Book picks similar to
Gangsters of Shanghai by Gerry O'Sullivan
mystery
grays-point-bc
flapper-fiction
indie-free
The Drumbeater
Clive Allan - 2013
The task of unravelling the mystery falls to history graduate Neil Strachan, now a career cop, fast tracked into a new role on Northern Scotlands Major Enquiry Unit. When Neil calls upon German naval historian, Matthias Fuchs, to help identify the remains, a name soon emerges, that of a dashing young U-boat ace who mysteriously disappeared in 1941: Korvettenkapitän Max Friedmann. Neil seeks the assistance of Glendaig’s elderly residents, but encounters an impenetrable wall of silence, causing him to suspect that they know far more about the young submariner than they are willing to impart. With more questions than answers, and under mounting pressure from his cynical boss to wrap up the enquiry, Neil embarks on a race against time to discover the truth. He begins to unravel a tale of subterfuge, escape and astounding loyalty. A tale that will ultimately reveal a secret that could have changed the course of World War Two...
Mainlander
Will Smith - 2015
When he first arrived, he fell for the Island’s heathered headlands and golden coves, its winding lanes and sweeping tides, its background hum of Frenchness. But now he strikes a dissonant note.Sitting on an outcrop stewing after a row with his wife, schoolteacher Colin spots one of his pupils near the edge of a cliff. Worried that the boy may have intended to jump, he drives him home, hoping that his gloomy imagination was playing tricks. But when the boy fails to turn up to school the next day,Colin feels duty-bound to track him down, pitting him against the Island establishment who would rather there was a little less noise around this particular absence.A web of characters is spun around this mystery, each with his or her own secrets. In Jersey, where everyone knows everyone else’s business, you must become your own island.
See No Evil
Cat Byrd - 2013
What will it take to stop him?His father once called him Lucifer, son of the devil...He’s a friend, a father, and a lover... with an alter ego.Can he overcome an alter ego that grows stronger by the day? Can he save his friends and family from the mad man who lives within him? This seems like an impossible task because he has no clue that the mad man even exists.See No Evil, is a psychological thriller, with a fast-paced-keep-turning-the-page edge. This work of fiction explores dissociative identity disorder, also known as split personality.Coming Soon...watch for the second book in the Shingle Beach Psychological Series.About the AuthorCat Byrd has had thirteen books published by traditional publishers under a different name pen name. She was a bestselling author for one of her prior publishers. Her favorite authors are Lisa Gardner, Lisa Jackson, and Harlan Coben. If you like novels by these authors, you will most likely enjoy See No Evil. Cat is fascinated with all things mental health, which comes through in the psychological thrillers she writes.
The Silla Project
John C. Brewer - 2012
A scientist at Los Alamos, he was married to the love of his life - until a botched government raid left his wife dead in his arms and him accused of constructing an illicit nuclear weapon in his basement. Though Mitch knows he is innocent of the charges, evidence says otherwise and he's convicted and sent to prison for the rest of his life. So when black-clad commandos abduct Mitch during a prison transfer it feels more like a rescue. Until he learns that his saviors are from North Korea.Transported to a secret nuclear lab in the rugged mountains of the Workers Paradise, Mitch is given a choice- and after what his country did to him, he's in no mood to be tortured to death. And his captors are nothing like he thought, lampooned by the same media that labeled him a terrorist. Industrious and hard working, most of them are just trying to avoid malnutrition and the secret police. The only person who doesn't accept him is a fanatical and equally beautiful scientist, Chun Hyon-hui, who's mixed North Korean and Western blood leaves her ostracized by all.Forced to work together for the good of the fatherland Hyon-hui begins to realize that perhaps her zeal is misplaced, and Mitch's unexpected affection for the brilliant scientist begins to melt his stony heart. When the North finally tests their bomb, developed with Mitch's help, he knows that he must somehow undo what he has done and escape with the woman he's come to love, impossible as it seems. But how can Mitch break out of the most repressive nation on Earth, and will Hyon-hui even want to go with him?Nearly a decade of research went into writing The Silla Project, providing a glimpse into the nuclear program and the political tyranny of North Korea, one of the most threatening and enigmatic nations on Earth.
Leaving Pimlico
P.B. North - 2014
I can never get used to this, Alexi. Having you, that is. How did I deserve you? Deserve me? You don't have to do anything to deserve me. I love you. It's as simple as that. I love you for what you are. All you need to do is love me back. You don't earn love, as a payment in return.Peter Kingsmill's life had run into the sands since the death of his wife. What was a glittering London career had lost its shine. Until, that is, his life is turned upside down by an unexpected collision of events. He inherits the family estate, meets a girl seventeen years his junior and receives an anonymous letter which casts doubt on all the certainties on which he has built his past life.What follows is a journey of discovery which takes him back in time to war-torn Europe. To a story of betrayal in the secret world of spies and double agents, and ultimately to redemption and a bright new life.The narrative moves at speed from the dusty plains of pre-war Poland to the frozen winter landscapes of German-occupied Norway and finally to the gentle pastoral of the north Yorkshire hills. It is a story of a search for the pieces that make up a human life; and of the love that binds those pieces together....Do you remember the Snow Queen story? I can complete the pattern now. I have everything I need.
Mass Destruction (Nuclear Threat, #1)
Carolyn McCray - 2014
Tracking down rogue spears, broken arrows and suitcase nukes, add in Brandt's team's tendency toward explosive action, and you've got quite a thriller.
To Probe a Beating Heart
John B. Wren - 2011
She was last seen talking to a man as the clouds opened and a rain began. Th e only witness is an elderly woman whose description of the possible kidnapper could fi t any number of people. As police, friends and family search the immediate area for Annette, she is taken farther away and becomes one of the predator's early victims. Over the course of the next several years, along the interstate 90 corridor between Toledo, Ohio, and Albany, New York, a number of young girls disappear without a trace. Jim McLarry, Annette's cousin and a rookie cop with the Cleveland Heights police force, pursues his own investigation of the missing girls in hopes of finding his cousin. As he feeds information to the detectives assigned to the case, McLarry demonstrates his ability as an investigator. Years earlier, a boy, born and raised in difficult circumstances, determined that he will kill his adoptive mother and sister. Each summer a new victim is another rehearsal for his intended goal. As he plans and executes his annual killings, he leaves virtually no clues. Only little mistakes, the dogged determination of the Cleveland Heights cop and the intervention of Annette's extended family, the Clan, lead to Averell's downfall. To Probe a Beating Heart is a fi ctional, but realistic study in the creation of a killer. Th e monster that Averell has become must be stopped and if the authorities cannot make that happen, the Clan will.
Hamfist Down!: Evasion, Survival and Combat in the Jungle
G.E. Nolly - 2012
Hamilton “Hamfist” Hancock has been shot down over Laos, and must use all his skill, and luck, to avoid capture and certain, violent death. To facilitate his rescue, he must become a ground FAC and direct airstrikes against North Vietnamese targets on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. And, to survive, he must engage in hand-to-hand combat.But Hamfist may face his greatest battle after his rescue. Back in Vietnam, while recuperating at the hospital at Cam Ranh Bay, he experiences a sapper attack. And, following his return to the air, Hamfist is tormented by a flying error, an error which may have cost a comrade his life.Only time will tell if Hamfist can regain his self-respect and passion. On his final flight, Hamfist faces a brutal enemy in a life-or-death duel that will determine if he will be shot down once again or return home to his soul-mate. The rescue, the airborne mistake and the final battle force Hamfist to reevaluate his priorities in his career, in his flying, and in his life.
The Song of the Mockingbird
Bill Cronin - 2013
Only one problem: Jack cannot write a single word. Devastatingly depressed and hopelessly blocked Jack embarks on a personal journey back to the summer of 1961 when three childhood events created a psychological time-bomb that, thirty-five years later, threatened to destroy his marriage and end his writing career. Vibrant characters, settings like Charleston, Savannah and Key West and a tightly wound plot make this novel a “must read.” The Song of the Mockingbird is Bill Cronin’s second novel following five-star reviews for his first novel “Dial Tone.”
A Bride for the Texas Ranger
Charlotte Dearing - 2019
He must, however, work a deal with her. She needs money to save her ranch and he needs access to the spring on her property. Seems simple, right? But nothing’s ever easy with Pearl. The woman is steely and stubborn, but she’s lovely too, with a carefully concealed, vulnerable side. As much as he tries not to notice, thoughts of Pearl distract him plenty. She stirs all sorts of protective notions. He yearns to shield her from the dangerous outlaws that lurk in the nearby canyons. When whispered rumors turn into deadly threats, Levi vows to do whatever it takes to keep Pearl safe.
The Vivaldi Cipher
Gary McAvoy - 2021
Desperate, the composer hides a message in a special melody, hoping someone, someday, will take down the culprits . . . Nearly three hundred years later, the confession of a dying Mafia Don alerts a Venetian priest to a wealth of forged paintings in the Vatican Museum, and the key to their identities lies hidden in a puzzling piece of music. Father Michael Dominic, prefect of the Secret Archives, investigates, and is mystified when he finds a cipher in an old composition from Vivaldi. Desperate to stop this centuries-long conspiracy, he calls on fellow sleuth Hana Sinclair and Dr. Livia Gallo, a music cryptologist, to help him crack the code and learn the truth. But the Camorra, a centuries-old Italian Mafia clan, won’t stand by while some interfering priest ruins their most lucrative operation. Along with a French commando and two valiant Swiss Guards, Dominic explores the dark canals and grand palazzos of Venice to uncover the evidence he needs to stop the sinister plot. Can he unearth it in time, or will the Church’s most valuable artworks fall prey to this massive conspiracy? If you love James Rollins, Steve Berry, and Lee Child, you may lose sleep over this impossible to put down thriller! Packed with historical events and non-stop action, readers will be burning through pages late into the night. McAvoy’s fans say his “attention to detail makes the story utterly believable, leaving the reader wondering what is real and what is fiction.”
American Warrior
James Snyder - 2004
America has a new president, named John F. Kennedy, and a new era the newspapers are calling the Dawn of Camelot. But for ten-year-old Paul Brett, dealing with an abusive father and the immigrant gangs roaming his slum neighborhood of China Slough, America is only a small, dead-end place he is struggling to survive.That is, until the night a mysterious stranger comes out of the darkness to his rescue, and initiates a journey—an unforgettable odyssey—beyond his wildest imagination.From his unlikely beginnings in a brutal California migrant camp, into the darkest underbelly of a distant and unpopular war, to his final and, perhaps, most deadly struggle for survival inside the bowels of a near-medieval military prison, American Warrior follows one young man's breathtaking and mesmerizing journey into hell.
Only You
S. Williams - 2020
Since Athene has nowhere to stay, Mary suggests that she checks in to a local pub for the night.What Athene doesn’t know is that the burnt-out house was where Mary’s friend, Bella, lived. The only person she ever loved, who died in terrible circumstances.Brought on by Athene’s arrival, Mary feels her past leaking into the present. There is a secret to Bella’s death; something she has kept buried for years. But is Athene really who she says she is? Then Trent, a man convicted of starting the fire that burnt down the cottage, contacts Mary. He has received an anonymous email that refers to the past.And when Mary starts to feel like she is being watched, she is terrified the past is coming back to haunt her.Because some things cannot stay buried...
American Midnight
B.R. Snow - 2012
As he reflects on the previous day's events that included his wife walking out on him and with their joint savings, the return of the voice in his head, his subsequent loss of another $150,000 at the blackjack tables, and then waking up next to a total stranger, Doc's already damaged life has taken another serious dip downward. In order to pay off his new debt, Doc is forced to do something he vowed years ago never to do again; take a corporate job. Doc's new boss, an octogenarian Chinese casino owner with a taste for curling and political intrigue, along with the return of an old love help to reenergize Doc as he tries to rebuild his life in Sin City. At a major crossroads, Doc draws on the expertise of Merlin, his coke-addled, phobic colleague from a prior life and Summerman, a part-time ghost who is certain he can help Doc deal with the voice in his head. By the time this initial installment in B.R. Snow's Damaged Posse series is wrapped up, Doc, Merlin, and Summerman have joined forces and are armed and ready to wreak havoc on the bad guys as well as themselves."A really strong opening novel in what has real potential to become an incredibly popular series. It's unusual to see four fully-developed main characters juggled as seamlessly as they are here and B.R. Snow has set the Damaged Posse series up in a way that provides himself with a wide variety of directions to move in future volumes. The storylines are compelling, the characters pop off the page, and Snow displays a sense of irreverence which serves him well as he takes on greed, hypocrisy, and the vagaries of relationships. Best of all, he is one very funny writer. Don't miss this one and the ones that follow. Comic crime hasn't looked this good is a very long time."
The Railway Detective Collection: The Railway Detective, The Excursion Train, The Railway Viaduct
Edward Marston - 2011
An audacious attack on the London to Birmingham mail train; an apparently motiveless murder on the Great Western Railway; and a body thrown from a speeding train on the Sankey Viaduct. The Railway Detective has his work cut out for him!