Humorous Noir

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 ...

There are only a few weeks left before an asteroid destroys the planet. It’s the countdown, and all of humanity is just waiting for the end. In Phoenix, AZ, the sheriff’s department and National Guard are battling for supremacy, gas is as good as cash, and elementary school kids are out for blood. Most people in town have become the worst versions of themselves. Except for Dutch Kovaks, private detective. Dutch wants to right some wrongs, help a few people in need, and use the days he’s got left for good. Most of all, he wants to track down a bottle of gin.

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.

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.

Silicon Valley scion Captain Don Donogue is dead under mysterious circumstances. In fact, he might’ve well have been murdered. Just ask Captain Don himself. He’s been sending messages about his suspicious death from beyond the grave. Yep, he’s been tweeting from the afterlife. Or so it seems.

July 2021. Southwest Arizona, close to Tucson. In an office trailer, Mike finds Brad, a fellow engineer, lying in his own blood. Minutes later, Mike's daughter Jean listens in when their boss Sarah says Cactex, the developer, is worried about media attention. Legal action and protests could cause very costly delays. Only the engineers are supposed to understand the purpose of all the laser-guided drills, saws, and pneumatic chisels hidden behind 30 stories of scaffolding and tarps.

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.

Un atípico detective debe resolver una serie de asesinatos sucedidos en un mundo fantástico, distópico, en el que coexisten al mismo tiempo elementos de la época que abarca desde los años 20 al 2000. Aquí se encontrará con acción, terror, intriga, aventura, y grandes dosis de violencia, humor negro, y amor muy erótico. “Los unicornios no son mágicos y hermosos. Solo son caballos depredadores que tienen un cuerno y les gusta comer vírgenes.” —Dalila S. Dawson

Alvie Knightly may be waking up in the Ritz, but her life is no bed of roses. Firstly, she has the mother of all hangovers. Secondly, her beautiful, spoiled twin sister, Beth, has just been found dead in Sicily - and the police want Alvie for questioning. And thirdly, Alvie's hot new boyfriend has vanished with every penny of the millions they stole from Beth. But he picked the wrong girl to mess with.

Southern California, 1996: a peaceful, scenic day in the coastal community of Santa Monica, except that there is a meter maid lying next to the sidewalk–dead. Fresh from a messy divorce case, North Hollywood private investigator Clive Wilts is on the case to find the killer before the bodies start stacking up and the city streets become a parking free-for-all.

Jon Gilligan is the only man with a pulse in a city of the undead. It's his job to maintain order between the factions of walking corpses and disembodied spirits. The workload has been driving him a little insane, leading him to take on the persona of a noir detective. He narrates his adventures, casting himself as a hero to all those under his watch.

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.

Aspiring actress Elizabeth Smart lands her centre-stage role: her mutilated body is found dumped in North London's red light district. Clasped in her hand is a piece of human hair belonging to an unidentified body of a woman murdered two weeks ago. PC Donal lands himself a place on the murder squad just as his unconventional brother, journalist Finton, unearths the secret double life of Elizabeth. The bodies mount, each clinging to the strands of hair belonging to the previous victim.

Courting Death finds Melanie Wilkerson (from Cotton, book two of the Clarkeston Chronicles) and Arthur Hughes working uncomfortably together in the chambers of a famous federal judge. While Melanie neglects her duties as a law clerk to investigate the mysterious death of a young woman in the courthouse five years earlier, Arthur wades through the horrific habeas corpus appeals of two prisoners: an infamous serial killer and a pathetic child murderer.

Naufragaba entre manuscritos de crónica del Concurso del Libro Sonorense. Tocó su turno a No toda la sangre es roja. Aquí apesta a puro noir, me dije mientras apuraba un Jack Daniel’s. Quien bautiza su trabajo con un nombre pateador tiene su primer gol anotado antes de entrar a la cancha. Este canijo es un muertero. Un tipo duro, aunque por fortuna no una máquina registradora de estadísticas criminales, porque cuando el muerto se vuelve un número condenado a ser nota de cuatro párrafos, muere por segunda vez.

Eine Kriminalnovelle (Hard-boiled) mit viel schwarzem Humor, in der ein ehemaliger Killer und eine Ex-Prostituierte gegen einen übermächtigen Gegner ums nackte Überleben kämpfen. Die Zeiten könnten gut sein für John und Rosemarie. Der Auftragsmörder im Ruhestand und die Ex-Prostituierte haben dem König der Unterwelt, Dick Tossek, einen Haufen Geld gestohlen und sich in sonnige Gefilde abgesetzt. Doch nachdem Tossek plötzlich vor ihnen steht, wird ihr Leben zur Hölle - und der Teufel lädt zum Golfspielen ein.

Der ehemalige Auftragsmörder John und dessen Freundin, die Ex-Prostituierte Rosemarie O'Dowell verstecken sich auf dem Land. Das Paar hat dem König der Unterwelt, Dick Tossek, sehr viel Geld gestohlen und ist nun auf der Flucht. Als den beiden das Geld gestohlen wird und die Polizei beginnt, unangenehme Fragen zu stellen, spitzt sich die Lage zu. "Auge um Auge mit Dick Tossek" ist ein Krimi für Freunde des schwarzen Humors. Der Auftragsmörder John erzählt seine Geschichte als Ich-Erzähler und bezieht die Leser in das Geschehen ein. So mordet und leidet man Seite an Seite mit ihm.

"Matías no baja" es la primera novela de Hugo Burel. En ella empezamos a notar al narrador experto, amante de la prosa afilada y concisa y con gusto por la psicología de sus personajes en que se convertiría en los años venideros. En el texto, asistimos a una trama de novela negra clásica mezclada con un cierto costumbrismo satírico centrado en los últimos años de la dictadura en Uruguay. Burel se sirve de esta trama para una de sus señas de identidad: reflexionar sobre el Uruguay contemporáneo y sus absurdos, sus contradicciones y sus soledades.