Standiford, Les Books

Miami Noir (Akashic Noir)

Amazon Price: $11.65 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Akashic Books Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $3.39

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Anthologies
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Brand-new stories by: James W. Hall, Barbara Parker, John Dufresne, Paul Levine, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Tom Corcoran, Christine Kling, George Tucker, Kevin Allen, Anthony Dale Gagliano, David Beaty, Vicki Hendricks, John Bond, Preston Allen, Lynne Barrett, and Jeffrey Wehr.

From the introduction by Les Standiford:

The truth is that Miami, though naturally lovely, is a frontier town, perched on the border between the known and the rarely before experienced . . . We are not only on the edge of the continent, we are to this country what New York was in Ellis Island's heyday, what the West Coast was in the middle of the 20th century. This is where the new arrivals debark these days, and it is no mistake that during the last decade of the last century, commentators as diverse as Joan Didion, David Rieff, and T.D. Allman devoted entire volumes to Miami's role as the harbinger for America's future . . . But for now, the novel of crime and punishment is the perfect vehicle to convey the spirit and the timbre of this brawling place to a wider world.

Raw Deal

Les Standiford

Amazon Price: $11.66 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Poisoned Pen Press Amazon Marketplace: 28 new & used starting at $7.39

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Standiford, Les

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

John Deal's life is finally coming together--he is reunited with his lovely wife, they have a beautiful baby, and DealCo, his Miami construction business, is booming with post-Hurricane Andrew contracts rolling in. The future looks bright...until the night that his house is engulfed by an arsonist's flames and his wife is terribly burned.



Unbeknownst to him, Deal has stumbled into the path of the sickly sweet plans of sugar cane magnate and Cuban émigré power broker, Vicente Luis Torreno, a man obsessed by his dreams of a repatriated Cuba and the juicy profits of the sugar monopoly he is sure will come with it.

Torreno's sugar-coated influence reaches to the highest levels of the U.S. Government, a fact that more than complicates Deal's efforts to find out who is responsible for this latest tragedy and to avoid joining the string of bodies that litter the South Florida landscape, all the way from the vast cane fields of Lake Okeechobee to the shores of Biscayne Bay.

Done Deal

Les Standiford

Amazon Price: $11.66 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Poisoned Pen Press Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $4.52

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Standiford, Les
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Mystery -> General
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Mystery -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Solid debut novel 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

What is it about Florida? It's a magnet for "unusual" characters and this book is full of them. The Kirkus review in the editorial section does a wonderful job of telling the key plot points so I won't be redundant.

I liked a number of things about this book. Johnny/Jack Deal is a very appealing protagonist. While I will always have a bit of a crush on Travis McGee, he isn't exactly a everyday sort of guy. Deal is very much an everyman caught in a vortex of events that are beyond his control or understanding. He responds with a nice mix of anger, humor and action. The supporting cast is also well done - particularly Leon, the heavy for the bad guys. He's strickly a character out of the Hiaasen school of Florida wackos.

I'll be reading the sequel to this book (Raw Deal) soon although I am a bit perplexed as to how Deal will continue to find himself involved in murder. My father was a contractor and the most crime he ever saw was the periodic stealing of materials from a job site. Still, if Jessica Fletcher could encounter a body a week, I'm sure Deal can too.

Editorial Review:

Done Deal is the first in the series featuring reluctant sleuth John Deal, a South Florida building contractor who has a penchant for stepping into the path of the wrong people. Here, Deal is struggling to

rebuild the once formidable DealCo, a development company once headed by his flamboyant father Barton Deal--but little does he know that the piece of

land upon which he plans to build a small apartment complex is coveted by a ruthless businessman intent on making a fortune off Major League Baseball's

arrival in South Florida.

Deal to Die for: A Novel

Les Standiford

List Price: $22.00 By: Harpercollins Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Standiford, Les
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Mystery -> General

Editorial Review:

Investigating his best friend's alleged suicide, John Deal and his partner, Vernon Driscoll, learn that the victim's agent has recently begun making porn movies that have attracted the attention of a Chinese gang. $25,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Bone Key (A John Deal Novel)

Les Standiford

Amazon Price: $11.21 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Poisoned Pen Press Amazon Marketplace: 8 new & used starting at $6.69

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Standiford, Les
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Mystery -> General
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Mystery -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A new Deal novel is cause for celebration, as fans of Les Standiford's series featuring the Florida contractor know. This time around, Deal's complicated family ties lure him from Miami to Key West to bid on a huge project being developed by entrepreneur Franklin Stone, an old friend of his father's. It's always a good idea to get a series hero away from his usual haunts, even if the Keys aren't that far from Florida's gold coast; the geography of the setting is key to this somewhat run-of-the-mill tale of buried treasure, vintage wine, and murder. What makes this mystery worthwhile isn't the plot, it's the people; instead of Vernon Driscoll, Deal's usual sidekick, Standiford gives us Russell Straight, and instead of Janice, Deal's estranged wife, the author sets up Annie Dodds, Deal's college girlfriend, as his love interest; it's the author's skill at characterization that renders them real rather than stereotypical, multifaceted rather than one-dimensional. Not the best of the series, but still well worth reading. --Jane Adams

Book Deal

Les Standiford

Amazon Price: $11.66 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Poisoned Pen Press Amazon Marketplace: 28 new & used starting at $3.18

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Standiford, Les

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Slightly Different Deal 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I ran into deal about a year ago in a bookshop on Marathon Key. The owner knows his Florida mystery authors and tipped me to the Deal series. I have since been working the series and came across Book Deal recently. (apparently it is a reissue of a novel previously published under a differen title. but I could not quite figure this out.) Deal, as everyone who reads the series knows, is the former policeman son of developer father who has (maybe) killed himself. He has taken over the almost bankrupt family business and has begun to establish himself as an honest restorer/developer of historicaly important architectural structures. (Usually the occupation of the bad guy in South Florida novels, and with good reason if you've seen most of their work in the Keys.) Deal's misadventures have led to attempts on the life of his wife, Janice, as well as himself, and she suffers the anomie of severely harmed victims. Thus these novels constantly return to the theme of the adventures of separated but not single Deal and his ex-partner and buddy now P.I. Driscoll, who regularly encounter ladies with a variety of motivations.In one novel an old girlfriend, in another a Anti-Castro cuban, and so forth.

This novel opens as Deal encounters Janice who is working in an old-fashioned bookstore owned by his friend Arch in one of those rambling strip stores along Red Road or Bird Drive on the edge of Coral Gables. The machinations of a large corporation to build a Superstore across the street eventually leads to a string of murders in which one character's association with another takes Deal and Janice across town (to the Capone suite in the renovated Biltmore) to across the country ( a computerized cathedral in Omaha - where Arch's sister worked as a programmer.) One bit of fun is the Ma and Pa hit team. - We never do see the outcome, but when Pa, celebrating a hit by playing golf for the first time, is constantly harassed by a pushy player just as his putt sinks, he leaves with a driver but returns empty handed.- And his frumpy wife , the kick boxer, is a fright.

The conclusion, in a blizzard in Omaha, is enough to make anyone accustomed to Winter escapes to forgive the Sunshine state for any and all hurricanes. A great, suspensful conclusion. And by the way, Deal and Janice's (maybe) reconciliation scene in the kitchen about midway through the book is a hot, comic bit of erotica. All in all, this book has a bit of everything and in nice proportion. If you like the Deal series,you'll really like this one.

Editorial Review:

Reluctant sleuth and Miami developer John Deal is the last of his kind--a builder who appreciates his craft. His friend Arch Dolan was the last of his kind, too, a Miami bookseller who sold books because he loved them. Now someone has killed him for it. And he's only the first body to fall. In quick succession the CEO of a huge bookstore chain and a local lawyer meet violent ends...and Deal starts finding connections.

Still, it's not easy for Deal: his estranged wife Janice, is still emotionally and physically scarred from mishaps the last time Deal stepped into the path of the wrong people. But Janice was close to Arch and she's as eager to find the killer as her husband. Working together, they discover that Arch's sister, lately employed by a charismatic revivalist, has disappeared. With the clues pointing north, Deal and Janice set out on a journey to a distant and frigid climate, one that threatens to chill them out for good.

Presidential Deal

Les Standiford

Amazon Price: $11.66 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Poisoned Pen Press Amazon Marketplace: 24 new & used starting at $7.25

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Standiford, Les
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Mystery -> General
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Mystery -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

John Deal is no hero--he just happens to be in the right place at the right time, cruising in the Gulf of Mexico when a group of Cuban refugees are tossed overboard in a smuggling operation gone awry. Then, presidential politics, particularly the importance of the Florida vote to President Frank Shelton's reelection campaign, put Deal on stage in Miami for a Medal of Valor ceremony. In another case of bad timing, Deal is caught in the middle of a scheme by anti-Castro partisans who plan to kidnap the president and blame it on Cuba. But when at the last minute the First Lady stands in for her husband at the Medal of Valor ceremony, Deal finds himself an inadvertent hero again, abducted with Linda Shelton and taken away with her to a deserted island in the Bahamas. The problem is, nobody knows Deal's been snatched with the First Lady--nobody except for retired cop Vern Driscoll, Deal's closest friend. Flying into the eye of a hurricane to rescue Deal and the First Lady, he tries to accomplish what the FBI, CIA, and every other law enforcement agency under the president's command hasn't been able to. Meanwhile, it's up to Deal to uncover a plot against the president hatched from somewhere within the president's own administration.

John Deal is an antihero in the best tradition of existential mystery fiction, and in Standiford's capable hands, he's grown into a more complex character with every new adventure. And, while Frank and Linda Shelton bear a striking resemblance to Bill and Hillary Clinton, it may be more than a coincidence--Standiford clearly knows what goes on in Washington, especially where relations with Cuba and Miami are concerned. --Jane Adams

Spill

Les Standiford

List Price: $19.95 By: Atlantic Monthly Pr Amazon Marketplace: 25 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Standiford, Les
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Mystery -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 2.0 of 5

Toxic chemical spill is a dud 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Two guys attempt to steal the truck load of chemicals and wind up spilling them all over Yellowstone park, thus the search is on. Only two people survive, there is the typical chase, murders and hit men looking for the contaminated. Even with all this the book was very boring.

This is the first book I have read by this Author, I am sure he can do much better. Maybe I have other interest.

I am sure there are companies like Petrodyne out there, so this could be real life. I sure hope our Government responds much differently though.

Editorial Review:

When a tanker truck carrying a strain of hemorrhagic fever virus crashes into a creekbed on state park land, an army of government-approved assassins, bent on covering up the scandal, sets out to kill the people vacationing there. Reprint.

Havana Run

Les Standiford

List Price: $24.95 By: Putnam Adult Amazon Marketplace: 60 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

great suspense thriller 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Thirteen years ago, police officer John Deal learned that his father committed suicide. His face was so badly damaged that his son couldn't recognize him. The police find papers proving John was supplying his father with information that he used in his business dealings. Unable to demonstrate he was set up, the brass allowed him to retire. John took over Deal Co, the construction company his father ran into the ground.

In the present, Deal Co. is breaking even when Antonio Fuentes asks him to accompany him to Cuba. Fuentes represents a consortium who want to rebuild Cuba after Castro is gone and they want Deal to be their point man. Deal is about to turn him down when a government agent asks him to go along with Fuentes and in return they will give him proof that he was framed thirteen years ago. Deal goes to Cuba intending to play the spy but finds someone that has to be smuggled out of the country at any cost, making his deal with the government null & void.

Readers get an inside look at the Cuba of today in HAVANA RUN and although the country is in a holding pattern different forces are ready to take control once the present leader is gone. Les Standiford raises the bar of the suspense thriller in the latest installment of his John Deal series. Though one must wonder about a government that hides the truth that would exonerate someone, this fits right into the story line and Justice, American style. Readers will take to the protagonist right away because of the vulnerability that shines above this tough guy persona.

Harriet Klausner

Editorial Review:

John Deal has spent much of his adult life trying to rebuild the Miami construction firm that his late father ruined. When the possibility of a major project in post-normalized Cuba arises, he can't help but be intrigued-only to find that he's been lured to Havana for another, far more dangerous purpose: to help spring an American prisoner from a Castro jail. Deal wants nothing to do with it, until he discovers who it is: a man closer to him than he could possibly have imagined, and the holder of secrets-secrets which more than one group would kill for . . . and soon do.

Black Mountain

Les Standiford

List Price: $5.99 By: Berkley Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Standiford, Les

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

BLACK MOUNTAIN - A heightened wilderness adventure 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

The governor of New York, contemplating a trek to the Oval Office, decides that a week of Wyoming mountain air, along with a personal film crew and entourage, will give him clarity of purpose. But from the get-go, someone is leading the unhappy campers down a trail of death and destruction. And like all politicians, Governor Fielding Dawson has his share of enemies, as well as future foes. And he probably has his share of unhappy staffers who cannot stand another adventure with a self-absorbed elected official.

New York City subway cop Richard Corrigan, a last minute addition to the wilderness party, does not like politicians or unpaved paths without street signs and sausage vendors. And he does not like what his instincts are telling him about the unexplained events that are happening among his tenting group. He shares his concerns with fellow hiker Dara Wylie, a magazine reporter, whom he enjoys towing the line with.

The race down BLACK MOUNTAIN is a heart-stopping adventure of survival, cunning, political mystery, and romance. The characters have to weather the dark side of nature, and the dark side of man. The ending unearths the truth, in a satisfying way, but leaves open the rhetorical question of which is more vicious: mankind or the BLACK MOUNTAIN.

Editorial Review:

A jaded transit cop accompanies the governor of New York on a trek through the Wyoming wilderness-and finds danger lurking at every turn.