The final country - James Crumley

A Byzantine tangle of crime, sex, drugs, violence and retribution in red-neck Texas from the ultimate hard-boiled writer

Milo Milogragovitch, Crumley's uncontrollable, cocaine-snorting Montanan, takes centre stage in this adrenaline-fuelled thriller by the master of hard-boiled fiction. This time Milo's trying to find his feet in Texas, earning a living as a bar owner and a PI on the side.

A tedious job tracking down a runaway wife takes a violent turn when he finds himself in a bar with ex-con Enos Walker, who's out for revenge on the partners who turned him in. Turning a gun on Walker, bar manager Billy Long has accidently shot himself and the police are only too keen to add his murder to the long list of crimes Walker's in the frame for. Only Milo's testimony can save him from a death sentence, but Milo's got problems of his own in the shape of sultry lawyer Molly McBride.

Hurtling from the plains of Texas to the desert town of Las Vegas, from the freezing Montana mountains to the Gulf of Mexico and the final bloody showdown, The Final Country is a non-stop roller-coaster ride that will leave you breathless.