Book picks similar to
The Ornamental Hermit by Olivier Bosman
mystery
historical
historical-fiction
mm
The Sailor Who Washed Ashore
Frank W. Butterfield - 2018
And Tom Jarrell is having a hard time coping with each day. He's recently been made a widower, having lost his wife and daughter (Sarah and Missy) in an accident out on the DeLand Highway back in April. Fortunately, his good friend, Ronnie Grisham, is keeping an eye on his ole pal, making sure he eats and deposits the insurance checks in the bank when they come in. And, thanks to Sarah's foresight, two or three have shown up in the mail. Finally, Tom manages to get himself together and takes the train north to visit his grieving in-laws and check into a sanitarium in Wisconsin to get help with his profound sense of loss and the fact that he's turned to drink to help numb the pain. Six weeks later, Tom is back. He feels like a new man. And, on the advice of his friend, Ronnie, he decides to open up an office on Beach Street in downtown Daytona and put out his shingle as a lawyer. One day, as Tom is dictating another letter to Allied Southern Insurance up in Nashville, Howie Kirkpatrick walks in the door. The kid, who is probably 21, if that, looks like he's been through the ringer. He's sunburned, needs a shave, and has a problem he hopes Tom Jarrell can help him with. He's not sure, but he thinks he just might have killed his best friend, Skipper Johnson, out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Howie's arrival is like a pebble that starts an avalanche. Dark secrets in sunny Daytona Beach are about to be revealed and who knows what might happen when they are. * * * Where Perry Mason meets Flamingo Road with a gay twist! Set in the sultry south and by the beach, the Daytona Beach series of novels are about Tom Jarrell, an attorney who's just starting his own private practice, and Ronnie Grisham, Tom's private eye, long-term friend, and new-found lover. These stories begin with Tom and Ronnie finding each other after a devastating loss and continue as the two men bring together a kind of family that neither of them could have ever imagined having. Come take a stroll along the World's Most Famous Beach right after the Second World War. Truman is president, the men are home from Europe and the Pacific, and the Red Scare is just getting started. It's a time and a place that no longer exists. Take a dive in and see if you might wanna stay for a while.
The Fangs of Scavo
Selina Kray - 2017
A master of arcane documents and niggling details who, unlike his celebrity-chasing colleagues, prefers hard work to headlines. But an invisible man is needed to unmask the city’s newest amateur detective, Hieronymus Bash. A bon vivant long on flash and style but short on personal history, Bash just may be a Cheapside rogue in Savile Row finery.When the four fangs of the Demon Cats of Scavo—trophies that protect the hunters who killed the two vicious beasts—disappear one by one, Stoker's forced to team with the very man he was sent to investigate to maintain his cover. He finds himself thrust into a world of wailing mediums, spiritualist societies, man-eating lions, and a consulting detective with more ambition than sense. Will this case be the end of his career, or the start of an unexpected liaison? Or will the mysterious forces at play be the death of them both?And just who is Hieronymus Bash?
Three Nick Nowak Mysteries
Marshall Thornton - 2009
Haunted by his abrupt departure from the Chicago Police Department and the end of his relationship with librarian Daniel Laverty, Nick Nowak is a beat cop-turned-dogged private investigator. In this first book of the series, Nick works through three cases: a seemingly simple missing persons search, an arson investigation, and a suicide that turns out to be anything but. While working the cases, Nick moves through a series of casual relationships until he meets homicide detective Bert Harker and begins a tentative relationship.
Lessons in Love
Charlie Cochrane - 2008
Bride's College, Cambridge, England, 1905.When Jonty Stewart takes up a teaching post at the college where he studied, the handsome and outgoing young man acts as a catalyst for change within the archaic institution. He also has a catalytic effect on Orlando Coppersmith.Orlando is a brilliant, introverted mathematician with very little experience of life outside the college walls. He strikes up an alliance with the outgoing Jonty, and soon finds himself having feelings he's never experienced before. Before long their friendship blossoms into more than either man had hoped and they enter into a clandestine relationship.Their romance is complicated when a series of murders is discovered within St. Bride's. All of the victims have one thing in common, a penchant for men. While acting as the eyes and ears for the police, a mixture of logic and luck leads them to a confrontation with the murderer... can they survive it?
Unfit to Print
K.J. Charles - 2018
He expects to find a disgraceful array of sordid bookshops. He doesn’t expect one of them to be run by the long-lost friend whose disappearance and presumed death he’s been mourning for thirteen years. Gil Lawless became a Holywell Street bookseller for his own reasons, and he’s damned if he’s going to apologise or listen to moralising from anyone. Not even Vikram; not even if the once-beloved boy has grown into a man who makes his mouth water. Now the upright lawyer and the illicit bookseller need to work together to track down the missing youth. And on the way, they may even learn if there’s more than just memory and old affection binding them together...
Snowball in Hell
Josh Lanyon - 2007
He also knows that his life won't stand up to intense police scrutiny, so he sets out to crack the case himself.Lieutenant Matthew Spain's official inquiries soon lead him to believe that Nathan knows more than he's saying. But that's not the only reason Matt takes notice of the handsome journalist. Matt's been drawn to men before, but he must hide his true feelings—or risk his entire career.As Nathan digs deeper, it becomes increasingly difficult to stay one step ahead of Matt Spain—and to deny his intense attraction to him. Nathan's secrets may not include murder, but has his hunt put him right in the path of the real killer?
Medium Rare
Lia Cooper - 2016
A former Seattle Police Officer, Lachlan has spent the time since he left the force trying to piece his life together after being abandoned by his partner: Detective Vector Clanahan. But with a dead neighbor downstairs, his carefully constructed solitude is soon to be invaded on all fronts. Meanwhile, Vector Clanahan's about to return to his old stomping grounds as the West Coast serial killer he's been tracking leads him right to his ex-partner's front door. A sister series to The BLOOD & BONE Series.
The Valet and the Stable Groom
Katherine Marlowe - 2016
When a new baby causes a split in his employer’s estate, Clement is packed off to the country where he has little hope of ever advancing his station. Clement plans to resign and return to London as soon as possible, even though it means leaving his friends, his endearingly silly employer, and the charming and kind stable groom who has made overtures of friendship... and perhaps more.The longer Clement stays, the more complicated leaving becomes, as the estate's economic circumstances grow dire and Clement feels like the only one holding the household together. Somehow, impossibly, he must reconcile the future he's determined to bring to pass and the life he didn't know he wanted. Clean romance, no cheating, no cliffhangers, standalone novel.
The Royal Street Heist
Scotty Cade - 2014
When the gallery’s insurance company sends Tollison Cruz to the Big Easy to conduct their own independent investigation, personalities clash and battle lines are definitely drawn.The heist quickly becomes a politically driven high profile case, and Detective Bissonet is furious when he’s ordered to work along side Investigator Cruz to assure a timely arrest. The heat index soars to new levels when the two investigators discover they have a lot more in common then originally thought.With the tension between them temporarily sated, Bissonet and Cruz finally start to work together, on more then just a professional level. But everything comes to a screeching halt when Beau discovers his cohort in crime has been withholding information regarding the investigation and has been concealing a very questionable past. What happens next rivals the scorching summer heat.
Fires of London
Janice Law - 2012
Before the war, Bacon had travelled to Berlin and Paris picking up snatches of culture from a succession of middle-aged men charmed by his young face. Known for his flamboyant personal life and expensive taste, Bacon has returned home to live with his former nanny—who’s also his biggest collector—in a cramped bohemian apartment. But one night, death intrudes on his after-hours paradise. When a young man is found dead in the park, his head smashed in, Bacon and the rest of London’s demimonde realize that they have much more to fear than the faraway scream of war.
Heart to Hart
Erin O'Quinn - 2013
Michael, immediately smitten with the sulky and sexy man, lays a plan to first become his new roomer, then his business partner.But Simon, stricken by his recent loss, is having none of Michael’s undisguised interest.Not a man to be deterred easily from a goal, Michael sets about winning Simon’s affection. That particular battle is almost as difficult as tracking down the murderer of his predecessor, a nosy detective who was getting too close to the crimes of an evil person.Simon spends more time ducking Michael’s advances than actually finding clues and solving the mystery. Inquiring minds want to know—how hard is Simon really trying to avoid Michael? And Michael isn’t hiding his forthright urges, but what secret is he hiding?NOTE: This story is part of The Gaslight Mysteries series.
Double Indemnity
Maggie Kavanagh - 2015
Now Sam spends his days as a landscaper toiling in the New England sun and his nights drunk in bed with the closest warm body. In his limited spare time, he writes about Stonebridge’s local crime and politics on his blog “Under the Bridge.” Then Sam’s favorite client is found dead in her home—shortly after telling him someone has betrayed her trust. Sam can’t believe her grief-stricken husband Nathan would be a suspect, but the investigation hones in on him. Sam has always admired handsome Nathan from afar, but now he puts his libidinous feelings aside to help clear his name. However, the closer he gets to Nathan, the more he’s told to keep away from him and the investigation—by the fatherly police chief, by an officer on the case who's hated him since school, and by Nathan himself. Sam’s determined to expose the real reason his friend died and clear Nathan’s name—even if it’s the last thing he does. Which, considering how fast the death toll is increasing in Stonebridge… it might be.
His American Detective
Summer Devon - 2017
So when a brash New York detective darkens his doorway demanding an interview, the wealthy young gentleman immediately shuts him out. But a rash of murders in America are mirroring of the London killings, and Patrick Kelly knows Ned might be the key to stopping the bloodshed. Lawton, now called Edmund Sloan, is a wealthy young gentleman and philanthropist. He’s spent most of his life pushing all memories of his old family and that horrific day from his thoughts. Now a brash, provocative American detective insists he dredge up the past. Together, Patrick and the unwilling Edmund must uncover the truth of the murders before the killer strikes again, whether it is in New York or London. As they hunt down secrets from his past, Edmund can’t hide his other secret from the sharp-eyed detective: the attraction he feels for men and the enticing Patrick in particular.
Pretty Boy Dead
Jon Michaelsen - 2013
Media are quick to pin the brutal homicide on a drug-addicted, homeless teen. Atlanta Detective Sgt. Kendall Parker isn’t so convinced, even after the suspect assaults his homicide partner with a deadly weapon. But when the investigation takes a disastrous turn, a suspect in custody ends up dead. It becomes a race against time for the veteran detective to solve the apparent gay-bashing, but when a tenacious reporter threatens to expose a police cover-up, Parker is forced to make an impossible choice: stand firm for justice, or betray the brotherhood in blue. With the odds against him, Parker will need to rely on keen instinct and streetwise experience to catch a brutal killer. Yet success often comes at a price, and for Parker, it may mean revealing his closely guarded secret.
Murder at White Oak
Marko Realmonte - 2019
Currently, the White Oak Mystery Series is nominated for the American Library Association's Stonewall Awards and the 2020 Lambda Awards.A murder mystery... a ghost story... and a gay love story. Jake Weston, a seventeen-year-old cross between Holden Caulfield and Sherlock Holmes, is an openly gay American at a private British boarding school. He's got a lot on his plate. He's being haunted by the ghost of a former student, and he's fallen in love with his beautiful roommate. He's trying to solve the mysterious disappearance of Tommy Walker, a White Oak student who vanished in 1976... but piecing together a puzzle from the past will lead to real danger in the present. He'll inherit a fortune if he can solve a murder and make it out of White Oak Academy alive.This genre-bending fusion of supernatural suspense, thriller and young adult LGBT love story has mind-blowing plot twists that will keep you guessing until the very last page. Murder at White Oak tackles some of the very real issues of bullying and beatings within the walls of prestigious boarding schools for boys and the difficulties of being gay in that restrictive, closed environment. This is the first book in The Jake Weston Mystery series.WARNING: SHOCKING ENDING!