Humorous Noir

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.

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 ...

Small Town, Dirty Cops What do the beleaguered citizens of a small town do when it is run by a corrupt police force and a senile mayor? They call a magician. This was not the Equalizer meets Harry Potter. Boyd Wright could not fight worth a dang and the magic …. Fifteen years previously, Boyd, unwanted and the least important resident of the Carruthers Home for Boys, survived among juvenile predators and indifferent staff by stealth and cowardice. Until he reached puberty, when he discovered he’d been gifted with a few magical talents to rid Earth of parasitic visitors (the Others) who ...

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 ...

In Undercover: Karma, Detective Carlo D'Scenzi finds himself stretched thin between two high-stakes cases and a ticking clock. Tasked with investigating the Michigan Patriots militia, he and his partner Big Lou must determine if the group poses a real threat or is simply exercising free speech. Meanwhile, they’re also assigned to track down the elusive duo of robbers, Benny and G, wreaking havoc across Detroit. Short on manpower, Carlo reluctantly brings in Red for backup, hoping it’s enough to get the job done while avoiding a mountain of follow-up work. But as the cases twist through ...

Jan Nyman, the ace detective of the covert operations unit of the National Central Police, is sent to a sleepy seaside town to investigate a mysterious death. Nyman arrives in the town dominated by a bizarre holiday village - the ‘hottest beach in Finland’. The suspect: Olivia Koski, who has only recently returned to her old hometown. The mission: find out what happened, by any means necessary.

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 ...

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.

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.

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.

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.

The sequel to Bocas, Bronte follows George to Australia. PJ left a little surprise back home. And her name is Charlotte.

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.

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.

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: ...

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.

Is someone systematically killing the judges called to the British Columbian bar? At least one has been murdered and several have disappeared. Arthur Beauchamp returns from retirement once again to take on the case, this time defending his former nemesis, backwoods poet Cudworth Brown. He finds himself chasing all kinds of leads, including tracking down a mystery novel that Brown’s unreliable former lawyer has been writing, just as Beauchamp’s own wife, Margaret, has announced her candidacy for the Green Party.

It’s the summer of 2015, Brooklyn. The city is sweltering from another record-breaking heat wave, this one accompanied by biblical rains. Edith, a recently retired legal librarian, and her identical twin sister, Kat, a feckless romantic who’s mistaken her own eccentricity for originality, discover something ominous in their hall closet: it seems to be phosphorescent, it’s a mushroom . . . and it’s sprouting from their wall.

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 ...

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 ...