Book picks similar to
Final Steps by John Carson


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Bound by Lies


Gretta Mulrooney - 2017
    The chief character is so well defined and so likeable. The story was intriguing and had plenty of twists and turns. ” Julia Corbett “Swift is a good character, suitable for people who like PD James, the story is believable and comes together well.” “Absolutely loved this book! Extremely well written with believable characters and lots of twists!” E. Boisvert “Excellent mystery, well drawn characters, and a great storyline.” Suki Anne Perfect for fans of Robert Galbraith, Paula Hawkins, P.D. James, or Ruth Rendell. IN THIS THREE-BOOK BOXSET: BOOK 1: THE LADY VANISHED A missing woman holds the key to a valuable inheritance Florence Davenport hires Swift to find her missing stepmother. There are no leads and no suspects, but if the body is found, Florence will inherit half of a very valuable house. BOOK 2: BLOOD SECRETS Fifteen years ago a teenage boy, Teddy Bartlett, went to a woods on the outskirts of London and was beaten to a pulp and left damaged for life. The police never found who did it or why he was targeted. Now, the boy’s father, recently returned from Australia, wants to find out what really happened to his son. He hires private detective Tyrone Swift to investigate the tragic crime. BOOK 3: TWO LOVERS, SIX DEATHS A man stabs his girlfriend to death. Then hangs himself, leaving a note confessing to the murder. Open and shut case? Not for detective Tyrone Swift Dominic Merrell’s estranged wife Georgie doesn’t believe that he could have done it. Detective Swift discovers that Dominic was a reliable, devoted husband and father for eighteen years until he met the beautiful, charismatic Lisa, who he left his wife for. No one can believe that Dominic was capable of murder. But if it wasn’t him, then who killed the seductive but chaotic Lisa? THE DETECTIVE Tyrone Swift is an ex-police detective who now works privately. He’s survived a stabbing and his fiancée running off with another man. Swift's personal life is complicated. He is still involved with his ex-wife Ruth. THE SETTING The streets of London with their vibrant mix of nationalities, cultures, and rich and poor are beautifully evoked. From the quiet suburbs with their veneer of happy family life, to the bustling centre with refugees struggling to survive, to exclusive penthouses where the rich can have anything they want delivered. THE AUTHOR Gretta is a critically acclaimed author of best-selling detective and literary fiction. 'Mulrooney has a real gift for dialogue, the words and phrases ring true and make her characters wonderfully real . . .

Killing State


Judith O'Reilly - 2017
    She is. Michael North is a hero, with a bullet in the brain to prove it. A bullet which has rewired his neural pathways and heightened his sense of intuition. A bullet which is driving him mad. Working for an extra-governmental agency called The Board, North knows one thing for sure. He is very good at killing very bad guys. But what happens when a hero is ordered to kill a good woman rather than a bad man? Because it turns out that rising political star, Honor Jones, MP, can't stop asking the right questions about the wrong people. He should follow orders. Shouldn't he?

ONE MISSION: Something you knew isn't something you know


Manith J. - 2016
    She went on this secret journey to pursue a nuclear weapon and it brought her to meet two good men who changed her life from bad to good and from good to bad at the same time.

The Unexpected Groom: Country Brides & Cowboy Boots


Lucy McConnell - 2017
     Lime Peak Ranch is home to the Dumont and Ruggles families who raise cattle, train horses, and compete in PRCA rodeos. Life down the dirt road isn’t as perfect as it seems and secrets have roots deeper than the maple trees.   Ellie Dumont is in love with the wrong man. Logan Labrum is the son of her family’s biggest business rival Joe Labrum. Joe’s made things difficult for the Dumont family for years but that doesn’t stop Logan from turning Ellie’s head. They’ve been dating on the sly for months. As their love deepens, Ellie is torn between family loyalty and the man who stole her heart. George Dumont wants one thing: to have his family under one roof again. Carol left, taking their son, Levi, a couple years ago. Unsure how to approach a reconciliation with the redhead who lights a fire in his soul, George stumbles forward.  After a tractor accident cost Olivia Dumont the use of her left hand, she learned to hate doctors and the limitations they laid before her. Which is why she takes an instant dislike to their new renter, Dr. Robert Canton. Robert signed up for the Lime Peak Ranch experience and she’s going to make sure he gets it. Hauling five acres of hay bales in from the field is a good start. But Robert doesn’t complain and he doesn’t tell her she shouldn’t be using her hand or baby her like her family does. But Robert is holding back and Olivia can tell. The closer they get, the bigger the questions become. Bonnie Ruggles is the heart of Lime Peak Ranch, but her heart isn’t in it anymore. After years of carrying the burden of infertility and mysteries that started long before she married Dallas Ruggles, Bonnie is worn thin. Will their history together be enough of a reason to stick around or will the past be what pushes her off the ranch? Follow this family full of heart and love and loyalty as they work to navigate the bumpy roads ahead.

The Soldier


M.K. Jones - 2021
    Maggie returns to Catalonia, to a story heard on her first trip three years before which now has a significance she didn’t understand or appreciate at the time and further revelations lead back to Glasgow and a long hidden crime. Back in Wales, the final confrontation with the Quinn and McCarthy Miller families is looming. There has to be a winner. Can anyone emerge unscathed?

The Return


Marc Timms - 2020
    The coroner is performing an autopsy on the woman and shares some details about the case. The woman might be a long-missing victim of a local strangler.She goes to the library to find research material, only to find another mystery in where the bound books have gone. However, the story doesn’t stop at the page for Emma. She meets an expert on the strangler, but a mysterious force makes three separate attacks on her and those involved in the case.As the clues start to come together about the mysterious corpse, Emma finds her life in danger and wonders if she’ll be alive to finish the book based on this case.

It Was You


Jade Lee Wright - 2018
    Everything I did, I did for her..."When Regan Pen discovers that her long-term boyfriend has been cheating on her with over eight women, she packs her bags and leaves the sunny island in Spain that she had called home for a year. She returns to South Africa where she is given the chance to start over in life. Reassemble herself. Now is her time to be selfish. Find a new career, get a home of her own. Become whoever she wants to be... but when her best friend, Peyton, is brutally murdered, Regan is forced to put her life on hold to take responsibility for her friends thirteen year old daughter, Harley. As the police battle to solve the murder of Peyton and her unborn child, Regan becomes convinced that her Godchild is not the sweet, innocent little girl everyone seems to think she is. Could Harley have been so consumed by her jealousy and fear of not being the epicenter of her mothers universe that it lead to murder? If so, is Regan safe in her own home?

Odin


David Archer - 2021
    All three are run with an iron first by The Chief, a giant with a gigantic IQ. His top agent is Alex Mason, hard and cool – he's a law unto himself.But when an ODIN 5i agent based at the US Embassy in Manila, goes missing, and his encrypted laptop disappears with him, the whole ODIN structure is put in peril. Then the agents he was managing start to disappear one by one, and things start to look ugly.So Alex Mason is sent to Manila, and what he finds there is the growing shadow of Chinese imperialism threatening not only America’s presence in the Pacific, but the security of the whole Western World…This is a job for ODIN 1iAnd for Alex Mason.

California Blood


Pete Palamountain - 2011
    Baldy.• Suicide of a wandering derelict.• Murder of a wealthy matriarch.• Murder of a charismatic Catholic priest.

Chances Part 1: Gino's Story CST


Jackie Collins - 1991
     Chances Part One: Gino's Story READ BY THE AUTHOR JACKIE COLLINS NOW A SMASH TELEVISION MINI-SERIES! He started with nothing, and built an empire. She was born to bad times -- and lived through much worse. Orphans and outlaws alike, Gino Satangelo and Carrie Jones were survivors in a harsh, loveless world...a passionate young Italian and an exotic dark beauty whose chance meeting yields a secret that can't be spoken for years to come... From the luxury of Park Avenue to the early days of Las Vegas, the raw heat of jazz-era Harlem to the brutality of gangland Chicago, the Santangelo saga begins to unfold -- a tale of secrets, betrayal, and unbridled lust that sets the stage for one of the most unforgettable heroines that Jackie Collins ever created...the incomparable Lucky Santangelo! JACKIE COLLINS... AS YOU'VE NEVER HEARD HER! Now in this intimate recording, Jackie Collins takes you further into the fast-lane world of Lucky Santangelo than ever before. Listen for yourself...as she delivers a superstar performance that captures all of the passion and breathless suspense that have made her the undisputed Queen of glamorous fiction.

Time Will Tell


Eva Jordan - 2019
    Writer, Lizzie Lemalf, and her loving but somewhat dysfunctional family are still grieving over the loss of a much-loved family member. Lizzie is doing her best to keep her family together but why does the recent death of a well-known celebrity have them all in a spin? The police suspect foul play; Lizzie and other family members suspect one another. Lizzie begins searching for answers only to find herself being dragged back to the past, to 1960's London to be exact, and to the former life of her father, that up until now she has never been privy to. Every family has its secrets but how can the past hold the key to a present day celebrity death? They say the past comes back to haunt you. Surely the truth will out? Maybe, but only time will tell...

Trio


Cath Staincliffe - 2002
    The women meet up in a home for unmarried mothers to await the births of their babies. "Trio" follows the lives of the mothers and daughters over the ensuing years.

Skills To Kill: The Steve Dane Thrillers


Brian Drake - 2012
    They travel the world in search of adventure, righting wrongs wherever they find them, acting as champions for those who have none. Skills to Kill: An arms dealer known only as The Duchess is selling nuclear weapons to jihadists. Dane and Nina race around the world to track her down and stop her. Another Way to Kill: The Russians want an American laser weapon, and they’re willing to start a war to get it. Live to Kill: Dane confronts the mystery of his father’s death, and discovers a deep-seated conspiracy in the heart of US intelligence. Mine to Avenge: Nina’s dark past catches up with her, requiring decisions she may not be able to make, such as killing the man closest to her to stop a human-trafficking ring that crosses the globe.

Templar Steel


K.M. Ashman - 2018
    Reports of Saracen patrols devastating towns and villages cause panic throughout the Outremer, and Baldwin, the teenage king beset with leprosy, tries desperately to counter the threat. But nobody knows where the enemy forces are and the Christian forces are stretched thinly.With the king’s army campaigning in the north and the feared Templar knights defending the border far to the south, only one man has even the slightest chance of finding out Saladin’s true intentions, a Templar Sergeant named Thomas Cronin. With time running out and the odds stacked heavily against him, Cronin needs to find the Saracen army and relay the information back to the leper king in time to prevent the fall of Jerusalem, and indeed, the Holy Land itself!

Hard Trauma


Franklin Horton - 2020
    Ty is thrust back into civilian life, stuck working as a security guard at a truck stop. To make matters worse, he struggles every day with the demons that followed him home from the war.His new job is routine, even boring, until a young girl is abducted while he’s on duty. Ty can’t let the case go, even when law enforcement insists he leave the investigation to the professionals.Ty doesn’t listen.He cannot listen.His gut tells him that the investigators are going down the wrong road and with every minute they waste, the girl slips farther away. Unable to accept that outcome, Ty risks it all for this new mission. He knows that somehow their fates are inextricably bound. If he can save her, then somehow he might just be able to save himself.