Southern Noir

Prohibition. Mobsters, murder, and mayhem. FBI agents. Cops, robbers, and worse. Sound like the background for a Hollywood epic? It's Ernest Marquez's latest very true story of the renowned gambling ships that anchored in Santa Monica Bay in the 1920s and 1930s. It's the story of Tony Cornero, the cockiest gangster who ever bootlegged a bottle of scotch, the man who helped found Las Vegas, and the smooth operator of the most glamorous gambling ship in the Pacific, the Rex.

K.T. Tomb introduces three new heroines: bounty hunters Roberta, Riley, and Ricki Vaughan. All sisters. And all tough as nails. When a new client hires the streetwise Vaughan sisters to find and recover a stolen diamond that’s worth millions, the recovery fee alone could save their struggling business. However, their new client refuses to call the police, so the sisters have to keep this case on the down low. And when the prime suspect turns up dead, things really start to heat up in the Deep South. When an unexpected event threatens more than the recovery of the one-of-a-kind gem, all ...

French Quarter P.I. Wyatt Thomas deals with murder and illusion at the Louisiana Hospital of the Insane Secrets fester, and danger lurks in the shadowed depths of Louisiana's bayous. Private investigator Wyatt Thomas is summoned to the sleepy town of Pinebridge by notorious mob boss Frankie Castellano. His mission is to find Frankie’s missing half-sister, Bella Donna Castellano, who vanished from the Louisiana Mental Hospital under suspicious circumstances. On his first night in town, Wyatt stumbles upon a gruesome murder, drawing him into a web of corruption and cruelty. Partnering with ...

If you like haunting crime, psychic suspense and paranormal thrillers, this series is for you... What would you do if you were face to face with the most heinous monster on the planet? Can a pair of Snake-Eyes Dice Cause Maura’s Swirling Black Death? Psychic witch and investigative reporter Maura Robichard has just been awarded a Pulitzer for her journalism. Her career is on fire. She’s a star at the New Orleans Times Picayune-Advocate and still celebrating when the dreams, remote viewings and visions begin --- this time invading her days, nights and senses with playing cards, snake-...

Isaiah Hightower has everything a forty-nine-year-old man could want: respect as a high school principal; admiration as a leader in the black community; and a wife who would do anything for him.Despite his shining public image, Isaiah's life is plagued with indiscretions. When these threaten to unravel his world, he silences the threat by any means necessary.When his wife, Yvette, witnesses her husband's greatest sin, her life is about to change forever. But it doesn't have to. One lie will protect her lifestyle and save her husband's reputation.

Mardi Gras has secrets. Like why would Felix's brother, a well-off and successful doctor, let the midnight train roll over him? Especially just as his new Carnival Krewe prepares for their inaugural parade? Felix has had an easy life, coasting by as the black sheep of a wealthy family. He spends his time under the green canopies of Uptown New Orleans, whiling away his days in leisure and mediocrity.

Vivienne Lane thought she left the drama behind when she traded big-city chaos for the quiet charm of Foxwick Harbor. Now, she spends her days running Lane & Co. Antiques, sipping lattes at Bean & Bloom, and avoiding her nosy neighbor’s unsolicited opinions. But when she stumbles upon the town’s most scandalous socialite dead in a wedding dress—and in a very inconvenient place—Vivi suddenly finds herself at the center of a mystery far messier than her shop’s storage room. Gwendolyn Fairchild wasn’t just any bride-to-be; she was a journalist with a reputation for unearthing ...

No one is who they seem Private Investigator Wyatt Thomas takes a seductive journey through the dark, glittering streets of New Orleans, where passion and danger collide. Wyatt is no stranger to the Crescent City’s secrets, but when a mysterious voodoo mambo draws him into the heart of the French Quarter’s underworld, he finds himself entangled in a web of deceit, lust, and murder. As the nights grow hotter, so do the stakes, and Wyatt must navigate the twisted desires of the city’s most dangerous inhabitants. But in the world of the Night People, no one is who they seem—and Wyatt ...

NEVER ONE TO HOLD A GRUDGE, ALTON RHODE DECIDES TO HELP OUT A FORMER HOOKER WHO ONCE PLOTTED TO HAVE HIM KILLED. SHE WANTS HIM TO FIND OUT WHO MURDERED HER GRANDFATHER WITH AN ICE PICK! LORENE ROBILLARD BETRAYED ALTON RHODE AND ALMOST GOT HIM KILLED. NOW, SHE WANTS HIS HELP! ***The private investigator soon finds himself in a Southern town that has more secrets than pigeons on Confederate statues. But with two brutish killers straight out of “Deliverance” on his tail, Rhode is forced to call for backup. The new ally, making his own contributions to a rising body count, helps uncover a ...

A rainy night in east Texas leads to murder When private detective Buck McDivit inherits his murdered aunt’s fishing camp on Caddo Lake, he quickly learns all isn’t right in this primordial paradise dripping with antebellum mystique. To retain his inheritance, he must take on a white supremacy group in the nearby racially-torn east Texas town of Deception. Will Buck prevail or become gator bait beneath the coffee-colored surface of the mysterious lake? Ghost of a Chance is Book 1 of Eric Wilder's gripping Paranormal Cowboy Series. See what Amazon readers are saying about Ghost: "...

Private Investigator James Benoit Heatley, "Heat" to those few he calls friends, has a reputation for being a bit rough around the edges. Heat's reputation for doing what he believes is just is well deserved, even if his brand of justice happens to be illegal. His reputation for not taking women as clients is equally well deserved. Some say there is a woman to blame and they would be right to do so. It is with great reluctance that Heat takes the case of a wife desperate to find her kidnapped husband, a case that forces Heat to confront his bitter past. Murder, kidnapping, and broken hearts...

Set in a small town in the mountains of North Georgia, Though I Walk tells the story of twenty-one-year-old Anna Renfro who discovers that her twin sister, Sam, has gone missing. Anna had escaped Marble Hill—colloquially named “Meth Hill”—and is away at college when she learns of her sister’s disappearance. Anna drops everything and immediately returns home to find her family and the police investigation in disarray. Her mother, Jenny, copes by getting drunk and using dope, while her meth cooking and dealing Uncle Brokeback uses violence and intimidation to look for Sam on his own...

In this first installment of the Miami Crime Trilogy, Don Donovan spins a sprawling noir tale of three hardened individuals whose lives are woven together in a web of money, betrayal, and murder.

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 ...

Life was never going to be the same again…friends had become family and strangers became friends…all in the midst of a storm like no other and the aftermath that no one could have ever predicted. Jess and Max find their relationship takes an unexpected and life-changing turn…Brian decides on a risky mission that no one can talk him out of…and Sara struggles with the knowledge that among those responsible for the terror of the last year are a few who have ties to the tragedy in her past that is never far from her thoughts.After the Storm is the final book in the ongoing story of ...

Fueled by the ugly rhetoric of a new leader, the cold civil war in America escalates until it splits the nation into two separate countries. Champion sprinter and Olympic hopeful Jasmine Pulp is trapped on the wrong side of the dividing line. She must now utilize all of her physical skills and mental toughness to survive behind enemy lines, in hope of escaping this dystopian fascist nightmare, and reuniting with her family on the other side. “The Pledge” is a harrowing piece of relentless action noir by James J. Caterino, the author of “Starfighter”, “Fireflies”, and “...

Niall Howell's Only Pretty Damned is a taut noir that takes you behind the big top, revealing rough and tumble characters, murderous plots, and crooked schemes designed to keep Rowland’s World Class Circus afloat for another season. When Toby, former trapeze artist turned disgruntled clown, begins seeing Gloria, a young and beautiful dancer longing for a bigger role under the spotlight, his hardboiled past resurfaces.

Life had taught Heat many valuable lessons. Things like have a code to live by, the simpler the better. Simple rules a man could live by. Rules like whoever killed a man’s partner had to pay for that sin. Rules like never take the rap for something you didn’t do. And most important of all, never let somebody else do your dirty work for you. Introducing P.I. James Benoit “Heat” Heatley in A Matter of Vengeance, a tale of Southern Noir. What readers have to say about A Matter of Vengeance: “All I can say is WOW! A Matter on Vengeance: Introducing P.I. James Benoit Heatley, my second...

Fear. Anguish. Heartbreak. Selfless love. Ultimate sacrifice. All in less than a minute. Sometimes that’s all the time there is. Adam Manning arrives at the crime scene and quickly sees that not everything is as it seems. Neither is he. If you enjoy clean mystery romance and inspirational women’s fiction filled with love, hope, family, new and old friendships, and a mystery that twist and turns to keep you guessing, Stay With Me is the series collection for you. This is Book One of the eight-part Stay With Me mystery romance novella series. Book 1 of 8.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, no one knows better than Titus that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface. But a year after Titus's election, a school teacher is killed by a former student. The student is then fatally shot by Titus's deputies. As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes, and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight.