Dark Crime Fiction

Hipopotamia es una colección de desvelos y un manual de contradicciones. Sexo, violencia y sangre fluyendo a través de las alcantarillas de la psique colectiva, esa que carece de puentes con la lógica o el sentido común. En estos diez relatos, el lector podrá encontrar lugares sórdidos, amores raros, atmósferas inquietantes y un buen puñado de alucinaciones. Puede, incluso, que en estos diez relatos el lector corra el riesgo de encontrarse a sí mismo.

In the gripping narrative of Louis's life, a chance encounter with Sarina, a seductive and mysterious woman, awakens a desire he never knew existed. Struggling to lead a lawful existence after exiting the world of organized crime, Louis becomes entangled in a fiery affair. However, as an ex-kingpin, the specter of his past with Steve and Thomas looms, and it's only a matter of time before secrets unravel, unleashing chaos and hell upon his newfound life.

Nino and Elena dream of sharing a normal life together. They are desperate to escape the shadow of Nino’s domineering and dangerous family, the Bartells.

Raine Harkins believes everything the Teaching tells her - forgiveness is freedom, there are no dead, and there is no dying. She has lived her entire life in the Haven, a small religious community buried in the hills of Northern Nevada, and it's been a good life. But when she discovers a frightened teenage girl hiding in the forest, everything changes. Raine offers to help the girl, but gunshots ring out, and the girl runs away, never to be seen again. A week later, Raine finds a letter pinned to her cabin door - God doesn't want you here. Leave the Haven now, before he runs you down.

Angelina Bonaparte is starting from square one. After a messy divorce, the middle-aged librarian put down her books and picked up a new gig as a private investigator. When a mob boss heads to jail for his mistress' murder, she has no issue with the womanizing scumbag rotting in prison. But when the suspect's pregnant wife swears his innocence, Angelina can't find it in her heart to refuse the case. Already reluctant to get involved, her frustration grows when she's forced to work alongside Ted Wukowski, a homicide detective who thinks a crime scene is no place for a woman.

Detective CJ O’Hara is finally getting a grip on life. Recently promoted and in a promising relationship, her instincts scream foul play when she responds to a reported heart attack at a bed and breakfast. Smelling a hint of vanilla in the air and noticing scratches on the victim’s back, she suspects she’s looking for a murderess.

Charly Highsmith is a survivor. Abandoned by her parents, she spent her teens looking after her autistic brother on the bitter streets of Denver, Colorado, with nothing but a jacket and a backpack. But things are better now. Charly and Jacob live in a two-bedroom apartment near a mall, and with the passing of their long-lost father, they've inherited a cabin high in the Rocky Mountains. Charly's eager to go there. Relive the good times she had as a child, running through the forest with Jacob and her cousins.

After receiving an unexpected gift following her college graduation, aspiring journalist Adele Plank returns to the Pacific Northwest’s beautiful and isolated sea and shores landscape of the San Juan Islands, where she soon finds herself immersed in the shocking mystery of a young woman’s brutal murder. The deathly discovery rocks the island community, stirring doubts about their new sheriff and turning old friends into new rivals. Adele must determine who she can trust and who she cannot, even as a mysterious stranger provides her a critical clue.

Death sets the plot in motion: the murder of Nica Baker, beautiful, wild, enigmatic, and only 16. The crime is solved, and quickly--a lonely classmate, unrequited love, a suicide note confession--but memory and instinct won't allow Nica's older sister, Grace, to accept the case as closed.

When a young boy goes missing, DCI Will Blake and his team are led into the little-known subterranean world beneath the Wirral. But the investigation unearths the body of a man who has been missing for almost 60 years. Ernie Hughes, lead singer of the little known Merseybeat band Arthur and the Galahads, disappeared one November in 1964, the night before the band were off to chase their dreams in Hamburg. It appears that Ernie’s death was violent. Blake’s investigations take him back to the heady days of The Cavern Club and Liverpool during the swinging '60s.

When Detective CJ O’Hara and her fiancé, Investigator Ben Parrish, retreat to an isolated fishing lodge in Alaska for a romantic vacation, they’re thrilled to book the last cabin of the season and have a week away from fighting crime. But the peace is short-lived when a young woman is brutally murdered, and a massive storm moves in, leaving the guests and crew stranded with no way to communicate…or escape.

It was my father’s arrest that brought me here, although you could certainly say that I took the scenic route. Here is rehab, where Ben - the only son of a rich South Dublin banker - is piecing together the shattered remains of his life. Abruptly cut off, at the age of 27, from a life of heedless privilege, Ben flounders through a world of drugs and dead-end jobs, his self-esteem at rock bottom. Even his once-adoring girlfriend, Clio, is at the end of her tether. Then Ben runs into an old school friend who wants to cut him in on a scam.

Meet Tommy Martini, the monk with an anger management problem. His meditations are interrupted by a legacy from his uncle, a crooked priest. Arriving in a New Age Arizona town to claim his inheritance, Brother Tommy meets a charismatic, smoking-hot cult leader who claims that women are being impregnated by alien beings while they sleep. Tommy’s own sleep is disturbed - by cartel hitmen, Mafia bill collectors, and women intrigued by his vow of chastity.

Detective CJ O’Hara is drowning in guilt over the death of her family and her killing of a suspect in the line of duty. So, when she’s unfairly denied a well-deserved promotion after 10 years of devoted service in Boston, she answers the Charleston Police Department’s desperate call for help. Her first assignment: Stop the serial killer known as The Lowcountry Killer.

For Paris Minton, a knock on his door is often the first sign of trouble. With family like Useless, who needs enemies? Yet trouble always finds an open window, and when Useless' mother, Three Hearts, shows up to look for her son, Paris has no choice but to track down his wayward cousin.

A breathtaking missing persons thriller set under the menacing peaks of the Pyrenees. Five years after their disappearance, the village of Monteperdido still mourns the loss of Ana and Lucia, two 11-year-old friends who left school one afternoon and were never seen again. Now, Ana reappears unexpectedly inside a crashed car, wounded but alive. The case reopens, and a race against time begins to discover who was behind the girls' kidnapping. Most importantly, where is Lucia, and is she still alive?

FBI super-profiler Agent Meredeth Connelly begins her hunt for The .40 Caliber Killer. She collects evidence. He collects families. Her headaches become more unbearable with each crime scene, with each dead child. With two decades of experience, she knows serial killers. As the body count rises, it’s clear that this serial killer knows her. She doesn't remember him. He'll never forget her. As the investigation progresses, something awakens within her that hints at an answer.

Lauren Kaine has everything she ever wanted—a fabulous home, a shiny Lexus, a bright 16-year-old son, and a loving husband with a lucrative internet career. Tonight, she walks hand-in-hand with William beneath the lustrous Seattle sky, celebrating 22 years of marriage. But they’re not alone. A mysterious black Audi comes out of nowhere and chases William onto a bridge. He shouts, “they’re here for the card”, and falls to his death. The tinted windows hide the driver’s face, and it speeds away. Still mourning, Lauren sets out to find her husband’s killer.

Sean Suh is done with killing. After serving three years in a psychiatric prison, he’s determined to stay away from temptation. But he can’t resist Annabelle - beautiful, confident, incandescent Annabelle - who alone can see past the monster to the man inside. The man he’s desperately trying to be. Then Annabelle disappears. Sean is sure she’s been kidnapped - he witnessed her being taken firsthand - but the police are convinced Sean himself is at the center of this crime. And he must admit, his illness has caused him to “lose time” before.

ทว่าเรื่องราวต่างๆ หาได้หยุดเพียงแค่การฆาตกรรมหญิงสาวเท่านั้น แต่เรื่องทุกอย่างกลับโยงใยไปถึงการตายอย่างปริศนาของนักเรียนจากโรงเรียนสตรีชื่อดังแห่งหนึ่งเมื่อสามปีที่ผ่านมา ปัจจุบันเหตุการณ์เช่นเดิมก็กลับมาเกิดขึ้นกับเด็กนักเรียนในโรงเรียนนี้อีกครั้ง