Urban Crime Fiction

New York is sweltering in the summer heat, and Harlem is close to the boiling point. To Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, at times it seems as if the whole world has gone mad. Trying, as always, to keep some kind of peace - their legendary nickel-plated Colts very much in evidence - Coffin Ed and Grave Digger find themselves pursuing two completely different cases through a maze of knifings, beatings, and riots that threatens to tear Harlem apart.

Trouble is brewing in New Orleans. Shifters are moving in, and vampires are being picked off in record numbers. And vampire hunter Phoebe Kilsen is right in the middle of the war. When Phoebe's best friend goes missing along with the consort of the most powerful vampire in New Orleans, Phoebe betrays her heart and her shifter partner by teaming up with the one vampire she's never trusted.

Eddie's on his way back from a routine investigation when his horse almost runs down a half-naked blonde in serious trouble. Against his better judgment, he promises to protect the frightened young woman, only to find himself waylaid by unknown assailants and left for dead beside her mutilated body.

Single mother Francesca is struggling to get by when an act of desperation leads to her owing a debt to notorious gangland boss Tony Lambrianu. Tony has his own troubles - a change of image from playboy to respectable married man is needed to further his criminal career. He has women falling at his feet but none he wants to make his wife. As Francesca is drawn deeper into the dark underworld dealings of Tony and his associates, she has to make alliances of her own to survive. And she’ll do whatever it takes to protect her small son.

After a reunion with an old friend goes wrong in a Long Island nightclub, Kasheef Williams is forced to protect himself by any means necessary. The only problem is that prying eyes see everything. Those eyes belong to Alija Bell. She runs, but Kasheef sees her face, and he tells her that it's best for her to get temporary amnesia. Afraid for her life and the safety of her daughter, she keeps her mouth shut, but when a tape of the murder surfaces, the only face that is visible is Alija's. Now the police are looking for their eyewitness.

An offbeat suspense tale about an unemployed man who is mistaken for a professional vampire slayer. Lost and frustrated after missing out on a job interview, Ryan is offered a job by a mysterious woman in the office parking lot. Only one hitch, the woman thinks that Ryan is a hitman and the "job" is killing her sister-in-law whom she insists is a vampire.

Barely out of his 20s, Chester Hines knows the score. He's just another bug crawling through the streets of Detroit, waiting to be squashed under the heel of a system meant to keep a brother down. But with his old lady on his back, his only options are on the wrong side of the law. He didn't need a fortune-teller to tell him that sooner or later he'd end up in a system more brutal than the one that forced him there.

Paul Reeves is a successful immigration lawyer, but his passion is collecting old maps of New York, tangible records of the city's rich history in an increasingly digital world. One afternoon he attends an auction with his neighbor Jennifer Mehraz, the beautiful young wife of an Iranian financier-lawyer, but halfway through the auction a handsome man in soldier fatigues appears in the aisle and whisks Jennifer away.

The deadly dimensions over London have been sealed, and the monsters have departed. But word has come to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson of a more terrifying creature still - the great Cthulhu has been sighted off the waters of Innsmouth, Massachusetts. Only Holmes can defeat him. And in the muddy village of Innsmouth, surrounded by villagers who are more sea-monster than human, Holmes meets again his nemesis, Moriarty, and yet greater foes: Amelia Scarcliffe and Maria Fitzgerald, harbingers of Dagon, who have called forth Cthulhu.

ín Chaparro is a retired detective still obsessed by the brutal, decades-old rape and murder of a young married woman in her own bedroom. While attempting to write a book about the case, he revisits the details of the investigation. As he reaches into the past, Chaparro also recalls the beginning of his long, unrequited love for Irene Hornos, then just an intern, now a respected judge. Set in the Buenos Aires of the 1970s, Sacheri’s tale reveals the underpinnings of Argentina’s Dirty War and takes on the question of justice - what it really means and in whose hands it belongs.

In 2001, a woman’s skeleton was found in the woods overlooking Montreal’s Royal Victoria Hospital. Despite an audit of the hospital’s patient records, a forensic reconstruction of the woman’s face, missing-person appeals, and DNA tests that revealed not only where she had lived but how she ate, the woman was never identified. Assigned the name Madame Victoria, her remains were placed in a box in an evidence room and eventually forgotten. But not by Catherine Leroux, who constructs in her form-bending Madame Victoria 12 different histories for the unknown woman.

After the arrest of Chancellor King and the murder of his eldest son and heir, Ghost, the King family and the streets of New York City are thrown into chaos. Chancellor’s older brother, Chapman, takes the opportunity to usurp the crown, breaking the line of succession and stepping over his nephew Shadow. Chapman’s first act as the new king is to banish what remains of his broken family, branding them enemies of the crown. Stripped of all wealth and power, Maureen King places a seemingly impossible task on the shoulders of Shadow.

The bayou is burning, the battle is just beginning - and Luce Boudreau is smack in the middle of no-man's land.... Life as a cop in Canton Town, Mississippi, is never dull - particularly when hiding deep within you is a demon bent on the apocalypse. Luce is doing her best to pretend her two worlds aren't crashing into each other, but what should be a routine arson investigation takes a shocking turn when Luce discovers a link between the suspects and her own dark secrets. There's no turning back, even though her search for the truth threatens to burn her old life down around her.

Twelve stories from the celebrated author of one of the most famous mystery classics ever written, Trent's Last Case. Philip Trent is an artist, a journalist and an urbane unraveller of highly problematical crimes. Here the unshakable sleuth appears in 12 tales of misadventure, where the crimes that he investigates range from fraud and embezzlement to criminal assault and murder, yet they all succumb to his adept methods - even if the criminal sometimes escapes.

Power hungry Don Jimmy Collucci is out to become the kingpin of Chicago's "Honored Society." His rise to the top can only be thwarted by one man - a man fueled by revenge who is hell-bent on bringing Collucci's infamous organization down: the "Black Warrior," Jessie Taylor. When ambitions collide, guns are drawn and blood is spilled. This gritty crime fiction tale is the original Mafia story.

Jakki and School Boy are more than first cousins; they’re best friends and partners in crime with a reputation for getting theirs by any means necessary. The pair are ultimately forced to defend not only their family name but their loyalty to each other. With both wanting to stand at the head of the table, Jakki and School Boy feud. Sani, a well-known female gambling house owner, is at the top of her game, but after she decides to inject phony currency into her business, all hell breaks loose.

When Angel Ramos, one of Jon Reznick’s oldest buddies from special forces, is found brutally slain in a Los Angeles dumpster, Reznick races to California to hunt down his killers. Angel always had Reznick’s back when they were on missions together, but recently his demons had caught up with him. Angel was a recovering junkie and his teenage daughter had vanished into the dark corners of Hollywood’s seedy underbelly. Reznick’s old friend had been desperately trying to get his little girl back when he was viciously tortured and murdered.

In the secret heart of London, under the cover of endless darkness, is the Nightside. But enter at your own risk. The party animals who live here may be as inhuman as their appetites. My name is John Taylor. The Nightside is my home, and I've got a brand new full-time job there (in addition to my private eye work) as Walker—the Voice of the Authorities. I'm also marrying the love of my life, Suzie Shooter, the Nightside's most fearsome bounty-hunter. But nothing comes easy here. Not life. Not death. And for certain, not happily-ever-after.

Dubbed “Dewey Decimal” for his desire to reorganize the library’s stock, he gets by as bagman and muscle for New York City’s unscrupulous district attorney. He takes no pleasure in this kind of civic dirty work. He’d be perfectly content alone among his books. But this is not in the cards, as the DA calls on Dewey for a seemingly straightforward union-busting job.

The Beladors finally have a fierce leader in Daegan, their new dragon king, but life is far from secure now that they've inherited his enemies. Quinn, Evalle, Storm, and friends race to stop a group of vigilantes killing nonhumans before the preternatural world erupts into war - if they can't prove Beladors aren't guilty of the crimes. The team soon discovers someone is trying to turn the entire VIPER preternatural coalition against the Beladors, but who? Or is this all about setting an elaborate trap for Daegan?