Book picks similar to
Houdini's Handcuffs by J.J. Toner


author-ireland
lendable
mystery
2-tecfic

The Sleeper Lies


Andrea Mara - 2020
    Movement. I force myself to take another step. I think about all of it, all of the deaths and all of the accidents and all of the pain. And I know what I need to do.ONE WINDOWIt’s March 2018, and the country is covered in snow. Roads are impassable, shops are running out of food, and official advice is to stay indoors. Marianne lives on her own and works from home, so this isn’t a problem. Until she wakes one morning in her house in the middle of nowhere and finds footprints trailing all across her garden. Half-asleep, she is at first curious. Then she realises the footprints stop at her bedroom window, and curiosity gives way to unease. Who was looking in at her, while she was asleep?THREE LIESAs the big freeze worsens and the stalker begins to leave disturbing mementoes, Marianne’s thoughts go back two decades to the schoolyard outburst that tore her childhood apart. Old feuds resurface, and the mystery of her mother’s death is pulled back into focus. Marianne begins to see patterns – is there a link between her stalker and the true crime story she’s been obsessively researching, or does the answer lie closer to home?24 DAYSIn the end, 24 days is all it takes for everything to come crashing down.

Thorne's Tome (Death Hunter #3)


Ron Ripley - 2020
    

Highway to Vengeance: A Thomas Highway Novel (Volume 1)


Brian Springer - 2011
    One is trying to stop him. One wants to help. But both have their own hidden agendas. Highway's search leads to a former drug lord turned terrorist who's looking to smuggle a WMD under the porous Mexico border. But that's not going to happen. Not if Highway can help it.From the sun-drenched beaches of San Diego to the crime-ridden streets of Tijuana, HIGHWAY TO VENGEANCE combines a hard-boiled, neo-noir, first-person POV with modern thriller elements and a highly accurate account of real-life SEAL training to create a twisting novel that explores the darkness within us all, the lengths one man will go to avenge his lost love, and the difference between vengeance and justice.Highway To Vengeance is a 60,000 word novel.For fans of Lee Child, Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, and Stephen Hunter.Includes a preview of THIRTEEN, a supernatural thriller.Also available from Brian Springer:Broken Highway (A Thomas Highway Short Story)Thirteen (A Supernatural Thriller)Blood Money (A Greg Kelton Novel)Wet Work (A Greg Kelton Short Story)Stain of Mind (The Serial Killer Journals Volume One)

The Girl on the Cliff


Lucinda Riley - 2011
    And it is here, on a cliff edge, that she first meets a young girl, Aurora, who will profoundly change her life. Mysteriously drawn to Aurora, Grania discovers that the histories of their families are strangely and deeply entwined . . .From a bittersweet romance in wartime London to a troubled relationship in contemporary New York, from devotion to a foundling child to forgotten memories of a lost brother, the Ryans and the Lisles, past and present, have been entangled for a century. Ultimately, it will be Aurora whose intuition and remarkable spirit help break the spell and unlock the chains of the past.Haunting, uplifting and deeply moving, Aurora's story tells of the triumph of hope over loss.

The First Wife


Diana Diamond - 2004
    Sure, age isn't a problem. Neither are her looks. Heaven knows that plenty of perfectly respectable men would consider themselves lucky to end up with someone like her. Then again, the last perfectly respectable man to end up with her - her ex-husband - ended their marriage, not to mention Jane's belief in happy endings...But she just can't muster the cynicism to resist William Andrews - a dashing, debonair widower with two children of his own. Soon, Jane's doing what she swore she'd never do: Marching down the aisle, promising to have, hold, serve, and protect, 'til death do them part. But why does Andrew seem so obsessed with his dead wife? And why do the children seem to hate Jane so passionately?As Jane struggles to understand the nature of the powerful hold Andrews's first wife still exerts over the husband and children she left behind, her day-to-day life grows increasingly more dangerous. During a family outing, she is suddenly thrown violently from her horse. Had someone deliberately spooked the horse? As she takes a midnight swim, the mechanical dome over the pool closes on her. Did it short circuit, or was it sabotage? Are these just coincidences, or are the stakes and risks getting higher the closer Jane gets to the truth? Someone would clearly like to see her follow the first Mrs. Andrews to the grave. Why?In a thriller that moves from New York to Paris to the Caribbean, a plot filled with relentless suspense, and a witty and intelligent heroine worth cheering for, this latest from Diana Diamond is her best yet, an unputdownable romance of deadly proportions.

Girl Unknown


Karen Perry - 2016
    . .'When first-year student Zoë Barry walks into Professor David Connolly's office and tentatively says these words, he is left reeling. But it is the lives of his family - particularly his wife Caroline - which are turned upside down by the arrival of this stranger.A daughter, a sister, a friend . . . an enemy?Though no one knows quite who Zoë is, she is soon entangled in their lives. Yet her stories don't ring true and Caroline is determined to learn if the girl is the unlucky innocent she claims to be or someone with a far darker agenda.A deadly cuckoo in the nest . . .Because by letting Zoë in, David and Caroline aren't just leaving themselves vulnerable. They're risking the most precious thing in the world - the lives of their children . . .

Venus With Pistol


Gavin Lyall - 1969
    Thriller - A novel which works up to beautiful tension and ingenuity in Vienna, reached via London, Amsterdam, Zurich and Venice.

The Dublin Trilogy Deluxe Part 1


Caimh McDonnell - 2021
    The series has been a critically acclaimed worldwide Amazon bestseller and it is optioned for TV.The two-part box set features the books with the ancillary novellas and short stories presented in the order the author Caimh McDonnell thinks they should be read in, with new introductions written especially for this edition. Please note – this is the first part!The Dublin Trilogy Deluxe Part 1 contains:A Man With One of Those Faces (The Dublin Trilogy Book 1): The first time somebody tried to kill him was an accident; the second time was deliberate. Now, Paul Mulchrone finds himself on the run with nobody to turn to except a nurse who has read one-too-many crime novels and a renegade copper with a penchant for violence. Together they must solve one of the most notorious crimes in Irish history before they’re history.Bloody Christmas (Novella): It’s Christmas Eve and DS Bunny McGarry is in the mood to celebrate – he’s back on duty after proving that throwing a senior officer off a building was an appropriate action during an investigation. His festivities are interrupted when someone attempts to assassinate him while he’s taking a leak. Bunny soon finds himself in a race against time to trace a kidnapped child before the people who ordered the hit realise that he is less dead than they had hoped.Dog Day Afternoon (Short Story): Bunny McGarry always pays his debts, and if that means saving a certain dog from a date with the grim reaper, then so be it. Getting a canine off death row is not as simple as you’d think though, particularly when the pooch in question is a couple of biscuits short of a full dog’s dinner.The Day That Never Comes (The Dublin Trilogy Book 2): Paul Mulchrone’s newly established detective agency is about to be DOA. One of his partners won’t talk to him for very good reasons and the other has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth for no reason at all. Can he hold it together long enough to figure out what Bunny McGarry’s colourful past has to do with his present absence?Please note: All the novels and short stories have been previously available to readers separately.

Muse


Michael Cecilione - 1998
    A handsome author strikes up a conversation with an actress in a bookshop in Manhattan, and she knows this is the start of something that will change her life forever.

The Confession (Elizabeth Monroe #2)


Tom Lowe - 2019
    To divulge the private confession would violate holy canon law. When he refuses to go to the police, people begin to die, and the priest becomes the prime suspect. Elizabeth Monroe, a college professor who teaches forensic psychology, doesn’t believe the elder priest fits the killer’s profile. Elizabeth discovers a frightening thread woven within each killing—a thread that began thirty years ago. To stop the murders, she has to find where the seed of evil was first planted. Because the roots are penetrating deep within a small Mississippi town and they’re spreading dangerously close to Elizabeth.

She Who is Hidden


Suza Kates - 2012
    She is hidden in the words of her lover. This is the first in a string of ancient riddles that will lead archaeologist Erica Conner on the most dangerous expedition of her life. After agreeing to help an esteemed colleague and a no-nonsense FBI agent, she finds herself in a race against a mysterious cult. A faction that was founded in Egypt over two thousand years ago. Erica joins forces with Agent Matt Pierce. The two exasperate each other at every turn, while they battle the intense desire growing between them. He is the one man who knows the evil group's secrets, and she is the one person who can outwit them. As the riddles lead Erica and Matt around the world, the true horror unfolds. They must fight for their own lives and defeat the cultists before an unspeakable plan is unleashed on the world.

Blood City


Douglas Skelton - 2013
    Can Davie McCall survive?"Meet Davie McCall - not your average henchman. Abused and tormented by his father for fifteen years, there is a darkness in him searching for a way out. Under the wing of Glasgow's Godfather, Joe "the Tailor" Klein, he flourishes.Joe the Tailor may be a killer, but there are some lines he won't cross, and Davie agrees with his strict moral code. He doesn't like drugs. He won't condone foul language. He abhors violence against women. When the Tailor refuses to be part of Glasgow's new drug trade, the hits start rolling. It's every man for himself as the entire criminal underworld turns on itself, and Davie is well and truly caught up in the action.But an attractive young reporter makes him wonder if he can leave his life of crime behind and Davie must learn the hard way that you cannot change what you are. Blood City is a novel set in Glasgow's underworld at a time when it was undergoing a seismic shift. A tale of violence, corruption and betrayal, loyalties will be tested and friendships torn apart.

The Riddle of the Sands


Erskine Childers - 1903
    Written by Childers—who served in the Royal Navy during World War I—as a wake-up call to the British government to attend to its North Sea defenses, The Riddle of the Sands accomplished that task and has been considered a classic of espionage literature ever since, praised as much for its nautical action as for its suspenseful spycraft.

Three Great Novels: Perfect Husband / Other Daughter / Third Victim


Lisa Gardner - 2003
    Even locked up in a maximum security prison, he vowed he would come after her and make her pay. Now the cunning killer has escaped--and the most dangerous game of all begins.... After a lifetime of fear, Tess will do something she's never done before. She's going to learn to protect her daughter and fight back, with the help of a burned-out ex-marine. As the largest manhunt four states have ever seen mobilizes to catch Beckett, the clock winds down to the terrifying reunion between husband and wife. And Tess knows that this time, her only choices are to kill--or be killed. Lisa Gardner sold her first novel when she was 20 years old. In 1993 she graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in international relations. She lives in Rhode Island, where she is at work on her next novel of suspense.

The Blue Hallelujah


Andy Straka
    When Rebecca died of cancer in prison—branded as a disturbed vigilante after killing one of his murder suspects—Jerry knew he needed to put the truth in writing to set the record straight.Now, as an old man nearing his own demise, Jerry is unsure whether to share his narrative about Rebecca with the world. But when his eight-year-old granddaughter Marnee disappears, Jerry learns she’s been taken by someone close to the killer depicted in the pages hidden in his dresser drawer.It’s time for Jerry to finish the story—by confronting an evil that threatens Marnee’s life and the lives of everyone around her. And by placing his faith in a higher power to redeem the love for Rebecca in his heart.