Book picks similar to
Heaven's Oasis by Jeff W. Horton


archaeology
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Rustom and the Last Storyteller of Almora


Gaurav Parab - 2015
    Debt-ridden and marked by the mafia, this is the only way he can secure his family's future and atone for all the rotten choices he has made in his life. This extraordinary situation comes by way of his grandfather Fali's last Will that states Rustom shall inherit the family fortune if he kills himself in a public place with the former's eponymous gun.Before he has a chance to shoot himself his best friend Mani convinces him to meet an unlikely saviour in the Himalayan town of Almora - a drugged-out godman belting out strange visions through cryptic stories of love, power and loyalty. Will the last storyteller give Rustom a reason to live, or will his tales push Rustom further into an abyss of unimaginable loss?By turns, dark and humorous, quirky and dead serious, Rustom and the Last Storyteller of Almora is a scintillating debut about a man ready to embrace death to redeem his life.

The Wisdom Of Secrets: The Templar Covenant


Ami Noone - 2014
    Although they have been mentioned in the bible and traces of their existence are scattered throughout the globe, Peter Madeloy had always presumed that the myths of the possible existence of an ancient brotherhood, living on Earth for milennia, was nothing more than that, a myth. Until one day his father is brutally murdered and his mother is kidnapped. In exchange for his mother’s safe return, Peter must enter his father’s secret world, uncover the truth about his mother’s kidnappers and find the ancient artefact his father had dedicated his life to protecting. Peter enlists the help of his uncle, Daniel O'Brien, a professor of Philology and avid researcher of veiled organisations and his wife, Emily, a geneticist, to unravel a series of clues his father has left him. Together they embark on a journey that thrusts them into the centre of an ancient battle for supremacy that uncovers a truth that for them, will change the history and future of humanity simultaneously. With the enemy watching their every move Peter, Daniel and Emily must figure out his father's clues in time to save his mother and ultimately protect the world from the true secret that was unearthed from beneath King Solomon's Temple all those centuries ago.

The Maverick Fakes a Bride!


Christine Rimmer - 2017
    And they all know the sexy, rascally rancher is not the marrying kind. So how is it that our town's most notorious bachelor has wound up engaged on a Western reality TV show?We here at the Gazette are pleased The Great Roundup has chosen our hometown heartbreaker as a contestant. And we are definitely rooting for Travis's unexpected union with childhood friend Brenna O'Reilly, the one girl we believe can keep this cowboy on his toes. But is it true this betrothal is strictly a fabrication for the cameras? Pass the popcorn, dear readers. We suspect this made-for-TV romance could be headed straight for a Hollywood happy ending!

Stiletto Safari


Kate Metz - 2012
    But when Zara’s boyfriend is accused of insider trading, her perfect world implodes.Thrown out of work by security and stalked by the press, Zara’s life can’t get any worse. Or can it? A snap decision (and a few wines too many) sees Zara fleeing to Africa to work as a temporary wildlife volunteer.But just when things start to cool down at home, Zara realizes her troubles have only just begun.Will Zara’s designer wardrobe survive?Will a supermodel ruin her only chance at happiness?Can a Birkin bag really solve her problems?And will Zara want her old life back at the end of it all…

Combustible Punch


Paul Michael Peters - 2019
    There are three problems, she only has a short time to live, Rick is a drunken mess who hasn’t been published in a decade, and Harriett is a serial killer. The two must sort through the dental records and body count before the FBI or Grim Reaper catch her.Rick Philips isn't a fighter - but he is a survivorHaunted by memories of a high school shooting, not even the bottle can wash away the gnawing guilt and creeping feelings of inadequacy that batter Rick's conscience daily.His life has been a mess of broken marriages, writer's block, terrible choices, and the morbid pity of others.When he meets Harriet at a writer's conference, the record doesn't scratch as he falls back - only this time, he may not get up.Harriet Bristol Wheeler is a dark temptress - and self-confessed serial killerHarriet has no problem killing - and even fewer issues blending back into the background after the act with the cool, calculating eye of a practiced social chameleon.Manipulative, unpredictable, and exceptionally intelligent, she's Rick's worst nightmare - and the ideal subject for his next book.A book that they are both desperate to write.Time is running out - but the sadness will last forever

Admit to Mayhem


D.J. Adamson - 2014
    We prefer the charade that we are in control. Lillian Dove, however, is constantly reminded she has very little control over her life and only has the ability to move to the choices that come her way. The Lillian Dove Series is a journey in recovery. While Lillian is a recovering alcoholic, like many who struggle with addictions come to understand, stopping drinking does not mean life returns to normal. However, as this series begins, Lillian does realize she has compulsions and addictions to many things, not just Absolut. How we handle dependency and denial is what allows for choice. In Admit to Mayhem, Lillian needs to admit her life has become unraveled again when she becomes an eyewitness to arson. Probing into a cold case of arson sixty years ago and the arson she witnessed at the beginning of this novel helps her admit to some of her own life’s challenges and successes. Admit to Mayhem, offering comedic dysfunction, is not only a suspenseful mystery but an important step for Lillian’s self-identity--and possibly for the reader’s.Admit: I admit that my life has become unmanageable.

Taking Liberties


Helen Black - 2017
    The oldest of four kids, she tried to protect them from their violent father until one day he murdered their mother and got sent down.What was left of the family rattled through the care system, bouncing from foster placement to care home. Liberty would have probably ended up on drugs, or dead, or worse if it hadn't been for a ballsy solicitor who told her to get her act together.So that's what she did. She kept her nose clean, got an education.And look at her now. New name, new accent, new town. The past is far behind her and she's concentrating on her own legal career. She has a Porsche, a house in Hampstead... and then one morning her boss asks her to do a favour. He wants her to go to Leeds, to get an important client's son off an assault charge.But Leeds is in Liberty's past. And once she hits town, the past slaps her in the face... and pulls her back into what she worked so hard to leave behind.

Driven to Distraction


Stuart Bone - 2016
    Apparently it’s fine for Scrimshaw Travel to make last minute amendments to the holiday without incurring any penalties or reducing the price in any way. That’s what the indifferent courier tells him on day one of the tour as she arrives in a clapped-out, old coach being driven by a partially-sighted driver. With the spa hotel replaced by a rundown guest house staffed by a neurotic manager, decrepit waitress and under-sexed, Italian waiter there doesn’t appear to be much of the brochure-described holiday left. Thank goodness for Angela, the rather lovely woman Derek pals up with on the journey down. She might just make the trip bearable. If only the other members of the group would leave them alone long enough to get to know each other, but Derek has always had the ability to attract the eccentric characters to him and he can’t escape them. Still, perhaps they’ll surprise him as he learns about their lives and secrets as they move from one hilarious excursion to another. And maybe Angela will provide one or two surprises herself. Driven to Distraction is a fun romp through the English countryside with characters finding love and friendship while travelling at twenty miles an hour. (Well, it is a clapped-out, old coach).

The Keeper of Lost Things


Jamie Campbell - 2017
    Not only does she think about it, it is her obsession. Finding and rescuing objects everyone else loses is the only thing keeping the sixteen year old going.When the father that walked out on her ten years earlier is suddenly reported missing, Em tries to resist the urge to find him. After all, he is just another lost thing, right? As she delves deeper and deeper into the case, she quickly works out that the stakes in this case are higher than ever.Finding the lost thing has never been so personal or difficult before. If Em finds her father, does that mean she can be found too?In the first of the Keeper Series, meet the first of the damaged residents of Lakeside. You might never think the same way about things again.

Eternal Troubadour: The Improbable Life Of Tiny Tim


Justin Martell - 2015
    In 1968, after years of playing dive bars and lesbian cabarets on the Greenwich Village scene, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Bob Dylan and Lenny Bruce, the forty-something falsetto-voiced, ukulele-playing Tiny Tim landed a recording contract with Sinatra's Reprise label and an appearance on NBC's Laugh-In. The resulting album, God Bless Tiny Tim, and its single, 'Tip-toe Thru' The Tulips With Me', catapulted him to the highest levels of fame. Soon, Tiny was playing to huge audiences in the USA and Europe, while his marriage to the seventeen-year-old 'Miss' Vicki was broadcast on The Tonight Show in front of an audience of fifty million. Before long, however, his star began to fade. Miss Vicki left him, his earnings evaporated, and the mainstream turned its back on him. He would spend the rest of his life trying to revive his career, with many of those attempts taking a turn toward the absurd. But while he is often characterized as an oddball curio, Tiny Tim was a master interpreter and student of early American popular song, and his story is one of Shakespearean tragedy framed around a bizarre yet loveable public persona. Here, drawing on dozens of new interviews, never-before-seen diaries, and years of original research, author Justin Martell brings that story to life with the first serious biography of one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood figures in popular music.

The Ceiling Man


Patricia Lillie - 2017
    It’s not logical. It’s not possible.The Ceiling Man has picked up other watchers in his travels, but they all dismissed him as a nightmare. The girl is different. She knows he’s real.Teenage Abby is an innocent. The stranger only she sees and hears introduces her to evil. When Carole falls under the stranger’s sway, Abby must solve the puzzle of The Ceiling Man and save them both.

Machines of the Dead


David Bernstein - 2012
    The island of Manhattan is quarantined. Helicopters guard the airways while gunships patrol the waters. Bridges and tunnels are closed off. Anyone trying to leave is shot on sight. For Jack Warren, survival is out of his hands when a group of armed military men kidnap him and his infected wife from their apartment and bring them to a bunker five stories below the city. There, Jack learns a terrible truth and the reason why the dead have risen. With the help of a few others, he must find a way to escape the bunker and make it out of the city alive.

From Here to Anywhere: 16 Days, 16 Countries, 16 Budget Flights: The Story of One Cheapskate and Zero Frills


Jason Smart - 2016
    The only proviso is that each new destination must be to a different country. From Here to Anywhere takes him on a madcap adventure through 16 European nations in just sixteen days. Along the way, he visits a place called Moss in Norway and sees the 'most depressing street in Europe' in Belgium. He wanders through a Syrian refugee camp in Belgrade, crosses a UN-protected border in Cyprus, smashes a bottle of beer in a Hungarian church and drinks some Guinness in Dublin, all the while battling airport queues, cheap coffee and his fellow passengers. Jason Smart is the published author of nine other travel books: The Red Quest Flashpacking through Africa The Balkan Odyssey Temples, Tuk-tuks and Fried Fish Lips Panama City to Rio de Janeiro Bite Size Travel in North America Crowds, Chaos, ColourRapid Fire Europe Meeting the Middle East

The American’s Cousin


Julie Highmore - 2017
    THE AMERICAN’S COUSIN combines wit and suspense, in a dark and unsettling first case for investigator Edie Fox − one that blurs the professional and the personal with terrifying results.Edie Fox is a Private Investigator. Or at least that’s what she aspires to be. From her cramped office above a shop on the wrong side of town, she just about manages to stay afloat with the odd job spying on cheating spouses.This all changes when a wealthy young American, desperate to find his missing cousin, hires Edie to track her down.But things are not as they seem. People are telling lies, lots of them.Edie needs to work out why, but time is running short. As she gets swept up in the hunt for the American’s cousin, she realises that she’s out of her depth. And as personal and professional boundaries blur, she fears she could lose everything: her business, her family … her life.Combining a sharp and compelling investigator with an increasingly suspicious first client, THE AMERICAN’S COUSIN keeps readers gripped, as Edie finds herself drawn into a world of secrets, lies and, ultimately, great danger.

The Oldest Soul - Aurora (The Oldest Soul, #2)


Tiffany FitzHenry - 2016
     It’s up to Eve to crack the code, and enlighten humanity to the greatest lie ever told. But the loss of her beloved grandfather and flood of all her past lives besieging her at once took her to a dark place for six long weeks. She emerges to find herself in Aurora, the vast new society that’s risen from the ashes of North America, where old souls now live separate from new—and her love of lifetimes, Roman, has never left her side. But she quickly realizes there are two opposing forces behind this impressive new world, and one of them wants to keep it teetering on the verge of war. When she begins to decipher clues embedded all around her, it becomes clear that uncovering the truth will be next to impossible, and exposing it may very well cost her life.