Book picks similar to
Briar Patch Boogie by Joe R. Lansdale
mystery
short-stories
fiction
lansdale
Cold Cold Heart
Karin Slaughter - 2006
She and John enjoyed their friends, careers, and a special son. Just like the vows state, for richer for poorer, for better for worse, they lived their lives. All the way up to the day tragedy struck their family. John betrayed his wife in the most public of ways, leaving to a lucrative new life. For the next three years, John becomes richer while Pam not as fortunate becomes poorer. John’s life keeps getting better while Pam’s becomes worse. But then something happens! A reversal of fortune brings them back together, and Pam finally gets the chance for revenge. A revenge that even John could never have dreamed of …
No Time Left
David Baldacci - 2010
When Becker takes a mysterious job, he has no idea that it will force him to delve deeply into his own past. Undeterred by obstacles he is determined to complete his assignment. But he may realize too late that his success will permanently alter his future.
The Pistol Poets
Victor Gischler - 2004
Here Victor Gischler draws us into a wild and wicked world, where tenured professors are busy burying bodies, cash-up-front P.I.’s hunt for missing coeds and one desperate street-tough has to decide which he’d rather be: a live poet or a dead criminal.An unlucky grad student just got himself killed in a robbery gone bad. And as lowly drug lieutenant Harold Jenks races with the killer out of the alley, a light goes off in his head: He’ll steal the dead kid’s identity. Now Jenks, who once lorded it over seven square blocks in East St. Louis, is headed due west. With a .32 in his pocket, a 9mm Glock taped across his back, and a rap sheet nearly as long as Finnegans Wake, he’s cruising the halls of academia as Eastern Oklahoma U’s newest grad student, looking for action and hoping he can stay one couplet ahead of his violent past. While this new bad boy on campus makes mincemeat of his metaphors, across campus visiting professor Jay Morgan has a more pressing problem: What to do about the dead coed in his bed. The professor’s no killer, but try telling that to private eye Deke Stubbs. With the professor on the lam and Stubbs hot on his trail, more trouble blows into town. Now, as St. Louis drug boss Red Zach and his minions converge on Fumbee, Oklahoma, looking for a consignment of missing cocaine, the bullets start flying faster than the zingers at a faculty hate fest. For Morgan and Jenks, now desperate fugitives from poetic justice, survival means learning new skills—and learning fast. Because if they find out they’re bottom-of-the-class, that means they’re already dead. Featuring the sleaziest, sorriest, and most captivating group of criminal lowlifes, sexed-up academics, poets, and rappers ever to collide in one crime novel, The Pistol Poets speeds deliriously to its electrifying payoff.From the Hardcover edition.
Extraction
Douglas Preston - 2012
In New Orleans' French Quarter, the Tooth Fairy isn't a benevolent sprite who slips money under your pillow at night....he's a mysterious old recluse who must be appeased with teeth--lest he extract retribution. When young Diogenes Pendergast loses a tooth, however, his skeptical older brother Aloysius is determined to put the legend to the test...with dire consequences. *Includes a special preview chapter of Preston & Child's new full-length novel TWO GRAVES, available December 11, 2012.
The Bone Box
Gregg Olsen - 2012
--Lee Child"Olsen writes rapid-fire page-turners." --Seattle Times "Olsen deftly juggles multiple plot lines." --Publishers WeeklyThey call it the Bone Box. A collection of old cases, solved and unsolved, that continue to haunt forensic pathologist Birdy Waterman. None is more disturbing than the first. After two decades, Birdy still remembers the screaming. The blood on the boy's hands. The body of a girl, butchered in the woods. Birdy's testimony helped put her cousin behind bars. Now, twenty years later, she wants to reopen the box. Reexamine the evidence. And rekindle her fears that a killer walked free--and is closer than ever.22,000 Words
Dig Here
Charlaine Harris - 2018
What happens when a gritty Connecticut detective teams up with a young woman who can locate dead bodies by visualising their final memories? Find out in this unique short story set in Egypt, featuring Gross's Ty Hauck and Harris's Harper Connelly - a thrilling tale with a supernatural twist.For more exciting short story pairings, don't miss all eleven short stories in Match Up!
Exposed
J.A. Konrath - 2011
It also contains an excerpt of SPREE, the next Chandler novel.She's an elite spy, working for an agency so secret only three people know it exists. Trained by the best of the best, she has honed her body, her instincts, and her intellect to become the perfect weapon.CODENAME: CHANDLERBefore special operative Chandler was forced to FLEE, she executed the most difficult missions—and most dangerous people—for the government. So when she’s tasked with saving a VIP’s daughter from human traffickers, Chandler expects the operation to be by the numbers…until she uncovers a secret that will endanger the entire population of New York City, and possibly the world.EXPOSEDDeath is in her blood.
The Brass Cupcake
John D. MacDonald - 1950
But complicating Bartell's best efforts is a local police force that proves to be less than cooperative.
Bad Girl: Prequel to Serial
Blake Crouch - 2010
Thomas. But Lucy has problems, and not just the psychopathic kind…to start with, the hotel won’t rent a room to a 15-year-old girl. So she does a bad, bad thing, which only gets worse when a couple of horrifying killers, Orson Thomas, and his protégé, Luther Kite, catch her trying to cover up a nasty mess.BAD GIRL is a thriller novella that brings all of Crouch’s most terrifying villains to the same hotel.A prequel to SERIAL, which has been downloaded more than 200,000 times, BAD GIRL is not for the faint of heart. Let the reader beware.BAD GIRL also contains a bonus interview with Blake, plus excerpts from all four of his novels. *Note: BAD GIRL is fully contained in SERIAL UNCUT. BAD GIRL + TRUCK STOP + SERIAL = SERIAL UNCUT.About the Author:BLAKE CROUCH was born near the piedmont town of Statesville, North Carolina in 1978. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated in 2000 with degrees in English and Creative Writing. Blake is the author of four novels and numerous short stories. He lives with his family in southwest Colorado, where he is at work on a new book. Praise for Blake Crouch’s ABANDON:ABANDON would make an excellent movie, switching back and forth between the plain-but-sturdy homes, saloon and church in 1893 and the same structures rotting to dust in 2009...a clever dual story. CHARLOTTE OBSERVERABANDON [is] two separate works of past and present seamlessly melded together into a single novel that demands to be read in one sitting, so you can better appreciate the beauty of Crouch’s storytelling…[O]ne of those books that almost instantly puts you in the mind of a classic.BOOKREPORTER Haunting, fast-paced, and thoroughly engrossing... ABANDON is one of the most original tales of ghosts, greed and gold I've come across. Crouch aligns both eras so perfectly, it's as if the characters are occupying the same breath within the space/time continuum. ABANDON will be one of the most talked-about books of the summer.THE MADISON COUNTY HERALD Ambitious…the palpable suspense just keeps building, and many thriller fans—especially those who like a touch of horror—will lose sleep to find out how it all ends.BOOKLISTABANDON is terrific…a great storyteller hitting his stride.LEE CHILD
1000 Yards
Mark Dawson - 2013
A craftsman. His trade is murder.Milton is the man the government sends after you when everything else has failed. Ruthless. Brilliant. Anonymous. Lethal. You wouldn't pick him out of a crowd but you wouldn't want to be on his list. But now, after ten years, he's had enough - there's blood on his hands and he wants out. Trouble is, this job is not one you can just walk away from.He goes on the run, seeking atonement for his sins by helping the people he meets along the way. But his past cannot be easily forgotten and before long it is Milton who is hunted, and not the hunter.1000 YardsThis 17,000 word novella is an introduction to John Milton, the most dangerous assassin in the pay of Her Majesty's government.Milton is sent into North Korea. With nothing but a sniper rifle, bad intentions and a very particular target, will Milton be able to take on the secret police of the most dangerous failed state on the planet?
Blood Boy
Barry Lyga - 2014
Fan-favorite character Howie Gersten — Jazz Dent’s hemophiliac best friend from the I HUNT KILLERS series — finally gets a story all his own! Set one year before the events of the series, “Blood Boy” takes you inside Howie’s hilariously twisted mind for one night only. Enjoy Halloween as only Howie can, learn more about his relationship with Jazz and Connie…and discover exactly what it is he’s keeping a secret from both of them.
Galveston
Nic Pizzolatto - 2010
On the same day that Roy Cady is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he senses that his boss, a dangerous loan-sharking bar-owner, wants him dead. Known “without affection” to members of the boss’s crew as “Big Country” on account of his long hair, beard, and cowboy boots, Roy is alert to the possibility that a routine assignment could be a deathtrap. Which it is. Yet what the would-be killers do to Roy Cady is not the same as what he does to them, which is to say that after a smoking spasm of violence, they are mostly dead and he is mostly alive.Before Roy makes his getaway, he realizes there are two women in the apartment, one of them still breathing, and he sees something in her frightened, defiant eyes that causes a fateful decision. He takes her with him as he goes on the run from New Orleans to Galveston, Texas—an action as ill-advised as it is inescapable. The girl’s name is Rocky, and she is too young, too tough, too sexy—and far too much trouble. Roy, Rocky, and her sister hide in the battered seascape of Galveston’s country-western bars and fleabag hotels, a world of treacherous drifters, pickup trucks, and ashed-out hopes. Any chance that they will find safety there is soon lost. Rocky is a girl with quite a story to tell, one that will pursue and damage Roy for a very long time to come in this powerful and atmospheric thriller, impossible to put down. Constructed with maximum tension and haunting aftereffect, written in darkly beautiful prose, Galveston announces the arrival of a major new literary talent.
Skin
Roald Dahl - 2002
It was first published in the May 17, 1952 issue of The New Yorker,[1] and was later featured in the collection Skin and Other Stories, published in 2000. It was adapted for television as part of Anglia Television's Tales of the Unexpected, broadcast on March 8, 1980.
Truck Stop
Jack Kilborn - 2009
Konrath's critically acclaimed thrillers FUZZY NAVEL and CHERRY BOMB...Before the events of Jack Kilborn's and Blake Crouch's #1 Amazon Kindle bestseller SERIAL...Three hunters of humans meet for the ultimate showdown at the TRUCK STOP.Taylor is a recreational killer, with dozens of grisly murders under his belt. He pulls into a busy Wisconsin truck stop at midnight, trolling for the next to die.Chicago Homicide cop Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels is a long way from home, driving to meet her boyfriend for a well-earned vacation. She pulls into the truck stop for a quick cup of coffee and stumbles into her worst nightmare.Jack's no stranger to dealing with psychos, but she's got her hands full trying to stop Taylor. Especially since he's getting help from someone just as deadly; a portly serial maniac named Donaldson...TRUCK STOP is a 15,000 word thriller novella that ties together Konrath's and Kilborn's works, with terrifying results.A prequel to SERIAL, which has been downloaded more than 70,000 times, TRUCK STOP is an eighteen-wheeled ride straight into hell. Not for the faint of heart. Let the reader beware.This ebook also includes an exclusive interview: JA Konrath talks with Jack Kilborn, plus excerpts from their latest books, CHERRY BOMB and AFRAID.Praise for JA Konrath's thriller FUZZY NAVEL:"Fuzzy Navel is Konrath at his best – a hilariously heartstopping thriller." — Linda Fairstein, author of Lethal Legacy"This gripping novel is an adrenalin rush." — Library Journal"This book moves so fast it was like having the words fired into my head by a machine gun." — CrimespreePraise for AFRAID by Jack Kilborn:"AFRAID is a masterpiece of unrelenting horror. And I'm not exaggerating. Masterpiece. It's the best piece of fiction I've read in several years. It simply NEVER lets up." — James Rollins, author of The Doomsday Key"A bloody, terrifying, hurtling assault across a landscape of non-stop mayhem. A guilty, guilty pleasure." — F. Paul Wilson, creator of Repairman Jack“AFRAID is a true page turner, a novel that offers a million mile a minute action and suspense. Definitely, a must have with constant thrills and chills." — Heather Graham, author of Deadly Gift"Never have I read a novel so gruesome and simultaneously relentless. This book throbs with unmitigated, inexorable. sheer friggin’ TERROR. You’ll probably need a shrink when you’re done.” — Edward Lee, author of The Golem"Fast and ferocious, this is a dangerous thriller that will take a bite out of you. An absolute must read for anyone who loves the adrenaline rush of a shocking story told with style, speed and savage grace." — Jonathan Maberry, author of Patient Zero