‘A comic odyssey, a crime thriller and a nuts-and-bolts account of making art. Not bad for one book!’ PAUL KELLY‘Completely marvellous! Couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. You’ll swear he wrote it just for you. Ain’t no world in which Robert effing Forster missed his calling, but, damn, the bloke was born to write books.’ TRENT DALTONIt’s 1991, and Australian singer-songwriters Mick Woods and Drew Lovelock – 'tall and skinny, rock-star-wre...

Originally published in 1971. In The House of Saulx-Tavanes: Versailles and Burgundy, 1700–1830, Professor Robert Forster examines the noble family of Saulx-Tavanes from the reign of Louis XIV to the Restoration. He provides readers with an account of a single aristocratic family's relationship to the changing political culture of the eighteenth century. Forster explores how an old aristocratic family promoted itself in the royal court, how the Saulx-Tavanes managed their estate r...

“In early ’77 I asked Grant if he’d form a band with me. ‘No,’ was his blunt reply.”Grant McLennan didn’t want to be in a band. He couldn’t play an instrument; Charlie Chaplin was his hero du jour. However, when Robert Forster began weaving shades Hemingway, Genet, Chandler and Joyce into his lyrics, Grant was swayed and the 80s indie sensation, The Go-Betweens, was born. These friends would collaborate for three decades, until Grant’s tragic, premature de...

In his first book, Australian singer-songwriter Robert Forster takes readers on an idiosyncratic journey through the past and present of popular music: from Bob Dylan to Cat Power, from AC/DC to Nana Mouskouri, from The Saints to Franz Ferdinand.With 30 years experience as a recording artist and performer and an undimmed love of popular music, Forster’s observations about his fellow artists balance the enthusiasm of a fan with an insider’s authority. He is that rar...

First published in 1997, this volume looks at the process of European expansion which brought into contact societies and cultures across the world which had been initially alien to one another. Conflict was one aspect of this interaction, but accommodation, mutual adaptation, and institutional and behavioural synthesis were also present though often biased in favour of European norms. The intent of this book is to avoid treating ’colonization’, ’dominance’ and exploitation’ as the only foc...

“Sharp as an ice pick….You will love this excellent book.”—New York Times Book ReviewElmore Leonard is the undisputed master, the “King Daddy of crime writers” (Seattle Times), in the august company of the all-time greats of mystery/noir/crime fiction genre: John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, et al. The creator of such unforgettable classics as Stick, Out of Sight, and Get Shorty—not to mention the character of U.S. Marsha...

Matthew Scudder is finally leading a comfortable life, one of stability and respectability— even the New York streets don't look so mean anymore. He's married to a woman he loves, and wonder of wonders, he's actually gotten around to becoming an officially licensed private investigator. Then all hell breaks loose. Matthew' s best friend from Hell's Kitchen asks for his help, and Scudder' s world is suddenly turned upside down once again. Instead of a beautiful world where old neighborhoods...

The Paradise Men's Softball League has wrapped up another game, and Chief of Police Jesse Stone is lingering in the parking lot with his teammates, drinking beer, swapping stories of double plays and beautiful women in the late-summer twilight. But then someone makes a horrifying discovery at a nearby lake: At the water's edge, facedown, is something that used to be a girl.The local cops haven't seen anything like this, but Jesse's L.A. past has made him all too familiar with float...

Author David Morrell is a consummate storyteller, investing his tales with passion, sympathy, and narrative drive. From this master of literate, high-adrenaline novels of action comes three suspenseful short stories that will keep listeners guessing:"Front Man" – An aging screenwriter cast adrift in a youth-oriented Hollywood culture finds a scary way to make it back into the business."Nothing Will Hurt You" – A father is obsessed by his daughter's murder and will stop at n...

Police Chief Jesse Stone has a problem—actually, several problems: dead bodies keep turning up. A man takes his dog out for a run on the beach, only to be discovered later with two holes in his chest. A woman drives to the mall to purchase groceries and her body is soon found crumpled in a heap behind her loaded shopping cart. A commuter takes a shortcut home from the train but never makes it back alive.Investigating a serial killer in an affluent suburban town is difficult, and wi...

In 1947, Jackie Robinson breaks major-league baseball's color barrier—and changes the world. The event also changes the life of Joseph Burke, veteran of World War II and Robinson's bodyguard—because under the media spotlight, hard truths are easier than ever to see, and harder to escape. And some can prove fatal.

At the Blue Dahlia, where homicide detective Carmen Molina moonlights as a torch singer, she finds a dead woman lying in the parking lot. The words "she left" are spray-painted nearby. Soon, a second anonymous woman is found dead in another parking lot. Is a serial killer at work? Will the tough lieutenant have to resort to accepting help from the despised amateur sleuth Temple Barr to crack the case? Meanwhile, Midnight Louie, Temple's jet-black feline with a nose for the notorious, finds...