Book picks similar to
The Titanic Plan by Michael Bockman


historical-fiction
fiction
titanic
historical

Relative Fortunes


Marlowe Benn - 2019
    For sophisticated booklover Julia Kydd, life’s too short for politics. With her cropped hair and penchant for independent living, Julia wants only to launch her own new private press. But as a woman, Julia must fight for what’s hers—including the inheritance her estranged half brother, Philip, has challenged, putting her aspirations in jeopardy.When her friend’s sister, Naomi Rankin, dies suddenly of an apparent suicide, Julia is shocked at the wealthy family’s indifference toward the ardent suffragist’s death. Naomi chose poverty and hardship over a submissive marriage and a husband’s control of her money. Now, her death suggests the struggle was more than she could bear.Julia, however, is skeptical. Doubtful of her suspicions, Philip proposes a glib wager: if Julia can prove Naomi was in fact murdered, he’ll drop his claims to her wealth. Julia soon discovers Naomi’s life was as turbulent and enigmatic as her death. And as she gets closer to the truth, Julia sees there’s much more at stake than her inheritance…

Harbored Secrets


Marie F. Martin - 2013
    473 Five Star reviews on Amazon. Historical novel with a psychological mystery in the unearthing of family secrets. In May of 1935, Blinny Platt's homestead shack burns to the ground forever leaving her family asunder, scattering them like the embers flew on the Montana wind. She was only eight-years-old, sent away and in charge of her little sister. She could handle that because Platts take care of Platts.However, it is the hidden secrets of her parents smoldering beneath the charred remains that haunts Blinny until 1982. She once again leaves the home place to build a house for herself. As the foundation is poured and the walls go up, each of the hurtful memories are uncovered. Finally the mystery, left in the ashes of the burned home, is revealed. How could her mother do what she did?Recent Five-Star Reviews:By the end of the very first paragraph, I knew Marie F. Martin had written a book I would have a hard time putting down. In between high drama, there is a love letter to Montana, and she uses her love of the English language throughout. More "Oh wow" moments in this book than any other I have ever read in my more than half a century of life.  Yvonne Bechtold, Five-star reviewerThis is a tale so well told, you can smell the sage, feel the heat, and pain this family shares. I wish more authors crafted their characters so well.  Renita Hulsey Five-Star Reader Review.The author was a master at weaving the past with the present.  Quaintreader Five-Star Reader ReviewMartin knows family dynamics and human frailties.  From these she has crafted a heartbreaking story, of love, loss, and endurance.   Barb Ward Five-Star Reader Review

The Zen Man


Colleen Collins - 2011
     Released on bond, Rick and his girlfriend Laura have 30 days to find the real killer. In the course of their investigations, they dig for dirt among Denver’s shady legal backrooms to its tony corporate centers. Dodging bullets, a kidnapping, trumped-up charges and the FBI's unwanted intervention, Rick and Laura continue tracking key suspects who have motive...eventually learning that true redemption begins at home.

Rupture: An Eli Branch Thriller


A. Scott Pearson - 2009
    After years of research, Eli is on the cusp of a groundbreaking discovery that could light the way for the future. But, as Eli will soon learn, today's medicine has a dark side.While investigating the suspicious death of one of his patients, Eli uncovers an elaborate web of lies spun by his late father, a longtime professor of anatomy at Mid-South Medical College in Memphis. Instead of finding answers, Eli only finds more questions-and more victims, each meeting a sudden, violent end.Eli joins forensic pathologist Meg Daily to find a common thread among the victims. As they piece together the chilling puzzle, Eli and Meg plunge headfirst into the world of deadly medicine-a world way too close to home.Trapped in the paradox of ending one life to save another, Eli and Meg find that in this life-or-death race against time, one false step could be fatal.

Curse of the Kingsmans


Ethan Somerville - 2010
    She wants to see the sights of the great city, but her parents hope she will ensnare a rich nobleman for a husband. On an outing to Newgate market with her cousins, she becomes separated from them and is lured into an alley by a gang of ruffians. She is saved by a tall, gallant stranger who escorts her safely home. Handsome, heroic and aristocratic, Henry Kingsman seems the ideal match for her. But then she learns that Henry is in fact the Fourth Earl of Berwick, a notorious rake from a dark and dissolute family. He is rumoured to deal with smugglers, and his ancestry riddled with incest, insanity and murder. Beth’s father forbids her from seeing him again. However, Beth refuses to believe that Henry is as bad as his forebears, and starts seeing him in secret. When her father finds out he gives her such a beating, that she feels her only choice is to elope with Henry to his forbidding castle in Northumberland – the same bleak fortress where his family committed their loathsome deeds… Also available: Curse of the Kingsmans 2: The Devil's Diary - a far darker and more erotic tale about pirates. Curse of the Kingsmans 3: Escape of Absolon - Aidan's own son Absolon is recruited to solve a mystery. Other books by Emma Daniels and Ethan Somerville: Return to Atlantis - a high school student and a rock star travel to the lost city of Atlantis for the adventure of a lifetime Shadow Warrior - a detective thriller with more than a hint of demon romance Empire of Ice - a dark urban fantasy about a secret Nazi superman formula with the power to create vampires. I married an Alien - a time-travel romance in which a dowdy middle-aged woman suddenly finds herself catapulted in the future, into a whole new body and life. I Married a Time-Traveller - the thrilling sequel to I Married an Alien, in which an introverted mad scientist is granted a whole new lease on life when he wakes up in the body of a gorgeous Terron.

The Blood Banker


David Prever - 2012
    And something about the tube death doesn’t add up… When a second banker takes his life, then a third, he’s certain of wrongdoing.In a race to reveal the truth, Lightfoot uncovers a laundered money trail that leads, via Hong Kong and the world’s largest online criminal cartel, to the heart of British government: Number Ten Downing Street – and a man who will stop at nothing to achieve the power he craves.But with a hired killer watching his every move, can Lightfoot banish his demons and face down the evil that threatens his life?

Cicada Spring


Christian Galacar - 2015
    . .On a warm May evening in the spring of 1979, the people of Heartsridge, Massachusetts, are living the American dream. Families are gathered for barbecues. Kids are playing in front yards. Gardens are being kept. Meanwhile, Kara Price stumbles home through the woods, raped and beaten, her life shattered by a wicked act of violence, perpetrated by one of the town’s most beloved and public figures. Surrounding Kara is a cast of compelling and nefarious characters—a violent-tempered mayor who can do no wrong in the eyes of the town, a sheriff bound by the rules and plagued by a guilty conscience, a father bent on revenge, a serial killer in the midst of an identity crisis. And at the center of it all there's Kara, who just wants to move on with her life and forget everything that happened to her. But how can she do that when everyone thinks she is a liar who is only out for attention? With plot and emotion braided together by a careful hand, this haunted group of people all acting on behalf of their own interests begs the question: How far would you go to protect your own?

Assignment Prague


Helen Haught Fanick - 2012
    But when he learns that the young spy sent by the OSS to Prague is a woman, he has misgivings about working with her. He had expected a man—a man who could handle his assignment with the help of Janak and his fellow Resistance workers. It doesn’t take long, however, for Janak to realize the beautiful blonde spy has enough daring and resourcefulness to do what it takes in the occupied city. The Nazis are everywhere, but Tereza’s knowledge of Czech and German allows her to fit right in.Both of them have an unspoken determination to keep their relationship professional, to keep distractions at a minimum, but is that going to be possible when every day might be their last? The bond that develops between them can only be destroyed by death, but that’s a real possibility for covert activists in Nazi-occupied Prague.

In the Shadow of Lakecrest


Elizabeth Blackwell - 2017
    Kate Moore is looking for a way out of the poverty and violence of her childhood. When a chance encounter on a transatlantic ocean liner brings her face-to-face with the handsome heir to a Chicago fortune, she thinks she may have found her escape—as long as she can keep her past concealed.After exchanging wedding vows, Kate quickly discovers that something isn’t quite right with her husband—or her new family. As Mrs. Matthew Lemont, she must contend with her husband’s disturbing past, his domineering mother, and his overly close sister. Isolated at Lakecrest, the sprawling, secluded Lemont estate, she searches desperately for clues to Matthew’s terrors, which she suspects stem from the mysterious disappearance of his aunt years before. As Kate stumbles deeper into a maze of family secrets, she begins to question everyone’s sanity—especially her own. But just how far will she go to break free of this family’s twisted past?

The Geneva Connection


Martin Bodenham - 2011
    The success of his private equity firm has propelled him into the ranks of the world's super-rich, allowing him to give his family the security and advantages he didn’t have in his own childhood.But John's dream is shattered with the discovery that his largest investor is bankrolled by the most vicious drug cartel in Mexico. Then one of his partners is murdered to guarantee his silence, and John realizes he cannot cooperate with the authorities.When the ambitious head of the DEA threatens John with incarceration, his nightmare is complete. If he resists the DEA, what will happen to his family while he's imprisoned? But the alternative is worse. For if John chooses to betray the cartel, he and his family will pay the ultimate price.Praise for THE GENEVA CONNECTION:“The Geneva Connection has a menacing opening with a hook and a barb to make the hook stick. Thriller readers are hooked, barbed and immediately reeled in. The narrative mesmerizes from the outset. The pace is swift and the action enough to make any reader’s toes curl in frightening expectation.” —Art Cockerill, writer and journalist“I couldn’t put The Geneva Connection down once I started it. The intricate plot, laced with just enough background information to make it realistic and understandable, takes twist after turn until you reach the final destination, white-knuckling it all the way. An intense thrill ride through the world of investment banking, drug cartels, and money laundering.” —Long and Short Reviews“Novelist Martin Bodenham has penned The Geneva Connection, a thriller straddling the City, the English countryside, Mexican back roads and the US Drug Enforcement Administration. With this page-turner, Bodenham aspires to do for fund managers what John Grisham has done for lawyers.” —Corporate Financier Magazine“Bodenham, a dealmaker who made his name in the cut and thrust world of turnarounds, is a fine writer of thriller fiction.” —Real Deals Magazine

Loose Ends


D.D. VanDyke - 2013
    As a straightforward case takes unexpected twists, Cal must quell a growing fear that an anguished mother may never see her child again. With a shadowy crime lord lurking behind every unexpected clue, Cal struggles to tie up loose ends before evil claims its next victim.Loose Ends is book one in a new P. I. mystery series from D. D. VanDyke. Set against the rich backdrop of the San Francisco Bay Area, Cal Corwin novels brim with intrigue and fully fleshed characters from cops and criminals to hit men, oddball family and unexpected allies.

Erased


Jordan Marshall - 2011
    They programmed her to forget everything. She was supposed to be the perfect patsy, until something went wrong… When Sara wakes up on the roof of a Union Square department store with a sniper rifle in her arms and the body of a political activist in the street below, she can’t even remember how she got there. A mysterious stranger calls and instructs her to turn herself in. He warns that her life has been erased and she’ll never see her family again if she doesn’t cooperate. Sara is terrified, and in a desperate attempt to sort out her past and prove her innocence, she goes on the run. Sara quickly finds herself one of America’s most wanted criminals. The police and the FBI are convinced she’s a known terrorist. The black ops team that framed her is out to kill her before she can expose them. Her only hope lies in rookie FBI agent Brandy Jackson. Unfortunately, Brandy and her partner have every reason to believe Sara is the real killer and they’re being pressured from above to close the case as quickly as possible. As the evidence mounts, Sara even begins to question her own memories. What if she’s not the dedicated mother and hardworking attorney she thinks she is? What if she really is the killer?

The Bookmaker


Chris Fraser - 2011
    It wasn’t Sirhan Sirhan in the Ambassador kitchen. It wasn’t a massive conspiracy or government cover-up. It was one man with one agenda. For small-time Huntington Beach bookmaker and wanna-be writer Trent Oster, it all started with a chance to collect a debt. Instead he’s offered an opportunity of a lifetime. Days later he finds himself on a sprawling southern estate in Oxford Mississippi, balancing the roles of houseguest and biographer for town legend Preston Walker—the man responsible for the most controversial murders in American history; and he’s finally ready to talk.

The Good Knight


Sarah Woodbury - 2011
    But when the groom is murdered on the way to his wedding, the bride’s brother tasks his two best detectives—Gareth, a knight, and Gwen, the daughter of the court bard—with bringing the killer to justice. And once blame for the murder falls on Gareth himself, Gwen must continue her search for the truth alone, finding unlikely allies in foreign lands, and ultimately uncovering a conspiracy that will shake the political foundations of Wales.

Clifton Manor - Episode One


Victoria Spencer - 2014
    But as Anna Holden is about to discover, it is a house not only steeped in history, but in secrets as well… Upon her arrival as the new assistant cook, Anna discovers that a thousand mysteries await her. What lies beyond the heavily padlocked door the other servants do their best to avoid? Who has Lady Clifton been speaking to in such hushed, surreptitious tones? What is the cause of the misfortune running rampant amongst the staff? And why does George Winston, the eligible bachelor of the family, seem more taken with Anna than he does the proper ladies his mother parades before him? Despite her station in life, Anna can’t seem to put these questions out of her mind. As the pieces fall into place around her, she wonders: how long will it be until her own secrets are revealed? Author's note: As you will have noticed, this book is referred to as “Episode One” which may sound like a slightly unusual subtitle for a book. The idea is that there will be six episodes per “season” of this story and I will keep writing it for as long as I have stories to tell in the Clifton Manor universe. I love reading books in the same way I watch TV shows—regular bursts of short, digestible content. This style is not for everyone, but I hope some of you like it and keep reading. I will be releasing episodes of Clifton Manor on a regular basis so you should never have to wait too long for you next fix.