Noir Fiction

When a boy leaps to his death from a bridge in the northern town of Umeå, Sweden, police discover drugs scattered in the snow near his body. The town has seen a dramatic increase in narcotic use among its youth, but nobody knows where the pills are coming from.

January '42. L.A. reels behind the shock of Pearl Harbor. Local Japanese residents are rounded up and slammed behind bars. Massive thunderstorms hit the city. A body is unearthed in Griffith Park. The cops tag it a routine dead-man job. They're wrong. It's an early-warning signal of chaos. There's a murderous fire and a gold heist. There's Fifth Column treason on American soil. There are homegrown Nazis, Commies, and race racketeers. It's populism ascendant. There's two dead cops in a dive off the jazz-club strip. And three men and one woman have a hot date with history.

Still reeling from a brutal dismemberment, detective Kline is forcibly recruited to solve a murder inside a religious cult that takes literally the New Testament idea that you should cut off your hand if it offends you. Armed only with his gun, his wits, and a gift for self-preservation, Kline must navigate a gauntlet of lies, threats, and misinformation. All too soon he discovers that the stakes are higher than he thought and that his survival depends on an act of sheer will.

When the body of a man is found dead in his remote, isolated home, DI Tom Janssen and his team struggle to understand what motive there could be to murder such an inoffensive, seemingly placid local character. The man lived alone and was well known in the community, but kept his distance from others, leading a haphazard way of life almost entirely off the grid. What secrets did he hide in his private life that might be worth killing for? As the team are about to understand, even the most nondescript of people can exist in a world darker than most of us will ever see....

Jonathan Roper is a key player in the elite Special Investigations Unit. His autism, and a relentless drive, have given him an extraordinary range of skills which make him a formidable detective. His reputation has grown to the point where he has been invited to join the digital fight against terror - but that's not working out as it means losing contact with his boss, Chief Inspector Brian Hooley. The pair formed a powerful bond while bringing down a gang of ruthless mercenaries running riot in London, and now events are throwing them back together.

"Every Dying Hour hits every mark..." In the future, there is no need for sleep. Zentransa, a revolutionary pill, gives its users the ability to live a true 24 hour day...fully awake. Only a few can get the Z pill, however, and society revolves around those that do. Not everyone is happy about it. One Front for the People are terrorists hell-bent on rebalancing the world's economic and social scales by eliminating the pill that they consider to be a plague. Martin Aubrey is a former cop living with regret. His mistake in a firefight took the life of another officer. Now, he longs to wear ...

Sophie wasn’t expecting to find love in Sicily. But then she sees him: Emilio, a professor who works at the university where she is teaching for the summer. He’s kind, intelligent, funny, exciting and deliriously unpredictable… …maybe perfect. But paradise quickly turns to purgatory as she uncovers the haunting disappearance of Emilio’s first wife. And when she senses a shadowy character following her, watching her every move, Sophie starts to question her grip on reality. Is she being paranoid, or is nothing about her new life really what it seems?

Everyone says the Elders family are nothing but cheats, thieves, and convicts - a fact 19-year-old Jamie Elders has been trying desperately to escape. She may have the natural talent of a poker savant, but her dreams of going pro and getting the hell out of the tiny town of Blind River, New York, are going nowhere fast - especially when she lands in a huge pile of debt to her uncle Loyal. At Loyal's beck and call until her debt is repaid, Jamie can't easily walk away - not with her younger brother Toby left at his mercy.

Four years as a Ranger, followed by three in prison, Nick Stallman just wants to be left alone to do his job as a bartender in a small town bar called The Hard Right, but people won't let him be. Everyone wants to dump their problems on the head bartender and beer psychologist. Nick's life is filled with characters. Whether it's his rapacious ex-girlfriend Addison--who is married to a wealthy older man of mysterious out-of-town means--who randomly appears in his bed late at night; or his childhood friend, Ryan, who claims they are really brothers and constantly makes dubious decisions which...

An exiled augur who sold her soul to save her brother's life is offered one last job before serving an eternity in hell. When she turns it down, her client sweetens the pot by offering up the one payment she can't resist—the chance to have a future where she grows old with the woman she loves. To succeed, she is given three days to track down the White City Vampire, Chicago's most notorious serial killer. If she fails, only hell and heartbreak await.

This collection by crime fiction master Raymond Chandler features four long stories in which private eye Philip Marlowe is hired to protect a rich old guy from a gold digger, runs afoul of crooked politicos, gets a line on some stolen jewels with a reward attached, and stumbles across a murder victim who may have been an extortionist.

Claire thought she knew who she was—until a stranger began to take her life piece by piece. What started as a series of subtle disturbances—a missing scarf, a misplaced photograph—soon spirals into a nightmare Claire can’t escape. Lisette, a woman with an uncanny resemblance to Claire, isn’t just trying to manipulate her life—she’s trying to replace her entirely. As Lisette’s presence grows more invasive, Claire finds herself unraveling, questioning her own sanity as the lines between reality and paranoia blur. But Lisette isn’t just any intruder. She knows things no ...

Samson Kolechko and his colleague have been dispatched to investigate the illegal sale of meat. How selling cuts of one’s own livestock qualifies as a crime eludes the young investigator, but an order is an order, and, at the insistence of the secret police officer assigned to “reinforce” the Lybid police station, Samson vows to do his very best.

Bull riding is dangerous as hell, but that’s half the fun. Guts, glory, and cute country girls lined up for days. It may take only eight seconds to win, but I can go all night. Yeah, I’ve broken almost every bone in my body at some point, but I’ve been the world rodeo champion two years running. Nothing’s gonna keep me from making it three. Not even Mae Guthrie....

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.

Wealthy American expat Glenn Murray Cohen, a former criminal defense lawyer, is celebrating his birthday in Bangkok for the thirteenth year in a row. It’s been four years since his last tangle with danger, when he and his NJA Club friends battled North Koreans and an American traitor. Since then, Glenn’s been stuck in a rut, managing the career of Phil Funston, Bangkok’s most talented guitarist and most obnoxious foreign resident. Glenn’s sense of honor won’t let him abandon Phil until he finds a replacement. His enigmatic friend, the General, offers to find one if Glenn will ...

He calls himself Alvin Limardo, and the job he has for Kinsey is cut-and-dried: locate a kid who's done him a favor and pass on a check for $25,000. Stiffed for the retainer, Kinsey finds out Limardo's real name is John Daggett...ex-con, ex-liar, ex-alcoholic, currently dead.

A pirate lost to time. A siren bound in chains. And a love that should have drowned—yet refuses to die. Two hundred years ago, Jack Kelly should have died at sea. Instead, a siren dragged him into the stars, remaking him into a monster. Now, cursed to wander the galaxy as a cyborg, Jack hunts for the past that was stolen from him. And then he finds her. Alien kraken princess Nerissa knew better than to save a human, but she couldn’t let Jack die. Not when she’d spent so many nights watching him from beneath the waves. Not when she knew he was meant to be hers. But love has a price, ...

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.

The adoring wife of a senatorial candidate has a smile as sweet as candy and dots her "i's" with little hearts. A blond beauty, she is the perfect mate for an ambitious politician, but she has a little problem with sex and drugs--a problem someone has managed to put on videotape. The big boys figure a little blackmail will put her husband out of the race. Until Spenser hops on the candidate's bandwagon.