Humorous Noir

VHS Killed the LITRPG Star As a fan of everything 1980, 26-year-old Doug Simpson never had the chance to experience the decade. Working at a small-town video rental store, he dreams of being able to enter the horror king Rd Halen's movies and become the hero he has always dreamed about. Then he learns that his two friends working in the basement might just able to make that possible. FBI Special Agent Jenny Winters is looking for a career advancement, and taking down the suspected terrorist working at Vorhees Video may be able to do just that. Working undercover, Jenny is told of Doug's ...

Some people say that it’s a demon-haunted world. That certainly is true in Gus’s county around Halloween, mostly due to the digital demons plaguing Gus this year that live inside the new Pakiman game. There’s also a fancy Halloween party to deal with, to which everyone who is someone is invited—and that includes Gus. If getting a costume for a party he doesn’t want to go to was his worst problem, it would be a fun holiday season. Unfortunately, someone keels over dead in the free-cheese section of Fit Foods, and that opens the door to murder. That open door leads Gus right into ...

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.

Charlie McGinley writes detective novels. At least he did, until writers block kicked in. He owes his publisher a book, multiple wives alimony and a loan shark is about to break his thumbs. Charlie hightails it out of L.A. two steps ahead of the police and his latest ex. On Route 66, he runs into Ben Fox, a mysterious Native American hitchhiker who just happened to know Ernest Hemingway Charlies favorite writer.

Benjamin Rose's demise began on the day his son's tortoise committed suicide. Ten days later he apprehensively walks into a city centre hotel, his emotions agonisingly teased by the cool evening breeze on the back of his thighs and the surreal sensation of a pleated mini skirt nuzzling into the top of his stockings. Approaching the gleaming doors of the hotel elevator, he hesitates, his hand fidgeting nervously with his blonde wig, frantically summoning the courage to manoeuvre his debilitating red stilettos inside. As the lift begins to ascend, Benjamin closes his eyes and thinks of his ...

Set in 1991, just as Star Trek: The Next Generation has rocketed the cast to global fame, the young and impressionable actor Brent Spiner receives a mysterious package and a series of disturbing letters, that take him on a terrifying and bizarre journey that enlists Paramount Security, the LAPD, and even the FBI in putting a stop to the danger that has his life and career hanging in the balance.

A man with dark thoughts on his mind is racing along the remote snowy roads of Hurmevaara in Finland when there is flash in the sky and something crashes into the car. That something turns about to be a highly valuable meteorite. With euro signs lighting up the eyes of the locals, the unexpected treasure is temporarily placed in a neighbourhood museum, under the watchful eye of a priest named Joel.

Brad Hunter is doing everything he can to keep his private investigation agency open, but the women of Honolulu keep distracting him from his work. His latest desire, a Chinatown barmaid, occupies too much of his time, and his money. At least until she is eliminated from his life the hard way--by murder. Within hours, his HPD detective brother puts Brad at the the top of the prime suspect list. Now that he is being scrutinized by the Honolulu Police Department, Brad heads to Chinatown to start his own investigation. What does Brad find first? A new woman, of course.

Rhoda West is Silicon Valley’s favorite female CEO: the luminously charismatic founder of the fast-growing startup Radical, a wellness company whose core mission is the betterment of women’s lives. Rhoda’s Instagram page offers intimate glimpses of her personal life alongside promotions for the cult-status products developed in the Well, Radical’s secretive lab.

Desperate to complete the last chapter of his law thesis on workplace dynamics for women to secure his tenure, Professor Stanley Hopkins stumbles on an old close college friend, Donald Johansson, who has plenty of female employees. The problem is that Donald is a porn video king. Taking his wife to California’s seedy city of Burbank to help with taping interviews, Stanley realizes he is in way over his head the moment a leading porn star is brutally killed in Donald’s office during a party.

A successful entrepreneur in the mushroom industry, Jaakko Kaunismaa is a man in his prime. At just 37 years of age, he is shocked when his doctor tells him that he's dying. What is more, the cause is discovered to be prolonged exposure to toxins; in other words, someone has slowly but surely been poisoning him. Determined to find out who wants him dead, Jaakko embarks on a suspenseful roller-coaster journey full of unusual characters, bizarre situations and unexpected twists.

It’s just another morning on the fifth of July. The country is another year older; Gus is a touch hungover, the coffee in his office is stale, and all Gus wants to do is go home and start over again on July sixth. Unfortunately Father Xavier visits the sheriff’s office and he’s brought along a gift. He has a green jacket that should have been put in the church’s lost and found. The father suspects it belongs to a missing girl named Erica Torres which is odd given the jacket is marked as belonging to E. Rossi. Erica went to school one day and never came home. She was picked up by a ...

Jerry has a traumatic past that leaves him subject to psychotic hallucinations and depressive episodes. When he stands accused of stealing a priceless Van Gogh painting, he goes underground, where he develops an unwilling relationship with a woman who believes that the voices she hears are from God.

In the second book in the Dead Jack series, the zombie detective hits rock bottom, bingeing on fairy dust and formaldehyde 24/7. Reluctantly, he sets out with a fellow zombie, the narcissistic Garry, to find his long-lost soul. But a new threat emerges: a neo-Nazi group that hunts down the depressed corpse, believing his sidekick Oswald has the power to capture all the souls in Pandemonium. Again, the wicked world needs saving, but this time can Jack also save himself?

Welcome to the rainy streets of Animopolis, where crime and chaos reign supreme. But fear not, for there are two unlikely heroes fighting to keep the city safe - Bruno Barkowitz, a gruff bulldog with a battered trench coat, and Tabby Whiskerton, a sharp-tongued cat with a knack for trouble. Together, they make up Paws & Claws Investigations, the only line of defense against the madness lurking in the shadows. From runaway canaries to stolen golden ferrets, ferryboat murders to mysterious sleep-plague crimes, Bruno and Tabby chase the city's strangest cases, armed only with sarcasm, bad ...

Private investigator Gary Maddox scratches out a living doing personal injuries surveillance. A mother asks him to find out who killed her drug-dealer son. The son deserved to die. But the mother deserves justice and offers Gary a lot of money. Soon he's battling drug dealers, corrupt cops, hit-men and murderers. They try to rub him out. But he's well-armed, and not dead yet.

Inspired by classic Film Noir and vintage TV works of Alfred Hitchcock, enjoy this eccentric collection of ordinary folks in bungling attempts at investigation or intrigue, often ending with a bit of comeuppance too. Forget: 'Who done it.' This is more like: 'They had it coming.' BTW: As always, resemblance of these characters to ANY colleagues (past or present) or colleagues of family or friends is PURELY coincidental! Why is everything about you? Stories include: THIS SHADY BUSINESS: Early 1950s, a nosy neighbor and complaints to skeptical cops lead to shady plots. CARETAKER'S GARDEN: ...

The Black Mass of Brother Springer tells the story of Sam Springer, a drifter novelist who meets Jack Dover, the retiring Abbot of the Church of God's Flock. Dover's final official act is to ordain Springer and send him off to serve as pastor of an all-Black church in Jacksonville, Florida. Springer soon becomes entangled in the city's growing civil rights movement...and with the church deacon's earthy young wife, Merita.

Meet Tommy Martini, the monk with an anger management problem. His meditations are interrupted by a legacy from his uncle, a crooked priest. Arriving in a New Age Arizona town to claim his inheritance, Brother Tommy meets a charismatic, smoking-hot cult leader who claims that women are being impregnated by alien beings while they sleep. Tommy’s own sleep is disturbed - by cartel hitmen, Mafia bill collectors, and women intrigued by his vow of chastity.

Inspired by vintage Film Noir and Alfred Hitchcock, enjoy this eclectic collection of short stories regarding clumsy attempts at retribution or retaliation, also known as a bit of comeuppance. Come on, everybody has that urge now and then. BTW: resemblance of these characters to ANY colleagues of friends (past or present) is PURELY coincidental! (No, really!). Stories include: OFF THE BEATEN PATH: A bickering couple and a robbery that goes from bad to worse . . . to unexpected. LIVING DOLL(Badgers and Colors): A little girl, a doll who looks like her and people who don’t seem to notice ...