Book picks similar to
The Vivaldi Cipher by Gary McAvoy


historical-fiction
fiction
first-in-series
thriller

Glastonbury


Brian L. Porter - 2010
    A menacing background presence, in the form of an old-established London crime family, appears to display an abnormal interest in the goings-on in the ancient town where Christianity laid its roots in England. There, aided by the enigmatic and flamboyant university professor Lucius Doberman, Joe and his team must solve the mystery of Glastonbury before the sinister historian Walter Graves makes the discovery that could cost him and the whole team their lives.

The Relic of the King


Bill Thompson - 2015
    Whatever it takes, there will be no sharing of the fame he’ll receive. Deep below a quaint street in London there’s a secret room. A sarcophagus has rested there for a thousand years. When an astonishing set of diaries is found, secrets lost for centuries are revealed. Even the journals themselves are amazing. They were written by a monarch whom history says never existed. Roberto Maas, a businessman who’s not what he appears to be, searches a medieval crypt for answers. You’d expect to find bodies in a crypt, but along with ancient corpses there are modern ones too. Roberto must be wary – his psychotic partner has dark secrets of his own. The mystery unravels and time begins to run out. Roberto Maas races to learn what the discoveries beneath the ancient city really mean.

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?

The Cotton Malone Series


Steve Berry - 2012
    With the smart and sexy Cassiopeia Vitt by his side, Malone faces down the world’s deadliest terrorists, assassins, and con men—and unravels some of history’s most legendary and iconic mysteries along the way.Now in one exclusive eBook bundle are the first seven novels of Steve Berry’s extraordinary series:The Templar LegacyThe Alexandria LinkThe Venetian BetrayalThe Charlemagne PursuitThe Paris VendettaThe Emperor's TombThe Jefferson Key

The Lost Chambers Box Set: Three Adventure Thrillers


Ernest Dempsey - 2015
    Step on the gas. And hold on tight. *** Get three of Ernest Dempsey's best selling novels in one box set *** Nearly seven thousand years ago, a priceless piece of history vanished in the Caucasus Mountains near Armenia. Now, you can get three best selling mystery and suspense adventure thrillers in one and save.THE SECRET OF THE STONES- The first book in the Sean Wyatt series takes you through the southeastern United States on a search for an ancient Native American treasure that has been hidden for over four thousand years. Sean has to call upon his skills as a former government agent when things turn sour and he ends up in a high-octane, perilous race against an evil mastermind with dangerous intentions. THE CLERIC'S VAULT- Sean and Tommy are back at it again in the sequel to THE SECRET OF THE STONES. This time, the mysterious clues to the lost chambers of gold lead them to South America in search of a dead priest's collection of odd artifacts. More danger lurks in the mountains of Ecuador, however, and things heat up when the boys are joined by a mysterious Spanish woman with a hidden past. THE LAST CHAMBER- The thrilling conclusion of the trilogy takes Sean Wyatt and his friends across the globe to the foot of an ancient mountain where they investigate a monastery with a sordid past. Follow the clues, the chase, and the fight as Sean and company try to race to the finish and uncover a mystery that will rewrite the history books, or if they lose, change the face of the planet forever. ˃˃˃ If Indiana Jones and Jason Bourne had a kid together, his name would be Sean Wyatt. The Lost Chambers is Ernest Dempsey's trilogy in the genre of thrillers and mysteries, and has won fans over worldwide. This story takes the characters across the the globe on a wild adventure that could spell the end of civilization as we know it. Travel with Sean Wyatt as he pieces together a sequence of ancient riddles in this suspense packed thriller. ˃˃˃ Action so hot you might need to stand in a walk-in cooler when you're done reading. If you love fast, up-tempo stories that don't get bogged down in a lot of bull, this series of thrillers is for you. With crime, murder, suspense, mystery, and white hot action, you're sure to keep turning the pages until you realize the story just ended. But beware, this book is not for the faint of heart. In the world of high stakes adventure, things can get pretty violent. Consider yourself warned.

After Alice Fell


Kim Taylor Blakemore - 2021
    Marion Abbott is summoned to Brawders House asylum to collect the body of her sister, Alice. She’d been found dead after falling four stories from a steep-pitched roof. Officially: an accident. Confidentially: suicide. But Marion believes a third option: murder.Returning to her family home to stay with her brother and his second wife, the recently widowed Marion is expected to quiet her feelings of guilt and grief—to let go of the dead and embrace the living. But that’s not easy in this house full of haunting memories.Just when the search for the truth seems hopeless, a stranger approaches Marion with chilling words: I saw her fall.Now Marion is more determined than ever to find out what happened that night at Brawders, and why. With no one she can trust, Marion may risk her own life to uncover the secrets buried with Alice in the family plot.

Altar of Bones


Philip Carter - 2011
    “They didn’t have to kill him…He never drank from the altar of bones.”  Cryptic dying words from a murdered homeless woman in present day San Francisco unlock a decades-buried secret that changed history.  Now a pair of ruthless assassins are sent to cut the few living "loose ends."  And a young, resourceful woman on the run encounters a determined man with his own connected past and vengeful agenda.  Forced to partner for survival and answers, a fast-paced and deadly game of cat and mouse ensues, taking them across the globe from the winding streets of Paris to the faded palaces of Budapest to the frozen lakes of Mongolia...where destiny, passion, and further betrayal await them.  The Altar of Bones has it all: The Russian mob.  KGB spies.  Presidential assasination.  A doomed Hollywood legend.  Deathbed confessions.  Corrosive power.  Shattered families.  Guardians of an ancient religious icon housing a secret others will kill to possess.  The dark promise of immortality. And it delivers on its ambitious premise to leave you stunned and breathless at the end.

The Buried Book


D.M. Pulley - 2016
    He’s lucky to even have a home and must keep his mouth shut and his ears open to stay in his uncle’s good graces. No one knows where his mother went or whether she’s coming back. Desperate to see her again, he must take matters into his own hands. From the farm, he embarks on a treacherous search that will take him to the squalid hideaways of Detroit and back again, through tawdry taverns, peep shows, and gambling houses.As he’s drawn deeper into an adult world of corruption, scandal, and murder, Jasper uncovers the shocking past still chasing his mother—and now it’s chasing him too.

The Abbey Close


Steven Veerapen - 2018
    Sampson, S.J. Parris and Rory Clements."A superb, page-turning debut. The author balances gimlet-eyed research with narrative drive and clever reveals... Danforth is a strong yet torn central character... I look forward to reading the second book in the series." Richard Foreman.Steven Veerapen was born in Glasgow and raised in Paisley. Pursuing an interest in the sixteenth century, he was awarded a first-class Honours degree in English, focussing his dissertation on representations of Henry VIII’s six wives. He then received a Masters in Renaissance studies, and a Ph.D. investigating Elizabethan slander. The Abbey Close represents his first foray into fictional writing. Steven is fascinated by the glamour and ghastliness of life in the 1500s, and has a penchant for myths, mysteries and murders in an age in which the law was as slippery as those who defied it.

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Undead Client: Being Book One of the Unpublished Case Files of John H. Watson, MD


M.J. Downing - 2019
    Even Arthur Conan Doyle would be a fan of this stellar mystery that would make him wish he'd done it himself. A must-read for all mystery fans in general and Sherlock Holmes fans in particular." —Jon Land, USA Today bestselling author of MURDER, SHE WROTE: A Date with Murder Sherlock Holmes' devoted friend Dr John Watson takes the lead in a case so bizarre that it could only be revealed after Holmes’ death. Sherlock Holmes has only been deceased a month when Dr. John Watson, still grieving, recounts his final case with Holmes. A terrifying mystery, it sends Watson and Holmes into the dark reaches of London’s back alleys – and the human soul. It begins when Anne Prescott, a lovely Scottish nurse, begs Sherlock Holmes and Watson to help her find her fiancé and her sister, who have gone missing in the teeming streets of London. Immediately, Watson feels an attraction to her that shocks him. Newly married to Mary, and deeply in love with her, he struggles to put Anne out of his mind. As Watson and Holmes dig into the slums and sewers of London looking for Anne’s fiancé and sister, they uncover a deadly web of bloody murders, horrific medical experiments, and even voodoo ritual that threatens not only London, but the entire British empire, and beyond. Watson must call on his unique combination of expertise in the medical sciences, as well as his military training to stop this killer before London – and Anne -- are lost to the killer’s bloody plan. But time is short and the mystery ever more complex. How can he manage his feelings for Anne? What about his loyalty to Mary? He can’t have both.

Little Deaths


Emma Flint - 2017
    and Cindy, have gone missing. Later that day, Cindy's body is found in a derelict lot a half mile from her home, strangled. Ten days later, Frankie Jr.'s decomposing body is found. Immediately, all fingers point to Ruth. As police investigate the murders, the detritus of Ruth's life is exposed. Seen through the eyes of the cops, the empty bourbon bottles and provocative clothing which litter her apartment, the piles of letters from countless men and Ruth's little black book of phone numbers, make her a drunk, a loose woman - and therefore a bad mother. The lead detective, a strict Catholic who believes women belong in the home, leaps to the obvious conclusion: facing divorce and a custody battle, Malone took her children's lives. Pete Wonicke is a rookie tabloid reporter who finagles an assignment to cover the murders. Determined to make his name in the paper, he begins digging into the case. Pete's interest in the story develops into an obsession with Ruth, and he comes to believe there's something more to the woman whom prosecutors, the press, and the public have painted as a promiscuous femme fatale. Did Ruth Malone violently kill her own children, is she a victim of circumstance - or is there something more sinister at play?

The House of Closed Doors


Jane Steen - 2012
    Yet Nell is determined to elude the duties and restrictions of matrimony. So when she finds herself pregnant at the age of 17, she refuses to divulge the name of the father and even her childhood friend Martin is kept in the dark.Nell's stepfather Hiram sends Nell to live at the Poor Farm of which he is a governor, to await the day when her baby can be discreetly adopted. Nell is ready to go along with Hiram's plans until an unused padded cell is opened and two small bodies fall out.Nell is the only resident of the Poor Farm who is convinced that the unwed mother and her baby were murdered, and the incident prompts her to rethink her decision to abandon her own child to her fate. But the revelations to which her questions lead make her realize that even if she manages to escape the Poor Farm with her baby, she may have no safe place to run to.

House of Bathory


Linda Lafferty - 2014
    During bizarre nightly rites, she tortured and killed the young women she had taken on as servants. A devil, a demon, the terror of Royal Hungary—she bathed in their blood to preserve her own youth.400 years later, echoes of the Countess’s legendary brutality reach Aspen, Colorado. Betsy Path, a psychoanalyst of uncommon intuition, has a breakthrough with sullen teenager Daisy Hart. Together, they are haunted by the past, as they struggle to understand its imprint upon the present. Betsy and her troubled but perceptive patient learn the truth: the curse of the House of Bathory lives still and has the power to do evil even now.The story, brimming with palace intrigue, memorable characters intimately realized, and a wealth of evocative detail, travels back and forth between the familiar, modern world and a seventeenth-century Eastern Europe brought startlingly to life.Inspired by the actual crimes of Elizabeth Báthory, The House of Bathory is another thrilling historical fiction from Linda Lafferty (The Bloodletter’s Daughter and The Drowning Guard). The novel carries readers along with suspense and the sweep of historical events both repellent and fascinating.

City of Dark Hearts


James Conan - 2008
    With the support of a young man who is just venturing into the burgeoning trade of news photography, Emily soon finds herself in a race against time to save Anna's life and to bring her story back to New York before Pulitzer's tough deadline expires.Chicago is a place of dangerous contrasts. Among all the glitz and razzmatazz of the Fair itself and the spectacular wealth and influence of a new middle class elite, Emily comes face to face with rival ethnic groups, the sinister underworld of pornography and prostitution, as well as the ruthless meatpacking giants of the Union Stock Yard, who control the lives and destinies of so many of Chicago's immigrant poor.

If Angels Fall


Rick Mofina - 2000
    Pointing them out now no longer applies to the current edition.Tom Reed is a crime reporter with The San Francisco Star, whose superb journalistic skills earned him a Pulitzer nomination. But years later Reed’s life is coming apart. His editor wants him fired. His wife has left him to wrestle with his demons. Alone, Reed is tormented by the fear he may have caused the suicide of an innocent man suspected of murdering a two-year-old girl.Reed’s friend on the case is legendary San Francisco Homicide Inspector, Walt Sydowski, who has one of California’s highest clearance rates. He is also a lonely widower haunted by the fact he cannot solve the girl's heartbreaking death.Both men grapple with the past while they race the clock to learn the truth behind a several new abductions that have anguished the Bay Area, in this acclaimed thriller set in the late 1990s.