Book picks similar to
Dead Cat Bounce: Story by Gerard Houarner ; Illustrated by Gak by Gerard Houarner
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The Caveman's Valentine
George Dawes Green - 1994
He once was a devoted husband, father, and musician with a bright future. He now forages for food in the trash cans of the city's better neighborhoods and wages a strenuous one-man war against Cornelius Gould Stuyvesant, an evil -- and imaginary -- power broker who is responsible for society's ills, as well as the sinister Y- and Z-rays that are corrupting humankind. Then one wintry night, Rom finds a corpse at the mouth of his cave that rouses his well-defined sense of ethics and launches him on an obsessive quest for answers. Forced to reconnect with society, Rom leaves his world and journeys through a spiraling web of clues and hunches, straight into a sinister den of money, temptation, and murder--otherwise known as the "civilized" world.
Hook, Line, and Sinker
Len Deighton - 1992
But not even that discovery will help if the Department itself wants his blood....SPY LINEBritish agent Bernard Samson finds himself inexplicably hunted as a traitor, forced to abandon his life, his job, his position, and plunge into hiding in the most dangerous and darkest corner of Berlin. What is happening? What has he done? Nothing makes sense until Samson discovers that the Secret Service has known all along where he is. In fact, they have never taken him off the payroll. And now they are prepared to return his freedom and good name � but there are strings attached, strings that begin to tighten around his neck even before his plane lands in Vienna . . . SPY SINKERBritish agent Bernard Samson's family and career are about to be betrayed and crushed by his wife - lovely, brilliant Fiona Samson.
State of Siege
Janet Frame - 1989
Her first night in the idyllic island retreat that is to be her new home is one of terror: a storm is raging, an intruder pounding on her door, and calls the police, the priest and the doctor over her still-unconnected telephone bring no result. This is the state of siege, painted in pigments of dark and light, the brush dipped in themes of selfhood and loneliness, of death and its counterpart, the need to survive, to live.
Blood and Water and Other Tales
Patrick McGrath - 1988
A failed writer meets an ageing gin-queen who claims he was once visited by an angel; a little girl finds a delirious, dying explorer from the Congo at the bottom of her back garden; a night-club is terrorized by a strange libidinous hand; and a young Victorian lady sails to India to find her fiance Cecil horribly transformed...
Modern Life
Matthea Harvey - 2007
In the central sequences, "The Future of Terror" and "The Terror of the Future," Harvey imagines citizens and soldiers at the end of their wits at the impending end of the world. Her prose pieces and lyrics examine the divided, halved self in poems about centaurs, ship figureheads, and a robot boy. Throughout, Harvey's signature wit and concision show us the double-sided nature of reality, of what we see and what we know.
Ghost Image
Joshua Gilder - 2002
Once he gets there, what he finds is worse than his most hellish imaginings: a young woman, beaten and burned almost beyond recognition, a trauma case as terrible as any he has ever seen. What Jackson's colleagues don't know is that the victim, Allie, is actually his lover. With Allie in a coma, Jackson keeps their relationship quiet and takes part in her reconstruction, a complicated and grueling set of procedures that only the most skilled specialists can perform. But as he and the other doctors struggle to put her back together, the fractures in Jackson's own life begin to break apart dramatically. When the San Francisco Police Department's investigation of the attack leads to his door, Jackson knows the truth can no longer be suppressed."Ghost Image" is an expertly plotted, chillingly vivid, and wholly absorbing mystery, signaling the debut of an unforgettable new voice in the genre. Taking readers inside the operating room and literally under the skin of its patients, it's a story that will appeal to those fascinated by medicine and forensics. It is also a story -- like all classic crime novels -- about guilt and innocence, good and evil. But, above all, it is a story of love -- the kind of love that might prove deadly, or that might just save your soul.
Mr. Suicide
Nicole Cushing - 2015
How many times in your life have you wanted to slap someone? Really, literally strike them? You can’t even begin to count the times. Hundreds. Thousands. You’re not exaggerating. You’re not engaging in… whatchamacallit? Hyperbole? You’re not engaging in hyperbole. Maybe the impulse flashed through your brain for only a moment, like lightning, when someone tried to skip ahead of you in line at the cafeteria. Hell, at more than one point in your life you’ve wanted to kill someone; really, literally kill someone. That’s not just an expression. Not hyperbole. Then it was gone and replaced by the civilized thought: You can’t do that. Not out in public. But you’ve had the thought… From Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author Nicole Cushing comes Mr. Suicide, a novel of the Great Dark Mouth.
The Miracle Strip
Nancy Bartholomew - 1998
She's the headliner at the bare-all bar, the Tiffany Club. Besides her bodacious business, Sierra's life is fairly simple. And that's the way she likes it. But when a good friend, Denise, seeks her help, Sierra's life takes a murderous turn. Seems Denise's furry friend Arlo has just been "dognapped." From the pricey ransom note, Sierra figures there's much more to this case than meets the eye. And her hunch proves correct when a quick trip to Denise's apartment reveals a fresh corpse. Sierra can't shake the feeling that her friend isn't telling her the whole story--especially after Denise turns up missing and the body count continues to rise. Determined to reveal the naked truth, Sierra tackles this steamy caper head on, digging in her stiletto heels until the dangerous job is done.
The Janus Journals
H.L. Wegley - 2019
When her father is murdered, he left her with a warning, an assassin on her trail, and his secret history contained in a set of journals. As Allie tries to elude the assassin and read the journals, she learns that the loving father who raised her was not the man he appeared to be, and the man she must now trust with her life is someone Allie must never trust with her heart.At strong safety, Grady Jamison could defend against opponents in the red zone, but he couldn't stop the drunk driver who hit his car and killed his sister. Does Allie Petrenko's call for help mean Grady has been given a second chance, a chance to do things right? Once again, he's defending in the red zone. And he must not let the world-class assassin score, because the goal line marks the end of Allie Petrenko's life.The Janus Journals, set in Virginia and near Lake Chelan in Washington State, is high-action romantic suspense at its best. The dual timeline will take you on an epic journey through the twilight years of the Cold War that reshaped one man's destiny while creating deadly tentacles, reaching into the present, threatening an innocent young woman.
These Old Shades / Sprig Muslin / Sylvester / The Corinthian / The Convenient Marriage
Georgette Heyer - 1977
Hilarious comedy, fast moving drama, romance spiced with wit and charm - Miss Heyer combines all this with the period conversation and manners she knows to perfection.These five books will give hours of entertainment and lasting pleasure.
The Crystal Spheres
David Brin - 1984
Instead of being late-comers -- might humanity have come upon the scene too early? This haunting tale was voted one of the "most beautiful of the eighties." Winner of the 1985 Hugo Award.
Saved
Jack Falla - 2008
Now late in his career, Savard and his teammate and best friend, Cam Carter, are trying to fulfill their boyhood dreams of winning a Stanley Cup before they retire. A surprise late-season trade pits the friends against each other in a playoff series both could lose but only one can win. Saved takes the reader into the rinks, dressing rooms, planes, buses, and hotels that are the backdrop to the long grind of an NHL season. That grind is made bearable by the likes of players such as Bruno Govoni, whose cell phone ring tone is the orgasmic moaning of a porn star Loretta (Lash) LaRue; of Phil Flipside Palmer, the only person besides the Kingsmen who knows all the words to Louie Louie or that Child of the Moon was the flipside of the Rolling Stones' Jumpin' Jack Flash; and team enforcer Kevin Quigley, who claims all his fights are retaliations, but sometimes I retaliate first. Most sports novels bring the game to the reader. Saved brings the reader to the game. Praise for Jack Falla Falla's graphic portrayal of a violent sport (and its colorful players) and his insider's view of how hockey is played, coached, and officiated is exciting, surefire entertainment. -- Publishers Weekly on Saved Literary hot chocolate that will warm your heart. ---Robert Lipsyte, The New York Times, on Home Ice The best hockey book ever. ---John Buccigross, ESPNsportscaster, on Home Ice Possibly the best hockey book since Ken Dryden's The Game, ---Toronto Globe and Mail, on Home Ice
Perilous Judgment: A Real Justice Thriller
Dennis Ricci - 2016
Nine months into his tenure, he’s received two death threats and is under the protection of US Marshals. But when he receives a plea for help from a woman with whom he had a brief romance twenty-five years earlier, he must face a peril of a different sort, one that involves his long-lost son, Carlos.While working for a bank in his native Mexico, Carlos discovers an international money-laundering scheme. Now he’s on the run from those who want him dead. To get the young man asylum in the United States, Lamport appeals to his highest connections in Washington, only to find puzzling dead ends at every turn. Caught between law and love, he’s forced to take the matter into his own hands. With only his faith in God to guide him, how far is he willing to venture into the dark recesses of political corruption to save his son?
Omnibus: Prince Of Fire / The Messenger / The Secret Servant
Daniel Silva - 2008
Hastily recalled home to Israel, drawn once more into the heart of a service he had once forsaken, Allon finds himself stalking an elusive master terrorist. The Messenger: Gabriel Allon is recovering from his grueling showdown with a Palestinian master terrorist, when terrorism comes to find him once again. An al-Qaeda suspect is killed in London, and photographs are found on his computer - photographs that lead Israeli intelligence to suspect that al-Qaeda is planning one of its most audacious attacks ever, straight at the heart of the Vatican. The Secret Servant: Gabriel Allon is summoned once more by his masters to undertake what appears to be a routine assignment: travel to Amsterdam to purge the archives of a murdered Dutch terrorism analyst who also happened to be an asset of Israeli intelligence. But once in Amsterdam, Gabriel soon discovers a conspiracy of terror festering in the city's Islamic underground, a plot that is about to explode on the other side of the English Channel, in the middle of London.