Book picks similar to
The Throwback by David Canford


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The Tale of Melkorka: A Novella


Octavia Randolph - 2013
     A beautiful slave girl. A missing royal daughter. A carefully wrought revenge.Iceland in the 10th century. There is nothing unusual in a wealthy farmer returning home with a slave girl, even if she is a mute. But she conceals a secret that will echo across the oceans.Based on an episode from the great Icelandic Sagas, The Tale of Melkorka will grip you with an unfolding mystery of loss, triumph, and the rough justice of revenge. Melkorka's world awaits you...

The Yankee Widow


Linda Lael Miller - 2019
    When Jacob joins the Northern army, no one anticipates he will not return. Then Caroline gets word that her husband is wounded, and she must find her way alone to Washington City and search among the thousands of casualties to find him.When Jacob succumbs to his injuries, she brings his body home on the eve of the deadliest battle of the war. With troops and looters roaming the countryside, it is impossible to know who is friend and who is foe. Caroline fights to protect those she holds most dear while remaining compassionate to the neediest around her, including two strangers from opposite sides of the fight. Each is wounded… Each is drawn to her beauty, her kindness. Both offer comfort, but only one secretly captures her heart. Still, she must resist exposing her vulnerability in these uncertain times when so much is at risk.In The Yankee Widow, gifted storyteller Linda Lael Miller explores the complexities and heartbreak that women experienced as their men took up arms to preserve the nation and defend their way of life.

Horror Fiction: Burn, Baby, Burn


Gerard Harrison - 2017
    Sarah Caysum, a middle aged woman suffering from Munchhausen Syndrome by Proxy (and perhaps something else far more sinister), leaves her four year old daughter Casey trapped in a car to die one summer afternoon in Phoenix, Arizona on a day when temperatures are expected to reach a record breaking 125 degrees.

Tangled Threads


Sandy Hill - 2011
    Can they reconcile or will death and betrayal mark their lives and the lives of their families forever? Delia O'Toole is determined to escape the nursing home that has become her prison. So when her lifelong enemy, Ruthann, begs her to return to their hometown in North Carolina, Delia realizes it's time to confront Ruthann. It's time to deal with “the accident.” “Tangled Threads,” vetted for accuracy by an expert on early mill villages, moves between the 1890s and the 1950s. Along the way, it explores the limits of forgiveness and the difficult choices that await us at the end of life. Book club discussion questions included.

The Black Sun


Lance Horner - 1966
    Here on his island in the sun, Armes Holbrook falls in love with another man's wife, becomes enmeshed with a lovely half-caste who initiates him into the strange and sensual rites of voodoo, and plays a blazing and tumultuous role in the bloody revolution led by the giant slave, Henry Christophe...

Can't Buy Me Love: A wild coming of age journey through the swinging sixties.


Martin Humphries - 2017
    Raised in a miserable home full of anger and hate, life for poor Edith seems to hold little hope. But she finds plenty when she teams up with her older gay cousin, Ronnie, who makes her his mission with a plan to re-shape her into the fabulous young woman he knows she deserves to be. Once free of her father and her weak, defenseless mother, her transformation is swift and dramatic. Suddenly, life is an exciting adventure, full of twists and turns, as Edith’s coming of age becomes a roller-coaster ride of glorious highs and frightening lows, including a father who comes back to haunt her. But where will it take her, and how will it end? Who will win, and who will lose? ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ is the first of six volumes in the ‘The Cost of Loving’ Series. If you like stories of success over adversity, family dramas and sexual diversity, then you will love Martin Humphries’ bitter-sweet voyage of discovery through some of the most exciting years in living memory. Years chock full of changes of every kind, when being gay usually spelt trouble with a capital T. Start traveling this fascinating journey through the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s today by buying ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, and follow Edith through London, Europe and Hollywood, over two decades, as she matures from troubled teenager to famous beauty.

The Day Lincoln Lost


Charles Rosenberg - 2020
    Her fame as an abolitionist speaker had spread west and she knew that her first speech in the city would make headlines. One of the residents reading those headlines would be none other than the likely next president of the United States.Abraham Lincoln, lawyer and presidential candidate, knew his chances of winning were good. All he had to do was stay above the fray of the slavery debate and appear the voice of reason until the people cast their votes. The last thing he needed was a fiery abolitionist appearing in town. When her speech sparks violence, leading to her arrest and a high-profile trial, he suspects that his political rivals have conspired against him.President James Buchanan is one such rival. As his term ends and his political power crumbles, he gathers his advisers at the White House to make one last move that might derail Lincoln’s campaign, steal the election and throw America into chaos.A fascinating historical novel and fast-paced political thriller of a nation on the cusp of civil war, The Day Lincoln Lost offers an unexpected window into one of the most consequential elections in our country’s history.

The Wellington and Napoleon Quartet: Young Bloods, The Generals, Fire and Sword, Fields of Death


Simon Scarrow - 2015
     Arthur, Duke of Wellington, and Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte were adversaries on an epic scale. Across Europe and beyond, the armies of Great Britain and France clashed, from the Iberian Peninsula to India, from Austerlitz to the final confrontation at Waterloo. What drove the two clever, ambitious, determined men who masterminded these military campaigns? How did the underdog from Corsica develop the strategic military skills and the political cunning that gave him power over swathes of Europe? And how did Wellington, born to be a leader, hone his talents and drive an army to victory after victory?From an outstanding historian and novelist come four epic novels, now available in one volume for the first time, which tell the full story of both these men, from their very early days till the momentous battle at Waterloo which decided the future of Europe.INCLUDES MAPS

Blood Storm: A John Henry Cole Western


Bill Brooks - 2012
    Recent unexpected gunplay has whittled his detective agency down to a single operative: a man named John Henry Cole. Cole is the only man left when a new assignment comes in from a former lover of Kelly’s, a woman operating an escort service in the new mining camp of Deadwood in Dakota Territory. Three of the young women working for her have been murdered, and someone is trying to cover up their deaths.It’s a dangerous job, and Cole is advised that he must take every precaution—as if he needed such advice. The legendary Wild Bill Hickok was recently murdered at Deadwood, and Calamity Jane Canary and Doc Holliday are among Cole’s potential suspects. Add that to a corrupt constable and a bounty hunter who just happens to be an old enemy of Cole’s, and it’s clear there are many who will not welcome his arrival in Deadwood. Cole is a lonely man in a lonely profession, and finding a murderer in the wild mining camp could be less of a challenge than simply staying alive.Using real-life characters and settings from one of the most notorious times in the history of the Wild West, veteran author Bill Brooks spins another edge-of-your-seat thriller.Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction that takes place in the old West. Westerns—books about outlaws, sheriffs, chiefs and warriors, cowboys and Indians—are a genre in which we publish regularly. Our list includes international bestselling authors like Zane Gray and Louis L’Amour, and many more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

The Duke's Heart


Kelly Anne Bruce - 2016
    She lives on a manor in the countryside and the distance from the city suits her well. She loves her charges and her employer is understanding and kind. What more could a poor vicar's daughter ever dream of? The Duke of Rossdale is lonely. He's not really aware of that. At least not yet. When he is dragged to a house party at a manor in the country side, he has no idea he will come face to face with his loneliness. He is happiest at his spread of land in the Scottish Highlands, but he needs an heir. For that, he needs a wife. When the duke and Dorothea first meet, there are sparks that neither can acknowledge. Eventually, they must. He has to tell her how he feels. Will she find the bravery to let him overlook her humble family heritage?

The Plantagenet Vendetta


John Paul Davis - 2014
    They were secretly created during the final hours of the reign of Richard III. Their sole purpose to hunt down and eliminate the descendents of his murderer.By any means necessary.Over five hundred years later the long reign of King James III of England comes to an unexpected end. Less than a week later, the bodies of two Cabinet ministers are discovered in a burning car. Though the deaths of all three are initially assumed to be unconnected, a chance arrest in London yields a bizarre confession. And a sinister warning...Thomas Winchester has been waging war on the enemies of his family ever since graduating from Sandhurst. Youngest nephew of the king, he is celebrated as one of MI5's finest agents - the only man capable of taking on the Royal Family's biggest crisis in recent memory.Meanwhile, a quiet village in the North York Moors mourns a tragic loss. A young girl has vanished, allegedly the victim of a deranged boy who later committed suicide. A year on, television researcher Jennifer Farrelly is sent to follow up the story. The body was never found, and the girl's parents have not given up hope of finding her alive.A locked door in the medieval vaults of a remote Yorkshire church hides something strange: something with the potential to expose a previously untold chapter of England's darkest history. As Farrelly's search for the truth causes her to unwittingly cross paths with that of the royals, she and Winchester have no choice but to form a unique alliance to uncover a secret many have died to protect - a secret that still threatens the very foundation of the monarchy...

Sundog Comanche


Ash Lingam - 2017
    His father, Maxwell Creek provided him with his namesake of the town, Ridge. At thirteen taken on to work in the general store of a retired western gunfighter and lawman, Ridge Creek learned the tricks of his future trade. At sixteen he rides off on the trail to Austin to join the Texas Rangers. The rest is history. The whole story of Captain Ridge Creek. The year was 1848, and the young Ranger was posted in Laredo, Texas. This is the story of his battles with Iron Jacket and Lopez the Outlaw among other tales of this man the Comanche call 'With Dead Eyes'. Captain Creek’s first five years in the Texas Rangers. This is the dawn of his younger years.

From a Distance


Tamera Alexander - 2008
    and the secret you've spent a lifetime guarding is finally laid bare? Determined to become one of the country's premier newspaper photographers, Elizabeth Westbrook travels to the Colorado Territory to capture the grandeur of the mountains surrounding the remote town of Timber Ridge. She hopes, too, that the cool, dry air of Colorado, and its renowned hot springs, will cure the mysterious illness that threatens her career, and her life.Daniel Ranslett is a man shackled by his Confederate past, and he'll do anything to protect his land, and his solitude. When an outspoken Yankee photographer captures an image that appears key to solving a murder, putting herself in danger, Daniel is called upon to repay a debt. He's a man of his word, but repaying that debt could reveal secrets from his past he would prefer remain buried.Forced on a perilous journey together, Daniel and Elizabeth's lives intertwine in ways neither could have imagined when first they met from a distance.

Trail of Thread: A Woman's Westward Journey


Linda K. Hubalek - 1993
    Stories of humor and despair, along with her ongoing remarks about camping, cooking, and quilting on the wagon trail make you feel as if you pulled up stakes and are traveling with the Pieratt’s, too.But hints of the brewing trouble ahead plagued them along the way as people questions their motive for settling in the new territory. If they are from the South, why don’t they have slaves with them? Would the Pieratt’s vote for or against legal slavery in the new state? Though Deborah does not realize it, her letters show how this trip affected her family for generations to come.This series is based on author Linda K. Hubalek's ancestors that traveled from Kentucky to Kansas in 1854. Twelve old quilt patterns are mentioned in the letters, and the sketched designs are in the back of the book for reference.

The Snow Leopard


Daniel Leston - 2010
    Cruelly betrayed while a mere boy by his brother’s vaulting ambition, he eventually overcomes bitter slavery far from his native land, achieving the status of a legendary warrior without peer among his adoptive people. Ultimately forced by tragic circumstances to choose between these two diverse cultures, he must finally decide where his true loyalties lay. About the Author:In his early years, Daniel Leston was known as a 'Story Teller' by his nephews and nieces, weaving wondrous tales for their young imaginations about heroes and heroines that strangely seems to carry the same monikers as the intended listeners. It was on this foundation that he decided to pen his first two books, primarily for the enjoyment of family and close friends.With the emergence of a remarkable tool called the 'e-reader', he decided to retrieve his novels from their long attic slumber, dust them off and offer them to the public in 2009.Blending his passion, as a former student of Art and History, Mr. Leston has drawn from his background to create two great tales steeped in history, adventure and human conquest. Opting to avoid the more chosen route of hiring a graphic artist for his first submissions to the literary world, he chose instead to complete the package, bringing his vision to life by painting his own covers.Daniel Leston is currently busy pounding the keyboard on his newest work... a continuing adventure for his beloved character from 'The Amun Chamber', Professor David Manning, scheduled for release in Fall 2012.