Book picks similar to
Louisiana Burn by Carl T. Smith
southern
spy-thriller
usa-road-trip
12-in-12-southern-writers
A Girl Apart
Russell Blake - 2017
A mysterious phone call.A deadly international conspiracy.A brutal killer who'll stop at nothing to keep the sins of the past hidden.When investigative journalist Leah Mason returns home to El Paso with her career in flames and her romantic life in tatters, things seem like they can't get any worse.Leah soon discovers she couldn't be more wrong.Bludgeoned by life's body blows, her prospects change overnight when she sets out on the trail of a brutal killer who's terrorized a city for decades.Can she discover the truth before he claims another victim? Is the handsome stranger she finds herself drawn to hiding a secret that could cost Leah her life?If you love lightning-paced mysteries from Connoly, Archer, and Patterson, A Girl Apart is sure to be one you can't put down.Get it now!
Gray Mountain: by John Grisham | Summary & Analysis
Book*Sense - 2014
Grisham's twenty-second legal thriller takes readers from the sky-scrapers of high-powered New York law firms to the dusty offices of a free legal clinic in small-town Virginia. Gray Mountain is both an exciting story of murder and intrigue and a thoughtful examination of the effects of the coal industry on life in Appalachia. Grisham's tight plotting, wry humor and three-dimensional characters bring the legal profession to life. Gray Mountain begins in the tempestuous, nerve-wracking and paranoid atmosphere of Manhattan set in the confusing months after the economic blow-out in 2008. We see the offices with their ignored vistas, the busy, dirty sidewalks, the cramped apartments shared by young professionals. After a brief sojourn in her hometown of Washington, D.C., protagonist Samantha, along with the story, heads for rural Virginia. Most of the novel takes place in the small town of Brady, Virginia, which is poor and somewhat down-at-heel. You also get the following in this Summary & Analysis of Gray Mountain: • Detailed Book Review from Experts • Story Setting Analysis of Gray Mountain • Gray Mountain Plot Analysis that will make you see the book from another angle. • Pick up bits you might have missed as we decipher the novel. • Details of Characters & Key Character Analysis • Summary of the text, with some analytical comments interspersed • Discussion & Analysis of Themes, Symbols… • And Much More! This Analysis of Gray Mountain fills the gap, making you understand more while enhancing your reading experience.
The Blowback Protocol: A Sam Jameson Thriller
Lars Emmerich - 2017
Is it Special Agent Sam Jameson’s fault? Homeland, Justice, and a powerful US Senator think so. And Sam is afraid they might be right. She’s been suspended, and she even faces an indictment. With her beau stuck on an overseas deployment, she’s left alone with her guilt, remorse and heartache - until a cryptic and terrifying message propels her out of her darkness and into a morass of international intrigue. Along the way, the clues start to add up, and Sam begins to wonder: was the little girl’s tragic death an accident, or something much worse? And what does the CIA have to do with the horrible tragedy? Halfway across the globe, Sam runs into someone from her past. But something’s different about him, and it quickly becomes clear he’s in a desperate struggle of his own. Three important people in his life have been kidnapped and face a brutal death — that he himself has set in motion. Are all of their fates intertwined? Are Sam and the man from her past fighting the same battle, against the same adversary? Can they unravel a vast and deadly conspiracy in time to save their own lives? Blowback is a classic spy thriller in the tradition of the best espionage novels from Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, Daniel Silva, Mark Greaney, and Frederick Forsyth, told with the entertaining style and flair that have made #1 Bestselling Author Lars Emmerich one of the thriller genre’s most promising stars. For fans of these great spy thriller authors: Mark Greaney (the Gray Man) Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum (Jason Bourne), Daniel Silva (Gabriel Allon), Frederick Forsyth, Barry Eisler, Vince Flynn, David Baldacci, and Brad Thor. Interview with #1 Bestselling Author Lars Emmerich
Q: Who are your influences?
A: Too many to list! I started out years ago as a Tom Clancy addict, and I thoroughly enjoy many of Nelson DeMille’s novels. I regularly read David Baldacci, Vince Flynn, Barry Eisler, Michael Connelly, and John Grisham. James Patterson has redefined what it means to be a working author, and I read his stuff as well. My top picks are usually espionage and private detective novels, any of the thousands of thrillers and mysteries best sellers, and, of course, books featuring classic pulp heroes. And I’m greatly influenced by all sorts of nonfiction, as well. I read all the time, and I’m a bit of a magpie about the topics — science, economics, finance, politics, history, mathematics, engineering, biomechanics, medicine… It’s a big world out there, and I love learning more about it. Many of those topics find their way into my fiction, so I can justify it all as “research.”
Q: The Sam Jameson series has become quite a phenomenon. What do you think has been the driving force behind the books’ success?
A: I think Sam has something of a unique voice. She says the things we all wish we could say, and she gets away with it about half of the time. The other half of the time, not so much. I think she’s also a very human heroine. She has plenty of flaws and weaknesses, yet she accomplishes some amazing things. She’s kind of like every one of us in that regard, which resonates.
Q: You have developed personal relationships with your readers over the years, which is a little unusual in the publishing business. Was that a conscious choice?
A: Absolutely. Books are intimate things. They occupy a person’s mind and thoughts for hours at a time. Good books leave a lasting impression, and great books might even change the way we think about things, but all books are a relationship. I always wanted a conversation.
The Sarah Roberts Series Vol. 1-3
Jonas Saul - 2011
Prophecies. Dark Visions. Future events with dire consequences only she can avert.Sarah is an Automatic Writer who suffers from a rare obsessive-compulsive disorder called trichotillomania. She has dealt with kidnappings before, so when she receives a message that details a kidnapping, when it is to take place, and what she can do to stop it, she's ready. But things go wrong fast when the kidnappers recognize her from a previous intervention on her part. People are killed. Witnesses place Sarah at the scene. The police find her notebook riddled with prophecies of accidents and crimes from her automatic writing episodes and they want answers.Sarah is in a fight for her life with no one to trust. Her Dark Visions have brought her into the hands of a kidnapping ring who will do anything to find out how she knows so much about them.While the police hunt Sarah for the wrong reasons, her parents think she is at a sleepover. Her life is in her own hands and whether she makes it out of this mess alive or not depends on how many people have to die.The Warning (Sarah Roberts Book Two)At the end of Dark Visions (Sarah Roberts Book One), Sarah had spent the last four years saving people and averting serious accidents using the messages she receives from the dead.In The Warning, Sarah has learned the whereabouts of her sister's murderer. It is time to exact justice for the gruesome murder of Vivian Roberts, whose killer has never been found. When Sarah receives the warning, a message that tells her to stand down and let it go, she refuses. Against sound advice, Sarah enters a heavily guarded compound where the odds are stacked against her.In The Warning, Sarah Roberts becomes the hunted rather than the hunter.How many people have to die to catch one murderer? Sarah must face the reality that has become her life as an Automatic Writer. The Warning begins as a flame, ignites to a fire and explodes in an inferno of violence over a girl who receives messages from the dead to help the living.The Crypt (Sarah Roberts Book Three)Sarah Roberts is in Budapest searching for a weapon. During her time there, she notices a strange man wearing a fedora following her. Before she can find out who he is, she gets arrested. After her release from the Hungarian jail, she is ordered out of the country.The man in the fedora shows up at her Budapest hotel before she has a chance to leave for the airport. He is from a psychic research organization and he wants to take her back to the States with him to further understand her automatic writing abilities. When Sarah refuses to go, she is informed that she does not have a choice because she is now property of the United States government.While Sarah remains in Hungary after her deadline and then travels to Italy in a struggle to locate Armond Stuart, she has to keep the fedora-wearing American and his ten-man team off her back. The only way to escape their reach is to fake her own death. Convinced that is her only option, Sarah concocts a plan that will deal with Armond and have herself killed in the process.
The Original Inspector George Gently Collection
Alan Hunter - 2013
In the second book, Gently By The Shore, other people's holidays are disturbed when Gently is called in to investigate the discovery of a body on a pleasure beach.
Superior Getaway: a lake Superior Mystery (Lake Superior Mysteries Book 4)
Tom Hilpert - 2015
Even worse, Jonah can’t seem to find a good cup of coffee anywhere, and the language barrier makes his wisecracks fall even flatter than usual.It all starts innocently enough, with a big tip to an undeserving waitress. Their kindness inadvertently draws them into a tragic situation involving a missing girl, and they are not aware of how they have been deceived, until it is too late.Stranded without their passports, Jonah and Leyla don’t know who to trust. Borden must rely on his wits, his martial arts skills and a new friend of dubious reputation. Featuring a cast of unique, memorable characters, including Jonah Borden, Superior Getaway is part of the Lake Superior Mystery series. This is the fourth, though none of the books have to be read in order. Tom Hilpert writes character-driven mysteries with humor and flair. He loves cats, as well as dogs, and is kind to little children.
Richter Ten
Rob Leininger - 2014
In Eastern Oregon, 90,000 cubic feet of mantle-hot gas is roaring out of the Devil's Pore fumarole every second. To Bell, this is just a "leak," a pinhole, relatively speaking. But what is leaking? Where is all that gas coming from? And why is 700 square miles of land subsiding, inch by inch, year by year? The fumarole, it turns out, is just the visible tip of an iceberg. A disaster of monstrous proportions is brewing. Bell wants the fumarole plugged in order to study the problem, but the hot gas is carrying with it a rare-earth element worth billions, an element with military applications. The U.S. government wants Bell to shut up and go away; Drew Gannon wants Bell dead; 14-year-old Lissa Bell just wants to spend the summer with her dad; and gorgeous ex-model Kate is caught in the middle, forced into a disturbing agenda of her own. Forces of nature, government, greed, and love collide with the potential for an explosion that could make a major earthquake on the San Andreas Fault look like a whisper in the wind.
Grammy's Secret Recipe
C.C. Dragon - 2015
Divorced, she's already earned her amateur sleuth badge by proving her super rich ex-husband cheated on her (and getting her share of the money per the pre-nup). A prize-winning cook and blue ribbon baker, she was a fabulous wife and hostess but now she's starting over.It’s fun to be home with friends and family but even quiet little towns have problems. Secrets and lies make people do desperate things-small towns just hide them better. When someone steals Grammy's precious family recipe book, Stacey must track it down or never hear the end of it. That book means the world to the family and, since cooking is Stacey's future, no one is going to steal her family's culinary heritage and get away with it!
The Dark Yorkshire Series #4-6
J.M. Dalgliesh - 2019
Books four to six in this bestselling series are brought together for the first time in a great value collection.
BLOOD MONEY
A businessman found hanged. A tortured and mutilated loaner. High finance has never been so deadly… DI Nathaniel Caslin is spiralling toward a professional crisis. His biggest case in years has collapsed amid accusations of police intimidation. A rebuilt reputation is now facing ruin… As the extremes of nationalist hate descend upon York, a refugee is tortured to death while a straightforward case of a bankrupt’s suicide proves to be anything but simple. How does an enigmatic campaigner with a secret to keep link these two disparate worlds? Shining a light onto corporate finance draws Caslin to those who prefer to live in the shadows. Making money, concealing wealth, protecting what you have… comes at a price. Your enemies - your friends - may find the true cost is underwritten in blood…
FEAR THE PAST
A murder without motive. A downtown bombing. The sins of the past revisited… DI Nathaniel Caslin is heading up a specialist unit, an opportunity to make a real difference. Little does he know, decisions taken decades previously are about to threaten all that he holds dear… Gangland tensions are on the rise as an uneasy peace is fractured in spectacular fashion. Two warring factions are lining up to unseat the other. Old adversaries rekindle their passion to exact revenge whilst the next generation seek to make a name for themselves. Meanwhile, Caslin is asked to investigate the mysterious murder of a private detective, revealing the vested interests of a multitude of figures. Finding himself walking the line between upholding the law and delivering justice, Caslin sees the past returning to haunt those around him. A crime perpetrated years previously sends ripples far and wide. Some people have much to gain whilst others have so much to lose… none more so than Caslin himself…
THE SIXTH PRECEPT
A killer stalks his prey. The five precepts are laid down. The sixth will be his own... DI Nathaniel Caslin has earned the freedom to run his case load as he sees fit, bypassing the hierarchical constraints with his specialist unit. Little does he know a deadly adversary is walking the streets of York. One who will push the team to their psychological limits... Reluctantly agreeing to a joint investigation alongside a detective from the Drug Squad, Caslin is perplexed by the multiple homicides of a number of addicts. Poisoned by their own supply with no apparent motive, the killings appear gang related. The crime scene is filthy and forbidding with each victim having the index finger removed from their right hand after death. A planned mutilation? A trophy? Strategically placed among the dead is a blooming pink flower, the only beauty within a dark, macabre scene. When a bank employee vanishes only to be found dead at the hands of a medieval stoning, Caslin's team are left with a puzzle to unpick. An index finger is missing and inside the victim's mouth, carefully placed and undamaged, are the petals of a small pink flower... A serial killer is on a mission. Caslin must reach into the darkness in order to confront the most dangerous and determined killer of the age. One who seeks to build a monument to his efforts.
The Unlucky Woman
Jonathan Dunsky - 2018
She may live to regret it.Hilda Lipkind is sure her husband is cheating on her. So she hires Adam Lapid to find out with whom.Adam expects this to be a short, ordinary investigation.Both he and his client are in for a surprise.For what starts as a routine case soon turns out to be anything but.To succeed in his mission, Adam must dig deep into both past and present, and cut through layers of lies and secrets.And in the end, he must uncover an unexpected truth that may do his client more harm than good.You will love The Unlucky Woman because it's a fast-paced mystery story with twists and turns.Get it now!
The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Curse
Craig Janacek - 2015
Sherlock Holmes has been retired to the South Downs for six years, resisting all entreaties to return to his career as the world’s foremost consulting detective. But the brutal murder of one of his former colleagues from Scotland Yard has finally galvanized him back into action. Dr. Watson at his side, Holmes journeys to London’s British Museum, where a series of singular disappearances have taken place. With the museum staff convinced that the curse of a four thousand year-old pharaoh is emanating from the Egyptian Gallery, it is up to Holmes to prove that the worst horrors come from the minds of men. But will the echoes of the past prove to be his undoing? *** This edition contains both the basic story, as well as a fully annotated version containing a cornucopia of scholarly insights that compare this newly unearthed tale by Dr. John H. Watson to the classic adventures from the Canon of Sherlock Holmes.
Kill Shot
Cameron Blake - 2017
Caught between the past and the present, truth and lies, death or life, Abram must make a choice. Refuse and risk death; or assassinate the Prime Minister and embrace the darkness within. The veil between reality and fantasy quickly blurs as Abram is thrust into a world of espionage and murder, where terrorists are merely mercenaries for hire. Will killing the Prime Minister set him free of his past, or only serve to enslave him further to the very corruption he’s sworn to destroy?
Cid
Alexie Aaron - 2016
His colleague Jesse Holden has hooked him up with a fill-in position on a multimillion dollar renovation on an isolated 1920s southern mansion called Hidden Meadow. The job is being run by a driven female contractor, Kiki Pickles, who specializes in renovating prewar buildings. She lets Cid know right away that she’s hired him for his carpentry skills and not as a ghost hunter. But Cid is all too aware that in the renovation of old homes, sometimes you have to deal with a myriad of pests, living and dead.Lurking at the top of the stairs is a very cranky ghost. He’s been woken up by the sound of pounding hammers and screeching tile cutters. He can’t do anything about the tools themselves, so he targets his rage at the men and women working on the mansion. Jesse is attacked in one of the three attics in Hidden Meadow and left to die. Cid arrives just in time to fight a black mass, and he surprises it with a good salting. Jesse is saved, but the ghost isn’t finished with them yet, nor is he the only entity that has been released to cause havoc in the first of the “Cid Garrett P. I.” novels.“Cid” is a standalone book written in the “Haunted Series” universe.
Wyatt's Hurricane / Bahama Crisis
Desmond Bagley - 2009
But David Wyatt has developed a sixth sense about hurricanes. He is convinced that Mabel will change course to strike the island of San Fernandez and its capital, St Pierre. But nobody believes him, and the hurricane is only one of the problems that threaten San Fernandez…BAHAMA CRISISTom Mangan was a sharply successful entrepreneur who lured the super-rich to his luxury hotels in the sun-soaked Bahamas. Then violent tragedy struck: his own family disappeared, and a series of misfortunes, accidents and mysterious epidemics began to drive the tourists away and wreck Mangan's livelihood. Fatally, he becomes determined to confront his enemy - and the hunt is on…Includes a unique bonus - Desmond Bagley's introduction to the Crime Wave anthology, and his own author biography, both written in 1981.
Fetch a Pail of Murder
Constance Barker - 2017
While the hunt has twists and turns, the girls never lose sight of their goal...to outwit the local Police Department and form their own sleuthing group...The We're Not Dead Yet Club. Join the fun as this mismatched group of friends and their men cohorts search for clues and almost end up in the hoosegow and the local cemetery.