Noir Fiction

When Sam Spade gets drawn into the Maltese Falcon case, we know what to expect: straight talk, hard questions, no favors, and no way for anyone to get underneath the protective shell he wears like a second skin. We know that his late partner, Miles Archer, was a son of a bitch; that Spade is sleeping with Archer's wife, Iva; that his tomboyish secretary, Effie Perine, is the only innocent in his life. What we don't know is how Spade became who he is. Spade & Archer completes the picture.

"Get ready for an intense ride through the dark and gritty streets of Manchester in this brutal and lyrical crime thriller. As the hedonistic club scene of the 90s rages on, a girl falls to her death from the stage, unnoticed by most. But for John Black, an ex-SAS soldier working security that night, her death will change everything. Now in witness protection after exposing the city's underworld, he returns to Manchester to help a grieving mother find answers to her son's suicide. But as he delves deeper into the case, strange recordings hint at a disturbing increase in sexual depravity in ...

Everyone has a secret. How much would you pay to keep yours? Lee wakes from a coma to find himself on trial for double homicide. His lover is dead. His wife is dead. His lawyer is hot! His girlfriend is jealous. And, to make matters worse, the Alphabet Killer remains at large. Find out what ensues in this the fourth instalment of The Adulterer Series. Praise for Sam Anthony: "If Stephen King were to write a psychological thriller, this would be it." "This is my favourite thriller read of the year so far." "Not my usual read ... but the ending ... Wow!" "This was funny, engaging, fascinating...

Bryson Wilde, investigator for hire, lives in an edgy world where the dames are dangerous, cigarettes dangle from ruby-red lips, and the nights are hotter than whiskey-soaked jazz. In R. J. Jagger’s riveting noir thriller, A Way with Murder, Wilde finds himself entangled in two deadly assignments, one for a young, raven-haired attorney on the run after visiting an archeological site in Mexico, and the other for a pretty, little doll-face, who is too mysterious to trust and too hypnotic to resist.

New York, 2061: The place called the Pleasure Academy is a living nightmare where abducted girls are trapped, trained for a life of abject service while their souls are slowly but surely destroyed. Dorian, a thirteen-year-old runaway who’d been imprisoned there, might never have made it out if not for her fellow inmate Mina, who’d hatched the escape plan. Mina was the more daring of the two—but they’d been equally desperate.

As a forest ranger, I believe in the simple life. I prefer cabins to apartments, trails over freeways, and trees to people. My life is orderly, predictable, and quiet. Until it’s hit by a woman I never saw coming—Hurricane June. She has a laugh like the first day of spring, and she’s so pretty that I can’t breathe when I look at her. June will only be in town for a few months. How can I resist? Except I have to. She’s my best, oldest, and most loyal friend’s baby sister. Betraying him would be the worst thing I’ve ever done. Not betraying him might be the hardest.

The name's Fetch Phillips - what do you need? Cover a Gnome with a crossbow while he does a dodgy deal? Sure. Find out who killed Lance Niles, the big-shot businessman who just arrived in town? I'll give it shot. Help an old-lady Elf track down her husband's murderer? That's right up my alley. What I don't do, because it's impossible, is search for a way to bring the goddamn magic back.

What drives someone to murder? Logan McRae's personal history is hardly squeaky clean, but now that he works for Professional Standards he's policing his fellow officers. When Detective Inspector Bell turns up dead in the drivers seat of a crashed car, it's a shock to everyone. Because Bell died two years ago. They buried him. Or they thought they did. As an investigation is launched into Bell's stabbing, Logan digs into his past. Where has he been all this time? Why did he disappear? And what's so important that he felt the need to come back from the dead?

In a world of criminals, thugs, con artists, cheats, and swindlers, there must be a man to stand against the powers of darkness and corruption. A man not afraid to walk the mean streets—whether they be those of 1930s Los Angeles, an ancient fantasy realm, or some far-flung planet of a future star empire. He is a man who knows that a “good man” is not always a “nice guy”. But when the chips are down, he understands that a hero does the right thing, even if it means losing everything.

Dr. Noah Alderman, a widower and single father, has remarried a wonderful woman, Maggie Ippolitti, and for the first time in a long time, he and his young son are happy. Despite her longing for the daughter she hasn’t seen since she was a baby, Maggie is happy too, and she’s even more overjoyed when she unexpectedly gets another chance to be a mother to the child she thought she'd lost forever, her only daughter Anna.

When Victoria escapes her broken home for university in London, she is determined to reinvent herself and make a fresh start. She falls in love with Nick, who welcomes her into his privileged circle of friends, opening her eyes to a world she only ever dreamt of. But things don’t go to plan and life takes a darker turn. Twenty-five years later, the circle is reunited alongside a host of glittering guests to celebrate the wedding of Hollywood darling Ingrid Olsson to well-connected Julian Draper. Victoria has spent years trying to forget Nick and put the horror of what happened behind her.

In a Stockholm city park, police discover the hideously abused body of a young boy. Detective Superintendent Jeanette Kihlberg heads the investigation, battling an apathetic prosecutor and a bureaucratic police force unwilling to devote resources to solving the murder of a nameless immigrant child. But with the discovery of two more mutilated children's corpses, it becomes clear that a serial killer is at large.

When innkeeper Dorthe Hyllested is found murdered, the police are surprised and puzzled to discover a concealed nursery in her upstairs apartment. As far as her friends and family knew, the recently widowed Dorthe was childless—so who lived in this secret toy-strewn room? And more importantly, where is the child now?

The streets are about to explode…and Puyallup’s local paranormal investigator Jimmy Kincaid is caught right in the middle of it. The neighborhood’s criminal syndicates are on the brink of all-out war, and if they go at it, the streets will run red—literally. But Jimmy’s got more problems. Someone’s sending him a particular message by sending him severed limbs. And then there’s the hitmen coming after him. Last but not least, he’s got to broker a deal between the biggest elven street gang in Seattle and a vicious Triad gang—and not get himself killed in the bargain.

When a routine flight takes an unexpected turn, TJ O'Connell finds himself plunged into a perilous game of corrupt politicians, and the ominous shadows cast by the Chicago mob. In the midst of economic hardship, TJ takes on what seems like a straightforward job—flying someone to the state capital for a quick $100. Little does he know, this seemingly innocent task will propel him into a treacherous web of mystery involving murder and ruthless mobsters. As the police struggle to untangle the threads of guilt and innocence, TJ is left to navigate the dangerous labyrinth alone. With each ...

In a sleepy Devon village, a woman is taken from the streets. Local vet Jenny is horrified. This kind of thing doesn’t happen here. But it’s not the first time she’s been so close to a crime scene. The daughter of a prolific serial killer, she’s spent her whole life running from who she really is. And the crime is harrowingly similar to those her father committed all those years ago.

As Sheriff Clayton Burroughs tries to juggle fatherhood, his job, and his recovery from being shot in the confrontation that killed his two criminally inclined brothers last year, he’s doing all he can just to survive. Yet after years of carefully toeing the line between his life in law enforcement and his family, he finally has to make a choice. When a rival organization makes a first foray into Burroughs' territory, leaving a trail of bodies and a whiff of fear in its wake, Clayton is pulled back into the life he so desperately wants to leave behind.

Charles 'Charlie' Warner Kennedy O'Brien is a Private Investigator and he investigates and then solves 'White Collar' crimes. He does not investigate murders as there are lots of Private Eyes who do that. Now he is back [Sequel] in the lovely retirement community of LWV [Laguna Woods Village. He has been there before. This time he has been called in by the FBI, OCSD Sheriff, the in house Security Department as well as GRF and United Mutual. There have been several 'Cat-burglaries' in the Woods lately with several Million dollars in personal property taken and the very safe community wishes ...

Has cyber-crime escalated to murder? Forensic accountant Kat Munro puts her traumatic past behind her and begins dating journalist Connor O’Malley, whose investigations into online crime attract the wrong kind of attention. When a colleague’s teenage son goes missing, and his friend’s body is discovered, Kat finds herself working with DS Adam Jackson again. The murder enquiry leads Adam to an exclusive London school where allegations of drugs, gaming fraud and child pornography abound. As he gets deeper into the investigation, Adam is forced to face issues in his private life while ...

She was supposed to be the perfect mother—until the night everything went wrong. When Peyton Hayes survives a horrifying car crash with her six-year-old son, she awakens to a living nightmare: a year of her memories erased, a nagging suspicion that she wasn’t alone in the car, and cryptic warnings scrawled on slips of paper. Everyone insists her life is flawless—her ex-husband suddenly wants back in, her best friend is eerily devoted, and her son flinches whenever she asks about that fateful night. But Peyton’s half-glimpsed flashbacks scream that something far darker lurks beneath ...