Crang Mystery

Crang, the smart (and often smartass) criminal lawyer, finds himself embroiled in a mystery while on vacation on the French Riviera. Like all the criminal messes Crang has ever found himself caught up in, this one begins in perfect innocence. As Crang is leaving for a holiday on the French Riviera with his movie-critic girlfriend, Annie, his rich-as-Croesus former father-in-law appears to ask if he'd mind checking up on an errant family member who is said to be hanging out in Monaco. Crang says he'll do the favor, a decision that drops him into a series of ever-tighter spots on the Côte d'Azur.

At a time when gay communities were hidden worlds, Crang needs to root out a killer and do his best to right a grave wrong. At the height of the AIDS crisis in the early nineties, a close friend of Crang's, Alex Corcoran, loses his partner, Ian, to the disease. After Ian's death, Crang is enlisted by Alex to find the man who infected Ian. Crang searches for the man to prevent Alex from getting himself in trouble. However, when Alex is murdered, Crang owes it to his friends to find their killers. The case, which explores the gay scene in Toronto at a time when LGBT culture was still very much a hidden world and open persecution was commonplace, ends up involving a cabinet minister afraid of being exposed. A clever political mystery, Blood Count is also an emotional and moving story of a couple whose lives are devastated by AIDS and a community damaged by the prejudices of the world around them.

When his popular hip-hop artist client is blackmailed, Crang stumbles on a porn operation and an unexpected case of murder. Crang is a smart-talking criminal lawyer who doesn't mind chasing down unorthodox cases. That makes him just the guy to represent a famous hip-hop performer who's on the wrong end of a blackmail scheme. It doesn't strike Crang as a confounding case, but in no time, he finds himself confronting an organized gang that deals in porn, stock swindles, and murder. Things get so messy that Crang decides he'll have to bend the law to make things right. It's a dilemma that would cause other lawyers to back away, but not Crang, the nervy attorney with the fast mouth.

Mystery-solving criminal lawyer Crang returns to investigate the disappearance of two rare books. Fletcher Marshall is a Toronto antiquarian book dealer, internationally respected in the business. One night, someone blows the safe in his office and makes off with the contents, which include an infamous forged first edition of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese that is in itself a collector's item. Fletcher, who was still in the process of verifying the book, doesn't even know whether it was the real thing or a clever forgery (of a forgery). But rather than summon the cops to investigate the theft, he turns to his pal Crang, the nervy criminal lawyer, hoping he can retrieve the books before their owner gets wind of the crime. The owner happens to be the richest woman in Canada and a tough cookie who could ruin Fletcher's career. Crang gets on the hunt, learning much about the trade in musty books and the lucrative business it makes for forgers. Just as he seems to be getting close to answers, a shocking development makes things much more complicated - and much more dangerous.

The smart-talking, wise-cracking, jazz-loving criminal lawyer has got a taste for straight vodka and a nose for trouble. No one could ever accuse Crang of being a superhero, but with his usual mixture of innate cool and naive enthusiasm he brings the villains to justice. This 6-book bundle includes: Crang Plays the Ace Crang Mystery #1 Straight No Chaser Crang Mystery #2 Riviera Blues Crang Mystery #3 Blood Count Crang Mystery #4 Take Five Crang Mystery #5 Keeper of the Flame Crang Mystery #6 "Like a fine wine, the [Crang] series - and its protagonist - have aged well." The Toronto Star

Jack Batten's hard-boiled Crang series returns with this four-book bundle, including the latest Crang mystery, 2016's Keeper of the Flame! Includes: •Crang Plays the Ace • Straight No Chaser • Take Five • Keeper of the Flame