilatoire.
Les enquêtes de C.W. Sughrue - L'intégrale
by James Crumley
Les intégrales GallmeisterRetrouvez pour la première fois dans une intégrale toutes les aventures de C.W. Sughrue !Cette intégrale contient : - Le Dernier Baiser- Le Canard siffleur mexicain- Les Serpents de la frontière- Folie douceL’existence de C. W. Sughrue, vétéran du Vietnam devenu privé dans le Montana, a toujours été fortement marquée par les bars, les armes, les drogues et les odyssées violentes et picaresques aux quatre coins de l’Ouest américain. Imprévisible et incontrôlable, il affronte avec un sang-froid très relatif les situations les plus invraisemblables.Les quatre enquêtes de Sughrue, héros aussi décadent que flamboyant de James Crumley, « grand prix de poésie de la littérature hard-boiled américaine », pour la première fois réunies dans leur nouvelle traduction.