What Are The Best Hard-Boiled Books With Female Protagonists?

I found out my husband of three years had cheated on me and his mistress is the one who told me—because he didn’t have the balls to do it himself. I move out and get a new apartment, a job as a bartender, and try to move on with a broken heart. I wonder where it all went wrong, if I hadn’t been enough for him, if I’d been stupid for marrying him in the first place. I’m at work one night when he walks inside—the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. He sits at the bar and a forest fire burns between us. I was depressed the moment before he entered, but the second I look at his blue eyes, I forget the dumpster fire that my life has become. I invite him back to my place and it’s the most passionate night of my life. I expect to never see him again. I just want him as an anti-depressant—but he wants me all to himself. I just got my heart ripped out of my chest so I want something easy and no-strings-attached, but he wants all the strings because he’s hooked. I don’t get much of a say in the matter, and that’s not surprising when I learn why—because he’s the Butcher. The crime lord of all crime lords, the boss that overshadows all of Paris, that makes everyone abide by his rules—or pay. And now I’m his.

Getting a good job that pays is kind of difficult and an offer came to her to commit a crime when she is no killer but for the money, she had no choice. She never planned to love but planned to be the billionaire hit woman, what happens when the table turns?

He saved her from a lifetime of slaving away at a strip club, but the next thing she knows, she's plunged into the dark and dangerous world of organized crime...

RAVENNA COSTA Some women fear the fire Others simply become it... Ruling over a criminal organization wasn't easy especially when no one wanted you to rule. If they thought they could kick me out because I was a woman, then they had another thing coming for them. I'll show them I'm not to be messed with, and when I'm done, they'll know I was not just a woman. I am the woman. ************ Ravenna Costa found her house up in flames after returning from a park with her nanny. The house getting burnt wouldn't have bothered her if her parents weren't in the house. They receive a text message from her father telling them to run, and that was what they did for ten years. During those ten years, they lived on the streets. They thought they had escaped their old life of luxury, but that was until Ravenna's past comes knocking on her present. She gets kidnapped on her way to the rundown apartment she had managed to secure for herself and her nanny, and then she's knocked unconscious. Waking up, she finds herself in a room, and she gets the biggest shock of her life. Turns out her father had been involved in shady business she never knew about. She's introduced to the world of organized crime, and there she meets her childhood best friend. Only he wasn't a child anymore, but a full-grown man. A full-grown man she wanted. The problem was they fought on opposite sides of a war, but that doesn't stop Ravenna from wanting him, after all, the heart wants what it wants. Decisions must be made as the line between love and hatred begins to blur, and Ravenna is forced to choose between her duty or her love for her childhood best friend.

Even the street punks knew that in Chicago, Catherine Leone was untouchable. I had three deadly protectors watching my back. My husband, Raphael Falcone, was the youngest underboss in the Chicago Outfit. He was known for his cold, iron-fisted rule, yet in a crowded room, he would kneel to adjust the hem of my gown. My childhood friend, Luca Vizzini, the family's brilliant new consigliere. He'd sworn to protect me since we were kids. And my twin brother, Salvatore Leone, who cherished me above all else. He took over the family at eighteen and treated me like royalty, making me the most envied Principessa in the underworld. On my twenty-eighth birthday, I waited in the living room all day, clutching a pregnancy test with two solid lines, ready to share the news that would change everything. Instead, they brought me my brother's body, murdered by a drug dealer hailed as a hero. And standing before me was my husband, Raphael Falcone, ready to clear the murderer's name. "Tell me why," A scream clawed at my throat, but I fought it down, "You know damn well who the murderer is." "Catherine, control yourself." It was Luca Vizzini, my childhood friend, who tied my hands. "Salvatore's gone, but you still have us. You're still Mrs. Falcone, still the Principessa of the Leone family." "The Leones have looked after Chiara for years. You know her father is all she has." They wanted me to confess to my brother’s fabricated crimes and apologize to Chiara. But they forget. Before I was Raphael's wife, I was Catherine Leone. A master hacker who could breach any system. I will deliver my own justice in ways they cannot imagine. And I will make them regret it.

He was rude, arrogant, aggressive, ruthless and dominating Mafia Boss, a frightening man. The whole world was under his feet. Nobody had ever dared to disobey him except one girl. Everybody was afraid of him but except one girl, that girl was badass, she was afraid of nothing in the world, she was a warrior, confident, fearless and brave businesswomen. She was the first girl who wasn't afraid of the Mafia boss; she had the audacity to challenge him, refuse his orders, argue with him, and flirt with him. In the beginning, he was annoyed that why she wasn't afraid of him and disobeying him. He tried everything to scare her, but she always shocked him with her braveness and boldness. He was finding her weaknesses and in the end, he himself became her first and only weaknesses and she became his badass girl. A girl who was a pain in the ass of the mafia boss, how she became his badass girl? How he became ready to leave everything to protect her and to spend the rest of his life with her peacefully and how that girl changed the Mafia boss? If you want to know, then read the story of an arrogant Mafia boss and his badass girl. *** His hands were roaming all over her bareback, arousing her and sending chills down her spine. She ground herself against his crotch, forgetting about the whole world. She was melting with his touch. She breathed in the heat of the moment, "if this is the consequences of disobeying your order, then I'll always disobey you." His lips curved into a smile against her lips. This time he cupped her face and kissed her very softly and chastely. "I like you and I want to make you my badass girl."