When Miami homicide detective Hoke Moseley receives an unexplained order to let his beard grow, he doesn’t think much about it. He has too much going on at home, especially with a man he helped convict ten years before moving in across the street. Hoke immediately assumes the worst, and considering he has his former partner, her newborn, and his two teenage daughters living with him, he doesn’t like the situation one bit. It doesn’t help matters when he is suddenly assigned to work undercover, miles away, outside of his jurisdiction and without his badge, his gun, or his teeth. Soon he is impersonating a drifter and trying to infiltrate a farm operation suspected of murdering migrant workers. But when he gets there for his job interview, the last thing he is offered is work.
In this final installment of the highly acclaimed Hoke Moseley novels, Charles Willeford’s brilliance and expertise show on every page. Funny, thrilling, and disturbing in equal parts, The Way We Die Now is a triumphant finish to one of the most original detective series of all time.
A three-year-old murder case was coming together nicely. A killer Hoke once put in prison has moved in across the street. And Hoke's daughter has blue hair. But now Hoke has to pretend to be a bum. In a dusty corner of South Florida, Hoke enters a world of Haitian migrant workers, soup kitchens, and whores. In the searing heat he'll meet the man he's been sent to kill - the most vicious beast in the land...
Hoke Moseley has had enough. Tired of struggling against alimony payments, two teenage daughters, a very pregnant and very single partner, and a low-paying job as a Miami homicide detective, Hoke moves to Singer Island and vows never to set foot on the mainland again. But on the street, career criminal Troy Louden is hatching plans of his own with a gang that includes a disfigured hooker, a talentless artist, and a clueless retiree. But when Louden’s simple robbery results in ruthless and indiscriminate bloodshed, Hoke quickly remembers why he is a cop and hurls himself back into the world he meant to leave behind forever.
A masterly tale of midlife crisis and murder, Sideswipe is a page-turning thriller packed with laughs, loaded with suspense, and featuring one of the most truly original detectives of all time.
“No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford.”—Elmore Leonard
Sergeant Hoke Moseley is losing his mind: his ex-wife just remarried, his teenage daughters want to quit school, his beat partner is eight months pregnant - and living in his house. A handsome, cowboy-hatted psychopath is planning another armed robbery - one that will leave half-a-dozen bystanders dead. And in this hilarious, wicked tale of crime and mid-life crisis, it seems that only Hoke can stop him.
Homicide detective Hoke Moseley is called to a posh Miami neighborhood to investigate a lethal overdose. There he meets the alluring stepmother of the decedent and begins to wonder about dating a witness. Meanwhile, he has been threatened with suspension by his ambitious new chief unless he leaves his beloved, if squalid, suite at the Eldorado Hotel and moves downtown. With free housing hard to come by, Hoke is desperate to find a new place to live. His difficulties are only amplified by an assignment to reinvestigate fifty unsolved murders, the unexpected arrival of his two teenage daughters, and a partner struggling with an unwanted pregnancy. With few options, and even fewer dollars, he decides that the suspicious and beautiful stepmother of the dead junkie might be a compromised solution to all of his problems.
Packed with atmosphere and humor, New Hope for the Dead is a classic murder mystery by one of the true masters of the genre. Charles Willeford’s tour de force is an irresistible invitation to become acquainted with one of the greatest detective characters of all time.
“This is a telling slice of Miami life…whose gritty realism contributes to a good read.”—Publishers Weekly
Sergeant Hoke Moseley is called to investigate the overdose of a young junkie. But what seems like a routine OD gives Moseley cause to doubt - particularly when he meets the dead kid's stunningly attractive stepmother. With his two teenage daughters dumped on him, it starts to feel like maybe that stepmother might be that answer to all his problems. Or maybe she's just the start of them...
After a brutal day investigating a quadruple homicide, Detective Hoke Moseley settles into his room at the un-illustrious Eldorado Hotel and nurses a glass of brandy. With his guard down, he doesn’t think twice when he hears a knock on the door. The next day, he finds himself in the hospital, badly bruised and with his jaw wired shut. He thinks back over ten years of cases, wondering who would want to beat him into unconsciousness, steal his gun and badge, and most importantly, make off with his prized dentures. But the pieces never quite add up to revenge, and the few clues he has keep connecting to a dimwitted hooker, her ex-con boyfriend, and the bizarre murder of a Hare Krishna pimp.
Chronically depressed, constantly strapped for money, always willing to bend the rules a bit, Hoke Moseley is hardly what you’d think of as the perfect cop, but he is one of the greatest detective creations of all time.
“No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford.”—Elmore Leonard, New York Times bestselling author
Ex-con Freddy 'Junior' Frenger lands in Miami with three stolen wallets and plans for a new life of crime, and leaves the airport with a snatched suitcase and a corpse behind him. Homicide detective Hoke Moseley is soon chasing Junior and his hooker girlfriend through the seedy suburban sprawl of Miami in a game of hide and seek that will leave Hoke beaten and robbed - but determined to get his man.
