Noir Fiction

When Andrew - a second-hand-book dealer - comes across a pile of photographs from police archives, he decides to exhibit them. But then the gallery is raided the day before the opening, and the photos seized with surprising violence. It soon becomes clear that someone, somewhere, wants to keep the images hidden. Who? Why? And who - in a world where kidnap, subterfuge and even murder are the norm, and where no one is safe or above suspicion - can Andrew turn to for help?

Summer has come to Atlantic City but the boardwalk is empty of tourists, the casino lights have dimmed, and two Jane Does are laid out in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel, just west of town. Only one person even knows they’re there. Meanwhile, Clara, a young boardwalk psychic, struggles to attract clients for the tarot readings that pay her rent. When she begins to experience very real and disturbing visions, she suspects they could be related to the recent cases of women gone missing in town.

Carleton Myatt meets Coral Musker, a naïve English chorus girl, aboard the Orient Express as it heads across Europe to Constantinople. As their relationship develops, they find themselves caught up in the fates of the other passengers and drawn into a web of espionage, murder and lies.

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.

A MISSING BIOLOGIST. A CHILLING CONSPIRACY. A COP THAT WON’T BACK DOWN. When Lachlan Harvey, a leading mind in synthetic biology, is drugged in the heart of the city, he wakes in a secret facility in the harsh Australian outback. Kidnapped for his unique skill set, he learns quickly that escape is impossible. His only chance of survival is compliance. Detective Cameron Cole and his partner Rachael Blake are tasked with solving the sudden disappearance of Lachlan Harvey. The case throws them into a dark world of conspiracy, corruption, and cutting edge science. Just as the pair begins to ...

Humans have always been fascinated by darkness. Especially the darkness of a city at night, when the black sky is made ever more inky by the pools of illumination dropped under streetlights. Whether the mean streets be in an alternate past charmed with dark magic or the dirty alleyways of futuristic crowded space stations, the city—and its darkened streets—will always fascinate us. Here then, an anthology of all new stories of science fiction and fantasy with a hardboiled noir twist that acknowledge that the city is a living, breathing entity...and it isn’t always on our side.

Philip Marlowe's about to give up on a completely routine case when he finds himself in the wrong place at the right time to get caught up in a murder that leads to a ring of jewel thieves, another murder, a fortune-teller, a couple more murders, and more corruption than your average graveyard.

TOUGHER THAN THE DEVIL BY A DAMN SIGHT His mother was a remnant of the Southern Creole Quadroon in the French Quarter. His father was heir to the Avondaire fortunes in northern Idaho. Can Randulet Thibodeaux split his time and loyalties between the sultry, strumming South, and the pious, pristine north? He discovers that he has been born under the same mysterious prophecy that richly blessed the lives of previous Avondaire generations, but he’s as improper in one place as the other. He was born in brackish water for a purpose! Balancing the peculiarities of the past, and the experiences ...

Happy Doll is a charming, if occasionally inexpert, private detective living just one sheer cliff drop beneath the Hollywood sign with his beloved half-Chihuahua half-Terrier, George. A veteran of both the Navy and LAPD, Doll supplements his meager income as a P.I. by working through the night at a local Thai spa that offers its clients a number of special services. Armed with his 16-inch steel telescopic baton, biting dry humor, and just a bit of a hero complex, the ex-cop sets out to protect the women who work there from clients who have trouble understanding the word "no".

Henry is a brilliant engineer who, after untold hours spent in his home lab, has achieved the breakthrough of his career—he’s created an artificially intelligent consciousness. He calls the half-formed robot William. No one knows about William. Henry’s agoraphobia keeps him inside the house, and his fixation on his project keeps him up in the attic, away from everyone, including his pregnant wife, Lily.

Vitus Adamson has a second chance at life now that he's no longer a zombie. But after killing his brother, Jamie, Vitus lands in prison on murder charges. Jamie's death exposes secret government projects so deep in the black they cannot be seen - without Vitus, that is. Sprung from jail, the government hires Vitus to clean up Jamie's messes, but tracking down his brother's homemade monsters gone rogue is easier said than done. The first of them is a convicted killer assumed to be safely behind bars.

Newlyweds Keith and Kit Collins can hardly believe their luck when the general manager of the iconic, opulent Pink Hotel invites them to come for a luxurious stay as a bid to hire Keith. Kit loves their small-town life, but Keith has always wanted more, and the glittering, lily-scented lobby makes him feel right at home. Soon after their arrival, wildfires sweep through the surrounding mountains and Los Angeles becomes a pressure cooker, with riots breaking out across the city amid rolling blackouts.

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, ...

Launched with the summer '04 award-winning best seller Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books has published over 60 volumes in its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book. Featuring Noir Series stories from: Dennis Lehane, Don Winslow, Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, Susan Straight, Jonathan Safran Foer, Laura Lippman, Pete Hamill, Joyce Carol Oates, Lee Child, T. Jefferson Parker, Lawrence Block, Terrance Hayes, and more.

Rose never had a normal childhood. Death pursued her at every turn. Finally, Rose realizes in order to defeat her killer ... she must become one herself. "As an avid fan of Jack Reacher, Mitch Rapp, Scot Harvath, Orphan X, etc., Can't tell you how pleased I was to discover the female version of my favorite heroes!” - HB LEVESQUE, Amazon "Kristi Belcamino has taken assassination thrillers to a new level with The Wild Card." - Jennifer Soppe, Amazon "I was so into this story!!!"- Lit Lover, Amazon "On the edge of your seat thriller." - Loreen, Amazon "Enjoyed this quick,hard to put down, ...

When old bones are discovered buried beside an A road, it becomes clear that Leon Martin—dubbed "The Ken Doll Killer" by the tabloid press—may not have taken his life 21 years ago. As Boyd investigates the old case file, it becomes clear that there may be new bodies buried at lay-bys around the country—more than that, something incredible was overlooked by the original investigating team.

It doesn’t take long for Ray Spalding to realise that prison is nothing like an Elvis Presley movie. The warden has no intention of throwing a party and the only bands Ray encounters are gangs of hard men. When an old adversary seeks him out, Ray decides his only chance for survival is escape. Ray’s son, Jesse, is discovering that being on the run in the middle of winter is no fun. With his stamina stretched to the limits, he’s ready to surrender himself to social services. At least that way he can see his girlfriend again. Danny Boy is the man in the middle. He thinks he can break ...

Suzette knows her clever and manipulative seven-year-old daughter doesn’t love her. She can see the hatred and jealousy in her eyes. And as Hanna’s subtle acts of cruelty threaten to tear her and her husband apart, Suzette fears her very life may be in grave danger....

Isaiah Coleridge is a mob enforcer in Alaska - he's tough, seen a lot, and dished out more. But when he forcibly ends the money-making scheme of a made man, he gets in the kind of trouble that can lead to a bullet behind the ear. Saved by the grace of his boss and exiled to upstate New York, Isaiah begins a new life, a quiet life without gunshots or explosions. Except a teenage girl disappears, and Isaiah isn't one to let that slip by. And delving into the underworld to track this missing girl will get him exactly the kind of notice he was warned to avoid.

For a new kind of killer roams the streets of the Arab ghetto, a madman whose bootlegged personality cartridges range from a sinister James Bond to a sadistic disemboweler named Khan. And Marid Audrian has been made an offer he can't refuse.The 200-year-old godfather of the Budayeen's underworld has enlisted Marid as his instrument of vengeance. But first Marid must undergo the most sophisticated of surgical implants before he dares to confront a killer who carries the power of every psychopath since the beginning of time.