Category: Detective/crime fictions

Death Comes Too Late

Related Posts
Fifty-to-One (Hard Case Crime Book 50)

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF HARD CASE CRIME! Okay, not really. But what if, instead of having been founded 50 books ago, Hard Case Crime had been founded 50 years ago, by a rascal out to make a quick buck off the popularity of pulp Read more

Pinup noir (2book of hard-boiled short stories)

Everybody loves the femme fatale; the tough-as-nails dame with the smoky voice and the legs that go on forever – almost as much as they love the cynical gumshoe with the strict moral code and the tiniest soft spot in Read more

Death Comes Too Late
Date:
MainCategory:
Type:
Genre:
trope:
Lenght:
Author:

CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF HARD CASE CRIME –
20 UNFORGETTABLE STORIES BY HARD CASE CRIME FOUNDER CHARLES ARDAI
“A MASTER OF THE SHORT STORY.” – STEPHEN KING

Since debuting 20 years ago, Hard Case Crime has won acclaim for publishing the best in hardboiled crime fiction – not least of all the work of founding editor Charles Ardai, which has won the Edgar, Shamus and Ellery Queen Awards, been selected for ‘Best of the Year’ anthologies, and earned praise from everyone from the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune to Megan Abbott and Stephen King.

Collected here for the first time anywhere are the author’s 20 finest stories, including his Edgar-winning “The Home Front,” about death and repentance during World War II; the Shamus Award finalist “Nobody Wins,” about a brutal gangland enforcer searching for the woman he loves; and year’s-best selections such as “A Bar Called Charley’s,” about a traveling salesman’s most grueling night on the road. From Brazil at Carnival to Times Square at midnight, from Tijuana, Mexico to history’s first gunshot in 11th-century China, Ardai will take you to some of the most dangerous places in the world – and the darkest corners of the human heart.

Red Harvest (The Continental Op)

Red Harvest (The Continental Op)
Date:
MainCategory:
Period:
Type:
Genres: ,
tropes: , , ,
Lenght:
Seriesize:
Author:
Narrator:
Reception:

The steadfast and sturdy Continental Op has been summoned to the town of Personville—known as Poisonville—a dusty mining community splintered by competing factions of gangsters and petty criminals.

The Op has been hired by Donald Willsson, publisher of the local newspaper, who gave little indication about the reason for the visit. No sooner does the Op arrive, than the body count begins to climb . . . starting with his client. With this last honest citizen of Poisonville murdered, the Op decides to stay on and force a reckoning—even if that means taking on an entire town.

Red Harvest is more than a superb crime novel: it is a classic exploration of corruption and violence in the American grain.

The Thin Man

The Thin Man
Date:
MainCategory:
Period:
Type:
Genres: ,
tropes: , ,
Lenght:
Author:
Narrator:
Reception:

Nick Charles seems to find trouble wherever he goes. He thinks his sleuthing days are behind him when Julia Wolf, a former acquaintance, turns up dead. Nick—thanks to some persuasion from his enchanting wife, Nora—finds himself falling back into old habits and making a few polite inquiries.

The prime suspect, Julia’s lover and boss Clyde Miller Wynant, has vanished without a trace. Everyone is after him, but Nick is not so sure Wynant is the culprit. And when another dubious figure bursts into their bedroom, waving a loaded handgun, it seems Nick and Nora’s adventure is only just beginning.

Nick and Nora Charles are among Dashiell Hammett’s most alluring creations: a rich, glamourous couple who solve homicides in between wisecracks and martinis. At once knowing and unabashedly romantic, The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners.

Blackout: A stunning thriller of wartime Berlin

Blackout: A stunning thriller of wartime Berlin
Date:
MainCategory:
Period:
Type:
Genre:
trope:
Lenght:
Seriesize:
Author:
Narrator:

Berlin, December 1939

As Germany goes to war, the Nazis tighten their terrifying grip. Paranoia in the capital is intensified by a rigidly enforced blackout that plunges the city into oppressive darkness every night, as the bleak winter sun sets.

When a young woman is found brutally murdered, Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is under immense pressure to solve the case, swiftly. Treated with suspicion by his superiors for his failure to join the Nazi Party, Schenke walks a perilous line – for disloyalty is a death sentence.

The discovery of a second victim confirms Schenke’s worst fears. He must uncover the truth before evil strikes again.

As the investigation takes him closer to the sinister heart of the regime, Schenke realises there is danger everywhere – and the warring factions of the Reich can be as deadly as a killer stalking the streets . . .

Titanshade (The Carter Archives Book 1)

Titanshade (The Carter Archives Book 1)
Date:
MainCategory:
Newstuffs: ,
Type:
Genres: , ,
tropes: ,
Lenght:
Seriesize:
Author:
Narrator:
Reception:

Noir mystery meets urban fantasy in this “masterpiece of a first novel” that’s full of retro throwbacks and action-packed adventure (W. Michael Gear, New York Times bestselling author).

Welcome to the gritty streets of Titanshade—an oil boomtown on the brink of disaster, where danger lurks around every corner . . .

Carter is a homicide cop in Titanshade, an oil boomtown where 8-tracks are state of the art, disco rules the radio, and all the best sorcerers wear designer labels. It’s also a metropolis teetering on the edge of disaster. As its oil reserves run dry, the city’s future hangs on a possible investment from the reclusive amphibians known as Squibs.

But now negotiations have been derailed by the horrific murder of a Squib diplomat. The pressure’s never been higher to make a quick arrest, even as Carter’s investigation leads him into conflict with the city’s elite. Undermined by corrupt coworkers and falsified evidence, and with a suspect list that includes power-hungry politicians, oil magnates, and mad scientists, Carter must find the killer before the investigation turns into a witch-hunt and those closest to him pay the ultimate price on the filthy streets of Titanshade.

Mushroom Blues (The Hofmann Report Book 1)

Mushroom Blues (The Hofmann Report Book 1)
Date:
MainCategory:
Newstuffs: ,
Type:
Genre:
trope:
Lenght:
Author:

ENTER THE FUNGALVERSE. BEAT THE WINTER BLUES.

Blade Runner, True Detective and District 9 meld with the weird worlds of Jeff VanderMeer, Philip K. Dick and China Miéville in Adrian M. Gibson’s dark, hallucinatory, fungalpunk noir debut.

Two years after a devastating defeat in the decade-long Spore War, the island nation of Hōppon and its capital city of Neo Kinoko are occupied by invading Coprinian forces. Its fungal citizens are in dire straits, wracked by food shortages, poverty and an influx of war refugees. Even worse, the corrupt occupiers exploit their power, hounding the native population.

As a winter storm looms over the metropolis, NKPD homicide detective Henrietta Hofmann begrudgingly partners up with mushroom-headed patrol officer Koji Nameko to investigate the mysterious murders of fungal and half-breed children. Their investigation drags them deep into the seedy underbelly of a war-torn city, one brimming with colonizers, criminal gangs, racial division and moral decay.

In order to solve the case and unravel the truth, Hofmann must challenge her past and embrace fungal ways. What she and Nameko uncover in the midst of this frigid wasteland will chill them to the core, but will they make it through the storm alive?

Eldritch Investigations: Lovecraftian Tales of Occult Detection

Eldritch Investigations: Lovecraftian Tales of Occult Detection
Date:
MainCategories: ,
Type:
Genres: ,
tropes: , ,
Lenght:

Two things spring to mind when you think about the golden age of pulp magazines, weird fiction & detective stories. In these pages, those two worlds collide as an assortment of sleuths fight against the machinations of the Great Old Ones and their earthly allies.

From the Victorian era to the present day, in locales ranging from the streets of San Francisco to the windswept Cornish moors, these tales promise to pack a punch.

===

14 Tales of Eldritch Investigations by; Glynn Owen Barras, Simon Bleaken, Gavin Chappell, B. Harlan Crawford, Matthew Davenport, John A. DeLaughter, Stephen Herczeg, Jonathan Inbody, Tim Mendees, C.T. Phipps, Robert Poyton, Mark Rankin, Charles Reis & Jasiah Witkofsky.

The Cthulhu Casebooks – Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows

The Cthulhu Casebooks - Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows
Date:
Type:
Genres: ,
trope:
Lenght:
Seriesize:
Author:
Narrator:

It is the autumn of 1880, and Dr John Watson has just returned from Afghanistan. Badly injured and desperate to forget a nightmarish expedition that left him doubting his sanity, Watson is close to destitution when he meets the extraordinary Sherlock Holmes, who is investigating a series of deaths in the Shadwell district of London.

Several bodies have been found, the victims appearing to have starved to death over the course of several weeks, and yet they were reported alive and well mere days before.

Moreover, there are disturbing reports of creeping shadows that inspire dread in any who stray too close. Holmes deduces a connection between the deaths and a sinister drug lord who is seeking to expand his criminal empire.

Yet both he and Watson are soon forced to accept that there are forces at work far more powerful than they could ever have imagined. Forces that can be summoned, if one is brave – or mad – enough to dare…

The Jazzman’s Requiem and Blues, Booze and Bullets (Delta Private Investigations Book 1)

The Jazzman's Requiem and Blues, Booze and Bullets (Delta Private Investigations Book 1)
Date:
MainCategory:
Newstuff:
Type:
Genres: ,
trope:
Lenght:
Seriesize:
Authors: ,
Reception:

Two Books in One!

A place worth dying in, 1938 New Orleans. The City That Care Forgot, a bubbling gumbo of Jazz, Blues, Booze, Bullets… and murder.

The World War left Jack Callahan and Lane Walsh slightly scarred, with their own code about how things should be done. A missing Jazzman, a powerful mafia boss, and a cast of characters as if Charles Dickens set his book in 1930’s New Orleans, all add to the recipe of a new noir series from International Best-Selling author Kevin Steverson, and William Alan Webb.

Fans of Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe, Dashiel Hammett and The Maltese Falcon, Michael Connelly or Elmore Leonard, may find themselves immersed in the cases of Delta Private Investigations.

Pulp Modern

Pulp Modern
Date:
MainCategory:
Type:
Genre:
trope:
Lenght:
Seriesize:
Reception:

Uncle B. Publications and Larque Press, LLC, present the triumphant return of PULP MODERN. Volume Two, Issue One features fiction from multiple genres, including crime, horror, and science fiction. Pulp Modern resumes its mission to publish the very best fiction from around the world. In this issue, writers from Europe, Canada, the United States, Asia, and Australia contribute a diverse selection of short stories for the most discerning readers.