Noir Fiction

Beneath the glitter of Mardi Gras lies the sleaze of Bourbon Street; under the celestial sounds of JazzFest, the nightmare screams of a city once at war within its neighborhoods, but after Hurricane Katrina, seemingly at war with nature and the rest of the country as well. New Orleans is a third world country in itself, a Latin, African, European (and often amoral) culture trapped in a Puritan nation.

Two men, each unaware of the other, share a common family secret: They were sold for adoption by their American father shortly after their births in the Philippines. Three alternating stories interweave the experiences of father Andrew Breszky and the two sons who try to connect and piece together the puzzle of their reckless, impulsive father. One lives in New York and the other grows up in the south of France, later traveling all over Asia as a documentary filmmaker. Both will discover that their relationships somehow echo that of the young man whose history eludes them.

The year started badly and only got worse - blizzards, strikes, power cuts, and political unrest were the norm. For journalist Allie Burns, however, someone else's bad news was the unmistakable sound of opportunity knocking, and the year is ripe with possibilities. But Allie is a woman in a man's world. Desperate to get away from the "women's stories" the Glasgow desk keeps assigning her, she strikes up an alliance with wannabe investigative journalist Danny Sullivan. From the start, their stories create enemies.

The year is 2008. Reza Malek’s life is modest but manageable - he lives in a small apartment in Harlem, teaches at a local university, and is relieved to be far from the blood and turmoil of Iraq and Afghanistan, where he worked as a reporter, interpreter, and sometimes lover for a superstar journalist who has long since moved on to more remarkable men.

Un hombre vuelve a casa (a Colombia), con varios fracasos a sus espaldas. Y allí «encontrará sin buscar», siguiendo el dicho picassiano. El tejido de araña de la realidad lo atrapará sin darle oportunidad de escapar. Es ésta una novela negra muy singular, donde se dinamitan con acierto muchos de los estereotipos del género. Parte de la mejor narrativa latinoamericana de las últimas décadas ha leído «con provecho» a un autor siciliano que, de alguna manera, supo conjugar a Borges (una de sus referencias esenciales) con los grandes moralistas franceses: Leonardo Sciascia.

Nous sommes la dernière des compagnies franches de Khatovar. Nos traditions et nos souvenirs ne vivent que dans les présentes annales et nous sommes les seuls à porter notre deuil. Tous les hommes naissent condamnés, disent les sages. Ils tètent le sein de la mort. Son souffle apaise toutes les âmes. Nous avons connu une ville autrefois dédiée à son culte, si vieille qu'elle avait perdu le souvenir de cette consécration. Or il lui fallut affronter une menace plus immédiate : un spectre de jadis qui cherchait à revenir chez les vivants depuis une éminence surplombant la ville.

Lorkin vit désormais au Sanctuaire, où il essaie de comprendre la société des Traîtresses et le fonctionnement de leur magie unique car il les soupçonne de nourrir de sombres ambitions. De son côté, Sonea continue de chercher le renégat Skellin. Mais l'influence de ce dernier est bien plus étendue qu'elle ne le craignait. Au Sachaka, Dannyl a perdu le respect de l'élite locale et est préoccupé par l'arrivée du nouvel ambassadeur - un homme qu'il ne connaît que trop bien.

Siglufjörður: an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors - accessible only via a small mountain tunnel. Ari Thór Arason: a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik - with a past that he’s unable to leave behind.

The name's John Taylor. I'm a PI, though what I really do is find things that are lost. I work the Nightside, the city within the city of London, where the sun never rises and where the human and inhuman go to get their kicks, provided they're willing to pay the price in whatever currency the seller demands. In the wake of the war that almost brought the Nightside to total ruin, there's a power vacuum—and some think I should take charge. I don't agree. Neither does the immortal known as the Griffin. Still, when his granddaughter is kidnapped, he calls on me to find her.

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. Now, West Africa enters the Noir Series arena, meticulously edited by one of Nigeria's best-known authors. The 13 stories that comprise this volume stretch the boundaries of "noir" fiction, but each one of them fully captures the essence of noir, the unsettled darkness that continues to lurk in the city's streets, alleys, and waterways.

Things are going along okay with Dennis' gig at the Tishomingo Lodge & Casino in Tunica, Mississippi, "the Casino Capital of the South", until the day he looks down from the high-dive platform and witnesses a mob hit, Dixie style.

It should be the perfect opportunity: a manor house available rent free in exchange for a bit of housesitting. But when Cass and James dig deeper, they find the place has been abandoned since a robbery left almost all the inhabitants dead almost thirty years ago. But they’ve got to save for a deposit somehow, so they move in, and things quickly take a strange turn. Objects disappear and turn up in odd places, the clock always stops at the same time, and the house is oppressive yet strangely familiar. Could it just be bad memories, or are the house’s secrets a little closer to home?

When Detective Kim Stone is called to a local business, what she sees leaves her speechless. The photo on the driving license bears little resemblance to the man laid out before her, and she knows she’s up against the most twisted killer she has ever encountered. But as she breaks the devastating news to the victim’s wife, Diane Phipps, Kim can’t help feeling that something isn’t quite right about the woman’s reaction.

When two men meet in the gym - the ex-boxer Billy Tully and the novice Ernie Munger - their brief sparring session sets into motion their hidden fates, initiating young Munger into the "company of men" and luring Tully back into training. Fat City tells of their anxieties and hopes, their loves and losses, and the stubborn determination of their manager, Ruben Luna, who knows that even the most promising kid is likely to fall prey to some weakness.

As my powers surge, and the fierce love I feel for my mages intensifies, a discovery no one expected is about to change everything. With the Anti Magick Alliance closing in on me, the Bureau convinced I murdered a helpless human, and the Human Extinction League getting ready to unleash their plans on Phoenix Falls, I'll need all the strength I can find to survive.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia: The end of the line. Lawless, drug-soaked, forgotten - it's where bad journalists go to die. For once-great war photographer Will Keller, that's kind of a mission statement: he spends his days floating from one score to the next, taking any job that pays; his nights are a haze of sex, drugs, booze, and brawling. But Will's spiral toward oblivion is interrupted by Kara Saito, a beautiful young woman who shows up and begs Will to help find her sister, June, who disappeared during a stint as an intern at the local paper.

A serial killer stalks women in rural Ohio. He is deranged but brilliant, known only by the grotesque nickname the media has given him - The Doll Parts Killer. The name is apt. He dismembers his victims and leaves them in garbage bags in public places. A residential neighborhood. Next to a roller rink. Behind a Burger King. The investigation is a disaster. No physical evidence. Unreliable witnesses. To make matters worse, the FBI has lost contact with the star profiler working the case.

"La Tulipe noire" est un des romans les plus connus d'Alexandre Dumas. On y trouve tous les thèmes chers à l'auteur : l'aventure, le courage, la grande histoire qui se mêle à la petite... Pourtant ici, Cornélius van Baerle n'a pas d'ambition militaire ou sociale, il veut avant tout créer et faire pousser une tulipe noire. Hélas, ses projets seront contrariés car notre héros n'est autre que le neveu du chef de l'État hollandais, Corneille de Witt, qui vient d'être renversé.

Ezekiel "Easy" Porterhouse Rawlins is an unlicensed private investigator turned hard-boiled detective always willing to do what it takes to get things done in the racially charged, dark underbelly of Los Angeles. But when Easy is approached by a shell-shocked Vietnam War veteran - a young White man who claims to have gotten into a fight protecting a White woman from a Black man - he knows he shouldn't take the case.

A wealthy and notorious clan, the Bellefleurs live in a region not unlike the Adirondacks, in an enormous mansion on the shores of mythic Lake Noir. They own vast lands and profitable businesses, they employ their neighbors, and they influence the government. A prolific and eccentric group, they include several millionaires, a mass murderer, a spiritual seeker who climbs into the mountains looking for God, a wealthy noctambulist who dies of a chicken scratch.