English Detective Noir

A gripping novel that sees Maigret brought out of his peaceful retirement. When Maigret’s police officer nephew is framed for a gangland murder, the former chief inspector must swap his countryside retirement for his old stomping ground: Paris’s seamy underworld. Fueled by regular tipples...

“Simenon could produce endless variations, as similar and as different as Shakespeare’s sonnets or Monet’s haystacks.” —Adam Kirsch When the glamorous wife of an American industrialist is murdered at a luxury Paris hotel, her past life as a nightclub dancer is the key to finding the...

When a drowned man comes back to life, Georges Simenon’s detective must figure out who might have wanted him dead—before they try again. Emile Ducrau, the kingpin of a small town on the outskirts of Paris, is stabbed and left for dead in the harbor one night. When he’s pulled from the...

“I want to know what goes on in people’s minds. I suppose that’s why I love Georges Simenon so much. He was such a master of the small domestic situation.” —Ruth Rendell Tomorrow, at five in the afternoon, I will kill the clairvoyant. Signed,Picpus. This chilling message is seen...

“Simenon was fascinated by peculiarities of human personality, which he described in elegant, simple prose . . . as pure as running water.” —Roger Ebert It’s the height of spring, and Maigret is grappling with doubly unfamiliar circumstances. He’s in the surreal new village of...

A moody, rain-swept mystery from Georges Simenon that unfolds in a border town haunted by floods and deep secrets. In The Flemish House, Maigret arrives in the rainy, flood-prone town of Givet on the Belgian border to solve the case of a missing young woman. He has been hired by the wealthy...

She was leaning against the door. Her smile was a sickly twisted grimace; the sort a prisoner gives a judge when he's asked if he has anything to say before he's sentenced. Russell Haxby is a ruthless used-car salesman obsessed with manipulating and cavorting with married women. In this classic of hard-boiled fiction, Charles Willeford crafts a wry, sardonic tale of hypocrisy, intrigue, and lust set in San Francisco in the early '50s.

Inspector John Marco discovers photographs of Westford sitting in various luxury cars and Westford’s connections with the organized hooligan gangs of Cardiff points to a connection with hardened criminals. But is it that easy?

"In a sardonic tone, Joe Lewis delivers this captivating, bloodstained, deeply twisted, hard-boiled thriller following a day in the life of Argentinian oligarch Luis Machi." -- AudioFile Magazine The first novel to appear in English by the "subway janitor by night, novelist by day," who began...

When a neighbor finds a grim discovery in the waterways of Venice Beach, Linx Maxwell gets an unexpected visitor in the form of a new ghost. The only problem? Her new ghost doesn't see eye to eye with her old one. Detective Frank Bogle doesn't know what to make of the young victim. Haunting Linx is his job, and he doesn't want company. All the same, he can hardly deny that the excitement of an unsolved crime intrigues him. The new ghost claims he was murdered - and the trail leads right to the home of Linx's new client.

Frank again is fired as a Charleston Detective and returns to Sullivan’s Island. There he becomes a Private Investigator and studies law. He becomes an attorney. Yet to local politics, Frank’s chance to shine as an attorney is delayed. So he turns to what he knows best, Private Investigating. He is hired by the famous bisexual author Elizabeth Frazier.

NYPD detective Thomas Blume stumbles into a kidnapping case that drags him into the bowels of the city. Now, in a race against time and a battle through a hidden world, he must face up to his deepest fears.... Can Blume conquer his demons...before it's too late? Find out in the Thomas Blume prequel Taken Below. If you like gripping mysteries, thrilling action, and suspense, you'll love the next installment in PT Reade's Book Hits.