Comedy Crime Fiction

Farnsworth and Diego are back, leading the newly appointed Division of Nerd Crime into the black heart of the regional Renaissance Festival where someone has stolen celebrity D&D gamer Vin Diesel’s identity.

Maggie Thomas doesn't know the first thing about being a private eye. She quickly discovers that running her uncle's faltering Miami Beach P.I. agency is nothing like watching detective show reruns. Even the private eye app on her iPhone can't help. But Maggie's first case is surprisingly easy...or so she thinks until she stumbles upon a dead body. With whizzing bullets, car chases, and spandex-clad bodybuilders, Maggie wonders if she's in over her head.

In the spring of 2014, struggling musician Mike Bradley is forced to do some manual work over the spring bank holiday to make ends meet. What was supposed to be a routine decorating job turns into a life-changing decision. Is the Memorabilia Man all he appears to be? A story of loyalty and betrayal and a misguided sense of honor.

Well, Key West Normal is when two friends in need of a place to live drag away an abandoned hot dog truck in the middle of the night.... But an insomniac New Yorker has got himself trapped inside it while searching for his neurotic cat.... And the truck is the secret hub of a global smuggling operation and holds a stash worth millions.... But the tough guy sent to recover the fortune is way more interested in being reunited with his one true love.

Lew Fonesca is still a freelance process server, still has his office behind a Dairy Queen in Sarasota, and is still the friend of the poor and outcast. Now, he has two more cases he doesn't want, cases that will lead unerringly to the discovery of murder.

Charlie Deavon is a British author who meets a fan (the sexually troublesome Amelia Heart) in a pub. The following morning she is found dead. The main suspect in the case is Simon, Charlie's agent. Having avoided the police, Charlie, Simon, and the local bartender try to solve the case together. The three men, what with the stress of it all, turn to a new drug called Merlin, which allows them to control and share hallucinations. From then on, they trip and hallucinate their way through to the story's conclusion.

The night world of Old Town, Portland, Oregon, has gone mad in the grip of gentrification, and at the center of it all is Lucky Supreme, a seedy tattoo parlor, whose proprietor is a street-bred artist with a unique approach to problem solving. Darby Holland has enough on his radar, but when some flash (tattoo artwork) stolen from him resurfaces in California, he can't help himself. His efforts to reclaim it set him on a dangerous path, dragging along his delightfully eccentric colleagues.

Superspy Davis Way sets sail on a Caribbean cruise aboard the MS Probability with 50 billionaires, a boatload of Louis Vuitton luggage, Anderson Cooper, and her mother. (Her mother?) The weather is perfect, the seas are calm, and suite 704 is spectacular. Until the door slams shut. For good. Obviously it's a system glitch. Surely someone will show up to free Davis, Miss Hawaii, and the creepy staff. But when the minutes turn to hours and the hours stretch into a day, Davis knows it's up to her.

The cult classic Your Sparkle Cavalcade of Death gets a new life as an astonishing audiobook by JestMaster Audio. An incredibly funny and outrageously impertinent story, it will have you alternately laughing and grimacing every step of the way. This audiobook spectacular is narrated by both a male and a female narrator, who, between then, create around 50 distinctive characters and voices. Music and thrilling sound effects enhance the performances, and make this a truly unique and unforgettable listening experience.

When Sam falls in love with Deptford thug Derek, and Anne’s best friend Kathleen takes her own life, they discover they are linked not just by a world of drugs and revenge - they also share the friendship of the uncanny and enigmatic Deborah. Seamstress, sailor, storyteller and self-proclaimed centenarian immortal, Deborah slowly reveals to Anne and Sam her improbable, fantastical life, a history of hidden Deptford and ultimately the solution to their crises.

An extravaganza of suburban noir - complete with one orgy, one brothel and a series of firearms disputes - from Adam Thirlwell, twice selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. This yarn takes place in the suburbs of a giant city. In Brasilia they’re coming off their night shift; in Tokyo they’re having their first whisky sours. That’s what’s happening elsewhere in the world when our hero wakes up. Together with his wife and dog, he lives at home with his parents.

Mob princess turned entrepreneur Lucie Rizzo knows that when you hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up. Despite her family’s unshakable criminal reputation, Lucie’s new business is booming. And for once her love life isn’t far behind. Lucie devotes her days to building the Coco Barknell brand, but her nights are all about roguishly sexy Tim O’Brien. At least they will be if she and Detective O’Hottie finally take their relationship to the next level. But bring an Irish cop home to her mobster father?

True believer Murray Whelan makes his debut in Shane Maloney's first thriller set among the ethnic feuds, union machinations, and sexual politics of his city's working-class heartland. The fiddle at the Pacific Pastoral meat-packing works was a nice little earner for all concerned until Herb Gardiner reported finding a body in number 3 chiller. Enter Murray Whelan, minder, fixer, and general dogsbody for the Minister of Industry. Between playing off party factions and pursuing the kohl-eyed Ayisha, it's all in a day's work for Murray to hose down the situation at Pacific Pastoral.

Mob princess Lucie Rizzo can’t catch a break. Or take one. Building a business empire is hard work, even without her family’s notoriety. Staying out of trouble isn’t exactly her forte. Still, Lucie could use a vacation from Chicago winters and the town where everybody knows her father’s name. So when a certain Irish cop promises warmer days - and hotter nights - Lucie sees an offer she can’t refuse. Detective O’Hottie sweeps her away to the land of sun, sand, and...retirees? Before the real romantic getaway begins, Tim wants to visit his Uncle Henry.

The star of this crime comedy short story knows the secret to being a real man in full and he needs to share it with you. Of course, you have a full pitcher of beer and all his chaos is someone else's problem. This funny wild ride ends with his very questionable wisdom.

Caleb Rush, aka Crush, is the toughest, coolest bodyguard/bouncer in Los Angeles, a man who lives strictly by his own moral code, which doesn't exactly hew to the standards of US law. When Amelia Trask, the wild daughter of a scruples-free billionaire tycoon, comes to Crush for help, his quiet life roars into overdrive, and he has to use his wits, brawn, martial-arts training, and knowledge of the Russian Mafia to stay alive and clean up the mess that young Amelia has created.

No one is more surprised than Lem Altick when it turns out he's actually good at peddling encyclopedias door to door. He hates the predatory world of sales, but he needs the money to pay for college. Then things go horribly wrong. In a sweltering trailer in rural Florida, a couple Lem has spent hours pitching to is shot dead before his eyes, and the unassuming young man is suddenly pulled into the dark world of conspiracy and murder.

Medium Dead is a fun urban fantasy chronicling the crime fighting adventures of Brenda - a reluctant medium - and Brian - a vigilante demon with an impish sense of humour. Think Stephanie Plum with magic and a dash of Carl Hiaasen. Brenda Steele is smart, funny and out of her depth. A Vigilante Demon called Brian wants her to find murdered spirits and help him track down their killers. But Brian doesn't just catch criminals, he likes to play with them first, and make the punishment fit the crime.

Ian Bridges works as a hitman and is on permanent stand-by for West End gangster John Broad. He does maybe three or four jobs a year and spends the rest of his life desperately trying to find Mrs Right so he can settle down, but can't and it feels like the world is conspiring against him. He's about to find out he's right.

Courting Death finds Melanie Wilkerson (from Cotton, book two of the Clarkeston Chronicles) and Arthur Hughes working uncomfortably together in the chambers of a famous federal judge. While Melanie neglects her duties as a law clerk to investigate the mysterious death of a young woman in the courthouse five years earlier, Arthur wades through the horrific habeas corpus appeals of two prisoners: an infamous serial killer and a pathetic child murderer.