Book picks similar to
Hell Around the Horn by Rick Spilman
historical-fiction
fiction
thriller
nautical
The Man from St. Petersburg
Ken Follett - 1982
Petersburg...
Killing Down the Roman Line
Tim McGregor - 2012
Until now, when a stranger rolls into town claiming to be a long lost Corrigan. Inviting the locals to a tour of the derelict property, the stranger regales the townsfolk with a gruesome tale of how his family was slaughtered by an armed mob. The murderers, he claims, were the ancestors of everyone assembled before him. Jeered as a fraud, the man’s claims are dismissed but doubts linger over what happened all those years ago. Dissent grows as the stranger agitates for retribution and long dead feuds reignite. Caught in the middle is Jim Hawkshaw, a struggling farmer living near the old house. As he digs for the truth, Jim is forced to choose sides when the locals decide to take matters into their own hands and punish the outsider for his lies. While the town prepares for its first heritage festival, a band of vigilantes march on the old Corrigan house to exact revenge but this time... this time the Corrigans are ready for them.
Insects: The Complete Trilogy (The Insects Trilogy)
John Koloen - 2016
A scientific expedition journeys deep into the Brazilian jungle in search of a career-making discovery: a carnivorous insect so rare that no team has ever managed to confirm its existence. But surviving the rainforest's many unknown and mysterious dangers will be far more difficult than the team could have imagined. Insects: The Complete Trilogy includes three full-length novels: Insects (Book 1): a team of scientists journey into the uncharted Amazon rainforest in search of a deadly, career-making discovery: the rare carnivorous insect reptilus blaberus. But when rising floodwaters cut the expedition off from civilization, the hunters quickly become the hunted in the terror-filled night. Insects: The Hunted (Book 2): the team returns to a different section of the remote jungle again in pursuit of reptilus blaberus, this time accompanied by a reality TV production crew to fund, document and protect the expedition. Insects: Specimen (Book 3): the team attempts to continue its studies of reptilus blaberus under different circumstances, but the carnivorous insect's lethal instincts aren't dulled by a change of scenery. This exclusive set contains all three full-length novels (1000+ pages) in the Insects Trilogy: Insects, Insects: The Hunted, and Insects: Specimen.
Purling Road - The Complete First Season: Episodes 1-10
M.L. Gardner - 2015
Though the men must continue on without him, tension remains between the friends. The strain intensifies when a chance encounter with the new sheriff of Rockport sends chills down Caleb’s spine. What is it about Sheriff William that unsettles them all? David’s return to Rockport lands him in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it may just be perfect timing for someone else in need. A handsome stranger catches the eye of the adorable and frantic Muzzy Brown. What are his intentions in town, and will she slow down long enough to find out? A family secret is discovered in Jonathan’s attic, leading him to question everything he knew about his past. More secrets from the past are revealed, complicating the group’s lives even further. Aryl is tempted by old demons. Jean’s birth mother’s reputation becomes a source of pain for Jean. The tension between Jonathan and Caleb finally comes to a head. Will they forgive each other, or will they go their separate ways for good? Keep up with the characters of 1929 by following them through ten episodes of Purling Road, A 1929 Serial.
The Bermuda Privateer
William Westbrook - 2017
Fast paced and covering an area new to me; I was enthralled by the author's encyclopedic knowledge of the Caribbean. There are battles and conspiracies galore, with engaging characters and thrilling actions." Nicholas Fallon is captain of the schooner Sea Dog, a privateer that is fast, beautiful and deadly. Unbound by Royal Navy tradition, Fallon enjoys total independence in where he goes, how he fights, and whom he takes as crew. A woman—Beauty McFarland—is his second-in-command. It's 1796, and Sea Dog's owner, Ezra Somers, employs Fallon to protect his Caribbean salt trade from French privateers and pirates. Wicked Jak Clayton is especially ruthless. When the two meet just off the Bahamas, even Fallon's cunning can't overcome their mismatch in firepower and desertion by a cowardly ally. Later, in Bermuda, Fallon is enlisted by the Royal Navy to intercept a Spanish flotilla carrying gold and silver to France. But a massive hurricane halts the British attack on the Spanish transports, driving several ships, including Fallon's, onto the Florida shore. Held by Spanish soldiers, Fallon and the surviving crew escape by turning enemies into friends. Once free, only one mission remains. Wicked Jak Clayton must die! The Bermuda Privateer is an action-filled sea story with layered storylines and a modern storyteller's voice.
Sergei and Hans
Dennis Santaniello - 2015
Set on the Eastern Front of WWI, on a cruel and unforgiving mountain, and later in a terrifying German prison camp, this fascinating story encapsulates real men and their struggles to survive a war unlike the world has ever seen. Both soldiers have their own stories to tell.They are “SERGEI AND HANS”.
Three and a Half Virgins
John Blumenthal - 2011
Some have compared his novels to those of Jonathan Tropper and Nick Hornby, praising his insightful takes on contemporary life and love, his hilariously descriptive language, his Woody Allen-like dialogue and the poignancy of his plots. Now, in “Three and a Half Virgins,” the author of “What’s Wrong With Dorfman” and “Millard Fillmore, Mon Amour,” turns his jaundiced eye to the subjects of lost love, nostalgia, redemption and guilt. It all begins when the wife of our hapless hero (problematically named Jimmy Hendricks) leaves him for the guy who lives in the cul-de-sac at the end of his block. After a mostly unsuccessful but comical attempt at dating, he finds himself revisiting his past. Engulfed by nostalgia, he's suddenly gripped by pleasant memories of three old flames -- Laura, Samantha and Molly -- all of whom happened to have been virgins when he first met each of them twenty years before.But the warm refuge of the past soon gives way to icy reality as he confronts the sobering details of how maliciously he tricked, seduced and broke each of their hearts. Overcome by remorse and tantalized by curiosity, he finds a way to reshape his past by apologizing to each of them for his heartless behavior.How will they react? Which, if any of the virgins will our hero end up with after his quest? The answer will surprise you, as "Three and a Half Virgins" transports readers back and forth through time, and ultimately suggests that the past is not necessarily prologue
No Game For a Dame
M. Ruth Myers - 2011
Moving through streets where people line up at soup kitchens, Maggie draws information from sources others overlook: The waitress at the dime store lunch counter where she has breakfast; a ragged newsboy; the other career girls at her rooming house. Her digging gets her chloroformed and left in a ditch behind the wheel of her DeSoto. She makes her way to an upscale bordello and gets tea – and information – from the madam herself. A gunman puts a bullet through Maggie’s hat. Her shutterbug pal on the evening paper warns her off. A new cop whose presence unsettles her thinks she’s crooked. Before she finds all the answers she needs, she faces a half-crazed man with a gun, and a far more lethal point-blank killer. If you like Robert B. Parker's hard boiled Spencer series and strong women sleuths, don't miss this one-of-a-kind Ohio detective from a time in United States history when dames wore hats -- but seldom a Smith & Wesson.
The Road to Newgate: A London Murder Mystery
Kate Braithwaite - 2018
Titus Oates, an unknown preacher, creates panic with wild stories of a Catholic uprising against Charles II. The murder of a prominent Protestant magistrate appears to confirm that the Popish Plot is real. Only Nathaniel Thompson, writer and Licenser of the Presses, instinctively doubts Oates’s revelations. Even his young wife, Anne, is not so sure. And neither know that their friend William Smith has personal history with Titus Oates. When Nathaniel takes a public stand, questioning the plot and Oates’s integrity, the consequences threaten them all.
The Man of Legends
Kenneth C. Johnson - 2017
The bet pays off, resulting in a story that will be popular with book clubs and fun to discuss.” —Associated Press
New York City, New Year’s weekend, 2001. Jillian Guthrie, a troubled young journalist, stumbles onto a tantalizing mystery: the same man, unaged, stands alongside Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and Gandhi in three different photographs spanning eighty-five years of history.In another part of town, Will—an enigmatic thirty-three-year-old of immense charm, wit, and intelligence—looks forward to the new year with hope and trepidation. Haunted by his secret past and shadowed by a dangerous stranger, he finds himself the object of an intense manhunt spearheaded by an ambitious Vatican emissary and an elderly former UN envoy named Hanna.During the next forty-eight hours, a catastrophic event unites Will, Jillian, and Hanna—and puts them in the crosshairs of a centuries-old international conspiracy. Together, the three must unravel an ancient curse that stretches back two millennia and beyond, and face a primal evil that threatens their lives and thousands more.Award-winning science-fiction mastermind Kenneth Johnson blends epic adventure, romance, and evocative drama into an intense supernatural thriller rooted in one of the great untold legends of human history.
Nemesis
L.J. Martin - 2011
This wild and wooly western, in the Louis L'amore tradition, comes from renowned author L. J. Martin, whose over 20 novels have brought compelling reading to so many. McBain, broken and beaten from the Civil war, is reluctant to return to his family, as a snake dwells in his belly and he can't get the images out of his mind...until he learns his sister and her family have been murdered. Then it's retribution time.
Imaginary Friends
Darren Pillsbury - 2007
It was a normal Christmas Eve until Jeff Tanner's youngest son Davey snapped a turkey wishbone and made a crazy wish. Now Jeff thinks he's gone insane, because he sees strange things that no one else can - bug-eyed babies, walking teddy bears, and tiny freaks galore. What's worse, they don't like him. At all. Now Jeff has to figure out why they're angry, and quick, before his life is ruined by a million, invisible IMAGINARY FRIENDS.
A Transcontinental Affair
Jodi Daynard - 2019
Crowds throng the Boston station, mesmerized by the mechanical wonder huffing on the rails: the Pullman Hotel Express, the first train to travel from coast to coast. Boarding the train are congressmen, railroad presidents, and even George Pullman himself. For two young women, strangers until this fateful day, it’s the beginning of a journey that will change their lives.Sensitive Louisa dreads the trip, but with limited prospects, she’s reluctantly joined the excursion as a governess to a wealthy family. Hattie is traveling to San Francisco to meet her fiancé, yet she’s far more interested in the workings of the locomotive than she is in the man awaiting her arrival. As the celebrated train moves westward, the women move toward one another, pulled by an unexpected attraction.But there is danger in this closeness, just as there is in the wilds of the frontier and in the lengths the railroad men will go to protect their investments. Before their journey is over, Louisa and Hattie will find themselves very far from where they intended to go.
Convoy of War
Philip McCutchan - 1987
They’re bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, seeking much-needed supplies — armour, ammunition, foodstuffs — as well as Canadian troops to reinforce the battle-weary British army. Leading the convoy is Commodore John Mason Kemp, mobilized from the liners for war service with the Royal Navy. The commodore has weathered countless journeys at sea, but this is war. Decisions often have to be made split-second and can mean lives saved or lost. Amid sudden tempests and the constant threat of German U-boat attacks, Kemp also faces the challenges of an unlikely assortment of people aboard a war-time ship: His young assistant, eager to prove himself but with a lot to learn. The ship’s doctor, often too drunk to attend to the wounded. The second steward, whose questionable morals harm more than just himself. As the convoy picks its way through submarine-infested waters, this journey will prove to be the commodore’s most difficult yet. Convoy of War is a page-turning naval thriller, and a rich depiction of war at sea. Praise for Philip McCutchan: “McCutchan is to be congratulated...” — Houston Post "The military-series genre hasn't a finer craftsman than McCutchan." — Publishers Weekly "His character conflicts are well organised." — Daily Telegraph 'A gripping page-turner.' - Tom Kasey, best-selling author of 'Trade-Off.' Philip McCutchan grew up in the naval atmosphere of Portsmouth Dockyard and developed a lifetime's interest in the sea. Military history was an early interest of his, resulting in several fiction books about the British Army and its campaigns, especially in the last 150 years. He served throughout WW II in a variety of ships, including the cruiser Vindictive, the ocean boarding vessel Largs, and the escort carrier Ravager, ending the war as a lieutenant, RNVR. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
Rustication
Charles Palliser - 2013
Addicted to opium and tormented by sexual desire, he finds temporary refuge in a dilapidated old mansion on the southern English coast inhabited by his newly impoverished mother and his sister, Effie. Soon, graphic and threatening letters begin to circulate among his neighbors, and Richard finds himself the leading suspect in a series of crimes and misdemeanors ranging from vivisection to murder.