Urban Crime Fiction

Epi Dalmau is a desperate man. Early one morning, he carries a duffle bag into a dingy bar in a rough neighborhood of Barcelona. Four other people are in the bar: his brother Alex, his good friend Tanveer, the bartender, and a Pakistani man who wandered in to use the restroom. Epi grabs a hammer out of his duffle bag and attacks Tanveer. After a brief struggle and a couple of blows, Tanveer lies dead on the floor and Epi flees the bar. Alex and the bartender plan to find and protect Epi, while blaming the murder on the unfortunate Pakistani man, who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Detective Story Club's first short story anthology is based around a London detective club and includes three newly discovered tales unpublished for 100 years, plus a story bearing an uncanny resemblance to a Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes story but written some seven years earlier.

Alex Menkaure, former pharaoh and mummy, and his vampire partner, Marcus, born in ancient Rome, are vice cops in a special Miami police unit. They fight to keep the streets safe from criminal vampires, shape-shifters, bootleg blood dealers, and anti-vampire vigilantes. When poisoned artificial blood drives vampires to murder, the city threatens to tear itself apart. Only an unlikely alliance with former opponents can give Alex and Marcus a fighting chance against an ancient vampire conspiracy.

Faolan O'Connor spent his life killing for men like Legs Diamond and Lucky Luciano, and now it's his turn to face the music. But when vampire Darcy Killian offers him immortality, Faolan enters a world of violence, wealth, and power beyond anything he's ever imagined.

John Ridley is an acclaimed screenwriter and best-selling author. His first novel featuring LAPD mutant hunter Soledad O'Roark, Those Who Walk in Darkness, was an instant hit. Soledad's second adventure finds her hunting down a vigilante who is murdering metanormals indiscriminantly. She has no love for the mutants, but no one is above the law. So with her modified sidearm at her hip, she hits the pavement, determined to dish out some street justice.

After a successful L.A. television career, Ray Mitchell returns to the New Jersey housing project where he grew up, to rethink his life, reconnect with his teenage daughter, and give back to the community. Things are looking up: he's seeing a woman from the old neighborhood and teaching at his high school. But suddenly, he is found savagely beaten. He knows who did it, but won't talk. It's up to Nerese Ammons, a childhood acquaintance and now a police detective, to get Ray to tell what happened.

Harrison spins the story of a young, beautiful, secretive Chinese woman, Jin-Li, who gets involved in a brilliant scheme to steal valuable information from corporations in New York City. When the plan is discovered by powerful New Yorkers who stand to lose enormous sums of money, Jin-Li goes on the run. Meanwhile, her former lover, Ray Grant, a man who was out of the country for years but who has recently returned, is caught up in the search for her.

Medium Dead is a fun urban fantasy chronicling the crime fighting adventures of Brenda - a reluctant medium - and Brian - a vigilante demon with an impish sense of humour. Think Stephanie Plum with magic and a dash of Carl Hiaasen. Brenda Steele is smart, funny and out of her depth. A Vigilante Demon called Brian wants her to find murdered spirits and help him track down their killers. But Brian doesn't just catch criminals, he likes to play with them first, and make the punishment fit the crime.

Lucy Keiver has come back from service in the country to London’s notorious Campbell Road. She’s there to care for her mum, the forthright and feisty but much loved Matilda, recovering after a savage attack almost left her dead. Despite the depression affecting the country, Lucy is lucky to find a job as a Lady’s maid. But when she is unfairly dismissed, Lucy is forced to take a job in a rather unsavoury nightclub - something nice girls just don’t do.

It's easy to kill a man. It's hard to kill a man well. A 29-year-old man lives alone in his Glasgow flat. The telephone rings; a casual conversation, but behind this a job offer. The clues are there if you know to look for them. He is an expert. A loner. Freelance. Another job is another job, but what if this organization wants more? A meeting at a club. An offer. A target: Lewis Winter, a necessary sacrifice that will be only the first step in an all-out war between crime syndicates the likes of which hasn't been seen for decades. It's easy to kill a man.

Training at the Undercover Protectorate’s Academy is kicking my butt. My sister aced it in a few months - but I’m lagging behind like a three-legged poodle at a greyhound race. I don’t want to have to leave my new home in this amazing castle, so I’ve got to get a grip on my magic. Soon. When thieves steal valuable dragon magic, our whole castle is put at risk. Worse, our friends are dying. It's my destiny to hunt the thieves, but my boss doesn’t get that. When she tells me to stand down, I have to listen. And that means our magic keeps weakening, and our friends are closer to death.

A small-town sheriff has some unfinished business in the big city.... Jack Lamburt doesn’t negotiate with drug dealers. When he learns that his girlfriend Debbie’s sister is keeping company with New Jersey gang leaders, he opts to spring her the only way he knows how. With a hail of bullets and blood.... On his quest to get Debbie’s sister free, Lamburt attracts the attention of an FBI agent eager to take the vigilante down. Things get even hairier when a drug lord goes on the war path to reverse the sheriff’s rescue mission with some deadly revenge.

In his quest for cash and beautiful women, Jamell White, a.k.a. Sugar Daddy, runs a game on some of the biggest hustlers on the Gulf Coast, including a psychotic drug dealer, a crooked cop, and a Puerto Rican cartel.

The BGR sisterhood is the most notorious and respected gang in Scotland Heights. In spite of her gang’s powerful reputation, 17-year-old Patience is ready to step down as BGR’s leader. The problem is that the same way she was jumped into the gang is the only way the other members will let her out - if they’ll let her out at all. As Patience plans her farewell from the hood, Denim Mitchell overhears that Patience is being set up by her own BGR sisters. Will Denim find out who is behind the plot to betray Patience and stop them in time?

One phone call. Two lives. Their darkest secrets. Lana needs to sell a holiday, fast. Stuck in Tenerife, in a dead end job, she never expected a response quite like Liam’s. Thousands of miles away a phone rings. Liam never intended to pick up - he’s too busy choosing the quickest way to die. But at least someone should know the truth before he goes, even if that someone is a stranger. As time runs out both are drawn to the other, expressing thoughts they never imagined they would share. When you’re about to die, will your secrets even matter?

Being raised in the game by conniving, money-hungry, married-to-the-streets parents, the only thing 17-year-old Porsha Jackson was sheltered from was fairytales. Calvin, her father, is one of the most feared and respected drug dealers in the city, and Trinity, her mother, has a reputation for a firm hand and on-point aim. From hustling and grinding to balancing a few hours of school a week to keep social services off the family's back, Porsha has been groomed from an early age to hold her own and help run the family's business.

Nestled on the edge of Chicago's gritty west side, Oak Park is a suburb in flux. To the west, theaters and shops frame posh houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. To the east lies a neighborhood still recovering from urban decline. In the center of the community sits Ilios Lane, a pristine cul-de-sac dotted with quiet homes that bridge the surrounding extremes of wealth and poverty. On the first warm day in April, Mary Elizabeth McPherson, a lifelong resident of Ilios Lane, skips school with her friend Sofia.

While growing up in a household with a father who verbally and physically abused her and her mother, Kim Rashell Williams was forced to fend for herself. To escape the turmoil she suffered, she buried herself in books and attained a higher education, resulting in her leaving behind the life she knew as a young girl. However, she still could not escape the lingering psychological damage inflicted upon her.

El frío invierno no llegó a Boad Hill solo, con él, vinieron los asesinatos. El sheriff Burt no sabe qué hacer ante la primera víctima que encuentran sepultada bajo la nieve, pero pronto será una costumbre encontrar cadáveres de jóvenes chicas, de la escuela secundaria New Academy. El asesino pronto recibe el apodo de Jack pies de pluma ya que no deja ninguna huella. En un pueblo "aunque el sheriff diga que es una ciudad" donde nunca ha sucedido nada, todos son ahora sospechosos.

The only clue to his identity was a small medallion with the words "Lazarus Gray" stamped on it. He took that name and became one of Sovereign City's greatest heroes, forming an alliance with other lost souls like himself. Together, they are Assistance Unlimited...and now they face their greatest threats ever!