Death and doom and dire deeds!

In thirty years he had done many dread and dire deeds.

Why, for instance, didn't your guilty doctor open the window and throw up the shade after the dire deed was done?

Sadly I fear you have far more dire deeds in store for you.

From the first, he specialized in variations on Victoriana, dire deeds in places like Nether Postlude and Sludgemouth.

One moment the reader is sharing her youthful dream of "stopping Hitler from his dire deeds," the next being made privy to the details of her breast-reduction surgery or her feelings on losing a favorite scarf.