The Obstacle Course


J.F. Freedman - 1994
    F. Freedman presents The Obstacle Course, a coming-of-age story that recounts the adventures of a colorful, profane, street-smart, and appealing fifteen-year-old boy growing up in 1957 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Roy Poole has to be smart because he is almost always on his own. His father is a drinker, womanizer, and wife-beater. His mother can't cope with her husband or her children; Roy copes by running with his own gang, whose escapades sometimes border on the criminal. And this young man is eminently available when the girls come after him, which is often. But there is another side to Roy. He builds model ships and regularly hitchhikes to Annapolis to run the Naval Academy's grueling obstacle course. For Roy Poole's one ambition in life, his consuming dream, is to become a midshipman. One day, like a gift from heaven, Roy meets a retired admiral who also builds model ships. The admiral is immediately attracted to the youngster, and he becomes almost a second father to the boy. Admiral Wells arranges for Roy to be admitted to a military prep school that sends most of its graduates to the Naval Academy. And then, suddenly, Roy's innocence brings about an explosion in this exotic world he has entered. Embittered and lost, Roy strikes out blindly for parts unknown. And on that adventure, particularly in an encounter with members of a black church, people that he, a Southerner in the fifties, has never known except as stereotypes, he begins the process of understanding that offers him a chance for his own redemption. This powerful and gritty coming-of-age novel will evoke memories of Holden Caulfield and Huck Finn. It also bears comparison to the novels of Pat Conroy. Best of all, The Obstacle Course confirms Freedman's talent for telling a compelling story in a full and rich original voice that marks him as a novelist with a limitless future.

The Fabric of Murder


William Savage - 2015
    So when a leading cloth-manufacturer is found murdered and his business totters on the brink of collapse, everyone fears his fall will ruin hundreds of working families and cause the economy of the whole county to collapse. In near panic, the mayor and aldermen turn to an unlikely person to solve the riddle: Mr. Ashmole Foxe, a man who claims to be a mere bookseller, yet lives in grand style, dresses like a dandy and associates as easily with the demi-monde as the gentry. With few firm clues to go on and every sign the dead man himself had been hiding many secrets, Mr Foxe sets out to do as the City Fathers want. Who benefited from the death? Why had the murdered man been stockpiling cloth for months? Who is the stranger now trying to buy up all this surplus stock and what will he do with it? Follow Mr Foxe through Norwich’s teeming 18th-century streets as he seeks out the answers and tracks down a killer with more than profit on his mind.

Death of a Laird (Hamish Macbeth)


M.C. Beaton - 2022
    

Dorn of the Mountains


Zane Grey - 2008
    He wasn't looking for trouble that day in the deep mountain forest, but trouble found him. Dorn overheard an ambitious rancher plotting with an outlaw to kidnap the daughters of the owner of a neighboring spread. If he acted quickly, Dorn hoped he could save the girls by spiriting them away before the outlaw's gang took them off the stage on the way to town. But now the gang's begun a ruthless search of the forest, determined to find their prey...and kill anyone who tries to stop them!When this powerful tale of adventure, danger, romance, and hope was first published—under the title Man of the Forest—it was dramatically different from what Zane Grey had originally written. Long passages had been removed, other passages written by someone else were inserted, and the hero's name had been changed to Dale. Now, restored from Grey's original manuscript, this wonderful novel can finally be enjoyed the way its author actually wrote it.

Bones


John Paxson - 1997
    But Scott Grady is a brilliant and dedicated student working on his doctoral dissertation, and walking away from everything is just not his style. Although former news-hound Ben Tripp considers carpentry his current career (if you can call it that), he can occasionally be persuaded to put his natural instincts to work with some small time private-eyeing. Doing the persuading this time is Professor Kathy Sullivan, one of the few people who could call the missing Scott Grady a friend. Tripp's search for Scott Grady leads him to the site of Scott's research, where new dinosaur discoveries are a serious matter, especially in the cutthroat world of academia...

Val McDermid 3-Book Thriller Collection: The Mermaids Singing, The Wire in the Blood, The Last Temptation (Tony Hill and Carol Jordan)


Val McDermid - 2016
    1 bestselling crime series featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill, hero of TV’s much loved WIRE IN THE BLOOD.THE MERMAIDS SINGINGUp till now, the only serial killers Tony Hill had encountered were safely behind bars. This one’s different – this one’s on the loose.Four men have been found mutilated and tortured. As fear grips the city, the police turn to clinical psychologist Tony Hill for a profile of the killer. But soon Tony becomes the unsuspecting target in a battle of wits and wills where he has to use every ounce of his professional nerve to survive.THE WIRE IN THE BLOODYoung girls are disappearing around the country, and there is nothing to connect them to one another, let alone the killer whose charming manner hides a warped and sick mind.Dr Tony Hill, head of the new National Profiling Task Force, sets his team an exercise: they are given the details of missing teenagers and asked to discover any possible links between the cases. Only one officer comes up with a theory – a theory that is ridiculed by the group … until one of their number is murdered and mutilated.For Tony Hill, the murder becomes a matter for personal revenge and, joined by colleague Carol Jordan, he embarks on a campaign of psychological terrorism – a game where hunter and hunted can all too easily be reversed.THE LAST TEMPTATIONA twisted killer targeting psychologists has left a grisly trail across Europe.Dr Tony Hill, expert at mapping the minds of murderers, is reluctant to get involved. But then the next victim is much closer to home…Meanwhile, his former partner DCI Carol Jordan is working undercover in Berlin, on a dangerous operation to trap a millionaire trafficker. When the game turns nasty, Tony is the only person she can call on for help.Confronting a cruelty that has its roots in Nazi atrocities, Tony and Carol are thrown together in a world of violence and corruption, where they have no one to trust but each other.

The Loves And Journeys Of Revolving Jones


Leslie Thomas - 1992
    a lovely blend of humour, sexual comedy and pathos' Daily Express 'A rollicking tale of a Welsh sailor with a girl in every port, but only one true love at home...Thomas has a rare gift for words...This is his best book and a celebration of his robust talents, which combine flesh with imagination. He always had a narrative verve, and this saga develops it into a turn of the wheel of life. Revolving Jones comes back at last to his eternal miss, and hopefully, Leslie Thomas will achieve a revolution in his reputation' The Times 'This exciting adventure story is also one man's pilgrimage, a lifetime's odyssey, a ritually layered tale of the quest for humour and love' Daily Mail 'He inhabits that "bestseller author" territory that includes the likes of Jeffrey Archer, Jack Higgins and Ken Follett, but he is a far better writer than any of them' Marcel Berlins, Sunday Times

James, Fabulous Feline: Further Adventures of the Connoisseur Cat


Harriet Hahn - 1993
    But his deductive abilities will be put to the test when he’s called on to detect philatelic forgeries at Thwaites, one of the city’s great auction houses. The recently knighted cat also finds time to coach a croquet team, oversee rehearsals of a sequel to Cats, and help deliver a baby. Not to be outdone by cheesy actors or blundering attorneys, he makes his film debut and testifies in a criminal trial at the Old Bailey. But he has a special place in his heart for St. James’s Palace, the address he longs to call home. This delightful sequel to James the Connoisseur will prove irresistible catnip for feline lovers.

Flashman At The Charge ;Flashman In The Great Game


George MacDonald Fraser - 1983
    

Midnight Beach: A Port Stirling Mystery


Kay Jennings - 2020
    

Kulfi And Cappuccino (Hindi)


Ashish Chaudhary
    It's an earnest attempt to celebrate youth, their life, aspirations, confusions and their love stories..The novel is set in Jaipur. The plot of the story revolves around two central characters- Anurag and Neha. Anurag narrates the story. He is a middle class boy who comes to Jaipur to fulfill his father's dream (Mere Bete Ka Bhi Bada Package Hoga). He meets Neha. A series of exciting incidents and meetings later, Anurag and Neha to realize they are becoming more than just friends. But as fate would have it, the blooming love story sees a twist in tale when Anurag meets Komal, a family friend's daughter.Meanwhile, Prateek and Bhupi who are roommates with Anurag are facing an emotional turmoil in their personal lives. This affects Anurag's love life. How will Anurag get out of it? Will he be able to resolve his friends' problems? Whom will he say, I love you? Will he fulfill his father's dream? In a nutshell, Kulfi and Cappuccino" is definitely readable. You will love to keep it for a second read too.

Chasing Hunter


Cort Malone - 2007
    Framed for a brutal murder, Jake Hunter, a summer associate at a prestigious Manhattan law firm, finds himself caught up in a harrowing game of cat and mouse that puts his friends and family in grave danger. When Jake discovers his mentor, the firm's biggest rainmaker, lying in a pool of blood and near death, the attorney's final words lead Jake to evidence that could topple the highest ranks of the Russian mafia. Unable to go to the police, who are convinced that he is the killer, Jake is forced to go on the run. With only three days to save himself, his new girlfriend, and his kidnapped younger brother, Jake's time is running out. Unsure of who to trust, and faced with a dark secret from his past, Jake quickly learns that nothing is as it seems. Only one thing is certain-with the Russian mob, the FBI, two mercenary spies, and a private detective all hot on his trail-everyone is Chasing Hunter.

The Amish Best Friend (Amish Country Mysteries Book 1)


Katie Fisher - 2017
    Will she find them? Life in the small Amish community of Orthause, Pennsylvania is predictable to Hannah Zook. As the teacher of the one-classroom school, Hannah is happy with her life and relationship with Gott. The only question she has concerns Eli Reimer, the Mennonite man who wishes to marry her. Eli is the sort of man Hannah has always dreamed of marrying. But in order to marry him, she must give up her faith and join his. But when a man is found murdered, Hannah ends up with much more than romance on her mind. The victim’s wife Martha recently left him, and everybody knows why. Now she’s the number one suspect. Hannah knows her friend is innocent and will do everything to prove it. She is joined in her quest by her childhood friend, Abram, who quietly supports her even when others tell her to mind her own business. And as she works to solve the murder, Hannah might just find the answers to her prayers about her future–and he might have been under her nose the whole time. AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is a 61-page stand-alone story with an HEA, so no cliff-hangers.

The Hashtag Life of Isobel Irving


Alice Ross - 2020
    But that’s before she’s reacquainted with one of her former classmates, who is no longer the geek she remembers. And who adds a whole load of extra complications to the mix.

the backbenchers


Sachin Garg