This subgenre of mystery is exactly as it sounds; hardcore. These books feature an overworked detective who is fighting their own demons. These mysteries may include violence, sex, or graphic scenes.
Jack Taylor Series, Book 6
Cross
Ken Bruen
With his surrogate son, Cody, in a hospital in a coma, a troubled Jack Taylor takes the opportunity to assist Ridge, his old friend from the guards, with a horrific case involving the crucifixion slaying of a boy in Galway, in an investigation that b
Read More View in CatalogMatthew Scudder Series, Book 17
A Drop of the Hard Stuff
Lawrence Block
Facing his demons in his first year of sobriety, Matthew Scudder finds himself on the trail of a killer. When Scudder's childhood friend Jack Ellery is murdered, presumably while attempting to atone for past sins, Scudder reluctantly begins his
Read More View in CatalogMichael Kelly Series, Book 1
The Chicago Way
Michael Harvey
Private detective Michael Kelly is hired by his former partner to solve an eight-year old rape and battery case long gone cold. But when the partner turns up dead, Kelly enlists a team of his savviest colleagues to connect the dots between the recent
Read More View in CatalogLeonid McGill Series, Book 1
The Long Fall
Walter Mosley
Leonid McGill is an ex-boxer and a hard drinker looking to clean up his act. He's an old-school P.I. working a New York City that's gotten a little too fancy all around him. But it's still full of dirty secrets, and as McGill unearths
Read More View in CatalogCharlie Parker Series, Book 8
The Lovers
John Connolly
Stripped of his license, Charlie Parker takes a job in a Portland bar. Alone and directionless, he faces at last a shadow he has lived with since his childhood: what made his father, a respected police officer, apparently shoot dead two unarmed teens
Read More View in CatalogKenzie & Gennaro Series, Book 4
Gone, Baby, Gone
Dennis Lehane
The tough neighborhood of Dorchester is no place for the innocent or the weak. Its territory is defined by hard heads and even harder luck; its streets are littered with the detritus of broken families, hearts, and dreams. Now, one of its youngest is
Read More View in CatalogJoyland
Stephen King
Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both
Read More View in CatalogThe Colorado Kid
Stephen King
On an island off the coast of Maine, a man is found dead. There's no identification on the body. Only the dogged work of a pair of local newspapermen and a graduate student in forensics turns up any clues. But that's just the beginning of t
Read More View in CatalogCormoran Strike Series, Book 1
The Cuckoo's Calling
Robert Galbraith
After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, creditors are calling, and after a breakup with his longtime girlfriend, he's living in his office
Read More View in CatalogScorched Grace
Margot Douaihy
Sister Holiday, a chain-smoking, heavily tattooed, queer nun, puts her amateur sleuthing skills to the test in this "unique and confident" debut crime novel (Gillian Flynn). When Saint Sebastian's School becomes the target of a shockin
Read More View in CatalogHarry Bosch Universe Series, Book 1
The Black Echo
Michael Connelly
For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal . . . because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought sid
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