Megan E. Abbott

For Bev Merridew, who can turn a trick as easily as she can roll a joint, life in Venus Holler is tolerable. For her nineteen-year-old daughter, Jamalee, a life guaranteed to be the replica of her mother's isn't good enough. With her tomato-red hair and her barely contained rage, she has plans, and they don't include Venus Holler. What they do include - indeed, depend on - is her drop-dead beautiful brother, Jason. But Jason may just be a country queer, and in the hills and hollows of the Ozarks, that is about the most dangerous thing a man could be. Into their midst comes Sammy Barlach. With too many entries on his rap sheet, he's passing through on his way to nowhere, looking to be a loser in new surroundings. Jamalee thinks he might be the muscle she and Jason need.

Duffy has a mysterious fever that has robbed her of her strength and left her helpless in her hospital bed. Now she's beginning to suffer from delirious dreams . . . or did she really witness a murder? Only the murderer knows for sure . . . and that makes Duffy the next victim.

"When her younger sister is found at the center of a brutal murder investigation, tough-as-nails Sheriff Normandy Gold is forced to dive headfirst into the seedy world of 1970s prostitution and soon discovers a twisted conspiracy leading right to the White House. Sex, violence and corruption collide in this gritty vigilante thriller set in 1970s Washington DC" -- summary from amazon.com.

463 pages : 24 cm

Suspicious of her new sister-in-law's inconsistent personal history, Lora King delves into the woman's possibly shady past while pursuing a questionable relationship of her own with a press agent who appears to know more than he reveals.

Collects over thirty of the best entries in the Akashic noir series, including stories by Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, and T. Jefferson Parker.

"The mean streets that tough, trench-coated detectives travel are so often associated with urban settings--typically New York or Los Angeles--that audiences can easily overlook the presence of the American South in crime fiction and film noir. Recent years have witnessed a growth in the production and popularity of southern noir and detective narratives, with works such as James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels and the first season of True Detective attesting to the powerful impact of the southern imaginary on the genre"--

Die dreizehnjährige Lizzie und ihre Freundin Evie sind unzertrennlich. Nachbarmädchen, die Badeanzüge und Hockeyschläger tauschen, zusammen zur Schule gehen und scheinbar keine Geheimnisse voreinander haben. Doch eines Nachmittags ist Evie verschwunden. Einziger Anhaltspunkt: ein rotbrauner Wagen, den Lizzie morgens durch den Ort hat fahren sehen. Auf einmal steht Lizzie im Zentrum der Aufmerksamkeit: War Evie unglücklich? Hatte sie Sorgen? Hatte sie Lizzie von einem möglichen Verfolger erzählt? Würde sie zu einem Fremden ins Auto steigen? Lizzie versucht sich an Details zu erinnern und beginnt nachzuforschen. Um ihre Freundin zu finden, aber auch weil sie die Nähe von Evies zutiefst erschüttertem Vater sucht, für den sie heimlich schwärmt. Auf nächtlichen Streifzügen durch die Kleinstadt macht Lizzie seltsame Entdeckungen. Schritt für Schritt kommt sie einem Geheimnis auf die Spur und muss sich fragen, wie gut sie ihre beste Freundin überhaupt kannte.

"This book considers a recurrent figure in American literature: the solitary white man moving through urban space. The descendent of nineteenth-century frontier and western heroes, the figure reemerges in 1930s-50s America as the "tough guy." The Street Was Mine looks at the tough guy in the works of hardboiled novelists Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) and James M. Cain (Double Indemnity) and their popular film noir adaptations. Focusing on the way the tough guy negotiates racial and gender "otherness," this study argues that he embodies the promise of an impervious white masculinity amidst the turmoil of the Depression through the beginnings of the Cold War. The book concludes with an analysis of Chester Himes, whose Harlem crime novels (For Love of Imabelle) unleash a ferocious revisionary critique of the tough guy tradition."--BOOK JACKET.

En 1949, l'actrice Jean Spangler quitte son domicile de nuit pour rejoindre le studio hollywoodien. Personne ne la reverra plus. L'affaire à laquelle des acteurs tels que Kirk Douglas furent mêlés est confiée à l'unité de police qui avait déjà eu en charge celle du Dahlia noir. M. Abbott propose une explication de cette disparition à travers l'enquête d'un attaché de presse, Gil Hop Hopkins.

A young woman hired to keep the books at a down-at-the-heels nightclub is taken under the wing of the infamous Gloria Denton, a mob luminary who reigned during the Golden Era of Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano. Notoriously cunning and ruthless, Gloria shows her eager young protégée the ropes, ushering her into a glittering demimonde of late-night casinos, racetracks, betting parlours, inside heists, and big, big money. Suddenly, the world is at her feet -- as long as she doesn't take any chances, like falling for the wrong guy. As the roulette wheel turns, both mentor and protégée scramble to stay one step ahead of their bosses and each other.