Dark Humor Mystery

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.

Junior Bender, Los Angeles burglar and off-the-books detective to the felonious, is reminded that rock and roll will never die (no matter how fervently he wishes some of it would) when Hollywood’s most dangerous geriatric mobster, Irwin Dressler, retains Junior’s investigative services to solve a rather unharmonious problem. Junior has one weekend to figure out who’s to blame—a weekend that begins with his tires being slashed, threatening notes left on his car, and a theatrical backdrop falling on a drummer during the truly terrible first set of the first concert.

Acompañada de tres hombres, una mujer llega a un pueblo en busca del panadero para cobrar venganza. Cuando lo encuentra, lo balacea y le prende fuego al lugar. Las investigaciones del crimen revelarán los oscuros secretos de las conocidas hermanas Baladro, dueñas de cantinas y prostíbulos. Estafas, trata de mujeres, entierros clandestinos y asesinatos conforman el siniestro reino que las dos mujeres, Serafina y Arcángela, han construido a su alrededor.

Barry and Beth, high school sweethearts separated by time and circumstance, find themselves reunited at the Blue Loon Village senior living center in Minneapolis. Now both seventy, they rekindle their relationship only to discover how differently time has shaped them. Beth has blossomed into a free spirit with a goth flair, while Barry has transformed into the curmudgeon he swore in his youth he’d never become.

El circo y La Mariposa es una novela colectiva escrita por 13 autores de Rosario, en pandemia, “encerrados con un solo juguete”, como diría Juan Marsé. Al producirse el 20 de marzo de 2020 el primer confinamiento nacional dispuesto por el gobierno con motivo de la pandemia Covid-19, quedaron varados en el territorio argentino, cuarenta (40) circos, situación que no se ha modificado mucho en el momento que escribo estas líneas, un año y medio después.

Once a cancer patient, former Orlando detective Mike Garrity is a survivor—for now, at least. Death has a way of following him around, like a black cloud over his head. If its not his own mortality he's thinking about, its someone else's. Like his teenage daughter's friend who just died of a suspected suicide. Or the woman he just met in his cancer support group, Debbie, who learns that she doesn't have much longer to live.

Una de las más brillantes e irreverentes farsas del autor, una sátira orgiástica donde el horror arranca carcajadas y en la que nadie se salva del ridículo, ya sea de izquierdas o de derechas, ecologista o partidario de la energía atómica, esposo fiel o donjuán irredento: ¡temblad, temblad, malditos! En esta novela, Wilt vive con su mujer, la inefable Eva, entregada a sus sucesivas pasiones alternativas, medicinales, nutritivas, religiosas, etc., y con sus temibles cuatrillizas...

El protagonista de esta historia es Héctor "El Sapo" Vizcarra, un periodista gastronómico, gordo y obsesionado con la comida, que vive en el Abasto de la actualidad. La acción transcurre en un diciembre de mucho calor, en los espacios ganados por la comunidad peruana en el centro de Buenos Aires. Una noche, en busca del ceviche perfecto, El Sapo llega al restaurante peruano Doña Lili. Allí se encuentra con el ceviche buscado, pero no llegará a saborearlo completamente.

Paddy Buckley is a grieving widower who has worked for years for Gallagher's, a long-established - some say the best - funeral home in Dublin. One night, while driving home after an unexpected encounter with a client, Paddy hits a pedestrian crossing the street. He pulls over and gets out of his car, intending to do the right thing. As he bends over to help the man, he recognizes him. It's Donal Cullen, brother of one of the most notorious mobsters in Dublin. And he's dead.

Manche Menschen liebt man oder hasst man – auf June trifft beides gleichzeitig zu. June Mayberry ist in einer beschissenen Lage: Ihre aus einer Alkohollaune heraus gegründete Detektei kommt nicht richtig in Schwung, zu ihrem pubertierenden Sohn, den sie nur einmal die Woche sieht, fehlt ihr jeder Zugang, und mit der verschwundenen Lehrerin, mit deren Suche sie beauftragt wird, war sie wenige Wochen zuvor noch im Bett.

Sie lieben sich, sie hassen und sie töten sich – mit Alpenveilchen, Christrosen oder Eisenhut denn gegen alle(s) ist ein tödliches Kraut gewachsen, egal, ob ausgediente Ehemänner, alte Widersacher, verhasste Haustiere oder nervende Nachbarn. Wenn böse Menschen die hohe Kunst der botanischen Giftmischerei zelebrieren, wird es mörderisch spannend – bis zum letzten Blatt.

When Agatha Benedict plucked Kelly off the city streets to replace her dead cat Poopsie, she neglected to inform him of some very important house traditions. The history of the Benedict Estate prescribes that once the estate owner passes on, a will reading is to take place. However, the reading is more than passing on a loved one's final wishes: it's a figurative gunshot into the air, an alert to all in attendance that a playful game of anything-goes murder has begun. The prize? The inheritance, of course.

Mi chiamo Grace Bernard e, con ogni probabilità, il mio nome non vi dice proprio niente. Nessuno mi conosce perché languisco dietro le sbarre per l’unico crimine che non ho commesso. Eppure, se devo dire la verità nient’altro che la verità, ho ucciso diverse persone, alcune in modo brutale, altre con maggior delicatezza – vale la pena specificarlo, perché fa un’enorme differenza agli occhi giudicanti della gente. Quando ripenso a ciò che ho fatto, avverto persino una punta di tristezza, giusto una fitta trascurabile, al pensiero che nessuno verrà mai a conoscenza del mio strabiliante piano.

Marilyn Monroe died just after midnight on August 5, 1962; former Little League champion Kimitake "Clyde" Koba was born on the same day, at the same time. As Clyde struggles to escape the ghost of his brother and his alcoholic father and stumbles through his first love, he finds strength in the belief that he is the reincarnation of Monroe. Meanwhile....

Berlin: a man wakes up in a trash can with no idea who he is. He's taken to hospital for treatment. Then people start trying to assassinate him. The man has to find out why, how to get them to stop, and what the CIA has to do with all this. There's also the little problem of working out who he used to be, and why that changed. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Piper and best friend Lance are trying to find him.

The good folk of Perpetuity Valley, Wyoming, have a secret. These modern-day citizens aren't just descended from the original settlers—they actually are the original settlers. They trekked here by wagon train in 1846, and for some mysterious reason, none of them has aged a day since. Of course, if word ever gets out about a miracle like this, the valley might get a wee bit crowded. So about a hundred years ago the townsfolk agreed to keep the secret to themselves and never allow any property to change hands.

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.

Reverend Carlton Connors remained true to his principles when he found himself under arrest for a ghastly double murder in the small Ohio town of Scotsdale - a crime he did not commit. Framed by the Ohio Bureau of Investigation, he watched in horror as the town turned against him, including his own congregation, lawyers, friends, and members of his family.

All Nick wants to do is take his dying father for a perfect father-son weekend in the Scottish Highlands. It’s not much to ask, is it? A log cabin, a roaring fire, a bottle of fine whiskey, and two days to paper over the cracks in their relationship. However, Nick didn’t plan on making the trip with a dead neighbour in the back of his car. Or the neighbour’s dog. He really didn’t plan on being pursued by a psychotic female assassin intent on collecting body parts.

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.