Book picks similar to
The Spring by Clifford Irving


fiction
mystery
clifford-irving
standalone

Okavango: Beware the Ultimate Cure


Fritz Damler - 2012
    The CDC is planning a major inoculation program in Houston, L.A. and New Jersey.The wonder drug seems on the up and up, until Freelance writer Terry Johns and wildlife photographer Liza Rittenauer innocently photograph two men and their airplane in a remote section of the Okavango Swamps. The photo sets in motion a tilt-a-whirl of violence and intrigue. While Liza lingers in a life-threatening coma, Terry, Liza’s sister, Dawn, and the women’s father, Cy, discover a sinister connection between the men in Liza’s photograph, an underground lab in the Okavango, a leading pharmaceutical company in Johannesburg and a major HMO in Houston, Texas. And for Terry Johns, the truth becomes a nightmare.

All The Hidden Pieces


Jillian Thomadsen - 2018
    Within minutes, she and her family hastily pack up their belongings and abandon their home. Where did the family go and why? Det. Roberta Hobbs has been assigned to uncover the family's whereabouts. Hobbs is a confident, intelligent police veteran. However, each passing day brings her closer to her unresolved past. When Hobbs digs deeper into the mystery, all leads point to her own longtime ex-boyfriend - a former drug dealer turned philanthropist named Steven Vance -- as the primary suspect. This riveting dual-timeline suspense novel takes us back to 2004 -- the year Greta Carpenter first realizes something is wrong with her young son, John. Over the course of his childhood, John's learning disabilities become apparent. Greta's unfaltering advocacy on his behalf puts her at odds with the school system and strains her relationship with her husband Griffin. Eventually Greta and Griffin's marriage falls apart, and during the divorce trial, Greta reveals that she was a teenage runaway, and a local entrepreneur named Steven Vance rescued her from the streets. Vance is certainly a man of many shades - a local celebrity for his philanthropy, a cunning CEO who sits atop a questionable mini-empire, a benevolent former father figure to Greta and a lying, evasive former companion to Hobbs. It seems that only Vance has the power to make people disappear in this small town and he emerges as the most obvious suspect...but Hobbs remains uncertain of his role. While her colleagues question whether she can truly be impartial, Hobbs realizes she has a reason to suspect them as well. Nothing is obvious in this thrilling mystery...except that Hobbs must race to solve the mystery before it's too late.

Don't Look Down


Jennifer Crusie - 2006
    But as soon as Lucy Armstrong arrives on set, she discovers that the staff is in chaos, the make-up artist is suicidal, and the stunt director just happens to be her ex-husband. That, and the temperamental lead actor has just acquired as an advisor a Green Beret who has the aggravating habit of always being right.HE thought that hiring on as a military consultant for a movie star was a to-die-for deal: easy work, easy money, easier starlets. But his first day on the job, Captain J.T. Wilder ends up babysitting a bumbling comedian, dodging low-flying helicopters, and trying to find out who's taking "shooting a movie" much too literally.

Death Trap


Dreda Say Mitchell - 2015
    She's lucky to be alive. But the murder isn't a one-off. It's part of a bigger, more violent attack planned on affluent families in the area - and now Nikki, as the only living witness, is a dangerous threat to the well-orchestrated scheme. As the net draws tighter around the killers, DI Rio Wray must do whatever it takes to keep Nikki alive. But when you're dealing with criminals, there's no line they won't cross... In a kill-or-be-killed-world, who will be first to pull the trigger?

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 First Counsel


Brad Meltzer - 2001
    To protect her, the lawyer admits to something he shouldn't. So begin the problems and she may have to do something she shouldn't.

The Locksmith


Linda Calvey - 2021
    Linda Calvey writes what she lived.They grew up with nothing. Just a regular family scraping by, living an honest life while crime ruled the East End. Until all that honesty and all that hard work left them with nothing.Poor, destitute and hungry, young Ruby decides to pull them from the ashes. It starts as one job, one step outside the law. Yet that one step sets her on a path – straight to the top.But in the East End you don't build an empire without making a few enemies . . .Welcome to the underbelly of London, where criminals run the streets and one woman will do anything to protect her family.The crime debut novel of the year, perfect for readers who loved No Mercy and Queenie.

The Jake Fonko Series


B. Hesse Pflingger - 2014
    Book 1: Jake Fonko M.I.A (Vietnam/Cambodia 1975) Book 2: Fonko on the Carpet (Iran 1978 - 1979) Book 3: Fonko's Errand Go Boom (Northern Ireland 1982) Jake Fonko M.I.A. – Saigon, 1975. Ex-surfer Jake Fonko's latest mission - locate a former CIA asset gone missing in Cambodia - has his Army Ranger instincts on full alert. He might be handsome, fit and a decorated warrior, but he's certainly no international spy. But Jake, ever the good soldier, agrees to the CIA's directive, trudging over the border to Phnom Penh. But relying on his training, keen observations and ironic sense of humor might not be enough to save Jake, as one surprise after another pops up on his way to the wild truth. Maybe that asset was never really missing at all. Fonko on the Carpet – Tehran, 1978. Running low on cash, ex-surfer and former Army Ranger Jake Fonko receives a freelance referral from an unlikely source: a certain Shah requires a capable bodyguard. The splintering Iranian factions have been growing restless, and the Shah’s popularity is beginning to wane. But when the country falls, Jake soon discovers that friends of the Shah are no longer welcome—and he'll have to rely on his extensive training, capable tongue and ironic wit if he wants to survive Tehran and escape in one piece. Fonko’s Errand Go Boom – Belfast, 1982. When an old surfing buddy refers ex-Army Ranger turned soldier of fortune Jake Fonko to a cutting-edge car manufacturer in need of his unique skill set, Jake ships off to Belfast. But with Northern Ireland embroiled in the Troubles, Jake's attempts to protect the factory from impending civil war soon turn into a much more basic struggle to survive the escalating conflict. In order to get out alive, Jake must become a double-agent for both sides—a tricky situation that'll require all his skills, satirical wit and training if he wants to get out alive.

The Client / The Firm


John Grisham - 1994
    Children's rights expert, Reggie Love knows the deadly threats hanging over Mark and his family. Together they must take on the might of the FBI and the wiles of a cold blooded killer.The Firm He was a young, hungry law student from Harvard, They were a small but well- respected firm who were prepared to offer him his dreams. But the dream soon becomes a nightmare of secret files, bugs and mysterious disappearances, from which Mitch has only one chance of escape.--front flap

The Woman Behind Her


Anna Willett - 2019
    Watched. But by whom, and why? When schoolteacher Jackie Winter inherits her beloved aunt’s house, she discovers that her close relative had been keeping a terrible secret. As Jackie is drawn into her aunt’s past, all that was certain begins to fray. But she is destined to not experience this alone. Someone is watching her every move. Then, there is a murder near the house. A cruel killing. Suddenly Jackie finds herself in the frame. Trying to keep one step ahead of the police, Jackie turns her attention once more to the past, now certain there’s a link between her aunt’s secrets and the shadowy figure that plagues not only her days but also her nightmares. THE WOMAN BEHIND HER is a spellbinding psychological thriller that will keep you up all night.

The Lost Girls


Heather Young - 2016
    Her disappearance destroys her mother, who spends the rest of her life at the lake house, hoping in vain that her favorite daughter will walk out of the woods. Emily’s two older sisters stay, too, each keeping her own private, decades-long vigil for the lost child. Sixty years later Lucy, the quiet and watchful middle sister, lives in the lake house alone. Before she dies, she writes the story of that devastating summer in a notebook that she leaves, along with the house, to the only person to whom it might matter: her grandniece, Justine. For Justine, the lake house offers a chance to escape her manipulative boyfriend and give her daughters the stable home she never had. But it’s not the sanctuary she hoped for. The long Minnesota winter has begun. The house is cold and dilapidated, the frozen lake is silent and forbidding, and her only neighbor is a strange old man who seems to know more than he’s telling about the summer of 1935.Soon Justine’s troubled oldest daughter becomes obsessed with Emily’s disappearance, her mother arrives with designs on her inheritance, and the man she left behind launches a dangerous plan to get her back. In a house steeped in the sorrows of the women who came before her, Justine must overcome their tragic legacy if she hopes to save herself and her children.

The Partnership Track


Michael Ridpath - 2016
    Six ambitious vice presidents of Labouchere Associates are gathered together at an isolated mountain lodge in New Hampshire’s White Mountains for a weekend of corporate mind games. By Monday, one of them will become a Partner and earn at least a million a year. And one of them will be dead. The Partnership Track is a novella of about 20,000 words or 70 pages, with a fiendish twist. It will take less than two hours to read.

The Apex Predator


Michael Koryta - 2013
    He was smart, he was ruthless, he was cautious, and he was protected by a man named Thor. In their 22 years together, rivals had risen and fallen on a regular basis, and most often at Thor’s hand. There was a time, maybe, when this role as primary enforcer would have bothered Thor. That time was hard for him to recall, though, and after enough years he was no longer certain it had ever existed. The craft of killing came to him in stages. First had been the obvious — kill or be killed. It was important to be skilled in a violent world. In a place alive with predators, the apex predator lived the longest...

The Ghost of Blackwood Lane


Greg Enslen - 2010
    He’s got a new career and new friends, but they can never know his real name or where he comes from. But the program can’t protect him from the relentless dreams of a young woman in danger. It’s the same dream, night after night, and Gary is helpless, unable to stop the dream’s inevitable and horrifying conclusion. The woman seems strangely familiar…is she someone from his dark past? Is she even real? All he knows for certain is that she needs his help, or she will die.

Lets Us Prey / Textual Relations / Death of a Sales Rep


Jamie Lee Scott - 2013
    Using the skills she learned as a secret service agent, she runs the Gotcha Detective Agency, along with her skilled computer forensics partner Charles Parks. Gotcha specializes in executive protection (bodyguards), and tailing cheating spouses.Nick Christianson is running from the demons of his past, and that has put him back in his old stomping grounds in Salinas, CA. Nick has transferred from the San Francisco Homicide Division and is now adjusting to this new police department.Mimi never expects to run into her old college flame Nick, when she takes on an executive protection case for New York Times bestselling author Lauren Silke. But when Lauren’s assistant is murdered, the homicide case, along with Mimi, land in Nick’s lap. Will Mimi and Nick be able to solve this murder without killing each other first?Textual Relations - book 2Mimi Capurro, owner of Gotcha Detective Agency, hasn’t seen her old college flame since they teamed up to find a killer several months earlier. Now, after breaking and entering into an alleged predator’s home, Mimi and Charles find a murder victim on the floor in his bedroom. When homicide detective Nick Christianson and his new partner, Piper Mason, arrive on the scene, this is not the way Mimi expected to see Nick again.Even though it’s his job, Nick is loath to find the killer. That is until a teenage girl with ties to the victim disappears. Now Mimi, Nick and Charles race against the clock to find the killer and hopefully find the girl in the process.