Book picks similar to
The Turquoise Cross by Sandra Olson


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Mystery at Shadow Lake


B.L. Hoffman - 2011
    Spencer and his friends unknowingly cause the events to intensify and become more violent, bringing even more danger to those who haven't yet fled the lake in terror.

Dragonfly


Leila Meacham - 2019
    The men and women from very different backgrounds--a Texan athlete with German roots, an upper-crust son of a French mother and a wealthy businessman, a dirt-poor Midwestern fly fisherman, an orphaned fashion designer, and a ravishingly beautiful female fencer -- all answer the call of duty, but each for a secret reason of his or her own. They bond immediately, in a group code-named Dragonfly. Soon after their training, they are dropped behind enemy lines and take up their false identities, isolated from one another except for a secret drop-box, but in close contact with the powerful Nazi elite who have Paris under siege. Thus begins a dramatic and riveting cat-and-mouse game, as the young Americans seek to stay under the radar until a fatal misstep leads to the capture and the firing-squad execution of one of their team. But...is everything as it seems, or is this one more elaborate act of spycraft?

The Secret Mother


Shalini Boland - 2017
    He thinks she is his mother. But Tessa doesn't have any children.Not anymore.She doesn't know who the little boy is or how he got there. After contacting the police, Tessa is suspected of kidnapping the mystery child. Her whole life is turned upside down. And then her husband reveals a secret of his own...Tessa isn't sure what to believe or whom to trust. Because someone is lying. To find out who, she must first confront her painful past. But is the truth more dangerous than Tessa realizes? The Secret Mother is an intense psychological thriller with a twist that will make you wonder if you can ever trust anyone again.

Atomic Love


Jennie Fields - 2020
    Desire. Betrayal. Her choice could save a nation. Chicago, 1950. Rosalind Porter has always defied expectations--in her work as a physicist on the Manhattan Project and in her passionate love affair with colleague Thomas Weaver. Five years after the end of both, her guilt over the bomb and her heartbreak over Weaver are intertwined. She desperately misses her work in the lab, yet has almost resigned herself to a more conventional life. Then Weaver gets back in touch--and so does the FBI. Special Agent Charlie Szydlo wants Roz to spy on Weaver, whom the FBI suspects of passing nuclear secrets to Russia. Roz helped to develop these secrets and knows better than anyone the devastating power such knowledge holds. But can she spy on a man she still loves, despite her better instincts? At the same time, something about Charlie draws her in. He's a former prisoner of war haunted by his past, just as her past haunts her. As Rosalind's feelings for each man deepen, so too does the danger she finds herself in. She will have to choose: the man who taught her how to love . . . or the man her love might save?

When Ghosts Come Home


Wiley Cash - 2021
    But nothing can prepare him for what he finds: a large airplane has crash-landed and is now sitting sideways on the runway, and there are no signs of a pilot or cargo. When the body of a local man is discovered—shot dead and lying on the grass near the crash site—Winston begins a murder investigation that will change the course of his life and the fate of the community that he has sworn to protect.Everyone is a suspect, including the dead man. As rumors and accusations fly, long-simmering racial tensions explode overnight, and Winston, whose own tragic past has followed him like a ghost, must do his duty while facing the painful repercussions of old decisions. Winston also knows that his days as sheriff may be numbered. He’s up for re-election against a corrupt and well-connected challenger, and his deputies are choosing sides. As if these events weren’t troubling enough, he must finally confront his daughter Colleen, who has come home grieving a shattering loss she cannot fully articulate.As the suspense builds and this compelling mystery unfolds, Wiley Cash delves deep into the hearts of these richly drawn, achingly sympathetic characters to reveal the nobility of an ordinary man struggling amidst terrifying, extraordinary circumstances.

River Bodies


Karen Katchur - 2018
    The crime is eerily similar to a twenty-year-old cold case: another victim, brutally murdered, found in the Delaware River. Lead detective Parker Reed is intent on connecting the two murders, but the locals are on lockdown, revealing nothing.The past meets the present when Becca Kingsley, who returns to Portland to be with her estranged but dying father, runs into Parker, her childhood love. As the daughter of the former police chief, Becca's quickly drawn into the case. Coming home has brought something ominous to the surface - memories long buried, secrets best kept hidden. Becca starts questioning all her past relationships, including one with a man who's watched over her for years. For the first time, she wonders if he's more predator than protector.In a small town where darkness hides in plain sight, the truth could change Becca's life - or end it.

A Splendid Ruin


Megan Chance - 2021
    After her mother’s death, penniless May Kimble lives a lonely life until an aunt she didn’t know existed summons her to San Francisco. There she’s welcomed into the wealthy Sullivan family and their social circle.Initially overwhelmed by the opulence of her new life, May soon senses that dark mysteries lurk in the shadows of the Sullivan mansion. Her glamorous cousin often disappears in the night. Her aunt wanders about in a laudanum fog. And a maid keeps hinting that May is in danger. Trapped by betrayal, madness, and murder, May stands to lose everything, including her freedom, at the hands of those she trusts most.Then, on an early April morning, San Francisco comes tumbling down. Out of the smoldering ruins, May embarks on a harrowing road to reclaim what is hers. This tragic twist of fate, along with the help of an intrepid and charismatic journalist, puts vengeance within May’s reach. But will she take it?

Lady Jayne Disappears


Joanna Davidson Politano - 2017
    Her new family greets her with apathy and even resentment. Only the quiet houseguest, Silas Rotherham, welcomes her company.When Aurelie decides to complete her father's unfinished serial novel, writing the family into the story as unflattering characters, she must keep her identity as Nathaniel Droll hidden while searching for the truth about her mother's disappearance--and perhaps even her father's death.Author Joanna Davidson Politano's stunning debut set in Victorian England will delight readers with its highly original plot, lush setting, vibrant characters, and reluctant romance.

The Unforgotten


Laura Powell - 2015
    But when the London press pack descends to report on a series of gruesome murders of young women, Betty's world changes. In particular she is transfixed by mysterious and aloof reporter, Mr Gallagher. As the death toll rises, an unlikely friendship blossoms between Betty and Gallagher. But as their bond deepens, they find themselves entangled with the murders and each is forced to make a devastating choice, one that will shape their own lives - and the life of an innocent man - forever.

The Penmaker's Wife


Steve Robinson - 2019
    Angelica Chastain has fled from London with her young son, William. She promises him a better life, far away from the terrors they left behind.Securing a job as a governess, Angelica captures the attention of wealthy widower Stanley Hampton. Soon they marry and the successful future Angelica envisaged for William starts to fall into place.But the past will not let Angelica go. As the people in her husband’s circle, once captivated by her charm, begin to question her motives, it becomes clear that forgetting where she came from—and who she ran from—is impossible.When tragedy threatens to expose her and destroy everything she’s built for herself and William, how far will she go to keep her secrets safe? And when does the love for one’s child tip over into dangerous obsession?Alias Grace meets Peaky Blinders in this tale of obsession, ambition and murder in Victorian England.

The Panipuri Crimes


S.B. Akshobhya - 2021
    His plan is to put the humble cane-panipuri vendor, found in every other street in a metropolitan city, on a digital platform.As they gear up to launch an app to sell panipuri, the cloud of risk looms large. All five entrepreneurs who earlier ventured into the business had died in road accidents. But all that is overlooked and forgotten in the excitement of the team reaching the verge of a VC funding.Is the death of all five entrepreneurs a coincidence? Can Sagar and his team overcome the odds? Why are the ordinary vendors dying one after another like a pack of cards?The Panipuri Crimes is a thrilling story weaving together the world of entrepreneurship and struggle, love and other demons, and the murky world of crime.

Breaking Bones


Robert White - 2018
    A ruthless criminal gang. A law unto themselves. Detective Jim Hacker has watched The Dogs grow from thuggish youths to psychotic criminals and seems to be the only cop in town with the determination to see justice done. Meanwhile Jamie Strange, a young Royal Marine, finds himself embroiled in the lives of the gang when his girlfriend, Laurie Holland, cuts off their engagement... to be with the most dangerous of The Dogs: Frankie Verdi. Strange knows right from wrong, but when Verdi begins to target Jamie's family, he makes an enemy of a man, more dangerous than even he could imagine. Crisp, slick and often terrifyingly violent, this 1980's crime thriller will appeal to the readers of Ian Rankin, Martina Cole and Stephen Leather.

Down Among the Jocks (Hardman Book 5)


Ralph Dennis - 1974
    They're back in the fifth adventure in the beloved and acclaimed series that influenced generations of crime writers. Retired pro football star Ed Cross did most of his scoring between bed posts with other player's women, including Hump's ex-girlfriend. That was bad enough. But, just to rub it in, Cross sends Hump an x-rated birthday skin flick of him celebrating in bed with two women. Hump goes looking for blood... and finds it. Cross is murdered and Hump becomes the prime suspect. Hardman works to clear Hump and discovers there's plenty of murderous hate for Cross out there...from the top of the sports world to the pits of Atlanta's illegal gambling scene... and revealing it could get them both killed. This new edition includes an Afterword from Ben Jones, the Dukes of Hazzard actor and former U.S. Congressman from Georgia. PRAISE FOR THE HARDMAN NOVELS "Like Chandler and Hammett before him, Dennis was trying to do something different with what was thought of as throwaway literature.” Joe R. Lansdale, New York Times bestselling author of the Hap & Leonard series “The Hardman books are by far the best of the men’s action-adventure series.” Mother Jones Magazine “Among the best series books around.” Philadelphia Daily News

Tomb of the Lost


Julian Noyce - 2011
    In four parts.Tomb of the Lost is an action/adventure novel that spans 2300 years.Babylon, Persia 323bc.On a bed a man lays dying. Alexander the great, King, the Lion of Macedon has a mysterious fever. He became king at twenty, dying at thirty three, having conquered the known world. Following his death his General and friend Ptolemy takes the body and inters it into a magnificent tomb in Alexandria, Egypt. The very city Alexander founded.Two thousand three hundred years later and the leader of Germany Adolf Hitler who is a great collector of antiquities orders the sarcophagus, lost two thousand years before by Julius Caesar's legionaries, to be found and brought to Berlin.Hitler assigns a team of his Wehrmacht commanded by a General and his Colonel and a team of SS led by a fanatical Major to locate it.With their mission a success the Germans descend on the port town of Gabes, Tunisia just as the town is about to be over run by the British and as the battle for North Africa reaches its brutal climax the sarcophagus is lost once again leaving only one man alive to tell the tale.That man is Alfred Dennis.Nearly seventy years later and marine archaeologist Natalie Feltham and her team with the help of Peter Dennis, a journalist and grandson of Alfred Dennis, make the greatest discovery in modern archaeology.Now it's a race against time for Natalie and her team as dark powers from Germany's Nazi past try to take what is rightfully hers.

The Fighting Season


Bram Connolly - 2016
    Matt Rix, the ultra tough commando who led the ambushed platoon, swears vengeance. Rix is one of Special Forces' most lethal operators. He'll neutralise Rapier - whatever it takes.But in Afghanistan's brutal war, not all things are as they seem.'The Fighting Season is military fiction of the first order: as tough as nails and packed with the insider knowledge of someone who has done it for real.' - Matthew Reilly'Action packed, gritty and authentic to the core.' - Merrick Watts