Noir Fiction

Beneath the glitter of Mardi Gras lies the sleaze of Bourbon Street; under the celestial sounds of JazzFest, the nightmare screams of a city once at war within its neighborhoods, but after Hurricane Katrina, seemingly at war with nature and the rest of the country as well. New Orleans is a third world country in itself, a Latin, African, European (and often amoral) culture trapped in a Puritan nation.

It should be the perfect opportunity: a manor house available rent free in exchange for a bit of housesitting. But when Cass and James dig deeper, they find the place has been abandoned since a robbery left almost all the inhabitants dead almost thirty years ago. But they’ve got to save for a deposit somehow, so they move in, and things quickly take a strange turn. Objects disappear and turn up in odd places, the clock always stops at the same time, and the house is oppressive yet strangely familiar. Could it just be bad memories, or are the house’s secrets a little closer to home?

It’s early fall when a heatwave descends on Los Angeles. Private Detective Philip Marlowe is called to the Montgomery estate, an almost mythic place sitting high on top of Beverly Hills. Wealthy socialite Chrissie Montgomery is missing. Young, naïve, and set to inherit an enormous fortune, she’s a walking target, ripe for someone to get their claws into. Her dying father and his sultry bottle-blonde girlfriend want her found before that happens. To make sure, they’ve got Anne Riordan—now head of her own all-female detective agency—on the case, too.

This collection by crime fiction master Raymond Chandler features four long stories in which private eye Philip Marlowe is hired to protect a rich old guy from a gold digger, runs afoul of crooked politicos, gets a line on some stolen jewels with a reward attached, and stumbles across a murder victim who may have been an extortionist.

Killer on the Road is an exploration into the mind of a perfectly crafted psychopath: a mix of clinical vision, genius intellect, and an empty conscience. And once you’re in, it’s impossible to get out. Even as a child, Martin Michael Plunkett was no ordinary boy. Extreme parental indifference marked him as an outcast. In his head, Plunkett crafted a second life, remaking himself in the guise of his favorite comic book villain. His mind fixated on dark thoughts and twisted imaginings. A heart of evil was burnished—and Plunkett grew up to become a psychotic murderer.

When social worker Jax receives nine missed calls from her older sister, Lexie, she assumes that it’s just another one of her sister’s episodes. Manic and increasingly out of touch with reality, Lexie’s mental state has pushed Jax away for over a year. But the next day, Lexie is dead: drowned in the pool at their grandmother’s estate. When Jax returns to the house, she learns that Lexie was researching their family’s and the house’s history. And as Jax dives deeper into that research, she discovers that the land holds a far darker history than she could have ever imagined.

In this stunning and provocative domestic drama about a sweet 16 birthday party that goes horribly awry, a wealthy family in San Francisco finds their picture-perfect life unraveling, their darkest secrets revealed, and their friends turned to enemies.

Everyone in the small town of Central City, Texas loves Lou Ford. A deputy sheriff, Lou's known to the small-time criminals, the real-estate entrepreneurs, and all of his coworkers - the low-lifes, the big-timers, and everyone in-between - as the nicest guy around. He may not be the brightest or the most interesting man in town, but nevertheless, he's the kind of officer you're happy to have keeping your streets safe. The sort of man you might even wish your daughter would end up with someday. But behind the platitudes and glad-handing lurks a monster the likes of which few have seen.

Le polar original gagnant du concours « Faits divers » Fyctia - Pocket présidé par Olivier Bal. Le soir du 21 novembre 2005, Kay Dancourt, Substitut du procureur de la République de Paris disparaît. Son mari, Axel Dancourt, gendarme au sein du PSIG de Palaiseau, rongé par l'inquiétude, donne l'alerte. La patrouille de gendarmerie retrouve la voiture de la magistrate sur la bande d'arrêt d'urgence, portière ouverte, sans sa conductrice à son bord. La thèse de l'enlèvement est aussitôt envisagée et le Parquet de Paris est alerté. Axel participe à la battue.

It is 1969 and Glasgow is in the grip of the worst winter in decades, yet it is something else that has Glaswegians on edge: a serial killer whose name alone is enough to make them tremble with fear. The Quaker has killed another victim, snatching a young woman from a nightclub and dumping her body like trash in the back of a cold-water tenement. He leaves no clues, and the investigation has led police down one blind alley after another.

In a sleepy Devon village, a woman is taken from the streets. Local vet Jenny is horrified. This kind of thing doesn’t happen here. But it’s not the first time she’s been so close to a crime scene. The daughter of a prolific serial killer, she’s spent her whole life running from who she really is. And the crime is harrowingly similar to those her father committed all those years ago.

Justice with a vengeance. Who controls Sydney Rye? Because that person controls a dangerous weapon - a killer and a symbol - proof of a prophet's divinity and the catalyst for an international vigilante network. Sydney Rye is just one woman, but to millions she is much more. Whoever controls Sydney controls the masses, can incite violence, turn wife against husband, daughter against father...release the wolf in us all. Who controls her, and what do they want?

A victim killed with a single, precise stab to the heart appears at first glance to be a robbery gone wrong. A caring, upstanding social worker lost to a senseless act of violence. But for Detective Kim Stone, something doesn't add up. When a local drug addict is found murdered with an identical wound, Kim knows instinctively that she is dealing with the same killer. But with nothing to link the two victims except the cold, calculated nature of their death, this could be her most difficult case yet.

There are probably worse things than being stuck in a remote cabin with the rugged-yet-grumpy forest ranger who saved my life in a blizzard. Getting mauled by a bear, for example, though I might prefer that to eating breakfast with Gideon Bell, the guy who nearly ruined my life when we were kids. It was twenty years ago. We haven’t spoken since. Our families still hate each other, and our lives are completely different. I’m not sure we’ve got anything in common besides childhood memories.

Gus Murphy and his girlfriend, Magdalena, are put in harm's way when Gus is caught up in the distant aftershocks of heinous crimes committed decades ago in Vietnam and Russia. Gus' ex-priest pal, Bill Kilkenny, introduces him to a wealthy businessman anxious to have someone look more deeply into the brutal murder of his granddaughter. Though the police already have the girl's murderer in custody, they have been unable to provide a reason for the killing.

Voulez-vous vraiment connaître la vérité ? Le dernier message pourrait vous plonger dans des abysses d'angoisse et de folie... Île d'Iona, à l'ouest de l'écosse. Des plaines d'herbes brunes parsemées de roches noires. Et au bout du "Chemin des morts", la silhouette grise du monastère. Derrière ces murs suppliciés par le vent, un pensionnaire vient d'être retrouvé assassiné. Son corps mutilé de la plus étrange des façons. C'est l'inspectrice écossaise Grace Campbell qui est chargée de l'enquête. Après un an de mise à l'écart, elle joue sa carrière, elle le sait.

Gifted with an uncanny sense about people, psychologist Miri Fox works as an on-and-off profiler for the police. So when they think they've finally nailed the "Wedding Killer", she agrees to check him out, using her gift to discover the truth. But the suspect, Quentin Black, isn't anything like Miri expects. He claims to be hunting the killer, too. When he confronts her about the nature of her peculiar "insight", Miri gets pulled into Black's bizarre world and embroiled in a game of cat and mouse with a deadly killer - who might just be Black himself.

Is someone systematically killing the judges called to the British Columbian bar? At least one has been murdered and several have disappeared. Arthur Beauchamp returns from retirement once again to take on the case, this time defending his former nemesis, backwoods poet Cudworth Brown. He finds himself chasing all kinds of leads, including tracking down a mystery novel that Brown’s unreliable former lawyer has been writing, just as Beauchamp’s own wife, Margaret, has announced her candidacy for the Green Party.

From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine Black Mask published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Never before in audio, these vintage stories are the darkest of the dark, and the best of the best.

Crime fiction fans old and new will delight in rediscovering these taut, character-rich, heart-stopping tales, now on audio for the first time.

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.