Vertigo Crime

Series · 12

books · 1998-2011

By Simon Oliver, Ian Rankin, Max Allan Collins, and more

Books in series

Dark Entries

2009

HELLBLAZER's John Constantine must become part of HAUNTED PALACE—a closed-set reality game-show (think BIG BROTHER or SCI-FI's newer reality show ESTATE OF PANIC) in order to deal with supernatural occurrences that aren't part of the special effects. He enters as a 'surprise' contestant, meets the other participants, and soon finds out that there's something more mysterious going on with them and the show than meets the eye. However, the answer to the mystery turns out to be something even he couldn't anticipate.

Filthy Rich

2009

Richard "JUNK" Junkin has always lived on the edge of trouble. A former professional football star who's career was cut short by injury (and gambling problems), he now finds himself selling cars in New Jersey, dreaming of what-might-have-been and lusting after his boss' unbelievably spoiled, unbelievably sexy and unbelievably rich daughter, Victoria. So when the boss asks him to be her personal bodyguard as she tears up the New York City club scene, he leaps at the chance. But before long Junk becomes more of a lapdog than a chaperone, doing all of Victoria's dirty work...up to, and including, murder. This is the story of FILTHY RICH—the story of a disgraced man with a chip on his shoulder whose best years are behind him, dropped in the middle of a group of over-privileged rich girls ruthlessly competing with each other. For the love of a filthy rich girl (that he knows in his heart won't redeem him), he'll do whatever it takes because he just can't resist the hell of a ride she takes him on...in the fast lane. Without any brakes.

The Chill

1998

2011 Anthony Award for Best Graphic Novel A modern thriller set in New York City, THE CHILL is steeped in Irish mythology. A broken-down cop tracks a seductive killer who possesses the supernatural - and very deadly - power known as "The Chill." It's a power that provides her eternal life by absorbing the sexual energy of her victims. And he may be the next victim!

The Bronx Kill

2010

Martin Keane is a literary writer whose second novel just received scathing reviews. He has a police officer father he can barely stand - a man who couldn't be more different from. But he decides to combine the two together for his next book, a historical cop thriller which he hopes will give him the chance to work through his family issues and cope with his past. Then, suddenly, Martin's wife disappears without a trace. And even as people start suspecting Martin himself might be responsible, he knows there's much more to it than that. He's sure there are clues to her abduction that he's overlooking, ones which can perhaps even be found in the novel he's obsessively writing. As he and his father investigate his wife's disappearance, he'll find the truth is much more shocking than he thought - in a twist ending no one would ever dare guess.

Area 10

2011

In New York City, a killer known as "Henry The Eighth" leaves a trail of decapitated corpses—keeping the severed heads to use for unknown purposes. NYPD Detective Adam Kamen leads the investigation, until a seemingly unrelated freak incident leaves him with a brain injury in the section known as "Brodmann Area 10." When he recovers, Adam's perceptions of time are altered. He becomes slowly convinced that his bizarre condition could be tied directly to the "Henry" case—and that the key may lie in the ancient, mystical practice of trepanation.

The Executor

2010

THE EXECUTOR is the story of Joseph, a retired pro athlete, who returns to his hometown in upstate New York when he's named executor of his high-school sweetheart's will. In a search to find out what really happened to Miriam following her mysterious death, Joseph is confronted with his own illicit past and the possibility that the two are connected.

Fogtown

2010

Frank Grissel is a hard-knuckled private eye – and a deeply closeted homosexual – set in the very real world of 1953 San Francisco. Aided by his long-suffering secretary (and sometime live-in lover) Loretta, Grissel's search for a runaway girl winds up with his becoming a suspect in a string of gruesome murders. The case takes twists and turns through the Golden Gate's greasy underbelly: the beguiling arms of a Chinese shipping heiress (and smuggler); an unexpected reunion with the daughter he abandoned long ago; the loss of Loretta to the sadistic clutches of the high-powered "Colonel"; and finally to the horrifying, gender-bending truth.

A Sickness in the Family

2010

Meet the Ushers. The parents, Ted and Biddy. Grandma Martha. The three kids, William, Amy and Sam. Just a normal, middle-class family gathered around the table on Christmas Day. Until they start dying. Violent deaths. One by one. Is there a curse on their house, as a recently unearthed history of witchcraft in the area would suggest? Or has one member of the Usher clan declared open season on the rest? As secrets and resentments boil to the surface, it becomes clear that more than one Usher has a motive for killing off the others. But in the end, the truth turns out to be far more shocking than anyone in this ill-fated family could have imagined.

Rat Catcher

2011

New York Times bestselling-author Andy Diggle creates a tale of the FBI’s manhunt for a peerless assassin who specializes in silencing mob informants hidden deep within the Witness Protection Program. But the Rat Catcher has finally slipped up—and one washed-up FBI agent has one last chance to hunt him down before he disappears again forever. As the two men spiral in towards each other in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse that plays out across the badlands of West Texas, each of them hides a deadly secret from the other—a secret that could destroy them both.

#10

Noche Roja

2011

In the tradition of Chinatown and L.A. Confidential, writer Simon Oliver explores a hidden world of corruption where money, sex, politics and crime all add up to the same thing. In the desert just south of the border, young women are turning up murdered. No suspects. No clues. And authorities seem uninterested in uncovering any. When ex-private eye Jack Cohen is hired to find one missing girl, he is drawn back into the shadow world between North and South. And there, he must face the terrible tragedy in his past that he’s been running from all these years. Featuring the gritty, stylized artwork of Jason Latour, NOCHE ROJA is an gripping noir tale of how the insatiable craving for cheap consumer goods leads to the ultimate cheapening of life itself.

#12

Cowboys

2011

From the author of the Ivan Monk detective series comes a riveting original graphic novel about violence and race in modern society. COWBOYS revolves around a racially motivated police shooting of Deke Kotto, a young African American man, by Tim Brady, a white undercover cop, inside a swanky club frequented by hip-hop stars, gangsters, Hollywood celebs and the drug kingpins that finance the whole operation. But the victim is actually an undercover officer on the trail of the gangsters, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

#13

Return to Perdition

2011

A new chapter in the saga of the O’Sullivan crime family from the acclaimed movie ROAD TO PERDITION. The time is America in the early 1970’s and our third generation hero, Michael Satariano, Jr. is a Vietnam vet recently returned to the States. He doesn’t know that his father’s real name was Michael O’Sullivan, and is unaware of the confl ict between his dad, his grandfather and John Looney – the criminal godfather of Rock Island, Illinois. But when he’s recruited by the Mob as a hit-man, he’s going to learn the hard way that you can never outrun (or outgun) your past.

Authors

Simon Oliver

Author · 12 books

Simon Oliver was hatched in South London in 1969. Since that date he has consistently strived for mediocrity in a number of fields of employment, from cooking at the legendary Hacienda Club of Manchester in the late 1980's, scuba diving instructor in the planet's more tropical climes, to a career as a camera assistant in Hollywood. With such a spotty and heterogeneous employment record is seemed only fitting that the comic book would industry welcome him with open arms in 2005 for his writing debut in THE EXTERMINATORS.

Ian Rankin

Author · 55 books

AKA Jack Harvey. Born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982 and then spent three years writing novels when he was supposed to be working towards a PhD in Scottish Literature. His first Rebus novel was published in 1987; the Rebus books are now translated into 22 languages and are bestsellers on several continents. Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow. He is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award, and he received two Dagger Awards for the year's best short story and the Gold Dagger for Fiction. Ian Rankin is also the recipient of honorary degrees from the universities of Abertay, St Andrews, and Edinburgh. A contributor to BBC2's Newsnight Review, he also presented his own TV series, Ian Rankin's Evil Thoughts, on Channel 4 in 2002. He recently received the OBE for services to literature, and opted to receive the prize in his home city of Edinburgh, where he lives with his partner and two sons. http://us.macmillan.com/author/ianrankin

Jason Starr is the international bestselling author of many crime novels and thrillers, including Cold Caller, The Follower, The Pack and The Next Time I Die. He also writes comics for Marvel (Wolverine, The Punisher) and DC (Batman, The Avenger) and original graphic novels such as Red Border and Casual Fling. In addition, he writes film and TV tie-in novels including an official Ant-Man novel and the Gotham novels based on the hit TV show. His books have been published in sixteen languages and several of his novels are in development for film and TV. He has won the Anthony Award for mystery fiction twice, as well as a Barry Award. Starr lives in New York City.

Andersen Gabrych

Author · 6 books

Andersen Gabrych is a Northern California native. He’s written Detective Comics, Batman, Batgirl, Catwoman, and Omega Men for DC Comics, and is the author of the original graphic novel, Fog Town. As an actor he appeared most notably in the award-winning Edge of Seventeen and at HBO’s Aspen Comedy Festival. He currently lives in L.A. with his cat, Moses, and is the co-creator of Pyrasphere, “Hollywood’s fastest growing new religion,” and the subsequent documentary Bright Day! about this fictitious spiritual movement.

Denise Mina was born in Glasgow in 1966. Because of her father's job as an Engineer, the family followed the north sea oil boom of the seventies around Europe She left school at sixteen and did a number of poorly paid jobs, including working in a meat factory, as a bar maid, kitchen porter and cook. Eventually she settled in auxiliary nursing for geriatric and terminal care patients. At twenty one she passed exams, got into study Law at Glasgow University and went on to research a PhD thesis at Strathclyde University on the ascription of mental illness to female offenders, teaching criminology and criminal law in the mean time. Misusing her grant she stayed at home and wrote a novel, 'Garnethill' when she was supposed to be studying instead.

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name Peter Milligan is a British writer, best known for his work on X-Force / X-Statix, the X-Men, & the Vertigo series Human Target. He is also a scriptwriter. He has been writing comics for some time and he has somewhat of a reputation for writing material that is highly outlandish, bizarre and/or absurd. His highest profile projects to date include a run on X-Men, and his X-Force revamp that relaunched as X-Statix. Many of Milligan's best works have been from DC Vertigo. These include: The Extremist (4 issues with artist Ted McKeever) The Minx (8 issues with artist Sean Phillips) Face (Prestige one-shot with artist Duncan Fegredo) The Eaters (Prestige one-shot with artist Dean Ormston) Vertigo Pop London (4 issues with artist Philip Bond) Enigma (8 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo) and Girl (3 issues with artist Duncan Fegredo). Series: * Human Target * Greek Street * X-Force / X-Statix

Andy Diggle

Author · 28 books

Andy Diggle is a British comic book writer and former editor of 2000 AD. He is best known for his work on The Losers,Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, Adam Strange and Silent Dragon at DC Comics and for his run on Thunderbolts and Daredevil after his move to Marvel. In 2013 Diggle left writing DC's Action Comics and began working with Dynamite Entertainment, writing a paranormal crime series Uncanny. He is also working on another crime series with his wife titled Control that is set to begin publishing in 2014.