Humorous Noir

Time is up in Old Town. As the pace of gentrification reaches frenzy in Portland, Oregon, Darby Holland’s beloved tattoo parlor, Lucky Supreme, is destroyed by a bomb that ripped through an entire city block. Only a warning call from his favorite prostitute saved his life. Developers have been like wolves at the door of Dmitri (the drunken landlord) for the past few years, but this is different.

La série culte ! Nous retrouvons dans ce tome 10 des "Désastreuses aventures" Violette et Klaus Baudelaire dans le pétrin où les avait laissés le tome 9, et Prunille n'est pas mieux lotie, emportée vers les cimes dans l'auto noire du sinistre comte Olaf, sur les genoux de la sinistre Esmé, en compagnie de leurs sinistres comparses... Rappelons que l'expédition vers les monts Mainmorte a pour but de retrouver le dernier QG des VDC, mystérieuse société secrète à laquelle semblent avoir appartenu les parents Baudelaire.

La série culte ! Violette, Klaus et Prunille devraient se plaire dans leur nouveau collège. Mais ce collège-ci est assez spécial, et la vérité est que les orphelins s'apprêtent à y vivre un bien sinistre épisode. À titre d'exemple, dans ces treize chapitres, les trois enfants vont devoir faire face à une tribu de crabes malveillants, à un règlement stupide, à de longs récitals de violon, à de redoutables tests de contrôle et au système métrique... Dès 11 ans.

California Dreaming: How Not to Become a Hollywood Screenwriter is the entertaining and often hilarious tale of one man’s cinematic obsession and his attempt to get a movie deal done in the place where dreams are made. James J. Caterino is the author of Fantastic Films, Cult TV Shows, and Perfect Pop Songs, To Meghan, The Geek Girl and the Quarterback, and Miami Noir 1987.

Meet Mason Ezekiel Barnes, former NFL tackle turned successful author. Mason is obsessed with winning a Pulitzer and is thwarted by his fellow author and nemesis, the twerpy little gnome Conrad Bancroft. Mason spends his days writing at a local cafe, Perk Noir, the one-of-a-kind jazz coffee shop. He's obsessed with the life of jazz great Earl "Lightning" Perkins, former owner of the Perk Noir. One day, unexpectedly in walks Shelly, a fan of Mason's books. Shelly has a mysterious pocket watch she recently inherited. She convinces Mason to assist her in unraveling its history.

David Spandau is a P.I. and sometime rodeo cowboy. At the tail end of some much-needed vacation time, he takes a meeting with a talent agent whose client, Bobby Dye, is being blackmailed and threatened. Dye is young, brash, and on the verge of becoming a major star...if he lasts that long. It turns out that Dye faked a threatening note to hide a far more incriminating secret. When Spandau agrees to investigate, the game gets deadly.

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.

It’s the hottest heat wave of the summer and Gus’s air conditioner has decided to give up the ghost. It’s not the heat keeping Gus awake at night, though, but a nighttime visit from Father Xavier. He couldn’t sleep either due to the heat and decided it would be best that they didn’t sleep together. While the father was bothering Gus by telling him all about his recent visit to Italy, a welcome phone call came. Someone is going to be murdered at Deimos Technology. It doesn’t matter that the someone that is about to die is only an AI computer infected with a fatal computer virus. ...

La série culte ! Sortis du coffre de la voiture du comte Olaf (fin du tome 8), Violette, Klaus et Prunille se retrouvent à l'entrée d'un parc forain. Là, règne Madame Lulu, voyante de son état, que le comte Olaf est venu consulter. Malgré leur angoisse, les enfants décident de rester ; il leur faut découvrir si l'un de leurs parents est bien encore en vie. Déguisés en monstres de foire, ils se font engager par Madame Lulu.

Pas vraiment inspiré, M. Poe, pour ce qui est de placer les orphelins Baudelaire... Sa dernière trouvaille ? Les confier à une municipalité, dans le cadre d'un programme intitulé : "Il faut tout un village pour élever un enfant". Et voilà nos héros adoptés par une bourgade entière ! "Adoptés" ? Est-ce bien le mot ? Ils aideraient plutôt aux tâches les plus dures... dans un endroit qui fait frémir.

La série culte ! Après le désolant épisode du collège, tout paraît s'arranger pour les orphelins Baudelaire : les voici de retour dans leur ville natale, où un couple chic et fortuné, Jérôme et Esmé d'Eschemizerre, vient de les adopter. Violette, Klaus et Prunille vont-ils trouver le bonheur au 667, boulevard Noir, à quelques rues seulement de leur ancien quartier ?

It's corrupt to the bone and under the ever watchful surveillance system known as the Eye. Money has been abandoned in favor of the credit system. All citizens are required to carry hand held devises containing their credit score and personal information. Dylan is recovering from the government attitude adjustment program known as the Punch since his credits reached zero. His adopted son Jimmy is missing presumed dead and his basement office is infested with contrarian rats.

An office door bears the names of A. Kimrean and Z. Kimrean, Private Eyes. Behind the door there is just one desk, one chair and one scrawny, androgynous detective. A.Z., as they are collectively known, are twin brother and sister. He’s pure misanthropic logic, she’s wild hedonistic creativity. The Kimreans have been locked in mortal battle since they were in utero...which is tricky because they literally share one single body. That’s right. One body, two pilots. Someone is murdering the sons of a drug cartel boss in the biggest baddest town in California - San Carnal.

Gus has the unfortunate task of judging the local art show at the Tannehill Ranch. The only thing Gus knows about art is you shouldn’t eat the macaroni after your child has glued to their artwork. Given the art show is displaying art from the daughters of most of the wealthier members of society in his state, Gus could hardly have said no to the request to be a judge. Things heat up at the art show when one of the teenage contestants ends up missing. It is the sort of news that isn’t exactly easy to tell parents with large bank accounts. Worse, it turns out she’s likely run away with ...

Gus suspected Father Xavier asked him out for Thanksgiving dinner for more than just the friendly company. When you’re the sheriff of a small county you learn quickly that people only put on airs of wanting to be with you out of friendship. Typically instead these people think they’ve spotted a crime that they want you to deal with. The father suspects something rotten is in the air concerning a holiday family reunion involving the daughter of a once rich rancher, her famous author older brother, and her less than famous younger brother, the loan writer from Santa Fe. Gus isn’t one to...

All Gus wanted to do was take a day trip up to the big city to get away from his constituents. However, some constituents are harder to avoid than others. He inadvertently bumps into Father Xavier while at an antique show. Neither this chance meeting or Gus’s appraisal are the worst thing to happen to the sheriff while out of town, because the other thing that’s hard for him to avoid is getting involved in a murder case. When one of the big winners at the antique show turns up dead it’s up to Gus to figure out who the murderer is. With the Father’s help, can Gus sort out the clues ...

COVID-19 is spreading across the country. Peaceful demonstrations for Black Lives Matter after the murder by cop of George Floyd have turned violent. President Trump’s handling of the pandemic seems incompetent and chaotic. Infections and deaths continue to rise. When Attorney General Barr orders riot police and troops to clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square for Trump’s photo-op with a Bible, something snaps in Jack Blair. After a psychotic episode he is thrown into prison, and his life is threatened by white nationalist boogaloo bois.

Caleb Rush, aka Crush, is the toughest, coolest bodyguard/bouncer in Los Angeles, a man who lives strictly by his own moral code, which doesn't exactly hew to the standards of US law. When Amelia Trask, the wild daughter of a scruples-free billionaire tycoon, comes to Crush for help, his quiet life roars into overdrive, and he has to use his wits, brawn, martial-arts training, and knowledge of the Russian Mafia to stay alive and clean up the mess that young Amelia has created.

In addition to feeding the felines Aubrey and Vincent, Jeremy Goodman has a new responsibility: filling a recently vacated trustee role at a local charity that works tirelessly to house the homeless. Jeremy is initially enthusiastic—but soon begins to suspect that all is not as it seems at the nonprofit’s headquarters.

Aubrey had initially dreaded the move to the coast with the Goodmans, but now he loves it. All those rock pools to muck about in, caves to explore, and endless food opportunities from the beach huts means life is good. And he's especially pleased that his best friend, Vincent, has joined the household. But the sun slips behind a cloud when a body is found near Lilac Tree Lodge, the home for the elderly in which Molly Goodman works.