Dark Crime Fiction

Getting rich and unintentionally famous has its downsides. In Dante Jacoby's case, it's the beginning of a nightmare. After returning to San Francisco, a sorry-looking bank account forces him to take the plunge into entrepreneurship to fund his vigilantism. Thanks to wicked intelligence and a sickening work ethic, his novel spin on a nightlife venue takes off. Before he knows it, he's an overnight success story.

Detective Jason Smith is sick and tired of the English weather. It's February in York and the dark, dreary days are getting him down. When his wife, DC Erica Whitton wins a holiday to Australia, Smith is reluctant to go. He has no desire to go back home. Against his better judgement, Smith agrees to show his wife and daughter where he grew up. The perfect holiday soon turns into a nightmare as Smith finds himself in a race against time to save the only people he's ever cared about. Children in Smith's home town are being murdered. There's something rotten there.

When a boarding school master at an exclusive boys' school is shot dead, it is deemed accidental. A lazy and usually drunk detective is sent to write up the report. Cardilini unexpectedly does not cooperate, as he becomes riled by the privileged arrogance of those at the school. He used to have instincts. Perhaps he should follow them now...With no real evidence he declares the shooting a murder and puts himself on a collision course with the powerful and elite of Perth. As he peels back layers, the school's dark secrets begin to emerge.

The Casting Director is a black comedy crime thriller about Lee Hamill whose specialty is finding unknowns on the streets of Dublin for low-budget Irish movies. He's the middleman, matchmaker, and awkward buffer zone between performer and producer. Lee is HR for actors, but one of them wants him dead.

In modern-day America, Dez is a former lawyer and teacher - an ephebophile with a proclivity for teenage girls hiding out in a trailer park with his latest conquest, Chloe.

Having been in and out of courtrooms (and therapists' offices) for a number of years, Dez is adrift, at odds with a society that persecutes him over his desires. From his couch one afternoon, Dez watches an interview with Jasper Ulrickson, a doting father and loving husband whose heartrending memoir, Lessons from My Daughter, has become a national best seller.

Attacked at home by an unknown assailant, meek Lucille Stevenson should be dead, but she isn’t. She should have called the police, she should have told her family, she should have done a lot of things, but she didn’t. Because what Lucille did to her attacker went far beyond self-defense. It was cold, brutal, and vicious; and if anyone found out, her life would be over. Unfortunately, her biggest problem isn't getting rid of the body; it's that she really enjoyed killing the man and can't wait to do it again...

Two months after an investigation that nearly put Elias Roche behind bars, the former cop turned mob enforcer has endeavored to separate himself from his past by going straight. Now working as a private investigator, his attempts to build himself a quiet life have so far been promising. However, while Manhattan's Lower City is in the midst of a reignited mob war, Elias is faced with finding a man who doesn't want to be found, absolving a machine of a murder charge, and discovering a network of secrets that keeps the world turning, almost literally.

A continually bullied runt of a youngster, Chas Larkin discovers his chutzpah and decides to take on the London gangs. In the sleazy and violent East End, he is unwittingly assisted by Scotland Yard and MI5, who use the boy to delay an IRA campaign in the city. Together with the mysterious DCI Casey, an enigma amongst the bomb-damaged slums, they stir the pot of fermenting disquiet.

Three stand-alone dark mafia romances in the best-selling Polizzi Crime Family series.

Dundalk—The Town, to locals—took Aoife in when she left home at eighteen. Now she’s gone from a small-time slinger of hash to a bona fide player in Dundalk’s criminal underworld. Aoife’s smart, savvy, and cool under pressure. Except, that is, when it comes to Annie. Annie is mysterious and compelling, and Aoife is desperate to impress her and keep her close. Unfortunately, not everyone in The Town shares Aoife’s opinion of Annie.

When the partially dismembered body of a young man is found in the Florida Everglades, Deborah Jones, the fearless African American investigative journalist for the Miami Herald, finds herself caught up in a story that has ramifications far beyond anything she could have ever imagined. The victim had contacted Deborah anonymously just the day before, promising her top-secret government documents if she'd agree to a meeting. But he didn't show up, calling to say he feared for his life.

Fifteen years ago, 29 Barley Street, South London, became notorious as the scene of alleged poltergeist activity which led to the death of young Holly Wasson. The shadow cast by this episode is still felt in the town and amongst the gang of friends who were caught up in the tragic event. When one of the group dies in horrific and strange circumstances, Matt Hunter, former minister and now professor of sociology, is called in to investigate.

Influenced by Vonnegut, Jose Saramago, David Foster Wallace, Will Ferguson, Lynn Coady, and the Coen Brothers, Buddy Roy Baldry inhabits the wildlands of Canada, where he writes darkly humorous novels about the everyday human neurosis of ordinary people in extraordinary situations.

Ted Hall is worried. He's been sleepwalking, and his somnambulant travels appear to coincide with murders by the notorious Hang Wire Killer. Meanwhile, the circus has come to town, but the Celtic dancers are taking their pagan act a little too seriously, the manager of the Olde Worlde Funfair has started talking to his vintage machines, and the new acrobat's frequent absences are causing tension among the performers. Out in the city there are other new arrivals - immortals searching for an ancient power - a primal evil which, if unopposed, could destroy the world!

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.

Rumors are swirling around the dark corners of Westgate that a brutal vigilante is dealing violence and havoc in the guise of Shadowbane. Kalen and Myrin have just arrived from Luskan, in search of Kalen's former apprentice, Rhett. Though Kalen believes Rhett to be dead, Myrin won't give up hope as she in turn seeks more information about her past. And Kalen too must find his place, perhaps in the Eye of Justice - the organization that trained him - though that's the last place he wants to end up. But who are is this mysterious vigilante who wields the vaunted sword Vindicator?

FBI special agent Lisa Tanchik is skilled at handling cyber threats, having recently taken down a Dark Web black market worth billions. But ruthless hacker NatalyaX always seems to be a step ahead. The government calls on Tanchik’s expertise when an email attachment causes a fatal seizure at US Cyber Command. But before she can get her feet under her, the entire East Coast goes dark. A sinister plan is unfolding before her eyes - and no one knows who’s behind it. Tanchik plunges into chaos to hunt down the true source of the attacks.

In Five Seconds Til Dark, the listener is taken on a journey through the eyes of Marcello Scott. Scott appears to be a normal mischievous teenager until a tragic accident claims the life of his best friend. As life seems to do ever-so-often, the tragedy took something from Scott, but it also blessed him with a gift that would take him some time to grasp. Scott realizes that he has the ability to freeze time around him for five seconds—leaving him to wander about freely while everything around him is paused.

With an FBI sting on his misfit secessionist group closing in, Nat Cinder blasts from Flagstaff to Phoenix on his Triumph Rocket motorcycle. Soon he stumbles onto a packet of photos showing Governor Virginia Rentier lustily paired with three high-ranking women in state government. Though Cinder and the governor clashed 16 years before when his wife died in a car accident, Cinder prefers to keep his dislike of Rentier focused on her politics. But when the bullets fly, Nat asks questions, and learns his sudden war with the governor traces back 16 years.

If stealing a half million dollars from the Mafia is a bad idea, then using the money to pay off a homicidal Russian loan shark is an insane idea. Elliot Becker realizes this a little too late as his well-intentioned South Florida real estate scam starts to fall to pieces. He needs a Plan B - and he needs it now - because when Ponzi schemes fail, they tend to fail fast. Complicating matters is Logan Treverrow, an aspiring sculptor and newly-returned veteran from Afghanistan trying to figure out who took out a $200,000 loan in his soon-to-be-ex-wife’s name.