Book picks similar to
Little Island by Bryce Holt


book-club
conspiracy
contemporary
thriller

Shadows in the Dust


Suzanne Cass - 2021
    The last thing Dan needs is trouble, after his time spent in jail. Can they let go of their pasts to defeat a killer in the harsh outback desert? Jenna Montrose is on the run from the man who killed her father. Alone and always moving from town to town, Jenna trusts no one, not even the cops. She arrives in remote Smokey Creek, outback West Australia, where she takes a job as a jillaroo on a cattle station. Perhaps this time her archenemy won’t be able to find her. Dan Simmonds has demons of his own to conquer, having spent two years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. He needs to keep this job to re-build his reputation. But he can’t seem to shake the protective instinct Jenna awakens when he sees through her lies to her desperate vulnerability. She’s so full of contradictions, he’s not sure she’s worth figuring out. When they become trapped together in the desert, Dan admits she provokes emotions he thought buried deep. Jenna is drawn to Dan’s courageous heart and welcoming smile, but desperate not to reveal her secret, will she revert to her habit of running away when the murderer reappears? Or will she let him help her, and turn the hunter into the hunted? Suzanne Cass’s rural suspense abounds with peril, passion and murder, set in the magical outback desert of Western Australia. Get Shadows in the Dust today if you love an intriguing thriller with romance at its core.

Overgrown


Betsy Price - 2020
    every morning, feverishly hot, her heart racing and mind whirring with every worst-case scenario imaginable. She's snappy, exhausted and has developed an alarming inability to remember simple nouns.When a friend has the audacity to suggest that forty-five-year-old landscape gardener Eliza Hamilton is hurtling toward menopause, she is naturally appalled. Menopause is something that happens to other women, older women.As Eliza tries to negotiate this new and confusing landscape, she also embarks on the biggest challenge of her career so far. But she soon discovers that juggling erratic mood swings with motherhood, demanding family members and domestic drudgery is far from the harmonious scenario she'd envisaged.If Eliza wants to embrace midlife without the crisis, she must first make some grown up choices and face some uncomfortable truths.Hilarious, gritty and brutally honest, Overgrown will have you laughing, crying and rooting for its quirky yet relatable characters. A much-needed novel every woman approaching midlife should read.

Fifteen Years of Lies


Ann Minnett - 2017
    In solidarity, her two roommates got tattoos to match her distinctive ink. The three dropped-out to start over in Montana where she gave birth to a son Zane. The friends conspired never to reveal Zane’s true heritage. Fifteen years later, a stranger recognizes the tattoo. He stalks mother and son, causing the lies to unravel. Was the stranger a witness to the rape or in fact one of the assailants? Beautiful Whitefish, Montana serves as the setting for Fifteen Years of Lies, yet the story could occur anywhere people go to escape and in any family struggling to keep secrets. Parents of teenagers will relate to a mother’s fears for her son as his rebellion leads to violence. Fifteen Years of Lies goes beyond the timely issue of sexual assault on campus to lay bare the aftermath of rape and its effects on the survivor, the child, loved ones, and even the rapist. Experience the raw emotions of past injustice and imminent threat when a suspected rapist believes he has found his victim and his son. How far will the three women go to protect Zane from the truth?

Perfect on Paper


Gillian Harvey - 2021
    Successful career, loving husband, two kids and a gorgeous townhouse. At least, that's how it looks like from the outside.In fact, she's never felt more invisible. Her boss barely remembers her name, her husband is distracted by his new TV job and her daughter has never found her more embarrassing!But when she's given a chance to turn her life upside-down she wonders whether she should risk everything she loves for a life that's more than just 'perfect on paper'...?

Broslin Creek Boxed Set


Dana Marton - 2017
    It leaves you with chills while keeping you grounded with heart warming family warmth and sweet hot romance." Cyn's Reviews BROSLIN BRIDE ----------------------- "...what a delight!!... An extremely fun read with moments of great hilarity, some surprisingly steamy interludes and good suspense with unexpected twists and turns... A plucky, touching, slow-burning and vivid puzzle." Ripe For Reader Reviews DEATHWISH ------------------ "An absolutely awesome, utterly mind-blowing romantic suspense! I loved everything about it. Dana outdid herself with this one. I've inhaled every one of Dana's Broslin Creek books - but this is definitely my favorite so far!" Reading Between The Wines Book Club "Marton knows what makes a hero...her characters are sure to become reader favorites." RT Book Review Magazine

Veronica's Bird: Thirty-five years inside as a female prison officer


Veronica Bird - 2018
    Life was a despairing time in the 1950s, as Veronica sought desperately to keep away from his cruelty. Astonishingly, to her and her mother, she won a scholarship to Ackworth Boarding School where she began to shine above her class-mates. A champion in all sports, Veronica at last found some happiness until her brother-in-law came into her life. It was as if she had stepped from the frying pan into the re: he took over control of her life removing her from the school she adored, two terms before she was due to take her GCEs, so he could put her to work as a cheap option on his market stall. Abused for many years by these two men, Veronica eventually ran away and applied to the Prison Service, knowing it was the only safe place she could trust. This is the astonishing, and true story of Veronica Bird who rose to become a Governor of Armley prison. Given a ‘basket case’ in another prison, contrary to all expectations, she turned it around within a year, to become an example for others to match. During her life inside, her ‘bird’, she met many Home Secretaries, was honoured by the Queen and was asked to help improve conditions in Russian Prisons. A deeply poignant story of eventual triumph against a staggeringly high series of setbacks, her story is filled with humour and compassion for those inside.

Blamed


Dana Griffin - 2017
    His last memory is putting the landing gear down. The NTSB and news media blame him and the deceased first officer Ned Partin for the accident that killed thirty-eight, and burned or severely injured ten. Bill knows from experience flying with Ned that they would have prevented the accident. While recovering from his debilitating injuries, Bill investigates why data that would exonerate him has disappeared. Why hasn’t the NTSB figured out there was something wrong with the rudder? And why does his airline’s management thwart his attempts to prove he shouldn’t be blamed? Those who caused the accident will go to extreme lengths to assure Bill does not uncover their secret agenda.

NightShade Forensic FBI Files: Vol 2 (Books 5-7)


A.J. Scudiere - 2021
     Vol 2 - Books 5, 6, and 7 Salvage - A Shadow Files Novel Former marine turned Private Investigator, Walter Reed, has been given yet another strange and amazing opportunity: to become an agent with the FBI’s NightShade division. Though confident her training will make Quantico a cake walk—even with only one leg—Walter is discovering her shot at a new career has disaster written all over it. Her first hurdle? Walter doesn’t graduate training if her new partner GJ Janson doesn’t graduate, too… After previously being arrested by the FBI, GJ Janson hopes to redeem herself with the chance to become an agent. Unfortunately, her snooping around her grandfather’s laboratory reveals he’s been hiding strange skeletons—with strikingly similar anomalies to those she notices in her friend Donovan. When a weekend visit to her grandfather’s lab yields a fresh body, GJ goes into investigation mode. But the body is that of a fellow NightShade agent, and Walter and GJ quickly realize that nothing in NightShade is what it seems—not the case, the other agents, nor even their job descriptions. Only one thing is clear: the killer is coming after them next. And they suspect it’s someone GJ knows. Garden of Bone FBI Agent Eleri Eames was there the day her sister disappeared at eight years old. However, Eleri is the only one who knows that her sister is already dead and has been for quite some time. When a skeleton is unearthed in New Orleans, Eleri is convinced it belongs to Emmaline. The age and ancestry of the remains are a match, and there’s something telling Eleri that New Orleans is the place where her sister lived and died. As Eleri hunts for answers, demons—old and new—begin following her. The Lobomau have been entering the city in ever-increasing numbers, and that might just have something to do with the Dauphine sisters and their long family history of witchcraft and voodoo. Eleri desperately needs her partner Donovan on this case with her, but can he risk his own job to help her? Eleri’s ancestry may have imbued her with some powers, but compared to her own great-grandmother and the Dauphines, she’s untrained and untested at best. When the bones turn out not to belong to her sister, Eleri has to ask how a case so similar to Emmaline’s even exists…and is it an arrow pointed to her own twisted family history? The Camelot Gambit Can Eleri and Donovan outsmart a killer who leaves no evidence behind or even a discernable cause of death? How will they track down someone who is more intelligent than both of them together? Curie, Nebraska was designed as a research haven for the ultra-intelligent. In fact, applicants must pass a rigorous IQ test before they can call the strange town home. Nearly every resident—including several child geniuses—is suspect and no one is safe. Going undercover as the new neighbors leaves the agents struggling to find even the most basic clues. Eleri and Donovan can barely maintain their false identities against their overly-curious and stunningly intelligent new friends, let alone solve a murder. Can they figure it out before the next body turns up? Or has the killer already found them… “She’s in the top five of my best writers list.

Flinging All Spring: Book Three of Sag Harbor Black Romances


Lula White - 2021
    

Kill Order / Vendetta


Jack McSporran - 2017
    Beautiful. On the run. When secret agent Maggie Black agrees to protect the Mayor of London, she thinks she’s in for a boring night of babysitting. The simple job gets a lot more complicated when an assassin arrives and takes out the Mayor, framing Maggie as the killer. Unable to explain the evidence against her, Maggie is branded a traitor and hunted by the very people she once fought beside. With no one to turn to, Maggie relies on the one person who has always had her back—herself. From the hidden nightclubs of Madrid, to the dark streets of Moscow, Maggie must delve into the depths of the criminal underworld to unearth the truth, and fast. Because time is running out and the enemy is closer than she thinks… KILL ORDER is the first gripping installment to the Maggie Black thriller series, and the perfect read for fans of Lee Child and James Patterson. Venice. The Mafia. A drug deal gone wrong. When a British covert intelligence agency learns of an impending drug deal between the Venetian mafia and one of the UK’s most notorious importers, agent Maggie Black is sent to stop it. Under the alias of an American drug lord, Maggie must infiltrate the crime family and stop their product from reaching British soil. A feat that gets more complicated when her colleague and old flame Leon is sent along with her. Maggie is soon thrust into the middle of a vicious war that spans generations. As blood is spilled and the scent of death lingers across the lagoons, a failed mission becomes the least of her worries. Because someone has a score to settle and they won't let Maggie stand in their way... Join Maggie Black in VENDETTA, the first heart-pounding novella in the Maggie Black Case Files series. Get your copy of the Starter Library today and discover the action-packed world of Maggie Black.

Saving the Doc (Falling for the Doc Book 5)


Jennifer Youngblood - 2021
    

The Last Changeling (The Enigma Wars)


F.R. Maher - 2013
    As recently as the 17th century, a farm-hand encountered them upon a Welsh hillside and was almost 'danced to death', and a century later, babies were still being stolen and replaced with 'changelings'. Even the finest brains are not immune to metahominid influence. When Sherlock Holmes' brilliant creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fell victim, they made him believe that photographs of cut-out paper figures were images of real fairies. In short, the metahominids - traditionally called fairies - used Conan Doyle's fame and reputation to prove they do not exist.Within their traditional haunts of hill fort, woodland and barrow, these creatures are dangerous enough; but now, like urban foxes, they are abandoning the countryside to infest our city spaces. They prey upon us within our own territory - and modern life offers us no protection. Our unwillingness to believe in these 'other men' leaves us wide open to attack. They ramp up the trance music in our clubs, leaving us unable to resist dancing to certain tracks, and woe betide the young mother who suddenly realises her baby isn’t hers… no one will believe her. Thus they move amongst us, still destroying lives as they always have done, yet now, suddenly, in greater numbers than ever before…As this centuries old, covert war heats up, it falls to a shambling figure known only as 'D', and his pitifully underfunded department, to keep us safe - and ignorant of the nightmares that lurk, hidden in the every day world that we call 'reality'. A contemporary British fantasy, The Last Changeling reveals the hidden story behind present day real people, historical figures, and true events.

Oathkeeper


Troy Grice - 2015
    Beleaguered Sheriff Bear Ellison finds himself outnumbered, over-matched, and increasingly isolated as he is forced to decide between risking his life protecting a local hero, or reneging on his oath and handing him over to federal prosecutors.

Breaking Point


Aric Davis - 2013
    Ken Richmond hits his breaking point when he puts a gun to his head and pulls the trigger. When his plan misfires—literally—he interprets the failed suicide as his calling to a higher purpose. Fueled by long-simmering hatred, Ken sets out on a murderous mission—but in order to get away with it, he’ll have to leave a trail of blood through the city.Detectives Dick Van Endel and Phil Nelson start chasing Ken toward a special spot in hell. But can the detectives put an end to the fiend’s sprees for good, before more bodies pile up?

Lethal Cure


Glen Apseloff - 2013
    But then a teenage girl hobbles in on the stump of an amputated leg, collapses in his arms, and dies. She leaves behind a handbag with a barely legible diary of dreams. Haunted by his inability to save the girl, he photocopies the diary, hoping to discover why their lives intersected. The more Warner learns about the diary, the more he realizes that nothing is a coincidence. Even after he moves on to a psychiatry rotation—where a patient dies unexpectedly and where he somehow forgets the events of an entire day—thoughts of the girl, and her diary, linger. In need of a break, he pools his vacation time and travels to Italy. There he falls in love. He figures out the connections among the deaths, the diary, and his forgotten day, but too late—everything he has learned is erased. His last hope is to reconnect with the woman he loves across a void of lost memories. Only then can he reveal the true cause of his patients’ deaths, and save himself.