Urban Crime Fiction

At last the untold story behind one of Hollywood's long-lost classics can be told! And Pro Se gets to bring it to you! From the casebook of the mysterious Black Centipede, the true story of his adventures in Hollywood while filming the 1930s classic Blood of the Centipede!

Meet Leander: lover, fighter, liar. He learnt a long time ago that nothing is as intoxicating as blood. And these days, whether it's his or someone else's, he frequently finds himself covered in it. Up to now, it's been his secret. But it's hard to remain invisible when you leave a trail of destruction everywhere you do go. And when he comes to the attention of one of London's most infamous criminals, Leander decides to put his appetite for violence to the ultimate test.

When India falls to her death from a bridge over a railway, her sister, Poppy, returns home to Brighton for the first time in years. Unconvinced by official explanations, Poppy begins her own investigation into India's death. But the deeper she digs, the closer she comes to uncovering deeply buried secrets. Could Matthew Temple, the boyfriend she abandoned, be involved? And what of his powerful and wealthy parents and his twin sister, Ana?

Thirteen-year-old Anthony Faircloth hasn't spoken a word in almost a month, and with each passing day his near-catatonic state worsens. No doctor, test, or scan can tell Anthony's distraught mother what has happened to her already troubled son. In desperation she turns to Mira for answers, hoping her unique abilities might succeed where science has failed. At their first encounter, Mira is pulled into Anthony's mind and finds the child's psyche shattered into the various movements of Modest Mussorgsky's classical music suite Pictures at an Exhibition.

That was the last time any of them saw Minnie Bright: It was 48 hours before her crack-addicted mother reported her missing, and a few hours more before the police entered the house and found her small, twisted body hidden under the bed. Fifteen years ago, a little girl was murdered. Now journalist Jess Vaughan and detective Harry Lind are asking questions about what really happened that day. Questions that someone will kill to keep hidden. No one knows crime like Roberta Kray.

"I’m being followed,” she said. “I think he wants to kill me.” When a panicked young woman slips her hand into his in 1960s Chinatown, just before a knife-wielding stalker attacks, private eye Alex Novalis finds his cherished hard-boiled persona threatened by a romantic streak that has a habit of getting him into trouble. Sandy Smollett is triple trouble - a stripper who comes on like the girl next door and has a way of bending the truth to suit any occasion. Novalis finds her irresistible.

Helen West is coming to terms with her husband's death and trying to cope with her six-year-old son's grief. Jake suffers from nightmares, and visions of what he calls his 'other' life. He talks about a boy called Jacob and a place known only as 'the island'. Helen's journey to find the source of Jake's torment leads them to North Wales, where the university town of Bangor is in lockdown following a series of student abductions.

Bram Stoker portrayed Dracula as a terrifying creature of the night: heartless, soulless, preying on the pure and innocent. Fred Saberhagen, bestselling coauthor of the official movie tie-in for Bram Stoker's Dracula, shows another side to Dracula as the vampire is summoned by Dr. Watson to rescue Sherlock Holmes.

Bishop has been a vampire for 700 years and though he wishes nothing more than to live his life in peace, getting humans to believe that vampires are not monsters is a difficult task, and vampire hunters like The Reaper make it even more difficult. Believing that a vampire killed her mother, Irina leads a band of vigilantes, determined to rid the world of these monsters. What no one knows is that Irina herself is half vampire. Determined to deny that side of her, Irina captures Bishop.

Melanie Rosen hasn't settled for much, but her travels have brought her to Dublin, Ireland, where she works for the Occult Investigations Unit, exploring the strange and unknown. Her fiery disposition and tendency to probe where she's not wanted keep her in the office with the paperwork, or chasing cases that don't seem to have an answer. Then she gets a new case, where a killer slowly paralyzes his victims, and leaves a calling card behind: a charm.

Dee Dee is as laid back, sassy, and cute as they come, but having two overprotective brothers like Jay and Bee, who have clout in the Memphis streets, makes finding and building a relationship seriously hazardous to a brother's health. Things move fast for Jay and Bee after hooking up with a new contact. All of the training that Jay was secretly putting Dee Dee through comes into play as Jay and Bee are locked up in the county jail for selling to an informant. The game is dominated by thugs until Dee Dee hits the scene.

Life couldn't get better for the Crescent Crew. With an exclusive Mexican pipeline, they've got the Southern drug trade on lock. Former founder Qwess is leveraging rap superstardom to break the music industry's commercial stranglehold. And former leader Reece is fresh off a five-year prison bid - and out to forever secure the Crew's dominance. But as Reece is working a brutal vendetta, a Crew mutiny will drag him back into all-out street war. Now, between the ambitious young Crew and ruthless OG Reece, only one can live to reign....

At first, med student Misty Heiress just wants to help. With her cousin Jillian in constant pain, and the doctor refusing to prescribe, Misty steals opioids from the Virginia Beach pharmacy where she works. But when Jillian starts reselling them to local dealers and gets big money, Misty grabs an unbelievable opportunity to get out of crushing debt. Soon Misty's boss, Sanjay, learns the truth and wants in. In no time, their illegal business dominates the street - and racks up a fortune. But when demand quickly outstrips supply, Sanjay way overplays his hand - and the Feds come calling.

Dawn and Reese Spencer just can't get ahead. Between her desperate desire to start a family and his gambling debts, they barely keep afloat, even with well-paying Norfolk International port jobs. But their calculating co-worker has the perfect plan: help him smuggle containers of precious, illegal - human - cargo past US Customs. Reese persuades Dawn that no one will get hurt. Then several immigrants turn up dead on arrival. Now the Feds and cold-blooded loan sharks are closing in, as the real brains behind the operation start killing off loose ends.

Nichelle Tramble's first novel, The Dying Ground, was named a Best Book of 2001 by the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle. In this follow-up work, Maceo returns home after drifting for two years. He finds his friends tangled up in a murder case, and he must act fast to save them.

Meet Marcel and Sabrina, a hitman and a bookkeeper for the Mob. The couple should have never met, let alone fallen in love. When they decide to go against the grain, all hell breaks loose. Somebody wants them dead; they just don't know who. It could be Leo, Marcel's jealous older brother; Othello, Sabrina's crooked father; or it could be The Family, a roundtable of the top contenders in the underworld. There is no honor amongst thieves. Marcel and Sabrina will find the old adage to be true the hard way.

Detective Grainger has finally recovered from a shaky career by closing a major case in the small town of Rock City. He goes from the fringe of being kicked off the force to a local hero. During his 15 minutes of fame, bodies with familiar faces start to turn up. In Grainger's world, there were no such things as coincidences, so he immediately starts a back-door investigation. When he finally starts to piece together the pattern, Grainger realizes that a childhood secret he thought long buried is threatening to come to light. Some scars never healed.

Faith Newsome has it all: a loving husband, beautiful daughter, and a stable life as the owner of a thriving shoe boutique in Washington, DC. Yet a part of her feels as if she’s not who she seems to be, as if she’s living a lie. When Faith gets kidnapped by a group of goons while walking to her car, she suddenly remembers who she is - not the suburban wife and mother whom she convinced herself to be, but Champagne, the daughter of one of the most ruthless killers and drug dealers in New York City who went missing and was presumed dead years prior.

Treasure E. Blue–acclaimed author of Harlem Girl Lost and A Street Girl Named Desire–is back with a heartbreaking urban love story of two star-crossed lovers up against the dirtiest dealer Harlem has ever seen. Knocked up by a Southern preacher, Keyshia is sent to live with her aunt in New...

In Burning Midnight, master of the hard-boiled detective novel Loren D. Estleman gives listeners a hot new Amos Walker mystery.Amos Walker knows Detroit, from the highest to the lowest, and that includes the gangs of Mexicantown. When a friend asks Walker to get his son's brother-in-law out of...