Crime City

وفجأة أظلم المصعد تمامًا وكأنه أحد القبور المدفونة تحت الأرض وسط مقبرةٍ مهجورة في ليلةٍ مظلمة، ثم اهتز بعنفٍ كأرجوحة أطفال وهبط فجأة إلى الأسفل بسرعةٍ شديدة قبل أن يتوقف بشدة مع صوت صريرٍ عالٍ لم يعلُ عليه سوى صرخة صرخة عالية تحمل كل ما يمكن أن يشعر به أي شخص في هذا العالم من ألمٍ وفزعٍ وذهول..

أين أنت يا حارسة الجحيم؟ سألت نورا نفسها هذا السؤال وهي تغادر مكتبها في مبنى التحقيقات الجنائية، وكان عليها أولاً أن تجد إجابة قاطعة لهذا السؤال قبل أن تنتقل إلى التفكير فيما يجب أن تفعله في عملية (خادمة القصر) التي لم تدم فرحتها بحلها أكثر من بضع دقائق قبل أن تتعقد أحداثها وتتشابك من جديد...

"أمير الوكيل" ضابط شُرطة ومحقق بمكتب البحث الجنائي، وهو في منتصف الثلاثينات من العُمر يميزه شعره الأحمر الناري والذي بسببه ينسبونه إلى جهنم، قامته لطويلة وطلته وسيمة في حين دائمًا ما تكتسي ملامحه بالجدية، فلا أحد من كل من يعيشون حوله رآه يبتسم ولو مرة واحدة فقط.

" أرجو يا سيدي، أن تكون على علم بمدى خطورة الموقف الذي نواجهه جميعًا بعد الأحداث المؤسفة التي وقعت في منزلك قبل يومين، فوجود جثة مقتولة ببشاعة يجعل الكثيرون في حالة استنفارٍ تام، لا يهدأ لهم بال حتى يخرج أحد رجال الشرطة إلى الصحافة ذاكرًا اسم شخص سيلتف حول عنقه حبل المشنقة.

New York in 1803 is rife with tension as the city expands, and whoever knows where the city will build can control it. And violence builds as a mysterious provocateur pits the city’s black and Irish gangs against each other. When a young black girl is found stabbed to death, both Justy Flanagan, now a city marshal, and Kerry O’Toole, now a school teacher, decide separately to go after the killer. They each find their way to a shadowy community on the fringes of the growing city, where they uncover a craven political conspiracy....

Syracuse, upstate New York. The “Salt City”. An apartment building on the edge of The Projects - and Anne Malloy dies, flying out of a sixth floor window, an apparent suicide, while Mark Cornell watches. Mark was there for a purpose, his part-time gig being to snap incriminating photos for a divorce lawyer who happily takes cases over the phone. Watching the apartment was Mark’s assignment. But this assignment has a problem.

It's Mardi Gras season in post-Katrina New Orleans. City officials expect record crowds and the biggest boost to the Crescent City economy since the big storm. Alexandra Lee Destephano, legal counsel for Crescent City Medical Center, is anticipating her third Mardi Gras season and her date with Mitch Landry to the biggest Mardi Gras ball in New Orleans. But hold on. Alex is stat-paged to the hospital and learns from her boss and former husband that the wife of the governor of Louisiana has been found unconscious and covered in blood in her hospital room.

It's early 1944 and Richmond, Virginia is a devil's paradise. Ration scams and police corruption are rampant while the inflated black market commands top dollar. Detective Sergeant Bennie Sherwood, fresh off a soul-scarring tour of duty with the Marines, couldn't care less. His old man was recently murdered under suspect circumstances, and he's on a hunt for the truth. But then an old friend is killed during a botched black market raid and Bennie is thrust onto a hellride through Richmond's underworld.

It's August in New York, and the steaming garbage littering the streets isn't the only thing that stinks. Civilian investigator Leonard Mitchell can keep his job as the new head of the Department to Investigate Misconduct and Corruption only by successfully prosecuting veteran cop Ralph Mulino.

Marla Bernstein is a pretty, dark-haired teenager who also happens to be the ward of Ben Morningstar - a semi-retired mobster who prefers to keep family business out of the newspapers. When Marla suddenly disappears, the gang boss is forced to call in private eve Amos Walker, who quickly learns his new employer doesn't take "no" for an answer when he offers a job opportunity. Unfortunately, the only clue to Marla's whereabouts is a pornographic photograph that clearly proves that she's become part of a world that disgusts even her criminal guardian....

A self-labeled enigma, Detective Inspector Jack Austin is at once miserable and amusing, melancholy, and motivated. Running the Community Police Unit from his deck chair, DI Austin is known for his ability to solve crimes out of the blue. Trying to work cases while struggling with his mental issues, Austin deals with a variety of major crimes, including bicycle theft.

The kingpins of Oklahoma City, one from the north side and one from the south side, push pounds of weed, gallons of PCP, and kilos of cocaine through the corridors of the OKC, using very different methods to keep their people in line. King is the leader of the north side crew. Along with his protégé, Tippi, he runs his crew with deadly force. Each member knows there is no room for error when it comes to getting money on the north side. Flamboyant, the leader of the south side crew, is the opposite.

Stacy Horn sheds light on the dark world of the NYPD’s real-life Cold Case Squad—a special command of detectives who take on the homicide cases that remain unsolved after their initial period of investigation. Those who comprise its ranks are often characterized as misfits and lone wolves—but brilliant ones, to be sure. Here, their fascinating and deeply troubling stories of cases closed—and others that remain open—are conveyed in chilling detail.

Behind every fortune is a crime. Yet for young Philly Mob boss "Little Vinny" Veccuto in the 1980s, his crimes were his passion. Centralizing his business in the back of a steak shop in Ducktown, Atlantic City, Vinny illegally reaps the riches of early casino construction. After he becomes "King of the Jersey Shore", Vinny sees his success put to the test between unbearable federal investigation, a violent drug war erupting in his own inner circle, and those closest to him in one way or another, turning their back to him.

Aaron Iturra was just 18 years old when he was found dead in his bedroom in Eugene, Oregon. Soon, the quiet community would be rocked and shocked by who was behind the killing: Mary Louise Thompson, also known as Gang Mom. An anti-gang activist, she was a modern day deadly Fagin, running her own gang of juveniles who preyed on the unsuspecting city.

This book does fall into the same universe as my other series of books I call the Noir series. In those books you can hear about the gritty world of detectives, reporters, and gangsters. Well, that world exists here as well except here you have men and women who are willing to work outside of the law on both sides to get a job done. Whereas the other books focus on the aforementioned detectives, private and otherwise, here the focus is more on the ones that hide who they are.

Herb Bean watches a lot of television, mostly cop shows and Forensic Files. Now his wife has disappeared without a trace. Herb knows the husband is always the prime suspect. Where do you turn when you are afraid to turn to the police?

Almost a hundred years ago, a major terrestrial event reshaped the Earth’s coastlines. Goodbye entire cities. Goodbye entire states. Goodbye entire countries. And when the authorities outlawed salvaging from these sunken sites, why, say hello to a new breed of criminal: underwater reclamation specialists. Even a hundred years later, there’s still a whole lot of loot for the reclaiming.

A Narc’s Tale is a four-book series that is a first-hand account of stories, written like a memoir or personal diary, which gives you an inside glimpse of what it is like working six years deep undercover in the dangerous drug world as a city cop (Vol. 1), county vice and narcotics investigator (Vol. 2 and 3), and special agent with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (Vol. 4). Most undercover books only show this from one perspective, but you will get three here - city, county and federal - and realize the differences among them.

Erma Johnson lives in a rough part of Baltimore. Gangs are a fact of life. She lost her daughter and grandson to their violence. She's convinced, however, that her grandson wasn't in a gang. Hacker turned private investigator C.T. Ferguson takes her case. The more he looks around, the more he thinks she's right.