Gillian Phillips Books

"Douglas Rigby, attorney-at-law, is bankrupt. He's just sunk his last $200,000-a clandestine "loan" from his last remaining client, former bigshot TV exec Glenn Haskill-into a cocaine deal gone wrong. The lesson? Never trust anyone else with the dirty work. Desperate to get back on top, Rigby formulates an art forgery scheme involving one of Glenn's priceless paintings, a victimless crime. But for Rigby to pull this one off, he'll need to negotiate a whole cast of players with their own agendas, including his wife, his mistress, an embittered art forger, Glenn's resentful nurse, and the man's money-hungry nephew. One misstep, and it all falls apart-will he be able to save his skin? Written with hard-knock sensibility and wicked humor, Scott Phillips's newest novel will cement Phillips as one of the great crime writers of the 21st century"-- Provided by publisher

Noir master Scott Phillips's The Walkaway explores the far-reaching consequences of the deception and violence of its predecessor, The Ice Harvest. Summer 1989: Gunther Fahnstiel, once a tough cop who wasn’t averse to taking a little side money from a certain madam, has just escaped the dementia ward of his Wichita nursing home. He’s not exactly sure where he wants to go, but wherever it is, it has to do with the bag full of cash belonging to the man he accidentally backed over with his RV in 1979. During his search, Gunther begins to relive the violent fallout of that madam’s sex lottery forty years ago. As Gunther’s memories unravel, his past and present will collide in a devastating reckoning. This dark comedy, at once prequel and sequel to Phillips’s award-winning debut The Ice Harvest, proves that no walkaway can escape unscathed.

From the master of Western noir comes a provocatively entertaining crime saga set in the early days of the film industry. This dark historical adventure captures the beginnings of the Hollywood studio system and the “blue movie” industry that grows up alongside it. Los Angeles, 1916: Photographer Bill Ogden has opened a portrait studio in the seedy noir world of early Hollywood, where he is joined by his granddaughter, Flavia—a woman in need of a fresh start after bludgeoning her drunken, abusive husband to death in Wichita. Though his business is mainly legit, Bill finds himself brushing up against the “blue movie” porn industry growing in the shadows of the motion picture mainstream. When a series of grisly murders take place across the city, Bill and his capable granddaughter are pulled into events as tricky and tangled as anything this side of The Big Sleep. We meet dreamers, opportunists, washed-up former stars and starry-eyed newcomers, a cast of unforgettable characters living on the margins looking to make a quick buck, launch a career, or just keep their family together. The Devil Raises His Own is at once a stripped-down noir thriller and a panoramic look at Los Angeles at the beginning of motion pictures—a Boogie Nights set in the era of D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin from one of the best crime novelists working today.