Book picks similar to
Pig's Head by David Owen
crime
fiction
australian
borrowed
Corporal Hitler’s Pistol
Tom Keneally - 2021
Rural communities have always been a melting pot and many are happy to accept a diverse bunch … as long as they don’t overstep. Set in a town he knows very well, in this novel Tom Keneally tells a compelling story of the interactions and relationships between black and white Australians in early twentieth-century Australia.
The Reluctant Detective
Adrian Spalding - 2019
He just wanted a quiet life. Something his mother was not going to allow. There again he never for one moment imagined he would have to look into the death of a 90-year-old lady who was gambling away her family fortune. The Hayden Detective Agency has no need of clients. The very existence of the Agency allows Martin Hayden to claim his large monthly allowance from the family fortune - without lifting a finger. Martin’s biggest problem is his interfering mother, who understands her idle son too well. She takes steps to find him not just clients but also a personal assistant to keep an eye on him. Under pressure from the women in his life, Martin agrees to take on his first client. How hard can it be to follow a 90-year-old woman who spends her time losing money at roulette tables? As it turns out harder than Martin ever thought possible, especially with the old lady dying in strange circumstances. Soon the Reluctant Detective is grappling with shady estate agents, an intellectual artist, missing charity money and an irritating Indian waiter. Luckily for Martin there is help in the form of Colin, a transvestite who, apart from having very good fashion sense, is an expert at breaking into houses.
Old Habits
John Carson - 2019
Women were being abducted and murdered, then their corpses were displayed in open shallow graves. Marshall's FBI partner, Jessie Kent, was taken. During the hunt for her, Marshall tracked the killer down, but he was shot five times and left for dead. Less than an hour later, the killer took his own life. None of the remaining victims were ever found. Until now. A female detective comes down to Marshall's home town to ask for his help. Somebody has found the decomposed victims and is displaying them. Despite no longer being with the FBI, Marshall sees this as a chance to find Jessie, and take her home for a proper burial. And to lay to rest the feelings of guilt he's been carrying for the past four years. He agrees to go back with Dani Fox, but it's soon clear somebody doesn't want him back in town. He's warned off, but he ignores it. Then the killings start. Somebody has just accelerated the game from displaying corpses to adding new victims. And this time, he's making it personal...
The Three Mike Cramer Novels: The Chinaman, The Long Shot, The Double Tap
Stephen Leather - 2013
Three page-turning action thrillers from Stephen Leather: THE CHINAMAN, THE DOUBLE TAP and THE LONG SHOT.
A Precarious Homecoming: An Arabella Stewart Historical Mystery
D.S. Lang - 2021
An immediate impediment arises when she becomes involved in a murder investigation. Helping solve the crime is crucial, but Bella must work with Constable Jackson Hastings. Once part of her life, Jax turned his back on Bella after her brother, his best friend, died in the trenches. His cold attitude hasn’t softened, but she can’t let that stop her. Both her hometown and family resort, once popular tourist destinations, may not survive if the crime isn’t solved quickly.Jax, a war veteran, faces his own challenges. Wounded in body and spirit, his dreams shattered, he finds himself doing what he said he’d never do—follow in his father’s footsteps as constable. When a wave of crimes hit the town, culminating in murder, his competence is questioned. In a struggle to find the killer and save his job, Jax needs all the help he can get—but he doesn’t want assistance from Bella. Not when he feels responsible for her brother’s death. But more is at stake than his job. He can’t stand by and let Moreley become a ghost town. Nor can he watch while Bella loses Ballantyne.Working together is the only way to solve the crime and offer hope—to their community and for themselves. Will their efforts succeed, or will it be a precarious homecoming?
Money Tree
Gordon Ferris - 2014
At its heart is the story of Anila Jhabvala, a destitute woman in a dying village in central India, and her struggle against the daily embrace of usury. Into her fraught existence blunder two westerners: Ted Saddler, a has-been American reporter living off the faded glory of a Pulitzer Prize, and Erin Wishart, a hard-bitten Scottish banker with a late-developing conscience. As the tension mounts, their three storylines interweave and fuse in a thundering and moving climax. In pointing up the gulf between rich and poor, and the misguided efforts of western institutions to meddle in developing countries, Gordon pays homage to Professor Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Peace and founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.
The Ellie O'Conner Suspense Series: Books 1-4
Jack Hardin - 2019
But when news of a horrifying murder shocks her sleepy fishing community, she’s compelled by a deep sense of justice to help track down the killer. And when an old friend offers her a chance to do it from behind a badge, she goes all in. Ellie’s investigation gets off to a rapid start, leading her into a hidden underworld of drugs, murder, and lies, where she quickly discovers that some of the locals may not have the cleanest of hands. Meanwhile, as deep pain continues to linger from the recent death of her father and a gaping hole left by a previous mission gone terribly wrong, Ellie discovers that it’s not so easy to outrun your past.
SHALLOW BREEZE
When a plane loaded with illegal drugs crashes into an iconic pier, the locals begin to wonder if any other secrets are about to fall out of the sky. After going to Tampa to search out a possible link between Hawkwing Enterprises and the dead body of a young boy, Ellie suddenly becomes entangled with an elusive drug lord and the former Navy SEAL working with him. On Pine Island, a local and beloved business owner is blackmailed into moving cargo that goes against everything he believes in, bringing his world crashing down around him as he begins to live a sinister lie.
BITTER TIDE
When local Matlacha artist Jean Oglesby confides to Ellie that her son may be in some trouble, Ellie steps in to help and is sent down a winding trail that leads her into deep and unexpected waters. A Category 4 hurricane has Pine Island in its crosshairs, and as the winds whip the mainland, it forces Ellie to make a choice: flee for safety or stay and hunt down the weapons smugglers that have kidnapped and tortured an innocent man. And when a friend from the past suddenly appears with unexpected news, she begins to wonder if the truth is even out there and if she will be forced to finally bend the rules.
VACANT SHORE
Ellie has encountered setback after setback, and this time is no different. When a former adversary comes back for revenge, Ellie discovers the crosshairs cover more than she ever could have imagined and locks her into a deadly battle that has already claimed far too many innocent lives. As she gets ever closer to unmasking the lies running rampant over her community, Ellie finds corruption at the highest levels of government, forcing her to reexamine everything she knew to be true. In this nail-biting conclusion to an investigation that began in Broken Stern, Ellie’s pursuit of justice takes her to the very threshold of death’s door, and what she finds leading up to it is nothing short of terrifying.
Hunt-U.S. Marshal III
W.L. Cox - 2013
Marshal series continues with fresh and exciting adventures for Hunt and the other U.S. Marshals assigned to the Denver office. Hunt and Earl are sent north to investigate the disappearance of two army scouts and are escorted to the Sioux camp by cavalry officers from Fort Carson. Hunt's visit is complicated with the arrival of a man from Philadelphia claiming his daughter is being held against her will at the Sioux camp and is demanding that the army help him retrieve his daughter. Hunt comes face to face with the man that he tracked all the way from Boston to the Missouri River with surprising results.
Angels (Nevada James #3) (Nevada James Mysteries)
Matthew Storm - 2016
Back then he promised he'd resume their deadly game of cat and mouse soon. But since then...he's done nothing. Out of leads and with nothing to go on, Nevada has nothing to do but wait. But in the meantime, she learns one of her old criminal informants has been tryingto get in touch with her. Krystal Harris, a former gang member, has information about a series of murders that she wants to pass on in exchange for enough money to leave town. But Krystal is murdered before Nevada has the chance to discover what information her informant wanted to give her. Now Nevada has a new crime to solve, and a score to settle. Four people are dead, and Nevada is determined to find out why.
Yancey's Ride
C. Wayne Winkle - 2021
He’s been successful thus far in putting his wild years and the death of his wife behind him. Then he gets news of his granddaughter losing cattle to rustlers. So, in the beginning of a winter that promises to be extra cold, Yancey quits his good winter job on the ranch and sets off for New Mexico to help Cassie, his granddaughter. The old ways come back to Yancey, including the feeling that someone’s following him. That someone is Laredo Dodson, a bounty hunter. Armed with an old wanted dodger, Dodson tries to catch up to Yancey and capture him. Unless Yancey objects, then he’ll kill him. Along the way, Yancey meets up with Nathaniel Landrum, Nate, a young man who doesn’t seem to know much about living in the wild. He’s also running away from something. As they travel, Yancey teaches him things like building a fire that will at least keep him alive. He also finds out Nate is running away from a failed relationship. As they travel, they help out an older man, Brother Alphonse, who invites them to spend the night at the compound where he lives. There, they meet Father Josiah and learn this is not a place they want to stay. As they leave, Yancey sees Walter Graves, a gunfighter. Dodson continues to follow Yancey. And gets into a bit of trouble along the way.
Dead Man's Canyon (Jake Moran 3)
Robert Broomall - 1986
In 1866, Beautiful archeologist Alison Shaw and her brother, Hammond, arrive in Tucson seeking a guide into Apacheria, where they plan to search for Hohokam artifacts. They try to hire the famous scout Jake Moran as a guide. Jake's not the hero everybody thinks he is, though, and he wants no parts of a trip into Apache country; so Alison enlists the services of suave French rancher Edouard de Lacey, instead. De Lacey is the secret leader of a gang of outlaws, and he suspects that Alison is really looking for treasure. He intends to steal the treasure and return to France to live in luxury. For Alison, he has other plans. De Lacey is also Jake Moran's deadliest enemy. He's been trying to kill Jake for ten years, since Jake led the Vigilance Committee than ran de Lacey out of San Francisco. When Jake learns that Alison and her brother have gone with de Lacey, he has to try and save them. He rescues Alison and her brother, and with the outlaws and Cochise's Apaches hot on their trail, the three of them set out to discover the secret of Dead Man's Canyon.
Preacher's Corner
Bruce G. Bennett - 2016
The door opens and you find a man holding a book. That book is called “Preachers Corner: Gunfighter of the West Book 1,” and the owner tells you this is the latest western bestseller from Bruce G. Bennett. You are stuck in Cheyenne for the day—you sit down and you start to read. Why is railroad magnate, Leonard Green, suddenly so interested in sleepy little Preacher’s Corner? Find out in this action packed story about the Wild West when it was really wild. Are Apaches behind burning out and murdering settlers or is some insidious plot afoot? It’s going to take cavalry Major Gabriel Torrent and a host of colloquial characters to figure out the puzzle. Throw in renegade Apaches and you have a great mix of Americana reminiscent of Zane Grey. Be there when the moment of truth is revealed in Preachers Corner. Filled with action-packed drama, great gunfights and the writing of Bruce G. Bennett you will not be able to put down “Preachers Corner.” Stake your claim now, and spend your hours with one of the best western books of the year.
Mountain Man
Mike Mackessy - 2018
His early home life, until age 17 where he heads west, to the mountains. His journey is told through his meetings with both bad and good elements of typical westerners of that time, Indians, Mountain Men, and Outlaws. Reaching the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains in the company of seasoned Mountain Men his goal is in sight, Rendezvous. His adventures include encountering grizzly bears, hunting buffalo, and typical arms, weapons, and accessories associated with mountain men and trappers. An encounter with a golden eagle, held sacred by the Crow people, wins favor with a party of Crow warriors returning from Rendezvous. Succeeding as a hunter and a warrior earns an invitation from the Crow warriors to winter over with their small band. While living in the Crow village we follow this band to summer and winter camps, buffalo hunts, horse stealing adventures, and with fighting their mortal enemies, the Blackfoot.
High Noon For A United States Marshal: Black Pearls, Blue Diamonds and Bullets / U.S. Marshal / The Long Trail Nowhere
Paul L. Thompson - 2017
These are the stories of the Old West written by bestselling Western author Paul L. Thompson. Matt was one of Shorty’s best friends, they had worked on ranches’ together back in their teen years and were as close as any brothers. Shorty told his partner Buffalo he may be gone for months, but will write when he can. That night he cleaned and oiled his guns. As the sun came up the next morning, he was miles closer to Big Spring, Texas in U.S. Marshal U.S. Marshal Shorty Thompson is on the case again when a young English girl and her brother are robbed of their precious family jewels they are trying to safely get to San Francisco. Outlaws abound, all trying to get their hands on the loot, but they have a bit of a surprise when they come face to face with scrappy young Margret, backed up by Shorty. Plenty of bullets are shot both ways, but will the bad guys win? Excitement, shoot-outs, and life or death situations ensue, all over some black pearls and blue diamonds. This is Black Pearls, Blue Diamonds and Bullets from Paul L. Thompson. And in “The Long Trail Nowhere” Ronnie Cox slowly saddled his horse, stowing all of his traveling gear and tying it tightly. Walking to the main house, he knocked on the door. Jack Johnson opened it with a smile. “Come on in, Ronnie.” Ronnie stood with hat in hand. “Mister Johnson, I’s needing to draw my pay, as I’ll be taking up the trail after a bit.” Little did he know, this trail to nowhere was going to lead to a whole lot of trouble, and he was slowly riding that way. These three exciting stories are now together in this new collection from action-packed bestselling Western author Paul L. Thompson. These are three of the most powerful Western adventures in town waiting for your Kindle!
Arizona Gunman
G. Wayne Tilman - 2020
An Arizona lawman who rides rough country, often going up against dangerous men and gangs alone. Dealing with bank robbers, kidnappers and rustlers with his fast gun. Much of his tracking ability comes from his Scottish father, who served as an Indian scout. Valuable experience as a Rough Rider with Teddy Roosevelt, then as an Arizona Ranger.Outlaws and corrupt government tend to stand in Duncan’s way, but he manages to overcome all obstacles with integrity and really fast guns.