Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Roger "Butch" Karp has been around New York long enough to realize that the judicial system can be dirty and cynical. But he still believes in justice. So when a vicious sociopath tries to dodge a brutal murder charge by convincing the court he is incompetent to stand trial, Karp teams up with firecracker Assistant DA Marlene Ciampi to unleash the full force of their relentless energy, hardboiled wit, and passion for the truth to put the killer away for good. They will accept no lesser plea.

Launched with the summer '04 award-winning best seller Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books has published over 60 volumes in its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book. Featuring Noir Series stories from: Dennis Lehane, Don Winslow, Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, Susan Straight, Jonathan Safran Foer, Laura Lippman, Pete Hamill, Joyce Carol Oates, Lee Child, T. Jefferson Parker, Lawrence Block, Terrance Hayes, and more.

Private military contractors. They’re not just for foreign wars anymore. Jon Cantrell, a disgraced ex-cop, works for one such company. He’s a DEA agent paid on a commission basis, patrolling one of the busiest drug-hubs in the country: Dallas, Texas.When Cantrell confiscates the wrong shipment of drugs, he finds himself in possession of a star witness in a cartel trial that could destroy the largest criminal organization in the hemisphere.To turn a profit, all he has to do is deliver the witness to the US Attorney in a tiny town called Marfa on the other side of the state.

Working as a court reporter for the local paper, Jack McMorrow witnesses the appeal of a woman for protection from her abusive boyfriend and embarks on a search for her murderer when the woman turns up dead in her apartment.  

A man shoots his young wife to death. He drives to a freeway overpass, gets out, shoots himself, and drops 100 feet to the freeway below, crushing a Toyota Camry. Inside is an elementary school teacher named Jacqueline Dwyer, who dies at the scene. Ty Buchanan is a hotshot lawyer. Jacqueline Dwyer was the woman he was going to marry. Ty goes into a tailspin. And it gets worse when a mysterious man finds him at the funeral and says Jacqueline's death may not have been an accident after all.

Somewhere in the once-placid streets of San Francisco, a young man is on the run, charged by the media with a crime he didn't commit, hounded by demagogues, hunted by a desperate police department. One cop knows that Kevin Shea is innocent of a brutal racial murder. An ambitious politician will use Shea for her own ends. And a down-and-out lawyer is all that stands between Kevin Shea and an even more atrocious crime. For when there's no law left, justice is the only hope.

The victim was a fighter, but strength wasn’t enough to save him from this gruesome end. The missing are two well-paid private investigators who have disappeared on a confidential job. The family is formidable, deadly and crazy, and will stop at nothing to make their mark. The investigator is Frank Behr, haunted by an unspeakable loss, avenging his friend’s death. Can Behr track down the killers before they find him? And will he survive?

A young woman has been murdered in River City. Police Detective John Tower is assigned to the case but there are few clues to go on. As he digs into the case, he's soon picking up hints that this murder may not be the killer's first...or his last. Virgil Kelly lives in the shadowy world of the criminal underground. He's just arrived in River City with a single-minded mission: find his daughter's killer and bury him. In his search for a murderer, Tower uses his experience and training along with all the expertise of modern forensics.

A hit and run. Simple as that. And suddenly harmless old Gerry Figuroa is lying dead on the asphalt. New Jersey cop turned private investigator Jackson Donne sure as hell doesn't want to investigate his drinking buddy's death, but he's made a promise that leaves him no choice. And before long, he's drawing uncomfortably close to a murderer.

Junior Bender is a Los Angeles burglar with a magic touch. Since he first started breaking into houses at age fourteen, he's never once been caught. But now, after twenty-two years building an exemplary career, Junior has been blackmailed by Trey Annunziato, one of the most powerful crime bosses in LA, into acting as a private investigator on the set of Trey's porn venture, which someone keeps sabotaging.

Joseph W. Naus was living the American dream. He'd survived a brutal childhood, graduated from Pepperdine Law School, and become a successful attorney. Then one night his American dream life became a nightmare when his sex and alcohol addictions collided and exploded. "On Tuesday I was a respected civil trial lawyer making six-figures. On Wednesday I woke up handcuffed to a hospital bed, charged with attempted murder...and then it got worse."

The Cheyenne Police Department doesn't handle many murders. So when a woman is found mutilated and crucified, detective Kyle Dixon catches a case where all the evidence has long since been destroyed. Any detective would find it a difficult investigation, but to make matters worse, Dixon is paired with Ethan Baudin: a new detective in the unit who doesn't believe the law should apply to those that chase monsters. They find that the murder is connected to a rash of fraternity rapes and the case becomes highly publicized and politically charged. 

Returning to Seattle after a business trip, retired PI Leo Waterman is shocked to find his girlfriend, Rebecca Duvall, unconscious on the bathroom floor, her house filled with gas. Officials believe it was a suicide attempt in the wake of a humiliating scandal. Under investigation for dereliction of duty, she'd been suspended from her job as medical examiner for King County. Leo knows Rebecca too well - and is determined to prove her innocence and clear her name. Most important, he wants to find out who tried to kill her.

When a hostage situation turns deadly, Billy loses everything - his wife, his daughter, and his career. Devastated, he heads to Key West to put down his gun and pick up a rod and reel as a fishing boat captain. But former co-worker Roscoe McAuley isn't ready to let Billy rest. When Roscoe tells Billy that someone murdered his son, Billy sends him away.

Between the end of his marriage and the excessive force complaints against him, Detective Sergeant Mickey Dolan is running out of chances. When a powerful and connected city councilman reports that his wife and two daughters have disappeared, Dolan is assigned the case - knowing full well that his career is riding on the outcome.