Noir: Edgy Crime Fiction (SCPL)

The 1950s are on the horizon, and Archer is in dire need of a fresh start after a nearly fatal detour in Poca City. So Archer hops on a bus and begins the long journey out west to California, where rumor has it there is money to be made for someone who's hard-working, lucky, a criminal, or all three. Along the way, Archer stops in Reno, where a stroke of fortune delivers him a wad of cash and an eye-popping blood-red 1939 Delahaye convertible, plus...

"As 24-year-old Nicole Hewett mourns at her father's grave, she worries about her mother, badly injured in the car accident that killed him, and whether they'll be able to make ends meet. Then she sees her beloved childhood friend, Honey, standing beside her old Cadillac. As Honey approaches, Nicole realizes how numb she's felt ever since Honey fled their hometown without explanation six years earlier. Before long, Nicole's old fascination with Honey...

"A powerful and taut novel about racial tensions in Los Angeles, following two families--one Korean-American, one African-American--grappling with the effects of a decades-old crime In the wake of the police shooting of a black teenager, Los Angeles is as tense as it's been since the unrest of the early 1990s. But Grace Park and Shawn Matthews have their own problems. Grace is sheltered and largely oblivious, living in the Valley with her Korean-immigrant...

Two lonely teenage girls in 1940s Washington, DC, discover they have a penchant for solving crimes--and an even greater desire to commit them--in the new mystery novel by Macavity Award-winning novelist John Copenhaver. Philippa Watson, a good-natured yet troubled seventeen-year-old, has just moved to Washington, DC. She's lonely until she meets Judy Peabody, a brilliant and tempestuous classmate. The girls become unlikely friends and fashion themselves...

"The first novel in The L.A. Quartet. The Black Dahlia is the haunting and harrowing book that put James Ellroy on the map as one of the most electrifying writers on the scene. On January 15, 1947, the brutally mutilated body of Elizabeth Short is found in a vacant lot. The victim makes headlines as the Black Dahlia, the center of a media frenzy and cultural fixation. Caught up in the investigation are two young cops, Dwight "Bucky" Bleichert and...

"A loathsome and hilarious Argentinian oligarch, innocent of nothing except murder, finds an unidentifiable corpse handcuffed in the trunk of his car, and must find a way to keep out of jail"-- Provided by publisher.

"Small town secrets loom large in this spellbinding rural noir, Chris Harding Thornton's debut, about the aftershocks of crime and trauma that shake a Nebraskan town"-- Provided by publisher. Pickard County, Nebraska, July 1979. Sheriff's deputy Harley Jensen is restless, looking for something to take his mind off the past. Pam bristles against her role as wife and mother; her husband, Rick, struggles with the wreckage of his youth. Paul Reddick,...

"When Billy Summers was twelve years old, he shot and killed his mother's boyfriend after he kicked Billy's sister to death. At 17, he enlisted in the army. At 18, he was a sniper in Iraq and involved in the deadly battle to recapture Fallujah. For nearly twenty years, he's worked as a paid assassin. He's a good guy in a bad job, and he wants out. He takes on a very complicated, very lucrative job that he hopes will be his last. He's got a perfect...

Amanda McCready was four years old when she vanished from a Boston neighborhood twelve years ago. Desperate pleas for help from the child's aunt led investigators Kenzie and Gennaro to take on the case. The pair risked everything to find the young girl, only to orchestrate her return to a neglectful mother and a broken home. Now Amanda is sixteen and gone again. A stellar student, brilliant but aloof, she seemed destined to escape her upbringing....

San Francisco, 1947. 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. Meanwhile, a suspicious flying object...