Showing results by author "Jerry Bader" in Literature & Fiction

Noir Confidential draws upon the era of filmmaking known as Film Noir. Today, the genre is called Neo-Noir, but the same concepts, tropes, and techniques are used to reflect today's feelings of inevitability, cynicism and defeat. The pessimism, distrust, and greed displayed in classic Film Noir movies like "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Third Man" speak to a society racked by geopolitical conflict and economic disparity. All the elements that sparked the Film Noir heyday have returned to haunt society, and a new class of cynical anti-heroes and manipulative Femme Fatales have arrived to ...

Harry is drawn back into the Quandary orbit when his restaurant partner goes missing, and a dead North Korean RGB agent is found murdered on Benten Island under the torii gate of the Itsukushima Shrine, near Matsumae Castle in Hokkaido, Japan. A Japanese Naicho CIRO agent, a Mossad Kidon agent, and twin brother casino operators join Harry and his Quandary colleagues to unravel the latest attempt by the Chinese and North Koreans to disrupt the financial institutions in the West.

On a chilly November New York City morning in 1953, a scientist working for the CIA on psychotropic mind-control experiments walked off the 10th-floor balcony of the Statler Hotel. He had become increasingly disenchanted with the bizarre and incredibly dangerous work he had been doing in service to national security.

The world is a dangerous place, and every country has men and women tasked to protect it. These people go by many names: Secret agent, intelligence officer, and analyst are just a few. Harry is one such person. He is an analyst. He spends his time reading, researching, and analyzing, followed by writing reports that often never see the light of day. Harry is well educated with a seemingly important job, but Harry is bored. Bored, because analysts never get to be the hero, never get to order cocktails stirred not shaken, and, never, never, get the girl.

Internet gambling and expansion of casinos beyond the Nevada State Line have put a financial strain on racetracks. Johnny Luck, Hong Mian triad big shot, and Jesse James, his beautiful blonde ex-jockey protege, are always on the lookout for ways to expand the triad's gambling operation. Back in the '50s and '60s, Jai Alai was a big deal in Florida. Gamblers would fill the frontons and drop thousands of dollars betting on Basque athletics competing in a sport that was so dangerous it was referred to as the "Ballet of Bullets", and the game is dodging death.

Noir I is four stories: "The Gold Cricket", "The Bastard", "Cine City", and "Killer Jazz".

It all started five years earlier with the murder of Peter "Pretty Boy" Chen, a low-level soldier for Benson Yeung's Hong Mian triad. Rumor had it that the statue that sat on the old man's desk, the symbol of his Dragon Head status as leader of the Hong Mian, was filled with priceless Pigeon Blood rubies, or at least that's what Peter thought. Whether he was right or wrong is a tale for another time and another place. What's significant is, his desire to get his hands on those rubies led to his brains being splattered all over the wall of the Green Dragon Restaurant.

Jesse James, the daughter of a deceased mob-connected rug salesman, becomes a jockey working for the Hong Mian triad in order to feed winners to state Senator Somersby. The Senator is responsible for approving California gaming licenses. To date, only Native CANGV casinos are allowed to have slots. California horse racing will die if they aren't allowed to add slot machines to their venues. Benson Yeung, Dragon Head of the Hong Mian triad, and his chief lieutenant, Johnny Luck, have a plan to force Somersby to approve their Native partner's demands for off-reservation gaming licenses.

In order to cover up the disastrous plan, CIA stringer Richard Lancaster kills Michi's father and any other witnesses associated with the failed scheme. Upon learning of her father's death, Michi is transformed from a peace-loving traditional Japanese daughter into a revenge-seeking vigilante in the form of a Japanese-style bosozoku, dubbed "The Black Crane".

Crime...it's a dirty business, and eventually someone always dies. The thing is...you got to make sure it isn't you, or someone you love. That's the problem: the someone you love may just be the reason you end up on an aluminum table with some white-coated ghoul slicing you open like a prized Thanksgiving turkey. There comes a time when everybody has to make a decision...you're either all-in, or you cash out, if they let you. But you know in the end that's not going to happen. It always gets messy.

English artist Alice Bulbeck and her twin brother, Edward, approach Axel Webb to find a lost Shakespeare play entitled The History of Cardenio. The play, performed only once for James I, has been lost for 400 years. It wasn’t included in the 1623 First Folio published by Shakespeare’s friends after his death. It is the only known play credited to William Shakespeare that has never been published. The question is, why?

Little Frankie Darling wants revenge, Asami Sato wants her inheritance, and Oyabun Kitsune wants the magic artifact hidden in the 150-year-old cherrywood box. They each pay investigator, Axel Webb, to find the box, but things are not always what they seem, and people always lie to conceal their secret agendas.

Investigator Axel Webb is hired by a Japanese Naichō Agent on the recommendation of his Yakuza friend, Hibiki Sato, to find the Honjō Masamune katana that was last seen in 1945 when it was taken from a Mejiro Police Station by a US Army sergeant. The sergeant’s name was recorded by the police in Japanese.

On Christmas Eve, 1984, two Mexican veterinarian dropouts broke into the Museo Nacional del Antropologia. They stole over one hundred ancient Mayan treasures found in the tomb of K’inich Janaab’ Pakal, a discovery that rivals Tutankhamun in beauty, wealth, and cultural significance. The burglary became known as the El Robo del Siglo: The Theft of the Century.