Crime Noir

When Tyron Shaw returns to his hometown of Las Vegas after 11 years in the Marines, he’s surprised to discover that two of his best friends from childhood are all anyone is talking about: Antoine Deco, three years out of prison, hasn’t lost a boxing match since his release and is fighting tonight in the undercard to the fight of the decade; and Keenan Quinn, a police officer who killed an unarmed teenager and escaped punishment from the courts, is the subject of a protest tomorrow morning.

This second volume of a must-listen collection contains 15 bibliomysteries by best-selling and award-winning authors.

It's 1918. The war in Europe grinds on, and the Spanish flu seems to be on an insatiable killing spree. But in the small fishing village of Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, a more confined drama-harrowing and provocative-slowly unfolds. It begins when Elizabeth Frame murders her husband hours after their wedding and thrusts the revolver into the blowhole of a beached whale.

For budding writer and filmmaker Noah Spaeth, being a production assistant in director Dominick Bambach’s new avant-garde film isn’t enough. Neither is watching Dominick have an affair with the lead actress, the gorgeous but troubled Nevie Wyeth. For Noah’s dream is to get both the film and Nevie in the end, whatever the cost. And this obsession may soon become a reality once Dominick’s spurned wife, Isadora, reveals her femme fatale nature with a seductive plot to get rid of her husband for good.

Louise Bridges has the perfect life. A loving husband, Patrick. Two adorable children. A comfortable home. So when PC Becca Holt arrives to break the news that Patrick has been killed in an accident, she thinks Louise’s perfect world is about to collapse around her. But Louise doesn’t react in the way Becca would expect her to on hearing of her husband’s death. And there are only three plates set out for dinner, as if Louise already knew Patrick wouldn’t be home that night.

Impossible doesn’t belong in Riley Wolfe’s vocabulary. He’s a master of heists and disguises, whose life's work is swindling the rich out of their undeserved treasures. Now rumors surrounding a dangerous new figure of international crime are spreading through the underworld. And this ruthless collector, the Cobra, has a personal vendetta against Riley . . .

Sorenson, Wisconsin's deputy coroner, Mattie Winston, is back on the job...in a nursing home examining the body of Bernie Chase - the now former president of the Twilight Home's board of directors - who is covered in a powder used to turn liquids to solids. The home's residents are certain Bernie was offing the patients who cost him too much...and the patient who found him can't remember a thing.

It's Christmas Day in the sleepy town of Sorenson, Wisconsin, but instead of unwrapping presents, deputy coroner Mattie Winston is at the burnt remains of a house, where a charred body has been found. The victim is none other than Jack Allen - a paraplegic who recently won a huge casino jackpot. Upon closer inspection, Mattie and Detective Steve Hurley are convinced Jack was murdered to steal his winnings, giving the phrase Black Jack a whole new meaning....

Thaddeus Cutter's life is on the mend. His detective business is growing, he's dating a sim-coder named Sakura, and he still has a roof over his head. If the dark, neon world of Kapamentis wasn't suffering its worst storm in decades, he'd say he had it pretty good. When a woman shows up at his door asking him to investigate her abusive husband and his shady business partner, Thaddeus assumes he's got an easy case on his hands. But when somebody close to the investigation is murdered, Thaddeus becomes the prime suspect, and he soon falls foul of both the law and the lawless.

Essence best-selling authors Kiki Swinson and Noire have attracted huge audiences for their sexy, anything-goes fiction. Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless features a novella from each author. Swinson’s electric “Shamelessly Rich” showcases a spoiled bad girl facing a life-changing choice. And in Noire’s “Puttin’ Shame in the Game,” three gorgeous ladies set their sights on a wealthy cop.

There's a killer on the loose in the Lake District, and the calm of an English summer is shattered. For newly qualified crime-scene investigator Grace McColl, it's both the start of a nightmare and the chance to prove herself after a mistake that cost a life. For detective constable Nick Weston, recently transferred from London, it's an opportunity to recover his nerve after a disastrous undercover operation that left him for dead. And for a lonely, loveless teenage girl, Edith, it's the start of a twisted fantasy - one she never dreamed might come true.

Una wants nothing more than to teach, but she has been unable to secure steady employment in Reykjavík. Her savings are depleted, her love life is nonexistent, and she cannot face another winter staring at the four walls of her shabby apartment. Celebrating Christmas and ringing in 1986 in the remote fishing hamlet of Skálar seems like a small price to pay for a chance to earn some teaching credentials and get her life back on track.

Chicago, 1928. In the stifling summer heat, three disturbing events take place: a clique of city leaders is poisoned, a white gangster is found mutilated and a famous heiress vanishes without a trace. Detectives Michael Talbot and Ida Davis are hired to find the missing heiress, but it proves harder than expected, and so Ida must elicit the help of her friend Louis Armstrong. But will any of them find the answers they need in the capital of jazz, booze and corruption?

When he kicked off, Florida mob boss Frank DiCilia left his gorgeous widow, Karen, everything, but with strings attached. She loses the millions, the cars, the palatial Gold Coast mansion if she ever gets involved with another man. And there's a crazy cowboy-wannabe thug named Roland who's acting as Frank's eyes beyond the grave, making sure Karen doesn't dally. But now Cal Maguire's come into the picture. A sexy, street-smart Detroit ex-con, Cal's got a line and a scam for every occasion.

With some 66 hits under his belt, Tomislav Bokšic, or Toxic, has a flawless record as hitman for the Croatian mafia in New York. That is, until he kills the wrong guy and is forced to flee the States, leaving behind the life he knows and loves. Suddenly, he finds himself on a plane hurtling toward Reykjavik disguised as American televangelist Father Friendly. With no means of escape from this island devoid of gun shops, this country with absolutely no tradition for contract killing, he is forced to come to terms with his bloody past and reevaluate his future, to tragicomic effect.

Southern Sweden: Beautiful countryside, endless forests, coastal walks, dark days - and even darker nights. But beneath the beauty lies a dark heart... Skåne, 1986: On the night of Walpurgis, the eve of May Day, where bonfires are lit to ward off evil spirits and preparations are made to celebrate the renewal of spring, a sixteen-year-old girl is ritualistically murdered in the woods beside a castle. Her stepbrother is convicted of the terrible deed and shortly after, the entire family vanishes without a trace.

Albinus, a respectable, middle-aged man and aspiring filmmaker, abandons his wife for a lover half his age: Margot, who wants to become a movie star. When Albinus introduces her to Rex, an American movie producer, disaster ensues. What emerges is an elegantly sardonic and irresistibly ironic novel of desire, deceit, and deception, a curious romance set in the film world of Berlin in the 1930s.

Nicolas Fiorillo is a brilliant and ambitious 15-year-old from the slums of Naples, eager to make his mark and to acquire power and the money that comes with it. With nine friends, he sets out to create a new paranza, or gang. Together they roam the streets on their motor scooters, learning how to break into the network of small-time hoodlums that controls drug dealing and petty crime in the city.

Late one winter afternoon in upstate New York, George Clare comes home to find his wife killed and their three-year-old daughter alone—for how many hours?—in her room across the hall. He had recently, begrudgingly, taken a position at a nearby private college (far too expensive for local kids to attend) teaching art history, and moved his family into a tight-knit, impoverished town that has lately been discovered by wealthy outsiders in search of a rural idyll.

Un dettaglio. È sempre un dettaglio a fare la differenza. Capita a Cristina Mandas di dimenticare il compleanno del marito. Che vuoi che sia. Invece, la svista è il primo scricchiolio di una vita che sta per andare in frantumi. Perché a quarant’anni Cristina non è la maestra, la moglie, la madre, stimata e ben voluta dalla comunità di quel paesino sardo in cui si è trasferita tempo prima. Dietro la cortina di un’esistenza comune, custodisce un segreto che deve rimanere sepolto nelle profondità di un pozzo.