Comedy Crime Fiction

A laugh-out-loud mystery following the indomitable hot mess Mo Ellery, whose job as a school crossing guard pulls her into an unhinged murder investigation. Mo Ellery’s 29th birthday is a disaster. After one small accident—the exposure of her boyfriend’s genitals (well, maybe...

"On any list of writers that make me laugh, Mary Pauline Lowry is near the top. Last Night Was Killer, but it's also killer fun." -- Steven Rowley, New York Times bestselling author of The Guncle A suspenseful, bighearted, and laugh-out-loud story of a single mom trying to do it all—including...

A small-town Southern Missouri beauty (if she does say so herself), Hollister has an uncanny knack for accidentally robbing banks, convenience stores, and possibly even a drug cartel. Toss in a couple of grand theft autos—purely by accident, of course—but she wouldn’t hurt a fly. Not even when Ruger falls into her lap. Savvy, self-taught, and eternally optimistic, Hollister hitchhikes, runs, and drives her way across America’s heartland, stumbling into one misadventure after another.

In the haze of stale beer, bad jokes, and even worse poker hands, Joe, Ray, Mike, and Terry hatch the ultimate midlife crisis: robbing a bank. They're not criminals, just four average blokes with too much time, too little money, and one tragically convincing plan scribbled on the back of a pizza box. But what starts as a beer-fuelled fantasy soon spirals into a dangerously real operation.

Meet Sam Applewhite, a security consultant with no staff, no resources, and some big jobs to tackle. When an armed robber targets a local bank, things quickly go wrong and hostages are taken. Sam’s stage magician dad is in the firing line and no magic tricks are going to get him out of this situation. The police say they’ve got things under control, but Sam knows there’s something strange going on. Why has a law-abiding man suddenly turned to crime? How can it be an armed robbery if the robber has left his gun at home? Sam has to put the pieces together before it’s too late.

From Emmy Award-winning author David Quantick, All My Colors is a darkly comic novel about a man who remembers a book that may not exist, with dire consequences. A bizarre, mind-bending story at the intersection of Richard Bachman, Charlie Kaufman, and Franz Kafka.

Deputy sheriff Constance Kopp is outraged to see young women brought into the Hackensack jail over dubious charges of waywardness, incorrigibility, and moral depravity. The strong-willed, patriotic Edna Heustis, who left home to work in a munitions factory, certainly doesn't belong behind bars. And 16-year-old runaway Minnie Davis, with few prospects and fewer friends, shouldn't be publicly shamed and packed off to a state-run reformatory. But such were the laws - and morals - of 1916.

Sandwich meets The Wedding People in this irresistible comedy of manners as three generations of a family—a snail scientist, a soon-to-be divorcée, her teenage daughter, a hapless con man, and their feckless patriarch—descend on a ritzy Lake Michigan vacation island. When the Pickford...

An uncompromising and sensually charged collection from one of the great practitioners of the short story The debut story collection from Los Angeles writer Kate Braverman assembles a vivid patchwork of interconnected narratives set in Southern California. Through brief, often haunting snapshots...

From the incendiary voice behind Your Driver is Waiting, a fierce and unforgettable novel about a Tamil refugee family stealing from corporations to survive until their lives are up-ended by a day-trading scam, threatening what little security they have left. It’s hard to be a teenager at the...

Meet The Nearly Dearly Departed Club. Four random strangers thrown together with only one thing in common. They’re all dead. Or maybe not....

Here's a first-person account of a petty thief, Bex. He's a bit of a geezer, who, with long-time partner-in-crime Ollie, just about gets by on the money he makes from house-breaking in small-time suburbia. Bex talks and walks us through a dozen noteworthy jobs and give us his thoughts on life, love and nicking. Includes an exclusive recorded interview with the author.

An extravaganza of suburban noir - complete with one orgy, one brothel and a series of firearms disputes - from Adam Thirlwell, twice selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. This yarn takes place in the suburbs of a giant city. In Brasilia they’re coming off their night shift; in Tokyo they’re having their first whisky sours. That’s what’s happening elsewhere in the world when our hero wakes up. Together with his wife and dog, he lives at home with his parents.

A caper gone bad is the setting for this comic novel about three 20-somethings searching to find themselves in year one of The Revolution: 1960. The year marked the arrival of John F. Kennedy, The Pill, Women’s Lib, and the crazy concept of personal satisfaction. The world, and their lives, would never be the same. Follow Mickey, Tippy, and Nino from Manhattan’s garment district filled with low-end goods, loan sharks, and knock-off artists to the couturiers of Paris with the insane pressure to constantly create great art. A hilarious story of self-realization, love, and friendship.

Chris Benson looks up to his older brother. In fact, everyone looks up to Chris’ older brother. Most have no choice when they're lying on their stomachs in the middle of Barclays bank. But when Gavin Benson gets sent down for 15 years, the somewhat unprofessional trio of Chris, Sid and Vince are left without a ringleader. As if Chris hasn't got enough problems, his adulterous partner Debbie is spending money faster than he can steal it, his sexually frustrated sister-in-law needs a man about the house and the Neighbourhood Watch Scheme want to sign him up for a tour of duty.

Existential noir meets absurd comedy when a young man reluctantly enlists as source material for an art project. Stanley had known it was a mistake to accept his uncle Lech's offer to apartment-sit in Prague - he'd known it was one of Lech's proposals, a thinly veiled setup for some invasive, potentially dangerous performance art project. But whatever Lech had planned for Stanley, it would get him to Prague and maybe offer a chance to make things right with T after his failed attempt to propose.

Bobby Palumbo is a low-level bagman for the Brooklyn mob. After he is persuaded to "borrow" $200,000 from his collection bag for 24 hours, he is left on the hook for the missing money. On the run, he hooks up with Frannie Jo Overby, a savvy young girl from the dying Texas town of Ecstasy. Bobby is largely clueless, and it's Frannie Jo who turns out to have the street smarts. She's the one who cooks up the scheme to save Bobby's bacon.

Henry, a New Yorker left destitute by circumstance and obsession, is plucked from vagrancy by a shadowy outfit whose primary business is arranging for staged murders of anxiety-ridden clients unhinged by the “events downtown” and seeking to experience - and live through - their own carefully executed assassinations. When Henry joins this nefarious crew, which includes a beautiful blonde tattooist named Tulip, contortionist twins, and a woman referred to only as “the knockout”, he becomes inextricably linked to its ringleader, the mysterious herring connoisseur Mr. Kindt.

When an orangutan goes on the lam, anything can happen. Chasing Harpo is an intriguing cast of quirky characters you'd like to visit with longer. Including the star, Harpo, an orangutan who believes humans are here purely for his entertainment and, of course, to deliver his food. A fun ride and a great adventure for all ages, as Harpo and his trusty servant, Carl, try to outwit the zoo security team, the police, the attorney general, and a gang of drug dealers.

A palm reader notifies Lord Arthur that murder is in his future. But not his murder - he’s the murderer. This really throws a wrench into his wedding plans, for Lord Arthur is soon to be married to the most beautiful lady in London. In fact he loves her so much, he decides to postpone the wedding until his business is done. Now, for a tasteful homicide....