Book picks similar to
Girl On A Train by P. Hawkins
fiction
have-book-not-read
mystery
book-club
The Bluebeard Club: A 1920's Historical Murder Mystery (Lord Kit Aston Book 6)
Jack Murray - 2021
The Adventures of Charlie Smithers
C.W. Lovatt - 2012
Make way for Charlie Smithers.The time is the nineteenth century. The place, the Serengeti Plain, where one Charlie Smithers – faithful manservant to the arrogant bone-head, Lord Brampton (with five lines in Debrett, and a hopeless shot to boot) – becomes separated from his master during an unfortunate episode with an angry rhinoceros, thereby launching Charlie on an odyssey into Deepest Darkest Africa, and subsequently into the arms of the beautiful Loiyan…and that’s where the trouble really begins.Maasai warriors, xenophobic locals, or evil Arab slavers, the two forbidden lovers encounter everything that the unforgiving jungle can throw at them."A truly engaging read that will keep anyone’s attention from the hilarious beginning until the last word. I highly recommend this 5 star novel." ~ Chapters & Chats
Cursed Blessing
J.M. LeDuc - 2009
There, he is content to live a peaceful existence as the town’s head librarian. Although he loves the peace and tranquility that have become his life, he is haunted by nightmares. Nightmares that always pertain to some skill that he had learned as a covert operative and they always contain an image of his lost love; Chloe.Brent’s life turns upside down when he receives a gift from Lucile Conklin. Her late husband has bequeathed a rare book collection to him upon his death. Among the books Brent finds a letter written by his grandfather twenty years earlier. What he doesn’t know is that he has also been passed a secret, now known as The Endowment. This secret is so old that it dates back to the dawn of creation. A secret which began as a gift from God, but because of man’s wickedness and immorality has become so evil that if it were to fall into the wrong hands, Armageddon would occur.A secret that is a Cursed Blessing.
This is a new release of a previously published edition.
Purple Reason
Doug Mennen - 2016
President Jackson Niles knows that the fight to bring real change to Washington could get ugly, but what comes out along the way is far worse than he ever imagined. The conspiracy surrounding the federal government threatens to bring down all that America stands for. Now a new President and a small group of patriots are forced to work behind the scenes to undo the damage caused by two parties run amok.
Winnifred Cottage
Jennie Alexander - 2013
The cause is a mystery but her partner Jack is suspiciously involved somehow.A welcome escape route presents itself in the form of Winnifred Cottage situated in the heart of The Lake District – a summer holiday paradise. It has recently been left to Abbie in her grandmother’s will but her sister Jilly is not at all happy about her decision to make it her home.Abbie has grand plans for the cottage but they are not to be. It bears no resemblance to her memories of the place and she is left wondering if she has made the worst mistake of her life.Great aunts Eva and Lilleth hoard their own secrets and both are suspicious as to why Winnifred Cottage has been left to Abigail. Their wise and charismatic friend Jed Tobin appears to know more than he’s letting on but everyone has to wait until he’s good and ready to reveal all. Abbie’s sister Jilly descends for a summer holiday with her family, and with her visit comes a storm of another sort – the worst weather for years. Torrential rain causes chaos in the village of Kirkby Bridge and people are forced to evaluate what’s really important to them.Winnifred Cottage is a novel of contemporary fiction with a little romance making it ideal summer reading/holiday reading.
Mary-Alice Moves In
Frankie Bow - 2016
But before Mary-Alice can even unpack her bags, a man of the cloth dies under mysterious circumstances, a device with strange powers turns up in the glove box of her Oldsmobile 88, and her new friends, Ida Belle, Gertie, and young Fortune, are behaving oddly…even for Baptists. This is the first book in a new series, the Mary-Alice files, set in the Miss Fortune world in Sinful, Louisiana. Many thanks to Jana DeLeon for letting us write in her Sinful world!
Suspicion on Sugar Creek
Susannah B. Lewis - 2016
She hoped to work on her novel, play Rook with the old lady next door and spend some lazy time with her husband and daughters. But when a new neighbor winds up dead, Tessa and her Rook partner find themselves jumping to suspicious conclusions. Add a young hippie named Rusty to the mix, and these three seem like an unlikely trio to solve an alleged crime. When you’re not laughing at the humorous rhetoric in Suspicion on Sugar Creek, you’ll be on the edge of your seat wondering how it will all play out.
The Reluctant Detective
Adrian Spalding - 2019
He just wanted a quiet life. Something his mother was not going to allow. There again he never for one moment imagined he would have to look into the death of a 90-year-old lady who was gambling away her family fortune. The Hayden Detective Agency has no need of clients. The very existence of the Agency allows Martin Hayden to claim his large monthly allowance from the family fortune - without lifting a finger. Martin’s biggest problem is his interfering mother, who understands her idle son too well. She takes steps to find him not just clients but also a personal assistant to keep an eye on him. Under pressure from the women in his life, Martin agrees to take on his first client. How hard can it be to follow a 90-year-old woman who spends her time losing money at roulette tables? As it turns out harder than Martin ever thought possible, especially with the old lady dying in strange circumstances. Soon the Reluctant Detective is grappling with shady estate agents, an intellectual artist, missing charity money and an irritating Indian waiter. Luckily for Martin there is help in the form of Colin, a transvestite who, apart from having very good fashion sense, is an expert at breaking into houses.
Portside Screw
Gregory S. Dew - 2018
A Jack Cubera Novel Retired PI Jack Cubera just wants to drink beer, fish the flats, and live the simple life of a full-time boat bum. One problem: he’s just discovered his old nemesis—the Key’s most notorious real estate developer—floating tits-up in a weenie bikini in the Islamorada backwaters, landing him high on the suspect list. To clear his name, Jack investigates the curious demise and soon discovers the developer’s most outrageous development to date, Coconut Key—a manmade island shaped like a giant daiquiri glass—is “breaking ground” atop a lobster-breeding habitat in the middle of a pristine bay. As Jack sets out to derail the invasive project and save his salty slice of paradise, a host of unscrupulous characters flush from the shadows soon delivering Jack to the most perplexing question of all: Why would anyone build an island in the middle of an archipelago? The answer, which hinges on a baitfish cage filled with breast implants, proves far bigger than mere shady real-estate dealings. Please reach out via my website to join my mailing list, receive discounts and info on new releases, or just stir the pot.
A Forest with No Trees
Peter Hey - 2015
It’s a lie, of course. What I mean is, I remember so very little.’ Tom Haworth is struggling against the fragility of his own mind as it surrenders to what seems an increasingly hostile world. He begins to be haunted by vivid dreams that transport him into a different life and to a treeless forest, high in the stark moorland of industrial England around the time of the First World War. There he meets family he never knew existed and a girl called Clara, whom he recognises as the blueprint for every woman he has ever loved. Back in the present, he discovers he is losing days: vaguely remembered yesterdays in which he has acted out of character, as if someone were taking his place. Tom traces back through his family tree and discovers the characters in his dreams to be real and not just products of his unstable subconscious. Where are the ‘memories’ coming from? Has madness finally taken hold? And is Clara lost to him forever, or will she be his salvation? A story of redemption and rebirth that weaves compellingly between different times and different lives. Inspired by a gravestone in a remote Pennine cemetery, this story had been nagging at the author for over a decade. Eventually he gave in.
Old Habits
John Carson - 2019
Women were being abducted and murdered, then their corpses were displayed in open shallow graves. Marshall's FBI partner, Jessie Kent, was taken. During the hunt for her, Marshall tracked the killer down, but he was shot five times and left for dead. Less than an hour later, the killer took his own life. None of the remaining victims were ever found. Until now. A female detective comes down to Marshall's home town to ask for his help. Somebody has found the decomposed victims and is displaying them. Despite no longer being with the FBI, Marshall sees this as a chance to find Jessie, and take her home for a proper burial. And to lay to rest the feelings of guilt he's been carrying for the past four years. He agrees to go back with Dani Fox, but it's soon clear somebody doesn't want him back in town. He's warned off, but he ignores it. Then the killings start. Somebody has just accelerated the game from displaying corpses to adding new victims. And this time, he's making it personal...
Ghost Train
C.J. Petit - 2021
The scheduled train from Granger was overdue by three hours. He’d suspected a mechanical breakdown or maybe even a derailment. But the engineer of the next train to use that track had just reported that he hadn’t found any signs of the train.He had no idea how an entire train could simply vanish, but as he pondered the mystery, the head telegrapher came to his office and showed him a telegram that had been sent to Union Pacific headquarters. It was a ransom demand for a hundred thousand dollars. If it wasn’t paid within a week, the train and its thirty-four passengers would be blown up.He hurried out of his office and rushed through the early morning streets to tell the resident Union Pacific special agent of the kidnapped train. It was Nelson Cook’s problem now.
Secrets of the Heart
Gilda O'Neill - 2008
They hoped it would be over by Christmas...
Britain is at war and the proximity of the docks means that life in and around London's Turnbury Buildings is hard and dangerous. Chances are taken, people have secrets, hearts are broken. And feelings about foreigners are running high.
Sixteen-year-old Freddie Jarrett is secretly seeing a girl from the local Chinese community - a relationship that would be frowned on by both families, despite the fact that they all support the fight for freedom from oppression. And his sister Grace has her own secret to hide. A secret that no one outside the immediate family must ever know.
As the threat of the Luftwaffe looms over the docks, the community is threatened with being torn apart by prejudice, fear and separation, and the disturbing loss of stability that brings with it the feeling that it is only what happens today that counts for anything...