The Fifth Percent: The Accountant Who Closed His Own Case — A Noir Detective Short Story
📘 About the Book
A man is found dead in a locked office.
The numbers say suicide.
The Fifth Percent: The Accountant Who Closed His Own Case is a tightly written noir detective short story that explores certainty, bureaucracy, and the danger of trusting clean conclusions too easily.
Adrian Vale doesn’t deal in guesses.
He deals in certainty.
When a corporate accountant is discovered lifeless atop Ivory Row’s most prestigious financial firm, the police close the case without hesitation. The door was locked. The records are immaculate. The paper trail is flawless.
Too flawless.
🕵️ Adrian Vale — Certainty Over Intuition
Adrian Vale is not a detective who chases feelings or theories. He follows numbers, documents, and verifiable facts. He is brought in not to investigate—but to confirm what everyone already believes.
A man cornered by his own accounts.
A quiet exit.
A perfect conclusion.
Adrian does his job efficiently. The paperwork agrees. The logic holds. The case should end there.
And it almost does.
📂 The Paper Trail That Speaks Too Loudly
As Adrian reviews ledgers, reports, and timelines, everything aligns with institutional precision. No missing funds. No external pressure. No motive left unexplained.
But truth doesn’t always announce itself in bold errors.
Sometimes it hides in silence.
A witness hesitates—just briefly—before answering a simple question. Adrian notices it. He dismisses it. The paperwork is louder. The system demands closure.
Yet that hesitation lingers.
🧠 Themes & Tone
The Fifth Percent is grounded in classic noir sensibilities:
- Certainty versus truth
- Institutional convenience
- The danger of clean narratives
- How systems reward closure over accuracy
The story is restrained, procedural, and unsettling—built around the idea that facts can be correct and still be wrong.
📚 Availability
Format: Kindle Edition
Series: Book 1 of 1 — The Fifth Percent
Purchase link:
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0GDGHZ454
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