Noir Fiction

Rick Barron, a former Beverly Hills cop, has risen to head of production of Centurion Pictures, and he's at the top of his game. But tensions are high in Hollywood, and when Rick's friend Sidney Brooks, a successful screenwriter, receives a subpoena from the House Un-American Activities Committee, Rick isn't surprised. The witch hunt is spreading, and those under investigation are Rick's closest friends - even his wife, the glamorous starlet Glenna Gleason.

Late one winter afternoon in upstate New York, George Clare comes home to find his wife killed and their three-year-old daughter alone—for how many hours?—in her room across the hall. He had recently, begrudgingly, taken a position at a nearby private college (far too expensive for local kids to attend) teaching art history, and moved his family into a tight-knit, impoverished town that has lately been discovered by wealthy outsiders in search of a rural idyll.

Chief Inspector, Lord Ralph McGinniss and Professor Claire Lane are sent to investigate the link between the murder of a Police Constable on a lonely road, and the presence of German Zeppelin Commander Ludwig Mathieu, left behind in England after the War. Ralph McGinniss is the victim of a pickpocket on a Motorbus in central London and realises the woman responsible is connected to Jack the Top, a notorious thief and pimp. Claire Lane is convinced the two are linked. When Ralph uncovers a plot to assassinate a well-known Judge from the High Court, the duo must act to discover what is the ...

The body of a young Russian woman washes up on an Icelandic shore. After a cursory investigation, the death is declared a suicide and the case is quietly closed. Over a year later Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir of the Reykjavík police is forced into early retirement at 64. She dreads the loneliness, and the memories of her dark past that threaten to come back to haunt her. But before she leaves she is given two weeks to solve a single cold case of her choice.

Mick Hardin is an Army CID officer home on leave, recovering from an IED attack and flirting with prescription painkillers, when a body is found in the center of town. It’s Barney Kissick, the local heroin dealer, and the city police see it as an occupational hazard. But when Barney’s mother, Shifty, asks Mick to take a look, he finds there’s more to the killing than it seems. Mick should be rehabbing his leg, signing his divorce papers, and getting out of town—and most of all, staying out of the way—but he keeps on looking, and suddenly he’s getting shot at himself.

Professor Claire Lane interrupted by a sudden telephone call to help in a murder investigation leaves the tranquility of Edinburgh for the country lanes of Oxford. Lord of the Realm, Inspector Ralph McGinnis is puzzled. Unlike his colleague Miss Lane is adamant this is a copycat murder. Last seen in the seventeenth century by an overzealous Venetian statesman. A well-known Australian financier is dead. Propped up in the Nativity scene outside the church. The vicar is acting strangely, could he have been persuaded to preach peace and good will during this festive season, or will Claire work ...

There is only one rule for Eva Santella: Kill or be killed. Former assassin and mafia boss Eva Lucia Santella has lost everything she’s ever cared about, but is still attempting to carve out a new life for herself back in Italy as a modern day Robin Hood, devoted to taking down those who prey on the innocent. Eva Santella is training an army of female assassins to help her do it. When one of her top lieutenants comes under attack, Eva vows revenge. But when her niece Gia Santella—unexpectedly shows up in Italy, Eva finds that she has more to lose than she ever dreamed possible. She’d ...

ORIGINAL STORY, WRITTEN BY A HUMAN All things are connected - Tread Carefully. Detective Ange Watson is tougher than she looks, even tougher than she realises. Which is just as well... When asked to find a young surfer who vanished from a nearby fishing village, Ange feels confident she’ll solve the matter quickly, leaving the weekend free to enjoy the beach and catch some awesome waves. It’s ironic how the simple jobs are the ones that turn to custard. As Ange dives deeper into the case, she's swept up in a frantic chase to expose the truth and prevent further carnage. Every turn ...

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 ...

Clayton Burroughs comes from a long line of outlaws. For generations the Burroughs clan has made their home on Bull Mountain in North Georgia, running shine, pot, and meth over six state lines, virtually untouched by the rule of law. To distance himself from his family's criminal empire, Clayton takes the job of sheriff in a neighboring community to keep what peace he can.

Traumatized by his reeducation at the hands of his former best friend, and struggling to assimilate into French culture, the Sympathizer finds Paris both seductive and disturbing. As he falls in with a group of left-wing intellectuals he meets at dinner parties given by his French Vietnamese “aunt”, he finds stimulation for his mind but also customers for his narcotic merchandise. But the new life he is making has perils, whether the self-torture of addiction, the authoritarianism of a state locked in a colonial mindset, or the paradox of how to reunite his two closest friends.

Dans une société américaine à peine affranchie de ses lois racistes, les Afro-Américains, en exerçant leurs droits civiques, peuvent enfin accéder à leur vie. Cette nouvelle liberté suscite une exaltation et un bouillonnement racontés par Kathleen Collins à travers les relations amoureuses et filiales d'une femme noire, installée à New York. Mais être soi, c'est inévitablement faire l'expérience de la différence, d'une autre vie, et parfois d'une autre couleur de peau.

In Patricia Highsmith's debut novel, we encounter Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno, passengers on the same train. But while Guy is a successful architect in the midst of a divorce, Bruno turns out to be a sadistic psychopath who manipulates Guy into swapping murders with him. As Bruno carries out his twisted plan, Guy is trapped in Highsmith's perilous world - where, under the right circumstances, anybody is capable of murder.

Cody LeMaster's past was brutal. His future is worse. When eighteen year old Cody LeMaster packs his bags and hitchhikes out of the tiny farming community of Travis, Oklahoma, it's the middle of the night. And it's raining. And Cody has no idea where he's headed. The world he's leaving behind is brutal and dangerous. The world he is about to enter is worse. A trucker with a secret, a small-town cop who is not what he appears to be, and a series of terrifying events leave Cody questioning everything, even as he fights for his life... From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Allan...

Billy Edgewater is a harbinger of doom. Estranged from his family, discharged from the navy and touched by a rising desperation, he sets out hitchhiking home to East Tennessee, where his father is slowly dying. On the road, separately, are Sudy and Bradshaw, brother and sister, and a one-armed con man named Roosterfish. All, in one way or another, have their pasts and futures embroiled with D. L. Harkness, a predator in all the ways there are.

Eddie Ankin is back! On the shores of paradise, danger lurks beneath the surface, but Eddie isn’t afraid to dive in. Former Marine Raider turned Hollywood stuntman Eddie Ankin was supposed to be enjoying some downtime on the sun-soaked beaches of Oahu. But when a fiery surf instructor named Mia ropes him into a scheme involving a powerful hotel tycoon and a stolen parcel, Eddie’s vacation turns into a high-stakes race for survival. With a gang of Hawaiian bikers on their tail and a ruthless tycoon pulling strings from the shadows, Eddie finds himself navigating an underworld as ...

New York, 2061: The place called the Pleasure Academy is a living nightmare where abducted girls are trapped, trained for a life of abject service while their souls are slowly but surely destroyed. Dorian, a thirteen-year-old runaway who’d been imprisoned there, might never have made it out if not for her fellow inmate Mina, who’d hatched the escape plan. Mina was the more daring of the two—but they’d been equally desperate.

Smoke hides many truths … and many sins … After a case of industrial espionage leads to a manic pursuit gone fatally wrong, private investigator Thomas Blume is forced to face the agonizing pain of his role in a seemingly innocent bystander’s death. But when the victim’s wife shows up the next day suggesting a mysterious deeper conspiracy with much more going on beneath the surface, Blume is drawn into a case involving dangerous organized criminals, a seedy London underworld, and gangsters with nothing to lose. Now, with police closing in and a mob boss hunting him, can Blume ...

Happy Doll is a charming, if occasionally inexpert, private detective living just one sheer cliff drop beneath the Hollywood sign with his beloved half-Chihuahua half-Terrier, George. A veteran of both the Navy and LAPD, Doll supplements his meager income as a P.I. by working through the night at a local Thai spa that offers its clients a number of special services. Armed with his 16-inch steel telescopic baton, biting dry humor, and just a bit of a hero complex, the ex-cop sets out to protect the women who work there from clients who have trouble understanding the word "no".

Professor Claire Lane’s students are always close to her heart. When one disappears into fells and becks of the Lake District in Northwest England, she is not convinced the woman has gone to meditate on Scafell Pike. A talented and gifted writer, Bo Huan, a Chinese National follows her dream. Claire in desperation seeks help from her fiancé Lord Ralph McGinniss, known for his uncomplicated investigations as a Senior Detective at Scotland Yard. The Lake District is meant for walking and enjoying nature, not murder and international spying. Ralph and Claire join forces to solve a delicate ...