Dark Crime Fiction

When three bodies turn up in a landfill outside of Philadelphia, FBI profiler Violet Darger heads to Pennsylvania to investigate. Right away there's a major complication. The emaciated corpses appear to have been starved to death. Darger arrives in time for the autopsies. As she watches the withered bodies laid out on the stainless steel slabs of the morgue, their faces crusted with sandy soil, skin pulled taut around knobby cheekbones, she thinks: what kind of a person could carry out such harsh acts?

Fred Van Lente's brilliant debut is both an homage to the Golden Age of Mystery and a thoroughly contemporary show-business satire. As the story opens, nine comedians of various acclaim are summoned to the island retreat of legendary Hollywood funnyman Dustin Walker. The group includes a former late-night TV host, a washed-up improv instructor, a ridiculously wealthy "blue collar" comic, and a past-her-prime Vegas icon.

I didn't ask for her as my bride. I just made her mine. Her father had to be taught what happens when you cross a King, but that isn't why Genevieve Rossi is sore, well-used, and waiting for me to claim her in the only way I haven't already. She's sore because she thought she could embarrass me in public without being punished. She's well-used because after I spanked her I wanted more, and I take what I want. She's waiting for me in my bed because she's my bride, and tonight is our wedding night.

It's hard to find work as a doctor when using your real name will get you killed. So hard that when a reclusive billionaire offers Dr. Peter Brown, aka Pietro Brnwa, a job accompanying a sexy but self-destructive paleontologist on the world's worst field assignment, Brown has no real choice but to say yes. Even if it means that an army of murderers, mobsters, and international drug dealers - not to mention the occasional lake monster - are about to have a serious Pietro Brnwa problem.

When someone burns down the home of the school janitor and he dies in the blaze, everyone in Addamsville, Indiana, points a finger at Zora. Never mind that Zora has been on the straight and narrow since her father was thrown in jail. With everyone looking for evidence against her, her only choice is to uncover the identity of the real killer. There’s one big problem - Zora has no leads. No one does. Addamsville has a history of tragedy, and 30 years ago a similar string of fires left several townspeople dead. The arsonist was never caught.

On a frigid February day, Anchorage Detective Cara Kennedy stands by the graves of her husband and son, watching as their caskets are raised from the earth. It feels sacrilegious, but she has no choice. Aaron and Dylan disappeared on a hike a year ago, their bones eventually found and buried. But shocking clues have emerged that foul play was involved, potentially connecting them to a string of other deaths and disappearances.

My acts are vicious and cruel, vile and life-taking. My demands are unquestioned no matter how depraved. There’s a monster inside me, and the wounds that scar my soul are dark and deep. I’m Dante Simone. Underboss of the Chicago Outfit. She walks into the audition, eyes snapping with a fire that could cost her life - if she were to unleash it. Piper Tate crawls beneath my skin on our first encounter. Her audition, a condition of employment I’ve sat through a thousand times, is like no other. It’s magnetic, cementing my traitorous eyes to her lithe form.

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

Ten years ago, the Harper family disappeared. Their deserted cottage was left with the water running, the television playing cartoons, the oven ready for baking. The doors were locked from the inside. Overnight, the sleepy village of Nighbrook became notorious as the scene of the unsolved mystery of the decade, an epicentre for ghoulish media speculation. For crime journalist Naomi, solving the case has turned into an obsession. So now, with Ivy Cottage finally listed for sale, it’s her chance to mount an investigation like no other.

Dare to enter a killer’s mind. The heart-pounding serial killer thriller that will leave you breathless. A teenage girl is brutally murdered in an idyllic lake community. In over his head, the local sheriff calls upon the Behavior Analysis Unit’s best profiler, Scarlett Bell, to find the murderer. Is a serial killer stalking Coral Lake? Now Scarlett faces a killer unlike any she’s encountered. Bloodthirsty. Cunning. Insane. Another girl goes missing, and the special agent must stop the killer before time runs out.

Bureau of Indian Affairs special agent Joe Evers still mourns the death of his wife and, after a bungled investigation, faces a forced early retirement. What he needs is a new career, not another case. But when Congressman Arlen Edgerton's bullet-riddled Lincoln turns up on the Navajo reservation—twenty years after he disappeared during a corruption probe—Joe must resurrect his failing career to solve the mysterious cold case.

Purgatory is the lawless moon colony of billionaire Fletcher Brass: a mecca for war criminals, murderers, sex fiends, and adventurous tourists. You can't find better drugs, cheaper plastic surgery, or a more ominous travel advisory anywhere. But trouble is brewing in Brass' black-market heaven. When an exiled cop arrives in this wild frontier, he immediately finds himself investigating a string of ruthless assassinations in which Brass himself and his equally ambitious daughter are the chief suspects.

In a quiet village surrounded by ancient woods and the imposing Italian Alps, a man is found naked with his eyes gouged out. It is the first in a string of gruesome murders. Superintendent Teresa Battaglia, a detective with a background in criminal profiling, is called to investigate. Battaglia is in her mid-60s, her rank and expertise hard-won from decades of battling for respect in the male-dominated Italian police force. Soon she finds that buried deep in these mountains are whispers of a dark and dangerous history, possibly tied to a group of eight-year-old children.

Nicky just wants to save her brother. She showed up with an envelope full of cash and a smart mouth and found herself in a den of monsters. I wish I could say I was the best of them, I wish I could protect her - but I’m far from perfect.

When Tilly Edgely lands a position working at Ashton’s bookshop in Cambridge, she thinks she’s found her perfect job. But one winter’s morning, when she arrives to open up, she discovers the body of her boss suspended from the ceiling, hanging by a rope around his neck. DCI Barrett and DI Palmer are called to the scene and quickly find themselves searching for a twisted killer whose identity and motive are nearly impossible to trace. But just when they think they have the murderer in their sights, another body shows up throwing the case wide open....

Summer Meads, a girl born into the world as a slave and forced to grow up tossed from one house to the next, must survive. She knows nothing of her bloodline to the Mafia world, even when she met Chase when they were children. To save Summer and to take down one of the most feared Mafia families, Chase must marry her. At what cost will Chase and Summer’s marriage cost not only them, but the Marcel family? How can a slave girl be helpful for the Mafia family?

Мик хочет, чтобы Каролина теперь планировала для них ограбления: продумывала пути отхода, разрабатывала все схемы. Оказывается, что у Каролины к этому талант, но в результате спланированного ей ограбления пострадали двое…

Dans Le Bayou Tèche, les marais forment un enchevêtrement où il est facile de disparaître. Elise, une Française, s’y est réfugiée pour fuir quelque chose de sombre, d’indicible, qu’elle a laissé en France. Elle est partie du jour au lendemain, abandonnant tout derrière elle. L’indicible est un personnage trouble et difficile à cerner : son mari. Ce roman croise les histoires respectives du laissé-pour-compte en Dordogne, et de la fugitive en Louisiane.

Detective Roger LeCarre. Scourge of crime. Guardian of Exeter. Amateur squash player. And now, party guest at Powderham, the manor house owned by mysterious billionaire tech genius Eli Quartz. It is a small and unconventional gathering: the Bishop, a fading radio star, a desperate aristocrat, the ageing butler and his absurdly beautiful daughter—and Detective Roger LeCarre. Then a snowstorm blows in and the group realise they are trapped. And when, completely against expectations for this kind of situation, someone winds up dead, it's obvious who must solve the crime.

When the body of a homeless woman is found under Bradford’s railway arches, DS Nikki Parekh and her trusty partner DC Sajid Malik are on the case. With little evidence, it’s impossible to make a breakthrough, and when Nikki receives a newspaper clipping taunting her about her lack of progress in catching the killer, she wonders if she has a personal link to the case. When another seemingly unrelated body is discovered, Nikki receives another note. Someone is clearly trying to send her clues...but who? And then a third body is found.