Book picks similar to
Outlaws by George V. Higgins
fiction
crime
dnf
tsundoku
Her Final Words
Brianna Labuskes - 2020
The teenage girl confesses to murdering a young boy. Disturbingly composed, she reveals chilling details only the killer could know. Beyond that Eliza doesn’t say another word, leaving a vital question met with dead silence: Why did she do it?To find the answer, Lucy goes to the scene of the crime in the small Idaho town of Knox Hollow. But Lucy’s questions are only mounting. Especially when she’s drawn deeper into the life of the victim. Then a combing of the woods yields unsettling evidence that Eliza isn’t the only one in this close-knit rural community with secrets.Getting to the truth is becoming Lucy’s obsession. And it’s a dangerous one. Because for the good folks of Knox Hollow, hiding that truth will take more than silence.
The Cuban Affair
Nelson DeMille - 2017
At age thirty-five he’s living in Key West, owner of a forty-two-foot charter fishing boat, The Maine. Mac served five years in the Army as an infantry officer with two tours in Afghanistan. He returned with the Silver Star, two Purple Hearts, scars that don’t tan, and a boat with a big bank loan. Truth be told, Mac’s finances are more than a little shaky.One day, Mac is sitting in the famous Green Parrot Bar in Key West, contemplating his life, and waiting for Carlos, a hotshot Miami lawyer heavily involved with anti-Castro groups. Carlos wants to hire Mac and The Maine for a ten-day fishing tournament to Cuba at the standard rate, but Mac suspects there is more to this and turns it down. The price then goes up to two million dollars, and Mac agrees to hear the deal, and meet Carlos’s clients—a beautiful Cuban-American woman named Sara Ortega, and a mysterious older Cuban exile, Eduardo Valazquez.What Mac learns is that there is sixty million American dollars hidden in Cuba by Sara’s grandfather when he fled Castro’s revolution. With the “Cuban Thaw” underway between Havana and Washington, Carlos, Eduardo, and Sara know it’s only a matter of time before someone finds the stash—by accident or on purpose. And Mac knows if he accepts this job, he’ll walk away rich…or not at all.Brilliantly written, with his signature humor, fascinating authenticity from his research trip to Cuba, and heart-pounding pace, Nelson DeMille is a true master of the genre.
The Last Trade
James Conway - 2012
For Havens, it’s always been about the numbers. He sees things others can’t, from the collapse of the American real estate market to the multibillion-dollar rise of his ruthless and charismatic boss. Havens is now rich beyond his dreams, but his work at the Rising Fund has cost him his marriage. And now it may cost him his life. It starts with the brutal murder of his young protégé and, over the course of six explosive days, six other brokers around the world, each killed after executing a trade linked to the Rising Fund. As the violence escalates from South Africa to São Paulo, Hong Kong to Berlin, Havens frantically tries to construct a model that will reveal the catastrophic event that only he can see coming—and confirm that his boss and the Rising Fund are at the center of it. The Last Trade is a relentlessly entertaining, adrenaline-fueled thriller about the forces that shape our culture–and a lone man desperate to achieve redemption— while averting a global economic catastrophe.
Armored
Mark Greaney
That is he was until his last mission in Lebanon. Against all odds, Josh got his primary out alive, but the cost was high. Josh lost his lower left leg.There's not much call for an elite bodyguard with such an injury. So, Josh has to support his family working as a mall cop in Jersey. For a man like Josh this is purgatory on earth, but even in Paramus miracles occur.A lucky run in with an old comrade promises to get Josh back in the field for one last job. The UN is sending a peace mission into the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico, an area so dangerous it's known as Espinazo del Diablo (The Devil's Spine). Only a fool would think they could broker peace between the homicidal drug cartels in the region and only a madman would sign on to keep those fools alive.
GBH
Ted Lewis - 1980
Fowler is king, with a beautiful girl at his side and a swanky penthouse office, but his entire world is in jeopardy. Someone is undermining his empire from within, and Fowler becomes increasingly ruthless in his pursuit of the unknown traitor. As his paranoia envelops him, Fowler loses trust in just about everyone, including his closest friends and associates, and begins to rely on the opinions of an increasingly smaller set of advisors.Juxtaposed with the terror and violence of Fowler’s last days in London is the flash-forward narrative of his hideout bunker in a tiny English beach town, where Fowler skulks during the off-season amongst the locals, trying to put together the pieces of his fallen empire. Just as it seems possible for Fowler to reclaim his throne, another trigger threatens to cause his total, irreparable unraveling.
The Golden Gate
Robert Buettner - 2017
A face-off with killers in order to guard a secret that could change humanity forever. LIVE FOREVER—OR DIE TRYING When the world’s richest man is the victim of a car bomb and literally blown off the Golden Gate Bridge the attack is attributed to terrorists and the world moves on. But some still wonder. Was Manuel Colibri targeted because, as Silicon Valley rumor has it, he was about to make the dream that people alive today can live to be one thousand come true? Two people are pursuing the truth. Tech journalist Kate Boyle and recovering Iraq war veteran Ben Shepard race through the Bay Area chasing the only clues the reclusive Colibri left behind. They discover not only each other but a cosmic secret that can change human history—and may cost them their lives. Praise for The Golden Gate: "Futuristic and imaginative, The Golden Gate by Robert Buettner sweeps across continents and centuries in a thrilling chase for the truth about longevity. The science is fascinating, and the suspense never lets up. Readers will revel in this terrific roller-coaster ride."—Gayle Lynds, New York Times bestselling author of The Assassins ". . . reverberates with echoes of current concerns over biomedical ethics, religion, and political machinations . . . interesting ideas about life extension and the implications of technological advances . . . and . . . the underlying mystery and unpredictability keep the pages turning."—Publishers Weekly About Robert Buettner's Balance Point: "Buettner . . . conducts his thriller action with suspense and plausibility. All the separate threads balance neatly, as if in homage to the book's themes of balance between antagonistic polities . . . and [Balance Point] carries forward nobly the kind of core SF tale pioneered by writers such as Anderson, Gordon Dickson, Christopher Anvil, James Schmitz, and C. J. Cherryh, offering entertainment aplenty with thoughtful meditations on how humanity can get along with itself or not!"—Locus About Robert Buettner and the Orphan's Legacy Series: “Buettner goes well beyond . . . military science fiction . . . he understands . . . living as a soldier—the boredom punctuated by terror, the constant anxiety and self-doubt, the random chaos that battle always is, and the emotional glue that holds together people who may have nothing in common except absolute responsibility for one another's lives.” —Joe Haldeman, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author “[O]nce in a while . . . a contemporary author penetrates to the heart of Heinlein's vision . . . to replicate the master's effects. . . . [O]ne such book [is] Robert Buettner's Orphanage.” —The Washington Post “Entertaining. Buettner shows the Heinlein touch.” —Denver Post
The Midnight Room
Ed Gorman - 2009
That would have been bad enough. But when the masked intruder forced Dr. Olson at gunpoint to open his safe, the doctor knew he was really in trouble. In the safe were two DVDs, private movies he had made of those girls he had kidnapped...and killed. Suddenly the burglary became blackmail. But blackmailing a serial killer can be a dangerous game. Especially when he's as smart - and good with a scalpel - as Dr. Olson.
Killing Season: Part 1
Faye Kellerman - 2015
Ben was the one to discover her body in a shallow grave by the river’s edge on the first anniversary of her disappearance. On that day, he made a promise to Ellen that he would do whatever it took to find the monster who kidnapped and strangled her.Several years later, the police believe Ellen was the victim of a serial killer known as the Demon, but Ben isn’t convinced. As a math whiz, Ben is able to see patterns that don’t match. And when he researches other similar unsolved murders, he’s convinced the killer is still out there stalking more young girls. Though Detective Sam Shanks, the lead cop on the case, thinks Ben’s obsession has gone too far and warns him to back off, he refuses to give up. But when Ro Majors, the most popular girl in school, offers to help him, Ben not only finds an ally in the beautiful cheerleader he’s quickly falling hard for, but he also learns they share a bizarre coincidence that brings them closer together.As their search leads to the grisly discovery of the corpse of Katie Doogan, Ben becomes more desperate than ever to find this cunning, methodical killer before he strikes again.Find out what happens in Killing Season, Part 2, as the danger intensifies when Ben and Ro travel to California in their search to uncover a serial killer's identity.
Death Served Cold
Sourabh Mukherjee - 2021
A teenager poisons her family for the love of her tutor. A woman driven by greed ruthlessly bludgeons eight members of her family.A beautician gangs up with her lover to rob a house, killing innocent women from three generations of a family. A practising lawyer strangles her lawyer husband with the cord of a mobile charger. A friendly and jovial teacher commits at least six murders over fourteen years in a sleepy town down south.DEATH SERVED COLD is a painstakingly researched collection of true, blood-curdling accounts of gruesome murders committed by India’s most dangerous women over the last three decades.These stories explore the dark recesses of the female psyche and challenge popular stereotypes by revealing shocking excesses of sadism and aggression rarely associated with women.