Book picks similar to
'til Death by Jason Anspach


mystery
fiction
mysteries
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Comanche


Brett Riley - 2020
    Still in the grip of blood-lust, the vigilantes hack the Kid’s corpse to bits in the dead house behind the train depot. The people of Comanche rejoice. Justice has been done. A long bloody chapter in the town’s history is over.The year is now 2016. Comanche police are stymied by a double murder at the train depot. Witnesses swear the killer was dressed like an old-time gunslinger. Rumors fly that it’s the ghost of The Piney Woods Kid, back to wreak revenge on the descendants of the vigilantes who killed him.Help arrives in the form of a team of investigators from New Orleans. Shunned by the local community and haunted by their own pasts, they’re nonetheless determined to unravel the mystery. They follow the evidence and soon find themselves in the crosshairs of the killer.

Ghost Squad


Bob Moats - 2016
    He was all alone in the basement office until he was visited by an unlikely partner. A dead former detective who was now an annoying ghost. Would the ghost help him solve the cold cases allowing the murdered victims to go on to the hereafter? Russ and his ghost partner solve a few cases bringing him attention to the brass, and he is given a chance to make good by solving a serial murder case. Together Russ and his ghost finally track down the killer in a surprising confrontation. Murder, mayhem, humor, ghosts galore, sexy women and lots of fun are in store in this paranormal ghost crime story by Bob Moats. This book is a novella.

Max Rage: Intergalactic Badass!


Jake Bible - 2018
     Physically enhanced. Mentally conditioned. Master Chief Sergeant Major Max Rage was the top dog in an elite fighting force that no one in the galaxy could stop. Until, one day, someone did. The lone survivor, Rage was blamed for the mission failure and court-martialed. With a serious chip on his shoulder, Rage finds himself as a bouncer at the top dive bar in Greenville, South Carolina. And, man, is he bored with his job. At least until he gets a job offer he can't refuse. Now, Rage is headed halfway across the galaxy to the den of corruption known as Horloc Station. With this job, Max Rage may have a chance to get back to what he was: an unstoppable Intergalactic Badass! WARNING: THIS NOVEL HAS GRATUITOUS VIOLENCE, SEX, FOUL LANGUAGE, AND A LOT OF BAD JOKES! YOU MAY FIND YOURSELF ENJOYING HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE PROSE! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

The Fissure King: A Novel in Five Stories


Rachel Pollack - 2017
    Jack has a secret, and this hidden part of his past sends him on a journey through spells and gateways to other worlds, each one stranger than the last, filled with such figures as professional Dream Hunters, gangster magicians, an invisible spirit fox named Ray, an elegant Jinni named Archie, and the Queen of Eyes--holder of all oracular power in the world. From the high stakes poker table in the H�tel de R�ve Noire, to the deadly Forest Of Souls, to a cave where he must trap a sixty-five thousand year old demon, Jack flows in and out of this world. Even when his own dream duplicate hires him to kill himself, Jack is mercury in motion--Jack the Nimble, Jack the Quick--until he runs out of tricks and must face his greatest fear.The Fissure King: A Novel In Five Stories collects the four existing Jack Shade novellas, plus a new story that will require Jack's greatest sacrifice and change his very existence.

The Wise Ass


Tom McCaffreyTom McCaffrey - 2021
    But scores need to be settled, so when the betrayed Wise Guys finally meet the Wise Ass and friends, all hell breaks loose.

The Cunning Man


D.J. Butler - 2019
    The cunning man is here to fight them.A BREW OF DUST BOWL MAGIC AND GRIT It’s the depths of the Depression, and a mining town in Utah is shut down. Something has awakened underground, and now a monster roams the tunnels. While contentious owners squabble, poor worker families go hungry. Along comes Hiram Woolley. Hiram is a man with mystical abilities derived from the commonsense application of Scots-Irish folk wisdom and German braucher magic. He possesses an arcane Bloodstone that allows him to see a lie the moment it is spoken. Behind the played-out farms and failed businesses are demons, curses, sorcerers, and unatoned wrongs. Bags of groceries and carpentry won’t be enough this time.The job will take a man who has known sorrow. A man who has known war. A man of wisdom. A man of magic. THE JOB WILL TAKE A CUNNING MAN

Ghostly Interests


Lily Harper Hart - 2015
    She sees them. She talks to them. She investigates them. She sends them on their merry way. She’s not embarrassed by her abilities, and she’s not afraid to be who she is. She’s also not looking for a relationship. Enter Jared Monroe, a smooth-talking police detective who sees things in black and white and ignores any shades of gray. He doesn’t believe in ghosts, and while he’s intrigued by the feisty blonde ghost detective, he’s not interested in the paranormal. When twenty-one-year-old Annie Dresden’s body washes up on the beach of Whisper Cove, Harper and Jared collide. Sparks may be flying, but so is confusion and mistrust. Harper calls on her loyal band of ghost hunters to solve the crime, and Jared relies on his training to tackle the same problem. It doesn’t matter what approach they take because all paths are destined to intersect. Can Harper and Jared learn to work together? And, more importantly, can new ghosts let go of the past and give in to an obscure future? It’s anyone’s guess when big personalities go to war and find they might have more in common than they think.

The Dragon Librarian


Marc Secchia - 2018
    Outcast. Accursed. From the meanest of beginnings, greatness will rise. Abandoned at birth by her parents, Auli-Ambar is seen as a child blighted by a callous talon-stroke of fate. A worthless burden. She is blind, severely disfigured, and fit only for the most menial tasks. Then, a simple act of kindness changes her life. Flown to the Halls of the Dragons, the painfully shy girl becomes a cleaner of Dragon roosts, and a helpless wanderer of the Dragon Library. Here, Auli is able to walk amidst the lore she is drawn to so profoundly. Touch it. Imagine worlds within scrolls. She thrills to the hallowed scents of knowledge, but aches for what blindness has forever denied her. In the cruellest of ironies, Auli discovers she possesses a magic that makes people and Dragons forget her very existence. This is disremembrance, the accursed power of loneliness. She can only despair. One will not forget. Deep amidst the forbidden racks of draconic scroll lore, where Auli-Ambar has unwittingly breached the protective wards, the young Dragon scholar, Arkurion the Mercury Blue, will discover her true gift and ignite its flame. Now, in the environs of a magical library overseen by the mighty Dragon Librarian Sazutharr, the extraordinary courage and integrity of a blind girl will finally be given the chance to blossom. Little did they suspect that the fate of all Dragonkind would rest in her hands. Series note Scrolls of Fire is a parallel storyline to my acclaimed Dragonfriend series. Auli-Ambar’s story intermeshes deeply with the fates of Hualiama and Grandion and intersects the most critical events of their lives. Also, if you ever wondered what Dragons get up to in a library, look no further! The Dragon Librarian is tale for lore-lovers, scrollworms and librarians the world over. They are secretly Dragons. I told you first.

Loose Ends


Terri Reid - 2010
    Well, actually, coming back from the dead and having the ability to communicate with ghosts is really what did it. Now, a private investigator in rural Freeport, Illinois, Mary’s trying to learn how to incorporate her experience as a Chicago cop and new-found talent into a real job. Her challenge is to solve the mysteries, get real evidence (a ghost’s word just doesn’t hold up in court), and be sure the folks in town, especially the handsome new police chief, doesn’t think she’s nuts. Twenty-four years ago, a young woman drowned in the swimming pool of a newly elected State Senator. It was ruled an accident. But now, as the Senator prepares to move on to higher positions, the ghost of the woman is appearing to the Senator’s wife.Mary is hired to discover the truth behind the death. She unearths a connection between the murder and the disappearance of five little girls whose cases, twenty-four years later, are still all unsolved. As she digs further, she becomes the next target for the serial killers’ quest to tie up all his loose ends.

Inspector Hobbes and the Blood


Wilkie Martin - 2013
    Allergic to danger and exercise, Andy is thrown into grave confusion as he discovers not everyone is human. Not only must he come to terms with Hobbes's extreme oddness, and the tooth-collection of Hobbes's housekeeper, the indomitable Mrs Goodfellow, but he must work out if a suicide, a murder, and several robberies are connected? And what is the connection? Hobbes goes missing. The cops decide he's big and bad enough to look after himself, but Andy, striving against deep-rooted incompetence and clumsiness, sets out to find him. With a big bad dog to assist, armed only with a leg of lamb, and despite losing his trousers, he discovers the key to the mystery is in the blood. But whose blood? Where is Hobbes? And can he catch vampirism off false teeth? This is the first in Wilkie Martin's unhuman series of fast-paced, comic fantasy crime adventures, with lashings of great food.'I ought to tell you, dear, he can get rather wild when he's hungry'Shortlisted for the Impress Prize for New Writers 2012

Them Bones


Carolyn Haines - 1999
    Unwed, unemployed, and over thirty, she's flat broke and about to lose the family plantation. Not to mention being haunted by the ghost of her great-great-grandmother's nanny, who never misses an opportunity to remind her of her sorry state--or to suggest a plan of action, like ransoming her friend's prize pooch to raise some cash.But soon Sarah Booth's walk on the criminal side leads her deeper into unladylike territory, and she's hired to solve a murder. Did gorgeous, landed Hamilton Garrett V really kill his mother twenty years ago? And if so, what is Sarah Booth doing falling for this possible murderer? When she asks one too many questions and a new corpse turns up, she is suddenly a suspect herself...and Sarah Booth finds that digging up the bones of the past could leave her rolling over in her grave.

Rivers of London


Ben Aaronovitch - 2011
    Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

Nearly Departed in Deadwood


Ann Charles - 2011
    Fearing her daughter might be next, single mom, Violet Parker, is desperate to find the monster behind the abductions. With her savings dwindling and just three weeks left to sell her first house or lose her Realtor job, Violet is ecstatic when a handsome jeweler hires her to sell his century-old, Victorian masterpiece until she sees the dilapidated dwelling. Now, if she could just convince her only buyer to stop rejecting vintage homes as if they're haunted. Short on time and long on worry, she refuses to give up her dream of a fresh start in Deadwood. But with a malicious coworker trying to get her fired, a secret admirer sending her creepy messages, and a sexy stranger hiding skeletons in his closet, will Violet end up as one of Deadwood's dearly departed?

The Coroner's Lunch


Colin Cotterill - 2004
    Siri Paiboun, a 72-year-old medical doctor, has been unwillingly appointed the national coroner of newly-socialist Laos. Though his lab is underfunded, his boss is incompetent, and his support staff is quirky to say the least, Siri’s sense of humor gets him through his often frustrating days.When the body of the wife of a prominent politician comes through his morgue, Siri has reason to suspect the woman has been murdered. To get to the truth, Siri and his team face government secrets, spying neighbors, victim hauntings, Hmong shamans, botched romances, and other deadly dangers. Somehow, Siri must figure out a way to balance the will of the party and the will of the dead.

Little Girls


Ronald Malfi - 2015
    It was one of many rules imposed by her cold, distant father. Now, in a final act of desperation, her father has exorcised his demons. But when Laurie returns to claim the estate with her husband and ten-year-old daughter, it’s as if the past refuses to die. She feels it lurking in the broken moldings, sees it staring from an empty picture frame, hears it laughing in the moldy greenhouse deep in the woods…At first, Laurie thinks she’s imagining things. But when she meets her daughter’s new playmate, Abigail, she can’t help but notice her uncanny resemblance to another little girl who used to live next door. Who died next door. With each passing day, Laurie’s uneasiness grows stronger, her thoughts more disturbing. Like her father, is she slowly losing her mind? Or is something truly unspeakable happening to those sweet little girls?