Book picks similar to
The R.E.M. Effect: A Science Fiction Thriller by J.M. Lanham
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Dark Remnants
L.K. Hill - 2013
Especially handsome detectives with kind voices and beautiful eyes. So when her conscience just won’t shut the hell up, and convinces her to corner one such cop in a dark parking lot to tell him what she’s learned, she can just feel this won’t be the end of it. She doesn’t have time to worry about it, though. She has gangsters to piss off, homicidal gangs to infiltrate, and people to search for. Yes, this is Kyra’s life. The endgame is worth it, though. If she lives long enough to attain it. Join Kyra and Gabe in a pulse-pounding chase through Abstreuse City to find a killer and save a child before it’s too late. Because everyone loves good cop meets mysterious woman meets serial killer. And darkness lives in us all. “Intriguing storyline. Good fun…Highly recommend!” –R.V.P. Author Interview: What got you into writing crime fiction? Like so many others, I’ve always loved mysteries. Even a minor mystery is compelling to me and I’ve finished otherwise mediocre books, just to learn what the answer is. I watch a lot of police procedurals and have always especially been fascinated with criminal psychology and serial killers. It was always just a matter of time before I started writing about it. Yeah, but what’s a nice Christian girl like you doing writing about serial killers? Kind of dark subject matter, isn’t it? *laughs* It’s a question I’ve gotten a lot. It’s definitely dark subject matter. I prefer it that way, though. The darker the story becomes, the greater the capacity for character redemption. Lovers of horror understand this concept well. If the character can’t demonstrate a visceral ability to overcome a ridiculous amount of darkness, they’re almost not worth rooting for. Nothing is darker than a person willing to coldly take the lives of other human beings. I think that’s why our society is so interested in this type of villain. It’s a darkness we can’t understand, but want to, if for no other reason than to keep it at bay in ourselves. As an author, exploring that is both fascinating and kind of fun. Why this story? Why Abstreuse and the Mire? I came up with this story all at once. Many authors come up with stories based on the story they would like to see told, but haven’t found. It was more or less that way for me. There wasn’t any specific crime fiction story I was unsatisfied with, but rather while reading and watching them, I couldn’t help but start to form something in my mind I’d love to read myself. By the time I sat down to write, I had the entire draft of book 1 already formed in my head, and basic shape of the rest. It’s one of those stories that took on an urgency because I became so excited to tell it. So I did! You’ve written stories about both urban and rural crime. Do you have a preference? No, I don’t think I prefer one over the other. Being something of a country girl myself, writing about a killer in a small desert town held an interest all its own. But the urban setting of the inner city can definitely prove grittier. They present us with two different feels to the same kind of darkness. I personally find both tremendously compelling.
Wulf
Set Sytes - 2016
He must understand and survive the perils of a savage new world, a world of purple skies over canyons and prairie, where everyone and everything – be they outlaws and mountain men, or monstrous creatures of the dark, seem to want him dead.And if that wasn’t problem enough, a man with green eyes is hunting him, a man from another dimension who will stop at nothing to put the universe right.The Fifth Place is about the universe under mysterious control, and the group of antiheroic misfits determined to survive it and be free no matter what comes. Ideal for fans of Stephen King's The Dark Tower books, Garth Ennis’s Preacher comics, Joe Abercrombie, and the Farscape TV series, The Fifth Place is for those who want a pull-no-punches adult series merging western, sci-fi, gritty fantasy, dystopian, adventure and horror genres, with a diverse, irreverent and tragically flawed cast of characters to root for against all odds.
Whiskey Devils
Brandon Zenner - 2016
However, Nick's complex past comes full circle, thrusting his new manager, Evan Powers, in a scramble to decipher the truth behind the chaotic lives of the people he holds dear. "A large marijuana growing operation, Russian mobsters, undercover drug agents, and a biker gang, wraps up with a series of unexpected and shocking plot reversals that brings the book to a violent, surprising, and powerful end." (BookLife Prize in Fiction, by Publishers Weekly) Winner in the 2016 Global Ebook Awards
Mason McQueen and the Gargoyle's Curse (book 1)
Graham Batten - 2013
Lucky to be alive after surviving a horrific traffic accident, the hardy teenager should be able to deal with anything life has to throw at him, but not everyone has a P.E teacher quite like Mr Tyler. The cat is really set amongst the pigeons, (or would be, if all the cats in the area hadn’t mysteriously gone missing), when Chloe Draper the local ‘weird girl’ gets weirder and wakes up trapped inside her school locker. Mason, his friends and Hunter the school bully, are unexpectedly thrown together by chance and discover the bizarre secret plaguing their small town and why certain residents are gaining supernatural powers. Struggling to make it through another school term at Darwin Grammar soon becomes the least of Mason’s problems as he is about to discover, for where there is a price, someone will have to pay it.
The Hand of God
John Isaac Jones - 2017
This is the story of 24-year-old Bobby Lincoln, who lives in the coastal town of Palm Harbor in 1955 Florida. With few jobs and no education available to him, he ekes out a living by fishing and doing any other work that he can find, often using his boat. But it’s not enough for him or his common-law wife, Idella, who keeps threatening to leave him if he doesn’t become a more effective breadwinner. None of this is helped by his own love of gambling and his tendency to keep company with some of the town’s best-known criminals. When a local gangster offers him $2,450 to take part in a serious crime, Bobby knows that it would break the heart of his deeply religious mother and disappoint a smart teenage boy who idolizes him. But he also believes that it might be his only chance to keep his wife and get back some self-respect. One little boat ride quickly turns into a nightmare that consumes Bobby’s life even as he tries to conceal it from others. Based on Florida’s infamous Chillingworth murders!
The Krone Experiment
J. Craig Wheeler - 1986
Damage to a Russian aircraft carrier leads to a breakdown in the detente with the United States. Star wars erupt as the two countries invoke space-based weapons in a deadly face off in orbit. Robert Issacs, Deputy Director of Scientific Intelligence for the CIA, and his top aide, Dr. Patricia Danielson, connect the carrier damage with a mysterious seismic signal. Thwarted by internal CIA politics, they put their careers at risk to engage in an unauthorized consultation with Jason, the secret group of physicists who consult for the government. Astrophysicist Alex Runyan advances a fantastic theory that triggers a race for the truth before the conflict with Russia can spin out of control. The quest leads to the New Mexico laboratory of Paul Krone. The true danger dwarfs that posed by the international crisis. Bonus links to historical background material are provided at the end of the book. The Krone saga continues in the sequel, Krone Ascending, also available for Kindle.
Danger in the Clouds
Judith A. Barrett - 2019
When criminals target his family, Major goes on the attack. Major’s farm family grows when the sheriff’s family and others take refuge at the farm. After thugs are thwarted by his granddaughter’s uncanny gift to see danger, will Major succeed in exposing the conspiracy where others have so tragically failed?
Different Paths
A.E. McCullough - 2012
As a former Spec-Ops warrior, Spartan has found that the skills given to him by the Coalition government are well suited to his new occupation. After retrieving a lucrative bounty, Spartan returns to Terran space and finds that one of his oldest friends has been murdered. Vowing to track down the killer, he soon becomes the unwilling pawn in an interstellar power struggle between two old rivals, his former Omega Squadron Commander and the President of the Coalition. When Spartan is forced to kill his mentor in self-defense, he is arrested by Galactic Marshals and detained. But when the Marshals kill a Federal Agent and pin the murder on him, he is forced to flee Earth with a small group of friends. Now the hunter becomes the hunted. Spartan finds that having a bounty placed on his head to be troublesome as he evades the authorities, tracks down his old commander and struggles to clear his name. Unknown to all, an ancient evil has awakened and has plans of its own for mankind and they include death, destruction and chaos. Are the skills Iaido ‘Achilles’ Spartan gained over the years enough to save the day and clear his name?The Last Spartan: Different Paths is the first book in a Sci Fi adventure novel series following a genetically engineered super-soldier on his quest for redemption and discovery of his purpose since leaving the service. Typically a loner, Iaido ‘Achilles’ Spartan learns the bittersweet truth that that no man is an island and nothing is more valuable than friendship. He might have been designed to be nothing more than a killer but in the end, he chooses to walk a different path. Carpe diem.
Solomon Bull: When the Friction has its Machine
Clayton Lindemuth - 2017
You’ll find all the “thrilling… visceral… unsparing…” prose that earned his debut Cold Quiet Country the coveted starred review from Publishers Weekly. Blackfoot Indian Solomon Bull is the son of a rebel who died in the seventies fighting for the American Indian Movement. He trains for an Arizona race called Desert Dog, run through cactus beds, aqueducts, up sheer rock walls and through clouds of Africanized killer bees. The race will tell Solomon whether he’s a mere man, or heir to his murdered father’s revolution. Solomon tries to focus on Desert Dog. Ex-mercenary Cal Barrett designed the race to shred people, and rumor is he recruits winners into a clandestine paramilitary outfit. But on a whim Solomon bets his roommate he can cost dirty Senator Clyman ten points in his reelection bid. After antics involving spray paint and a highway billboard, the senator’s security chief suddenly shows up everywhere Solomon is… Then Rachel, hailing from the Treasury’s office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, introduces herself by soaping Solomon in the shower after a long run. She’ll do anything to get Solomon to infiltrate Cal Barrett’s clandestine organization. Something big is going down soon, she promises. Senator Clyman’s security man attacks. Rachel hounds. Solomon’s picked a bigger fight than intended. But now his roommate introduces Amanda, a prostitute who looks like an angel but for the boots and cigarette burns all over her back. She tells a story about Senator Clyman and an innocent Navajo boy that frames Solomon’s identity question in stark terms. Will Solomon turn his back on the victims of true evil? Will he become a cog in the machine his father died fighting? Solomon Bull is a young man learning why men exist. It’s about love, sacrifice, and a Native American on the pendulum between assimilation and war.
The Butterfly Code
Sue Wyshynski - 2015
I am a genetically modified human. PAINFUL SECRETS. STARTLING TRUTHS.UNDENIABLE LOVE.All it took was a chance meeting--one tingling glance across a darkened street to change my life.I'd been searching for my two best friends in the crowded Zenith Club, which was a really bad idea because I'm totally claustrophobic. I burst outside, and that's when I came face-to-face with the incredibly gorgeous Hunter Cayman. Dark-haired, tall, and leaning against an insane sports car, my pulse went haywire. Maybe things weren't so bad after all. The young doctor had his long muscular arms crossed over his leather jacket clad chest, and all his six-foot something would make any girl's knees turn weak. But then, if what Ella said was true, Hunter was the kind of guy who left behind a trail of broken hearts. And heartache was the last thing I needed right now.Yet there's something strange, something almost superhuman about Hunter. It's more than that infuriatingly knowing grin. I'm trying to stop thinking about him, and I get the feeling he's avoiding me, too. Yet Deep Cove is a tiny town and every time we run into each other the tension literally crackles, sparking around us. It just figures that when suddenly I'm in danger, he's there to save me.In truth, I should be dead. By all the logic in this world, I should be shattered to pieces. How fast was I going on that ATV when I smashed into those iron gates? Ninety? A hundred? And the men who were chasing me, where did they go?Somehow I'm whole.Maybe better than whole. There's no one I can talk to, not even my best friend, Gage. Gage hates Hunter. He wants Hunter's laboratory to be shut down. He thinks Hunter's a monster. And yet, if that's true, if Hunter's a monster...than what am I? I'm not sure what terrifies me more, the metamorphosis taking place inside me, or the intensely powerful connection with a guy whose heart and soul has become linked with mine.
The Sands of Osiris
Steven J. Shelley - 2015
Starving and locked in a war with hostile aliens, the Terran Empire needs fresh real estate or humanity will face extinction. Jaeger Orleans is sent by the mysterious Farseer Cartel to steal a blueprint for a sustainable human colony on the ice world Solitude. A chance for humans to leave a long history of mistakes behind and begin again. Sent to a brutal desert prison for withholding the information from the Terran Corps, Jaeger is in a race against time to find Solitude and lead humanity to a brighter future.
The Five Senses Set: Mirror of Destiny, The Scent of Magic, and Wind in the Stone
Andre Norton - 2017
Three different young women, each endowed with extraordinary abilities, pit their powers against warriors, wizards, and royal intrigue to preserve their worlds and stem the tide of evil. Mirror of Destiny: Transformed by a powerful talisman, the orphaned apprentice Twilla defies her king—and escapes her fate as an unwilling bride—in favor of joining a crusade to rescue the vanquished of an ancient magical war and help save the destiny of a disputed land. The Scent of Magic: An orphaned child and captive scullery maid, young Willadene’s uncanny ability to smell the magic of the natural world delivers her from servitude—to the highest circles of the Ducal court. But depravity and corruption infest the castle, and the power that has been her fortune now draws her into a maelstrom of evil. Wind in the Stone: An infant girl, abandoned after her mother’s death and raised to young womanhood by the strange denizens of the Forest, discovers the wondrous earth magic she wields. Now, Sulerna must confront the brutal sorcerer who enslaved her homeland—and battle an enemy who is both her bane and blood: the twin brother she lost to darkness.
Grain of Truth
V.J. Chambers - 2017
They tiptoe down the hallway, stepping over the blood spatter of her parents’ murder scene, never noticing. When they discover the bodies and call the police an hour later, they are prime suspects in the killings, and they are eventually convicted. But they are innocent. They have been trapped in prison for twenty-five years. Until now. The newly formed Conviction Review Unit has the power to overturn wrongful convictions. Heading up the unit is Elke Lawrence, former prosecuting attorney, running from a dark and painful past. She is joined by Detective Iain Hudson, who only trusts physical evidence, and former defense attorney Frankie Hart, whose passion is freeing the innocent. But as the CRU begins to investigate the case, malice surfaces from those hell-bent on making sure some secrets stay buried. The unit must overcome every obstacle, every threat. They must uncover the truth.
Death's Disciple
James Whitworth - 2013
Mabel Downing has been brutally murdered.She has been strangled -- and her mouth filled with cassette tape and a copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula has been left next to her body.There is one obvious suspect - Charlotte Sanderson who discovered the body.But Miller has been having a relationship with Charlotte - and refuses to believe she could be guilty of such a terrible crime. But if not her, who is the killer?Is Miller allowing his personal life to interfere with the investigation?What is the connection to Dracula - the Victorian gothic masterpiece partly set in the Yorkshire coastal town? And will the murderer strike again?Miller has to find out - before it is too late. 'Death’s Disciple' is a gripping contemporary crime novel set in the North Yorkshire coastal town of Whitby. It is the first in a series featuring Detective Inspector Miller and is perfect for fans of Peter James and Ian Rankin. "An intricate, compelling crime story that kept me turning the pages." - Tom Kasey, best-selling author of 'Trade-Off'. "You can taste the salt in the air...and the fear." - Robert Foster, best-selling author of 'The Lunar Code'. James Whitworth is a writer and cartoonist, Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
The Navigators
Dan Alatorre - 2016
SOME SECRETS AREN'T MEANT TO BE KNOWN! A freak landslide at a remote mine site uncovers a strange machine to a group of paleontology grad students. Wary of corrupt school officials, team leader Barry takes the machine home to study it in secret, reaching only one realistic, and unbelievable, conclusion: it was designed to bridge the time-space continuum. It’s a time machine. Testing delivers disastrous results, sending one team member to the hospital and nearly killing another. When word leaks about the discovery, the ultimate power struggle ensues: the university wants it for funding, the power company wants its energy regenerating abilities kept under wraps, and a rival group wants to steal it for themselves. No one cares if Barry's team comes out alive. Fleeing for their lives, the students must fight the school, the police, and each other if they want to learn the truth about what they've discovered, a truth with more severe consequences than any of them can predict..