Dark Crime Fiction

Dark raven hair and piercing green eyes, sweet and naive Eleanor Romero would make a beautiful bride. Ten million dollars and a forced signature later and she was mine. Like a thief I came in the dead of night and stole her away from her protected castle and placed her in a gilded cage made of gold. The deal had been made. She would become my wife. She would bear my children. She would bend to my will. But most importantly, she would help me destroy the man she loved most, the man who took everything from me: her father.

Written in reaction to what Bentley perceived as the sterility and artificiality of the detective fiction of his day, Trent's Last Case features Philip Trent, an all-too-human detective who not only falls in love with the chief suspect but reaches a brilliant conclusion that is totally wrong. Trent's Last Case begins when millionaire American financier Sigsbee Manderson is murdered while on holiday in England. A London newspaper sends Trent to investigate, and he is soon matching wits with Scotland Yard's Inspector Murth.

Cassel always thought he was an ordinary guy, until he realized his memories were being manipulated by his brothers. Now he knows the truth - he’s the most powerful curse worker around. A touch of his hand can transform anything - or anyone - into something else. That was how Lila, the girl he loved, became a white cat. Cassel was tricked into thinking he killed her, when actually he tried to save her. Now that she’s human again, he should be overjoyed. Trouble is, Lila’s been cursed to love him. And if Lila’s love is as phony as Cassel’s made-up memories, then he can’t believe anything she says or does.

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.

As an intelligent, beautiful woman raised in a small mountain village, Gini never would have imagined a place like The Mansion exists. Stolen by Darius into a dark underworld where the famed Mullah Omar arranges pleasure marriages to the highest bidder, Gini fights for survival. At first frightened by the dangerous man who keeps her prisoner, Darius slowly becomes the one light in her dark world.

Daniel and Vanessa Parker are an American success story. He is a Washington, DC power broker, and she is a doctor with a thriving practice. But behind the facade, their marriage is a shambles, and their teenage son, Quentin, is self-destructing. In desperation, Daniel dusts off a long-delayed dream - a sailing trip around the world. Little does he know that the voyage he hopes will save them may destroy them instead.

When another Halloween brings an additional death, a young police officer on the Isle of Man suspects they are connected to dark secrets in her own past. When Claire Cooper was eight years old, her mother mysteriously vanished during Hop-tu-naa, Halloween on the Isle of Man. At 14, Claire is still struggling to come to terms with her disappearance when she's befriended by a group of five teenagers who mark every Halloween by performing dares.

Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, in a small town with big secrets, The Familiar Dark opens with a murder. Eve Taggert, desperate with grief over losing her daughter, takes it upon herself to find out the truth about what happened. Eve is no stranger to the dark side of life, having been raised by a hard-edged mother whose lessons Eve tried not to pass on to her own daughter.

I’m the shadows that reach out and take a bite. No one sees me coming, which is why I’m sent to do the things even our fearless leader won’t touch. After months of watching our enemies, it’s time to take them out. I’m ready to feel their blood on my hands, their worthless lives ground to dust. But I don’t get the chance when a dark haired beauty comes crashing into my plans, seeking sanctuary from our enemies. Now I’m stuck on guard duty, babysitting a mafia princess. As tensions rise, the flames of desire flicker between us. We shouldn’t cross that line.

Eck Adamson, an alcoholic vagrant, summons Jack Laidlaw to his deathbed. Probably the only policeman in Glasgow who would bother to respond, Laidlaw sees in Eck's cryptic last message a clue to the murder of a gangland thug and the disappearance of a student. With stubborn integrity, Laidlaw tracks a seam of corruption that runs from the top to the bottom of society.

What Ian Rankin is to Edinburgh David Mark is to the seaport of Hull in Northern England. This is the beginning of a dynamic, thrilling series featuring detective Sgt. Aector McAvoy, a psychologically-probing investigator who finds patterns and motives in seemingly unrelated deaths in his hardscrabble town.

Susan Wheeler is a devoted mother. She would do anything for her three children. She drops them off and picks them up every single day. Until one day when Susan kisses them goodbye and then never comes to pick them up. Susan’s mother, Mary, is worried. Susan’s sister, Clare, is furious. As the hours turn into days, even Clare becomes fearful for Susan. And, when Mary discovers Susan’s diary, she begins to uncover a dark secret from her childhood. Something no one in the family knew.

A murdered family-man. A young woman tortured and set on fire. A face from the past…DI Nathaniel Caslin is stable, for the first time in years. Now, he can look to the future, or so he thought. Granting a small favour to a friend, can often be anything but simple. When the only link between two apparently random murders appears to be an aging, Catholic priest, Caslin is thrust into a world of long-buried secrets. Drawing unwanted attention from the intelligence services, he must consider if the man he once trusted above all others, is now playing by his own rules.

Eden Williams wants nothing more than to be free of her dismal home life, and going to college offers her the perfect escape. For once, she’s feeling hopeful about the future. Until her rude neighbor crashes into her life. Silas Caputo is on the run from his famiglia. Masquerading as an Italian professor at an American college has worked for a while. He has never wanted for anything… Until he met Eden. He’d happily ruin his career if it meant he could possess her. Eden needs a hero… but that’s not who Silas is. He’s the monster in her shadows, watching her from every corner.

For decades the Moore Asylum was home to the forgotten children of Brooklyn Bay. But ever since a scandal forced its closure, the abandoned building has cast an imposing shadow. Until now - when an elderly man is found dead, his body strapped to an ancient gurney. Detective Lucy Harwin, still reeling from a previous case that ended in the devastating murder of a mother and her child, finds herself on the trail of a killer ruthlessly fixated on avenging the asylum's wrongs.

Ari Thor returns to investigate a chilling series of crimes that are rooted in tragic events from the past. Siglufjörður: an idyllically quiet fishing village on the northernmost tip of Iceland, accessible only via a small mountain tunnel. Ari Thór Arason: a local policeman whose tumultuous past and uneasy relationships with the villagers continue to haunt him.

Aja Minor has led a life of misfortune. At birth, she was dropped and now sports a scar on her face from the resulting laceration. At the dawn of her adolescence, Aja discovers some unsettling effects she has on certain people. They get sick to their stomachs or recoil in pain in her presence. These episodes are accompanied by overwhelming bouts of self-consciousness. To Aja, these powers are a curse.

When the thief guilds all join forces to steal the treasure of the city, Gabriel and the Shadow Foxes face their toughest challenge yet. But throw in a powerful gorgon, the prying mage academy, and a berserker vigilante hafling, and...well...let’s just say that Gabriel’s unique brand of controlling magic is going to be the only thing that can save the day. If he can just survive the day.

In a world where magic is illegal, Cassel Sharpe has the most deadly ability of all: With one touch, he can transform any object - including a person - into something else entirely. And that makes him a wanted man. The Feds are willing to forgive all his past crimes if he’ll only leave his con-artist family behind and go straight. But why does going straight feel so crooked? For one thing, it means being on the opposite side of the law from Lila, the girl he loves.

My soldiers threw Charlotte at my feet and told me what she was. A thief. A liar. A sneak. I chained her in the cell beneath my mansion with a plan to get rid of her at dawn. But something made me change my mind.