Crossing Genres Part 2: Noired Reading List

Those stories you hear? The ones about things that only come out at night? Things that feed on blood, feed on us? Got news for you: they’re true. Only it’s not like the movies or old man Stoker’s storybook. It’s worse. Especially if you happen to be one of them. Just ask Joe Pitt.

From the Battery to the Bronx, and from river to river, Manhattan is crawling with Vampyres. Joe is one of them, and he’s not happy about it. Yeah, he gets to be stronger and faster than you, and he’s tough as nails and hard to kill. But spending his nights trying to score a pint of blood to feed the Vyrus that’s eating at him isn’t his idea of a good time. And Joe doesn’t make it any easier on himself. Going his own way, refusing to ally with the Clans that run the undead underside of Manhattan – it ain’t easy. It’s worse once he gets mixed up with the Coalition, the city’s most powerful Clan, and finds himself searching for a poor little rich girl who’s gone missing in Alphabet City.

Anyone else would have learned by now: When trouble comes knocking, don’t open the door. There’s a reason why Garrett’s still in the P.I. business after all these years – he’s not one to learn his lessons. Maybe that’s why he lets himself get roped into being a bodyguard for Kip Prose, an obnoxious kid being threatened by creatures that can’t quite be described.

According to the kid, the attackers aren’t after him at all – they’re just trying to get to his friends Lastyr and Noodiss. But before Garrett can get Kip to explain just who or what Lastyr and Noodiss are, Kip is abducted, and the chase begins…

Even in Empire City, a town where weird science is the hope for tomorrow, it?s hard for a robot to make his way. It’s even harder for a robot named Mack Megaton, a hulking machine designed to bring mankind to its knees. But Mack’s not interested in world domination. He’s just a bot trying to get by.

When Mack’s neighbors are kidnapped, he sets off on a journey through the dark alleys and gleaming skyscrapers of Empire City. Along the way, he runs afoul of a talking gorilla, a brainy dame, a mutant lowlife, a little green mob boss, and the secret conspiracy at the heart of Empire’s founders – not to mention more trouble than he bargained for. What started out as one missing family becomes a battle for the future of Empire and every citizen that calls her home.

While the Stormwarden’s away her children will pay. Someone has abducted the magical and merciless Stormwarden’s son and heir. And when kidnapping’s the game, Garrett’s the name of the hard-boiled detective to call. But this time Garrett may be in the middle of something that’s too hot for him and his elvish allies to handle.

Even the bewitching beauty of a half-elf, the seductive sultriness of a lady willing to prove she’s wholly human, and the promise of a fortune in gold may not make this job worth it. Garrett’s in deep, and if he want to nab the kidnappers, he’ll have to face down ogres, assassins, and some of the wickedest women ever to walk this wildly enchanted land.

Jack Fleming, ace reporter, always had a weak spot for strange ladies. And he certainly should have listened to the one who said she was a vampire! Because when a thug blasts several bullets through Jack’s back, he does not die–and discovers that he is a vampire as well! First in an exciting new vampire adventure series. Original.

Sometimes the only person you can trust is a dead man. Prohibition era gangsters grew rich on vice. But unknown to the masses, a more sinister power controlled the crime cartels, using greed, gluttony, lust and other sins to fuel a much more lucrative trade: mortal souls. The long-standing feud between two of the families is about to end thanks to a deal to consolidate power. But before things can be finalized, the bookkeeper tasked to broker the deal is kidnapped. Hoping to find the missing bookkeeper before the deal falls apart, Big Al pulls Eddie’s corpse out of a ditch and puts him on the case.

Our gumshoe Eddie now finds himself caught up in the middle of a sinister web of kidnapping, murder, and damnation. Things would go so much smoother if he could just stop getting himself killed. It’s a curse, but there are worse curses to have in this dark and crazy world.

Somebody had lost a lot of brass and everyone wanted to find it. And now the stakes were getting so rick it made even a hard-boiled detective like Garrett nervous. Then the casualties began piling up, starting with Garrett’s own beautiful red-haired girlfriend. Garrett was out o draw some blood in revenge – at least until two other redheads turned up at his front door… and until he found himself the center of unwelcome attention from every thug and would-be sorcerer in town.

That’s when he knew he’s have to find the prize everyone was after, the legendary Book of Shadows, made of brass and holding secrets no mortal was ever meant to master – and neither sell it to the safest bidder or make sure no none ever had the chance to work its spells on his unsuspecting and unprotected world…

Menlo Park is a reprogrammed janitor robot working as a private eye on the neon streets of Electra City, a town designed to generate and conduct massive amounts of electricity. Sixteen years after the apparent suicide of his human partner atop the world’s tallest tower, a blond femme fatale gives Menlo some new information about the cause of death. As Menlo and his assistant, Anesta, reopen the case, their journey takes them from Electra’s high society to its dark underbelly. Clues from zeppelin pilots and shadowy architects alike reveal a connection between Menlo’s partner’s death, a mysterious object called the Astrolade, and the origins of the city itself.

Conrad Metcalf has problems. He has a monkey on his back, a rabbit in his waiting room, and a trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. (Maybe evolution therapy is not such a good idea.). He’s been shadowing Celeste, the wife of an affluent Oakland urologist. Maybe falling in love with her a little at the same time. When the doctor turns up dead, Metcalf finds himself caught in a crossfire between the boys from the Inquisitor’s Office and gangsters who operate out of the back room of the Fickle Muse. Jonathan Lethem’s first novel is a science fiction mystery. It’s funny. It’s not so funny.

The new gods in town were making things tough for everyone. And temple real estate on the Street of Dreams was at a premium. With too many pantheons and not enough prayer palaces to go around in TunFaire, the big gods on the block came up with the solution to hold a contest. The goal: find the “key” to the one temple that was still up for grabs. Simple, right? But the top guys had made sure the “key” was well hidden, and petty pewter gods didn’t have that many resources.

Private eye Garrett knew he was in for it when two rival pantheons tried to hire him. A confirmed atheist, Garrett wanted nothing to do with the gods. He had enough problems in a town where things were heating up fast between the locals and the hordes of unwelcome newcomers from the Cantard. But the gods wouldn’t take No for an answer, and if Garrett didn’t come up with something quick, TunFaire might be treated to a war that could rip the very fabric of the universe apart!

On the third floor of a cluttered low-rent office, Sam Noir met his destiny. Destiny wore a dress, and she was the best thing to walk into Sam’s life… right up until they snuffed her out, that is. They nixed his Betty, and now he’s gonna nix them. Once he finds out who “they” are.

Mega-City One, 2129 AD. Simped-up private eye Jack Point is an undercover “Wally Squad” Judge – ‘cos only a clown would want to walk the streets of Angeltown, the scuzziest part of City Bottom. He’s got two friends in this world, one’s long and hard, and makes your ears ring after every shot; the other’s his gun. In fact, Jack’s got enemies on both sides of the Law, and he’s never far from trouble.

Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he’s the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the “everyday” world is actually full of strange and magical things-and most of them don’t play well with humans. That’s where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a-well, whatever.

There’s just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry’s seeing dollar signs. But where there’s black magic, there’s a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry’s name. And that’s when things start to get interesting. Magic, it can get a guy killed.