1. THE INNOCENTS
by Richard Barre
New York, NY: Walker & Co., 1995
$19.95 (new)
Richard Barre's FIRST novel
Winner of the SHAMUS AWARD for the Best First Novel in 1996.

SYNOPSIS
In 1990, a flash flood rips through a lonely section of the California desert, unearthing the skeletons of seven murdered children. Amid the outcry for justice following the discovery, the media gives them a name: The Innocents.
As stunning and surprising as the storm that sets it in motion, The Innocents introduces the powerful work of a skilled storyteller rendered with emotion and clarity.

REVIEW QUOTES
Michael Connelly (author of The Concrete Blonde): "A gripping story that opens doors on an intriguing world of mystery, deceit and murder."

Michael Collins (author of Crimes and Misdemeanors): "The Innocents is a powerful novel of suspense that is, in the end, a voyage of self-discovery."

The Cleveland Plain Dealer: "Hardesty is remarkably evolved as a character in his first outing. [He] could be you or me or a neighbor, a person trying hard to survive a few of life's dirtier tricks. He has stature."

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2. BEARING SECRETS
By Richard Barre (winner of the 1996 Shamus Award for Best First Novel)
New York, NY: Walker and Co., 1996
$22.95 (new)
Richard Barre's second novel, featuring Wil Hardesty

SYNOPSIS
Radiant heat radiant electric heating radiant hydronic heating. Wil Hardesty knows about secrets and how they build, one on another, until the truth is buried. Faced with the ever-widening estrangement from his wife, Hardesty answers a young woman's cry for help. The FBI and police are satisfied that her father, '60s activist Max Pfeiffer, killed himself; Holly, steeped in the traditions of Max's radical friends, is certain the government killed him - and that Hardesty's initial discoveries make him part of the problem, not the solution. Then a fiery attack brings them together in a desperate run for their lives.

REVIEW QUOTES
Robert Crais (author of the best-selling Elvis Cole novels): "Bearing Secrets is a richly textured novel brimming with complex and all-too-human characters. Barre's writing is lean and muscular and thoughtful. And the story bristles with a kind of ever-expanding suspense that kept me turning the pages. Richard Barre and Wil Hardesty are an E-ticket ride."

Janet Evanovich (author of One for the Money): "An intense, can't-put-it-down read - Barre is on my short list of must-read authors."

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3. THE GHOSTS OF MORNING
By Richard Barre (winner of the 1996 Shamus Award for Best First Novel)
New York, NY: Berkley Prime Crime (Penguin Putnam), 1998
$21.95 (new)
Rich Barre's third novel, featuring Wil Hardesty

SYNOPSIS
Denny Van Zant was Wil Hardesty's best friend. Together they surfed, drank, and brawled their youth away. Then came the day Denny was accused of murder. Some said he did it. Some said he didn't. He was never quite charged. Then came Vietnam, and years later Wil saw what had been identified as his best friend buried at a military funeral.
Now, decades later, Wil receives a phone call from Denny's mother, a voice from yesterday that brings painful memories flooding back. She thinks Denny is still alive. Her evidence is sketchy, but it is a place to start. And once started, Wil won't be able to stop until he's sure Denny is alive. Or both of them are dead.

REVIEW QUOTES
Nevada Barr (author of Endangered Species): "Barre has tapped into the psyche of a generation; The Ghosts of Morning is a ride as wild and exhilarating as the California surf."

Michael Connelly (bestselling author of Trunk Music): "Wil Hardesty is a new private eye whose destination may just be the pantheon of great ones who followed tough clues before him."

Click here to buy this novel, SIGNED by Richard Barre.

SYNOPSIS
Southern California P.I. Wil Hardesty is a man whose search for the truth always seems to draw him back into his own troubled past, a past shadowed by loss. Doc Whitney was a country music star whose career had just gone platinum when he was convicted for the brutal slayings of his wife and young daughters.
Now twenty years later, their paths collide when Doc is paroled from prison and returns to California's hot, dusty Central Valley…In a town divided over Doc's release, two people with very different agendas recruit Wil. One wants the elusive Doc gone permanently. The other is convinced he's innocent and wants him cleared.

REVIEW QUOTES
Jan Burke (author of Liar): "Hang on tight - pulling out onto Blackheart Highway, you'll find that Richard Barre keeps the pedal to the metal all the way. This one's a winner. Save yourself a second trip to the bookstore and pick up the other books in the excellent Wil Hardesty series now."

Harlan Coben (author of One False Move): "Blackheart Highway is haunting, compelling, and beautifully written. Richard Barre touches the soul. He is simply one of the best."

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5. BURNING MOON
by Richard Barre
Santa Barbara, Capra Press, 2003
$25.95 (hardcover)

SYNOPSIS
The California Coast: Off San Miguel Island a fishing boat struggles in the battering-ram seas and blinding rain of a sudden squall. On the beach near his home, private investigator Wil Hardesty is approached by a Vietnamese fisherman. Vinh Tien is not convinced the disappearance at sea of his only son was the accident it was ruled. His son had fallen in with evil personified: a man who came to America the same time Vinh did, a Vietnamese boat person like himself/

For once at peace with his dead, Wil resists digging up the ghosts of those he fought and bled with in-country. But he is moved by Vinh Tien's hardship and loss. For Wil, too, has lost a son to the ocean. What Wil discovers brings him into a shadowy world of Asian gangs-- dragons that prey upon their own--contraband of the most insidious sort, corruption that reaches unexpected heights played out against a background as exotic as the Vietnamese culture, as violent as the code of secrecy and prejudice that veils the truth Wil must find before a ghost-killer finds him.

REVIEW QUOTES
Chicago Tribune: "The sheer beauty and strength of Barre's writing gives Blackheart Highway a glow of redemption that's extremely rare in any kind of fiction."

Dennis Lehane (author of Mystic River): "A new Richard Barre novel is reason to break out the champagne. He is a lyrical prose stylist, as adept at creating flesh-and-blood characters as anyone working with pen and ink, a tale spinner of the highest order. In short, one of the true blue masters of crime fiction."

S.J. Rozan (Winter and Nigh): "Barre is one terrific writer. His characters are alive, his settings so well-drawn you'll swear you've been there. And you'll want to read some of his sentences over and over, just for the sounds of the words."

Jan Burke (author of Flight and Liar ): "Hang on tight&Richard Barre keeps the pedal to the metal all the way. Save yourself a second trip to the bookstore and pick up the other books in the excellent Wil Hardesty series now."

Don Winslow (author of California Fire and Life ): "Burning Moon gives off its own unique light--stylish, rich and hopeful. Barre's latest Hardesty is a worthy successor."

Click here to buy this novel, SIGNED by Richard Barre.