Noir Mystery Thriller Suspense

Freddy Otash was the man in the know and the man to know in '50s LA. He was a rogue cop, a sleazoid private eye, a shakedown artist, a pimp - and, most notably, the head strong-arm goon for Confidential magazine. Confidential presaged the idiot internet - and delivered the dirt, the dish, the insidious ink, and the scurrilous skank.

Murder is Easy. But the consequences are Deadly. Amy Sholes has a problem. An obsession. She's a murderer. A talented and prolific serial killer. To most, Amy is a monster--evil, a cancer on her soul. But to many, she is an angel, avenging, serving justice and helping those who could not help themselves. Amy's only rule, she only kills those who prey on others. Beautiful and sexy, Amy is a killer you'll want to root for. Book 3 continues Amy’s story following Painful Truths. The passions and excitement of her affair with murder has left her broken and alone. But Amy has a plan: she’s ...

After narrowly escaping with his life at the hands of a murderous Hollywood pimp, detective Happy Doll, bullet-ridden but healing, has landed on a remote Mexican beach. In a humble shack and with his dog for company, Doll settles into a peaceful idyll of Buddhist study. But then trouble, as it always does, comes to paradise. Doll is the witness to a murder for which he is framed, and now, with an expired passport and the Mexican authorities on his tail, he must sneak across the border back to L.A. by any means necessary, with the goal of bringing the true murderer to justice.

In A Suspension of Mercy, a masterpiece of noir fantasy, Highsmith revels in eliciting the unsettling psychological forces that lurk beneath the surface of everyday contemporary life.

They thought they were safe. They were wrong. The murder of a young prostitute and a baby found abandoned on the same winter night signals the start of a disturbing investigation for Detective Kim Stone - one which brings her face to face with someone from her own horrific childhood. As more sex workers are murdered in quick succession, each death more violent than the last, Kim and her team realize that the initial killing was no one-off frenzied attack, but a twisted serial killer preying on the vulnerable.

Detective Jamie Johansson is finally finding normality in Stockholm when a phone call from her estranged mother draws her back to the UK. The bodies of two women have been discovered in the Brecon Beacons, badly beaten and buried shallow, and rumors of a trafficking ring are swirling. But when a crucial piece of evidence is accidentally destroyed, suspicion falls on those handling the case.

As Sheriff Clayton Burroughs tries to juggle fatherhood, his job, and his recovery from being shot in the confrontation that killed his two criminally inclined brothers last year, he’s doing all he can just to survive. Yet after years of carefully toeing the line between his life in law enforcement and his family, he finally has to make a choice. When a rival organization makes a first foray into Burroughs' territory, leaving a trail of bodies and a whiff of fear in its wake, Clayton is pulled back into the life he so desperately wants to leave behind.

A Purple Place for Dying finds Travis McGee witness to a murder he can't prove and a kidnapping nobody wants to believe. McGee becomes a pawn between a wealthy Southwestern patriarch, the law, and a mysterious gang bent on insurance fraud. Just the kind of thing McGee revels in!

The fog isn’t the only thing wreaking havoc at La Jolla’s landmark Hotel California. A prankster has been hiring employees for nonexistent jobs, a decomposing whale ends up beached in front of the hotel and interrupts a grunion run, and a group of swingers has arrived at the property for a love-in. Not for the first time, hotel detective Am Caulfield is overheard saying, “Hotels are like a circus without the tent.” In addition to those headaches, Am has more than a few mysteries on his hands: Which one of the hotel guests murdered the famed paranormal debunker in room 374?

Adam Murphy wants to be a serious journalist. Unfortunately, he spends his days writing copy about underwear and abs for a gay lifestyle magazine. When a troubled young porn star brings him a tip about a recently deceased marine's secret visit to an infamous pimp for underage boys, Adam is determined to break the story... until someone starts threatening his life.

Of all the demons and monsters Samantha Moon has faced over the years, only one is unstoppable: time. Life feels as stable as it's likely to get for her, which should have been her first warning something was about to go wrong. An out-of-the-blue call from her sister brings bad news concerning her father's health. Ever since she went off to college, Sam has been somewhat estranged from her parents—no surprise since they never seemed to much even notice their kids' existence, leaving the eldest sister to fill the role of mother and father. Whatever notion she had to reestablish contact ...

She was supposed to be the perfect mother—until the night everything went wrong. When Peyton Hayes survives a horrifying car crash with her six-year-old son, she awakens to a living nightmare: a year of her memories erased, a nagging suspicion that she wasn’t alone in the car, and cryptic warnings scrawled on slips of paper. Everyone insists her life is flawless—her ex-husband suddenly wants back in, her best friend is eerily devoted, and her son flinches whenever she asks about that fateful night. But Peyton’s half-glimpsed flashbacks scream that something far darker lurks beneath ...

Los Angeles, 1963: African American Korean War veteran Harry Ingram earns a living as a news photographer and occasional process server: chasing police radio calls and dodging baseball bats. With racial tensions running high on the eve of Martin Luther King’s Freedom Rally, Ingram risks ending up one of the victims at every crime scene he photographs. When Ingram hears a call over the police scanner to the scene of a deadly automobile accident, he recognizes the vehicle described as belonging to his good friend and old army buddy, the white jazz trumpeter Ben Kinslow.

When Jackie is released from prison, his boss Pino sends a limo to pick him up. Even fresh out of the joint, ruthless Jackie is ready to work, collecting money for the mob and using his special training to take care of bad accounts—permanently.

It's been six weeks since Jack McBride's life went to hell: The resolution of his first case as chief sparked a county-wide drug war, his brother Eddie rode into town with a pocket full of cocaine and trouble on his mind, his estranged wife returned from her one-year sabbatical determined to win him back, and Ellie Martin ended their brief affair.

A killer with a signature, a city on edge, and detectives racing against time. For three years, the 'Rose Slayer' has haunted Los Angeles, leaving behind a chilling pattern: middle-aged women, living alone with their cats, executed with a single shot, a red rose left as a macabre calling card. But when the seventh victim is found with her fingers severed and her laptop missing, Detectives Bill Pawson and Sean Wells realize the killer is evolving—and the stakes are higher than ever. Their investigation takes an unexpected turn when all the victims are linked to a popular online book community.

How long would you wait to take revenge? 'Now,’ Granny said quietly. ‘We shall hold hands in the dark. Then we will know we aren’t on our own.’ When Sergeant Sam Sharpe of the Virginia P.D. contacts Dani Bevan about the murder of one of his officers, the Glasgow DCI doesn’t see how she can help. But as Sam explains further, Dani finds herself entangled in a case which transports her team back to the murky world of the industrial conflicts of the 1970s. Hold Hands in the Dark is the seventh novel in the DCI Dani Bevan series of police procedurals.

Easy Rawlins, L.A.'s most reluctant detective, comes home one day to find Easter, the daughter of his friend, Christmas Black, left on his doorstep. Easy knows that this could only mean that ex-marine Black is probably dead, or will be soon. But Easter's appearance is only the beginning, as Easy is immersed in a sea of problems.

When Jax receives nine missed calls from her older sister, Lexie, she assumes that it’s just another one of her sister’s episodes. Manic and increasingly out of touch with reality, Lexie has pushed Jax away for over a year. But the next day, Lexie is dead: drowned in the pool at their grandmother’s estate. When Jax arrives at the house to go through her sister’s things, she learns that Lexie was researching the history of their family and the property. And as she dives in deeper herself, she discovers that the land holds a far darker past than she could have ever imagined.

This story follows an enigmatic private investigator drawn into a tangled web of deception and murder. A chance meeting with a mysterious man who has an uncanny affection for dogs leads the protagonist into a case filled with unexpected twists and hidden motives. As the layers of the mystery unravel, Chandler's signature blend of tension, wit, and vivid characterization keeps readers on edge until the final page. Set against the shadowy backdrop of 1930s Los Angeles, The Man Who Liked Dogs paints a vivid picture of a city teeming with secrets and danger.