Noir fiction for the modern reader.

Make no mistake, Jeroen ten Berge, my cover designer, is well worth the wait. I contacted him over a month ago to do the cover for my new novelette, Temptation Town, and he said it would take awhile before he could get around to it. He did the covers for Setup On Front Street and The Ghosts Of Havana, which I consider masterpieces of book cover design, so I agreed to wait. In the interim, I designed a makeshift cover myself so I could upload it to Kindle. But the real deal has arrived. I’m sure you’ll agree, it’s sensational.

It’s a novelette, about 12,000 words, and the first in my hardboiled Jack Barnett / Las Vegas series. He’s a reluctant ex-private investigator who … oh, never mind. Buy the book. It’s only $2.99 on Kindle and the print version goes live on CreateSpace some time next week. It’s priced at a modest $9.95. It also comes with an exclusive preview of the next Barnett installment, a short story called Hard Cash.

My new novelette, a hardboiled Las Vegas tale called Temptation Town, is now live on Kindle. It’s the first in the Jack Barnett series about a reluctant ex-private investigator laying low in Sin City. Here’s a brief description:

Jack Barnett has had it with the private eye business. They took his license away in LA, and fearing criminal prosecution, he split town in the middle of the night for Las Vegas, where anyone can become anonymous.

He swears off the business, but his money runs low and when a man offers him $5000 to find his missing daughter, he agrees. He soon wishes he hadn’t when the haunting memory of a woman from his past gets in the way.

Temptation Town is a hardboiled novelette, the first of the Jack Barnett series from Mike Dennis. Set in the steaming underbelly of Las Vegas, these tales of a reluctant ex-private investigator drag the reader down the darkest streets of Sin City, USA.

The book also comes with an exclusive preview of the next installment in the Barnett series, a short story called Hard Cash.

It’s available now in ebook form (it’ll be out in paperback in a few weeks) and you can get it here. Please pick up a copy. And then leave a brief review on Amazon. It would really mean a lot to me.

One more thing. The cover you see is not the final cover. It’s currently being designed by my cover designer, Jeroen ten Berge, but it won’t be ready for a few weeks yet. So I whipped this cover up to serve as an interim piece. If you buy the book between now and the time I get the final cover, and if you can’t live without it, I’ll send you a copy of the finished cover when I get it.

Now how can you refuse that deal?

Yes, you’ve heard the buzz! You’ve seen the TV ads! You’ve felt the thrill! Now, at long last, my new novel, The Ghosts Of Havana, is available on Kindle, Nook, and iPad. Paperback will follow soon.

It’s a tense tale of old vendettas, the second book in my Key West Nocturnes series, where I lift the veil off Key West, revealing it as a true noir city. Here’s a brief description of The Ghosts Of Havana.

A young woman is brutally murdered in the back of a Key West nightclub. Robbie, the club’s owner, and Elena, the victim’s sister, believe that a local strip club operator is to blame. However, they soon learn that larger, far more sinister forces are behind the killing, and they become ensnared in a deadly race to a safe deposit box in Las Vegas, whose contents hold the key to decades-old secrets and threaten national security.

The second exciting novel in Mike Dennis’ Key West Nocturnes series, The Ghosts Of Havana continues to lift the veil off Key West, revealing it as a true noir city, on a par with Los Angeles, New Orleans, or Miami.

This book can fairly be called a noir thriller, if there is such a thing. It’s currently available on Kindle, Nook, and iPad for $3.99. The paperback, which is a couple of weeks away, will be $14.95. All formats come with a sneak preview of Man-Slaughter, the third novel in the series.

Please, everyone rush to Amazon, specifically here, or B&N’s Nook page (here), and buy the book. You won’t be sorry. And neither will I.

Okey-doke, fiction lovers, here’s a first. I’ve recorded an audiobook version of Setup On Front Street. I’m posting chapter 1 right here. As soon as I can figure out how to put it over on the side there with all the fancy covers and everything, I’ll do it, but for now, you’ll just have to get it from this post.

I’m also going to put it on Amazon so you may download it onto your “approved electronic device”. Howzat!! (Naturally, this will occur after many curse-filled hours of struggling with technological beasts)

Oh, and for some reason I cannot fathom, I’m unable to attach anything here over 2 MB. The full chapter, which runs, like, all of four pages in the book, is way too big, so I had to break it up into three consecutive parts. There might be another way to do it, but I’m just learning about all this, so please be patient.

In the meantime, here, in three installments, is the first gripping chapter of Setup On Front Street.

SETUP ON FRONT STREET / Chapter 1 / Part 1

SETUP ON FRONT STREET / Chapter 1 / Part 2

SETUP ON FRONT STREET / Chapter 1 / Part 3

The folks over at LoveThyAuthor.com have reviewed Setup On Front Street, and have seen fit to give it 4.7 stars (out of a possible 5). You can check out the review here. When you go there, please check out the rest of the site. It’s pretty impressive. And if you have a moment, please leave a brief comment. Thanks.

For a very limited time only, Setup On Front Street, my noir novel set in Key West, will be on sale in ebook form for only 99¢. Normally, it’s $2.99, but starting tomorrow (or the day after, depending on when Amazon approves the price change), it drops to 99 big ones. The print version remains at $12.95.

The print version of Setup On Front Street went live today. It’s available on CreateSpace and Amazon now. Price: $12.95 (cheap).

Setup On Front Street is now out. It’s my latest novel, a noir tale from the shadows of Key West. But before you rush to buy a copy…

Here’s the deal with this book. It’s the first in a trio of novels set in Key West. What I want to do is lift the veil off this town and reveal it as a true noir city, on a par with Los Angeles, New Orleans, or Miami. You won’t find any margarita-guzzling goofballs in these pages, no clichéd characters.

People have told me not to do this, that readers actually want all that quirky stuff. They tell me readers want to open a book about Key West and feel like they’ve stepped into a Jimmy Buffett song. Word is, readers won’t accept Key West as having a dark center. Well, maybe they’re right, but I’m hoping they’re wrong. I’ve lived here for the better part of 20 years and I can easily say it’s a noir city. Rest assured you will find no Margaritaville stereotypes between these covers. Just noir, baby!

This is not a trilogy in that there’s no continuing story arc. Each novel is a standalone. But there are recurring secondary characters and locales, and of course, Key West itself is a great character in each book.

Now here’s a brief description:

Key West, 1991. Don Roy Doyle is back in town. Tough and quick-witted, he’s fresh out of prison, where he served three years for a diamond swindle. Now he’s back to collect his share of the proceeds, about $200,000, but the money has vanished.

A local family dynasty which has controlled the island’s politics for generations, a cop with a grudge, the FBI, and the Russian mob all have a stake in the action. They’re convinced Cuba is on the verge of “opening up”, and they all want Doyle gone.

In this tightly-knit town, who can be trusted? And how long can Doyle stay alive?

SETUP ON FRONT STREET takes you inside the world of Key West noir, a world tucked way back in the shadows, where the tourists never go.

The print version is $12.95, the ebook is $2.99. Print will be up in a few days. The ebook is available now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Also, if you would be so kind, please go to the CreateSpace Preview Gallery, where there is a gripping excerpt from this novel, and leave a rating. It just takes a second.

The folks over at PowderBurnFlash.com have been kind enough to publish one of my very short stories, called Ringtone. It’s there now. Go there and leave a comment. They’ve published some great crime/noir flash fiction and I’m very pleased to be included on their site.

Mary Pat Hyland has posted an excerpt from my noir short story Block over on her fine website, The Hylander Diner. Block is one of the “three stories from the dark side” which can be found in my very noir collection called Bloodstains On The Wall. Check out the excerpt here, then leave a comment. Mary Pat’s one of the “good guys”, and I’d like us to support her and her website.

Then, of course, after reading the excerpt, if you are so totally electrified, you can get the entire book here in either digital (99¢) or paperback ($9.95).