Books like 'L.A. Confidential'
Readers who enjoyed L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy & David Strathairn also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery 20th century action / adventure thriller crime noir historical-fiction law-enforcement hard-boiled
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Five Decembers by James Kestrel
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn this novel of World War II, an American police detective trapped while trailing a killer overseas struggles to survive with only the help of a total stranger and his daughter, who risk their lives to protect him. December 1941. America teeters on the brink of war, and in Honolulu, Hawaii, police detective Joe McGrady is assigned to investigate a homicide that will change his life forever...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir police-procedural pulp suspense thriller -
![The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth, Фредерик Форсайт]()
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth, Фредерик Форсайт
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsLibrarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.The Jackal. A tall, blond Englishman with opaque, gray eyes. A killer at the top of his profession. A man unknown to any secret service in the world. An assassin with a contract to kill the world's most heavily guarded man.One man with a rifle who can change the course of history... -
![The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, Angus Wilson]()
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, Angus Wilson
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 35 ratings'Holmes,' I cried. 'Is it really you? Can it indeed be that you are alive? Is it possible that you succeeded in climbing out of that awful abyss?'Missing, presumed dead, for three years, Sherlock Holmes returns triumphantly to his dear companion Dr Watson. And not before time! London has never been in more need of his extraordinary services: a murderous individual with an air gun stalks the city...Categorized as:
classics crime drama historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller 20th-century -
![Charm School by Nelson DeMille]()
Charm School by Nelson DeMille
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsRead by James NaughtonSomething very strange -- and sinister -- is going on in the Russian woods at Borodino. In a place called Mrs. Ivanova's Charm School, young KGB agents are being taught by American POW's how to be model citizens of the USA. The Soviet goal -- to infiltrate the United States undetected... -
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![Complete Novels: Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett]()
Complete Novels: Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsComplete in one volume, the five books that created the modern American crime novelIn a few years of extraordinary creative energy, Dashiell Hammett invented the modern American crime novel... -
![Noble House by James Clavell]()
Noble House by James Clavell
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThe setting is Hong Kong, 1963. The action spans scarcely more than a week, but these are days of high adventure: from kidnapping and murder to financial double-dealing and natural catastrophes—fire, flood, landslide. Yet they are days filled as well with all the mystery and romance of Hong Kong—the heart of Asia—rich in every trade…money, flesh, opium, power...Categorized as:
classics drama historical-fiction politics pulp thriller 20th-century action-adventure -
![Chiefs by Stuart Woods]()
Chiefs by Stuart Woods
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the bitter winter of 1920, the first body is found in Delano, Georgia; the naked corpse of an unidentified teenager. There is no direct evidence of murder, but the body bears marks of what seems to be a ritual beating. The investigation falls to Will Henry Lee, a failed cotton farmer newly appointed as Delano's first chief of police...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural politics suspense thriller 20th-century -
![Prussian Blue by Philip Kerr]()
Prussian Blue by Philip Kerr
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom New York Times–bestselling author Philip Kerr, the much-anticipated return of Bernie Gunther, our compromised former Berlin bull and unwilling SS officer. With his cover blown, he is waiting for the next move in the cat-and-mouse game that, even a decade after Germany’s defeat, continues to shadow his life...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller 20th-century -
![Police at the Station and They Don't Look Friendly by Adrian McKinty]()
Police at the Station and They Don't Look Friendly by Adrian McKinty
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBelfast 1988: A man is found dead, killed with a bolt from a crossbow in front of his house. This is no hunting accident. But uncovering who is responsible for the murder will take Detective Sean Duffy down his most dangerous road yet, a road that leads to a lonely clearing on a high bog where three masked gunmen will force Duffy to dig his own grave...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller 20th-century -
![King Stakh’s Wild Hunt by Uladzimir Karatkevich]()
King Stakh’s Wild Hunt by Uladzimir Karatkevich
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsKing Stakh's Wild Hunt tells the tale of Andrey Belaretsky, a young folklorist who finds himself stranded by a storm in the castle of Marsh Firs, the seat of the fading aristocratic Yanovsky family. Offered refuge by Nadzeya, the last in the Yanovskys’ line, he learns of the family curse and terrible apparitions that portend her early death and trap her in permanent, maddening fear...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Collected Stories by Raymond Chandler]()
Collected Stories by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratings(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)The only complete edition of stories by the undisputed master of detective literature, collected here for the first time in one volume, including some stories that have been unavailable for decades... -
![Black Cross by Greg Iles]()
Black Cross by Greg Iles
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt is January 1944 — and as Allied troops prepare for D-day, Nazi scientists develop a toxic nerve gas that will repel and wipe out any invasion force. To salvage the planned assault, two vastly different but equally determined men are sent to infiltrate the secret concentration camp where the poison gas is being perfected on human subjects...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller 20th-century action-adventure -
![Cometh the Hour by Jeffrey Archer]()
Cometh the Hour by Jeffrey Archer
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 28 ratings"Cometh the Hour" opens with the reading of a suicide note, which has devastating consequences for Harry and Emma Clifton, Giles Barrington and Lady Virginia.Giles must decide if he should withdraw from politics and try to rescue Karin, the woman he loves, from behind the Iron Curtain...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction law-enforcement politics suspense thriller 20th-century -
![Sunset Express by Robert Crais]()
Sunset Express by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsProminent restaurateur Teddy Martin is facing charges in his wife’s brutal murder. But he’s not going down without spending a bundle of cash on his defense. So his hotshot attorney hires P.I. Elvis Cole to find proof that Detective Angela Rossi tampered with the evidence. Rossi needs a way back to the fast track after falling hard during an internal investigation five years ago...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement noir suspense thriller 20th-century action-adventure -
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![Word of Honor by Nelson DeMille, Brian Murray]()
Word of Honor by Nelson DeMille, Brian Murray
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHe is a good man, a brilliant corporate executive, an honest, handsome family man admired by men and desired by women. But a lifetime ago Ben Tyson was a lieutenant in Vietnam. There the men under his command committed a murderous atrocity--and together swore never to tell the world what they had done. Now the press, army justice, and the events he tried to forget have caught up with Ben Tyson...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction law-enforcement politics suspense thriller 20th-century -
![Mightier Than the Sword by Jeffrey Archer]()
Mightier Than the Sword by Jeffrey Archer
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsA bomb goes off, but how many passengers on the MV Buckingham have lost their lives? You will find out only if you read the opening chapter of Mightier than the Sword...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction politics suspense thriller 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth]()
The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsThe suicide of an elderly German Jew explodes into revelation after revelation: a Mafia-like organization called Odessa, a real-life fugitive known at the "Butcher of Riga", a young German journalist turned obsessed avenger...and ultimately, of a brilliant, ruthless plot to reestablish the worldwide power of SS mass murders and to carry out Hitler's chilling "Final Solution... -
![Dead of Night by Simon Scarrow]()
Dead of Night by Simon Scarrow
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAs Germany strangles under the tight grip of the Nazi Party, the frozen winter of 1940 brings even more reasons to fear the dark in the crackling new WWII crime novel from #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Simon Scarrow – perfect for fans of Philip Kerr’s Berlin Trilogy, Robert Ludlum, Andrew Gross, and William Christie… One freezing night in 1940 Berlin, an SS doctor and his wife return from...Categorized as:
historical-fiction crime law-enforcement thriller police-procedural suspense fiction mystery -
![Master of the Game by Sidney Sheldon]()
Master of the Game by Sidney Sheldon
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsOne of Sidney Sheldon's most popular and bestselling titles, repackaged and reissued for a new generation of fans. Kate Blackwell is one of the richest and most powerful women in the world. She is an enigma, a woman surrounded by a thousand unanswered questions. Her father was a diamond prospector who struck it rich beyond his wildest dreams...Categorized as:
classics crime drama historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller 20th-century -
![A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr]()
A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPhilip Kerr returns with his best-loved character, Bernie Gunther, in the fifth novel in what is now a series: a tight, twisting, compelling thriller that is firmly rooted in history.A Quiet Flame opens in 1950...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled historical-fiction law-enforcement noir suspense thriller 20th-century -
![Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr]()
Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSeptember 1941: Reinhard Heydrich is hosting a gathering to celebrate his appointment as Reichsprotector of Czechoslovakia. He has chosen his guests with care. All are high-ranking Party members and each is a suspect in a crime as yet to be committed: the murder of Heydrich himself...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled historical-fiction law-enforcement noir police-procedural politics suspense -
![Field Gray by Philip Kerr]()
Field Gray by Philip Kerr
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPhilip Kerr delivers a novel with the noir sensibility of Raymond Chandler, the realpolitik of vintage John le Carré, and the dark moral vision of Graham Greene...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller 20th-century -
![Gun Street Girl by Adrian McKinty]()
Gun Street Girl by Adrian McKinty
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBelfast, 1985, amidst the “Troubles”: Detective Sean Duffy, a Catholic cop in the Protestant RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary), struggles with burn-out as he investigates a brutal double murder and suicide. Did Michael Kelly really shoot his parents at point blank and then jump off a nearby cliff? A suicide note points to this conclusion, but Duffy suspects even more sinister circumstances...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir police-procedural politics suspense thriller -
![Riiginõunik by Boris Akunin]()
Riiginõunik by Boris Akunin
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSince the publication of The Winter Queen, a New York Times Notable Book and the first mystery featuring Erast Fandorin, Boris Akunin’s historical mystery series has become a worldwide sensation, selling millions of copies and propelling Akunin into the ranks of Russia’s most widely read contemporary novelists...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement politics thriller 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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![The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré]()
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsIn this classic, John le Carre's third novel and the first to earn him international acclaim, he created a world unlike any previously experienced in suspense fiction... -
![Todo lo peor by César Pérez Gellida]()
Todo lo peor by César Pérez Gellida
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSigue la Guerra fría, sigue en pie el muro que divide Alemania en dos partes. Todo lo peor sucederá en estas circunstancias.Un asesino comienza a matar. Sus víctimas son homosexuales y sus crímenes parecen tener un componente religioso... -
![One Good Deed by David Baldacci]()
One Good Deed by David Baldacci
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 28 ratings#1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci returns with his next blockbuster thriller...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller 20th-century -
![Seven Days in May by Fletcher Knebel, Charles W. Bailey II]()
Seven Days in May by Fletcher Knebel, Charles W. Bailey II
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Gentleman Jim" Scott was a brilliant magnetic general. Like a lot of people, he believed the President was ruining the country. Unlike anyone else, he had the power to do something about it, something unprecedented and terrifying. Colonel "Jiggs" Casey was the Marine who accidentally stumbled onto the plot...Categorized as:
classics crime historical-fiction politics suspense thriller 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Outfit by Richard Stark]()
The Outfit by Richard Stark
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen the Outfit tries to kill him, Parker declares war. Ripping off the syndicate is easy, but going one-on-one with Bronson, the Outfit's big boss, is the hard part. Hard for anyone but Parker, because the entire underworld understands that whatever Parker does -- he does for keep... -
![Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze]()
Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsShe had the face of a madonna and a heart made of dollar bills.She was sitting on the floor, naked, in a skitter of green bills. Beyond her was the custodian, still simpering in death. She was scooping up handfuls of the green money and dropping it on top of her head so that it came sliding down along the cream-colored hair, slipping down along her shoulders and body... -
![The One from the Other by Philip Kerr]()
The One from the Other by Philip Kerr
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPhilip Kerr’s Berlin Noir trilogy—featuring the tough, fast-talking, noirish detective Bernie Gunther—is a publishing phenomenon that continues to win new fans more than fifteen years after its initial publication. Kerr has brought Bernie back in a highly anticipated thriller that will delight fans of the original books and attract new attention to the backlist...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled historical-fiction law-enforcement noir politics suspense thriller -
![Dark Star by Alan Furst]()
Dark Star by Alan Furst
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe acclaimed author of Night Soldiers offers a dramatic and exciting spy thriller of Eastern Europe on the brink of World War II. In the back alleys and glittering salons of Europe, there is a thin line between survival and betrayal, as Soviet NKVD agents and the Nazi Gestapo confront each other in a brilliant duel of espionage. Like watching Casablanca for the first time.--Time...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir politics suspense thriller 20th-century -
![Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler]()
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsMarlowe's about to give up on a completely routine case when he finds himself in the wrong place at the right time to get caught up in a murder that leads to a ring of jewel thieves, another murder, a fortune-teller, a couple more murders, and more corruption than your average graveyard... -
![Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith]()
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsA triple murder in a Moscow amusement center: three corpses found frozen in the snow, faces and fingers missing. Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko is brilliant, sensitive, honest, and cynical about everything except his profession. To identify the victims and uncover the truth, he must battle the KGB, FBI, and New York police as he performs the impossible--and tries to stay alive doing it...Categorized as:
classics crime drama historical-fiction law-enforcement noir police-procedural politics -
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![The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories by Otto Penzler]()
The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories by Otto Penzler
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn unstoppable anthology of crime stories culled from Black Mask magazine the legendary publication that turned a pulp phenomenon into literary mainstream. Black Mask was the apotheosis of noir. It was the magazine where the first hardboiled detective story, which was written by Carroll John Daly appeared... -
![The Million Dollar Wound by Max Allan Collins]()
The Million Dollar Wound by Max Allan Collins
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom a foxhole on Guadalcanal (shared with Barney Ross) to the glitzy underworld of Hollywood in the '40s, Nate Heller fights his memories and the Mob.Something happened at the Canal, something Heller's blocking out. What he can't block, though, is the wound he received--the "million-dollar wound," the one that got him home...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled historical-fiction law-enforcement noir suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
![Madness in the Ruins by John A. Connell]()
Madness in the Ruins by John A. Connell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA mutilated body. No witnesses. The only clue, a message, “Those who I have made suffer will become saints and they shall lift me up from hell.” Winter, 1945. Munich is in ruins, and a savage killer is stalking the city.U.S. Army investigator Mason Collins enforces the law in the American Zone of Occupation. This post is his last chance to do what he loves most—being a homicide detective... -
![Bright Orange for the Shroud by John D. MacDonald]()
Bright Orange for the Shroud by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTravis McGee is looking forward to a "slob summer," spending his days as far away from danger as possible. But trouble has a way of finding him, no matter where he hides. An old friend, conned out of his life savings by his ex-wife, has tracked him down and is desperate for help...Categorized as:
classics crime hard-boiled law-enforcement noir suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
![Time to Depart by Lindsey Davis]()
Time to Depart by Lindsey Davis
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBalbinus Pius, the dirtiest underworld organizer in Emperor Vespasian's Rome, has been convicted of a capital crime at last, thanks to public servant Petronius Longus, better known to Marcus Didius Falco as his old army buddy Petro. A quirk of Roman law, however, allows every citizen condemned to death time to depart. In other words, he has a chance to skip town...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir politics suspense thriller 20th-century -
![A Tan and Sandy Silence by John D. MacDonald]()
A Tan and Sandy Silence by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBeing accused at gunpoint of hiding another man's wife is a rude shock. But it's an even bigger shock when Travis McGee discovers that the woman in question is Mary Broll, a dear old friend. Now she's disappeared, vanished without a word to anyone... -
![The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper by John D. MacDonald]()
The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWith an introduction by CARL HIAASENJOHN D. MacDONALD."..the great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller." --STEPHEN KING."..a master storyteller, a masterful suspense writer."--MARY HIGGINS CLARK."..a dominant influence on writers crafting the continuing series character."--SUE GRAFTON."..my favorite novelist of all time."--DEAN KOONTZ.".Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement noir suspense thriller 20th-century action-adventure -
![If The Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr]()
If The Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAn instant classic in the Bernie Gunther series, with storytelling that is fresher and more vivid than ever. Berlin, 1934: The Nazis have secured the 1936 Olympiad for the city but are facing foreign resistance. Hitler and Avery Brundage, the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee, have connived to soft-pedal Nazi anti- Semitism and convince America to participate...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled historical-fiction law-enforcement noir suspense thriller 20th-century -
![A Falcon Flies by Wilbur Smith]()
A Falcon Flies by Wilbur Smith
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA Falcon Flies by Wilbur SmithIn 1860, a man and woman approach the coast of Africa aboard a swift clipper--in the command of an American who knows no law. Robyn Ballantyne and her brother Morris have waited years for this moment: to return to Africa, to search for their missionary father who had disappeared somewhere in the wilderness...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction suspense thriller 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy]()
The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratings1950s Los Angeles: The City of Angels has become the city of the Angel of Death. Communist witch-hunts and insanely violent killings are terrorising the community. Three men are plunged into a maelstrom of violence and deceit when their lives become inextricably linked as each one confronts his own personal darkness... -
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![Cape Fear by John D. MacDonald]()
Cape Fear by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHow far would you go to save your family? In John D. MacDonald's iconic masterwork of suspense, the inspiration for not one but two Hollywood hits, a mild-mannered family is tormented by an obsessed criminal--and with the authorities powerless to protect them, they must take the law into their own hands... -
![The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler]()
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA beautiful, historically accurate edition of the modern classic first published in 1943 reproduces the original and offers an alternative for those who love great old books and want to relive Philip Marlowe's strange and puzzling search for the missing woman... -
![The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin]()
The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsAlive and hiding in South America, the fiendish Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele gathers a group of former colleagues for a horrifying project—the creation of the Fourth Reich. Barry Kohler, a young investigative journalist, gets wind of the project and informs famed Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman, but before he can relay the evidence, Kohler is killed... -
![The Alienist by Caleb Carr]()
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsWhen The Alienist was first published in 1994, it was a major phenomenon, spending six months on the New York Times bestseller list, receiving critical acclaim, and selling millions of copies. This modern classic continues to be a touchstone of historical suspense fiction for readers everywhere.The year is 1896. The city is New York...Categorized as:
classics crime dark drama historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense -
![The Sicilian by Mario Puzo]()
The Sicilian by Mario Puzo
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAfter Mario Puzo wrote his internationally acclaimed The Godfather, he has often been imitated but never equaled. Puzo's classic novel, The Sicilian, stands as a cornerstone of his work--a lushly romantic, unforgettable tale of bloodshed, justice, and treachery. . . .The year is 1950. Michael Corleone is nearing the end of his exile in Sicily... -
![The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy]()
The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn this savagely audacious novel, James Ellroy plants a pipe bomb under the America in the 1960s, lights the fuse, and watches the shrapnel fly. On November 22, 1963 three men converge in Dallas. Their job: to clean up the JFK hit’s loose ends and inconvenient witnesses. They are Wayne Tedrow, Jr., a Las Vegas cop with family ties to the lunatic right; Ward J...
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