Book picks similar to
Last Plane Out by John Dudley Ball


delaware
fiction
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Bogmeadow's Wish


Terry Kay - 2011
    He also has the tender memories of his grandfather's exaggerated stories of Irish wonder and magic stories of leprechauns and legends and the mysterious power of fate. But he doesnot have the story of why his grandfather left Ireland as a young man.Mesmerized by his romantic vision of Ireland, Cooper begins his search with a charming, down-on- his-luck Irish actor. He is also unprepared for the presence of Kathleen O'Reilly. As Cooper hunts for his grandfather's ghost, the landmarks and the fate of the Irish that Finn Coghlan talked of magically brings Cooper and Kathleen together. Yet, there is a truth between the two of them that not even the enchanting tale of Finn McCool and Sally Cavanaugh can resolve. For that, Cooper must use the one gift bestowed on him as a child by his grandfatherBogmeadow's wish.

Greed Lust Addiction


Ravi Dabral - 2019
    It leaves the readers wondering: Will the protagonist survive in the midst of the powerful lobbies who have scant regard for human life? Or will he be crushed like a beetle under a booted foot, as everyone predicts? Or will he be able to stand up just with the help of a handful of yogis of the Himalayan ashrams and their spiritual followers? The book talks about Materialism Vs Spiritualism. Materialism is the mantra of the modern generation, whose motto is to ‘eat, drink and be merry’. This philosophy gives rise to ‘greed, lust and addiction’ which are vices within us. As against this, spiritualism believes in having ‘virtues, values and morals’ to live a contented, stress-free and purposeful life.

The Broken Places


Susan Perabo - 2001
    Subtly heartbreaking and wise, The Broken Places is a masterful exploration of the precarious intersection of honor, duty, and family.

The Crocketts': Western Saga Two


Robert Vaughan - 2020
    

A Woman Run Mad


John L'Heureux - 1988
    Blocked writer, accidental scholar, inattentive husband, all J. J. Quinn wants is peace, and he has gone to buy his wife an expensive handbag to accomplish it. As the bag in question walks out the door under the arm of a beautiful, aristocratic shoplifter, though, Quinn's curiosity leads him deep into mystery and danger. The shoplifter is Sarah Slade, a Boston Brahmin attempting to ditch a past as bloody as Medea's. Compared to Quinn's hypercompetent, Euripides-scholar wife, Claire, the unhinged Sarah is an alluring breath of fresh air -- but, of course, Quinn has no idea of the Pandora's box he's opened. Acclaimed by Newsweek as "witty and literate . . . Grand Guignol for grown-ups," A Woman Run Mad is an unsettling, deeply satisfying novel. "Remind[s] one of Iris Murdoch, or Muriel Spark, or E. M. Forster. Yet A Woman Run Mad is unlike any novel I know . . . unusual intelligence and personality are alive throughout the book." -- Richard P. Brickner, The New York Times Book Review; "Unless you have no interest in passions, the edge of madness, forbidden obsessions, runaway libidos and dangerous desires, A Woman Run Mad will fascinate you, from its title to its perfect final sentence. . . . A thinking man's Fatal Attraction." -- Chicago Sun-Times; "Normality -- as our time understands the word -- and monstrosity are L'Heureux's poles, and he joins them with extraordinary dexterity. . . . The ending is not to be revealed." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review; "A superior suspense story . . . It is the kind of story that might well have appealed to a writer like Patricia Highsmith, a drama of interlocking obsessions." -- The New York Times.

In Search of Vindication


Ethan Westfield - 2020
    Deputy Marshal in Kansas for a great deal of his life. As soon as his brother Tommy stops answering his letters, he gets extremely alarmed and decides to take matters into his own hands. When he puts a plan in place to travel to Texas, little does he know that a shattering surprise awaits him there; his brother has been found dead, next to the body of one of the most powerful ranchers in town. Will Lee manage to unravel the truth behind these enigmatic and shocking deaths?While Lee is still aghast, the local sheriff declares Tommy's death a suicide, and also accuses him of attempting robbery and murder. On the spur of the moment, the case is considered closed, which makes Lee highly suspicious. Feeling that they drag Tommy's name through the mud, he decides to defy the law and seek vindication. Will he succeed in this lonesome yet risky mission? How will he solve this demanding riddle and clear his brother's name?Lee's hazardous quest begins, having Susan Marsh and Ki'Somma, a young Cherokee medicine man, on his side. Doubts, lies, deceits, serious injuries as well as many other roadblocks will derange their endless undertaking. Will they manage to join forces triumphantly and complete this challenging mission? Or will Tommy always be remembered as a ruthless criminal?

Balling the Jack


Frank Baldwin - 1997
    Tom Reasons thought that a money bet was enough for him. Then he put his career, his love, even his life on the line. Tom is just a year out of school, a paralegal in a Wall Street firm, and he's already asking himself, "Is this all there is?" He's not finding any thrills on the job, and off it he sees his friends sliding into marriages and careers. He also finds himself spending way too much time thinking about his ex-girlfriend, Lisa. Tom's pleasures are few and simple - chasing good times in bars with his old gang from school, leading his dart team. But his real escape is gambling. Every Friday night he bets his paycheck on a single game. If he wins, he lives the high life - checking out bands, standing his friends drinks, going after girls. If he loses, it's ramen noodles and TV until his next check. Win or lose, though, it's all worth it to Tom, because the thrill of risking it all is what reminds him he's alive. Tom's life works surprisingly well - until he crosses Joe Duggan. Duggan is the tough Irish captain of the meanest dart team in the league, an outfit from Hell's Kitchen known as the Hellions. After Tom's team has the nerve to beat the Hellions for the league championship, Duggan wants a rematch - this time for a little money. When a little money becomes a lot, Tom's scramble through the underworld of New York to raise the money brings him, his friends, and Lisa into dangerous territory. When it all comes down to one throw of a dart, with everything on the line, Tom discovers what he's really wanted, really needed, all along.

Around Again


Suzanne Strempek Shea - 2001
    But she is pulled by forces stronger than memory to piece together the events of that last childhood summer -- when a dark mystery swirled about her friend Lucy Dragon. They called her crazy, and Robyn must at last uncover the truth about Lucy's sudden disappearance -- and make peace with her own first love, Frankie. Now the future of Pal's six ponies, who circle the ring five times for a dollar a ride, is as uncertain as Robyn's own, as she confronts the past she ran from so long ago.

She Needed Me


Walter Kirn - 1992
    The Christian Science-Monitor praised his "engaging blend of deadpan humor and genuine empathy"; "Thankfully," said The Philadelphia Inquirer, "Kirn never abandons his theme of uncertainty when observing modern angst." Now Walter Kirn has fashioned She Needed Me, a moving, surprising, and darkly comic novel whose sympathetic portrait of a disillusioned generation is mercifully uncynical. Weaver Walquist and Kim Lindgren first meet outside a St. Paul, Minnesota, abortion clinic. Kim - twenty-three, pregnant, with no money to finish junior college - is about to walk inside. Weaver is lying in front of the door. At twenty-six, he is a Bible-carrying member of the Conscience Squad, a fanatical right-wing protest group...yet readers of all minds will be drawn to this gentle, questing soul as he struggles with his feelings for Kim and his subsequent sexual desire for her; his crumbling devotion to the church; and his waning loyalty to his employer, Sanipure, a Christian soap and cosmetics company that calls sales "fellowship moments." But Weaver was not always devout. The only child of a widowed, highly successful Wisconsin liquor store owner, he tried to ward off teenage isolation with a mixture of pot and pills, vodka, sex and heavy metal music, until born-again Christian Lucas Boone found him half dead on the floor of a Greyhound station men's room. As Weaver tries to persuade Kim to have her baby, they embark upon a journey that brings them into contact with a cast of keenly drawn characters: Chuck and Dixie Lindgren, Kim's parents, who made more money in one hot Las Vegas weekend than they ever earned from their North Dakota farm; charismatic, paranoid Lucas Boone, popping anti-depressant pills like candy; Kim's disaffected brother, Ricky, who makes a modest living burglarizing his relatives' homes; and fin

The Looters


Harold Robbins - 2007
    Money and ego have turned the quest for art into a deadly business in which the superrich battle to possess the rarest and most beautiful objets d'art on Earth.  Sammu-ramat: Queen of Babylon. The first warrior queen in history, called by some the Whore of Babylon. Her golden death mask left a legacy of lust and violence to those who fought to possess it.  Madison Dupre: curator for the billion-dollar Piedmont collection. She fights for her career, her freedom--and her life--after she acquires the fifty-five-million-dollar golden mask of the long dead Babylonian queen.  Coby Lewis: an ex-Navy SEAL, who uses his frogman training to dive for sunken treasure. Madison knows she can't trust him… but she also can't resist him.  Abdul ibn Hussein: His father died protecting the golden mask from thieves. Abdul said that the mask was stolen when the Baghdad museum was looted as American troops entered the city. He also claims that Navy SEALs worked with Iraqis to loot the museum.  New York, London, Zurich, and Malaga are the venues as the heat is turned on Madison--and she goes on the run to clear her name and save her life.

Take Two


Stephen Leather - 2013
    But when she witnesses a gangland killing she has to ask herself if her fame could be the death of her.The killer is charismatic gangster Warwick Richards. A man more than capable of killing again to protect his secret. But does he know that Carolyn saw him commit murder?Take Two is a fast-paced full-length crime thriller and at 92,000 words is the equivalent of about 320 pages. Stephen Leather is one of the UK's most successful thriller writers. He was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Before that, he was employed as a biochemist for ICI, shovelled limestone in a quarry, worked as a baker, a petrol pump attendant, a barman, and worked for the Inland Revenue. He began writing full time in 1992. His bestsellers have been translated into more than ten languages. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series. Two of his books, The Stretch and The Bombmaker, were made into movies.

The Gifts We Keep


Katie Grindeland - 2015
    When she reluctantly agrees to care for Addie, a young Native Alaskan girl, she discovers she must seek help from the family she’s kept at arm’s length for years, and returns to the big home on Looking Lake and all her memories there.Her sister Tillie, the gardener, the artist, still has unspoken questions about the teenage accident with Emerson that claimed her legs from the knee down. Their aging mother Eve spreads her joy for life indiscriminately and wonders how she could ever have failed her daughters. Their neighbor Henry, the handsome sculptor, has his own silent history with Emerson, and knows more than he’s telling about her husband’s suicide.And ten-year-old Addie has come into this house full of strangers, bringing her own grief over her mother's illness, and an uncanny ability to recognize the aches these grown-ups carry inside themselves. As the five come together, new alliances are forged and old secrets are forced to the surface, weaving together questions of identity, forgiveness, and the bravery it takes to open our true selves to the ones we love.

Drifting South


Charles Davis - 2007
    Neither does Benjamin Purdue. In a single day he lost his family, his love, his freedom and even his name for reasons he's never known. Now after spending twenty-one years in prison for crimes he didn't commit, the young man he used to be is dead. And the man he's become is no one he--or anyone else--would ever want to know.With only fifty dollars of state money in his pocket, Henry Cole, aka Benjamin Purdue, journeys back to the dangerous outlaw settlement hidden deep in the Allegheny Mountains of Virginia where it all began. The only place he's called home.Instead of answers, he finds only old sunken graves. Now as he drifts southward, he gets closer to the beautiful woman he will never forget--whose untimely visit to Shady that fateful Sunday afternoon ended in a killing. A woman who holds the keys to his past...and his future.

The Good Son


Greg Fleet - 2018
    To make up for that missed final conversation - and in the hopes of impressing beautiful nurse Sophie - he engages in some good-willed acts of deception- posing as the neglectful relatives of lonely old people in the Peggy Day Aged Cared Home. But when he meets Tamara, a frail and sick 76-year-old with a son she hasn't seen in twelve years, who will really be deceiving who? The Good Son is a story about people fulfilling each other's needs, sometimes unexpectedly. It is about love and fear and relationships, and how we treat the elderly people in our lives. And it is about the difference between blood relatives and the families that we make by choice rather than by birth. And, like all good stories, it involves a road trip.

Return to Cedar Hill


Jacie Middlemann - 2013
    The city nestled along the Mighty Mississippi. She returns to Burlington. The solitude she desires as she restores her grandmother's small house isn't turning out to be all she hoped for. Before she knows it her cousin Casey is at the door desperate to find refuge from a high pressure job she can no longer sell her soul for. Together the two discover long hidden answers to old family mysteries as they also seek the answers to the sudden changes in their lives. But it is Mary's unanticipated ownership of the family ancestral white elephant that brings family members unexpectedly to her door in the middle of the night. Before long, the small house is once again crowded with family. From her Aunt Charlie who longs to be free of the cloistering concern of her grown children to nineteen year old Mallie who dreams of something different than what her parents dream of for her. Return to Cedar Hill, first in the Hills of Burlington books, brings six women together, family and friends, each at a crossroad in their lives, and searching for something they've not yet found.