Hardboiled Stories

|| EPISODE ONE: Parts 1 - 10 || This is a story about the shadows beneath the brightest days, a tale where paradise is edged with danger, and every rescue comes with a price. Set in 1929, The Rest Is Silence follows a struggling writer and former waterman, Horatio "Ray" O'Neill, bound by duty and fate to Jimmy Karlsen, heir to a crumbling commercial empire. What begins as an act of lifesaving draws Ray into a web of family secrets, betrayal, and moral ambiguity, where privilege, ambition, and the past threaten to drown them both. Inspired by the spirit of noir crime fiction and the timeless echoes of Hamlet, this novel explores questions of loyalty, identity, and the limits of what any of us can save. || This book (Parts 1 to 54 + Epilogue) is being posted on the author's blog (link in profile). ||

Meet Miles Franco, but make it fast. If the cops have anything to say about it, he'll be dead by morning. Miles used to make a living illegally smuggling people between dimensions. That was until the cops caught up with him and made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Now he's chasing an interdimensional drug smuggler across worlds. Gangsters are trying to kick the shit out of him and the cops want to put a leash on him. These days it seems like everyone wants a piece of Miles Franco. But you can only push a man so far before he starts pushing back. And self-control isn't Miles' strong suit. Raw, insane, and hard-boiled as hell, The Man Who Crossed Worlds is a violent fever-dream for those who like their urban fantasy to kick them in the teeth. Note: This novel contains strong language, violence, and sexual situations. ~~~ This book and its sequel, The Man Who Walked in Darkness, are available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. Visit www.chris-strange.com for more information.

Ditzy dames and classy broads were always P.I. Mac Jordan's weakness. When a damsel in distress asks for his help he finds himself up against a psychopathic society doctor, crooked cops and a masochistic wise-guy whose weapon of choice is a baseball bat covered in barbed wire. If he wants to survive, never mind crack the case, he has to confront the demons of his past and the ghosts of his future.

On their way to view a solar eclipse, a drug-fueled sexual encounter with his half-sister shall have untold consequences. Gᴇɴᴇʀᴀʟ Fɪᴄᴛɪᴏɴ Hɪɢʜ 469 Copyright © 2014 Sinh Bisen. All rights reserved.

Sadie Lambert was a prodigy, a girl who saw the world in ferociously drawn lines. Now, she's just another body in a Brooklyn walk-up. Detective Liam Carter is used to the iron scent of death, but he isn't used to seeing his own nightmares mirrored in a victim's artwork. Hidden in a mural of the New York skyline is a secret Sadie died to protect-and a symbol that links her murder to a decade-old cold case. As the rain washes the streets clean, Liam is pulled into a conspiracy where every shadow has a name, and every death is just a preliminary sketch.

Homicide desk reporter Bobby Knight knows there's a story, but what that story is he can't figure out. When you got five people dead in the same area, all looking like the same cause within five days, then there's a story. When the area is a grave yard, that makes it sound like it might be a good story. But when the apparent cause of death is -- nothing -- it makes the story hard to tell.

Everyone in the neighbourhood knew her. Everyone saw her everyday going about her business. Everyone loved her. But nobody knows where she went. Nobody knows what she's doing. And nobody knows if she's safe... except somebody does, dont they?

*NEW CHAPTERS EVERY MONDAY* Detective Earl Cullimore navigates an architectural mystery to answer the call of a potential client... Note: This is a first draft that I'm writing on the fly each week. (Started August 3rd, 2021)

"I'm not a detective, just an alligator in a vest." --Tim L. Gator *** Tim the alligator has to find his former boss, Amelia Watson, after she retired with many unanswered questions. Using a time-traveling clock she left behind, Tim jumps across the timelines, checking clues and anomalies, meeting absurdly powerful entities who may help him out--or not. Failure means no more Ame; even in memories. *** All Hololive references (characters, settings, famous scenes) belong to COVER Corp. This is just a homage (with my own twists) for all holomems, especially Amelia Watson. Thanks for the memories, Ame.

A mystery and thriller novel with a touch of adolescent love. A mercenary group on a mission to eradicate a business tycoon. A new transfer student in school. A stage and gamble between love and war, vengeance and romance. Truth and falsehood. Blood against blood, will fire eat out the fire? War to decide what the last seven seconds of your life will recollect.

If you think he's angry now, you should have seen him as a kid. This is his story.

First-time private investigator Eddie Greene is having a bad weekend. It’s about to get worse … When he finds the slab-cold body of his first client, he knows something’s up – he only spoke to her fifteen minutes earlier. Free-wheeling, swash-buckling, trash-talking Eddie is not just out of place in a humdrum northern town. He’s out of his depth on his first case, out of funds from a now deceased client and out of favour with Weighton’s big society. As Friday night slides into Saturday morning, each twist in the case turns a bad situation worse; the police want him for murder, the local crime boss wants him dead, the mayor wants him out of town and his girlfriend wants him out of her life. Increasingly desperate, Eddie takes on all-comers in a barnstorming bid to crack the case and clear his name. And somewhere between all the froth and fury, his affections are reclaimed by the girl who got away – but will she abide ‘til Monday? “Great fun with some cracking jokes – ‘this femme is fatale’ being my favourite – it reminded me of the Lynne Truss serial on Radio 4.” Sue Fletcher, Deputy MD, Hodder & Stoughton “Faultless – engaging, controlled, visual and fast-paced. Lots of action and a strong sense of tongue-in-cheek.” Caroline Smailes, Harper Collins author, ‘In Search of Adam’ “It’s like ‘Film Noir’ meets ‘Phoenix Nights’!” Mark Roman, author of 'Ultimate Inferior Beings' on Cogwheel Press.

The dame who walked into P.I. Amelia Archer's office that day wasn't pretty, but she had a dog of a tale to tell. Beggars can't be choosers, though, and soon Archer is off down the Shufelt Tunnel in search of lizard men, a diamond bracelet, and maybe even a bit of fun with an old flame.

One of Hollywood's elites has been murdered, the accused her estranged husband. The situation doesn't look good for the husband, whose appetites for booze, gambling, and extramarital sex are as outsized as his ego. To make matters worse, he is on the hook to his bookie for a quarter million bucks, and with next to no alibi, multi-million reasons to kill his wealthy wife.

Jade and Blood is the first mystery featuring Detective Samuel Sloan, a hardboiled private investigator in Los Angeles 2107 and his holographic secretary Sarah. One Arthur Dowles has contacted Mister Sloan. A valuable jade frog has gone missing from his private collection and he wants it back before the theft goes public.

An alcoholic, a loner, a police detective on suspension: Max Hendricks is busy hitting his lowest point when he agrees takes on a favour in his spare time to track down a young ex-con who's disappeared with some money that doesn't belong to him and a lot of secrets along with it. But there are other people looking for him, too -- people with murder on their minds and a bitter, tangled past at their heels...

Vera Bone is no angel.