Noir Detective Short Stories

A Flash of Noir is a collection of flash fiction and short, short stories, laid down old-school style by master mystery writer Christopher Pinto. Writing in the genre of gumshoe detectives and sultry dames, creepy horror and hep cat jive, Pinto has put together a series of mostly one-page, 60-second reads that will transport you to another time...a darker, more sinister time. From smokey bars in New York City to the tropical islands of the Florida keys, A Flash of Noir takes you for a spin through the seediest gin joints and darkest alleys. One minute you're speeding down I-95 in a hot rod,...

'A fantastic writer.' Donald Ray Pollock 'Nigel Bird is fast becoming one of the top writers in his genre.' Luca Veste DIRTY OLD TOWN is the debut collection from the prize-winning writer Nigel Bird. His brilliantly observed slices of life allow us to visit places we may not normally choose to enter and to walk a few miles in the shoes of others. Though his tales have darkness at their core, they are also full of a heart and spirit that one rarely finds in the world or ‘noir’ or ‘crime-writing’. There are 9 stories here: Drinking Wine (Spo-Dee-Oh-Dee); Dirty Old Town; Sea Minor; ...

It’s just another morning on the fifth of July. The country is another year older; Gus is a touch hungover, the coffee in his office is stale, and all Gus wants to do is go home and start over again on July sixth. Unfortunately Father Xavier visits the sheriff’s office and he’s brought along a gift. He has a green jacket that should have been put in the church’s lost and found. The father suspects it belongs to a missing girl named Erica Torres which is odd given the jacket is marked as belonging to E. Rossi. Erica went to school one day and never came home. She was picked up by a ...

A detective finds the murderer he's looking for in an unexpected way.

The rain never stops in the Broken City— and every corpse is filed like a receipt. Roan Kincaid used to break bones for guild law. Now he works alone—an unlicensed Caseworker tracing lies through flooded alleys and incense-choked chapels. In a city where: Levels are laundered Miracles are sold off-ledger And death records vanish before sunrise Progression isn’t earned with blade or fireball. It’s built case by case—skill by skill, lie by lie. When a courier turns up dead with a forged stat profile, Roan is pulled into a conspiracy stretching from Brine Stair to the High Chapel ...

A Noir Mystery Collection by the Mysterious Thomas Temple Step into a world where darkness whispers your name, and reality twists beyond recognition. In Whispered Crimes, Thomas Temple masterfully weaves together noir mystery, psychological horror, and grotesque fiction in a collection of short stories that will leave you haunted. Inspired by the eerie allure of crime fiction and urban mysteries, Temple invites you to embrace the bizarre, the twisted, and the unknown.Prepare for a Literary Experience Like No Other If you're a fan of dark psychological thrillers, urban noir, or the surreal ...

She just wanted noodles. What she got was terror on her doorstep. It was late. The neon was dead. The delivery app promised warmth, convenience… safety. But when the bag arrived, it wasn’t the friendly driver she expected—it was a man lying in shadow, boots pointed at her door, silent, watching. Then others appeared. They didn’t knock. They didn’t speak. They just waited. In St. Isidore, some deliveries never arrive… and some never leave. One wrong order could be your last. She Never Delivered: From The St. Isidore Noir Collection is noir the way it was meant to be—fast, mean,...

Detective Rhys Vance was still active, still running leads the old way - intuitive, instinctive, human... when the system made a decision. A synthetic officer, built for precision, paused for 0.67 seconds. And his partner, Owen, died in 0.61. The report called it an unfortunate delay. Rhys knew better. Digging into the logic networks behind Saint Liora Medical, Rhys uncovers something worse than a glitch: a hidden bias deep in the city’s AI architecture. Life support systems are evolving preferences. Morgue systems are reinforcing them. And human unpredictability? It's being flagged as a ...

Gus has traveled out of state and up to the city of Seattle to visit his daughter. She’s sharing an apartment with two criminology majors. Naturally their thoughts turn toward talking about crime and they ask Gus to talk about one of his cases. Since he doesn’t want to discuss anything too recent or else his daughter might know the people involved, he digs down deep into his memory banks for the perfect case from his first year as a sheriff. It also just so happens to be the first case he crossed path with Father Xavier. As he remembers it, Gus was called in to investigate an apparent ...

In a world of criminals, thugs, con artists, cheats, and swindlers, there must be a man to stand against the powers of darkness and corruption. A man not afraid to walk the mean streets—whether they be those of 1930s Los Angeles, an ancient fantasy realm, or some far-flung planet of a future star empire. He is a man who knows that a “good man” is not always a “nice guy”. But when the chips are down, he understands that a hero does the right thing, even if it means losing everything.

Humans have always been fascinated by darkness. Especially the darkness of a city at night, when the black sky is made ever more inky by the pools of illumination dropped under streetlights. Whether the mean streets be in an alternate past charmed with dark magic or the dirty alleyways of futuristic crowded space stations, the city—and its darkened streets—will always fascinate us. Here then, an anthology of all new stories of science fiction and fantasy with a hardboiled noir twist that acknowledge that the city is a living, breathing entity...and it isn’t always on our side.

The new case for P.I. Al Getty initially appears to be straightforward—it revolves around tying up a loose end. However, with a gun to his head and an indecent proposal presented to him, the case takes an unexpected turn. Al Getty must either perform in the bedroom or face death. Because it turns out that he's the loose end. The sequel to "Getty Gigs: The Stalker" delivers an unyielding dose of dark humor, unexpected twists, and high-stakes adventures for a P.I. who must confront a series of outrageous challenges head-on.

Spring is in the air. Gus is feeling pretty good about the change in seasons until an unknown man decides he would rather change from being alive to being dead. He clearly drank something toxic, and it didn’t agree with him. The question is, did he really decide to do that, or did someone make that decision for him. Only that question is buried under a lot of other layers of questions. Why did the man visit Gus a few days before his death proclaiming the end times were near? Why didn’t he take enough poison to kill him near instantly instead of lingering around for days slowly dying? ...

Forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme and his partner Amelia Sachs return in this short story from New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver. The Deliveryman A Lincoln Rhyme Short Story A man is murdered in a back alley. Renowned forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme and his partner Amelia Sachs...

From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine Black Mask published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Never before in audio, these vintage stories are the darkest of the dark, and the best of the best.

Crime fiction fans old and new will delight in rediscovering these taut, character-rich, heart-stopping tales, now on audio for the first time.

Grace had never been more terrified...the pain was relentless. Nothing in her life prepared her for this. She desperately needed somewhere safe...someplace she could hide. Someone she could trust with her life. It was dark...and getting darker. Ronan Hendricks didn’t recognize her voice. Not family...not friends. Probably not an enemy. But he didn’t need the years he’d spent as a detective to recognize what he did hear... Fear. In a desperate moment of hope, a single number saved her life. Then a complete stranger opened his home offering safety yet Grace knew danger surrounded them.....

It’s the hottest heat wave of the summer and Gus’s air conditioner has decided to give up the ghost. It’s not the heat keeping Gus awake at night, though, but a nighttime visit from Father Xavier. He couldn’t sleep either due to the heat and decided it would be best that they didn’t sleep together. While the father was bothering Gus by telling him all about his recent visit to Italy, a welcome phone call came. Someone is going to be murdered at Deimos Technology. It doesn’t matter that the someone that is about to die is only an AI computer infected with a fatal computer virus. ...

All Gus wanted to do was take a day trip up to the big city to get away from his constituents. However, some constituents are harder to avoid than others. He inadvertently bumps into Father Xavier while at an antique show. Neither this chance meeting or Gus’s appraisal are the worst thing to happen to the sheriff while out of town, because the other thing that’s hard for him to avoid is getting involved in a murder case. When one of the big winners at the antique show turns up dead it’s up to Gus to figure out who the murderer is. With the Father’s help, can Gus sort out the clues ...

Three friends go on a foodie road trip to the Scottish Highlands and Islands to celebrate their pending retirement, expecting stunning scenery, great food, fine wines, and a chance to reminisce about the good old days. When they somehow secure a reservation at a remote and extremely exclusive restaurant set on a private island in Loch Broom, they know they’re in for a once-in-a-lifetime dining experience.

Al Getty is a dedicated private investigator on the hunt for cheating partners. Ethan Notes is an obsessive stalker fixated on a beautiful woman. After the initial consultation, Al realizes he needs to clarify online what he can lawfully do, to keep weirdos like Notes away. Doing the right thing and reporting the stalker to the police might lead to unexpected drama, but if anyone can handle setbacks, it's Al—he's had a lot of them. When a surprise date with the victim doesn't quite go as planned, it turns out that the stalker might just play a crucial role in the unfolding chaos. This ...