Book picks similar to
The Wife of a Lesser Man by Sandy Appleyard


first-reads
mystery
wishlist-someday
lendable-books

Squall


Sean Costello - 2014
    On a clear winter morning he sets out in his Cessna 180 to do some repairs on a remote hunt camp, leaving his five year old son and very pregnant wife snug in their beds.On the return trip, a squall forces him into an emergency landing and he winds up—quite literally—in the lap of petty criminal Dale Knight. Dale, now a fugitive from the law—and worse, from a merciless drug lord who just happens to be his brother—draws Tom into a web of mayhem and treachery that puts not only his life at risk, but the lives of his wife, son…and unborn child.SQUALL is a fast-paced, darkly-comic tale of murder and gang-style retribution that grabs the reader on page one and simply does not let go.

Habit


T.J. Brearton - 2014
    A young woman in a remote farmhouse has called 911 on an intruder and is killed. The clue path leads Healy to several suspects, but when the victim’s brother opens fire on the cops, the department is ready to close the case. Healy persists with his own investigation, leading him into the world of human trafficking where an escort service is used by government officials. Healy tracks a potential killer, who is holding a child hostage. But the case is not yet closed, and another killer must be brought to justice.

The One You Love


Paul Pilkington - 2011
    Her fiancé vanishes, leaving the battered and bloodied body of his brother in their London apartment. Someone is stalking her, watching her every move. And her family are hiding a horrifying secret; a secret that threatens all those she loves. In a desperate race against time, Emma must uncover the truth if she ever wants to see her fiancé alive again. The One You Love is a fast-paced suspense mystery, full of twists and turns, following in the tradition of writers such as Nicci French and Sophie Hannah.

Family Money


Chad Zunker - 2022
    They have two daughters and a beautiful home, and Alex’s startup business is about to explode thanks to massive private funding from his compassionate and supportive father-in-law, Joe. With millions more to come, all is perfect—until Joe is abducted and murdered during a family trip in Mexico.Alex’s world is about to be turned upside down. He can’t bear to tell his grieving wife why. The man they’ve both idolized has been keeping secrets. The pledged millions are nowhere to be found. The source of the original investment is a mystery, even to Joe’s financial adviser. No one, it seems, has any idea who the man they knew, loved, and trusted really was.As Alex digs deeper into Joe’s shadowy life, the most shocking surprises are yet to come. Deadly ones, too, because every lie that Alex uncovers in Joe’s dark past puts his family in more danger.

Bonita


D.W. Ulsterman - 2014
    politico Frank Bennington finds himself out of a job, recovering from a heart attack, and wondering what the hell he’s supposed to do next. Then a phone call from a long ago acquaintance gives Frank an opportunity to use his particular brand of talents and insights to reveal a cover-up with global implications. It is a scandal involving powerful and influential figures who wish for the truth to remain hidden, and the lie to continue to be perpetrated, for it is a lie worth TRILLIONS of dollars to those who control its message. In Frank Bennington’s new world of private investigations, dead men tell no truths, and that is exactly what his enemies hope to make of him. "Bennington P.I. “Bonita” is the much anticipated follow up to D.W. Ulsterman’s novel, "The Second Oldest Profession".

Tips for Living


Renee Shafransky - 2018
    With the help of her best friend, she fled New York City for a small resort town, snagged a job as the advice columnist for the local paper, and is cautiously letting a new man into her life. But when Hugh and his perfect new family move into a summer house nearby, Nora backslides. Coping with jealousy, humiliation, and resentment again is as hard as she feared. It’s harder still when Hugh and his wife are shot to death in their home.If only Nora could account for the night of the murders. Unfortunately, her memories have gone as dark as her fantasies of revenge. But Nora’s not the only one with a reason to kill—and as prime suspect in the crime, she’d better be able to prove it.

The Road King Chronicles: Blue Ridge Run


Harry Harrigan - 2015
    After twenty-three years and three combat tours with the 75th Ranger Regiment, he’s got a Silver Star, a titanium knee and a plan to see America on his Road King motorcycle. No more patrols, no more firefights. Nothing more dangerous than passing the old work van rumbling along in front of him as he rides toward Hunter-Stewart and the sunset of his career in the Army. But just as he twists the throttle to pass, a woman’s bare foot smears a bloody print on the van’s back window. Roman turns back to help, triggering a chain of events that puts his brother Virgil and two old friends in the crosshairs of a murderer. Saving them sends Roman on a desperate ride from Savannah to DC, where he discovers that the past he has been trying to forget has not forgotten him. It’s been waiting patiently, holding his secret like a time bomb.

I Believe You


Jeanne Grunert - 2016
    Now he struggles to raise his three sons alone and run the financial empire founded by his outlandish father. One night, a mysterious stranger appears to be watching his home. The next day, $100,000 is missing from his bank account. As David untangles the knot of lies, deception and intrigue surrounding his wife's death, he threatens to shatter his close-knit family forever.

The Woman


David Bishop - 2011
    This is a story of just one woman. As the story unfolds Linda gradually learns that some people do deserve to die, but that she is not one of those people. Linda Darby is a seven-year divorcee, living quietly in a small let-the-world-go-by beach town on the coast of Oregon, who day trades for a living. Her only close friend is a widowed elderly woman who manages a small consulting company, which, as is later discovered, never has visitors, sends and receives its business correspondence only by courier, and is not listed in any phone directory. No one in town knows what kind of consulting the company does, but the rumor is that whatever they do is done for the government. Linda doesn’t date local men. When her celibacy grows intolerable, she visits nearby towns to frequent the watering holes of successful men. Her motto: No relationships. No second dates. No use of her real name during one-night stands. Then one evening, Linda goes for a walk and nothing for her is ever the same. She is dragged into an alley by two men, but saved by a third, a stranger who disappears as suddenly as he appeared. The next day she finds out the two men in the alley had been killed, the town’s first murders ever. The following day she learns that hours before she had been dragged into the alley, her close friend was tortured and killed.

Oath of Office


Michael Palmer - 2012
    John Meacham goes on a shooting spree the office, his business partner, staff, and two patients are killed in the bloodbath. Then Meacham turns the gun on himself.The blame falls on Dr. Lou Welcome. Welcome worked with Meacham years before as a counselor after John's medical license had been revoked for drug addiction. Lou knew that John was an excellent doctor and deserved to be practicing medicine and fought hard for his license to be restored. After hearing the news of the violent outburst, Lou is in shock like everyone else, but mostly he's incredulous. And when he begins to look into it further, the terrifying evidence he finds takes him down a path to an unspeakable conspiracy that seems to lead directly to the White House and those in the highest positions of power.

A Killing Tide


P.J. Alderman - 2006
    But now a man is dead, an arsonist has set the Anna Marie ablaze and her brother is missing, accused of both crimes. How much more can she take?THERE'S FIREMichael Chapman knows how to take the heat-- as the new fire chief of Astoria, Oregon, he's dealt with more than his share. No way can he afford to get involved with the sister of a suspect. But the scorching attraction between him and Kaz burns out of control and when someone takes a shot at her, his protective instincts kick in. Whatever happens, he can't allow another woman to die because of him.

How Will I Know You?


Jessica Treadway - 2016
    Her death looks like a tragic drowning accident at first, but an autopsy reveals something sinister -- the teenager's body shows unmistakable signs of strangulation. The discovery upends an otherwise uneventful small town, as police grapple with a rare homicide case and those closest to Joy wonder how she could have been taken from them -- and by whom. Susanne, Joy's mother, tries to reconcile past betrayals with their wrenching consequences. Martin, an African-American graduate student, faces ostracism when blame is cast on him. Tom, a rescue diver and son-in-law of the town's police chief, doubts both the police's methods and his own perceptions. And Harper, Joy's best friend, tries to figure out why she disappeared from Harper's life months before she actually went missing.

The Thinnest Air


Minka Kent - 2018
    Her husband, Andrew, is a charming and successful financial broker. She has two lovely stepchildren and is living in affluence in a mountain resort town. After three years of marriage, Meredith’s life has become predictable. Until the day she disappears.Her car has been discovered in a grocery store parking lot—purse and phone undisturbed on the passenger seat, keys in the ignition, no sign of struggle, and no evidence of foul play. It’s as if she vanished into thin air.It’s not like Meredith to simply abandon her loved ones. And no one in this town would have reason to harm her. When her desperate sister, Greer, arrives, she must face a disturbing question: What if no one really knows Meredith at all? For Greer, finding her sister isn’t going to be easy…because where she’s looking is going to get very, very dark.

Merry TREXmas


Allie K. Adams - 2016
    What’s a forced reunion without a little laughter, a few tears, and a couple fistfights? After too many hours under the same roof, too many alphas, and too little patience, tempers snap. The agents are out of their element in more ways than one, especially when the special director drops a bomb no one saw coming. It takes a 12-year-old autistic boy and his faithful companion to remind them all of the true meaning of Christmas. His appearance and the reason behind it reminds the agents why they’re together in the first place.

The Speed of Sound


Eric Bernt - 2018
    Resident Eddie Parks’s contribution is nothing less than extraordinary: an “echo box” that can re-create never-recorded sounds using acoustic archeology.All Eddie wants is to hear his late mother’s voice. But what he’s created is inadvertently posing a threat to national security.To Harmony House’s shadowy government backers and radical extremists, the echo box is the ultimate intelligence asset—an end to the very concept of secrecy. Now for Eddie and the compassionate Dr. Skylar Drummond, the true nature of the institution is becoming chillingly clear.As ruthless competing enemies close in on Eddie and his miraculous machine, Skylar risks all to take him on the run. Because once that prize is won, Eddie Parks will no longer be considered a “special person” but a dangerous redundancy. An inconvenient echo that must be silenced.