Dark Crime Fiction

An explosion rips through New York City's Grand Central Station one morning, destroying the train Karen Friedman's husband, a successful hedge-fund manager, is riding in to work. On that same day, a suspicious hit-and-run accident leaves a young man dead in Karen's hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut. Ty Hauck, a detective, becomes emotionally caught up in the case and finds a clue that shockingly connects the two seemingly unrelated events.

1984, New York City. Through a series of bad life decisions, a former big time mobster has been reduced to a low-level hood, and he has to find a way to repay the family $100,000 in a week, or else face the consequences. This sets off a chain reaction of ever-increasingly absurd and comic events that culminate in one of the largest heists in mob history.

Mary Shields is a moody, acerbic probation officer dealing with some of Glasgow’s worst cases, and her job is on the line. Liam Macdowall was imprisoned for murdering his wife, and he’s published a series of letters to the dead woman, in a book that makes him an unlikely hero - and a poster boy for Men’s Rights activists. Liam is released on licence into Mary’s care, but things are far from simple. Mary develops a poisonous obsession with Liam and his world, and when her son and Liam’s daughter form a relationship, Mary will stop at nothing to impose her own brand of justice.

You might as well know this going in: Lawrence Block's new novel is not for everyone. It's recounted in journal form by its protagonist, and begins when he walks into a roadhouse outside of Bakersfield, California, and walks out with a woman. And rapes and murders her. But, um, not in that order. Right. But it's what he does with the rest of his life that's really interesting....

No one is more surprised than Lem Altick when it turns out he's actually good at peddling encyclopedias door to door. He hates the predatory world of sales, but he needs the money to pay for college. Then things go horribly wrong. In a sweltering trailer in rural Florida, a couple Lem has spent hours pitching to is shot dead before his eyes, and the unassuming young man is suddenly pulled into the dark world of conspiracy and murder.

It's 1998. The Internet age is still in its infancy. Google has just been founded. Eighteen-year-old supermarket shelf-stacker Nigel Carmelite has decided that he's going to become a vigilante. There are a few problems: how is he going to even find crime to fight on the streets of Derbyshire? How will he create a superhero costume - and an arsenal of crime-fighting weaponry - on a shoestring budget?

Chef est un tueur froid et narcissique, travaillant autant par nécessité pécuniaire que par goût du spectacle. Occire la vermine ne lui fait pas peur, tant que la récompense à la clé est suffisante. Les années passées à exercer son métier de chasseur de primes lui ont valu une solide réputation, ainsi qu'un sens du panache effilé. Chef est devenu plus qu'un simple assassin rémunéré : il est L'Artisan Meurtrier. Accompagné par Basile, son assistant, il rencontrera des manipulateurs retors, des crapules aux ambitions démesurées et des créatures cauchemardesques....

Jerry has a traumatic past that leaves him subject to psychotic hallucinations and depressive episodes. When he stands accused of stealing a priceless Van Gogh painting, he goes underground, where he develops an unwilling relationship with a woman who believes that the voices she hears are from God.

Nino and Elena dream of sharing a normal life together. They are desperate to escape the shadow of Nino’s domineering and dangerous family, the Bartells.

Reeling from the death of his great love, Karin, Varg Veum's life has descended into a self-destructive spiral of alcohol, lust, grief and blackouts. When traces of child pornography are found on his computer, he's accused of being part of a paedophile ring and thrown into a prison cell. There, he struggles to sift through his past to work out who is responsible for planting the material...and who is seeking the ultimate revenge.

Lauren Kaine has everything she ever wanted—a fabulous home, a shiny Lexus, a bright 16-year-old son, and a loving husband with a lucrative internet career. Tonight, she walks hand-in-hand with William beneath the lustrous Seattle sky, celebrating 22 years of marriage. But they’re not alone. A mysterious black Audi comes out of nowhere and chases William onto a bridge. He shouts, “they’re here for the card”, and falls to his death. The tinted windows hide the driver’s face, and it speeds away. Still mourning, Lauren sets out to find her husband’s killer.

Detective CJ O’Hara is finally getting a grip on life. Recently promoted and in a promising relationship, her instincts scream foul play when she responds to a reported heart attack at a bed and breakfast. Smelling a hint of vanilla in the air and noticing scratches on the victim’s back, she suspects she’s looking for a murderess.

Hipopotamia es una colección de desvelos y un manual de contradicciones. Sexo, violencia y sangre fluyendo a través de las alcantarillas de la psique colectiva, esa que carece de puentes con la lógica o el sentido común. En estos diez relatos, el lector podrá encontrar lugares sórdidos, amores raros, atmósferas inquietantes y un buen puñado de alucinaciones. Puede, incluso, que en estos diez relatos el lector corra el riesgo de encontrarse a sí mismo.

Death sets the plot in motion: the murder of Nica Baker, beautiful, wild, enigmatic, and only 16. The crime is solved, and quickly--a lonely classmate, unrequited love, a suicide note confession--but memory and instinct won't allow Nica's older sister, Grace, to accept the case as closed.

Detective CJ O’Hara is drowning in guilt over the death of her family and her killing of a suspect in the line of duty. So, when she’s unfairly denied a well-deserved promotion after 10 years of devoted service in Boston, she answers the Charleston Police Department’s desperate call for help. Her first assignment: Stop the serial killer known as The Lowcountry Killer.

Raine Harkins believes everything the Teaching tells her - forgiveness is freedom, there are no dead, and there is no dying. She has lived her entire life in the Haven, a small religious community buried in the hills of Northern Nevada, and it's been a good life. But when she discovers a frightened teenage girl hiding in the forest, everything changes. Raine offers to help the girl, but gunshots ring out, and the girl runs away, never to be seen again. A week later, Raine finds a letter pinned to her cabin door - God doesn't want you here. Leave the Haven now, before he runs you down.

Angelina Bonaparte is starting from square one. After a messy divorce, the middle-aged librarian put down her books and picked up a new gig as a private investigator. When a mob boss heads to jail for his mistress' murder, she has no issue with the womanizing scumbag rotting in prison. But when the suspect's pregnant wife swears his innocence, Angelina can't find it in her heart to refuse the case. Already reluctant to get involved, her frustration grows when she's forced to work alongside Ted Wukowski, a homicide detective who thinks a crime scene is no place for a woman.

Failed lawyer Robert Green has such a good plan: Crack three hundred safe-deposit boxes and sail off to South America with his brilliant, morally flexible sister, Penny. If it weren’t for the damned freezing rain. In the dying resort town of Granite Shores, cop Jack Biddle is self-appointed king—mostly of bad decisions. Between his family’s crumbling legacy, a wife who just joined the city council, and life-threatening gambling debts, Jack’s looking for a way out. Then he spots a van spinning off a mountain road into the valley below.

After a stint inside, notorious gangster Nathan Conlon is back. He says he’s a changed man, but old habits die hard on Liverpool’s gritty streets. He’ll stop at nothing to reclaim his formidable criminal empire—and his long-suffering ex-wife, Grace. Grace once kissed the ground that Nathan walked on, but not anymore. She’s head of the firm now, commanding respect from the best of them, and she’ll do anything to protect her family—even if it means beating Nathan at the dirtiest of games.

FBI super-profiler Agent Meredeth Connelly begins her hunt for The .40 Caliber Killer. She collects evidence. He collects families. Her headaches become more unbearable with each crime scene, with each dead child. With two decades of experience, she knows serial killers. As the body count rises, it’s clear that this serial killer knows her. She doesn't remember him. He'll never forget her. As the investigation progresses, something awakens within her that hints at an answer.