Atlanta Deathwatch by Ralph Dennis
The first novel in the unforgettable, long lost series by Ralph Dennis is finally back in print… after being coveted for years by collectors of the very best in hardboiled fiction.
It’s Atlanta, 1974. Ex-cop Jim Hardman works as an unlicensed PI, trouble-shooter and bodyguard…often partnered with his drinking buddy Hump Evans, a black, ex-NFL player who supports his playboy lifestyle by working as hired muscle.
Hardman is hired by The Man, a black mobster, to investigate the murder of his white girlfriend, a college student. It’s a case that plunges Hardman and Evans into the center of a violent street war that stretches from Atlanta’s seedy back alleys to the marbled corridors of power.
This new edition includes an introduction by Joe R. Lansdale, the New York Times bestselling author of the Hap & Leonard series of crime novels.
Books by Ralph Dennis
Hoop Noir
Two gritty, fast-moving novels set in the world of basketball by legendary crime writer Ralph Dennis.
Tales of a Sad, Fat Wordman
This collection of some of Ralph's early short stories and poetry, framed with excerpts from articles about him and by essays from authors who knew him well.
Dust in the Heart
There's a killer stalking children in a small, North Carolina town...and the only one who can stop him is the local Sheriff, a man crippled physically and emotionally by a war that he's still fighting within himself. The haunting, powerful new thriller by Ralph Dennis, author of the legendary Hardman series of crime novels
All Kinds of Ugly
The recently discovered, long-lost, 13th and final Hardman adventure sends the unlicensed PI to London to find a missing man...where he becomes embroiled in an ugly case of embezzlement and murder.
Reviews For Atlanta Deathwatch
His prose was muscular, swift and highly readable. Like Chandler and Hammett before him, Dennis was trying to do something different with what was thought of as throwaway literature.
Hard-hitting. Ralph Dennis pulls no punches in this lightning-paced crime story packed with irreverence and loads of action.
Among the best series books around. The dialogue is marvelously realistic.
Ralph Dennis is an underappreciated master. His Hardman series is one of the finest in the P.I. genre.
The Hardman books are by far the best of the men’s action-adventure series.
