Book picks similar to
The Girl Was Mine by David Karanja


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My Life in Prison


John Kiriamiti - 2004
    There was no way he could spend 20 good years behind those grim walls of prison, he told himself. And he straightway embarked on a mission to escape the throes of prison.Written from the point of view of the first person narrator, My Life in Prison is a rendition of the travails and tribulations that Kiriamiti experienced behind bars. Like in his first novel, My Life in Crime, Kiriamiti gives us yet another autobiography account of his dramatic life as a criminal, an account that is brutally frank as it is graphic in detail.

Across The Bridge


Mwangi Gicheru - 1979
    Now I was thinking of cars, bungalows, servants and whatever else Caroline missed by changing sides. But for a poor house-boy who has fallen in love with the beautiful daughter of his civil-servant master, the path to riches is not easy. In desperation Chuma moves from petty crime to a world of gangsters. It is only after much heartache on both sides that the two lovers are united.

The Business


Iain Banks - 1999
    The character of The Business seems, even to her, to be vague to the point of invisibility. Her job is to keep abreast of technological developments, but she must let go the assumptions of a lifetime.

The Girl in Room 105


Chetan Bhagat - 2018
    I hate my job and my girlfriend left me. Ah, the beautiful Zara. Zara is from Kashmir. She is a Muslim. And did I tell you my family is a bit, well, traditional? Anyway, leave that.Zara and I broke up four years ago. She moved on in life. I didn’t. I drank every night to forget her. I called, messaged, and stalked her on social media. She just ignored me.However, that night, on the eve of her birthday, Zara messaged me. She called me over, like old times, to her hostel room 105. I shouldn’t have gone, but I did… and my life changed forever.This is not a love story. It is an unlove story.

Saving Max


Antoinette van Heugten - 2010
    Until he's accused of murder.Attorney Danielle Parkman knows her teenage son Max's behavior has been getting worse—using drugs and lashing out. But she can't accept the diagnosis she receives at a top-notch adolescent psychiatric facility that her son is deeply disturbed. Dangerous.Until she finds Max, unconscious and bloodied, beside a patient who has been brutally stabbed to death.Trapped in a world of doubt and fear, barred from contacting Max, Danielle clings to the belief that her son is innocent. But has she, too, lost touch with reality? Is her son really a killer?With the justice system bearing down on them, Danielle steels herself to discover the truth, no matter what it is. She'll do whatever it takes to find the killer and to save her son from being destroyed by a system that's all too eager to convict him.

The Hand of Mary Constable


Paul Gallico - 1964
    Are the spiritual manifestations of Professor Constable's dead daughter Mary genuine or is someone trying to sabotage his work? The only hard evidence is a wax hand bearing a set of Mary's fingerprints, but the truth must be uncovered as the apparent spirit is sapping the Professor's will with each passing hour.

I Am Heartless: A Real Confession


Vinit K. Bansal - 2012
    It is the story of his life which encompasses love, dedication, eccentricity, friendship and overall his discovery of his true love and also the anguish of losing it due to his obstinacy and self-centeredness. It is a repertoire of moments coated with velvetiness of love and bruised by the thorns of betrayal. It highlights the situations which ultimately turns him into a devil, who wants to annihilate the whole world with his impiety, consequences being the least he cares about; and eventually loses his happiness, identity and even himself in this process.I could neither speak in words, nor could ever write it downThe loneliness, the emptiness your absence left behind....Those moments spent in the warmth of your cuddleStill linger in a cruel heart...... in a guilty mind!!!Whenever I dream, I see you so tranquilCan I trace the reason of my going away and getting back never?If by closing my eyes I see you happy sweetheart,I promise I shall close my eyes FOREVER!

The Cellar


Richard Laymon - 1980
    Armed with video camcorders, these poor souls enter the forbidden house, never to return. The deeper they go into the house, the darker their nightmares become. Don't even think about going into the cellar.

Tomorrow Died Yesterday


Chimeka Garricks - 2011
    Douye aka Doughboy the career militant responsible for the crime. Amaibi the gentle university professor / eco-warrior accused. Kaniye the lawyer turned restaurateur who tries to get him off and Tubo an amoral oil company executive. Against a backdrop of corrupt practises, failed systems and injustice, these four friends tell the story of oil in a region and its effects on local communities and the Nigerian larger society.Chimeka Garricks in his extraordinary debut novel has written a frank and moving story about the realities of contemporary Nigeria. The evil long term effects of military rule resulting in the fragmentation and break down of moral values. His story paints a realistic picture of the very high price corruption exacts on a society and how no one is immune from its consequences.Chimeka has written a remarkable book; honest, insightful and tragic – Jude Dibia author of Blackbird.The book is absolute genius. Well researched, crisp lines, excellent and vivid dialogue, well developed characters. - Jekwu Ozoemene, author of The Anger of Unfulfillment.Tomorrow Died Yesterday is a chronicle of a region in turmoil, of a generation caught between the expectations of their parents and the depreciations of the Nigerian situation, each of these four men navigate their issues in different ways, and in their own voices. Mr Garricks is a new literary voice; unheralded, fresh, honest, unshorn of superficial flourish. Well worth the read. – Eghosa Imasuen, author of Fine Boys.Tomorrow Died Yesterday is a story of action and consequence, lies and love, greed and lust, the power of the truth and most poignantly, redemption. In a John Grisham-esque storytelling style, Chimeka Garricks carries the reader from the present to the past and back again in a seamless blend of storytelling, from the swamps of the Niger Delta to its courtrooms with some action, humour, suspense and just the right amount of romance thrown in. Tomorrow Died Yesterday is a novel by a Nigerian about Nigeria for the entire world. All in all, it is an impressive debut for a writer. - Seun Odukoya, reviewer www.naijastories.com

Snowbound


Blake Crouch - 2010
    Will under suspicion, they flee. Suddenly a hard-edged FBI agent appears on their doorstep. “I know you’re innocent, because Rachael wasn’t the first ... or the last.”

Painless


Derek Ciccone - 2009
     Billy Harper is trying to pick up the pieces of his shattered life when he rents a cottage on the property of Chuck and Beth Whitcomb in New Canaan, Connecticut. He's had everything that matters stolen from him, leaving his heart numb. But when he meets the Whitcomb's four-year-old daughter, Carolyn, she teaches him what it is to live again, and his heart begins to thaw. But a series of ominous incidents make it apparent that there is something very wrong with Carolyn Whitcomb. It escalates to an incident so surreal that Billy wonders if she might be an alien, or maybe she truly is his angel. But when a rogue military organization called Operation Anesthesia learns of Carolyn's "gifts," Billy must risk everything to save the life of the little girl who helped him to live again. Derek Ciccone is an avid fiction writer who has written eight novels. Painlessis the first one to be published. Derek grew up in Connecticut and attended Arizona State University, where he graduated with a degree in Political Science. He now resides back in Connecticut and works as a Marketing Analyst for an advertising agency.

The Price


Alexandra Sokoloff - 2008
    He has a beautiful wife, Joanna, an adorable daughter, Sydney, and a name that the citizens of Massachusetts respect. But Will’s plans are shattered the night Joanna discovers a malignant tumor growing in Sydney’s stomach. At that devastating moment, both parents resolve to do anything to save their daughter’s life.But in the twilight world of Briarwood Medical Center, nothing is as it seems. Patients on the brink of death are not only surviving, but thriving, while others are withering away. The more time Will spends in the labyrinthine hospital, the more he fears he’s losing his grip on reality. When a mysterious, charismatic counselor appears and starts talking to Joanna, she grows more and more distant, until she hardly resembles the woman that Will married. Yet suddenly, miraculously, Sydney is improving.As winter closes in around the hospital and his dark suspicions build, Will must gather the strength to confront the evil at hand before he loses his family, his political aspirations, his sanity, and possibly his life.

The Bed I Made


Lucie Whitehouse - 2010
    Going home with him that night is reckless and exhilarating, their connection electric. Now, 18 months later, Kate is fleeing London for an old coastguard's cottage on the Isle of Wight, determined to forget Richard for ever. In winter, however, the island is locked down, wary of outsiders, and there is little to distract her from her memories. Within days, a local woman, Alice Frewin, goes missing from her boat, and though no body is found there are whispers of suicide. Kate is quickly drawn into Alice's world but all the time Richard - powerful, unstable Richard - looms larger and larger over her own...

Dr Siri Paiboun Mystery Collection: The Merry Misogynist, Love Songs From A Shallow Grave, Curse Of The Pogo Stick, Anarchy And Old Dogs, Disco For ... Thirty Three Teeth, The Coroner's Lunch


Colin Cotterill - 2011
    

Pear Shaped


Stella Newman - 2012
    She meets James Stephens: charismatic, elusive, and with a hosiery model ex who casts a long, thin shadow over their burgeoning relationship. He’s clever, funny and shares her greatest pleasure in life – to eat and drink slightly too much and then have a little lie down. Sophie’s instinct tells her James is too good to be true – and he is.An exploration of love, heartbreak, self-image, self-deception and lots of food. Pear-Shaped is in turns smart, laugh-out-loud funny and above all, recognizable to women everywhere.