Book picks similar to
Worthy McGuire by Tim McGee


first-reads
historical-fiction
fiction
interesting

Leaving Pimlico


P.B. North - 2014
    I can never get used to this, Alexi. Having you, that is. How did I deserve you? Deserve me? You don't have to do anything to deserve me. I love you. It's as simple as that. I love you for what you are. All you need to do is love me back. You don't earn love, as a payment in return.Peter Kingsmill's life had run into the sands since the death of his wife. What was a glittering London career had lost its shine. Until, that is, his life is turned upside down by an unexpected collision of events. He inherits the family estate, meets a girl seventeen years his junior and receives an anonymous letter which casts doubt on all the certainties on which he has built his past life.What follows is a journey of discovery which takes him back in time to war-torn Europe. To a story of betrayal in the secret world of spies and double agents, and ultimately to redemption and a bright new life.The narrative moves at speed from the dusty plains of pre-war Poland to the frozen winter landscapes of German-occupied Norway and finally to the gentle pastoral of the north Yorkshire hills. It is a story of a search for the pieces that make up a human life; and of the love that binds those pieces together....Do you remember the Snow Queen story? I can complete the pattern now. I have everything I need.

Last Will


Ron Schwab - 2015
    Who killed Ralph Wainwright? His bitter wife? His son, back in town after a long absence? The discovery of multiple wills further clouds Wainwright’s relationships and motives others may have had in wanting to see him dead. From the countryside to the courtroom, the small town of Borderview to the burgeoning metropolis of Omaha, Last Will is a tale of mystery and suspense set in 1880s Nebraska, as lawmen and law wranglers must navigate the ripple effect a murder has on the community and their families.

Screamin' Jay Hawkins' All-Time Greatest Hits: A Novel


Mark Binelli - 2016
    Onstage he wore a cape, clamped a bone to his nose, and carried a staff topped with a human skull. Offstage, he insisted he'd been raised by a tribe of Blackfoot Indians, that he'd joined the army at fourteen, that he'd defeated the middleweight boxing champion of Alaska, that he'd fathered seventy-five illegitimate children.The R&B wildman Screamin' Jay Hawkins only had a single hit, the classic "I Put a Spell On You," and was often written off as a clownish novelty act -- or worse, an offense to his race -- but his myth-making was legendary. In his second novel, Mark Binelli embraces the man and the legend to create a hilarious, tragic, fantastical portrait of this unlikeliest of protagonists. Hawkins saw his life story as a wild picaresque, and Binelli's novel follows suit, tackling the subject in a dazzling collage-like style.At Rolling Stone, Binelli has profiled some of the greatest musicians of our time, and this novel deftly plays with the inordinate focus on "authenticity" in so much music writing about African-Americans. An entire novel built around a musician as deliberately inauthentic as Screamin' Jay Hawkins thus becomes a sort of subversive act, as well as an extremely funny and surprisingly moving one.

Semper Fidelis


Johnnie M. Clark - 1988
    A machine gunner deep in the Vietnam bush, Shawn fought and won battles with no names, and watched brave friends give the ultimate sacrifice. Death chased him. Rain, leeches, and malaria sapped his strength. And back home in an ungrateful country, right and wrong were decided by what was easiest. Prayer was his last refuge, but it was hardest of all.

The Noose


Mark H. Newhouse
     What Ann Frank's Diary did to put a face to the plight of Dutch Jews in WWII, The Devil's Bookkeepers does for the Jew in the Lodz ghetto. Rita Boehm, Award-Winning Author “We need this book now more than ever.” – Wanda Luthman, Award-Winning AuthorLove and courage in the face of unrelenting terror as four men in the Lodz Ghetto struggle to document the tightening of the noose under Nazi rule. Written by the son of Holocaust survivors, this stunning novel based on events described in the Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto (Yale University Press, 1984), asks what you would have sacrificed to be one of the few to survive.Desperate people do desperate things…“…an emotionally riveting account of life inside the ghetto… You cannot read this story and remain unaffected.” – Kimberlee J Benart, 5 Stars Readers’ Favorite “… a riveting, emotionally charged novel… an amazing accomplishment… This is a must-read...” Louis Emond, English Professor

A Good Nazi?


David Canford - 2018
    But as Hitler's repression increases, their lives are forever changed. When war comes, will they help each other during their darkest hours, or will hatred prevail? From the idyllic surroundings of the Bavarian Alps to the vastness of Russia and the beauty of Lake Maggiore in Italy, a tale of families torn apart by war and its aftermath but also a novel about the resilience of the human spirit and the power of forgiveness and love, by the author of Betrayal in Venice.Fans of novels such as Beneath a Scarlet Sky, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, and White Rose, Black Forest should enjoy this.

The Hazards of War


Jonathan Paul Isaacs - 2015
    Hitler's war machine has decimated the Allies and the people of Europe must now learn the terror of living under the Third Reich.For Gabrielle Conti, a young French girl working at her family's winery, such news seemed incredibly distant and abstract. Surely these events wouldn't impact her simple life in the French countryside?That was before the body of an SS officer was found in the basement.When her family becomes the subject of a brutal murder investigation, Gabrielle must match wits with SS Captain Hans Tiedemann, a veteran of the Russian Front who is hell-bent on singling out the killer. Gabrielle bets that if she can fool Tiedemann into thinking he is making progress, she just might buy enough time for her family to escape.But that will be no easy task. For as the Germans gather their clues, Gabrielle starts to learn more about her family's true involvement in the war--and saving them could spell the end of the French Resistance.

Semper Fi / Call To Arms / Counterattack


W.E.B. Griffin - 1994
    The first three volumes of the author's Marine saga, Semper Fi, Call to Arms, and Counterattack, are published together in a World War II epic reaching from Shanghai to Guadalcanal.

Widowmaker Jones


Brett Cogburn - 2016
    Marshal Rooster Cogburn comes an authentic new "True Grit" Western classic.With a bag full of gold dust, Newt "Widowmaker" Jones is set for life. Then he makes his first mistake, trusting a cheerful stranger. By dawn the stranger--Javier Cortina, the son of the famous Texas border bandit, Juan "Red" Cortina--is gone. So is the gold. So are Newt's horse and even his fearsome Colt .44. It's enough to make a man want vengeance. And vengeance will be Newt's. Newt chases Cortina into Mexico, where the man is legendary for the horses he's stolen, the women he's bedded, and the men he's killed. As for Newt, he has a unique talent for choosing the wrong partners, from an angry, addled judge named Roy Bean to a brother and sister pair of circus gypsies, Fonzo Grey and Buckshot Annie. The more Newt pursues the cunning and deadly Cortina, the angrier he gets, until somewhere on the border the whole crazy journey explodes into an all-out battle of bullets and blood. . .. Praise for Spur Award winner Brett Cogburn:"Fans of frontier arcana will revel in Cogburn's readable prose and lively characters." --Publishers Weekly on Rooster"Cogburn amazes and astounds." --Booklist

Odds Against Tomorrow


Joseph T. Nutter
    Her father, a former territorial governor, must now make the hard decision to recruit a former friend and gunfighter, whom he tried to hang in the past, to join in pursuit of his strong-willed daughter and the violent men she seeks. The energetic and exciting story is told from both perspectives as they must fight their way through the still untamed towns and locations of New Mexico Territory and Texas of 1884. And blended into the backdrop of their journey are the final days of the spirited campaign to elect a new President—Grover Cleveland. Behind this story lies the dynamics of two former friends who grew up together and fought alongside one another as members of the Texas Brigade in the Civil War and later as Texas Rangers. But they would be driven apart later by the sides of the law they would hold to. They now come together once again in an epic tale and must reach beyond their strained relationship to the strong bonds of friendship of their youth.

Fair City Blues (Jack Dillon Dublin Tale Book 5)


Patrick Emmett - 2017
    In the 5th action packed Dublin tale by Patrick Emmett (Mike Faricy's Irish alter ego). US Marshall Jack Dillon is still detailed to Dublin's Special Investigative Unit. Once a headless body with a US Marine Corp tattoo is found floating in Dublin's Royal Canal Dillon is on the case. At every turn he seems to come up with more unanswered questions. Meanwhile a series of ATM robberies are occurring across the city and the police seem powerless to stop them and Dillon's looking for a missing American college student...but then Dublin can quickly become an amazingly small world. WHO WILL LIKE IT: Fans of Dev Haskell and rascals like him. Also the fans of Robert B. Parker, Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, Lee Child, Laurence Shames, strong Minnesota men, especially when transplanted to Ireland and drinkers of Guinness everywhere. "Faricy is the next Carl Hiaasen..." - Crime Scene "Faricy is America's hottest new mystery writer..." - The Dirty Lowdown

Moral Misconduct (Flynn & Levy Book 1)


David DeLee - 2016
    You Can't Always Choose Your Partner.NYPD homicide detective Frank Flynn catches the worst case there is; a murdered police officer. Forced to team up with Internal Affairs investigator Christine Levy, they must get past their differences and learn to work together, and more importantly, trust each other, if they're to solve a cop's brutal murder, put a stop to an illegal child adoption ring, and expose a forfeiture asset scheme involving a group of corrupt NYPD cops willing to kill to keep their secrets.The first in an exciting new series from David DeLee, author of the award-winning Grace deHaviland Bounty Hunter series.The Flynn & Levy Series (in chronological order):Moral Misconduct * While the City Burns

A Habit of Resistance


Fernando A. Torres - 2015
    Sister Marie's latest novitiate is a young woman named Noele whose fiancé, René, fled to Paris only to find it overrun by the Nazis. Now back in sleepy Brassac, both René and Noele realize that decisions of love and liberation can never, truly, be avoided. Sister Marie is not unsympathetic to the emotions with which Noele battles; having gone through a similar struggle when she was young. The offbeat nuns must wrestle with how far to expand the margins of their vows, in hopes of saving their town and themselves. A Habit of Resistance is a humorous, but thought-provoking story of personal denial and redemption.

Aroon


M.B. Gibson - 2016
    A desolate maid. And one cold corpse. Richard Lynche, heir of an 18th century Tipperary estate, can find no peace. His bookish ways disgust his bullying letch of a father. His heartsick mother sinks ever-deeper into a drug-induced lethargy. The teen’s only solace are the loving arms of the homesick new maid, Eveleen. Meanwhile jealousy, lust, and oppression lead to gruesome visions, causing Richard to question his own sanity. Desperate to prevail over his demons, he determines there is only one way to stop the torture—a killing. Aroon is a cauldron of old-fashioned Irish stew. Spiced heavily with Downton Abbey, sprinkled with Shakespeare’s Hamlet and a dash of The Godfather’s Michael Corleone, it explores the underbelly of life during the Protestant Ascendancy.

Grace


Jane Roberts Wood - 2001
    In a time when people reveal little about themselves, their problems, and their passions, Grace takes readers into the hearts of four families during the last year of the War. Bound together by neighborhood and southern customs, yet separated by class, money and family, they are an unforgettable lot, vibrantly brought to life.As the war draws to an end, it becomes the catalyst that drives the inhabitants of Cold Springs across the boundaries that had once divided them, taking them to places both chaotic and astonishing.