Noir Mystery Thriller

Debauched, divorced, and courting death, Billy Ray Schafer is a comedian who has forgotten how to laugh. Over the course of seven spun-out days across the American Southwest, he travels from from hell gig to hell gig in search of a reason to keep living in this bleak and violent glimpse into the psyche of a thoroughly ruined man. Ex-inmate, ex-husband, ex-father - comedian is the only title Schafer has left. Trapped in the wreckage of his wasted career, Billy Ray knows the answer to the question: What happens when the opportunity doesn't come - or worse - it comes and goes?

Tough, cynical PI Sam Spade is hired by the story's irresistible femme fatale, Brigid O'Shaughnessy, to locate the client's sister by tailing her companion. Spade's partner, Miles Archer, takes on the assignment, and quickly both he and the man he was shadowing are murdered. As Spade pursues the mystery of his partner's death, he is drawn into a circle of colorful characters - all of them after a legendary statuette of a falcon fashioned long ago for King Charles of Spain.

From the introduction by James Thompson: Finland, the myths and truths. Internationally, it has a reputation as perhaps the best place in the world to live. A great economy. A low crime rate. Good and nearly cost-free health care. The needy are provided for by the state and live in reasonable comfort. Finns: peaceful and quiet people, living in the perfect example of a social democracy functioning as it should. A tourist, or even a person who has lived here for a length of time, might well view Finland as such.

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. In Hong Kong Noir, 14 of the city’s finest authors explore the dark heart of the Pearl of the Orient in haunting stories of depravity and despair.

Still reeling from a brutal dismemberment, detective Kline is forcibly recruited to solve a murder inside a religious cult that takes literally the New Testament idea that you should cut off your hand if it offends you. Armed only with his gun, his wits, and a gift for self-preservation, Kline must navigate a gauntlet of lies, threats, and misinformation. All too soon he discovers that the stakes are higher than he thought and that his survival depends on an act of sheer will.

Los Angeles, 1948: Easy Rawlins is a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs.

"De loin, son meilleur roman." Olivier Delcroix, "Le Figaro Magazine". Quatre minutes. C'est le temps d'un souvenir pour Manon. Après, tout s'efface. Dans ces conditions, pas facile pour Lucie Henebelle de trouver par qui la jeune femme vient d'être agressée. Et de comprendre la signification des mots gravés au creux de sa paume : "Pr de retour".

"Voici une lettre bien difficile à écrire. J'espère que vous ne nous maudirez pas trop. Mon fils s'est récemment introduit chez vous en votre absence." Aylesford, une banlieue new-yorkaise pleine de charme, offre à ses habitants une qualité de vie exceptionnelle. Pourtant un adolescent y a pris la mauvaise habitude d'entrer par effraction chez ses voisins et de fouiller dans leurs ordinateurs. Lorsque les victimes reçoivent une lettre anonyme à ce sujet, les rumeurs vont bon train et la suspicion monte.

A young hospital security guard with a disturbingly unique taste in women. A maternity doctor with a horrifically unusual appetite. When the two of them meet, they embark on a journey of self-discovery while shattering societal norms and engaging in destructively aberrant behavior. As they unwittingly help each other understand a world in which neither seems to belong, they begin to realize what it truly means to be alive...and that it might not always a good thing.

Vancouver is the so-called City of Glass. A nice place, in any case, and much too nice for noir. Looked at from afar, Vancouver may seem idyllic. But living here is different - cold and baffling and occasionally hostile. While outsiders focus on high-test BC bud, locals see a heroin crisis: Vancouver is home to the first legalized safe-injection site in North America, now heavily taxed by overdoses resulting from street drugs cut with fentanyl.

Mariés depuis deux ans, Karen et Tom ont tout pour être heureux : un train de vie confortable, un pavillon coquet, des projets d'avenir. Un soir, quand Tom rentre à la maison, Karen s'est volatilisée. Alors qu'il commence à paniquer, Tom reçoit une visite de la police : son épouse a été victime d'un grave accident de voiture, dans un quartier malfamé où elle ne met d'ordinaire jamais les pieds. À son réveil à l'hôpital, la jeune femme a tout oublié des circonstances du drame. Les médecins parlent d'amnésie temporaire.

He picks a pocket and discovers a sinister plot. New York, 1937: The thief they call the Smoke encounters an obnoxious bully on the streets of New York. To teach him a lesson, the Smoke picks his pocket. But on opening the brute’s billfold he discovers items that arouse suspicion. A newspaper clipping, an odd blueprint, and a membership card to a secret society seem to point to a plot of unspeakable terror. Curious, the Smoke delves into the mystery and is thrust into a whirlwind of intrigue and danger.

New York Times Bestselling Author “The greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever!” —New York Times Book Review Jackie Burke’s future looks grim. She’s been a flight attendant for twenty years and she’s down to working for an island–hopping airline the day she lands in Palm...

La vengeance du maître du Kremlin se mange toujours glacée. Punir la France de son soutien à l'Ukraine, telle est la mission assignée par Poutine à ses services de sécurité. Un plan démoniaque que la DGSE doit faire échouer. Mais que pèse son meilleur agent, le brillant "avocat international" Edgar Van Scana, face au rouleau compresseur des renseignements russes ? Surtout quand la moindre action est orchestrée par la générale Olga Ranevskaïa, cheffe des opérations noires du Kremlin. Sur les routes de Roumanie et d'Ukraine, Edgar s'apprête à mener la mission la plus dangereuse de son existence.

Sin City. An artificial oasis of pleasure, spectacle, and entertainment, the gambling capital of America has reinvented itself so many times that it's doubtful that anyone knows for sure what's real and what isn't in the miles of neon and scorching heat. Las Vegas is considered the ultimate player's destination, no matter what your game. Las Vegas is the true city that never sleeps, where fortunes are made and lost every day, and where snake-eyes aren't found just on a pair of dice.

"Whether this is the listener's first or fiftieth In Death story, they're guaranteed an enjoyable listening experience."-AudioFile on Abandoned in Death Homicide detective Eve Dallas must untangle a twisted family history while a hostage’s life hangs in the balance—in the new In Death novel...

Things are going along okay with Dennis' gig at the Tishomingo Lodge & Casino in Tunica, Mississippi, "the Casino Capital of the South", until the day he looks down from the high-dive platform and witnesses a mob hit, Dixie style.

This intriguing, suspense-packed novel is the fourth Jack Taggart Mystery in the series commencing with Loose Ends, Above Ground, and Angel in the Full Moon. This time the implacable Mountie Jack Taggart goes undercover to follow the trail of a cheap Saturday-night special found at the scene of a murder. He traces the gun from the manufacturer to the person it was stolen from and through several criminals, until the trail leads him to a suspected heroin importer.

Award-winning author Edwidge Danticat edits this collection of stories that puts a noir twist on the Haitian experience. From kidnappings gone wrong to deadly sibling rivalries, Haiti Noir features some of the Caribbean nation’s leading voices, including Gary Victor, Evelyne Trouillot, Kettly Mars, and Patrick Sylvain.

After a messy divorce, attractive young mother Sonia is struggling to provide for herself and keep custody of her son. With her back to the wall, she resorts to smuggling cocaine into Iceland and finds herself caught up in a ruthless criminal world. As she desperately looks for a way out of trouble, she must pit her wits against her nemesis, Bragi, a customs officer whose years of experience frustrate her new and evermore daring strategies.