Noir Fiction

When a famed drag performer known as Velvet Vice is found dead in her dressing room at Club Midnight, her last whisper is scrawled in eyeliner on a cracked mirror: “Vega.” Nash Vega, still reeling from past betrayals and haunted by the name, is pulled back into the queer underbelly of the city — a place of champagne lies, feather boas, backroom deals, and one man he never wanted to see again: Julian Black, the club’s seductive owner and Vega’s ex-lover with a body like sin and a past even darker than his eyeliner. As Nash digs deeper, he uncovers a tangle of secrets involving ...

A burned out, cynical cop. A serial killer who loves the hunt as much as the kill. Corrupt politicians in bed with a crooked Chief of Detectives. At the center of it all is a beautiful young woman with a troubled past. If you think its Los Angeles in the 1950’s you’re wrong.It’s the year 2454 and Capital City on the frozen planet of Beta Prime is no place for the timid. Meet Inspector Thomas Sullivan. Sent to a world where the strong make the rules, sometimes it’s hard for Sullivan to tell who is the predator and who is the prey. Take a chance on this hard boiled noir from the ...

A young hospital security guard with a disturbingly unique taste in women. A maternity doctor with a horrifically unusual appetite. When the two of them meet, they embark on a journey of self-discovery while shattering societal norms and engaging in destructively aberrant behavior. As they unwittingly help each other understand a world in which neither seems to belong, they begin to realize what it truly means to be alive...and that it might not always a good thing.

A Noir Mystery Collection by the Mysterious Thomas Temple Step into a world where darkness whispers your name, and reality twists beyond recognition. In Whispered Crimes, Thomas Temple masterfully weaves together noir mystery, psychological horror, and grotesque fiction in a collection of short stories that will leave you haunted. Inspired by the eerie allure of crime fiction and urban mysteries, Temple invites you to embrace the bizarre, the twisted, and the unknown.Prepare for a Literary Experience Like No Other If you're a fan of dark psychological thrillers, urban noir, or the surreal ...

Una wants nothing more than to teach, but she has been unable to secure steady employment in Reykjavík. Her savings are depleted, her love life is nonexistent, and she cannot face another winter staring at the four walls of her shabby apartment. Celebrating Christmas and ringing in 1986 in the remote fishing hamlet of Skálar seems like a small price to pay for a chance to earn some teaching credentials and get her life back on track.

Starting a new life in Snowdonia was always DI Ruth Hunter's dream. Until a twisted killer turned it into her worst nightmare. Detective Inspector Ruth Hunter lives with the pain of her partner’s mysterious and unsolved disappearance. About to hit 50, the veteran police officer trades in the crime-ridden streets of London for a more peaceful life in rural North Wales. But Ruth has barely settled into her new position in North Wales Police, when the body of a brutally murdered woman is discovered...with strange symbols carved into her skin.

A wealthy Pasadena widow with a mean streak, a missing daughter-in-law with a past, and a gold coin worth a small fortune - the elements don't quite add up until Marlowe discovers evidence of murder, rape, blackmail, and the worst kind of human exploitation.

"Beneath a Buried House is a wonderful book, full of twists and turns and surprises." –Crime-Spree Magazine Things aren't always what they seem. Tulsa Police Detective, Kenny Elliot's quest to uncover the truth behind the death of a transient, makes him a target—from whom or what, he isn't sure. When he brushes the dirt from the surface of an apparent John Doe overdose case, he finds a labyrinth of misdirection and deception, and a trail, which leads him to an encounter with an aberration in human nature, the likes of which he's not prepared to deal with. Drawing on his strength of ...

Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro's latest client is a prominent Boston psychiatrist running scared from a vengeful Irish mob. The private investigators know something about cold-blooded retribution. Born and bred on the mean streets of blue-collar Dorchester, they've seen the darkness that lives in the hearts of the unfortunate.

The last thing Lizzie needs right now is a call from an inmate at Rikers asking for help - even if Zach Grayson is an old friend. But Zach is desperate: His wife, Amanda, has been found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their Brooklyn brownstone. And Zach’s the primary suspect. As Lizzie is drawn into the dark heart of idyllic Park Slope, she learns that Zach and Amanda weren’t what they seemed - and that their friends, a close-knit group of fellow parents at the exclusive Brooklyn Country Day school, might be protecting troubling secrets of their own.

From the creator, writer, and executive producer of the HBO series True Detective and soon to be a major motion picture comes a dark and visceral novel set along the wastelands of Galveston. On the same day Roy Cady is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he learns that his employer has put a hit out on him. After narrowly escaping an attempt on his life, Cady goes on the run with a young prostitute named Rocky and her three-year-old sister, from New Orleans to Galveston, Texas. But though they run, they cannot hide in this explosive, atmospheric, impossible-to-pause thrill ride.

A serial killer stalks women in rural Ohio. He is deranged but brilliant, known only by the grotesque nickname the media has given him - The Doll Parts Killer. The name is apt. He dismembers his victims and leaves them in garbage bags in public places. A residential neighborhood. Next to a roller rink. Behind a Burger King. The investigation is a disaster. No physical evidence. Unreliable witnesses. To make matters worse, the FBI has lost contact with the star profiler working the case.

Bizarre New Orleans Death Ceremony Ends in Murder French Quarter paranormal investigator Wyatt Thomas meets a new client at an bizarre death ceremony in a revamped Canal Street movie theater. The man gives Wyatt a bag of cash and a single clue: a solid gold Krewe of Rex, 1948 Mardi Gras doubloon. His only request is for Wyatt to find the person or persons who murdered his mother. The case isn't simply cold, it's 50-years old. When his client is shot dead on the way out the door, Wyatt must go into hiding, solve both murders, or suffer the same fate

Lies, Lust, and always, Consequences Cathy and Phil, high school sweethearts, reunite after years apart, reigniting a love that refuses to die. The catch? They're married. But not to each other. As their passion ignites, Cathy confides in her best friend Jan, only to discover Jan's hidden secrets. Cathy's own marriage to Tom holds another enigma. In this captivating short story, the delicate balance between truth and deception unravels, leaving readers questioning the lies we tell ourselves and the ones we keep hidden. Can love survive when secrets threaten to shatter it all?

Spenser has gone to London -- and not to see the Queen. He's gone to track down a bunch of bombers who've blown away his client's wife and kids. His job is to catch them. Or kill them. His client isn't choosy. But there are nine killers to one Spenser -- long odds. Hawk helps balance the equation. The rest depends on a wild plan. Spenser will get one of the terrorists to play Judas Goat -- to lead him to others.

The name's Fetch Phillips - what do you need? Cover a Gnome with a crossbow while he does a dodgy deal? Sure. Find out who killed Lance Niles, the big-shot businessman who just arrived in town? I'll give it shot. Help an old-lady Elf track down her husband's murderer? That's right up my alley. What I don't do, because it's impossible, is search for a way to bring the goddamn magic back.

Nile Nightingale is on the run. Fleeing across the border to rural Quebec, he seeks refuge at an abandoned church when his junked-up, overstimulated mind takes in that he has just witnessed a body drop - in a bloody sack tied with Christmas ribbon. The contents, unconscious but still alive, turn out to be 15-year-old Cleste Jonqures, who has been beaten and slashed, like wild game, to slowly bleed out. From his hideout, as he nurses his patient back from the brink and begins to face his own life, he pieces together what he has stumbled into.

After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke. Twenty years ago when Falk was accused of murder, Luke was his alibi. Falk and his father fled under a cloud of suspicion, saved from prosecution only because of Luke’s steadfast claim that the boys had been together at the time of the crime. But now, more than one person knows they didn’t tell the truth back then, and Luke is dead.

A fresh-faced newcomer arrives in an isolated, gang-run town and soon finds herself taking a job nobody else wants: bodyguard to a ghoul. Not just your average mindless, half-rotted shuffler, though. Lucille is a dancer who can still put on her own lipstick and whose shows are half burlesque, half gladiator match. But the stranger is no stranger to this particular ghoul. Both women are undercover in their own way. And both have something to lose if their connection comes to light.

After his son is convicted of capital murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in an Ozark junkyard outfitted to be an armory. He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough training in the world to protect her when the dreaded Ledfords, notorious meth dealers and fanatical white supremacists, come to collect on Joanna as payment for a long-overdue blood debt.