California Noir

Introducing Detective Stilwell: a cop relentlessly following his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina Island. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell has been “exiled” to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island, after department politics drove him off a...

Out in the far reaches of Los Angeles County, where the glamor of Hollywood fades into the long empty of the desert, two unlicensed private detectives are about to face a case that is larger and more complicated than any they’ve faced before. A ghost-hunting influencer disappears in the middle of a live stream. A beekeeper is murdered after telling his friends that he has come across a dangerous secret.

Lou Rosen and Molly Hatch are unlicensed private detectives, scraping by on whatever cases they can get from their little office on the fringes of LA County. Reeling from a devastating betrayal and a major earthquake, this season finds Lou and Molly trying to rebuild their lives and evaluate their futures. But those futures might not be as long as they hope.

This tragic, Hamlet-esque noir tells the stirring and brutal coming of age story of young Luke Crosswhite, who after years apart from his criminal family returns to their flock deep in the California desert. Perfect for readers of S.A. Cosby and Don Winslow. Luke’s father is serving time for a...

Welcome to the City of Angels—where every dream has a shadow. Legends of Los Angeles peels back the glittering surface of Hollywood to reveal the ghosts beneath the spotlight. In forty haunting tales of fame, obsession, and ruin, Los Angeles becomes a city alive with secrets: a phantom director still filming his masterpiece, a cursed headshot that erases actors from reality, and a talk show that won’t stop broadcasting—no matter how many of its guests are dead. From Beverly Hills mansions humming with regret to the haunted neon of Sunset Boulevard, each story captures a different side...

When two men meet in the gym - the ex-boxer Billy Tully and the novice Ernie Munger - their brief sparring session sets into motion their hidden fates, initiating young Munger into the "company of men" and luring Tully back into training. Fat City tells of their anxieties and hopes, their loves and losses, and the stubborn determination of their manager, Ruben Luna, who knows that even the most promising kid is likely to fall prey to some weakness.

In this thrilling mystery from an Edgar Award winning author, a fearless black-bag publicist exposes the belly of the L.A. beast. “The best mystery novel I've read in years.” —James Patterson, #1 bestselling author Welcome to Mae Pruett’s Los Angeles, where “Nobody talks. But everybody...

Dean Mercer was the kind of detective prosecutors asked for by name. At the Woodland Police Department, his cases were clean, his testimony held, and his reputation for excellence reached from courtroom to command. So when the LAPD recruits him into an elite lateral detective role handling the city's most sensitive investigations, it feels like the reward he's earned. Bigger cases. More money. More prestige. The job of a lifetime. Then a woman vanishes from one of LA's most powerful political families. A witness dies under convenient circumstances. A report changes after Dean signs it. And ...

San Francisco Noir lashes out with hard-biting tales exploring the shadowy nether regions of scenic "Baghdad by the Bay". In this superb collection, virtuosos of the genre meet up with the best of SF’s literary fiction community to chart a unique psycho-geography for a dark landscape. From inner city boroughs to the outlands, each contributor offers an original story based in a distinct neighborhood.

Walter Mosley’s indelible detective Easy Rawlins is back, with a new detective agency and a new mystery to solve. Picking up where his last adventures in Rose Gold left off in L.A. in the late 1960s, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins finds his life in transition. He’s ready—finally—to...

🎬 For fans of Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, and Jack Reacher. A novel that feels like a cult movie — bold, explosive, and addictive from the first page. From 2025 to 1992... 💀 He died in 2025. A former cop woke up in California — in the body of a nineteen-year-old lawn guy. Now he’s got a second chance — in a world of perfect lawns, tanned smiles, and restless housewives with dangerous desires. ☀️ The sun burns hotter here. 🎸 The music’s louder. 🍹 The nights last forever. 🌃 But beneath the neon glow and polished chrome lies another side of California — where ...

Prohibition. Mobsters, murder, and mayhem. FBI agents. Cops, robbers, and worse. Sound like the background for a Hollywood epic? It's Ernest Marquez's latest very true story of the renowned gambling ships that anchored in Santa Monica Bay in the 1920s and 1930s. It's the story of Tony Cornero, the cockiest gangster who ever bootlegged a bottle of scotch, the man who helped found Las Vegas, and the smooth operator of the most glamorous gambling ship in the Pacific, the Rex.

An irresistible story of love and death, this Easy Rawlins mystery takes place during the devastating 1965 Watts riots. Easy's hunt for a killer reveals a new city emerging from the ashes -- and a new life for Easy and his friends...

Easy Rawlins, L.A.'s most reluctant detective, comes home one day to find Easter, the daughter of his friend Chrismas Black, left on his doorstep. Easy knows that this could only mean that the ex-marine Black is probably dead, or will be soon. Easter's appearance is only the beginning, as Easy...

In this thrilling 1950s noir, when a beautiful woman comes into Paris Minton’s life, everything starts falling apart—leaving him no choice but to ask Fearless Jones for help. Mosley returns to mysteries at last with his most engaging hero since Easy Rawlins. When Paris Minton meets a...

Made to Kill is the thrilling speculative noir from novelist and comic writer Adam Christopher. It was just another Tuesday morning when she walked into the office--young, as I suspected they all might be, another dark brunette with some assistance and enough eye black to match up to Cleopatra...

In this literary thriller, a young man descends into the Los Angeles underworld to find his family’s killer—aided by a group of strangers with their own shadowy pasts. When Marty returns to Pennsylvania after living in California for ten years, he’s happily welcomed by his father and older...

Who is Claire Gravesend? So wonders PI Lee Crowe when he finds her dead, in a fine cocktail dress, on top of a Rolls Royce, in the most dangerous neighborhood in San Francisco. Claire's mother, Olivia, is one of the richest people in California. She doesn't believe the coroner: her daughter did not kill herself. Olivia hires Crowe, who - having just foiled a federal case against a cartel kingpin - is eager for distraction. But the questions about the Gravesend family pile up fast.

A classic crime novel about a kidnapping scheme gone wrong from Jim Thompson's, America's "Dimestore Dostoevsky." William "Kid" Collins was once a respected boxer. Now he's a drifter, on the run after escaping from a mental institution. One afternoon he meets Fay, a beautiful young widow. She is...

Written with the voice and vision that have made Mosley one of the most entertaining writers in America, "Fear Itself" marks the return of a master at the top of his form...