Book picks similar to
Hick Lawyer by Corey Burns
mystery
fiction
horror
humor
Divinity Complex
P.H. Figur
Drake and his brother Dominic chase the serial killer across the country. When the case goes cold, Drake breaks down and succumbs to the unbearable grief. He escapes reality and enters a secretive drug study run by the largest pharmaceutical company in the world. What Drake doesn’t know, is the small town in Wyoming is a front for a dangerous experiment – and all the residents, including himself, are pawns in a deadly game. When Drake comes face-to-face with his fiancé’s killer, only one will make it out alive. The Divinity Complex is a psychological thriller about a vicious serial killer, a grieving widow’s quest for revenge, and a CEO with a god-complex who brings them together in a fatal conflict. If you like flawed heroes, brutal crime scenes, vigilante justice and shocking twists you won’t see coming, start reading this gripping crime novel today.
A Man Walks Into A Hardware Store
Bernie Van De Yacht - 2017
Friendly, kind to strangers, a devoted husband and father. A gentle soul quietly moving through life. But still waters run deep, and Terry’s inner turmoil derives from a secret that he can’t share with anyone. As fate would have it, Terry’s guarded world is turned upside down the day he walks into a hardware store and meets Renee Patrick, a free-spirited beauty who is as tough as the nails she sells out of her family business. Unfiltered and unapologetic of her questionable lifestyle, Renee ignites a spark deep inside Terry. As these two lost souls embark on an unlikely relationship, they are both forced to face secrets they have long kept hidden in order to survive. Now, each of them must decide if they will risk completely destroying their fragile existence in a last attempt to find true happiness. "Van De Yacht’s talents as a storyteller are solid and impressive. Well-structured, the appealing book delivers polished writing and multidimensional characters." -- Kirkus Reviews "An unassuming yet potent novel about the power and possibilities of personal transformation after traumatic events." -- Kirkus Reviews
133 Hours
Zach Abrams - 2020
Has she been ill or had a breakdown - or could she have been drugged and abducted?Doubting her own sanity, Briony is fearful of what lies beyond the surface, yet driven to discover the truth. Going through her scarce memories, she realizes that something terrible might have happened to her during the time she has no recollection of.Assisted by her friends Alesha and Jenny, they team up with a retired detective to uncover the truth. But where was she for 133 hours... and why?
Lost Sister
Ben Cheetham - 2018
A trip to the cinema turns into a nightmare for Anna and her little sister Jessica, when two men throw thirteen-year-old Jessica into the back of a van and speed away.The years tick by... Tick, tick... The police fail to find Jessica and her name fades from the public consciousness... Tick, tick... But every time Anna closes her eyes she’s back in that terrible moment, lurching towards Jessica, grabbing for her. So close. So agonizingly close.... Tick, tick... Now in her thirties, Anna has no career, no relationship, no children. She’s consumed by one purpose – finding Jessica, dead or alive.Detective Jim Monahan has a little black book with forty-two names in it. Jim’s determined to put every one of those names behind bars, but his investigation is going nowhere fast. Then a twenty-year-old clue brings Jim and Anna together in search of a shadowy figure known as Spider. Who is Spider? Where is Spider? Does Spider have the answers they want? The only thing Jim and Anna know is that the victims Spider entices into his web have a habit of ending up missing or dead.
Behemoth 2
Michael R. Cole - 2019
In its search for food, it finds a new hunting ground off the shores of an island resort. Stuck in a dead-end animal caretaker job for the resort, Marine Biologist Julie Forster begins to notice strange events plaguing the island. Whales are turning up dead in the local waters, and fishermen are disappearing. After setting out for a task on the water, Dr. Forster discovers an enormous shark lurking off the island coast. With a thick exoskeleton, the creature is unlike anything she has ever seen. With an insatiable appetite, the creature attacks anything that moves. As events unfold, she discovers the truth about the creature’s origin, and the imminent threat from its very existence.
The Deep Green
John Lyman - 2015
A month later, the ship runs aground on a Texas beach-and no on board is alive. When an elite military force and shadowy intelligence officers descend on the small island town of Port Aransas, Texas, a strong-willed local girl is swept into the search for a dedicated scientist as she and others race to unravel a dark secret before something none of them have ever seen before is unleashed into the world. In a literary thriller that mirrors today's headlines, The Deep Green is author John Lyman's most compelling novel yet. Blending scientific fact with provocative fiction, he takes readers on a wild ride to the dark side of genetic engineering, where the potential for unintended consequences is very real. Intricately layered with remarkable research and detail, the heart-stopping action that builds right up to the end proves once again that bestselling author John Lyman is a master storyteller.
Holly and the Framed Friend
Dianne Harman - 2019
Family secrets. A murdered mother. An estranged aunt. A diary. A vandalized high school. Holly knows nothing about her biological family living in Missouri. When her aunt invites her to stay with them for two weeks after her mother’s murder, she has mixed feeling but decides to accept the invitation. Once she’s there, she’s determined to find out why her mother chose to live alone and at a distance from her family. What happened, and why won’t her aunt talk about it? Does the diary she finds hold the key? And who’s been vandalizing the high school? Her cousin’s friend has been accused, but is she guilty? Holly has to use her skills solving mysteries both at the high school and in her family.
Mom of the Year
Denise Pischinger - 2013
You'll laugh, cry and phone a friend about Mom of the Year--the debut title from the new literary genre, Script Lit. Janie Parker rules the school at Parkside Elementary, though she’s not even a student. She’s a volunteer room mother, tirelessly pouring her blood, sweat and tears into every perfect detail of every party or project for her daughter’s class. And she does it all for…GASP…the glory. Her over-the-top antics alienate her daughter, Kelsey, who isn’t anything like her mother. So when Janie’s husband, Greg, announces the family must relocate to Houston in the middle of the school year, Kelsey sees the opportunity to start over. Janie, however, sees the end of her legacy as the most fabulous, glorified volunteer in the history of public schools. As if that isn’t horrifying enough, the family’s move to Houston forces Janie to live in the same town as her own mother, Helen, whom she despises. When they arrive at Kelsey’s new school, Bear Branch Elementary, Janie discovers some silver lining – their new school district annually crowns a “Mom of the Year.” Janie soon meets her match in Lanette Middleton, the class room mother and reigning Mom of the Year. Lanette makes it clear there is no room for Janie at Bear Branch. After one too many insults, Janie fights back...and the competition is ON!
The Sarah Roberts Series Vol. 4-6
Jonas Saul - 2013
He idolizes Sarah Roberts from afar, and has done so for more than five years. He has studied her pictures, memorized her news clippings and now waits in the dark for the day when he can make Sarah his hostage.A steel cage waits for Sarah, where Elmore has practiced what he will do to her. The other girls he has practiced with now lay discarded, buried about his property. He keeps their fingernails and toenails to roll between his teeth, to savor their strength, to feel the nails weaken and give in, just as his victims do.Elmore has a plan for Sarah, and she walks right into his trap. Sarah Roberts is his hostage and no one knows where they are. In Sarah Roberts Book Four, The Hostage, Sarah is in a fight not just for her freedom, but also her life.The Victim (Sarah Roberts Book Five)In Book Five, Sarah Roberts is The Victim.Sarah is killed in a horrible car accident, the DNA found in the car verified as hers. But the government men at the Sophia Project have faked her death to keep her to themselves.After her funeral, she shows up in the food court of a busy mall where a violent exchange takes place. Things go wrong fast. The people protecting Sarah die within seconds from a mysterious drug. She runs, escaping the clutches of the police who want to figure out her connection to the murderers. A group of men called The Rapturites surface to take responsibility for the carnage. They want Sarah raptured as the end times are upon us. As the police hunt her, and the Rapturites get close, people she loves, old friends who have helped her in the past, start to die around her. Vivian, her sister, watches. Vivian listens. Sarah executes.In Sarah Roberts Book Five, Sarah is The Victim, and there's nothing she can do about it. Except she won't stay dead.The Enigma (Sarah Roberts Book Six)In Book Six, The Enigma, Sarah Roberts heads to Las Vegas, Nevada.Her dead sister has left her a message with two tasks to complete in Vegas. She is supposed to choose a random guy with a cell phone and send a message to a number her sister has supplied. Before she can complete this first task, she notices a man following her. This man begs her, with tears in his eyes, to not send the text.On the west side of Vegas, a man is being tortured. Sarah's second task is to arrive at a certain time to stop it. When she shows up late, people start to die. The man who had followed her also shows up. With people dead at the warehouse, the police want to know what she's doing in Vegas and why she was there.All Sarah wants is to get her bike and leave Las Vegas. But Maxwell Ramsey has a different plan for Sarah. She has entered his territory and intervened in his business. She has cost him money and time as he plans the acquisition of a local casino. For that, Sarah has to be removed.What she doesn't expect are the deep ties to her family and what that means to her now, and in the future.In Book Six, The Enigma, Sarah Roberts is in Vegas gambling with her life and can only make it out alive if she plays her cards right.
The Thin Wall
E.M. Parker - 2016
On the surface, the setup was perfect: cheap rent, a great location, and total anonymity.Beneath the surface, however, Corona Heights was something else entirely.Cursed with paper thin walls, the building kept few of its tenants' secrets. But one secret had remained safely buried for years until Fiona's strange encounter with her neighbor - a ten-year-old named Olivia - threatened to unearth it, and all of the unimaginable consequences inherent in its being.As she wages a personal crusade to regain the love and trust of her estranged son, Fiona must also confront the ever-tightening grip of an addiction that she has yet to overcome, a neighbor whose erratic behavior grows more dangerous by the hour, and a seemingly innocent little girl whose dark connection to Corona Heights threatens not only the child's life, but the life that Fiona is trying so desperately to reclaim.And it all begins with a foreboding message from the girl whose face Fiona cannot see, but whose voice is hauntingly clear."Don't ignore the knocking..."
Someone Knows Something
Christa Weisman - 2019
It lives in your bones and pulses in your blood, waiting for just the right moment to expose your sins. J.R. Hudson was the golden boy of Timber Falls. Born into privilege as the mayor’s son, he was the envied quarterback on the high school football team with big dreams and aspirations. Along with his teammates and best friends, Ethan Young and Caleb Weston, the trio ruled senior year at Timber Falls High and the small Washington town they lived in. And then one day they vanished. Now the town is in a desperate attempt to solve the mysterious disappearance of these strong, dynamic young men. Searching for answers dredges up dark secrets and haunting revelations, revealing the grim truth—that maybe these boys weren’t as perfect as they seemed. Author note: Set in the mid-1990s, before cellphones and social media was present, this book reminds us that when someone went missing, they left no trace. The boys are high school teens, though due to graphic scenes and mature content, this book is recommended for 18+
Satan's Garden
Kit Lyman - 2014
It chronicles their experiences in parallel over the course of six years, unfolding the independent challenges they face while struggling to survive worlds apart from each other. This book club pick inspires readers to see that love, friendship, and faith can survive in spite of the most terrible circumstances.Dani and Keely imagined that life was more magical than others believed. If they had to be summed up, their one plus one would equal three. Together, they became something greater. It was twin sisters against the world. But the world had different plans. The man followed them to their secret tree house that unusually warm day in September. He only came for one, there and gone in the blink of an eye. Satan’s Garden takes you on the six-year journey of two sisters who learn what it means to survive. It’s a story of resiliency, hope, and above all, a bond that cannot be taken away. It teaches us how quickly life can change and yet how much of it we can change ourselves.
The Wall
Joseph Hayes - 2018
His charisma and his accomplishments have made him a media darling and paved the way for his explosion onto the national political scene. But he is not who he purports to be. He is the nation’s most high-profile illegal immigrant, a secret known to almost no one other than his shadowy handlers. Together, they have an agenda – punish America for its past sins and undermine this country’s prosperity and way of life. Since childhood, Sanchez has been conditioned to believe in that cause and to do whatever it takes to see that mission through. Now he is on the cusp of acquiring the power to do exactly that.Bobby Rivera is the son of Mexican parents who raised him in South Texas, where they were employed under temporary work visas. Although he grew up living in constant fear of the government and deportation, he loves America and the opportunities it has afforded him. He and Miguel share a past – a close friendship as teenagers that was marred by tragedy and dark secrets as well as Miguel’s sudden and unexplained disappearance. Bobby’s peaceful life as a funeral director in San Antonio is thrown into turmoil when Miguel unexpectedly reenters his life. Bobby realizes that he is the only person outside Miguel’s circle who knows Miguel’s secret and his hidden agenda. Bobby’s loyalty to his old friend conflicts with his loyalty to his country, not to mention his conscience. Will this young man who has spent his entire life looking over his shoulder and running from trouble have the courage to confront it head-on? How far will Miguel go to protect his dark secret? Will the life of fame, fortune and accomplishment Miguel has achieved change his heart and cause him to embrace rather than attack his adoptive country?The Wall is an intelligent, fast-paced thriller that combines page-turning suspense with a thought-provoking exploration of one of the most controversial, sensitive and far-reaching issues of our time – immigration. It examines the opportunities, fears and challenges of recent immigrants and their children. It portrays the changing complexion of America in a way that is sensitive and hopeful. It contrasts life on opposite sides of the border wall, but more importantly, it vividly depicts the walls that exist in the minds and hearts of those trying to assimilate and those who resist.