English Detective Noir

All kinds of evolved life forms wash up on the beaches of Key West, just waiting for a chance to wreak havoc on the general population. Take Douglas Barnes, president of Barnes Waste Management, who gets his jollies by sending some amazing things into the outer atmosphere; or Dougie Barnes, who has a predilection for poetry, parrots and perversion. Into this haven for the insane waltzes Trula Montoya, a former TV actress with a secret, and Shaw Chandler, a disenchanted EMS worker on the scent of murder.

When Ruby hears from her best friend Elizabeth that two of their old classmates have been murdered, Ruby is more certain than ever that leaving her hometown was the right decision. But after Elizabeth suddenly stops responding to texts, and Ruby hears a third classmate has been killed, she knows in her heart what has happened. Elizabeth is dead too. Missbrook Bay is a place haunted by memories Ruby wanted to forget, and people she never wanted to see again, but Ruby has no choice but to go back to investigate.

In 1942, Jewish courier Ester is betrayed, narrowly avoiding arrest by the Gestapo. In a great haste, she escapes to Sweden, saving herself. Her family in Oslo, however, is deported to Auschwitz. In Stockholm, Ester meets the resistance hero Gerhard Falkum, who has left his little daughter and fled both the Germans and allegations that he murdered his wife, Åse, who helped Ester get to Sweden. Their burgeoning relationship ends abruptly when Falkum dies in a fire. And yet, 25 years later, Falkum shows up in Oslo. He wants to reconnect with his daughter.

Just when DI Tom Mariner seems to be settling down with his new girlfriend...everything kicks off. First, a badly decomposed body of a young woman is found in a Birmingham sewer. The police can't identify her and dub her "Madeleine". Then, an important politician and his wife are shot on an isolated road. "Vengeance is mine" is scrawled in blood at the scene. Finally, a bomb explosion in the busy city kills five people, causing chaos and panic. Can Detective Mariner and his team get to the bottom of crimes that will come very close to home for him and his team?

Hot on the heels of Best Cases of the Continental Op comes Honest Gain: Dicey Cases of the Continental Op, another original compilation from Skyboat Media. The Continental Op is back on the case, tracking down thieves and murderers from the steep streets of San Francisco to the rough and tumble Wild West in Arizona. These six stories featuring the Continental Op show that this private eye is not afraid to get his hands dirty in order to get the job done right, or get himself hurt in the process.

Nikki Dymtryk is Hollywood's hottest reality TV star, known for her wild party lifestyle and prolific sexual conquests. But when the ratings for her show Being Nikki begin to drop, the Dymtryk family engineers a new plan to keep Nikki in the limelight: reinventing the young star as a bestselling author. Nikki's team hires Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag to ghostwrite a steamy romance novel showcasing the glitz and glamor of the Hollywood elite.

Métis journalist Leo Desroches has just been released from jail. Fortunately for him, he is re-hired at the paper to write a popular column about crime. It’s summer; the city is hot and buzzing with mosquitoes, and it’s on track for a record number of homicides. Called to the scene of an apparent overdose of a young Native man in the inner city, Leo witnesses some rocks falling out of the body bag, and he picks them up. At first he believes they are crack cocaine but discovers that the rocks are really rough diamonds.

After narrowly escaping with his life at the hands of a murderous Hollywood pimp, detective Happy Doll, bullet-ridden but healing, has landed on a remote Mexican beach. In a humble shack and with his dog for company, Doll settles into a peaceful idyll of Buddhist study. But then trouble, as it always does, comes to paradise. Doll is the witness to a murder for which he is framed, and now, with an expired passport and the Mexican authorities on his tail, he must sneak across the border back to L.A. by any means necessary, with the goal of bringing the true murderer to justice.

Larry Dolman is a rather literal-minded ex-cop who now works private security. Eddie Miller is an airline pilot who's studying to get his real estate license. Don Luchessi is a silver salesman who's separated from his wife, but too Catholic to get a divorce. Hank Norton is a drug company rep who gets four times as many dames as any of the other guys. When a friendly bet goes horribly awry, they find themselves with two dead bodies on their hands and a homicidal husband in the wings - and acting more like hardened criminals than upstanding citizens.

Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as an "utterly irresistible heroine", Darlene O'Hara - the brilliant, hard-living, obsessive, and somewhat self-destructive detective introduced in Peter de Jonge's acclaimed crime fiction masterwork Shadows Still Remain - returns in Buried on Avenue B. An edgy and suspenseful noir thriller, Buried on Avenue B traverses the gritty landscape of New York's Lower East Side and the more sordid corners of Sarasota, Florida, as a gruesome and unexpected discovery in a makeshift Alphabet City grave heats up a 17-year-old cold case.

Seventeen-year-old Tyler lives in one of Edinburgh’s most deprived areas. Coerced into robbing rich people’s homes by his bullying older siblings, he’s also trying to care for his little sister and his drug-addict mum. On a job, his brother Barry stabs a homeowner and leaves her for dead, but that’s just the beginning of their nightmare, because the woman is the wife of Edinburgh’s biggest crime lord, Deke Holt.

Wisecracking private detective Sam Rockwell is running for his life, but that doesn't keep him from taking the case of a Return who's slipped past Heaven's radar and overstayed his time on Earth. Together with his fiance, Amelia, Sam brawls and dances his way through San Francisco to unravel a zany mystery where nothing is what it seems at first blush.

Three cell phones ring in an opulent London suite. The calls go unanswered, because their recipients are dead. Earlier that night, four old friends and lovers meet for a reunion dinner. Miko and Robert haven't seen each other in 10 years; Miko hates Robert for the money he's made with shady ethics. Unbeknownst to Miko, his wife, Veera, also slept with Robert the last time everyone was together. Robert's young trophy wife, Elise, has no old grudges to bear, but will be swept up in the murderous fray.

In this second book in the Frank Yakabuski Mystery series, Yakabuski is called in to investigate a gruesome crime scene. A body has been left hanging from a schoolyard fence. On closer inspection, Yak finds a large diamond in the murder victim’s mouth. Two criminal gangs - the Shiners and the Travellers - are fighting with each other, and Yakabuski turns to his father, a now-retired detective who has a long history with the gangs, for advice in the interrogation. And as if this weren’t enough for one detective, a serial killer is taking a deadly road trip through the United States.

Nine-year-old Jenny Carson is brutally murdered in Kenton Wood on her way from school. Then Charles Lendon is found stabbed to death with a skewer through his heart. He was a ruthless lawyer and something of a womanizer. Jenny's father blamed him for her murder. As the local police struggle, Inspector Crow is called in. Can he connect the two killings? He discovers that several of those closest to Charles Lendon had good reason to hate him: his housekeeper lover, her unstable brother, even the boyfriend of his attractive young colleague Cathy Tennant.

Darlington is a small Northern town where everyone knows everyone. But Detectives Orion Tanzy and Max Byrd know that small towns can harbour deadly killers ... Anna Greenwell is walking home through the park with her sixyearold son when they come across a body. As soon as she sees the trainers and tracksuit, she knows. Her eldest was wearing those same clothes last night — and he never came home. At the postmortem, Tanzy and Byrd see that Mark Greenwell’s back is covered in deep scars. Some have healed, but others are fresh and raw. Someone was punishing this boy with regular whippings.

Just when Nolan’s looking for a way out of his dead-end job, trouble comes knocking, and he’s back in business. Someone harboring an old grudge has just picked off Joey DiPreta, a crooked businessman with ties to the mob, and the guy’s family is out to get whoever’s responsible. So is Nolan’s family - in Chicago - and they offer him big bucks and a piece of a swank hotel if he’ll protect their interests.

In the bustling town of Larkspur, Detective Raymond "Ray" Marshall is known for his unwavering pursuit of justice. But when a series of mysterious murders plague the town, even Ray is baffled by the elusive shadow orchestrating these crimes. As he delves deeper into the investigation, the lines between personal and professional blur.

Darlington is a small Northern town where everyone knows everyone. And Detectives Tanzy and Byrd know there’s a twisted serial killer in their midst... They find Julia Porter’s body tied to a chair in her quiet family home in the outskirts of Darlington. She’s covered in blood, and someone has cut out her eyes. Next to her is a message written in red crayon: She didn’t see it coming. Detectives Tanzy and Byrd have never seen the like of this in their town before. Then a few days later a woman is handed a package on the high street. It contains Julia Porter’s eyes ... It’s a warning.

PI Jarvis Mann was captivated by the sultry tones of his female client.... Emily White with girl next door looks and shimmering eyes that begged for help…. She is being stalked but isn’t certain by whom…and this wasn’t the first time.