James Crumley: The Right Madness (UK 2016)

From the Publisher:
'The poet laureate of hard-boiled literature, superior even to James Lee Burke in his ability to evoke extreme melancholy, gruesome violence and an acute sense of landscape... Deeply compelling' Guardian

Things are never straightforward for private detective C. W. Sughrue. A long-time recovering Vietnam veteran and prone to trouble, he's finally enjoying a slower pace of life. Until, that is, his old friend - psychiatrist William Mackinderick - enlists his help in shadowing some of his patients.

Mackinderick suspects one of them may have taken highly confidential files from his office and he's desperate to know who. But soon Sughrue's not tracking them alive but dead, as one after the other they meet a gruesome end. Sughrue thought he'd seen it all before but he's been proved wrong... madness knows no bounds.

James Crumley: The Right Madness. Transworld Digital, ISBN: 9781473540736 (April, 2016), 2.35 MB (ca. 256 p.), £5.99.

James Crumley: The Right Madness (USA 2006)

From the Publisher:
James Crumley is one of the most revered practitioners of post-Chandler crime fiction, praised by the likes of Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly as a major influence. C. W. Sughrue is Crumley's most indelible creation. Now Sughrue is back, in a searing thrill ride of a novel that has the seen-it-all Montana private eye trying to find out which of a small-town shrink's bizarre patients has made off with some highly confidential files. Fast-paced, brutal, melancholy, and ruefully funny, The Right Madness is Crumley at his uncompromising best.

James Crumley: The Right Madness. A Novel. Viking, ISBN: 0143037307 (August, 2006), 289 p., $14.00.

James Crumley: The Right Madness (UK 2006)

From the Publisher:
You're only as tough as you feel. Take private eye C.W. Sughrue, ex-alcoholic and recovering gunshot victim. He thought he knew better than to do any work for Doctor Will "Mac" Mackindrick even if he is his buddy. But 30,000 big ones does a whole lot of talking. So who's blackmailing Mac? One of his patients maybe?

Sughrue's first day on the job lives up to expectations when the wife of one of Mac's patients ends up headless with a noose round her neck and Sughrue's pretty certain she won't be the only fatality. In fact, you can count on it. Six patients. That's six bodies...

James Crumley: The Right Madness. HarperCollins, ISBN: 0007130821 (June, 2006), 362 p., £6.99.

James Crumley: The Right Madness (UK 2005)

From the Publisher:
Another hardboiled white knuckle ride from the author of The Final Country, winner of the CWA Silver Dagger Award 2002
C.W. Sughrue, ex hippie, heavy drinker and recovering gunshot victim, knows better than to work for his buddy, Dr Will Mackindrick. But when someone breaks into Mac's office and copies tapes of confidential psychoanalysis, it's clear the doctor needs help. Besides, he's offering a USD 30,000 sweetener upfront. Sughrue's first day on the job lives up to expectations when the wife of one of Mac's patients comes hurtling towards him with a noose round her neck. 'Mrs Ritter didn't have the vaguest idea how to hang herself. Too much slack in the rope!' But it is enough for her to die, and Sughrue's pretty certain she won't be the only fatality. With six other patients, including a part-time stripper and a local anchor-woman to trail, Sughrue finds himself being dragged into a case that's rapidly becoming the wildest white-knuckle ride of his career.

James Crumley: The Right Madness. HarperCollins, ISBN: 0007130805 (June, 2005), 289 p., £18.99.

James Crumley: The Right Madness (USA 2005)

From the Publisher:
James Crumley is one of the most influential crime writers of the post-Chandler era, and his raw, subversive novels have earned him living legend status. He first introduced readers to C. W. Sughrue ("'Shoog' as in sugar. And 'rue' as in rue the goddamned day") in his now classic The Last Good Kiss. An ex-army officer turned Montana private eye, Sughrue is as tough and cynical as he is good-hearted and weak-kneed when it comes to women and booze. He's back to take readers on a bender through small towns, dark bars, and dank hotel rooms in a novel charged with Crumley's genius for the poetry of violence.

In The Right Madness, Sughrue's close friend, psychiatrist Will MacKinderick, begs him to track down stolen confidential psychoanalysis files -- he suspects one of his patients is the culprit. Going against every last instinct, Sughrue agrees to take on the case -- a $20,000 retainer is always hard to resist. And when the suspects start dying of violently unnatural causes, Sughrue -- fueled by alcohol, drugs, and lurid sexual entanglements -- finds himself struggling to stay ahead of the madness unfolding around him.

Before Pelecanos, Connelly, and Lehane, there was Crumley and, with The Right Madness, he shows us once again how he put the "hard" in "hard-boiled."

James Crumley: The Right Madness. A Novel. Viking, ISBN: 0670034061 (May, 2005), 289 p., $25.95.