Book picks similar to
The Imperial Way by James Melville
af
crime
japan
male-author
The Latchkey Kid
Helen Forrester - 1987
From the best-selling author of Liverpool Daisy and Three Women of Liverpool.A BOOK WHICH WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH, CRY, AND HAVE YOU ABSOLUTELY GRIPPED TILL YOU FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS.CANADA 1960sMeet Mrs Olga Stych, daughter of an immigrant Ukrainian pig farmer. She has finally made it to the top of the social order in Tollemarche, a small town in Canada’s Bible Belt.But to get there, she has not only had to see off her most determined rival, she has neglected her son Hank. He’s a latchkey kid.As a member of the Committee for the Preservation of Morals, Olga mounts a passionate campaign against the latest ‘immoral’ bestseller. But the author of the book turns out to be her own son Hank…Olga’s fall delights her rivals. And throughout the whole affair, Hank continues to draw strength and support from the one woman who has believed in his work and inspired his love…WILL HER RISE AND FALL SHOW HER ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE?
The Woman in the White Kimono
Ana Johns - 2019
Seventeen-year-old Naoko Nakamura’s prearranged marriage to the son of her father’s business associate would secure her family’s status in their traditional Japanese community, but Naoko has fallen for another man—an American sailor, a gaijin—and to marry him would bring great shame upon her entire family. When it’s learned Naoko carries the sailor’s child, she’s cast out in disgrace and forced to make unimaginable choices with consequences that will ripple across generations.America, present day. Tori Kovač, caring for her dying father, finds a letter containing a shocking revelation—one that calls into question everything she understood about him, her family and herself. Setting out to learn the truth behind the letter, Tori’s journey leads her halfway around the world to a remote seaside village in Japan, where she must confront the demons of the past to pave a way for redemption.In breathtaking prose and inspired by true stories from a devastating and little-known era in Japanese and American history, The Woman in the White Kimono illuminates a searing portrait of one woman torn between her culture and her heart, and another woman on a journey to discover the true meaning of home.
Kill Your Friends
John Niven - 2008
Twenty-seven-year-old A&R man Stelfox is slashing and burning his way through the music industry, a world where 'no one knows anything' and where careers are made and broken by chance and the fickle tastes of the general public - 'Yeah, those animals'.Fuelled by greed and inhuman quantities of cocaine Stelfox blithely criss-crosses the globe ('New York, Cologne, Texas, Miami, Cannes: you shout at waiters and sign credit card slips and all that really changes is the quality of the porn') searching for the next hit record amid a relentless orgy of self-gratification.But as the hits dry up and the industry begins to change, Stelfox must take the notion of cutthroat business practices to murderous new levels in a desperate attempt to salvage his career.Kill Your Friends is a dark, satirical and hysterically funny evisceration of the record business, a place populated by frauds, charlatans and bluffers, where ambition is a higher currency than talent, and where it seems anything can be achieved - as long as you want it badly enough.
Sea of Trees
Robert James Russell - 2012
As the two follow clues and journey deeper into the woods amid the eerily quiet and hauntingly beautiful landscape-bypassing tokens and remains of the departed, suicide notes tacked to trees and shrines put up by forlorn loved ones-they'll depend on one another in ways they never had to before, testing the very fabric of their relationship. And, as daylight quickly escapes them and they find themselves lost in the dark veil of night, Bill discovers a truth Junko has hidden deep within her-a truth that will change them both forever.
The Hazards of War
Jonathan Paul Isaacs - 2015
Hitler's war machine has decimated the Allies and the people of Europe must now learn the terror of living under the Third Reich.For Gabrielle Conti, a young French girl working at her family's winery, such news seemed incredibly distant and abstract. Surely these events wouldn't impact her simple life in the French countryside?That was before the body of an SS officer was found in the basement.When her family becomes the subject of a brutal murder investigation, Gabrielle must match wits with SS Captain Hans Tiedemann, a veteran of the Russian Front who is hell-bent on singling out the killer. Gabrielle bets that if she can fool Tiedemann into thinking he is making progress, she just might buy enough time for her family to escape.But that will be no easy task. For as the Germans gather their clues, Gabrielle starts to learn more about her family's true involvement in the war--and saving them could spell the end of the French Resistance.
Stasi Vice
Max Hertzberg - 2018
But when a senior officer has a messy affair, it falls to Reim to do the clearing up. It should be a straightforward job. Lean on a few people to get them to shut up. Intimidate neighbours, bribe officials and appeal to the socialist conscience of Party members. But when Reim starts his interrogations, he realises his boss is hiding more than just a lover. Lieutenant Reim begins to investigate his superior—and what he uncovers puts his own life at risk. Cracking DDR crime from the author of the East Berlin Series
The Orphans of Race Point
Patry Francis - 2014
Their friendship evolves into an enduring and passionate love that will ask more of them than they ever imagined.On the night of their high school prom, a terrible tragedy devastates their relationship and profoundly alters the course of their lives. And when, a decade later, Gus—now a priest—becomes entangled with a distraught woman named Ava and her daughter Mila, troubled souls who bring back vivid memories of his own damaged past, the unthinkable happens: he is charged with murder. Can Hallie save the man she’s never stopped loving, by not only freeing him from prison but also—finally—the curse of his past?Told in alternating voices, The Orphans of Race Point illuminates the transformative power of love and the myriad ways we find meaning in our lives.
Legacy: A Justice Belstrang Mystery
John Pilkington - 2020
He locates the youth in Bedlam asylum, silent and starving himself. When he tries to free Jessop, he is warned off the case by a politic lawyer, Anstis. Soon after, Belstrang finds himself drugged, robbed and falsely imprisoned.Once released Belstrang persists in his investigation, but he is thwarted at every turn: unseen forces are at work who seemingly want Thomas Jessop to die. When Belstrang confronts Anstis, even he turns up dead.The trail grows murkier by the hour, drawing Belstrang into the fear-ridden Catholic underworld - until he uncovers a plan with its roots in the Gunpowder Plot of more than a decade ago. Young Thomas, an embittered papist, was being used in a desperate scheme to mark the anniversary of the Plot. The scheme failed – and now the conspirators seem eager to cover up the whole business.But Belstrang’s a stubborn man. With the help of ex-soldier Daniel Oldrigg, he sticks doggedly to his purpose - and stumbles on the real causes of the Anniversary Plot, which stem from the very heart of a corrupt government.Belstrang must uncover the truth, or die trying.
Leaves
John Simmons - 2015
Was this a clamouring for entry into houses or lives? Looking on then, looking back now, I wish I could have been more definite. It might have made me a different, better person, a player not a spectator." Ophelia Street, 1970. A street like any other, a community that lives and breathes together as people struggle with their commitments and pursue their dreams. It is a world we recognise, a world where class and gender divide, where set roles are acknowledged. But what happens when individuals step outside those roles, when they secretly covet, express desire, pursue ambitions even harm and destroy? An observer in the midst of Ophelia Street watches, writes, imagines, remembers, charting the lives and loves of his neighbours over the course of four seasons. And we see the flimsily disguised underbelly of urban life revealed in all its challenging glory. As the leaves turn from vibrant green to vivid gold, so lives turn and change too, laying bare the truth of the community. Perhaps, ultimately, we all exist on Ophelia Street.
A Song At Sunset
Amelia Carr - 2010
Amidst the chaos of the Bristol blitz, Carrie finds herself falling in love with a young doctor, Dev. Carrie's willing to defy convention and leave her stifling marriage for Dev, but one summer evening, horrific events change Carrie's life for ever. Since that night, for forty years, Carrie's beloved daughter, Gillian, has refused to see or speak to her. Now, someone is digging into the past. Will Carrie break her long silence and, if she does, will Gillian finally be able to forgive?Don't miss any of Amelia's romantic epics, Dance With Wings, A Song At Sunset, A Woman of Secrets and The Secret She Kept.
Young Samurai: The Way of Fire
Chris Bradford - 2012
Shipwrecked and his father murdered by ninjas, Jack Fletcher is rescued by the legendary swordmaster Masamoto Takeshi and taken to his samurai school in Kyoto. Hunted by the ninja Dragon Eye, Jack's only hope is to become a samurai warrior. And so his training begins . . .
In order to perfect his fighting skills, Jack goes on a gasshuku. But nothing can prepare him for the punishment of warrior camp - the climax of which is to enter the Way of Fire, a terrifying ritual that burns away evil. Can Jack overcome his fear and walk the Way of Fire?
Part of the award-winning Young Samurai series by Chris Bradford. Visit www.youngsamurai.com for competitions and to find out more about the books.Previously published for World Book Day. 'A fantastic adventure that floors the reader on page one and keeps them there until the end' - Eoin Colfer'Addictive' - Evening Standard
Murder in the Seventh Cavalry
Robert Broomall - 2001
Lysander goes undercover as an enlisted man to find the killer, who is believed to have been one of the officer’s men. He discovers that the vaunted Seventh Cavalry is not the elite regiment that the papers make it out to be, and that a large number of its officers and enlisted man despise their famous commander. Lysander reluctantly teams up with newspaper reporter Verity Winslow. Lysander and Verity mix like oil and water, but Verity has information that’s important to the case and she won’t share it unless Lysander agrees to let her help. As the two of them dig deeper, they start to believe that Custer may not want them to find the real killer . . .
Dirty Game
Shannon Holmes - 2007
Now he's a cab driver, doing what he can to put food on the table and give his daughter, Destiny, everything she needs. In spite of his past or because of it, he's willing to do whatever it takes to keep Destiny off the streets. But when he is shot and paralyzed during a robbery while on the job, Destiny knows that she has to step up to the plate to take care of the father who has provided for her. Allowing herself to learn from one of the fiercest street hustlers, Destiny becomes his lover and soon her skills rival his. But the longer she stays in the game, the deeper into the game she falls.