English Detective Noir

1850: Charles Dickens is in Manchester, performing at the Queen's Theatre with his acting group. But his career on the stage is cut short when a man is shot dead - on set. With Dickens himself caught with the gun in his hands, he is immediately arrested. Along with the help of his good friend Superintendent Sam Jones, Dickens must do all he can to find the real killer, before he is locked up for a crime he didn't commit. Can Dickens convince the authorities of his innocence? Will he unmask the true assassin?

Winner of six Lambda Literary awards, the Henry Rios mystery series is iconic and Michael Nava has been hailed by the New York Times as "one of our best" writers. Originally published during the darkest years of the AIDS epidemic in the gay community, The Death of Friends received extraordinary praise both as a mystery and an eloquent work of witness. Publishers Weekly said, "This is a brave, ambitious and highly impressive work."

Bushwick in the 1970s is a cesspool of drugs, violence, and depravity. Every aspect of life in the blighted neighborhood has been contaminated by the Mafia. Butchie Bucciogrosso is an Italian cop who detests the Mob. A survivor of the streets, he returns from Vietnam only to find Bushwick in ruins. His partner, Fast Eddie Curran, had to kill his way out of Belfast. The only cops with the courage to take on the Mob, they become a deadly nuisance trying to win back their streets. Only the Mafia, their own dirty police department, and a corrupt federal government stand in their way.

You are offered the getaway of a lifetime on a remote island with a group of strangers. Things have been difficult recently, so you jump at the chance to swim under the summer sun, explore the peaceful woodlands and return to an elegant hotel for a glorious dinner. As the boat pulls into the harbour, you’re surrounded by crystal-clear water and soon you are alone. Just the peace and quiet you were promised. No phone signal, no internet…no way to call for help. But nothing will go wrong in paradise, right?

Winner of six Lambda Literary awards, the Henry Rios mystery series is iconic and Michael Nava has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of our best” writers. Here, Rios delves deeply into his Latino identity as he defends a young man charged with assassinating a prominent Los Angeles Latino politician. The San Francisco Chronicle hailed the novel and its author: “A beautifully conceived but gritty novel.... Nava writes the kind of small, clean, powerful novels that build in emotional power almost invisibly, leaving us breathless at the end.”

Three friends go on a foodie road trip to the Scottish Highlands and Islands to celebrate their pending retirement, expecting stunning scenery, great food, fine wines, and a chance to reminisce about the good old days. When they somehow secure a reservation at a remote and extremely exclusive restaurant set on a private island in Loch Broom, they know they’re in for a once-in-a-lifetime dining experience.

Don’t mess with Deal.... Mayhem will follow. At the funeral of two of his hit men, Mike Russo, capo of the New Jersey Mob puts out a contract on Detective Matt Deal for his part in the killings. At the same time another funeral is taking place in Florida. Deal will soon learn just how badly his world is broken...and it’s about to get worse. The long awaited sequel to book one in the series - Mercy. Fans of Jack Ryan or lethal killers like Reacher or Scot Harvath will devour this novel.

Los Angeles has many faces: the real LA where regular people live and work, the degenerate underbelly of any big city, and the rarified world of wealth, power, and celebrity. LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan’s latest case plunges her into this insular realm of privilege and gives her a glimpse of the darkness behind the glitter. The body of beloved actor Evan Hobbes is found in the rubble of a Malibu rockslide a day after a fake video ruins his career. It’s not clear to Nolan if it’s an accident, a suicide, or a murder, and things get murkier as the investigation expands.

Paddy Durr is a brilliant detective and his own worst enemy. A brutal upbringing filled with abuse, neglect, and abandonment has left him with an ingrained sense of worthlessness. When he catches a grisly gang-related street assassination in Brooklyn, he is on the verge of an emotional and psychological breakdown. His wife is divorcing him. His children won't speak to him. His murder case is a political nightmare. The mayor and the police department would rather it just go away. Paddy finds himself on his own.

Fritz Brown’s L.A. - and his life - are masses of contradictions, like stirring chorales sung for the dead. A less-than-spotless former cop with a drinking problem - a private-eye-cum-repo man with a taste for great music - he has been known to wallow in the grime beneath the Hollywood glitter. But Fritz Brown’s life is about to change, thanks to the appearance of a racist psycho who flashes too much cash for a golf caddie and who walked away clean from a multiple murder rap.

Harry Doyle, known to his peers as the Dead Detective, finds himself faced with what many consider the most powerful and secretive cult in the country - Scientology. Clearwater, Florida, the spiritual center of Scientology, is run by a fanatical group of true believers who insist that members remain pure and true to their faith. One senior leader has a young man in his employ, a twisted soul who will stop at nothing to make sure the rules are followed.

Ray Maloney arrives in Shale City with no memory and few clues as to his identity. Guided by a mysterious figure, he sets up business and begins work as a private detective. But there are many shadows in the streets. Ray will find himself up against shady businessmen, corrupt cops, and other predators waiting for a chance to strike.

Under a Bangkok bridge, inside a bolted-shut Mercedes: a murder by snake - a charismatic African-American Marine sergeant killed by a methamphetamine-stoked python and a swarm of stoned cobras. Two cops - the only two in the city not on the take - arrive too late. Minutes later, only one is alive: Sonchai Jitpleecheep - a devout Buddhist, equally versed in the sacred and the profane - son of a long-gone Vietnam War G.I. and a Thai bar girl whose subsequent international clientele contributed richly to Sonchai’s sophistication. (Abridged edition.)

Mobocracy means mob rule, the opposite of democracy. The series is set in the near future...anarchy and mob rule are prevalent with law and order breaking down in the United States. Even Washington, DC is under siege from lawless groups of rioters. In Florida, Matt Deal has now been appointed the chief of detectives reporting to newly elected Sheriff Fretwell, his old friend. A British stranger starts making inquiries about Deal.

Gay Mexican American lawyer Henry Rios has fought bigotry and prejudice, battled alcoholism, and watched his lover die from AIDS. In The Burning Plain, he's wrongly accused of murder after a male prostitute he spent an evening with is savagely murdered. Rios proves his innocence, but when two more gay men are brutally murdered, he is drawn unwillingly into the hunt for a serial killer and soon finds himself up against an unsympathetic DA, a gay-bashing cop, reluctant witnesses, and a conspiracy among Hollywood's power elite.

Summer has come to Atlantic City but the boardwalk is empty of tourists, the casino lights have dimmed, and two Jane Does are laid out in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel, just west of town. Only one person even knows they’re there. Meanwhile, Clara, a young boardwalk psychic, struggles to attract clients for the tarot readings that pay her rent. When she begins to experience very real and disturbing visions, she suspects they could be related to the recent cases of women gone missing in town.

December, 1933. The city that cannot sleep, where cartels and mobsters go bump in the night. Manhattan's delicate peace is broken when four politicians in the pocket of America's reigning megacorporation are murdered at the Edison Hotel, dispatched by an unknown assassin wielding a rare and unique weapon. The NYPD calls upon the only man for the job: Elias Roche, the Nightcaller.

Danish journalist Heloise Kaldan is in the middle of a nightmare. One of her sources has been caught lying, and she could lose her job over it. Then she receives the first in a series of cryptic and unsettling letters from a woman named Anna Kiel. Wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of a young lawyer three years earlier, Anna hasn't been seen by anyone since she left the crime scene covered in blood.

Juniper Song knows secrets - how to keep them and how to search them out. As a girl, noir fiction was her favorite escape, and Philip Marlowe has always been her literary idol. So when her friend, Luke, asks her to investigate a possible affair between his father and a young employee, Juniper (or "Song" as her friends call her) finds an opportunity to play detective.

Fred Underhill is a young cop on the rise in Los Angeles in the early 1950s - a town blinded to its own grime by Hollywood glitter; a society nourished by newspaper lies that wants its heroes all-American and squeaky clean. A chance to lead on a possible serial killing is all it takes to fuel Underhill's reckless ambition - and it propels him into a dangerous alliance with certain mad and unstable elements of the law enforcement hierarchy. When the case implodes with disastrous consequences, it is Fred Underhill who takes the fall. His life is in ruins, his promising future suddenly a dream of the past.