Noir True Crime

Midcentury Los Angeles: A city sold to the world as "the white spot of America", a land of sunshine and orange groves, Midwestern values, and Hollywood stars, protected by the world's most famous police force, the Dragnet-era LAPD. Behind this public image lies a hidden world of "pleasure girls" and crooked cops, ruthless newspaper tycoons, corrupt politicians, and East Coast gangsters on the make. Into this underworld came two men - one L.A.'s most notorious gangster, the other its most famous police chief - each prepared to battle the other for the soul of the city.

When you can’t hear…death comes silently. Scotland Yard detective Valerie Crowther is assigned to investigate the murder of a student at a university for the Deaf in London, England. The murder investigation coincides with a deadly flu virus outbreak, resulting in the university being quarantined from the outside world. When more Deaf students are murdered, it becomes clear there is a serial killer operating within the sealed-off university. A chilling cat-and-mouse game evolves as the unknown killer targets Valerie and the virus claims more lives. A stunning, claustrophobic, “...

On a chilly Monday morning in 1935, a young maid opened the garage door of a Southern California seaside villa onto a grim scene. Her employer, a popular motion picture comedienne, lay dead in the front seat of her expensive automobile. Within hours, the news of Thelma Todd’s death was making headlines throughout the nation. Was it murder, suicide, or accident? Cast against the background of Hollywood and Los Angeles, the film industry and the growing metropolis, her death baffled both the public and the investigating authorities. After numerous attempts to solve the mystery over the last...

It’s 2008, and it’s been a while since Jake Adelstein was the only gaijin crime reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun. The global economy is in shambles, Jake is off the police beat but still chain-smoking clove cigarettes, and Tadamasa Goto, the most powerful boss in the Japanese organized crime world, has been banished from the yakuza, giving Adelstein one less enemy to worry about—for the time being. But as he puts his life back together, he discovers that he may be no match for his greatest enemy—himself.

Prison buddies Billy Good and Jackie Walker made time pulling small jobs here and there. Not a bad living if you liked scraping by. The thing to worry about was the next fix. Nothing else mattered. When Billy and Jackie fell in with Kenyatta, a ghetto lord ready to take back the streets, they thought they'd hit the big time. Dealing with drug pushers and crooked cops in the name of justice sure felt good, but in a world where "kindness was the sweetest con of all", every bullet fired echoed with the sound of payback.

Set in 1991, just as Star Trek: The Next Generation has rocketed the cast to global fame, the young and impressionable actor Brent Spiner receives a mysterious package and a series of disturbing letters, that take him on a terrifying and bizarre journey that enlists Paramount Security, the LAPD, and even the FBI in putting a stop to the danger that has his life and career hanging in the balance.

He was a cop. She was his daughter. One of them wasn’t walking away. James Bradford wore the badge in St. Isidore for thirty-five years. He broke up bar fights, kept the town quiet—and never once had to draw his weapon. Until the night his daughter came home. Amanda Petrocelli’s got a record longer than Main Street, a husband with blood on his hands, and two kids caught in the middle. When they show up armed and angry, James doesn’t call for backup. He goes for the gun safe. In a town where loyalty is currency and regret comes due at midnight, this is one cop’s last stand—...

It's not every afternoon that an enigmatic, comely blonde named Stilton (like the cheese) walks into the scruffy gin joint where Sammy "Two Toes" Tiffin tends bar. It's love at first sight, but before Sammy can make his move, an air force general named Remy arrives with some urgent business. 'Cause when you need something done, Sammy is the guy to go to; he's got the connections on the street.

Her blue eyes were luminous. They saved her life…for a while. The first book in The Journey Series of Suspense Thrillers, Deadly, introduces us to the characters and follows them on an odyssey that leads to a fateful and deadly encounter in an Iowa cornfield. With plot twists that immerse the reader in the journey, the story reminds us that things are not always as they appear. The first book in The Journey Series of Suspense Thrillers, Deadly will leave you wondering who the “good guys and bad guys” are. Scroll up and pick up your copy of Deadly today!5.0 out of 5 stars - A great ...

In the midst of one of the worst winters Chicago has seen in years, the body of missing teenager Ella Reynolds is discovered under the surface of a frozen lake. She’s been missing for three weeks...the lake froze over three months ago. Detective Sam Porter and his team are brought in to investigate, but it’s not long before another girl goes missing. The press believes the serial killer Anson Bishop has struck again, but Porter knows differently. The deaths are too different. There’s a new killer on the loose.

In the winter of 1947, Los Angeles awoke to its most haunting mystery— a young woman, found bisected in an empty lot, her beauty as striking in death as it was in life. She was Elizabeth Short, forever immortalized by the press as The Black Dahlia. Her murder became an obsession that defined an era of noir, corruption, and the dark heart beneath the City of Angels’ gleaming surface. Ava Leighton’s The Black Dahlia: City of Shadows is a sweeping narrative of crime, culture, and consequence—part true crime, part cinematic history, and entirely captivating. Through meticulous research ...

The girls yammer all the way to Colorado and Baer's ready for a change. Stinky Joe concurs. But a random Rocky Mountain storm combines with a slippy transmission to force Baer to the side of the road to be rescued by an unwitting cop with a secret. Sometimes good men contemplate evil out of love. Sometimes they need an accomplice with backwood skills...and a reputation that precedes him. Sometimes they're a day late.

Three shocking true crime stories of murder, online predators, and hookups gone wrong—gritty tales of Craigslist killers, Tinder dates, and survival in the digital age. In the age of online hookups, every click carries risk. Behind glowing screens and anonymous ads, predators hunt—and sometimes, the price of desire is death. A Hookup To Die For — A middle-aged man meets a teenage boy through Craigslist. One wants sex, the other money. The deal ends in blood. She Deserved Better — Young, pregnant, and desperate, Brooke turns to Craigslist for help. Instead, she finds “Hard Mike”...

Beverly Hills Noir chronicles an assortment of jaw-dropping true crime stories spanning the legendary city’s history, each with oh-so-90210 twists—including a high-profile murder mystery in the city’s most extravagant mansion, the daring exploits of a handsome cat burglar with movie star looks, a toxic Tinseltown love triangle that ended in gunplay, a brazen Rodeo Drive jewelry store holdup with tragically stunning finale, an Oscar nominated actress on shoplifting spree and more—complete with major roles and countless cameos by Hollywood idols and cultural icons.

The mayor had a mistress, a wife who knew too much, and a secret he’d kill to keep. When a body turns up at a sleazy motel on the edge of town, the whole rotten heart of St. Isidore starts to bleed. The cops want it buried. The mayor wants it forgotten. But someone’s talking—and the truth has a nasty habit of crawling into the light. She was beautiful, dangerous, and smarter than any man in the room. He was powerful, cornered, and ready to make a deal with the devil. His wife? Cold as ice and twice as deadly. Lust. Lies. And one hell of a mess. This isn’t politics. This is The Case ...

Mike Gatto was an up-and-coming young lawmaker when his father was brutally murdered. The act sucked him into the world of noir: wild theories, intransigent detectives, and unimaginable violence.

Based on true events, PERMANENCE, is a dark, "Hitchcockian" literary tour-de-force about Mary Kismet, a woman who is holding onto a deep dark secret too painful and startling to reveal. Now, having isolated herself from the world, she attempts to break away from her demons by immersing herself, body and soul, into a passionate and erotic love affair with her psychiatrist. From NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY Bestselling author, Vincent Zandri, comes a story with an unforgettable climax. Called "hauntingly beautiful" by bOOk R3vi3ws, PERMANENCE is a tragic novel of obsession, dark compulsions, ...

1930s Shanghai could give Chicago a run for its money. In the years before the Japanese invaded, the city was a haven for outlaws from all over the world: a place where pasts could be forgotten, fascism and communism outrun, names invented, fortunes made - and lost. 'Lucky' Jack Riley was the most notorious of those outlaws. An ex-navy boxing champion, he escaped from prison in the States, spotted a craze for gambling and rose to become the Slot King of Shanghai. Ruler of the clubs in that day was 'Dapper' Joe Farren - a Jewish boy who fled Vienna's ghetto with a dream of dance halls.

THE TRAGEDY AT RICHMOND: A COMMUNITY SHATTERED, YET UNBROKEN In the heart of a serene Richmond neighborhood, a night of tranquility was torn apart by an unthinkable act of violence. The Richmond massacre left a close-knit community reeling, forever scarred by loss. Families stood amidst the wreckage of their lives, grappling with heart-wrenching grief and questions that echoed in the silence: How could such horror invade our peaceful home? Where do we find the strength to carry on? The pain was unbearable, the questions relentless: The shock of senseless loss, as loved ones were ripped away...

Arabelle's beloved town matriarch, Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, is snatched from her car, held for ransom, and propped up to the sympathy of thousands online. Her leaked ransom video might have been enough to placate the headline-starved, but for the endlessly bored detective, Robert Ellery, the ticking time-bomb, Alice Daniels, and for Mrs. Thomas herself, a simple headline could never unfurl the secrets they keep from the lies they tell. There is far more to this story than meets the eye. There is more to the dueling towns of affluent, picturesque Arabelle and impoverished, crime-riddled Wood's...