Scott Phillips

Bill and Ninna Ogden have an ambiguous relationship: they're still married, but he runs the saloon in Cottonwood and lives upstairs, while his wife lives outside the town limits on a farm. Neither is a model of fidelity. Bill amuses himself with a string of dalliances, but what he really wants to do is head West and make a living as a photographer. It's not until after a few more affairs, a couple of murders, and a misguided plan by an entrepreneur to put the town on the map that Bill is able to escape, move to San Francisco, and create a new life for himself.

From the author of New York Times Notable book The Ice Harvest, a cult classic of Western noir set in a 19th century Kansas frontier town rocked by a series of brutal murders Introducing photographer and saloon owner Bill Ogden. Perfect for fans of Deadwood and JustifiedIn 1872, Cottonwood, Kansas, is a one-horse speck on the map; a community of run-down farms, dusty roads, and two-bit crooks. Self-educated saloon owner and photographer Bill Ogden looks on his adopted town with an eye to making a profit or getting out. His brains and ambition bring him to the attention of one Marc Leval, a wealthy Chicago developer with big plans for the small town. The advent of the railroad and rumors of a cattle trail turn Cottonwood into a wild and wooly boomtownand with Leval as a partner, Ogden dreams of bringing civilization to the prairie.But civilizing the Great Plains was never that simple. While many in Cottonwood distrust Levals motives, and mob violence threatens to derail the towns dreams of greatness, Ogden finds himself dangerously obsessed with Levals stunningly beautiful wife. Meanwhile, plying its sinister trade unnoticed, an apparently ordinary local farm family quietly butchers traveling salesmen, weary travelers, and other unsuspecting wanderers.In his own inimitable brand of narrative wizardry, Scott Phillips traces the metamorphosis of a frontier town that becomes a lightning rod for sin, corruption, and murder. He also brings to life actual crimes that befell Kansas in the 1870s and 1880s, carried out by a strange clan who popularly became known as the Bloody Benders. Brilliantly written, maliciously fun, and full of many surprises, Cottonwood is historical fiction at its finest.

Celebrity and crime pay off big time for an American sociopath in Paris in one of the great joys in new noir fiction (Los Angeles Review of Books).Dr. Crandall Tayloror rather the actor who plays himis enjoying a cushy new life in the City of the Lights where his nowcancelled American soap opera has become a prime time retro cult hit. This newfound stardom isnt wasted on him. Anxious to keep his brutal past a secret from fans, hes enjoying all the fruits that fame has to offer: adulation, entree into the trendiest clubs, and sex. What he really wants is to fund a feature film.Crandall uses his charm and intellect to draw into his narcissistic web four women: a horny network executive; an internet porn star; a bookish university student with a nasty bent; and the fetching starlet wife of an arms dealer. Crandall accepts both the crime lords cash and his beautiful wifes advances. Big mistake. Now Crandall must channel his violent, megalomaniacal dark side just to stay aliveand on the run.From the national bestselling author of The Ice Harvest comes an ingeniously twisty oldschool noir along the lines of James M. Cain (Spinetingler Magazine). With it, the mad, bad, and dangerous to know . . . quintessential American huckster . . . and in Phillips sly, deft hands we find ourselves sinking down eagerly with him, glorying in the beautiful muck (Edgar Awardwinning author Megan Abbott).

The war is over, but that doesnt mean things are getting better. For PR man Wayne Ogden or any of the returning vets. The town of Wichita, Kansasbuilt around the industry of Collins Aircraft and its wealthy founder, Everett Collinsis not how they remember it. Against the background violence committed by the returning soldiers trying to make an adjustment back into civilian life, Wayne attempts to destroy his former mentor and take down Collins Aircraftthe once fabled company that provided planes to Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, and Wiley Post. All along the way he is haunted by poison pen letters, anonymously sent, that carry threats alluding to his black market work as a supply sergeant in the Quartermaster Corps. As the letters reveal more and more of Waynes secretive wartime past, his plan to destroy Collins and his company takes an increasingly darker turn that leads to blackmail, extortion, and murder. Phillips expertly crafts an instant noir classic that presents the birth of a postwar American criminal.

Noir master Scott Phillipss The Walkaway explores the far-reaching consequences of the deception and violence of its predecessor, The Ice Harvest.Summer 1989: Gunther Fahnstiel, once a tough cop who wasnt averse to taking a little side money from a certain madam, has just escaped the dementia ward of his Wichita nursing home. Hes not exactly sure where he wants to go, but wherever it is, it has to do with the bag full of cash belonging to the man he accidentally backed over with his RV in 1979. During his search, Gunther begins to relive the violent fallout of that madams sex lottery forty years ago. As Gunthers memories unravel,his past and present will collide in a devastating reckoning. This dark comedy, at once prequel and sequel to Phillipss award-winning debut The Ice Harvest, proves that no walkaway can escape unscathed.

Cottonwood (2004) was a huge step forward for the burgeoning king of noir Scott Phillips, and his dark and gritty take on the western earned him starred reviews and praise from crime masters Michael Connelly and George Pelecanos. That novel featured the Kansas town beginning in 1872 when it was just a small community of run down farms, dusty roads, and twobit crooks. Saloon owner and photographer Bill Ogden thought it could be more and allied with wealthy developer Marc Leval to capitalize on the advent of the railroad and the cattle trail that soon turned Cottonwood into a wild boomtown. But problems followed the money and soon Bill was confronting both the wicked family of serial killers known as the Bloody Benders as well as his onetime friend Marc, having fallen into an affair with his beautiful wife Maggie. Bill then turned up alone in San Francisco in 1890, having to face a past from which he could not run.But what happened to him in those missing years? What happened to Maggie, to Bill, and their escape from the murderous Bender family?Hop Alley answers all those questions as we return to the Wild West and discover Bill Ogden, now living as Bill Sadlaw, running a photo studio near the Chinese part of town know as Hop Alley in the frontier town of Denver in 1878. Left by Maggie, Bill enjoys an erotic affair with Priscilla, a fallen singer addicted to laudanum, who is also seeing his friend Ralph Banbury, the editor of the local Denver Bulletin (neither man minds sharing). Bills peaceful time away from Cottonwood turns anything but as he must confront the mysterious murder of his housekeepers brotherinlaw, the increasing instability of Priscilla as both men try to ease out of her clutches, and an all outriot across Hop Alley. And when the body count starts rising, Bill will soon start wishing he had never left Cottonwood at all.Hop Alley proves that no one does the Wild West like noir master Scott Phillips.

A hardboiled valentine to the Golden State, That Left Turn at Albuquerque marks the return of noir master Scott Phillips. Douglas Rigby, attorney-at-law, is bankrupt. Hes just sunk his last $200,000a clandestine loan from his last remaining client, former bigshot TV exec Glenn Haskillinto a cocaine deal gone wrong. The lesson? Never trust anyone else with the dirty work. Desperate to get back on top, Rigby formulates an art forgery scheme involving one of Glenns priceless paintings, a victimless crime. But for Rigby to pull this one off, hell need to negotiate a whole cast of players with their own agendas, including his wife, his girlfriend, an embittered art forger, Glenns resentful nurse, and the mans money-hungry nephew. One misstep, and it all falls apartwill he be able to save his skin? Written with hard-knock sensibility and wicked humor, Scott Phillipss newest novel will cement him as one of the great crime writers of the 21st century.

From the master of Western noir comes a provocatively entertaining crime saga set in the early days of the film industry.This dark historical adventure captures the beginnings of the Hollywood studio system and the blue movie industry that grows up alongside it.Los Angeles, 1916: Photographer Bill Ogden has opened a portrait studio in the seedy noir world of early Hollywood, where he is joined by his granddaughter, Flaviaa woman in need of a fresh start after bludgeoning her drunken, abusive husband to death in Wichita. Though his business is mainly legit, Bill finds himself brushing up against the blue movie porn industry growing in the shadows of the motion picture mainstream.When a series of grisly murders take place across the city, Bill and his capable granddaughter are pulled into events as tricky and tangled as anything this side of The Big Sleep. We meet dreamers, opportunists, washed-up former stars and starry-eyed newcomers, a cast of unforgettable characters living on the margins looking to make a quick buck, launch a career, or just keep their family together. The Devil Raises His Own is at once a stripped-down noir thriller and a panoramic look at Los Angeles at the beginning of motion picturesa Boogie Nights set in the era of D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin from one of the best crime novelists working today.

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