Dark Humor Mystery

Carla Karolac is doing just fine. Having escaped the clutches of her controlling mother and founded a successful writing retreat in which participants are confined to windowless cells until they hit their daily word count, she lives a comfortable, if solitary, existence. If only her therapist, Toonie, would stop going on about Carla's nonexistent love life and start addressing her writer’s block, she might be able to make some progress. But then Carla finds Toonie murdered, and suddenly her unfinished memoir is the least of her concerns.

Bobby Gold is a lovable criminal. After nearly 10 years in prison, he's no sooner out than he's back to work breaking bones for tough guys. His turf: the club scene and restaurant business. It's not that he enjoys the job - Bobby has real heart - but he's good at it, and a guy has to make a living. Things change when he meets Nikki, the cook at a club most definitely not in his territory. Smitten, he can't stay away. Bobby Gold has known trouble before, but with Nikki the sauté bitch in his life, things take a turn for life or death.

The Consultant is very good at his job. He creates simple, elegant, effective solutions for…restructuring. Nothing obvious or messy. Certainly nothing anyone would ever suspect as murder. The ‘natural deaths’ he plans have always gone well: a medicine replaced here, a mechanism jammed there. His performance reviews are excellent. And it’s not as though he knows these people. Until his next ‘customer’ turns out to be someone he not only knows but cares about, and for the first time, he begins to question the role he plays in the vast, anonymous Company.

When hordes of people descend on the picturesque village of Nasely for the annual celebration of its most famous resident, murder mystery writer Agnes Crabbe, events take a dark turn as the festival opens with a shocking death. Each year the residents are outnumbered by crowds dressed as Crabbe’s lady detective, Millicent Cutter. The weekend is never a mild-mannered affair as fan club rivalries bubble below the surface, but tensions reach new heights when a second Crabbe devotee is found murdered. Though the police are quick to arrive on the scene, the facts are tricky to ascertain as the witnesses, suspects and victim are all dressed as Miss Cutter.

Los Angeles burglar Junior Bender has a rule about never taking a job that pays too well: In the criminal underworld, if you’re offered more money than a job is worth, someone is going to end up dead. But he’s bending his rule this one time because he and his girlfriend, Ronnie, are in desperate need of cash to hire a kidnapper to snatch Ronnie’s two-year-old son back from her ex. The whole thing is pretty complicated and has Junior on edge.

When Alexandra Witt joins the faculty at Stonebridge Academy, she’s hoping to put a painful past behind her. Then one of her creative writing assignments generates some disturbing responses from students. Before long, Alex is immersed in an investigation of the students atop the school’s social hierarchy - and their connection to something called the Darkroom. She soon inspires the girls who’ve started to question the school’s “boys will be boys” attitude and incites a resistance. But then Alex attracts the attention of an unknown enemy who knows too much about her.

Der Rudi zieht um - und zwar ins Münchner Schlachthofviertel. Vom Balkon aus beobachtet er die Krähen, die über den Fabrikdächern kreisen. Dahinter schönstes Alpenpanorama. Doch mit der Ruhe ist's schon wieder vorbei, als ihm eine der Krähen einen abgetrennten Frauenfinger zu Füßen legt. Wie sich herausstellt, gehörte der Finger einer Prostituierten, die mit einer mysteriösen Waffe erstochen wurde. Und so ermitteln Rudi und Franz im Münchner Rotlichtviertel - aber erst Franzls Liebschaft mit einer Ex-Prostituierten bringt sie auf die richtige Spur.

Schwere Zeiten für den Eberhofer Franz: Seine Cholesterinwerte sind so hoch wie seine Laune im Keller ist. Statt Schlemmerorgien bei der Oma gibt's nur noch Kaninchenfutter auf dem Teller. Obendrein stresst die Susi mit knallhart durchorganisierten Besuchszeiten für Franz Junior. Und als wäre das alles noch nicht genug, steht der Franz ausgerechnet jetzt vor dem schwierigsten Fall seiner Ermittlerkarriere: ein Toter im Fremdenzimmer bei der Mooshammer Liesl, mit Brandpaste beschmiert und bis zur Unkenntlichkeit verstümmelt. Alles deutet darauf hin, dass der Mörder aus Niederkaltenkirchen stammt.

Niederkaltenkirchen goes future: Dass nun also tatsächlich ein Luxus-Spa-Hotel seine Pforten in Niederkaltenkirchen geöffnet hat, erfreut zumindest die eine Hälfte der Bevölkerung nur wenig. Als kurz darauf auch noch eine Leiche ausgerechnet in einer Marmorbadewanne dort liegt, muss der Eberhofer freilich wieder ran. Ganz egal, wie geschmeidig es mit der Susi grad läuft. Leider ist der Birkenberger Rudi momentan ein wenig verpeilt, was den Franz vor eine schwere Entscheidung stellt.

Nicht nur für Schottland-Liebhaber sondern auch für alle Fans von Spannung mit einem guten Schuss schwarzen Humors: Nachdem sie einen richtig großen Job versaut haben, bleibt drei Glasgower Auftragskillern nur die Flucht auf die karge und schöne Hebriden-Insel Jura, getarnt als Outdoor-Touristen. Ihre Tarnung fliegt auf, doch Juras eigenbrötlerische Einwohner zeigen sich gesprächsbereit; schließlich gilt es zu verhindern, dass ein Milliardär die Insel in einen Golfclub verwandelt.

President Robert Thompson, ensnared in a fetish-related scandal and facing imminent impeachment, fakes his own assassination with the help of his ambitious wife and psychiatrist. His goal? To secure his legacy and vanish to an island. This satirical tale follows Thompson’s transformation from disgraced politician to mythic hero. As story plot unfolds, his psychiatrist, Petros Andros (Pete), finds himself entangled in a web of deceit, obsession, and indiscretions of his own.

Musical genius Mackenzie is desperate to get into Juilliard, even if it means playing a duet with her best friend's boyfriend. Beautiful Ava isn't above using her assets to get an A. Athletic Caitlin is one goal away from a soccer scholarship - if she can call a time-out on her relationship drama. Popular Julie has it all - literally, thanks to her hoarder mom - and will do anything to keep her family's secret. And former It Girl Parker is experimenting with her wild side.

Fred Van Lente's brilliant debut is both an homage to the Golden Age of Mystery and a thoroughly contemporary show-business satire. As the story opens, nine comedians of various acclaim are summoned to the island retreat of legendary Hollywood funnyman Dustin Walker. The group includes a former late-night TV host, a washed-up improv instructor, a ridiculously wealthy "blue collar" comic, and a past-her-prime Vegas icon.

Coalville is on fire—from below. The old mines are burning, and everyone has poison gas in their brain. Maybe that’s why the town is so corrupt. Now that he’s a Benedictine monk, Tommy Martini never wants to see the place again—hell-raisers there hold a grudge till they die, and he’s on their wish list. But a girl he once loved has gone missing, and his best friend from childhood has been murdered. Among the living is a shy girl from Tommy’s past, who wants to help. Together, they learn the secret of the elephant’s graveyard, and it’s not in Africa.

Un artist ucide și lumea din jurul lui se schimbă. Amalia, o adolescentă deloc banală, dispare într-o dimineață de decembrie. În căutarea ei pornesc trei prieteni care sunt, în același timp, și suspecți în cazul dispariției tinerei: un scriitor mizantrop și de succes, un pictor fascinat de lolite, dar și de septuagenare, o prostituată atrasă de tot ce înseamnă sex extrem. Revoltele sociale din februarie 2012 constituie, în premieră în literatura română, o parte din fundalul acțiunii.

El protagonista de esta historia es Héctor "El Sapo" Vizcarra, un periodista gastronómico, gordo y obsesionado con la comida, que vive en el Abasto de la actualidad. La acción transcurre en un diciembre de mucho calor, en los espacios ganados por la comunidad peruana en el centro de Buenos Aires. Una noche, en busca del ceviche perfecto, El Sapo llega al restaurante peruano Doña Lili. Allí se encuentra con el ceviche buscado, pero no llegará a saborearlo completamente.

נל ליישון, מחברת רב המכר ״צבע החלב״, מכניסה אותנו ברומן זה לראשו של גארי – כייס, פורץ, גנב. במונולוג כובש, שזור הומור עדין, לוקח אותנו גארי לטיול במשעול חייו, החל מילדותו המקופחת, המוזנחת, בלונדון, שם נולד לאם אלכוהוליסטית ול׳אב במשרה חלקית׳ שמתפרנס מעבירות קטנות. לילה אחד הוא לוקח את גארי איתו ומכיר לו את עולם הפשע. במהרה מתברר כי לגארי יש כישרון מיוחד, ויכולותיו של הבן עולות על אלה של האב. לגארי יש חושים כמעט על-אנושיים; בעזרת אינטליגנציה יוצאת דופן ועיניים כחולות בלתי נשכחות, גארי מצליח לצלול לראשם של אנשים סביבו ולהתל בהם כרצונו.

Once a cancer patient, former Orlando detective Mike Garrity is a survivor—for now, at least. Death has a way of following him around, like a black cloud over his head. If its not his own mortality he's thinking about, its someone else's. Like his teenage daughter's friend who just died of a suspected suicide. Or the woman he just met in his cancer support group, Debbie, who learns that she doesn't have much longer to live.

Manche Menschen liebt man oder hasst man – auf June trifft beides gleichzeitig zu. June Mayberry ist in einer beschissenen Lage: Ihre aus einer Alkohollaune heraus gegründete Detektei kommt nicht richtig in Schwung, zu ihrem pubertierenden Sohn, den sie nur einmal die Woche sieht, fehlt ihr jeder Zugang, und mit der verschwundenen Lehrerin, mit deren Suche sie beauftragt wird, war sie wenige Wochen zuvor noch im Bett.

Una de las más brillantes e irreverentes farsas del autor, una sátira orgiástica donde el horror arranca carcajadas y en la que nadie se salva del ridículo, ya sea de izquierdas o de derechas, ecologista o partidario de la energía atómica, esposo fiel o donjuán irredento: ¡temblad, temblad, malditos! En esta novela, Wilt vive con su mujer, la inefable Eva, entregada a sus sucesivas pasiones alternativas, medicinales, nutritivas, religiosas, etc., y con sus temibles cuatrillizas...