shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us:  800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Interviews | November 3, 2009

Sheila A.: IMG On Storytelling: The Powells.com Interview with Donald Miller



donaldmillerDonald Miller is a Christian writer, but the question that Miller asks with his latest memoir, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, is applicable to... Continue »
  1. $13.99 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$12.95
New Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
1 Airport Mystery- A to Z
4 Beaverton Mystery- Featured Titles
25 Local Warehouse Mystery- A to Z
19 Remote Warehouse Mystery- A to Z

This title in other formats:

Other titles in the Vintage Contemporaries series:

  1. A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You: Stories
  2. A Brief History of the Flood
  3. A Closed Eye
  4. A Cure for Dreams
  5. A Far Country
  6. A Handbook to Luck
  7. A Lesson Before Dying
  8. A Movie...and a Book
  9. A Piece of My Heart
  10. A Special Providence
  11. A Stranger in This World: Stories
  12. A Thing (or Two) about Curtis and Camilla
  13. Abandon
  14. All I Could Get
  15. American Psycho
  16. Anagrams
  17. Angel Rock
  18. Another Green World
  19. Asa, as I Knew Him
  20. Ash Wednesday
  21. Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse
  22. Babylon and Other Stories
  23. Babylon Rolling
  24. Back in the World: Stories
  25. Bad Behavior
  26. Bailey's Cafe
  27. Bicycle Days
  28. Big Bad Love: Stories
  29. Birds of America: Stories
  30. Black Tickets ((Rev)79 Edition)
  31. Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had to
  32. Breaking and entering
  33. Bridge of Sighs
  34. Brief Lives
  35. Bright Lights, Big City
  36. Brightness Falls
  37. Brother, I'm Dying
  38. Buffalo Soldiers
  39. Burning House
  40. Cathedral
  41. Catherine Carmier
  42. Chasing Windmills
  43. Checkpoint
  44. Chilly Scenes of Winter
  45. Claire Marvel
  46. Company
  47. Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories
  48. Day
  49. Day of the Bees
  50. December
  51. Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera
  52. Delcorso's Gallery
  53. Dirty Work
  54. Distortions
  55. Dogwalker: Stories
  56. Don't Cry
  57. Dr. Haggard's Disease
  58. East of the Mountains
  59. East of the Mountains
  60. Edgewater Angels
  61. Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer, 1943-1954, by Jeffrey Cartwright: A Novel
  62. Empire Falls (HBO Tie-In)
  63. Enchanted Night
  64. Et Tu, Babe
  65. Evening
  66. Falling in Place (80 Edition)
  67. Father's Day
  68. Fidel's Last Days
  69. Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories
  70. Fireworks
  71. Five Gates of Hell
  72. Fraud
  73. Friend of My Youth
  74. Gallatin Canyon
  75. Ghost
  76. Glamorama
  77. God's Fool
  78. Goodnight, Nebraska
  79. Gorilla, My Love
  80. Great Neck
  81. Happy All the Time
  82. Henry of Atlantic City
  83. Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen
  84. Honeymoon: And Other Stories
  85. House of Sand and Fog
  86. House on Mango Street
  87. How to Breathe Underwater: Stories
  88. In a Country of Mothers
  89. In Lucia's Eyes
  90. In My Father's House
  91. In the Cut
  92. In the Driver's Seat
  93. In the Fall
  94. In Times of Siege
  95. Indelible Acts
  96. Jack
  97. Jamesland
  98. Jernigan
  99. Keep the Change
  100. Kentucky Straight: Stories
  101. King Bongo: A Novel of Havana
  102. Krik? Krak!
  103. La Casa En Mango Street
  104. Lark and Termite
  105. Last of Menu Girls - With New Introduction ((Rev)04 Edition)
  106. Latecomers
  107. Leaving Home
  108. Lewis Percy
  109. Like Life: Stories
  110. Like You'd Understand, Anyway
  111. Little America
  112. Love Always
  113. Love Among the Ruins
  114. Love in the Present Tense
  115. Lunar Park
  116. Lust and Other Stories
  117. Lying Awake
  118. Mama Day
  119. Matrimony
  120. Meditations from a Movable Chair: Essays
  121. Meditations in Green
  122. Memoirs of a Geisha
  123. Mile Zero
  124. Monkeys
  125. Mortimer of the Maghreb: Stories
  126. Mozart and Leadbelly (05 Edition)
  127. My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist
  128. Netherland
  129. New England White
  130. Ninety-Two in the Shade
  131. Nobody's Angel
  132. Nothing But Blue Skies
  133. Nothing Lost
  134. Of Love and Dust
  135. Off Keck Road: A Novella
  136. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
  137. One To Count Cadence
  138. Our Lady of the Forest
  139. Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories
  140. Palace Council
  141. Panama
  142. Paradise
  143. Park City: New and Selected Stories
  144. Particles and Luck
  145. Peace
  146. Philadelphia Fire
  147. Picturing Will
  148. Plainsong
  149. Players
  150. Preston Falls
  151. Prisoners of War
  152. Project X
  153. Providence
  154. Rabbit Boss
  155. Ransom
  156. Ratner's Star
  157. Reservation Road
  158. Reservation Road
  159. Revolutionary Road (Movie Tie-In Edition)
  160. Rocket City
  161. Salmonella Men on Planet Porno
  162. Sam the Cat: And Other Stories
  163. Samedi the Deafness
  164. SAP Rising
  165. Scooter
  166. Secrets and Surprises
  167. Selected Stories
  168. Self-Help
  169. Short Cuts: Selected Stories
  170. Short People
  171. Snow Falling on Cedars
  172. So I Am Glad
  173. Songs without Words
  174. Spider
  175. Spinning Tropics
  176. St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: Stories
  177. State of Grace
  178. Still Life with Husband
  179. Story of My Life
  180. Taking Care: Short Stories
  181. The Abomination
  182. The Abortionist's Daughter
  183. The Amalgamation Polka
  184. The Assassin's Song
  185. The Back Nine
  186. The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose
  187. The Big Girls
  188. The Bird Is a Raven
  189. The Brief History of the Dead
  190. The Cadence of Grass
  191. The Cage Keeper: And Other Stories
  192. The Chosen Place, the Timeless People
  193. The Clearing
  194. The Clearing
  195. The Closed Circle
  196. The Commitments
  197. The Commoner
  198. The Communist's Daughter
  199. The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind: Stories
  200. The Dead Fish Museum: Stories
  201. The Dive from Clausen's Pier
  202. The Double Bind
  203. The Emperor of Ocean Park: A Novel
  204. The Emperor's Children
  205. The End of California
  206. The Fan Man
  207. The Favorite Game
  208. The Feast of Love
  209. The Feast of Love (Mti)
  210. The Gone-Away World
  211. The Good Life
  212. The Great Divorce
  213. The Grotesque
  214. The Half-Life of Happiness
  215. The House of Sleep
  216. The House on Mango Street
  217. The Hundred Brothers
  218. The Joy Luck Club
  219. The King in the Tree
  220. The King Is Dead
  221. The Laughing Sutra
  222. The Lay of the Land
  223. The Legal Limit
  224. The Lost City
  225. The Lost Father
  226. The Mezzanine
  227. The Moons of Jupiter
  228. The Names
  229. The Other
  230. The Outside World
  231. The Practical Heart
  232. The Progress of Love
  233. The Queen's Gambit
  234. The Rain Before It Falls
  235. The Revolution of Little Girls
  236. The Rotters' Club
  237. The Sabotage Cafe
  238. The Salt Eaters
  239. The Senator's Wife
  240. The Soul Thief
  241. The Sporting Club
  242. The Tattoo Artist
  243. The Theory of Light and Matter
  244. The Translation of Dr. Apelles: A Love Story
  245. The Ultimate Good Luck
  246. The Uses of Enchantment
  247. The Varieties of Romantic Experience
  248. The View from the Seventh Layer
  249. The Voyage
  250. The Way Through Doors
  251. The Whore's Child: And Other Stories
  252. The Willow Field
  253. The Winemaker's Daughter
  254. The Wrong Case
  255. Things That Fall from the Sky
  256. Through the Ivory Gate
  257. Tietam Brown
  258. To My Dearest Friends
  259. To Skin a Cat
  260. Traffic and Laughter: Ted Mooney
  261. Trans-Sister Radio
  262. Trauma
  263. Trespass (Vintage)
  264. Trouble: Stories
  265. Typical American
  266. Unaccustomed Earth
  267. Undiscovered Gyrl
  268. Veronica
  269. Visible Spirits
  270. Wetware
  271. What Was Mine: & Other Stories
  272. When the World Was Steady
  273. Where I'm Calling from: New and Selected Stories
  274. Whores on the Hill
  275. Wildlife
  276. Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?: Stories
  277. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories: And Other Stories
  278. You Don't Love Me Yet
  279. Young Hearts Crying
  280. Zoology
  281. Zoot-Suit Murders

The Last Good Kiss (Vintage Contemporaries)

by James Crumley

The Last Good Kiss (Vintage Contemporaries) Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Tough, hard-boiled, and brilliantly suspenseful, The Last Good Kiss is an unforgettable detective story starring C.W. Sughrue, a Montana investigator who kills time by working at a topless bar. Hired to track down a derelict author, he ends up on the trail of a girl missing in Haight-Ashbury for a decade. The tense hunt becomes obsessive as Sughrue takes a haunting journey through the underbelly of America's sleaziest nightmares.

Review:

"It is hard to tell whether it is the style or simply the milieu this novel depicts that makes it so engaging. At first sight, however, the fashionable theme of the search for the author is an anomaly in a work whose real focus of attention seems to be that slightly incredible world of seedy motels, ghostly gas stations, and forlorn truck stops of the Far West. Crumley has a real grasp of speech rhythms and manages to capture the specific geography of the modern American West. Ultimately, as his heroes Sughrue and Traherne search for the elusive Betty Sue Flowers, the novel threatens to become a successful parody of the sophisticated fiction we at first thought beyond its reach." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)

Review:

"Marvelously constructed and jolting with surprises, Crumley's The Last Good Kiss should solidify his distinguished reputation." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"James Crumley is a first-rate American writer... pyrotechnically entertaining, sexy, compassionate." Village Voice

Review:

"Crumley's writing ranks with the best." Sacramento Bee

Review:

"The Last Good Kiss is a powerful story powerfully told, and Crumley is one of the finest additions to the private eye genre. Crumley? brings to his books? a knowledge and understanding of the American psyche few writers in any genre have managed." Buffalo News

Review:

"The Last Good Kiss is a novel of detection, one so rich in detail, with character and plot so well developed, that it works on many more levels than just storytelling." St. Louis Dispatch

Review:

"What Raymond Chandler did for the Los Angeles of the Thirties, James Crumley does for the roadside West of today." Harper's

About the Author

James Crumley (1939- ) was born in Three Rivers, Texas. He served three years in the U.S. Army before he became an English teacher. He is the author of seven novels including, One To Count Cadence, The Wrong Case, The Last Good Kiss, Dancing Bear, Bordersnakes and The Final Country.

Product Details

ISBN:
9780394759890
Author:
Crumley, James
Publisher:
Vintage Books USA
Location:
New York :
Subject:
Montana
Subject:
Mystery & Detective - General
Subject:
Detective and mystery stories
Subject:
Mystery & detective
Subject:
Private investigators
Subject:
Mystery & Detective - Hard-Boiled
Subject:
Hard-boiled
Subject:
Sughrue, c. w. (fictitious character)
Copyright:
Edition Description:
Paperback
Series:
Vintage Contemporaries (Paperback)
Series Volume:
16
Publication Date:
November 1988
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
256
Dimensions:
8.05x5.25x.54 in. .43 lbs.

Other books you might like

  1. $2.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    14 Degrees Below Zero

    Quinton Skinner
  2. $7.99 New Mass Market add to wish list

    Big City, Bad Blood

    Sean Chercover
  3. $8.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  4. $7.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  5. $9.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    Bordersnakes

    James Crumley
  6. $10.95 New Trade Paper add to wish list

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.