Book picks similar to
Night of the Rat by Tanya Thompson
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Skagboys
Irvine Welsh - 2012
But there's no room for him in the 1980s. Thatcher's government is destroying working-class communities across Britain, and the post-war certainties of full employment, educational opportunity and a welfare state are gone. When his family starts to fracture, Mark's life swings out of control and he succumbs to the defeatism which has taken hold in Edinburgh's grimmer areas. The way out is heroin.It's no better for his friends. Spud Murphy is paid off from his job, Tommy Lawrence feels himself being sucked into a life of petty crime and violence - the worlds of the thieving Matty Connell and psychotic Franco Begbie. Only Sick Boy, the supreme manipulator of the opposite sex, seems to ride the current, scamming and hustling his way through it all.Skagboys charts their journey from likely lads to young men addicted to the heroin which has flooded their disintegrating community. This is the 1980s: a time of drugs, poverty, AIDS, violence, political strife and hatred - but a lot of laughs, and maybe just a little love; a decade which changed Britain for ever. The prequel to the world-renowned Trainspotting, this is an exhilarating and moving book, full of the scabrous humour, salty vernacular and appalling behaviour that has made Irvine Welsh a household name.
Heart of a Warrior Angel
Lali A. Love - 2019
Love provides a supernatural thriller of metaphysical and visionary fantasy with her own revolutionary philosophy and unique narrative skills to produce this emotionally invoking, heart-wrenching and gripping tale of a family's rise from poverty, oppression and abuse. Lilac Noble must face the traumatic experiences of her childhood before she can conquer the dark entities that have wreaked havoc on her family. On this epic journey, Lilac undergoes the destructive process of spiritual enlightenment in order to lift the veil of darkness and shame that has obscured her youth. As Lilac unlocks painful memories of abuse, suppressed in her subconscious from years of fear-based conditioning, she uncovers menacing secrets feeding the evil within her generational bloodline. In an attempt to vanquish the sinister energies, Lilac finds the courage to discover her inner truth, vulnerability, and authenticity, as she awakens her divine light and overcomes her debilitating fears of the past. Lilac's unconditional love for her family guides her through her process of healing and transformation, fuelling her instinct for survival and her burning desire to illuminate the world. Spanning two continents and three generations, this inspirational novel portrays the best and worst of humanity and shows how the "tiniest spark of light can overcome the darkness of any magnitude," through forgiveness, compassion, and the most powerful force in the universe – Love.
Prince William (at Olympics 2012)
Mike Scantlebury - 2012
Prince William is asked by The Queen to go to northern England and represent her at these events. The Security Services provide him with a local bodyguard, in the shapely form of Special Agent Amelia Hartliss, (or 'Heartless', as she is sometimes known). The two young people become very close, as the Prince is threatened by terrorists and local troublemakers. He is lonely. His wife has been forced by ill health to stay in London, and he becomes increasing reliant on the beautiful bodyguard, both for his well-being and his morale. They make a good team, fighting off the foes and celebrating the Games. Melia even manages to unmask a spy in the camp, as well as defeat one of her oldest adversaries, the evil Emil Gorange. He escapes, as does the Prince, back to London and his other responsibilities, taking her heart with him.
Shutter Island
Dennis Lehane - 2003
U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this remote and barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane relentlessly bears down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades—with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. But then neither is Teddy Daniels.
Behind Closed Doors
B.A. Paris - 2016
He has looks and wealth; she has charm and elegance. He’s a dedicated attorney who has never lost a case; she is a flawless homemaker, a masterful gardener and cook, and dotes on her disabled younger sister. Though they are still newlyweds, they seem to have it all. You might not want to like them, but you do. You’re hopelessly charmed by the ease and comfort of their home, by the graciousness of the dinner parties they throw. You’d like to get to know Grace better.But it’s difficult, because you realize Jack and Grace are inseparable.Some might call this true love. Others might wonder why Grace never answers the phone. Or why she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. Or why she never seems to take anything with her when she leaves the house, not even a pen. Or why there are such high-security metal shutters on all the downstairs windows.Some might wonder what’s really going on once the dinner party is over, and the front door has closed.From bestselling author B. A. Paris comes the gripping thriller and international phenomenon Behind Closed Doors.
The General's Daughter
Nelson DeMille - 1992
She is the pride of Fort Hadley until, one morning, her body is found, naked and bound, on the firing range.Paul Brenner is a member of the Army's elite undercover investigative unit and the man in charge of this politically explosive case. Teamed with rape specialist Cynthia Sunhill, with whom he once had a tempestuous, doomed affair, Brenner is about to learn just how many people were sexually, emotionally, and dangerously involved with the Army's "golden girl." And how the neatly pressed uniforms and honor codes of the military hide a corruption as rank as Ann Campbell's shocking secret life.
Louboutins, Lattes & Live TV
Miriam Sawan - 2017
The colour, the madness and the manic deadlines form the perfect harmony of creative chaos she knows she can tackle. Enter Sky-High, the top-rated television network in the country, taking a chance on the ‘yes’ girl of the century. In a gut-wrenching twist of events, the talented producer meets Satan in stilettoes: a hellish nightmare of a woman who goes by the name Klarissa Maree-Francis. Well-heeled, well-spoken and a subscriber to the mean-girls group in media, Klarissa will make Anna-Simone question her very existence. From Louboutin cliques to live crosses gone wrong, Klarissa is set on making each day difficult for her team of fifteen producers – namely Anna-Simone. One by one her team will leave the battalion, shot down too many times, their brilliant ideas lying dead on the cutting room floor. See what happens when two alpha females go head to head. When women sell their souls for a promotion. Where the price of success costs you your sanity. Where the ultimate lows lead to creative highs and where out of the darkness, unlikely heroes emerge.
These Three Words
Jess van der Hoech - 2018
And if her family were different and her friends actually liked her. Better yet, maybe if she was a different person altogether, preferably a person who doesn't have anxiety about absolutely everything. Just as Luna begins to think all hope is lost, she meets Sadie Rainbow, a counsellor who supports Luna through a journey of self-discovery, where she learns coping strategies that really work and finds the power that can be hidden within three words. These Three Words is a unique therapeutic novel for teenagers with the aim of linking together the feelings, emotions and behaviours connected to anxiety, with some of the therapeutic tools that can be used in order to enable better self-regulation, increased confidence and different ways of thinking. The book is equally valuable to parents of teenagers with anxiety, giving them an insight and understanding into some of the issues that may be affecting their child, and potentially opening up a line of communication and a way forward between parent and teen.
The Birthday Girl
Melissa de la Cruz - 2019
Ellie de Florent-Stinson is celebrating her fortieth birthday with a grand celebration in her fabulous house in Palm Springs. At forty, it appears Ellie has everything she ever wanted: a handsome husband; an accomplished, college-age stepdaughter; a beautiful ten-year-old girl; two adorable and rambunctious six-year-old twin boys; lush, well-appointed homes in Los Angeles, Park City, and Palm Springs; a thriving career as a well-known fashion designer of casual women's wear; and a glamorous circle of friends. Except everything is not quite as perfect as it looks on the outside—Ellie is keeping many secrets. This isn’t the first of her birthday parties that hasn't gone as planned. Something happened on the night of her sweet sixteenth. Something she’s tried hard to forget. But hiding the skeletons of her past comes at a cost, and all of Ellie’s secrets come to light on the night of her fabulous birthday party in the desert—where everyone who matters in her life shows up, invited or not. Old and new, friends and frenemies, stepdaughters and business partners, ex-wives and ex-husbands congregate, and the glittering facade of her life crumbles in one eventful night. Beautifully paced and full of surprises, The Birthday Girl is an enthralling tale of a life lived in shadow, and its unavoidable consequences.
The Boys from Brazil
Ira Levin - 1976
Josef Mengele gathers a group of former colleagues for a horrifying project—the creation of the Fourth Reich. Barry Kohler, a young investigative journalist, gets wind of the project and informs famed Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman, but before he can relay the evidence, Kohler is killed. Thus Ira Levin opens one of the strangest and most masterful novels of his career. Why has Mengele marked a number of harmless aging men for murder? What is the hidden link that binds them? What interest can they possibly hold for their killers: six former SS men dispatched from South America by the most wanted Nazi still alive, the notorious "Angel of Death"? One man alone must answer these questions and stop the killings—Lieberman, himself aging and thought by some to be losing his grip on reality. At the heart of The Boys from Brazil lies a frightening contemporary nightmare, chilling and all too possible.
A Sibling in Always
Ernest Gordon Taulbee - 2016
This stylized novel uses mythology as a base for a narrative that examines the nature of life by exploring the ways we die.
Across the Ocean
Hawa L Crickmore - 2017
It happened so quickly that the matter is now one of life and death; he has twenty-four weeks to live. Martin needs a relative for a donor, but his parents died in a car crash and he has no siblings or other close relatives. A mixed-raced man he casually met at Nandos, who later became a friend, volunteers to go for the test and is found to be a match. Though it is possible that someone from the general public can be a match, Leroy feels there is more to his relationship with Martin than just friendship. He begins his journey to unveil the power of DNA testing in light of today's medical science, tracing back to two hundred years ago and the slave trade. The result is shocking the whole world, showing that the stranger who crosses your path can possibly be related to you!This story is based on partly true events.
Forgotten Bones
Vivian Barz - 2019
But when it comes to murder, Officer Susan Marlan never trusts a simple explanation, so she's just getting started.Meanwhile, college professor Eric Evans hallucinates a young boy in overalls: a symptom of his schizophrenia - or so he thinks. But when more bodies turn up, Eric has more visions, and they mirror details of the murder case. As the investigation continues, the police stick with their original conclusion, but Susan's instincts tell her something is off. The higher-ups keep stonewalling her, and the FBI's closing in.Desperate for answers, Susan goes rogue and turns to Eric for help. Together they take an unorthodox approach to the case as the evidence keeps getting stranger. With Eric's hallucinations intensifying and the body count rising, can the pair separate truth from illusion long enough to catch a monster?
Steel Dogs
Matthew Bracey - 2020
This action-packed tale follows Chris and Matthew Bracey (of London's renowned God's Own Junkyard Neon Museum) on a farcical and disturbing journey to bag a million quid. As the day of the deal approaches and the deal commences, everything that can go wrong, goes wrong. This is bad luck at its worst. The humiliating truth of what went on in China, Matthew and Chris made a pact to not spill the beans, saying "what happened in China, stays in China." But now after one last request from his dying fathers deathbed to write the book, that is now not the case. Matthew lifts the lid on the untold story.
Western Song
Leigh Podgorski - 2017
The day after the accident, while going through Cod’s papers, lawyer Wynona Vasquez discovers that he had been secretly engaged to a Thai immigrant who is arriving by train that evening. Elected by unanimous decision to be the welcoming committee, Weston arrives at the train station prepared for anything but the lovely forlorn creature he finds waiting in the rain. Though appearing waif-like, Song Phan-Rang is anything but fragile. Her mettle quickly rises to the surface in her determination to remain in Y-oh-ming. Forced together by their circumstances, Weston and Song are explosive. Used to solitude, Weston is driven crazy by the obliging Song. But as Song shows her prowess not only as a housekeeper and cook, but as a rider and rancher as well, Weston discovers that against his best efforts (and damned if he'll ever admit it) -- he's falling in love. The morning after the Christmas Cotillion, where cowboys by the dozen lined up for a dance with the exotic Song, and Weston wrangled the last one, she discovers her visa has expired. Pledging her Uncle Thieu's farm in Thailand as a dowry, Song asks Weston to marry her. Swearing that this is not a good idea at all -- he does. Song blossoms in America. Weston's sister Olive, a schoolteacher, helps Song with her English, and introduces her to the ideas of the Founding Fathers, most notably Tom Paine. Firebrand and activist Wynona employs Song in her office. Her first assignment is working with Shoshone shaman MAD BULL and Bull's young assistant, Jack Deerstalker as they fight a referendum that would allow gambling on their reservation. As winter melts into spring, Song and Weston continue to profess their marriage is simply one of convenience, though it is obvious to everybody that the two are in love. Obvious to everyone that is, but Jack Deerstalker who has fallen for her himself. One night as Weston returns earlier than expected from a rodeo, he finds Jack in his living room, alone with Song. Enraged, Weston explodes, throwing Jack out of the house. That night a fierce winter storm blows. The creek rises and floods, endangering thirty head of cattle caught on the other side. Song springs into action, riding side by side with Weston. When a baby calf slips into the icy creek, Song plunges in after it. Together, Weston and Song pull the animal free. Weston is knocked speechless by her bravery. Later, as he warms her by a roaring fire, Song and Weston make love for the first time. A few days later, Wynona and Song are introduced to the case of illegal immigrant Thai workers, forced to toil as slaves in the garment industry in El Segundo, California. Song becomes deeply involved with the workers and their plight – the search for a desperate promise of freedom. With her work, she discovers the power true freedom holds. But her work and growing sense of the true power of freedom begins to tear at the budding love between Weston and Song. Meanwhile, the referendum Jack, Wynona, and Song fought so hard against has been defeated. There will be no gambling on the reservation. Jack organizes a rodeo to raise money for an investment deal for the reservation. Weston agrees to ride – on one condition. Jack gets the bull, Baby Face that killed Cody.The night before the rodeo, Weston finds a letter Song has written to the garment workers she is helping. “We are, every one of us, entitled to a life with dignity. To life with honor. There are those who would attempt to steal our dignity, to seize our honor. But it is only when we allow this deepest core of our being to be ripped from us that we become enslaved. Remember, you, too, have been touched by God.”The next morning, Weston leaves for the rodeo without her. At the rodeo, in an eerie replay of Cody’s accident, the bull throws Weston. Song nurses Weston back to health, but still torn between freedom's power and her growing love, Song knows she must ultimately choose. Several weeks later, with Weston well on his way to mending, Song and Olive host a dinner party at Snowy Moon to celebrate Weston’s recovery. Along with Zeb, Jack Deerstalker and Mad Bull are there to join in the festivities. But in the middle of the revelry, the phone rings: it’s Jenny Chang and it’s about the case of the immigrant workers.Song knows she must go.The next day, Weston drives her to the train station.Returning to the ranch, Weston, still suffering from his injuries, limps painfully to the corral, and saddles up his horse. He rides across the rolling plains to the waterfall where he and Song had spent so much time in happier times now long gone by. Watching the water tumble by like his lost hope, suddenly, Weston picks up a stone, and fires it into the tumultuous fall. He whistles for his horse, and throws himself into the saddle.Across the plains, the train continues to roll. Inside, an uproar arises among the passengers. Song forces her way to the window. Outside, riding like hell, is Weston.Song’s heart begins to pound.And suddenly, she knows….Finally, she knows.Song grabs her suitcase, and elbows her way through the crowd.Before the train fully stops, she is bounding from the platform…and rushing into Weston’s arms.