Private Detective Fiction

Al Harris’s actions haven’t gone unnoticed, and not all that attention is good. After being questioned by a couple of mysterious men, Harris comes back to find his office in ruins and Judy attacked - and all his case files stolen. What is it about those cases that is so important? The resulting investigation will take Harris back to the city of Chicago. The famous days of Al Capone and the Untouchables might be over, but the mafia still rules Chicago in its own way, and Harris is about to find out for himself just how alive and kicking they still are.

Striking a balance between the pros and cons of his job isn’t going to be easy, especially now that his reputation is growing. Harris has helped to solve a few more high-profile cases, and some people aren’t too happy about that. He thought that it would help get him more clients, and he’s getting noticed all right - by the wrong kind of people.

When Harris starts to investigate the disappearance of a young boy 20 years ago, he thinks that it’s going to be a sad but open-and-shut case. But then, he starts to discover signs that this wasn’t an isolated incident, that multiple boys were taken over the years, and that there might still be danger in the present day. His new independence gives Harris purpose and motivation, but without the police department behind him, and perhaps even against him, will he be able to close this case and prevent the past from becoming the present once again?

Al Harris is not, and was not ever, an art connoisseur. But when a desperate young Jewish woman comes to him, convinced that her family’s stolen art is hidden somewhere in Woodlawn, Al is persuaded to take the case, as unlikely as it is that priceless European art has ended up in this small town.

Stella Darnell is a cleaner. But when she isn't tackling dust and dirt and restoring order to chaos, Stella solves murders. Her latest case concerns a man convicted of killing his mistress. His daughter thinks he's innocent, and needs Stella to prove it. As Stella sifts through piles of evidence and interview suspects, she discovers a link between the recent murder and a famous case from forty years ago: the shocking death of six-year-old Sarah Ferris, killed in the shadows of an empty playground. Stella knows that dredging up the past can be dangerous.

Phoebe Siegler first meets Charles Heist in a shabby trailer on the eastern edge of Los Angeles. She’s looking for her friend’s missing daughter, Arabella, and hires Heist to help. A laconic loner who keeps his pet opossum in a desk drawer, Heist intrigues the sarcastic and garrulous Phoebe. Reluctantly, he agrees to help. The unlikely pair navigates the enclaves of desert-dwelling vagabonds and finds Arabella is in serious trouble - caught in the middle of a violent standoff that only Heist, mysteriously, can end.

Even in the future, dames still need help, criminals still need capturing, and men still hire out to do both! Hugh Monn, Private Detective, the debut collection from author Lee Houston is a New Pulp mash up of two classic genres-the hard boiled detective and science fiction! Join Hugh as he walks the glittering, yet dark streets of Galveston 2 and finds as much mayhem and corruption in the future as there's ever been!

The streets of Bay City, California, in the early 1950s are as mean as they get. Marlowe is as restless and lonely as ever, and the private eye business is a little slow. Then a new client is shown in: blond, beautiful, and expensively dressed, she wants Marlowe to find her former lover. Almost immediately, Marlowe discovers that the man's disappearance is merely the first in a series of bewildering events. Soon he is tangling with one of Bay City's richest and most ruthless families—and developing a singular appreciation for how far they will go to protect their fortune.

Cambridge. Christmas 1922. Posie Parker has cleared a space in her hectic schedule to try to unravel a tragedy in her own family. But Posie’s past is hiding around every turn in the old university town. She finds herself taking on a new case which is positively teeming with ghosts, shadows, and secrets, where nothing is quite what it seems.

At 11 years old, Morgan Sheppard solved the murder of a teacher when everyone else believed it to be a suicide. The publicity surrounding the case laid the foundation for his reputation as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes. He parlayed that fame into a gig as TV’s “resident detective,” solving the more typical tawdry daytime talk show mysteries. Until, that is, Sheppard wakes up handcuffed to a bed in a hotel room. Around him, five strangers are slowly waking up, as well. Soon they discover a corpse in the bathtub and Sheppard is challenged to put his deductive skills to the test.

Arsène Lupin revient sur le devant de la scène, en cabotinant avec une de ses victimes, puis en s'échappant sous le nez et la barbe de Ganimard, le vaillant inspecteur de la Sureté. Son nom réapparaît dans d'autres affaires mystérieuses : c'en est trop ! Les victimes en appellent à Herlock Sholmès, le célèbre détective anglais qui a déjà bataillé avec Lupin et remporté une demie-victoire.

The last thing Tree Callister wants is to get involved in the movie that is being shot on Sanibel Island. But the film deals with the Hollywood life of his best pal, Rex Baxter. Cast as Rex is the legendary movie star John Twist who was lured out of retirement to play the role. Twist is a nasty, difficult drunk who needs a minder to make sure he stays sober. Tree, against his better judgment, gets dragged into the job. As filming begins, everyone involved soon comes to despise Twist. Tree has his hands full trying to keep the aging star in line.

Before he became a private investigator, before he served in the Detroit police, and long before he retreated to the wintry reaches of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Alex McKnight played ball in the minor leagues. He doesn’t spend much time thinking about those days, at least not until a former teammate comes looking for him. The man is here to ask a favor. He wants Alex to help him find the woman with whom he had a brief, passionate affair three decades ago. But as the search deepens, McKnight begins to suspect that he hasn’t been told the full story.

Dex Baxter - Private Eye, is willing to anything to solve his case and find his man...Anything! Its Hollywood in the 1960s and young, very handsome private investigator Dex Bullet is very excited to have his first rear, I mean, first real case! He’s on the trail of actor Mark Trent who vanished while filming a role in a major movie. He soon learns an actors body is his tool box, and in his assumed role as aspiring actor Cliff Baxter, Dex learns to use equipment from top to bottom in his pursuit of solving the mysterious case.

It’s been three days and now everyone in Brighton is looking for her. There is an army of police searching, her picture is on every front page, and the public can’t get enough of it. Gangs of good citizens are going door to door, turning their neighbors’ houses upside down, but still no one can find her. For Brighton’s No.1 Private Detective, Joe Grabarz, it brings back too many memories of his first case, another missing girl, when he learnt too many lessons the hard way.

Two decades into her calling at a New Mexico monastery, Sister Evangeline Divine breaks her daily routine when a police officer appears, carrying a message from her father. Sister Eve is no stranger to the law, having grown up with a police captain turned private detective. She’s seen her fair share of crime—and knows a thing or two about solving mysteries. But when Captain Jackson Divine needs her to return home and help him recover from surgery, Sister Eve finds herself taking on his latest case.

Eddie Sutherland is dead. Normally, Detective Wes O'Brien wouldn't care about another dead drug dealer, but he may just be the man who killed him. Thrown off the force and under investigation, Wes is called upon privately to look into a cheating spouse case.

This novella is a tale of violence, with a touch of the supernatural set in La Crosse Wisconsin. Jess Thornton and his friend Alexander rescue a young girl from an abuser, and end up antagonizing a whole "cell" of illegal invaders. Even Jess's family becomes involved, and Jess and Alexander have their work cut out for them! In fact, they would fail, were it not for a bit of the supernatural.

Blacklisted by the police. Being sued by a client. And broke. Things can’t get any worse for Brighton’s No. 1 Private Detective, Joe Grabarz, in this blistering debut novel from award-winning writer Tom Trott. That’s when his best friend’s body washes up on the beach. Could it really have been 10 years? How could his life have ended like this? He needs answers. But with the city in the grips of organised crime, and struggling to deal with an influx of legal highs, who cares about just another dead drug dealer?

Rational Scrutiny: Paradoxes and Contradictions in Detective Fiction discusses why Chess Hanrahan and Cyrus Skeen, the author's premier heroes and the chief subjects of this volume, are not only extraordinary men of action, but “intellectuals” of the first rank, as well. As Cline writes in the Preface, detective fiction, as a rule, employs both "intellectuals" and "doers".