Welcome to Brash Books
We publish the best crime novels in existence. A brash claim? You bet it is. But our award-winning, critically acclaimed authors prove it with each and every one of their amazing books.
We’ve got it all: psychological thrillers, murder mysteries, international espionage, and police procedurals from established masters of the craft – as well as premiere books from new voices who are sure to become crime fiction stars.
Life is short – don’t waste your time on bad books. Browse through our fantastic library of unmissable mysteries, terrific thrillers and compelling crime novels – then pick up one of the best books you’ll ever read.
Featured Author
Jane Waterhouse
Jane is scriptwriter, award-winning playwright, and the author of four thrillers, including Graven Images, the first of three adventures featuring true-crime writer Garner Quinn.
Latest Additions
Blackball By Jimmy Sangster
James Reed is falsely accused of rape, chased by killers, and hired by a billionaire being blackmailed into marriage. And that's only the beginning of Reed's troubles in the second book in the series.
The Spy in a Box - Coming in December By Ralph Dennis
The Broken Fixer By Ralph Dennis
Vince Gorman is a ruthless lawyer with flexible morality who makes problems go away for a big Atlanta developer... but his life is crumbling all around him.
Hardball By Jimmy Sangster
Self-styled beach bum James Reed agrees to protect a wealthy recluse recovering from an undisclosed illness...a job that turns into a nightmare of blackmail, drug dealing, and murder. Third book in the series.
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Featured Video
Memphis Luck
Gerald Duff’s MEMPHIS LUCK—the sizzling sequel to MEMPHIS RIBS—is finally available in trade paperback and ebook editions! The critics already love it, and we’re sure you will as well.
From The Blog
Max Allan Collins: Talkin’ About SHAFT
I pity the fools (as someone once said) who cannot enjoy this knowingly politically incorrect salute to the original film and its cinematic era. Roundtree doesn’t enter till act three, but he does so with a bang – a number of them. He’s wonderful.
Real People Don’t Talk Like That
who wants to read boring dialogue? I read books that take me interesting places, peopled with interesting characters, engaged in stimulating, provocative and humorous conversation. I want to be bored I’ll watch network sitcoms.
Ralph
Today we’re publishing “The Buy Back Blues,” the 12th and final book in the Hardman series by Ralph Dennis. To mark the occasion, we’re sharing the revealing, deeply personal essay that author Cynthia Williams wrote about Ralph as an afterword for “Murder is Not an Odd Job,” the 6th book in the series.
A TALENT FOR KILLING
For decades, collectors have searched for copies of Ralph Dennis’ paperback original DEADMAN’S GAME. It was the most difficult of Ralph’s titles to find…and rumors of an unpublished sequel became something of an urban legend. Until now.
A Hardman is Good To Find
Even in obscurity, the Hardman books continue to be something special. While the lingo and attitudes were warts of the ‘70s, the characters, their relationships, and the quality of Dennis’ writing was timeless. The series became a hidden genre gem. It was whispered about only by the most hardcore genre fans—who turned collecting the twelve sacred Hardman books into a quest of mythical proportions.
Lee Goldberg’s Obsession to Republish Ralph Dennis
This wasn’t men’s action-adventure fiction. This was straight-up, hardboiled crime fiction, written in a tight, evocative voice. And it was wonderful.… I wished there was something I could do about it…and some way I could get Hardman out to wider audience. And then it hit me—maybe I could.
Ben Jones: My Friend HARDMAN
By 1970, Ralph was “getting tired of students” and needed a change. It didn’t take much to convince him that Atlanta had fully recovered from General Sherman and was a happening place. We drove up and got him and his belongings and helped him find a bachelor’s pad. He got a regular job when his savings started to dwindle a bit, all the while writing every day. He wrote to his friend and agent Elizabeth McKee, pitching the idea for Hardman. Ms. McKee secured a contract with Popular Library.
Now, I wasn’t there when it happened, but he was so overjoyed with the news that he ran the two and a half miles to our house so that he could tell somebody. Ralph Dennis had given up athletics in High School and was as out of shape as one would expect of a man who had downed 50 beers a week for 25 years, while chain-smoking Pall Malls.
But he made it.
The Literary Life of Ralph Dennis
The Hardman series was trumpeted as “A great new private eye for the shockproof ‘70s,” which was funny, since Jim Hardman was far from the typical action-adventure hero in other numbered series. He was middle-aged and as out-of-shape as most guys who get their primary exercise lifting beers or glasses of J&B Scotch. And he lifted quite a few.
Hardman had more than his share of fights in the novels, with mixed results. The true muscle was provided by Hardman’s friend Hump Evans, formerly a defensive end with the Cleveland Browns. Today having an Afro-American sidekick who provides the muscle or does the dirty work is something of a cliché — it wasn’t in the 1970s. More importantly, Hump was always an equal partner with Hardman. Hardman didn’t shy away from brawls; it was just that Hump was better at it. At 6-6 (or 6-7 as both were given at different times) and 270 pounds, Hump always retained a certain independence from Hardman. There was nothing demeaning about Hump or his relationship with Hardman.
