Humorous Noir

Existential noir meets absurd comedy when a young man reluctantly enlists as source material for an art project. Stanley had known it was a mistake to accept his uncle Lech's offer to apartment-sit in Prague - he'd known it was one of Lech's proposals, a thinly veiled setup for some invasive, potentially dangerous performance art project. But whatever Lech had planned for Stanley, it would get him to Prague and maybe offer a chance to make things right with T after his failed attempt to propose.

July 2021. Southwest Arizona, close to Tucson. In an office trailer, Mike finds Brad, a fellow engineer, lying in his own blood. Minutes later, Mike's daughter Jean listens in when their boss Sarah says Cactex, the developer, is worried about media attention. Legal action and protests could cause very costly delays. Only the engineers are supposed to understand the purpose of all the laser-guided drills, saws, and pneumatic chisels hidden behind 30 stories of scaffolding and tarps.

When a young woman is kidnapped, Donal is brought in to deliver the ransom money. But the tightly planned drop off goes wrong, Julie Draper is discovered dead, and Donal finds his job on the line - a scapegoat for the officers in charge. But when Donal is delivered a cryptic message in the night, he learns that Julie was killed long before the botched rescue mission.

Courting Death finds Melanie Wilkerson (from Cotton, book two of the Clarkeston Chronicles) and Arthur Hughes working uncomfortably together in the chambers of a famous federal judge. While Melanie neglects her duties as a law clerk to investigate the mysterious death of a young woman in the courthouse five years earlier, Arthur wades through the horrific habeas corpus appeals of two prisoners: an infamous serial killer and a pathetic child murderer.

Alvie Knightly may be waking up in the Ritz, but her life is no bed of roses. Firstly, she has the mother of all hangovers. Secondly, her beautiful, spoiled twin sister, Beth, has just been found dead in Sicily - and the police want Alvie for questioning. And thirdly, Alvie's hot new boyfriend has vanished with every penny of the millions they stole from Beth. But he picked the wrong girl to mess with.

Desmond a des problèmes d'ouïe. Et d'ennui. Professeur de linguistique fraîchement retraité, il consacre son ordinaire à la lecture du "Guardian", aux activités culturo-mondaines de son épouse, dont la boutique de décoration est devenue la coqueluche de la ville, et à son père de plus en plus isolé là-bas dans son petit pavillon londonien.

Southern California, 1996: a peaceful, scenic day in the coastal community of Santa Monica, except that there is a meter maid lying next to the sidewalk–dead. Fresh from a messy divorce case, North Hollywood private investigator Clive Wilts is on the case to find the killer before the bodies start stacking up and the city streets become a parking free-for-all.

Jon Gilligan is the only man with a pulse in a city of the undead. It's his job to maintain order between the factions of walking corpses and disembodied spirits. The workload has been driving him a little insane, leading him to take on the persona of a noir detective. He narrates his adventures, casting himself as a hero to all those under his watch.

Aspiring actress Elizabeth Smart lands her centre-stage role: her mutilated body is found dumped in North London's red light district. Clasped in her hand is a piece of human hair belonging to an unidentified body of a woman murdered two weeks ago. PC Donal lands himself a place on the murder squad just as his unconventional brother, journalist Finton, unearths the secret double life of Elizabeth. The bodies mount, each clinging to the strands of hair belonging to the previous victim.

Henry, a New Yorker left destitute by circumstance and obsession, is plucked from vagrancy by a shadowy outfit whose primary business is arranging for staged murders of anxiety-ridden clients unhinged by the “events downtown” and seeking to experience - and live through - their own carefully executed assassinations. When Henry joins this nefarious crew, which includes a beautiful blonde tattooist named Tulip, contortionist twins, and a woman referred to only as “the knockout”, he becomes inextricably linked to its ringleader, the mysterious herring connoisseur Mr. Kindt.

A delicious burger. A horrific murder. What can the waiters of the Midnight Owl do to solve the mystery? On a foggy Friday night in Los Angeles, a diverse group of young and sexy waiters discover a gruesome and horrific murder in the kitchen of L.A.’s hottest new restaurant, The Midnight Owl. Stunned by what they witnessed, the attractive gang embark on a pulse-pounding, high-octane, thrill-ride, tracking down other members of the Midnight Owl’s staff to uncover the evil truth.

Naufragaba entre manuscritos de crónica del Concurso del Libro Sonorense. Tocó su turno a No toda la sangre es roja. Aquí apesta a puro noir, me dije mientras apuraba un Jack Daniel’s. Quien bautiza su trabajo con un nombre pateador tiene su primer gol anotado antes de entrar a la cancha. Este canijo es un muertero. Un tipo duro, aunque por fortuna no una máquina registradora de estadísticas criminales, porque cuando el muerto se vuelve un número condenado a ser nota de cuatro párrafos, muere por segunda vez.

Eine Kriminalnovelle (Hard-boiled) mit viel schwarzem Humor, in der ein ehemaliger Killer und eine Ex-Prostituierte gegen einen übermächtigen Gegner ums nackte Überleben kämpfen. Die Zeiten könnten gut sein für John und Rosemarie. Der Auftragsmörder im Ruhestand und die Ex-Prostituierte haben dem König der Unterwelt, Dick Tossek, einen Haufen Geld gestohlen und sich in sonnige Gefilde abgesetzt. Doch nachdem Tossek plötzlich vor ihnen steht, wird ihr Leben zur Hölle - und der Teufel lädt zum Golfspielen ein.

Der ehemalige Auftragsmörder John und dessen Freundin, die Ex-Prostituierte Rosemarie O'Dowell verstecken sich auf dem Land. Das Paar hat dem König der Unterwelt, Dick Tossek, sehr viel Geld gestohlen und ist nun auf der Flucht. Als den beiden das Geld gestohlen wird und die Polizei beginnt, unangenehme Fragen zu stellen, spitzt sich die Lage zu. "Auge um Auge mit Dick Tossek" ist ein Krimi für Freunde des schwarzen Humors. Der Auftragsmörder John erzählt seine Geschichte als Ich-Erzähler und bezieht die Leser in das Geschehen ein. So mordet und leidet man Seite an Seite mit ihm.

"Matías no baja" es la primera novela de Hugo Burel. En ella empezamos a notar al narrador experto, amante de la prosa afilada y concisa y con gusto por la psicología de sus personajes en que se convertiría en los años venideros. En el texto, asistimos a una trama de novela negra clásica mezclada con un cierto costumbrismo satírico centrado en los últimos años de la dictadura en Uruguay. Burel se sirve de esta trama para una de sus señas de identidad: reflexionar sobre el Uruguay contemporáneo y sus absurdos, sus contradicciones y sus soledades.

Lorsque le Professeur Lazreg, éminent cancérologue, annonce à Régis Gaudin que la tumeur qui le ronge ne lui laisse plus que six mois à vivre, ce dernier reçoit la nouvelle avec une indifférence qui frise la bravade. Pourtant, le détachement dont il fait preuve est bien réel. Enfant surdoué, thésard à 19 ans et brillant astrophysicien, Régis Gaudin est un véritable asocial qui vit reclus dans son bel appartement parisien, avec pour seule distraction les jeux télévisés.

A work of purest fiction and the world’s first arctic gothic horror, The Reeking Hegs is a bristling adventure story of the dramatic kind with a high-thrill quota with every listen. The action takes place among the crashing ice packs, tidal waves ,and frozen desolation of old Ugzcyk, a remote city somewhere north of latitude 66 ruled by the despotic solid King Solid Fume, III, and menaced by the threatening horror of The Hegs.

It’s 1997 at the dawn of the digital age in San Francisco. Ex-journalist and struggling alcoholic David “Itchy” Crane’s fledgling “information consultancy” business is getting slowly buried by bad luck, bad decisions, and the growing presence of the Internet. Before he can completely self-destruct, a private investigator offers him 50 grand to find a missing girl named Ashley. Crane takes the job because the money’s right and because the only clue to her disappearance is a dead-on oil portrait of Crane himself - painted by the mysterious missing girl he has never met.

Within this compilation, you will hear that Mac continues to bring cases to conclusions—while he continues to jump to conclusions. Mac Danger—the up-front, in-your-face gumshoe—confronts the electronic clutter of a modern world—filled with its video conference call users—mocha lattes at their side, with his common sense two-tin-cans-tied-together-with-a-string methods. And all of it is accomplished with the help of the never-empty-glass of his liquid forebear, Old Grand Dad.

A collection of stories of the depraved or disappointed, haunting or haunted, seeking love or redemption. Infused with the dark humor of a twilight zone, these contemporary fairy tales expose the hearts of quirky characters in transition. Serving offbeat narratives, edgy realties, shifting identities, the stories blend the ironic with the erotic, nature and rural environments with the paranormal and surreal. Blending the minimalist aesthetic of Carver with the macabre touch of Saunders, this is “standout fiction... subtle and altogether lovely... impressionistic, quiet and very real” (...