Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Noir

The second novel in the Piccadilly Noir series, this dark historical thriller sees Cockney private eye George Harley return to the streets of London's Soho, populated by gangsters, wide boys and lowlifes, to investigate a missing cabaret dancer and a child believed stole by his nemesis, the...

Northern Finland, 1952, at the height of the Cold War with its neighbour the Soviet Union. A misunderstood, flawed, whip-smart Finnish woman police detective Hella Mauzer, while fighting against prejudice and political interference, investigates a murder on the Finno-Russian border. But that is...

In a city that never was, in an America that never was, on a snowy night at the end of winter, two detectives find a body on the roof of a skyscraper. It's 1922, and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz, stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. Beside the Mississippi, the ancient city of Cahokia lives on – a teeming industrial metropolis, containing every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about.

Deadly truths lie buried beneath the snow. Three people are stranded at a pub on a winter's night – a couple, the Fairweathers, and a woman, Alison Evans. Hours later, in the middle of the night, the pub alarm begins to sound and Alison Evans is missing. Within moments, her body is discovered...

‘A guaranteed thrill-ride.’ SARAH PINBOROUGH ‘If Tania Carver doesn’t creep you out, you should seek professional help.’ VAL McDERMID This killer will stop at nothing to get under his victim’s skin. And his pitch-dark motive will shock you to the bone. Suzanne Perry thinks she’s...

This killer wants a baby. And they’ll do anything to get one. DI Phil Brennan of Colchester Major Crime has seen his share of horrors. But this crime scene will haunt him forever. Heavily pregnant Claire Fielding lies dead on her bed, brutally butchered in her own flat. Her stomach gapes open...

Madame Mystique is a performer extraordinaire, come to work her scandalous magic at the glittering 1933 Chicago World's Fair. Of African American and Sicilian heritage, Mystique – aka Rosa Mancuso – and her fellow performers move on the margins. Her ambiguous status serves a hidden vendetta: she awaits the arrival of Paolo Amanta, the dashing pilot sent by Mussolini to dazzle spectators with a phenomenal air show.

Harvard dropout and ex-Special Forces operative Joe Brody is climbing the ranks in the criminal underworld. After successfully executing multiple missions for the various crime syndicates that run New York City, he has come to earn the trust and respect of the city's most dangerous denizens. Which is why his newest task—retrieving a pet pigeon snatched from a rooftop coop in Brooklyn—has Joe puzzled ... until he learns that the bird is valued at close to a million dollars.

Myles's courtroom testimony should have put Pryor, their one-eyed ringleader, behind bars after the bank robbery gone wrong, yet somehow Pryor got off scot-free while Myles served time. Now, upon his release, Myles decides he is done with his life of crime—a change that will only be possible if he can kill Pryor and turn over a new leaf. Pryor has other ideas, and the collision between these two deadly forces soon leaves the ex-con in critical condition, clinging to life in a hospital bed.

After the demise of the Soviet Union, the newly established government privatizes its industry by issuing vouchers to all of its citizens, giving them the chance to be shareholders in the country's burgeoning businesses. For those living in abject poverty, the vouchers appear to be little more than pieces of paper. But for Texas businessman John Mills and his Czech companion, Petr Kovac, the chits suggest a lucrative potential. They travel to the furthest, coldest reaches of the country, roving from town to town with suitcases full of cash.

London, 1930s: Rachel Savernake has been invited to a private view of an art exhibition at a fashionable gallery. The artist, Damaris Gethin, known as 'the Queen of Surrealism', is debuting a show featuring live models pretending to be waxworks of famous killers. Before her welcoming speech, Damaris asks a haunting favour of the amateur sleuth: she wants Rachel to solve her murder. As Damaris takes to a stage set with a guillotine, the lights go out. There is a cry and the blade falls. Damaris has executed herself.

While investigating the origins of a mysterious donation to Oxford University, private detective Charles Maddox encounters the mysterious Baron Von Reisenberg, the subject of many rumors and macabre legends. In the light of day Maddox can find no evidence of anything sinister—until a series of disturbing incidents send him on a quest to expose whatever evil lurks in the Baron's castle. After a terrifying encounter nearly costs him his sanity, Maddox returns home to find London besieged by an elusive murderer branded the Vampire. 

Joe the Bouncer seeks the killer of NYC's most desirable call girls in the newest caper in David Gordon's acclaimed series. Joe Brody, ex-Special Forces operative suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome so severe that it turned him to drug and alcohol abuse, is getting his life back together...

Twenty years ago Charlie Deravin's mother went missing near the family beach shack—believed murdered; body never found. His father has lived under a cloud of suspicion ever since. Now Charlie's back living in the shack in Menlo Beach, on disciplinary leave from his job with the police sex-crimes unit, and permanent leave from his marriage. After two decades worrying away at the mystery of his mother's disappearance, he's run out of leads. Then the skeletal remains of two people are found in the excavation of a new building site—and the past comes crashing in on Charlie.

Yorkshire, 1606. A man vanishes from a locked gatehouse in a remote village. 300 years later, it happens again. Autumn 1930. Journalist Nell Fagan knows there's only one person who can get to the bottom of this mystery: Rachael Savernake. But someone wants Nell dead, and soon, while investigating a series of recent deaths at Blackstone Sanatorium, she's missing entirely. Looking for answers, Rachel travels to lonely Blackstone Fell, with its eerie moor, deadly waters and sinister tower. 

The Goldenacre – a masterpiece by the painter and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh – has been given to the people of Scotland. The beautiful canvas, the last work by the artistic genius, enthrals the art world, but behind it lies a dark and violent mystery. Thomas Tallis, an art expert...

The eponymous and hapless detective Happy Doll returns with a new philosophy and a new case in this second installment of the series. Mary DeAngelo is searching for her estranged mother, Ines Candle--a singular and troubled woman Doll once loved. The last he'd seen her she'd been near-death...

Southern Brooklyn, July 1996. Fire hydrants are open and spraying water on the sizzling blacktop. Punk kids have to make their own fun. Bobby Santovasco and his pal Zeke like to throw rocks at cars getting off the Belt Parkway. They think it's dumb and harmless until it's too late to think otherwise. Then there's Jack Cornacchia, a widower who lives with his high school age daughter Amelia and reads meters for Con Ed but also has a secret life as a vigilante, righting neighbourhood wrongs through acts of violence. 

Three years ago, Lelle's daughter went missing in a remote part of Northern Sweden. Lelle has spent the intervening summers driving the Silver Road under the midnight sun, frantically searching for his lost daughter, for himself and for redemption. Meanwhile, 17-year-old Meja arrives in town hoping for a fresh start. She is the same age as Lelle's daughter was - a girl on the brink of adulthood. But for Meja, there are dangers to be found in this isolated place. As autumn's darkness slowly creeps in, Lelle and Meja's lives are intertwined in ways that they could never have imagined. 

Billy Edgewater is a harbinger of doom. Estranged from his family, discharged from the navy and touched by a rising desperation, he sets out hitchhiking home to East Tennessee, where his father is slowly dying. On the road, separately, are Sudy and Bradshaw, brother and sister, and a one-armed con man named Roosterfish. All, in one way or another, have their pasts and futures embroiled with D. L. Harkness, a predator in all the ways there are.