Book picks similar to
Pure by Jo Perry
noir
3-stars
can-t-live-without-them
crime
The Bone Factory (Leisure Fiction)
47North - 2009
But the owners of the mysterious plant are hiding a deadly secret, and David’s little girl has begun to have terrifying premonitions of blood and death.
True Crime: 12 Most Notorious Murder Stories
Scott Black - 2014
Brilliantly written, well organised gripping page turner. A must add Mystery/thriller true crime book.
The Money That Never Was
David Luddington - 2011
After a long career spent rescuing prisoners from the KGB or helping defectors across the Berlin Wall the world has changed. The Wall has gone and no longer is there a need for a Russian speaking, ice-cold killer. The bad guys now all speak Arabic and state secrets are transmitted via satellite using blowfish algorithms impenetrable to anybody over the age of twelve. Counting down the days to his retirement by babysitting drunken visiting politicos he is seconded by MI6 for one last case. £250,000,000 of government money destined as a payoff for the dictator of a strategic African nation goes missing on its way to a remote Cornish airfield. Tremayne is dispatched to retrieve the money and nothing is going to stand in his way. Armed with an IQ of 165 and a bewildering array of weaponry and gadgets he is not about to be outmanoeuvred by the inhabitants of a small Cornish fishing village. Or is he? The Money That Never Was is a hilarious new novel by the author of the best selling "Return of The Hippy". Combining the innocent humour of the old Ealing Comedies with themes of alienation and belonging David Luddington manages to weave an engaging tale of one man's personal struggle with a world gone mad. It just happens that the man who is struggling is a trained MI6 agent, ruthless and efficient and the world with which is is struggling consists of fish & chips, cider and fudge. Not to mention the bungling Barry Penwrith desperate to hang on to his windfall.
Detective Nikki Galena #7-9
Joy Ellis - 2020
FROM A GLOBALLY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR WHO HAS SOLD OVER 2 MILLION BOOKS. YOU GET THREE ENTHRALLING MYSTERIES IN THIS BOX SET These are books 7-9 of the Nikki Galena series. All of them are #1 best sellers. BURIED ON THE FENS A skeleton is found in a shallow grave in the churchyard. But this was not an official burial. The victim was murdered decades ago. At the same time, Detective Nikki Galena and her team are investigating the brutal slaying of local businesswoman Madeline Prospero. She was a member of an exclusive and secretive drinking club called The Briar Patch. But they’ve got no suspects and no one is telling them the truth. THIEVES ON THE FENS DI Nikki Galena gets a series of anonymous calls. She is told the place, time, and who will die. But the messages are in a secret language used only by villains. Nikki and her team must decode the riddles and work out where the threats are coming from. Meanwhile, the fens have been hit by a series of “designer burglaries.” It appears that a new gang of thieves are stealing to order. And things get very close to home when a friend of Nikki’s mother dies suddenly and perhaps suspiciously. CAPTIVE ON THE FENS The fens are burning and Detective Nikki Galena faces a cat-and-mouse battle with a killer arsonist. Someone is lighting fires. First they target homes and businesses, but then a body is found at one of the crime scenes. More fires are lit. And at each one a single person dies. But the victims have led spotless lives and apparently there’s no connection between them. Meanwhile, the town is facing a very peculiar threat from a group of sinister Satanists led by a charismatic businessman. Perfect for fans of Rachel Abbott, Robert Bryndza, Mel Sherratt, Angela Marsons, Colin Dexter, or Ruth Rendell. DISCOVER ONE OF THE WORLD’S FAVOURITE DETECTIVES THE DETECTIVE DI Nikki Galena: A police detective with nothing left to lose, she’s seen a girl die in her arms, and her daughter will never leave the hospital again. She’s got tough on the criminals she believes did this to her. THE SETTING The Lincolnshire Fens: great open skies brood over marshes, farmland, and nature reserves. It is not easy terrain for the Fenland Constabulary to police, due to the distances between some of the remote Fen villages, the dangerous and often misty lanes, and the poor telephone coverage. There are still villages where the oldest residents have never set foot outside their own farmland and a visit to the nearest town is a major event. But it has a strange airy beauty to it, and above it all are the biggest skies you’ve ever seen. What readers are saying about Joy’s books “As is usual with Joy's books, it is impossible to put them down, so if you have an appointment or you have work to do, don't pick one up!” Jo “They just keep getting better every time.” Scotia Woman “An excellent unstoppable rollercoaster of a read.” Roscoe “It is fast paced, completely believable, the characters have private lives and problems as well as their public and official duties.
The Concept
Kevin Wignall - 2012
Everyone thinks he's a laughing stock now, including his ex-wife and even his agent. When it seems things couldn't get any worse, a chance encounter results in Robinson moonlighting as a hitman. But that's when things take a surprising turn, because the more people he kills, the more the art world seems to fall back in love with him. This blackly comic short story was first published in "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine" in August, 2005.
FAM: Rolling in a London Girl Gang
Chyna Chyna - 2011
When I was thirteen years old I became part of a girl gang. This is my story. Chyna was born in the middle of gangland UK. From a young age she saw people all around her in gangs. They had the status, the ghetto-fabulous look and the money. So when girls from a rival school started picking on Chyna and her friends, they decided to take control of their lives and form their own gang. They called it Nothing 2 Lose. Soon Chyna was caught up in a world of tiefing phones, shoplifting and shanks. She rolled tight with her fam. The risk of arrest and beatings was always present, but so were the rewards: fast p's, bare liquor and draw, and the thrill of being above the law. Then boys came into their lives, and Chyna and her friends were attracted to some of gangland's most notorious boys. Now Chyna and found herself in a very glamorous world with VIP tables at the most exclusive clubs, big p's lavished on bling and champagne. She was living the highlife as the girlfriend of one of London's most feared gangstas. The deeper she got into this world, the more she discovered the dark side. The guns, the vicious drug dealers, the constant threat of prison: Chyna knew she had to find a way out. But it would take a devastating tragedy - one that ripped apart her world- before Chyna found the courage to leave gangland behind once and for all.
In The Shadow Of The Hill
Helen Forbes - 2014
Detective Sergeant Joe Galbraith starts what seems like one more depressing investigation of the untimely death of a poor unfortunate who was in the wrong place, at the wrong time. As the investigation spreads across Scotland it reaches into a past that Joe has tried to forget, and takes him back to the Hebridean island of Harris, where he spent his childhood. Among the mountains and the stunning landscape of religiously conservative Harris, in the shadow of Ceapabhal, long buried events and a tragic story are slowly uncovered, and the investigation takes on an altogether more sinister aspect. In The Shadow Of The Hill skilfully captures the intricacies and malevolence of the underbelly of Highland and Island life, bringing tragedy and vengeance to the magical beauty of the Outer Hebrides.
Tussinland
Mike Monson - 2014
His inertia is broken when he becomes the chief suspect in the murders of his soon-to-be ex-wife and her new lover. Set in the town of Modesto, deep in California’s Central Valley, Tussinland is about sex, drugs, addiction, smart phones, Facebook and the internet, digital cable, anti-government militias, reality TV, fundamentalist homophobic Christians, families, 12-step groups, pornography, marriage, death, disease, and love.
Dead Weight
John Francome - 2002
After a crashing fall, champion rider Phil Nicholas returns to racing, but though his body has healed his mind has not. Flashbacks of his accident invade his dreams, rob him of his sleep - and freeze him in the saddle. While Phil is battling to overcome his fear, his weighing-room colleague Adrian Moore is viciously attacked after losing a race he should have won. It's the start of a vendetta by someone determined to hurt those who break the rules of racing. Suddenly Phil can't sit on the sidelines any longer. If he wants to save the sport - and the woman he loves - it's time for him to recover his nerve...
The Pandora Directive
Aaron Conners - 1995
The official story was that the Roswell crash was a balloon. But the real story is that Project Bluebook became Project Blueprint and helped start WWIII. Tex Murphy has never been good at staying out of trouble . . . and this time he's in for lots of trouble
Lethal Force: My Life As the Met’s Most Controversial Marksman
Tony Long - 2016
Under the codename ‘Echo 7’, he was ‘licenced to kill’ bringing down scores of targets, sometimes with deadly force. In 1985 he opened fire on a suspect to save a four-year-old girl whose mother had been stabbed to death by her assailant. Two years later he was involved in another high profile shooting while confronting three armed criminals. On both occasions Tony was commended by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. But in the spring of 2005, coming face to face with suspected drug dealer and armed robber Azelle Rodney, a volley of point blank shots would bring his career crashing to an end, tarnish his reputation and leave him fighting a murder charge and possible life sentence. From life or death cases and botched operations to political fallouts, this book charts the controversial career from rookie seventies beat cop to Long's command of SO19 – the Met’s most elite specialist firearms unit. Long’s personal testimony and professional insight raises serious issues about the duties, pressures and responsibilities that fall on the shoulders of those we task to risk their lives, and take the lives of others, in our name.
Key West Normal (Bric Wahl Series book 3): The Whole Ball of Whacks (The Bric Wahl Series)
Wayne Gales - 2016
After a faked drowning and new names, courtesy of the Witness Protection Program, they can travel all over the world and live the life of the rich and famous, but all they really want to do is go home. They know as long as they stay far from Key West they will be safe.Or will they? This third novel in the “Bric Wahl” series takes Bric and Karen on an amazing voyage, first by motor home across the US and then on a sixty one foot sailing yacht, visiting ports in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and Pacific Ocean before they set sail for Key West. They feel safe traveling under their new identities and enjoy their surroundings, believing the people who want to harm them are far away.Or are they?Resigned to leaving Key West forever, they both wonder if all the wealth is worth the loss. After all, the only thing they really wanted was a slice of Key West Normal, and now they have to hide for the rest of their lives.Or do they?Bric and Karen hatch a plan that will let them sneak back to the keys under disguise, but after they return, Bric discovers some disturbing activities in Key West. He takes action, knowing that it may very well end his relationship with the love of his life.
Broken Dreams
Nick Quantrill - 2010
When Jennifer Murdoch is found bleeding to death in her bed, Geraghty quickly finds himself trapped in the middle of a police investigation. With everything at stake, some will go to any length to get what they want, Geraghty included.