Best of
Noir

2015

Dane Curse


Matt Abraham - 2015
    But after ten years of tossing Buicks at heroes I wised up, took the black cape off my back, and hung out a shingle. Only instead of Dark Deeds Done Daily, this one reads Dane Curse, PI. Now I work cases for the dark denizens I was once counted among. The problems they got aren't the kind that cops care about, so I do what I can, because sometimes even the unjust deserve a little justice. At least that's how it was before the world's greatest superhero was mysteriously murdered, an act so terrible it threatens to start a war that'll tear my home apart block-by-block, unless I find the killer in five days' time. But getting to the truth won't be so easy. I'll have to contend with black capes whose powers and pulse cannons can shred my hide. An army of technologically advanced armored lawmen led by a power-mad government schemer. And white caped heroes whose abilities and intentions are both less than pure. No simple task for a small time PI, so I'll need every bit of my strength, guts, and powers if I'm going to find the killer, save my city, and maybe even get some justice for the greatest hero the world has ever known. In Dane Curse, Matt Abraham, winner of Pulp Detective's 2015 Newcomer of the Year Award, takes us on our first trip through the powered underbelly of Gold Coast City in a fast paced adventure you'll never forget. If you like white knuckled action, devious dames, and heroic villains then get your copy today, and saddle up with the most exciting detective since Harry Dresden!

Zero Saints


Gabino Iglesias - 2015
    On his way home from work, some heavily-tattooed gangsters throw him in the back of a car and take him to an abandoned house, where they saw off his friend's head and feed the kid's fingers to...something. Their message is clear: this is their territory, now. But Fernando isn't put down that easily. Using the assistance of a Santeria priestess, an insane Puerto Rican pop sensation, a very human dog, and a Russian hitman, he'll build the courage (and firepower) he'll need to fight a gangbanger who's a bit more than human...

Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1940s: Laura / The Horizontal Man / In a Lonely Place / The Blank Wall


Sarah Weinman - 2015
    This collection, the first of a two-volume omnibus, presents four classics of the 1940s overdue for fresh attention. Anticipating the “domestic suspense” novels of recent years, these four gripping tales explore the terrors of the mind and of family life, of split personality and conflicted sexual identity.Vera Caspary’s Laura (1943) begins with the investigation into a young woman’s murder and blossoms into a complex study, told from multiple viewpoints, of the pressures confronted by a career woman seeking to lead an independent life. Source of the celebrated film by Otto Preminger, Caspary’s novel has depths and surprises of its own. As much a novel of manners as of mystery, it remains a superb evocation of a vanished Manhattan.Helen Eustis’s The Horizontal Man (1946) won an Edgar Award for best first novel and continues to fascinate as a singular mixture of detection, satire, and psychological portraiture. A poet on the faculty of an Ivy League school (modeled on Eustis’s alma mater, Smith College) is found murdered, setting off ripple effects of anxiety, suspicion, and panic in the hothouse atmosphere of an English department rife with talk of Freud and Kafka.With In a Lonely Place (1947), Dorothy B. Hughes created one of the first full-scale literary portraits of a serial murderer. The streets of Los Angeles become a setting for random killings, and Hughes ventures, with unblinking exactness, into the mind of the killer. In the process she conjures up a potent mood of postwar dread and lingering trauma.Raymond Chandler called Elisabeth Sanxay Holding “the top suspense writer of them all.” In The Blank Wall (1947) she constructs a ferociously taut drama around the plight of a wartime housewife forced beyond the limits of her sheltered domestic world in order to protect her family. The barely perceptible constraints of an ordinary suburban life become a course of obstacles that she must dodge with the determination of a spy or criminal.Psychologically subtle, socially observant, and breathlessly suspenseful, these four spellbinding novels recapture a crucial strain of American crime writing.

Sweet Nothing


Richard Lange - 2015
    A father and son set out to rescue a young couple trapped during a wildfire. An ex-con trying to make good as a security guard stumbles onto a burglary plot. A young father must submit to blackmail to protect the fragile life he's built.

Dark Star


Oliver K. Langmead - 2015
    In Vox’s permanent night, light bulbs are precious, the rich live in radiance and three Hearts beat light into the city. Aquila. Corvus. Cancer.Hearts that bring power to the light-deprived citizens of the city of Vox whilst ghosts haunt the streets, clawing at headlights. Prometheus, liquid light, is the drug of choice. The body of young Vivian North, her blood shining brightly with unnatural light, has no place on the streets.When Cancer is stolen, the weaponisation of its raw power threatens to throw Vox into chaos. Vox needs a hero, and it falls to cop Virgil Yorke to investigate.But Virgil has had a long cycle and he doesn’t feel like a hero. With the ghosts of his last case still haunting his thoughts, he craves justice for the young woman found dead with veins full of glowing. Aided by his partner Dante, Virgil begins to shed light on the dark city’s even darker secrets.Haunted by the ghosts of his past and chased by his addictions, which will crack first, Virgil or the case?

Black Jack Justice: Dead Men Run


Gregg Taylor - 2015
    When it comes to deeply unqualified guardians of the moral high ground, it would be tough to find many that equaled Black Jack Justice and his erstwhile partner, Trixie Dixon, girl detective. But they will learn the hard way just how serious the sender was, and that in the end, only Dead Men Run.The his and hers private detectives of Decoder Ring Theatre’s long-running radio mysteries return to two-fisted prose adventure, delighting long-time fans and new readers alike with the classic, hard-boiled feel of their exploits.

Gator Bait


Adam Howe - 2015
    Folks come to The Grinnin' Gator for the liquor and burlesque girls, but they keep coming back for Big George, the giant alligator Croker keeps in the pond out back. Croker is rumored to have fed ex-wives and enemies to his pet, so when Smitty and Grace embark on a torrid affair…what could possibly go wrong?Inspired by true events, Gator Bait mixes hardboiled crime (James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice) with creature horror (Tobe Hooper's Eaten Alive) to create a riveting tale of suspense.

THE GREEN PEARL CAPER: A DAMIEN DICKENS MYSTERY


Phyllis Entis - 2015
     Celine Sutherland is dead - her body half-hidden under the Atlantic City Boardwalk - and Damien Dickens, P.I. killed her. Detective Lt. James Holmes found Damien’s gun and wallet near the crime scene, and discovered Celine's cash-filled, emerald-studded evening bag hidden in Damien’s apartment. Sylvia Sutherland, Celine’s older sister and CEO of the family’s tobacco empire, insists that Dickens pulled the trigger. And the Sutherlands carry a lot of influence in Atlantic City. Even Damien’s secretary has deserted him - gone to work for the Sutherlands. Only Celine’s younger sister, Susan, believes in his innocence. After Susan bails him out of jail, Damien follows his gut and a series of clues in order to clear his name. His quest takes him to several Atlantic City landmarks, inland to Everettville, a small New Jersey town, and north to Vermont, where he confronts Celine's killer. THE GREEN PEARL CAPER, set in the summer of 1979, is the first in a series of Damien Dickens mysteries.

Disintegration


Richard Thomas - 2015
    A stunning and vital piece of work.” —Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting and FilthIn a brilliantly stylish breakthrough thriller for fans of Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho and Will Christopher Baer’s Kiss Me, Judas, here is the compelling tale of a man who has lost it all—and is now navigating a crooked, harrowing path to redemption.   Once a suburban husband and father, now the man has lost all sense of time. He retains only a few keepsakes of his former life: a handmade dining room table, an armoire and dresser from the bedroom, and a tape of the last message his wife ever left on their answering machine. These are memories of a man who no longer exists. Booze and an affair with a beautiful woman provide little relief, with the only meaning left in his life coming from his assignments. An envelope slipped under the door of his apartment with the name and address of an unpunished evildoer. The unspoken directive to kill. And every time he does, he marks the occasion with a memento: a tattoo. He has a lot of tattoos.   But into this unchanging existence seep unsettling questions. How much of what he feels and sees can he trust? How much is a lie designed to control him? He will risk his own life—and the lives of everyone around him—to find out. EARLY PRAISE FOR DISINTEGRATION:“Sweet hot hell, Richard Thomas writes like a man possessed, a man on fire, a guy with a gun to his head. And you’ll read Disintegration like there’s a gun to yours, too. A twisted masterpiece.”—Chuck Wendig, author of Blackbirds and Double Dead“This novel is so hard-hitting it should come with its own ice-pack. Richard Thomas is the wild child of Raymond Chandler and Chuck Palahniuk, a neo-noirist who brings to life a gritty, shadow-soaked, bullet-pocked Chicago as the stage for this compulsively readable crime drama.” —Benjamin Percy, author of The Dead Lands and Red Moon“Thomas builds his universe and its population with terse prose and dynamic, often horrifyingly visceral imagery that unspools with grand weirdness and intensity. Then he rips that universe apart, brick by bloody brick. Disintegration is provocative. It’s also damned fine noir.”—Laird Barron, author of The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and The Croning “A sodden, stumbling anti-hero in a noir so dark it makes much of the rest of the genre seem like Disney movies by comparison. Gritty, obsessive, and compulsively readable.”—Brian Evenson, author of Immobility and Windeye“Disintegration is gritty neo-noir; a psycho-sexual descent into an unhinged psyche and an underworld Chicago that could very well stand in for one of the rings of Dante's Hell. Richard Thomas' depraved-doomed-philosopher hitman is your guide. I suggest you do as he says and follow him, if you know what's good for you.”—Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Little Sleep“In sharp, icy prose that cuts like a glacial wind, Richard Thomas’ dark Chicago tale keeps us absolutely riveted to the very end.” —Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All the Time and Knockemstiff

Rapture: The Big Daddy


Dustin Brubaker - 2015
    He intends to work hard and one day be wealthy just like Ryan promises everyone who moves to Rapture. He opens a small business. For a few years things are good, almost idyllic. The good life is shattered when one day his daughter mysteriously vanishes without trace. The police of Rapture don't seem to want to help. So Arthur sets out to find her himself. He is lead down into a seedy underworld that exists below the upmarket façade of Rapture. But can he find her in time? Would you kindly like to know more? Download now to find out for yourself. Scroll to the top of the page and select the buy now button. Product Tags: Rapture, The Big Daddy, Andrew Ryan, Rapture The Big Daddy,

Shaft, Vol. 1: A Complicated Man


David F. Walker - 2015
    He's gone toe-to-toe with organized crime bosses, stood up to the cops, squared off against kidnappers, and foiled assassination attempts. But who was John Shaft before he became the hardboiled investigator with a reputation as big as New York City itself? Recently arriving home from his tour of duty in Vietnam, his first case - tracking down a missing person for his girlfriend - quickly turns into a matter of life and death, making him a target of gangsters and the police!

Jukebox


Saira Viola - 2015
    So hail Saira Viola and discover her twisted and beautiful imagination. Literature needs Saira Viola . Her writing is sharp direct and gripping. The latest research shows there is no one like her." Benjamin Zephaniah'Jukebox is a dirty, delinquent satire with plenty of scabrous humour, but it also holds up a mirror to a society obsessed with the wrong kind of celebrity. If you can get into its rhythm, Jukebox is a compelling crime caper. " Crime Fiction Lover"Jukebox is a witty riotous story populated by larger-than-life characters in EC1" The Clerkenwell Post"A fresh faced voice to herald in the apocalypse .Posers beware .This is the real deal." Jonathan Shaw"Injecting musical prose into a dying genre and one sorely needing a shot in the arm .What Viola has proven is the great novel is not incompatible with virtuosic poetics." James Browning Kepple"I enjoyed this piece's in-your-face quality."Robin Wyatt Dunn"Guy Ritchie meets Martin Amis.......stunning." Betsy Reavley"Book Description: "A rookie lawyer, crime mogul and junior reporter all converge in London's underworld of glamour, crime and greed. Set in a city rocked by corruption and tabloid excess, one of them is going to learn that sometimes in life you get more than you bargained forJukebox is Saira Viola's brilliant full length debut novel.

Warren Lane


Andrew Diamond - 2015
    There’s something not quite right about that detective, but he’s all she has at the moment.“Warren Lane” drinks too much and has a hard time staying out of trouble. He’s just the kind of guy Will’s mistress can’t resist. And everyone is starting to figure out that Will is hiding a lot more than his affair with a reckless young woman.

Rumrunners


Eric Beetner - 2015
    They're not criminals. They're outlaws. They have made a living by driving anything and everything for the Stanleys, the criminal family who has been employing them for decades. It's ended with Tucker. He's gone straight, much to the disappointment of his father, Webb. When Webb vanishes after a job, and with him a truck load of drugs, the Stanleys want their drugs back or their money. With the help from his grandfather, Calvin-the original lead foot-Tucker is about to learn a whole lot about the family business in a crash course that might just get him killed.Praise for RUMRUNNERS:“A killer. If you dug Bull Mountain, you’ll love it.”—Brian Panovich, author of Bull Mountain“The best word to sum up this book is ’FUN’, in capital letters.”—Stuart MacBride, author of The Missing and the Dead“Buckle up...RUMRUNNERS is a fast and furious read.”—Samuel W. Gailey, author of Deep Winter“Few contemporary writers do justice to the noir tradition the way Eric Beetner does. Others try to emulate and mimic; Beetner just takes the form and cuts his own jagged, raw and utterly readable path.”—Gar Anthony Haywood, author of Assume Nothing, Cemetery Road and the Aaron Gunner series“Rumrunners just never lets up. It's a fuel-injected, mile-a-minute thrill ride. I had a blast.”—Grant Jerkins, author of A Very Simple Crime and Done In One

Criminal: Special Edition


Ed Brubaker - 2015
    It's CRIMINAL like you've never seen it before, with a comic within the comic and all those slick '70s thrills!

Riding the Centipede


John Claude Smith - 2015
    Burroughs.Just your average road trip chase through the dark frontier of addiction and alternative realities gone sideways.Not quite.Also along for the ride, at the behest of a mysterious employer, is a nuclear-infused force of corrupt nature, “some kind of new breed of human and radiation, a blotch, an aberration, cancer with teeth.”Allow me to introduce you to Rudolf.Rudolf Chernobyl.Let the games begin…

Casefile: ARKHAM: Nightmare on the Canvas


J. Ishiro Finney - 2015
    And things only get worse for Flynn when a wealthy uptown socialite hires him to track down an artist by the name of Pickman. What begins as a simple missing persons case leads Flynn down a dark path of flesh eating ghouls, vengeful witches, and the notorious Innsmouth mafia.

Honeymoon at the Hilton


Stephen B. Cooper - 2015
    Sexually naïve, they set off down a dark, depraved road of lust. Their journey takes them to exotic places, meeting erotic people where seduction is the main course on a menu of sleaze with a side order of decadent immorality for dessert.A tale of lust, high-octane action and erotica. With a little humour, a touch of heart-wrenching sorrow, a smidgen of quirky, a handful of crazy.An erotic romp through the karma sutra of espionage.

Arrow: Season 2.5 (2014-) #16


Marc Guggenheim - 2015
    Only one can live! But who will he choose? The "Blood" story arc concludes here!

Love You to a Pulp


C.S. DeWildt - 2015
    But he has no idea the chaotic fever dream that he's about to stumble into. Vicious rednecks, more vicious rich people, crooked sheriffs-Neil will fight them all. This isn't a case. It's survival."DeWildt stands alone as a wicked wizard of crime fiction. Love You to a Pulp serves up heart and depravity in equal portions. Bold, brash, and completely original." -- Tom Pitts, author of Hustle"Chris DeWildt is the first honest-to-God heir apparent I've read to the rural noir master Jim Thompson." -- Joe Clifford, author of Lamentation"DeWildt has a tendency to drag his characters, as well as his avid readers, through the most despicable of circumstances, yet with Love You To A Pulp, that tradition lets a little redemption seep in through the cracks. A balance DeWildt handles like a pro. This book is full of masterful imagery from a provocative author at the top of his game, piled high on a bullet train of violence that demands that once you start watching, you don't look away." -- Brian Panowich, author of Bull Mountain

The Deepening Shade


Jake Hinkson - 2015
    In his first story collection, The Deepening Shade, desperate characters grasp for moments of grace: A lesbian couple running a homeless shelter try to save a young woman controlled by a self-proclaimed prophet. A stripper commits a terrible crime to protect her sister from going to jail. A Pentecostal snake-handler avenges his daughter's murder only to find himself tormented by his own unbelief. An alcoholic cop, drunk on duty, attempts to stop Dick Cheney from robbing a gas station. In these stories and more, which range from the heartbreakingly tragic to the bizarrely funny, characters struggle violently with each other, and with themselves. "When a collection opens with quotes from Ingmar Bergman's Winter Light and Theodore Roethke's 'In a Dark Time,' you know you're in for a stroll on the dark side. That's just what Jake Hinkson provides in The Deepening Shade. Hinkson's work is raw and violent and powerful."Mystery Scene Magazine"Jake Hinkson is the kind of storyteller who picks the reader up by the ankles and shakes their heart out through their throat. The Deepening Shade is the best short story collection I've read in years." Benjamin Whitmer, author of Pike and Cry Father "Collectively, these stories are a feat of black magic conjured by a master wordsmith and storyteller intimate with both the dark side and the resiliency of humanity." Eric Rickstad, author of Reap and The Silent Girls

Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s: A Library of America Boxed Set


Sarah Weinman - 2015
    Their work, influential in its day and still vibrant and extraordinarily riveting, is long overdue for rediscovery. Now The Library of America makes these classic books available in a deluxe two-volume collector’s edition.   From the 1940s, here are Vera Caspary’s famous career girl mystery Laura ; Helen Eustis’s intricate campus thriller The Horizontal Man ; Dorothy B. Hughes’s In a Lonely Place , the terrifyingly intimate portrait of a serial killer; and Elisabeth Sanxay Holding’s The Blank Wall , in which a wife in wartime is forced to take extreme measures when her family is threatened.   The 1950s volume includes Charlotte Armstrong’s Mischief, the nightmarish drama of a child entrusted to a psychotic babysitter; Patricia Highsmith’s brilliant The Blunderer , which tracks the perverse parallel lives of two men driven toward murder; Margaret Millar’s Beast in View , a relentless study in madness; and Dolores Hitchens’s Fools’ Gold , a hard-edged tale of robbery and redemption.Boxed set contains: Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1940s (Library of America #268)Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1950s (Library of America #269)Both volumes are available separately in print and e-book editions.

Debt Crusher


Michael Pool - 2015
    When Cam’s longtime boss Tom Colcetti dies and leaves control of his criminal organization to his predatory son Tommy, Cam may finally get the chance to run a crew of his own. But Tommy has his eyes on new business horizons, and Cam just made a mistake that could destroy Tommy’s heavy-hitting new partnership. Now Cam must struggle against violent forces of betrayal, lust, and greed as he attempts to either salvage his career, or get out of the game with his life still intact.

Shotgun Honey Presents: Locked and Loaded: Volume 3 (Both Barrels)


Ron Earl PhillipsPatricia Abbott - 2015
    25 stories of crime fiction from authors from around the world, both new and established, conjuring up some of the darkest stories involving murder, corruption, and despair.

Stolen Away


Kristin Dearborn - 2015
    She loves her kids, even if it’s tough being a single mom. But her loyalties are put to the test when her infant son disappears in the middle of the night, and his big sister says a monster took him.Now Trisha has to face the full truth behind the one-night-stand that produced Brayden in all its scaly torridness—Brayden’s father wasn’t human and isn’t interested in sharing custody. However, even though DEMON has pulled this stunt many times before, he made a mistake when he chose Trisha. The one thing she won’t do is give up her son without a fight. Along with her ex-boyfriend, Joel, Trisha is dragged back into the seedy underworld in a desperate fight to reclaim her son, only this time she’s got a lot more to lose.

Burn Cards


Christopher Irvin - 2015
    A vivid postcard from loser town."-Roger Smith, author of Man Down, Mixed Blood and Wake Up DeadSet in noir-rich Reno, Nevada, Burn Cards is a dark crime novella inspired by Christa Faust's Money Shot and Megan Abbott's Queenpin.Mirna Fowler believes she has been cheated in life, growing up in a broken home alone with a drunken and gambling-addicted father. Now she works at a small hair salon in Reno, doing her best to survive while she saves money for school. Hoping to get a degree that will take her places.But in the wake of her father's death, Mirna inherits his extravagant debt, an amount of money she can never repay. As her fractured world begins to crumble, the search for the truth sets her on a path where life hangs on her every move.More praise for BURN CARDS:"With a character you care about and a momentum you can't avoid, BURN CARDS is aces. This fast-moving novella pulses with enough energy to power all the casinos in Nevada."-Steve Weddle, author of Country Hardball"the shit-kicking streets of a dead end desert town have never been meaner."-Joe Clifford, author of Lamentation"This bare-knuckle noir pulses with energy and punches hard."-William Boyle, author of Gravesend"Irvin illuminates the city of Reno itself, casting the flickering glow of his sharp observations into every dark corner of the city and bringing forth a rogue's gallery of gamblers, dreamers, and burnouts who are all heading for the same bitter end."-John Mantooth, author of The Year of the Storm"With Burn Cards, Irvin has crafted a gracefully hardboiled novel, one that boldly eschews convention by actually having a beating heart at its center. This is some of the finest storytelling I’ve come across in some time." - J. David Osborne, author of Black Gum and Low Down Death Right Easy

It's All One Case: The Illustrated Ross Macdonald Archives


Kevin Avery - 2015
    Beginning in the late 1940s with his shadowy creation, ruminating private eye Lew Archer, Macdonald had followed in the footsteps of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, but ultimately elevated the form to a new level. “We talked about everything imaginable,” Nelson wrote—including Macdonald’s often meager beginnings; his dual citizenship; writers, painters, music, books, and movies he admired; how he used symbolism to change detective writing; his own novels and why Archer was not the most important character—“my God, everything.” It’s All One Case provides an open door to Macdonald at his most unguarded. The book is far more than a collection of never-before-published interviews, though. Published in a handsome, oversized format, it is a visual history of Macdonald’s professional career, illustrated with rare and select items from one of the world’s largest private archives of Macdonald collectibles. Featuring in full color the covers of the various editions of Macdonald’s more than two dozen books, facsimile reproductions of pages from his manuscripts, magazine spreads, and many never before seen photos of Macdonald and his friends (such as Kurt Vonnegut), including those by celebrated photojournalist Jill Krementz. It’s All One Case is an intellectual delight and a visual feast, a fitting tribute to Macdonald’s distinguished career.

Kill Me Quick!


Paul D. Brazill - 2015
    But some of us are staring at the spaces between the stars... Seatown may not have a lot going for it – apart from the Roy Orbison lookalikes and Super Seventies Special every Thursday night, of course – but it is at least the place Mark Hammonds calls home. And after a decade away, it’s the place he returns to when he has nowhere else to go. From dead bikers to dodgy drug deals, from one downbeat bar to another, from strippers to gangsters and back again: the luckless former musician bounces from one misdeed to the next along with a litany of old acquaintances, almost as though he never left. And if only he can shake off everybody who wants to kill, maim or otherwise hurt him, maybe he could even think about staying. After all, there’s no place like home, eh?   Praise for Paul Brazill: “If you took Ken Bruen's candor, the best of Elmore Leonard's dialogues, sprinkled in some Irvine Welsh, and dragged it all through the dirtiest ditch in South London, the result will be something akin to Brazill's writing.” - Gabino Iglesias (author of Zero Saints and Gutmouth) “Visceral, foul-mouthed and blisteringly funny, Paul D Brazill creates a sleazy underworld inhabited by dodgy London geezers, Geordie hard men and the occasional shark. Highly recommended.” - Lesley Ann Sharrock (author of The Seventh Magpie) “A broad range of cultural strands come together in the melting pot and form a delicious stew of criminal adventure... The observations are sharp and the characters create small nuclear explosions as they collide with each other.” - Nigel Bird (author of Southsiders) “Unashamedly entertains you while sticking two fingers right up in your stupid face.” - Ryan Bracha (author of Strangers Are just Friends You Haven’t Killed Yet) “The brilliantly named characters, crackling dialogue and dark humour jump out.” - Keith Nixon (author of The Fix and I’m Dead Again)   Number Thirteen Press is publishing 13 crime novellas by 13 top crime authors, from November 2014.

Lee Marvin and the Long Night: A Short Story by Nick Cole


Nick Cole - 2015
    Twists, turns, Henry the Eighth and a murderous shoe clerk named Norton Morris stop at nothing to wreck the universe by using a down and out knight in dirty armor to escape reality. A dame with silver eyes and a legendary gun that might be the future’s Excalibur won’t be enough to make the sun rise over Bay City in the morning unless Lee Marvin plays all his cards just right. The Matrix meets The Maltese Falcon in this fun romp through the gritty side of a dream.

Smog City


Rebecca McNutt - 2015
    Mandy, a pretentious and sullen teenager living in small-town Nova Scotia, becomes drawn to a strange new friend of hers who seems to be connected to a hazardous waste site situated in the middle of her hometown.

Cthulhu's Minions


Byron Craft - 2015
    They originally came into being in my novel “The Alchemist’s Notebook” based on my screenplay for “The Cry of Cthulhu.” They are creepy little things that became such great supporting characters (in a terrible sort of way) that I thought that they deserved their own separate story. “Cthulhu’s Minions” takes place in an alternate universe somewhat like the 1930’s when H.P. Lovecraft was writing his Cthulhu Mythos and writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler were creating the hardboiled mystery drama. Indeed, it is as if we are being treated to a Dashiell Hammett meets H.P. Lovecraft collaboration. The protagonist of the tale is the Detective with No Name. He is a case-hardened police officer that does not believe in things that go bump in the night, until…

Last Dance in Phoenix


Kurt Reichenbaugh - 2015
    He has a decent job, a beautiful wife and a nice home in a trendy part of the city. Everything seems to be in its right place, at least until an old childhood friend re-emerges. Kent's life quickly begins disintegrating, starting with blackmail and progressing into murder. Someone is trying to ruin Kent's cozy little setup, and Kent isn't about to go down without a fight.

The Moreau Quartet: Volume One


S. Andrew Swann - 2015
    Andrew Swann's Forests of the Night and Fearful Symmetries.

HECTOR: The Royal Brothers Part I


Juan Bautista - 2015
    A boy, raised and grew up in a city where sacrilege, depravity and devilment were normally seen and experienced is destined to be one of the most dangerous ringleaders in the gang infested city of Rosario. A merciful city from the north east which is currently being dominated and ruled by the infamous Don Nebo Marquez. A powerful gang boss turned City Mayor.Hector, along with The Royal Brothers will serve as the ultimate obstacle against the most powerful man in the city as they push their undying endeavor to end Don Nebo’s reign to retrieve the city’s value and prosperity.“Not all of us can be the most powerful. But each and everyone could be the most dangerous…”Author: Juan BautistaWeb: www.juanbautistastories.comE-mail: jb.shortstories@gmail.com

Boiled Americans


Michael Allen Rose - 2015
    He was shot five times. She is a typical American. She was shot six times. He is Segundo Morris. He feeds on violence, and breathes bullets. She is all of us. His indifference is our indifference. Her refuge from the storm is found inside us. This book was inspired by actual shootings over the 4th of July weekend 2014 in Chicago, IL. The bullets are real. Mixing journalism, absurdist prose, scripts, autobiography, shape poetry and other forms, Boiled Americans is a puzzle box in book form, inspired by the violence of living in urban America and exploding the tendency to forget or ignore. You are in this book. So am I. Breathe.

For the Rest of Her Life


Cornell Woolrich - 2015
    His obscurity persists even though his Hollywood pedigree rivals or exceeds that of Cain, Chandler, and Hammett.What Woolrich lacked in literary prestige he made up for in suspense. Nobody was better at it." - Richard Dooling, from his Introduction to the print edition.“He was the greatest writer of suspense fiction that ever lived.” — Francis M. Nevins, Cornell Woolrich Biographer"For the Rest of Her Life" was first published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in May of 1968 and has a special distinction among Woolrich stories. It was the last story that Woolrich would see to be published during his lifetime and some critics will tell you it was one of the best he had written during the last years of his life. It has sometimes been published over the years as "Now I've Got You" and is a dark story about a woman who marries a man that is sadistic and a wife beater.Linda, the wife, meets Garry and tells him of her unfortunate circumstances and together they try to escape her brutality. But the couple seems to make one bad choice after another and as a reader you feel the tightness in your chest as the characters move toward one of the darkest endings in a Woolrich story. Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich (4 December 1903 – 25 September 1968) is one of America's best crime and noir writers who sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley. He's often compared to other celebrated crime writers of his day, Dashiell Hammett, Erle Stanley Gardner and Raymond Chandler.Woolrich is considered the godfather of film noir and is often referred to as the Edgar Allen Poe of the 20th century, writing well over 250 works including novels, novelettes, novellas and short stories.He attended New York's Columbia University but left school in 1926 without graduating when his first novel, "Cover Charge", was published. "Cover Charge" was one of six of his novels that he credits as inspired by the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald.Woolrich soon turned to pulp and detective fiction, often published under his pseudonyms. His best known story today is his 1942 "It Had to Be Murder" for the simple reason that it was adapted into the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock movie "Rear Window" starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly. It was remade as a television film by Christopher Reeve in 1998.

Inhuman Acts


Ocean TigroxTony Greyfox - 2015
    Crime pales against the cold, murderous motives of those behind it. Claws and fangs open doors for a twisted soul to find a means to an end. It's a deadly road spiraling downwards when the deeds done are Inhuman Acts.Explore thirteen anthropomorphic noir stories about betrayal, corruption and deceit from award-winning authors and up-and-coming writers. Pour your favourite whiskey and light up a cigarette as Stanley Rivets, PI shares with you his collection of case files from dim to dark to downright ugly.Features the following stories:Muskrat Blues by Ianus WolfFixer by Watts MartinDanger in the Lumo-Bay by Mary E. LowdRiver City Nights by Tana SimensisEvery Breath Closer by Slip WolfGhosts by Solus LupusA Blacker Dog by HuskyteerCrimson on Copper by Tony GreyfoxVermin's Vice by T.S. McNallyScorned by K.C. AlpinusBullet Tooth Claw by Marshall L. MoseleyGuardian Angels by Nicholas HardinBrooklyn Blackie and the Unappetizing Menu by Bill Kieffer Cover art by Seylyn, Edited by Ocean Tigrox.

The Hours Before


Robert Stephen Parry - 2015
    What begins as an icy exchange, born of weariness, becomes within minutes one of the most extraordinary encounters of her life. It will take her on a journey deep into her past and towards the fateful assignation that already awaits her on the other side of the night.Set amid the elegance and sophistication of the Belle Époque, and the Gothic splendour of late Victorian England, ‘The Hours Before’ is a story of drama, mystery and romance, revealing a hidden world of vice and malevolence – but also a pathway of transformation and knowledge.[image]Video Trailer

Casey's Last Chance


Joseph B. Atkins - 2015
    Author Atkins writes fiction the way Jimi Hendrix played guitar, with delicate fingering that explodes into soaring, lyrical riffs when least expected.Casey Eubanks, is a small-time North Carolina hustler on the run after angrily firing a shot over the head of his girlfriend Orella during an argument and accidentally killing his cousin. He seeks refuge with a crony, Clyde Point, who steers him to a big operator in Memphis, Max Duren, a shadowy former Nazi with a wide financial network across the South. The story takes place in the U.S. South in July 1960 and is reflective of underworld opposition to organized labor.Duren hires Casey to kill Ala Gadomska, a labor organizer who is stirring up trouble at one of Duren’s mills in northern Mississippi. Casey sets up for a sniper shot during a rally, but can’t go through with it. She’s beautiful, makes sense, and maybe he’s developing a conscience.Now he’s on the run again, this time from Duren’s goons as well as the cops. Enter Martin Wolfe, a freelance reporter investigating Duren’s operation. He tries to talk Casey into joining forces with him and FBI agent Hardy Beecher to bring Duren down.Casey dumps Wolfe, steals his car, and returns home to Orella. A Duren goon awaits him there, however. A bloody shootout leaves Orella dead and convinces Casey to partner with Wolfe and Beecher.It’s Casey’s last chance. The three take off across the South to execute a plan—with the help of Ala Gadomska—to destroy Duren. Everything works according to plan until the explosive end, at which point no one is able to escape unscathed.

Backshot: 1902


Ed Gorman - 2015
    Gorman's portrait of the West is a real one, not a mythic one. He paints the people and their era with page-turning incidents of brutality and intrigue offering us compelling monsters and victims alike.

The Noir Western: Darkness on the Range, 1943-1962


David Meuel - 2015
    Story lines took on a darker tone and western films adopted classic noir elements of moral ambiguity, complex anti-heroes and explicit violence. The noir western helped set the standard for the darker science fiction, action and superhero films of today, as well as for acclaimed TV series such as HBO’s Deadwood and AMC’s Breaking Bad. This book covers the stylistic shift in westerns in mid–20th century Hollywood, offering close readings of the first noir westerns, along with revealing portraits of the eccentric and talented directors who brought the films to life.

The Blind Alley


Jake Hinkson - 2015
    His stylish prose bristles with memorable insights and the kind of fun only a true movie lover can bring to the table.” —Ed Gorman, co-founder of Mystery Scene and winner of the Anthony Award for Best Critical Work for The Fine Art of Murder“Newcomers to noir and connoisseurs alike can both revel in Jake Hinkson’s riffs on the subject. He brings to the films a wealth of insight, valuable context, and—most vitally—real passion and a sense of fun. It was a privilege to publish many of these pieces the first time around, and it’s a pleasure to read them again in this smart and savvy collection.” —Eddie Muller, author of Dark City and president of the Film Noir Foundation “If you want to learn more about film noir, read The Blind Alley. Jake Hinkson is like a literary Reed Hadley. His lively, informative essays comprise an essential voice over tour of the characters and foibles of film noir.” —Alan K. Rode, author of Charles McGraw: Film Noir Tough Guy and Sit On The Camera, Pant Like a Tiger: The Life and Films of Michael Curtiz “In The Blind Alley, Jake Hinkson ventures down some of the darkest and most unfamiliar back streets of film noir. A knowledgeable and passionate tour guide, Hinkson illuminates neglected corners with insightful essays on noir’s treatment of subjects from religion to childhood, lesbianism to the “crisis pregnancy.” Incisive profiles of overlooked figures—Norman Foster, Richard Quine, Tom Neal, Mickey Rooney—rescue their contributions from the shadows while revealing lives often more noir than their films. The Blind Alley is especially to be treasured for its loving tributes to women who never quite had the careers they deserved, but who left their indelible mark on noir, among them Peggie Castle, Martha Vickers, and Thelma Ritter. For the noir fan, delving into this collection is like opening a box of extra-dark chocolates.” —Imogen Sara Smith, author of In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond The City “Even though it is hard to believe that there are any dark corners left in the study of classic film noir, Jake Hinkson in The Blind Alley manages to shine light into a few of its more obscure niches with perceptive and entertaining studies of character actors like the redoubtable Art Smith, unrecognized femme fatales like Peggie Castle and Joan Dixon, as well as taking on neglected social issues in noir such as lesbianism and unwanted pregnancy.” —James Ursini, author of The Noir Style and editor of the Film Noir Reader series “Jake Hinkson’s concise, highly readable essays cover the wide waterfront of film noir, offering insightful new perspectives both on monumental films like Double Indemnity and Touch of Evil and overlooked figures such as Peggie Castle and Norman Foster. A must-have collection for every student of this eternally fascinating genre.” —Dave Kehr, author of When Movies Mattered: Reviews From a Transformative Decade

Nine Toes In The Grave


Eric Beetner - 2015
    But life has other plans. From the boss's wife who wants him to do something terrible to the sleazebags trying to set him up, when things go downhill, they go fast and Reese finds himself fighting for his life as the hard luck piles on. His only way out might be to throw away the moral code he's been living by, face trouble head on and prove you can only push a man so far before he pushes back--hard.–––––––"If dead bodies, a dystopian view of the world and whip-crack dialogue are your thing, then this tale may just be for you." -- Crime Fiction Lover"Beetner is an old school talent, a crime writer's crime writer like Gil Brewer (although, in my humble opinion, he's better than Brewer), who writes stuff that is fast and funny and dark all at once." -- Jake Hinkson, author of No Tomorrow and Hell on Church Street

Collected Short Stories: Dermot Healey


Dermot Healy - 2015
    Healy s stories are set in small-town Ireland and its rural environs, and in the equally suffocating confines of the Irish expat communities in London. Throughout these texts, Healy demonstrates a deep sense of compassion towards the marginalized and the dispossessed, without ever becoming sentimental or cliched. The language is earthy and imagistic by turn, and he continually seeks to extend the formal boundaries of the genre.Gathering all of Healy s stories together for the first time, this collection includes the long prose-drama 'Before the Off' and Healy's final short works, 'Along the Lines' and 'Images'.

It's Only Death


Lee Thompson - 2015
    When his sister informs him that their mother’s health is fading fast, he returns home, wanting to make peace with her before she passes. But James quickly finds there is little peace left for him at his childhood home. His father’s old partner has been biding his time, waiting for a chance at retribution, and finally discovers James is back. But he’s only one of the many shady characters James must face if he is to survive the next few days. Not only must James survive his return, he must also face the devastation he left behind, the shattered pieces of what remained of his life before he was forced to run. Now his days on the run are over. Upon the edge of reckoning, James’s past comes full circle to the final showdown with his personal demons and the devils that are closing in. It's Only Death is an explosive, gritty tale of urban crime and one man’s descent into the nightmares in the darkest recesses of our society.

The Exile Book of New Canadian Noir


Claude LalumièreLaird Long - 2015
    An elderly widow, eking out a living collecting detritus, seeks to avenge the murder of her friend. A love-weary security guard clashes with bounty hunters. An ursine meth-cooker faces even stranger creatures on the frozen tundra of Nunavut. As the dead walk and the living despair, a private detective unravels a bizarre mystery. In The Exile Book of New Canadian Noir, the whole spectrum of the noir esthetic is explored: from its hardboiled home in crime fiction to its grim forays into horror, fantasy, and surrealism; from the dystopian shadows it casts in science fiction to the mixture of desire and corruption it brings to erotica; from the blood-spattered romance of the frontier to the stark nihilism of literary realism.

Smiley's Run


D.E. Osborne - 2015
    But first he has to find his clothes. Smiley's Iraq battle-buddy stole circuits designed to trigger nuclear warheads as IEDs from the Chinese Triads in Los Angeles during an arms deal he brokered for the Mob between Middle Eastern terrorists and the Triads. Now everyone wants the triggers back. Smiley is coerced by the mob, the FBI and a mysterious red-head to find his friend, but when he does the problem goes from threatening to disastrous in a muzzle flash on a Caribbean beach a long way from Chicago. Smiley's run to find his battle-buddy and the missing triggers takes him from southern California to the sun drenched Jamaican shores, back to storm tossed Chicago, and into harm’s way, with no one he can trust.

Collection


Shawn Kobb - 2015
    How does he do it? Simple. He cracks open their skulls and yanks out the implanted hardware. It pays the bills. At least, it would if he wasn't swimming in gambling debts.Called to the scene of a grisly murder, Rocket runs into a small problem. His client's head is missing, along with the memories it contains. A beautiful woman, a mysterious foreigner, and an eccentric billionaire all believe Rocket can find the missing memories, and each is willing to pay dearly for the information.Finding this dead man's memories just might be the solution to Rocket's problems.And if Rocket can't find the missing head in time? The people who've hired him aren't the sort who take "no" for an answer.

Kill Me, Darling: A Mike Hammer Novel


Max Allan Collins - 2015
    His secretary and partner Velda has walked out on him without explanation, and Mike is just surfacing from a four-month bender. But then an old cop turns up murdered--a cop who once worked with Velda on the NYPD Vice Squad. What's more, Mike's pal Captain Pat Chambers has discovered that Velda is in Florida, now the moll of gangster and drug runner Nolly Quinn.Hammer hits the road and drives to Miami, where he enlists the help of a horse-faced newspaperman and a local police detective. But can they find Velda in time? And what is the connection between the murdered vice cop in Manhattan and Mike's ex turned gun moll in Florida?

Helsinki Homicide: Behind Closed Doors


Jarkko Sipila - 2015
    As the game gets tougher for both the authorities and the criminals, Takamäki and his team are put on the defensive... But how does a Finnish gangster living in Bangkok and a raped woman in Helsinki fit into the picture? Helsinki Homicide: Behind Closed Doors is Jarkko Sipila's 12th Helsinki Homicide novel and the sixth which has been translated into English. It discusses the police's frustration with the Finnish criminal justice system as well as taking the law into your own hands. Jarkko Sipila, a journalist and author, has reported on crime in Finland for more than 20 years and has written 19 novels. Through realistic characters and story lines, Sipila explores current issues surrounding life in modern Finland. Sipila earned Finland's Best Crime Novel Award in 2009 for his novel Against the Wall.

When the Light-Bulb Is Bare: Essays on Horror and Noir


Barry Graham - 2015
    James and Stephen King, while his neo-noir fiction has been compared to that of James M. Cain, Richard Stark, David Goodis, Quentin Tarantino and Jim Thompson.In this collection of essays examining what Graham contends are the two most important and enduring genres, he combines literary analysis with memoir, and shows us that the monsters we imagine lurking in the shadows are all too real. In doing so, he remembers the significance of horror to a child in a Glasgow slum, and discusses artists including Stephen King, Elmore Leonard, Robert Mitchum, Paul Schrader, Robert Bresson, George Pelecanos and David Goodis, and books and films including The Exorcist, The Moon of the Wolf, The Conversation and The Friends of Eddie Coyle. He considers crime fiction as a Marxist art form, and, while sitting in a Scottish courtroom, observing a trial for attempted murder, he realizes he has met a werewolf.

Killer & Victim


Chris Lambert - 2015
    It's known as The Paradise City, the first step of a new era. But tonight: A haunting art performance. A killer's quest for redemption. And a photo shoot in a field set aflame. These plant in Alexander seeds of chaos that, when they blossom, will see paradise tearing itself apart.

Bad Dog


Tom Piccirilli - 2015
    Twice nominated for crime fiction's highest honor, the Edgar Award, and twice winner of the International Thriller Writers Award, Piccirilli is a master of dark characterization andnoir atmosphere. Find out for yourself why Tom Piccirilli is on so many "must read" lists when you open the pages of Bad Dog and lose yourself in the diverse stories and characters within.

Liz / Syndicate Girl


Frank Kane - 2015
    Men have been trying to victimize her all her young life. But that ends when the fat local sheriff strips her and whips her alone in a cell. It ends with a dead sheriff and Liz on the run. She soon finds Gunson, a pretty-boy hood, and together they create their own little crime spree. But you don't turn your back on Liz for long, and Gunson soon discovers that he's as expendable as the next guy--who turns out to be a hood named Lew Barker. Trouble is, they all figure they know more than Liz. They all figure they're more ruthless than a woman. They know the score. But they all learn the hard way--Liz makes it on her terms, and she's got nothing to lose.SYNDICATE GIRLJackson City is owned by the Syndicate. Everyone knows it. Step out of line, you get a bullet courtesy of Zito's men. It's Captain Marcy Lewis's job to keep it that way. But now District Attorney Mal Waters has decided to step in and do something about it. And he's got the city's only respectable newspaper behind him. But Waters is up against the men who put him in office, the men in Zito's pocket. He's also up against his fiancE, who has her own plans and doesn't want him rocking the boat. Zito and the Syndicate have got all the aces in this game, and all Waters has got is his determination. They've framed him, and they've humiliated him. Then he meets Mary Lister, the syndicate's girl, and he sees a way out....

Made For Murder


Paul McGoran - 2015
    But Helena starts an affair with him anyway. And now she discovers that a Bible-quoting P.I. suspects him of two brutal murders. Tension mounts as our mercenary beauty finds herself caught between a rich fiance and a murderous, but charming conman named Samson Porter - a/k/a Shoo-fly. What would you do? Help Shoo-fly bribe the detective? Turn him in to the cops? Or would you run like hell before he decides to cut your throat? These are questions Helena Swann must answer in this edgy neo-noir thriller."

The Second Golden Age of Mystery & Crime MEGAPACK ®: Ruth Chessman


Ruth Chessman - 2015
    Manhunt was a noir/hardboiled digest-sized mystery magazine, and female bylines were uncommon. A quick check showed that she also published stories in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine as well as a 1965 middle-grade novel called "Bound for Freedom," which was adapted as a movie.She must have instilled her love of crime writing in her family, since her daughter turns out to be none other than mystery writer Jane K. Cleland -- who was kind enough to grant us permission to reprint her late mother's work. (Jane also supplied us with copies of hard-to-find stories.)Ruth Chessman was a very good, if far too infrequent writer. This collection assembles most of her published short fiction. Included are:ACCUSEDTHE SEARCH FOR A DEAD MAN'S BODYMURDER -- EARLY AMERICANPOOR SHERMTHE HARRINGTON FARTHINGIS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?THE PERFECT HUSBANDSILENTLY, SILENTLYTHE CRIME THAT DID NOT FOLLOWIf you enjoy this ebook, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see more of the 260+ volumes in this series, covering adventure, historical fiction, mysteries, westerns, ghost stories, science fiction -- and much, much more!

Arrow: Season 2.5 (2014-) #23


Marc Guggenheim - 2015
    Oliver Queen…is dead?! But…how? Meanwhile, the Canary takes aim at Malcolm Merlyn in the penultimate chapter of Arrow Season 2.5!