Book picks similar to
Blood, Sweat, and Flame: A Short Story by J.F. Penn
thriller
short-stories
contemporary
fiction
Poison Lake
L.G. Davis - 2021
She had to save herself from a man who hurt her more than he loved her.As Eden Sparks, she now lives in Liar's Island, where she spends her days running her interior design business or hiding from the world inside her secluded lake house.Each day she still looks over her shoulder, still expects him to emerge from the shadows.When he finally does, she's far from prepared.Is it time to stop running and fight for her life? Or has she already lost before fate deals her another blow?***Welcome to Liar’s Island, a stand-alone series of interconnected, novella-length domestic thrillers set in the picture-perfect community of Liars Island. Here, nothing is quite as it seems.On this island, families, and friendships are more than meets the eye...secrets, deceptions, and jealousies threaten to ruin everything these influential people have built. But it isn’t only the rich that live here...and power comes in all shapes and sizes. Everyone here is a liar...just how far would you go to get what you want?
Girl in the Green Villa (Mansol Mysteries)
Yash Pawaskar - 2021
Their honeymoon plans go puff as India announces a nationwide lockdown.Months after living under the pressures of joint family, social distancing rules, and work-from-home stress, they get an opportunity to venture out. Viraj plans a trip to the inviting Green Villa for an intimate weekend getaway. But something is lurking beneath the surface.Will it pan out to be the exciting honeymoon that Viraj thinks they desperately need?What is Jhanak scared about?Who is the girl in the Green Villa?Key highlights of the story:• Fast-paced narration• Non-linear storytelling• Interesting twists and turns• Flavours of the supernatural• Imminent dread, doom, and deceit
If I Could Remember
Vedant Saxena - 2021
Only to find it was a dream. Or was it? He can’t differentiate between reality and dreams. And his memories lapses aren’t helping him either. Haunted by a past he can’t remember about, he stands at odd with the society, and his family—who favours their prodigal son, Yash.UNTIL! He discovers the session tapes of his classmate Ananya, in his psychiatrist father’s office. What’s in those tapes that incite fear in the school diva? When the tapes go missing from the office, he believes something sinister is being protected. Meanwhile, he is able to win the trust of Ananya, who reluctantly bares her traumatic past, revealing she was—RAPED & MOLESTED. It compels him to seek justice for her. But, the evils bestowed upon her stretch deep, even forcing her to—KILL.Will he be able to save her after the revelation of his family‘s involvement in her destruction? Or will the truth drive him to insanity?In this vicious dark thriller, everyone’s a liar. Everyone is hiding a secret which can’t come to light...
Flytrap
Simon Kernick - 2016
His solitary life sailing the Caribbean is the only way he can survive. That is, until, he meets…HerA widow with nothing left to lose, she finds herself on his sleek forty-foot yacht. He’s handsome and charming; exactly what she’s been looking for.But the night doesn’t go exactly as they had planned, and only one of them will get out alive.
The Letter Promised
Kevin Wignall - 2013
Returning to the Paris hotel where he spent his honeymoon six years earlier, he decides to take what seems like the only way out - suicide. But a chance encounter with a Russian in a similar predicament leaves Nick with an unlikely obligation to fulfil, one that will take him to Italy, and offer him a chance at something like redemption. www.kevinwignall.com
Killing Kind
Gregg Dunnett - 2018
A detective has the chance to solve cases that have baffled her colleagues for decades. But only if she can work out who he is, before he gets to her. Because - in a story where not everything is what it seems - not even murder is black and white. Killing Kind is a tense novella with a twist that will stay with you. From UK and US bestselling author Gregg Dunnett.
The Courier
Gordon J. Campbell - 2019
They sized him up as someone with potential for strategic deployment, and more importantly, he's under the radar. Gregg's exploits start with what he thinks is a one-off assignment as a courier, and the straightforward task spirals out of control. He's forced to rise to the occasion and use every resource available to survive. Even his family is jeopardized which forces him to return to Japan to settle scores.The Courier is one man’s struggle to fight for survival in a world that he's not been trained for and where violence and retribution are the names of the game.
Miss Budge In Love
Daphne Simpkins - 2010
A retired public school teacher, Miss Budge embarks on a series of slice-of-life adventures that take readers into the intriguing and authentic lives of Southern church women. "What our readers love about Miss Budge is that they all know her personally. In fact, they all are her in one way or another. Daphne's stories are instantly recognizable to those in a church community, and that's where the real humour and real pathos comes from. Daphne is a keen observer of the strange and wonderful subculture of 'the church lady.'" Brett Alan Dewing The Christian Courier (Canada) "Mildred Budge is a forthright, almost larger than life, woman who challenges every reader's faith walk by being transparent about her own. She reminds us that Jesus loves us the way we are but He loves us too much to leave us as we are." Julie Innes Evangel
The Creeper: A Jack Nightingale Short Story
Stephen Leather - 2017
Supernatural detective Jack Nightingale is called in to investigate and discovers that evil is at work out in the swamps, and that more people will die unless he can stop it. The Creeper is a fast-paced supernatural story about 13,000 words long. Stephen Leather is one of the UK's most successful thriller writers, an ebook and Sunday Times bestseller and author of the critically acclaimed Dan “Spider’ Shepherd series and the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novels. You can find out more from his website www.stephenleather.com and Jack Nightingale has his own website at www.jacknightingale.com
Only The Good Die Young : And I'm Not A Saint
Akash Verma - 2021
She thinks that chapter of her life hasended, and starts afresh in Mumbai. But strangely, it seems her past is trying to catch up. Dhruv suddenlycomes back into her life. Even as they try to figure out their relationship, horrible things start happening to people they know. Together, Anuradha and Dhruv need to find out who it is that cannot bear to see them together. Who is carrying out these shocking crimes? Are they really soulmates cursed to stay apart, or is there some karmic debt they have to repay? Taut and thrilling, Only the Good Die Young is unputdownable.
The Twelfth Imam Collection
Joel C. Rosenberg - 2014
At extreme personal risk, Shirazi undertakes his assignment. A native Farsi speaker whose family escaped from Iran in 1979, he couldn’t be better prepared for the mission. But none of his training has prepared Shirazi for what will happen next. An obscure religious cleric is suddenly hailed throughout the region as the Islamic messiah known as the Mahdi or the Twelfth Imam. News of his miracles, healings, signs, and wonders, spread like wildfire, as do rumors of a new and horrific war. With the prophecy of the Twelfth Imam seemingly fulfilled, Iran’s leaders prepare to strike Israel and bring about the End of Days. Shirazi must take action, but the clock is ticking.The Tehran Initiative: The world is on the brink of disaster, and the clock is ticking. Iran has just conducted its first atomic weapons test. Millions of Muslims around the world are convinced their messiah—known as the Twelfth Imam—has just arrived on earth. Israeli leaders fear Tehran, under the Twelfth Imam’s spell, will soon launch a nuclear attack that could bring about a second Holocaust and the annihilation of Israel. The White House fears Jerusalem will strike first, launching a preemptive attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities that could cause the entire Middle East to go up in flames, oil prices to skyrocket, and the global economy to collapse. With the stakes high and few viable options left, the president of the United States orders CIA operative David Shirazi and his team to track down and sabotage Iran’s nuclear warheads before Iran or Israel can launch a devastating first strike.Damascus Countdown: 2014 “Christian Retailing’s Best” award finalist!All eyes are on the Middle East. Israel has successfully launched a first strike on Iran, taking out all of their nuclear sites and six of their nuclear warheads—and causing The Twelfth Imam to order a full-scale retaliation. U.S. President William Jackson threatens to support a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Jewish State for unprovoked and unwarranted acts of aggression. Meanwhile, CIA operative David Shirazi has infiltrated the Iranian regime and intercepted information indicating that two Iranian nuclear warheads survived the attack and have been moved to a secure and undisclosed location. In danger not only from the ongoing missile strikes on Iran but also from the increasingly hostile and suspicious governments of multiple countries, David and his team are in a race against time to find the remaining nuclear warheads before disaster strikes.
The Odd Fellows Society
C.G. Barrett - 2015
First, historian Jasper Willoughs, his closest friend, didn’t toss himself off a dormitory roof. Second, a Georgetown University secret society—a running joke on campus—has blood on its hands. Torres’s pursuit of the truth embroils him in a bizarre and thrilling scavenger hunt. The clues, scratched out on parchment by the mysterious Odd Fellows Society, lead Santi to risk everything he holds sacred: his job, his life, even the woman he secretly loves. As for his relationship with his God? Well, that’s complicated. A hold-your-breath thriller that explores our national obsession with race, The Odd Fellows Society will have you looking at the U.S. capital—and its monuments’ secrets—in a whole different shade of black and white.
Burn, Baby, Burn
Jake Barton - 2010
He'd always known it. Even at the age of six when he'd decided to kill his father. His privileged background should have produced a doctor, an academic, perhaps a diplomat. Instead, he killed people for fun.Donna O'Prey is the most junior member of a small private security firm. A routine search for a missing teenage girl escalates into something very dangerous indeed.
Give Him Back 2: Kemp & Satin
B.M. Hardin - 2018
and their marriage is about to be put to the test. It’s obvious that Lava has a piece of Kemp’s heart, and now Satin is working overtime just to keep them apart. Still, Satin has a “job” to do. She has been assigned to yet another fool. Her duty was to make him, Dedrick, love her and steal his heart. And then steal his position, and tear his whole world apart. She just hadn’t expected Dedrick to be so perfect. So, she starts to question if what she’s doing to him is worth it. Kemp’s heart and mind are at a tug-of-war. He might love Lava. But he loves Satin more. Still his choices start to cause problems that he didn’t expect. Things spiral out of control, and he isn’t prepared for what happens next. Sometimes it’s too late. Someone is running out of time. No one will see it coming. And no one can stop this crime. Love and lies. Truth comes out in the end. You never know who’s watching. Sometimes your worst enemy...is a "friend".