In the first of two police lineups of international noir authors, you’ll find none of the usual suspects, and positive IDs on all of the perpetrators.

Abdelilah Hamdouchi’s The Last Wager, from Morocco, reveals a detective wrestling with police reforms as he investigates a septuagenarian bride’s murder.

Brazilian Carlos Machado’s “The Man with the Long Mustache” develops the dangerous pastime of following strangers for sport.

Algerian author Mounsi’s “Villon and I” introduces a juvenile delinquent from the French underworld to poetry.

Italian Leonardo Gori’s nineteenth-century tale set in Florence, “The Big Sizzle,” finds a chef murdered in his own kitchen.

A pickpocket on a train chooses his victim in The Fourth Take, by Slovenian author Polona Glavan.

The birth of a grandson, a clairvoyant, and a trip to Switzerland make up the pieces of the puzzle in German author Friedrich Glauser’s Fever.

Finally, we have some history with these disreputable types, from the experimental fever dream of REX by Jose Manuel Prieto from Cuba, to the Mexican novel, The Black Minutes, by Martín Solares.