Book picks similar to
A Christmas Requiem by S.J. Parris


historical-fiction
s-j-parris
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form-novella

Shadows of the Past


Elaine Shelabarger - 2010
    The young widow of the disgraced Sir Hugh Delahaye, Adeline reverts to her maiden name and is determined to leave the past behind. When she encounters Guy Ashleigh, the handsome and charismatic young ward of the village squire, they fall passionately in love, but Guy is expected to marry his childhood sweetheart. When jealousy forces them apart and the secrets of the past catch up with them, Adeline sees no alternative but to run away. Somehow, they must find a way to overcome the obstacles that threaten to destroy their future together.

The Fourteenth Letter


Claire Evans - 2017
    Great fun.'The TimesPhoebe Stanbury was killed in the summer of secrets...One balmy June evening in 1881, Phoebe Stanbury stands before the guests at her engagement party: this is her moment, when she will join the renowned Raycraft family and ascend to polite society.As she takes her fiancé's hand, a stranger holding a knife steps forward and ends the poor girl's life. Amid the chaos, he turns to her aristocratic groom and mouths: 'I promised I would save you.'The following morning, just a few miles away, timid young legal clerk William Lamb meets a reclusive client. He finds the old man terrified and in desperate need of aid: William must keep safe a small casket of yellowing papers, and deliver an enigmatic message: The Finder knows.With its labyrinth of unfolding mysteries, Claire Evans' riveting debut will be adored by fans of Kate Mosse, Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Jessie Burton.'A darkly brilliant romp packed with intrigue and romance . . . curl up and prepare to become immersed'Heat'Claire Evans has created a cast of deliciously sinister and mysterious characters. A hugely satisfying read'Good Housekeeping'I stayed up far too late reading this night after night. IT WILL GET YOU HOOKED'Herald Sun'A brilliantly plotted, unpredictable page-turner that builds to a devastating conclusion'Jack Williams, co-creator of The Missing and Rellik'Claire Evans's debut novel is exciting, ingenious'Good Reading Magazine 'Will keep you guessing'Crime Fiction Lover'The Fourteenth Letter is well researched, well plotted, well written and a jolly good read'Promoting Crime Fiction blog'A delicious and surprising debut novel. Thrilling'Love It Magazine'Builds to a shattering conclusion - it will repay your patience over and again. this is a superb story, well worth the read'Crime Review'A truly thrilling read, and I will be looking out for this author's next book. Highly recommended' MyShelf (blog)

Double Jeopardy


Donna Schlachter - 2020
    Now his murder bequeaths her a mystery, a ramshackle homestead, and a silver mine.Zeke Graumann signs on as Becky’s foreman to keep his portion of his family’s ranch. He shares the workers’ reservations about a woman boss, especially one who burns water and prances around in dungarees. Even though she did look awful good in the dungarees.Then a series of accidents add threat to tension. Can Becky trust Zeke, find her father’s killer, and turn her mine into a profitable venture? Will Zeke be forced to give up his ranching dream to win Becky’s heart?“With a feisty heroine and a secret hero, sparks fly.” —Lena Nelson Dooley, editor, speaker, and author of fifty Christian novels

Sherlock Holmes in A Reflection of Evil


William Todd - 2017
    First, a mysterious woman from Swansea, Wales seeks Holmes' help finding her husband who has disappeared in the middle of the night. As soon as she leaves, Holmes receives word that there has been a prison riot with several dead and a few inmates missing. Lestrade is asking for his services. Holmes believes the two cases are not a coincidence, but he has no idea who is behind it and to what end. They go to Swansea in what could be either a wild goose chase or a setup. Will Holmes unravel the mystery before they get to Swansea? If not what will be in store for them when they step off the train?

Demiurge: Blood of the Innocent


Michael R. Hagan - 2014
    Now, edifices of this symbol are reappearing, not engraved in aged rock, but painted in blood above the victims of a serial killer, and the fanatical cult he serves. Detective Hassom is charged with the task of making sense of this slaughter and capturing the perpetrators.Corruption, collusion and the discovery that Lucas, a strangely gifted eight year old orphan, is the primary target of the murderous cult force Hassom and McKenzie to work together to solve the murders. In their efforts to protect Lucas and reveal the ultimate goal of the cult leader and how this relates to the final, revelatory prophecy discovered in Iran, they unearth a truth, more terrible than anything they could have feared.

The Good Liar


Nicholas Searle - 2016
    This is a man who has lied all his life.Roy is a conman living in a small English town, about to pull off his final con. He is going to meet and woo a beautiful woman and slip away with her life savings. But who is the man behind the con? What has he had to do to survive a life of lies? And who has had to pay the price?When Roy meets a wealthy widow online, he can hardly believe his luck. Just like Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley, Roy is a man who lives to deceive—and everything about Betty suggests she’s an easy mark. He’s confident that his scheme to swindle her will be a success. After all, he’s done this before.Sure enough, Betty soon lets Roy move into her beautiful home, seemingly blind to the web of lies he’s woven around her. But who is Roy, really? Spanning almost a century, this stunning and suspenseful feat of storytelling interweaves the present with the past. As the clock turns back and the years fall away, long-hidden secrets are forced into the light. Some things can never be forgotten. Or forgiven.

Fear No Evil


Debbie Johnson - 2014
    But that all changes when an elderly couple approach her with a terrifying story…Their daughter, a 19-year-old student, died falling from her halls’ window. But she didn't jump, they insist – she was pushed. By a ghost.Who or what is walking the halls of Hart House? And will this case end up haunting Jayne forever…?

Death Master


Anna-Marie Morgan - 2012
    Her sobs flecked his shirt with tears, which now flowed freely, their salty water aggravating the wounds accumulated on her naked flesh over the endless days she had been held captive. The end must be near now and she was so sure that it must end. She tried in vain one last time to wrench free her hands, but the bindings held firm. Knees, so long on the floor, would not have held her up anyway - had she tried to run. He was calm; she was wretched. Instinctively, she pulled her thighs to her abdomen to protect her unborn child. His hands tightened, her eyes widened - pleading. His pressure did not relent and slowly everything faded…After months of mental and physical therapy, Yvonne Giles, an Oxford DI, is back at work and that's just how she likes it. So when she is asked to hunt the serial killer responsible for taking apart young women, the DI jumps at the chance but hides the fact that she is suffering debilitating flashbacks. The victims appear to meet their murderer willingly, telling their families they're going on vacation. No one sees them again until their macabre death scenes. A quirk of the killer's signature is the food and wine stains he leaves on the backs of the girls.Yvonne is told to work with Tasha Phillips, an in-her-face, criminal psychologist. The DI's previous experience of working with a profiler involved having a case thrown out by the Crown Prosecution Service for reasons of entrapment. She's not enamoured with the idea of working with one again. Tasha has a lot to prove. The DI has a lot to get over.A tentative link with a 20 year-old cold case brings her closer to the truth, but leaves her staring her own mortality directly in the face...

Killing Ashish Karve : An Inspector Saralkar Mystery


Salil Desai - 2011
    Luckily, an exciting new case turns up right away!The body of Ashish Karve, a local businessman has been found in the back seat of his car. To PSI Motkar, Saralkar's diminutive assistant, it seems to be a straightforward case of suicide. But Saralkar's sharp mind is agog with the dark possibility of murder. As the case unfolds Saralkar finds enough motives for people, be it Ashishs business partner, his wife, his brother, his friend, his brother-in-law or even strangers to want to do away with him! Is the senior inspector becoming too fanciful in his imagination or is he on the right track in assuming that Ashish was killed?Delve into this deliciously thrilling whodunit and walk along with Senior Inspector Saralkar and PSI Motkar as they set out to sift the truth from lies and half truths.

Joe Café


J.D. Mader - 2011
    It stops the entire universe. For Michael, it tarnishes everything, including his badge. For Chet and his hostage, it is the beginning of a chase that will lead them through dingy motels and the darkest corridors of their minds. Dogan just wants Sara back. Jimmy the Cat wants to make up for all the time he has wasted. Frankie wants to live a 'moral' life, erasing everyone in his path who does not live up to his standards. Conventional notions of good and evil quickly blur as they are all forced to look into the mirrors they have avoided for so long. Chilling and horrifying, whimsical and wretched, Joe Café's cast of broken characters try to find their way in a world they never understood to begin with...for the Chens, it is easy. They are dead.

Duval and the Infernal Machine


Michele McGrath - 2013
    Newly appointed and off duty, he is strolling through the city when he sees a crowd waiting for Napoleon, the First Consul, not yet Emperor. He is jostled by some men leaving the area in a hurry and shortly afterwards a bomb, the 'Infernal Machine' explodes.Next day, Duval describes the men to a police artist and joins the hunt for the bombers. Horse-shoes and barrel hoops send him searching all over Paris. Eventually he finds the warehouse used by the bombers and his mentor is killed in the subsequent fight. Some of the bombers are captured but others escape, then Napoleon puts an abrupt end to the search, blaming others for the outrage.But the story is not over. Duval falls in love with his mentor's daughter, and together they find another of the bombers, leading to a surprise ending.

The Point of Death


Peter Tonkin - 2001
    The opening night of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. But it is not just the young lovers in the play who are star-crossed. Mercutio is found murdered in the middle of the play - but it is real, not stage, blood that flows from his body. Tom Musgrove, is hired by the theatre owners to solve the murder case as quickly and quietly as possible. The theatre has only just reopened after two years of plagues, and they can’t afford a scandal on their doorstep. As Tom plunges into the mean streets of Elizabethan London he soon realises he has jumped blindly into a web of murderous intrigue, which has already claimed the lives of Kit Marlowe and Francis Walsingham. As the shattered remnants of England’s first Secret Service split into two lethally opposed camps, the blood begins to flow from the stinking sewers of Southwark to the gilded halls of Westminster. Can Musgrove track down the murderer and solve the mystery? Or will he end up being the one hunted to The Point of Death? ‘The Point of Death’ is a thrilling Elizabethan murder mystery, full of intrigue and suspense.

Wrong Place


M.A. Comley - 2015
    One thing that sets this killer apart from the others she's hunted before: his willingness to leave DNA at each of the crime scenes. It's up to Sally and her partner DS Jack Blackman to find out why before the body count rises to double figures.While Sally is engrossed in the investigation, her ex-husband, Darryl, pays a surprise visit to her new home. His actions not only threaten Sally's new-found confidence, but they also force the DCI to give Sally an ultimatum concerning the case.Can Sally overcome all the obstacles fate has placed in her path and arrest the brazen killer?

The Devil's Priest


Kate Ellis - 2006
    And the ripples of this seismic change are felt even in the small northern port of Liverpool.When novice nun, Agnes Moore, ejected from her convent and staying with resentful relatives, claims to have been attacked in the ancient chapel of St Mary del Quay on Liverpool’s waterfront by Satan himself, her former abbess, Lady Katheryn Bulkeley, comes to her aid. Then a young priest is found dead in the River Mersey, his right hand hacked off, and Katheryn suspects that Liverpool harbours some disturbing secrets. The pregnant Agnes refuses to reveal her lover’s identity and when she is brutally murdered, Katheryn must seek her killer amongst Liverpool’s highest and lowest citizens. Then corpses are mutilated in a local churchyard and it seems that this evil may be linked to Agnes’s death. As Katheryn uncovers more of Liverpool’s dark side and draws closer to the truth, she must find the answer to the most urgent questions of all. Why has such evil come to the town? And who is the devil’s priest?

Poacher


Leon Mare - 2012
    Poacher is an action-packed romantic thriller which gives the reader a glimpse of what the tourists never see - the real Africa. Sam is a man who puts his trust in the laws of nature rather than in those of man.The lucrative but dangerous trade in rhino horn and ivory has been re-classified to the status of organised crime.Sam lives as a hardened bachelor at the Nwanetzi outpost and has, for the first time in his life, fallen in love. He has a fiancée who loves him to distraction, and he is a contented man.All this changes when Linda enters his life. She is determined to make Sam her own, and she sets out to stalk him with the stealth of a hunting leopard.Sam Jenkins gives new meaning to the saying “Africa is not for sissies”.