Midnight Haul


Max Allan Collins - 1986
    The tiny New Jersey town she lived in has seen a rash of suicides lately, with the unlikely coincidence that everyone who has died worked for Kemco, the chemical factory company that fuels the town’s economy.As Crane digs deeper, he encounters Boone, a local woman writing a book about the environmental destruction that has come at the hands of the local chemical giant. The two team up to unravel the conspiracies surrounding the factory—which soon makes them the next targets for those aiming to keep Kemco’s shady dealings under wraps.The pair races to expose the illegal operations poisoning the town and bring Kemco to justice—before either of them becomes the latest in the growing list of “suicides.”

The Last Kind Words


Tom Piccirilli - 2012
    Upon the razor-thin edge between love and violence lives a pair of brothers, their bonds frayed by betrayals and guilt, their loyalty to each other their last salvation.Raised to pick a pocket before he could walk, Terry Rand cut free from his family after his older brother, Collie, went on a senseless killing spree that left eight dead. Five years later, only days before his scheduled execution, Collie contacts Terry and asks him to return home. Collie claims he wasn’t responsible for one of the murders—and insists that the real killer is still on the loose.Dogged by his own demons, Terry is swept back into the schemes and scams of his family: His father, Pinsch, a retired cat burglar, brokenhearted because of his two sons. His card-sharp uncles, Mal and Grey, who’ve incurred the anger of the local mob. His grandfather, Shep, whose mind is failing but whose fingers can still slip out a wallet  from across the room. His teenage sister, Dale, who’s flirting dangerously with the lure of the family business. And Kimmie, the woman Terry abandoned, who’s now raising a child with Terry’s former best friend.  Terry pieces together the day his brother turned rabid, delving into a blood history that reveals the Rand family tree is rotten to the roots, and the secrets his ancestors buried are now coming furious and vengeful to the surface.A meditation on how love can confine a person just as easily as it can free him, juxtaposing shocking violence and sly humor, The Last Kind Words is the brilliantly inventive family saga that only a singular talent like Tom Piccirilli could conjure.

Old Gold


Jay Stringer - 2012
    Having abandoned his morals, ambitions, and relationships for a life of alcohol, denial, and dirty work for local crime bosses, escape seems to be the only option left.But Eoin is surprised by a compulsion to root out his unknown enemies and fight for survival. All too soon, he finds himself caught in the crossfire between nearly every faction in town: rival crime lords, drug dealers, politicians, cops — even his estranged wife has a card in play.His quest to uncover the truth — and prove his innocence — resurfaces deep pains, old scars, and shattered relationships that threaten to bury him under regret. That is, if the killer doesn’t bury him first.

A Boy's Best Friend


Isaac Asimov - 1975
    This story is set far in the future when habitation of the Moon has already taken place. Jimmy Anderson is a Moon-born ten-year-old, and he owns a robotic dog named Robutt, whom he comes to love. He can go on the moon freely and securely as he is moon born and has Robutt with him. However, his parents want him to have a real dog, a Scottish Terrier. Since Moon-borns cannot visit Earth, his parents bring the dog to the Moon. But since the relationship between Jimmy and Robutt is so close, Jimmy decides not to have the 'living' dog and keep the 'fake' dog Robutt instead.

Tijuana Straits


Kem Nunn - 2004
    Nunn renders the dangerous beaches and waters of California's borderland as only the critically acclaimed poet laureate of surf noir can, and Tijuana Straits confirms his reputation as a master of suspense and a novelist of the first rank.When Fahey, once a great surfer, now a reclusive ex-con, meets Magdalena, she is running from a pack of wild dogs along the ragged wasteland where California and Mexico meet the Pacific Ocean -- a spot once known to the men who rode its giant waves as the Tijuana Straits. Magdalena has barely survived an attack that forced her to flee Tijuana, and Fahey takes her in. That he is willing to do so runs contrary to his every instinct, for Fahey is done with the world, seeking little more than solitude from this all-but-forgotten corner of the Golden State. Nor is Fahey a stranger to the lawless ways of the border. He worries that in sheltering this woman he may not only be inviting further entanglements but may be placing them both at risk. In this, he is not wrong. An environmental activist, Magdalena has become engaged in the struggle for the health and rights of the thousands of peasants streaming from Mexico's enervated heartland to work in the maquilladoras -- the foreign-owned factories that line her country's border, polluting its air and fouling its rivers. It is a risky contest. Danger can come from many directions, from government officials paid to preserve the status quo to thugs hired to intimidate reformers. As Magdalena and Fahey become closer, Magdalena tries to discover who is out to get her, attempting to reconstruct the events that delivered her, battered and confused, into Fahey's strange yet oddly seductive world. She examines every lead, never guessing the truth. For into this no-man's-land between two countries comes a trio of killers led by Armando Santoya, a man beset by personal tragedy, an aberration born of the very conditions Magdalena has dedicated her life to fight against, yet who in the throes of his own drug-fueled confusions has marked her for death. And so will Fahey be put to the test, in a final duel on the beaches of his Tijuana Straits.

Out of the Black


John Rector - 2013
    But just as the little girl—who survived the accident—finally starts thriving, Matt’s former in-laws threaten to take her away via a bitter custody battle. Desperate to keep Anna and in debt to some dangerous local thugs, Matt has no good options. But he does have Jay, one very bad friend. Just out of jail and plagued by drug addiction, Jay tempts Matt with a foolproof kidnapping scheme. But what sounds like the perfect solution to all his problems eventually leads Matt through a nightmarish maze of betrayals and reversals, pushing him to his breaking point—and beyond.

The Architecture of Snow


David Morrell - 2009
    D. Salinger. In the mid-1960s, the revered creator of The Catcher in the Rye suddenly stopped publishing and withdrew from public life. In David Morrell’s haunting “The Architecture of Snow,” an author similar to Salinger submits a manuscript after a four-decade absence. Why has he abruptly resurfaced? What caused his long-ago disappearance? When editor Tom Neal embarks on a search to a remote New England town, he uncovers the disturbing truth behind a tragic mystery that changes his life in unimaginable ways.

You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up


Eric Knight - 1938
    When Dick commits one crime and plans another, the police arrest him for a crime he actually did not commit. Dick attempts to reconcile with his family and find his way out of LA’s seedy underworld. You Play the Black and the Red Comes Up was a bestseller when originally published in 1938 and is a noir classic.

GBH


Ted Lewis - 1980
    Fowler is king, with a beautiful girl at his side and a swanky penthouse office, but his entire world is in jeopardy. Someone is undermining his empire from within, and Fowler becomes increasingly ruthless in his pursuit of the unknown traitor. As his paranoia envelops him, Fowler loses trust in just about everyone, including his closest friends and associates, and begins to rely on the opinions of an increasingly smaller set of advisors.Juxtaposed with the terror and violence of Fowler’s last days in London is the flash-forward narrative of his hideout bunker in a tiny English beach town, where Fowler skulks during the off-season amongst the locals, trying to put together the pieces of his fallen empire. Just as it seems possible for Fowler to reclaim his throne, another trigger threatens to cause his total, irreparable unraveling.

Killer Swell


Jeff Shelby - 2005
    Noah Braddock has a six-pack in the fridge, a solid beach view, and a killer past that's come knocking. The snobby mother of Kate, his old high school girlfriend, claims that her daughter is missing, and mom thinks Noah can find her for old time's sake. But what Noah discovers about Kate is hardly the stuff of bittersweet reunions. In fact, it's murder.

Buffalo Bayou: A Noir Crime Thriller


Tom Abrahams - 2021
    His first case is a young woman found in an urban bayou. He immediately sees clues that lead him places he doesn't want to go. But his own demons may be the clue to solving the mystery of the woman's death. And as the case widens, so do his new partner's suspicions about his past and motivations.

Thorne at Christmas


Mark Billingham - 2013
    He used to be a minder for underworld criminals and Zoe was always in their circle. So when she gets in trouble with another class member, he's there to protect her, as he used to - whatever it takes.

Ordinary Thunderstorms


William Boyd - 2009
    There is a reward for his capture. A hired killer is stalking him. He is alone and anonymous in the huge, pitiless modern city. Adam has nowhere to go but down - underground. He decides to join that vast army of the disappeared and the missing that throng the lowest level of London's population as he tries to figure out what to do with his life and struggles to understand the forces that have made it unravel so spectacularly. His quest will take him all along the River Thames, from affluent Chelsea to the sink estates of the East End, and on the way he encounters all manner of London's denizens - aristocrats, prostitutes, priests and policewomen amongst them - and version after new version of himself.William Boyd's electric follow-up to Costa Novel of the Year Restless is a heart-in-mouth conspiracy novel about the fragility of social identity, the scandal of big business, and the secrets that lie hidden in the filthy underbelly of every city.

Semiconductor Optoelectronic Devices


Pallab Bhattacharya - 1993
    KEY TOPICS: Coverage begins with an optional review of key concepts--such as properties of compound semiconductor, quantum mechanics, semiconductor statistics, carrier transport properties, optical processes, and junction theory--then progress gradually through more advanced topics. The Second Edition has been both updated and expanded to include the recent developments in the field.

Soft: Cocaine Love Stories


Ashley Antoinette - 2011
    Caroline McGill, J.M. Benjamin, Boston George, and T. Styles present fresh new stories of money, murder, betrayal, and revenge. Their unique approach attempts to explain the allure of the dope game through the eyes of some unforgettable characters. Just when you think it's over, a new story picks up and takes you on a whole new journey! This is a sure classic and the beginning of a great series. Take a ride with the kings and queens of the street.