Book picks similar to
Between the Levees by Jonathan Olivier


fiction
general-fiction
louisiana
southern-fiction

Secret Memories #1


J.S. Donovan - 2018
    As she seeks retribution, a re-invigorated killer strikes again, and Angela discovers that nothing about the night of her parents’ killings is what it seems.

The Mashego File


Ian Patrick - 2016
    Building on front-line research in the war against crime in Durban, South Africa, with assistance and guidance from detectives, forensics experts, and victims of crime, the author has explored the precise locations in which scenes are set, and has captured details of background, history, and actual crimes before adapting them for his purposes into fast-paced fiction thrillers. His intention is to create exciting crime stories steeped in authenticity of action, place and time, while exploring current debates on law, justice, crime and moral responsibility. Intrigued by the way the character Mashego evolved in 'Plain Dealing', he decided to trace back in the detective's past to explore the origins of his attitude and approach to police work. 'The Mashego File' traces this earlier phase in the policeman's career.

The SW19 Club


Nicola May - 2015
    ‘This book will twang your funny bone – and your heartstrings. I totally loved it. Nicola May is a talent to watch!’ Milly Johnson‘A funny and fast-paced romp … thoroughly enjoyable’ Deborah Hughes, Woman‘The kind of special book that only comes along once in a while’ Miranda DickinsonWhat would you do if you were told you could never have children?Faced with this news, Gracie Davies is at an all-time low. But with the support of some new Wimbledon friends, an unorthodox therapist, her hippy-chick sister Naomi and Czech call-girl Maya, she sets up The SW19 Club and begins her rocky journey to inner peace and happiness. Add in a passionate fling with handsome landscaper Ed, a fairytale encounter with a Hollywood filmstar and the persistence of her adulterous ex, life is anything but predictable…

We Can't Be Broken


H.K. Christie - 2017
    Once Anna is born everything changes for the better: a new sister, a new house and a perfect life. It’s as if nothing can go wrong—until Anna gets cancer. 

 In the wake of seemingly never-ending hospital stays and chemo treatments, Casey and her older siblings, Kelly and Sam, are suddenly forced to fend for themselves while constantly adapting to a new normal, which is anything but. Now growing up in the shadow of their sister’s cancer, Casey and her siblings try to survive as well as figure out their own place in the world. 

 With the family they once had no longer in existence, Casey finds herself wondering what’s next. Will they ever again find peace, happiness or each other? We Can't Be Broken is a novel inspired by true events.

The Crying Bird


E.J. Stillings - 2017
    Now, she’s a middle-aged millionaire, grieving the loss of her family. The only living relative she has left is her smothering younger sister. May’s sanity is already threatened when tensions rise, so she sets out to find solitude in Florida. However, life has other plans for her. Animal encounters, unlikely friendships, sisterly squabbles and hilarious scenarios take May on an unforgettable journey from the depths of grief to a new life. But, will she embrace it?

The Eagle and the Tiger


Tim Davis - 2015
    The deceptive, crooked path that led him to today began a few months back. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, nineteen-year old Fleming was a professional baseball pitcher with the Chicago White Sox. His successful first year in the minor leagues was waylaid when he received his draft notice. Through a series of misadventures, he ended up enlisting for four years in an elite unit called the A.S.A. or Army Security Agency; the army’s equivalent to the N.S.A. or the National Security Agency. Once in the army, Fleming learned that the recruiter had manipulated him with a host of untruths. Then, to his dismay, he learned that the army had lost his orders and he was placed in an infantry unit. Once in Vietnam, Platoon Sergeant, Levine questioned Fleming and dragged out of him the sad story of how he had enlisted for four years and ended up in an infantry unit. He became the butt of the platoon’s jokes and underwent vicious ribbing by the other platoon members. That day, the platoon was ordered back to their base camp: L.Z. English. Before leaving, they endured a mortar attack and then a ground probe. Fleming’s foxhole mate was critically wounded. Fleming did everything he could to save the man but his wounds were too severe and he died in Fleming’s arms. Repulsed by the ordeal, Fleming was left wondering if he could endure a whole year of this. Twelve-year old Van Phan Duc and his two friends twelve-year old Hoi Anh Vanh and Dan Tri Quang lived happily in their village until the day a N.V.A. invaded and forced them to join their struggle and fight the invading Americans. They were then assigned to a Viet Cong unit where they met Sergeant Chi, the man who would train them to be soldiers for the revolution and lead them into battle. Three American soldiers had been captured. Chi ordered the three boys to participate in brutally torturing the Americans. Dan embraced the torture and it turned him into a brutal fighting machine, much to Chi’s satisfaction. On the other hand, Hoi was repulsed by the events and a part of him died that day. He performed the torture but it wasn’t to Chi’s satisfaction. Van, a devout Buddhist, was also repulsed. He realized that life, as a soldier was three hundred and sixty degrees opposite of Buddha’s spiritual path. The 173rd’s area of operations was the Central Highlands. The 173rd’s home base was in and around the town of Bong Son, but they patrolled all over the province of Binh Dinh. For the next few months, Fleming and Van’s units met on numerous occasions. The first time they engaged each other in combat was in a simple ambush that lasted only two minutes. Both men were left repulsed by the carnage that could take place in only two minutes. Right after the ambush, Fleming’s company was deployed in a battalion-sized operation located in the Dak To mountain range. It was an area where numerous North Vietnamese soldiers infiltrated into South Vietnam from neighboring Cambodia and Laos. Fleming’s company was dropped into an area far from Dak To and the men were forced to march (hump) to their final destination. During the trek, they had to carve their way through impenetrable jungle and cross leach infested rivers to reach their destination, all the while suffering under Vietnam’s oppressive heat. Van’s Viet Cong unit was sent to the Dak To mountain range to do battle with Fleming and his company. Months passed with Van and Fleming’s units constantly meeting. Both men had similar personalities. Both men overcame their initial shock at war’s brutality and became highly competent soldiers who bravely fought the enemy. Both men were ultimately made into squad leaders. Both men continued to hate the war, yet were entrapped in the insanity that was war. They both recognized what war was—a brutally insane series of events where lives were lost and where dreams died.

The Lion Trees


Owen Thomas - 2016
    The Johns family is unraveling. Hollis, a retired Ohio banker, isolates himself in esoteric hobbies and a dangerous flirtation with a colleague's daughter. Susan, his wife of forty years, risks everything for a second chance at who she might have been. David, their eldest, thrashes to stay afloat as his teaching career capsizes in a storm of accusations over a missing student and the legacy of Christopher Columbus. While Tilly, the black sheep, trades her literary promise for an improbable career as a starlet, and then struggles to define herself amidst a humiliating scandal and the judgment of an uncompromising writer. By turns comical, suspenseful and poignant, the Johns family is tumbling toward the discovery that sometimes youhave to let go of your identity to find out who you are.

Love for Sail


C.L.R. Dougherty - 2014
    Experience her anxiety; feel her fear. Watch her survive by her wits. Connie has recruited her friend, Paul Russo, to serve as cook and first mate. Paul can't join her on her maiden voyage, so Connie is forced to rely on pick-up crew for her first two weeks at sea. Trouble erupts aboard Diamantista as soon as she leaves shore. Anticipating that Paul will join her in the Virgin Islands before their first guests arrive, Connie stays in touch with him during her voyage. As they converse, neither one will acknowledge that their growing attraction is deeper than friendship. Love for Sail is the first book in the Connie Barrera Thrillers, a romantic thriller series from the author of the best-selling Bluewater Thrillers. The next Connie Barrera Thriller will be published in the fourth quarter of 2014. If you enjoyed the Bluewater Thrillers, you'll see a different side of some of your favorite characters when they appear in the Connie Barrera Thrillers. Connie Barrera first appeared in C.L.R. Dougherty's Deception in Savannah. She discovered her Love for Sail in Bluewater Ice and Bluewater Betrayal. Now she has her own stories to tell. Welcome aboard!

Becoming Moon


Craig A. Hart - 2015
    Following his dream of becoming a writer, he turns away from everything he knows, and enters adulthood embittered, angry, and resentful.As he struggles to make a name for himself, he is presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. Although it requires a betrayal of his principles as an artist, he resigns himself to what appears to be fate. The writer’s compromise brings money and recognition, but these are fleeting and he soon finds himself caught in a web of depression and financial hardship. Desperate and sinking quickly, the writer begins taking trips to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where he hopes to reconnect with his muse. During one of these excursions, he meets Nigel Moon, a grizzled fellow author nearing the end of his career. Moon gives the writer a second golden opportunity and the chance to prove himself in the face of personal doubts—but only if the writer is able to set his past aside.Equal parts witty and dark and wry and tragic, the text uses simplicity as its focus. Raw and honest, Becoming Moon is an unforgettable book about exorcising past demons and finding personal redemption.

The Outlaw Hunter


Kathy E. Fisher - 2014
    He hunted outlaws like some men hunted wolves or mountain lions. The bounties he collected were simply payments rendered to a workman, and he was a man good at his work. Under Eli’s flint-hard exterior, that was merciless to outlaws, ran a wide streak of kindness that showed itself the day he picked up a starving orphan in Dodge City and took him along. He soon learned that the twelve-year-old Rob Slater harbored a common intent with him – to run down the elusive Parson gang. He for the $10,000 reward, and Rob, because Jude Parson had murdered his folks. Rob asked Eli to teach him the trade so one day he could look Jude Parson in the eye and square things with the killer. Under Eli’s tutorage the two came to turn the outlaw world on its ear until the day Eli honored his brother’s dying request and took his young daughter into his care touching off a series of unexpected changes that would forever mold their futures.

Next Christmas in Girouette (Adventures in Girouette Book 1)


Michael Welch - 2011
    This book will appeal to people of all ages—nine to ninety-nine—who want to share a classic, heart-warming literary adventure at Christmastime. Next Christmas in Girouette is the story of a brother and sister—Autry and Oxana Quinn—who find themselves stranded in a Girouette, a virtual ghost town, from Thanksgiving through Christmas when their father is taken seriously ill. Their grandfather, a Marine Captain long retired, plus an eccentric old café proprietress, a Blackfeet Indian horse trader who once served as the town’s mayor, a couple who published the local newspaper and an ancient deaf-mute trapper are the only remaining inhabitants of Girouette. These self-styled, “diehards” all seem to have one thing in common. Thanks to a mysterious event 60 years earlier, they still believe in Santa Claus. Girouette features something for everyone: carefree cowboys who race their horses over snow covered country road, a team of wolves trained to pull a dogsled, a stroll that nearly turns tragic on a buffalo jump, a serialized newspaper story titled “The Adventures of Rocky Mountain Santa,” a desperate attempt to escape from an abandoned copper mine, a night-time journey through the mountains on a frozen river and the miracle that delivers wayfaring strangers to Girouette during a storm on Christmas Eve. The book revels in the solitary beauty of winter in Big Sky Country, the enduring wisdom of the elderly citizens of Girouette, the excitement of frontier history coming to life, the inspiration of a family healing itself and the magic of an old-fashioned western Christmas. Read Next Christmas in Girouette with your family this year, and you’ll want to revisit it for years to come at holiday time.

The Veritas Deception


Lynne Constantine - 2016
    He contacted one man before he died: investigative journalist, Jack Logan. He left Jack a single clue to help him uncover the truth and keep Phillips’s widow, Taylor, safe. But safe from whom? Jack and Taylor’s desperate hunt leads them to a vast network of corrupt authority, controlling everything from social media and television programming to law enforcement and US legislation. The key to unraveling a complex web of lies is a set of ancient relics, dating back to the time of Christ. But what do these relics have to do with a senator’s death? Allies turn to foes when Jack and Taylor discover that those closest to them are part of the conspiracy and that they too have been manipulated. How long has a puppet master been pulling their strings—and will Jack and Taylor trust the right people long enough to win what becomes a colossal battle for souls?

The Wisdom Of Secrets: The Templar Covenant


Ami Noone - 2014
    Although they have been mentioned in the bible and traces of their existence are scattered throughout the globe, Peter Madeloy had always presumed that the myths of the possible existence of an ancient brotherhood, living on Earth for milennia, was nothing more than that, a myth. Until one day his father is brutally murdered and his mother is kidnapped. In exchange for his mother’s safe return, Peter must enter his father’s secret world, uncover the truth about his mother’s kidnappers and find the ancient artefact his father had dedicated his life to protecting. Peter enlists the help of his uncle, Daniel O'Brien, a professor of Philology and avid researcher of veiled organisations and his wife, Emily, a geneticist, to unravel a series of clues his father has left him. Together they embark on a journey that thrusts them into the centre of an ancient battle for supremacy that uncovers a truth that for them, will change the history and future of humanity simultaneously. With the enemy watching their every move Peter, Daniel and Emily must figure out his father's clues in time to save his mother and ultimately protect the world from the true secret that was unearthed from beneath King Solomon's Temple all those centuries ago.

The Cure


Parker J. Cole - 2017
    Yet, when Savannah’s niece is injured in a serious accident, the one man she can’t trust is the one she needs. Micah can barely contain his satisfaction when he sees Savannah’s message pleading for him to come to her side. Her disloyalty nearly cost his career and he’ll never forgive her for leaving him at the lowest point in his life. Despite her efforts to remain aloof, Savannah keeps seeing glimpses of the Micah she once loved behind his cool exterior. Micah fights an ongoing battle to not succumb to the sweetness of the woman he once cared for beyond anything else. But Savannah and Micah’s hearts remain sick with the pangs of betrayal. What, if anything, is the cure?

When The Tik-Tik Sings


Doug Lamoreux - 2015
    More victims follow, each killed under the oddest circumstances, each bearing an identical but unidentified wound, each attack accompanied by the most eerie, musical ticking. When the lead homicide investigator goes missing, Police Sergeant Erin Vanderjagt is forced into the fray and into a personal hell she never imagined.Who or what could be behind the bizarre deaths, and why is Erin's boyfriend suddenly acting crazy? Why has her idyllic world suddenly fallen apart? And – as the murders continue – what can Erin do, where can she go, how can she fight the horror... When the Tik-Tik Sings?