Book picks similar to
Little Altar Boy by John Guzlowski
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Perfidia
James Ellroy - 2014
The United States teeters on the edge of war. The roundup of allegedly treasonous Japanese Americans is about to begin. And in L.A., a Japanese family is found dead. Murder or ritual suicide? The investigation will draw four people into a totally Ellroy-ian tangle: a brilliant Japanese American forensic chemist; an unsatisfiably adventurous young woman; one police officer based in fact (William H. "Whiskey Bill" Parker, later to become the groundbreaking chief of the LAPD), the other the product of Ellroy's inimitable imagination (Dudley Smith, arch villain of The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, White Jazz). As their lives intertwine, we are given a story of war and of consuming romance, a searing exposé of the Japanese internment, and an astonishingly detailed homicide investigation. In Perfidia, Ellroy delves more deeply than ever before into his characters' intellectual and emotional lives. But it has the full-strength, unbridled story-telling audacity that has marked all the acclaimed work of the Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction.
The Given Day
Dennis Lehane - 2008
The Given Day tells the story of two families—one black, one white—swept up in a maelstrom of revolutionaries and anarchists, immigrants and ward bosses, Brahmins and ordinary citizens, all engaged in a battle for survival and power.Beat cop Danny Coughlin, the son of one of the city's most beloved and powerful police captains, joins a burgeoning union movement and the hunt for violent radicals. Luther Laurence, on the run after a deadly confrontation with a crime boss in Tulsa, works for the Coughlin family and tries desperately to find his way home to his pregnant wife.Here, too, are some of the most influential figures of the era—Babe Ruth; Eugene O'Neill; leftist activist Jack Reed; NAACP founder W. E. B. DuBois; Mitchell Palmer, Woodrow Wilson's ruthless Red-chasing attorney general; cunning Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge; and an ambitious young Department of Justice lawyer named John Hoover.Coursing through some of the pivotal events of the time—including the Spanish Influenza pandemic—and culminating in the Boston Police Strike of 1919, The Given Day explores the crippling violence and irrepressible exuberance of a country at war with, and in the thrall of, itself. As Danny, Luther, and those around them struggle to define themselves in increasingly turbulent times, they gradually find family in one another and, together, ride a rising storm of hardship, deprivation, and hope that will change all their lives.
The War Against Miss Winter
Kathryn Miller Haines - 2007
But for aspiring actress Rosie Winter, the war feels as if it were right in New York City—what with food rationing and frequent blackouts . . . and a boyfriend she hasn't heard word one from since he enlisted in the navy. Now her rent is coming due and she hasn't been cast in anything for six months. The factories are desperate for women workers, but Rosie the Thespian isn't about to become Rosie the Riveter, so she grabs a part-time job at a seamy, lowbrow detective agency instead.However, there's more to the Big City gumshoe game than chasing lowlife cheating spouses. When her boss turns up dead, Rosie finds herself caught up in a ticklish high society mystery, mingling with mobsters and searching for a notorious missing script. Maybe she has no crime-fighting experience—but Rosie certainly knows how to act the role. No matter how the war against Miss Winter turns out, it's not going to end with her surrender!Evocative, entertaining, and wonderfully original, Kathryn Miller Haines's War Against Miss Winter introduces not only an unforgettable new sleuth but also an exciting new voice in the mystery genre, with a fast-paced tale of murder and deception that brings the World War II era vividly to life.
Candlelit Madness
Beth Byers - 2019
Welcome to a very flapper evening! Are you ready for the roaring twenties? For spunky young women crafting their own lives? If so, you’ll love Violet, Julia, Edwina, Hettie, Ro, and Lola. Inside, you’ll find several short stories with adventures, cocktails, kisses, and fun. With stories from The Violet Carlyle Mysteries, The Piccadilly Ladies Club Mysteries, the Lola Star series, as well as the brand-new Hettie and Ro Adventures. For fans of Carola Dunn, Jacqueline Winspear, Georgette Heyer, and Lee Strauss. A light, cozy mystery with a fun peek into a an evening with bright young things.
Sidekick to Deadline by John Sandford
Dave Eagle - 2014
If you have not yet bought Virgil Flowers Deadline, make sure to purchase it before buying this unofficial Sidekick. Welcome to Trippton, Minnesota, where life moves at a leisurely pace ... until your dog gets stolen, someone decides to start cooking meth next door, or the school board votes on a motion to murder you. Sandford’s beloved sleuth takes on three intertwining mysteries in Deadline, a fun and intriguing addition to the Virgil Flowers series. With this Sidekick, you’ll: • Discover some fascinating hidden gems and trivia about the novel • Spend some more time with the characters you’ve come to know and love • Learn what you might have missed on your first read • Explore possible alternate endings and imagine ideas for sequels • Get a chance to discuss the book with other readers on our Facebook forum Sidekicks are entertaining and insightful reading companions, filled with delightful commentary and thought-provoking questions. Readers have raved that Dave Eagle’s Sidekicks "really put you in touch with the many layers of the novel," "keep you entertained," and are "perfect if you want a vivid understanding of the story." Designed to be read side by side with the novels they complement, they’ll give you even more reasons to love some of today’s best books.
The Unquiet Grave (Captain Harry Tennant Mystery Book 1)
David J. Oldman - 2016
The war may be over, but the it’s devastating effects are not… Captain Harry Tennant has returned from serving in Italy and North Africa, expecting to be demobbed, only to find his services are still in demand. A policeman before the war, he’s made part of the Intelligence Corps, investigating war crimes. Mostly he looks into smaller cases of army personnel who are the victims, or perpetrators of crimes. That’s how Rose Kearney’s file ends up on his desk. Her brother William, a soldier with the Hampshire Regiment, was reported missing in action after D-Day. Having heard nothing else since, she’s travelling from their home in Wicklow to find answers. As Harry starts to investigate, he learns Kearney was part of a carrier crew fighting near Caen. The bodies from Kearney’s crew are found near a French chateau, with one appearing to have been executed. But there’s was no sign of Kearney. Reports of Nazi atrocities nearby are leaking out and at first, it seems the men were victims of the ruthless Nazi machine. But things aren’t adding up for Tennant. Why was Kearney’s body never found, and why was an SS officer discovered with the missing man’s disks? Although his superior, Jekyll, wants the death blamed on the SS and quickly wrapped up, the more Harry digs, the more curious he becomes. He sets out to find answers, but only seems to dig up more questions. And it’s not long before Tennant find himself in grave danger… Praise for David J Oldman ‘Rich with historical detail and mystery, this post-World War 2 thriller is an absolute knockout!’ – Tom Kasey, bestselling author of Trade Off David J. Oldman is a writer and history enthusiast, with a particular interest in First World War military history.
A Place for Violence
Kevin Wignall - 2008
There's Luke Williams, a young American who's been left in a wheelchair by a drunk driver. Then there's Brian Tully, a wise-cracking bully with connections in Vegas, together with his sheepish family. And finally there's Dan Borowski, an Australian security analyst. Trouble is, Dan isn't there to relax, and though they don't yet know it, nor are any of the others... This short story first appeared in "Storyglossia" in May 2008. Dan Borowski first appeared as a character in "For the Dogs", and this is one of two short stories (the other is "Retrospective") to feature him.
Circus of Nightmares: Death is the Ultimate Illusion (The Anglesey Mysteries Book 2)
Conrad Jones - 2021
Gorky Park
Martin Cruz Smith - 1981
Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko is brilliant, sensitive, honest, and cynical about everything except his profession. To identify the victims and uncover the truth, he must battle the KGB, FBI, and New York police as he performs the impossible--and tries to stay alive doing it.
The Shadow of William Quest
John Bainbridge - 2014
A mysterious stranger carrying a swordstick walks the gaslit alleys and night houses seeking vengeance. A man determined to fight for justice against all the wrongs of Victorian society. Who is the secretive William Quest? Following Quest's trail from the teeming streets of London to the lonely coast of Norfolk, Inspector Anders of Scotland Yard is determined to uncover the truth. This exciting Victorian thriller takes the reader into the sinister hinterlands of Victorian London as the hunter becomes the hunted. Then to the wild and lonely countryside of Norfolk for an exciting denouement.
Where the Hurt Is
Chris Kelsey - 2018
The social revolutions rocking America have mostly bypassed Burr, a tiny rural community in western Oklahoma. Like much of the state, Burr remains as it’s always been: Religious. Conservative. And 100% white. When an unknown young African- American woman is found murdered on the railroad tracks outside town, most of Burr would rather look the other way. The town’s police chief, troubled local hero and ex-Marine Emmett Hardy, doesn’t have that luxury. A lover of books and jazz in the land of football and country & western, Emmett is an outsider in a place he knows like the back of his hand. In his search for the killer, he’s forced to slice through layers of hate and hypocrisy to confront the ethical rot at the town’s core, while being haunted by the vision of a life and love that might have been.
Murder in the Marais
Cara Black - 1999
Especially since her father, the late police detective, was killed in the line of duty. But when an elderly Jewish man approaches Aimée with a top-secret decoding job on behalf of a woman in his synagogue, Aimée unwittingly takes on more than she is expecting. She drops off her findings at her client’s house in the Marais, Paris’s historic Jewish quarter, and finds the woman strangled, a swastika carved on her forehead. With the help of her partner, René, Aimée sets out to solve this horrendous murder, but finds herself in an increasingly dangerous web of ancient secrets and buried war crimes.
Berlin Noir: March Violets / The Pale Criminal / A German Requiem
Philip Kerr - 1993
We first meet ex-policeman Bernie Gunther in 1936, in March Violets (a term of derision which original Nazis used to describe late converts.) The Olympic Games are about to start; some of Bernie's Jewish friends are beginning to realize that they should have left while they could; and Gunther himself has been hired to look into two murders that reach high into the Nazi Party. In The Pale Criminal, it's 1938, and Gunther has been blackmailed into rejoining the police by Heydrich himself. And in A German Requiem, the saddest and most disturbing of the three books, it's 1947 as Gunther stumbles across a nightmare landscape that conceals even more death than he imagines. (For a review of Kerr's latest novel, The Grid, see our Thrillers section.)
The Man in the Queue
Josephine Tey - 1929
London’s favorite musical comedy of the past two years was finishing its run at the end of the week. Suddenly, the line began to move, forming a wedge before the open doors as hopeful theatergoers nudged their way forward. But one man, his head sunk down upon his chest, slowly sank to his knees and then, still more slowly, keeled over on his face. Thinking he had fainted, a spectator moved to help, but recoiled in horror from what lay before him: the man in the queue had a small silver dagger neatly plunged into his back. With the wit and guile that have made Inspector Grant a favorite of mystery fans, the inspector sets about discovering just how a murder occurred among so many witnesses, none of whom saw a thing.
Ice Blue
Emma Jameson - 2011
With the exception of his chosen career, too sordid for his blue-blooded family to condone, his life has been safe and predictable. But then he meets Detective Sergeant Kate Wakefield — beautiful, willful, and nearly half his age. When Hetheridge saves the outspoken, impetuous young detective from getting the sack, siding with her against Scotland Yard's powerful male hierarchy, his cold, elegantly balanced world spins out of control. Summoned to London's fashionable Belgravia to investigate the brutal murder of a financier, Hetheridge must catch the killer while coping with his growing attraction to Kate, the reappearance of an old flame, and the secret that emerges from his own past.