Book picks similar to
Sour Tales For Sweethearts by Patricia Highsmith
short-stories
fiction
thriller
crime
Dead Water
Matt Brolly - 2019
Fast paced, full of twisty goodness, a well-drawn and intriguing main protagonist and a well-constructed and horrifically addictive storyline.’ Liz Loves Books
‘I was Dead Impressed with the fast paced plot; Dead Curious about who 'The Watcher' was; Dead Impressed the author managed to fool me; Dead Surprised when the killer was revealed and felt the ending was… well… Dead Perfect!’ Noelle Holten, bestselling author of Dead Inside‘Fantastic stuff. A must read for any lovers of crime. Matt Brolly has a cracking series on his hands.’ NorthernCrime'An action-filled, totally gripping, page turner!' Carol Wyer, author of Little Girl Lost
Getting Rid of Mister Kitchen
Charlie Higson - 1996
On the verge of becoming a name in the interior design world, he can't afford a scandal and must discreetly dispose of the body—not an easy job when the whole of London seems to be conspiring against him.
From Twisted Roots
S.H. Cooper - 2018
My sister was not most little girls.Inside you'll experience intimate first hand accounts of modern day murders, kidnappings, and violent revenge. Other stories are heart-warming with whimsical mysteries, gothic fairy tales, and supernatural monstrosities.
A Crime for all Seasons: DCI Brendan Moran - short stories volume 1
Scott Hunter - 2016
The writer has a fertile imagination and an attractive narrative style.' '...one of the best reads I have had this year. Gripped by the grizzled Irish detective.....plenty of twists and turns Bravo!' '...I thoroughly enjoyed Black December - it's a very good "who done it" - and so often!' '...Top drawer crime fiction...' --Amazon Scott Hunter is a CWA shortlisted author.
Roger Ascham and the Dead Queen's Command
Matthew Reilly - 2020
Rogues
George R.R. MartinCarrie Vaughn - 2014
Martin and award-winning editor Gardner Dozois is filled with subtle shades of gray. Twenty-one all-original stories, by an all-star list of contributors, will delight and astonish you in equal measure with their cunning twists and dazzling reversals. And George R.R. Martin himself offers a brand-new A Game of Thrones tale chronicling one of the biggest rogues in the entire history of Ice and Fire.Follow along with the likes of Gillian Flynn, Joe Abercrombie, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, Cherie Priest, Garth Nix, and Connie Willis, as well as other masters of literary sleight-of-hand, in this rogues gallery of stories that will plunder your heart — and yet leave you all the richer for it.Contents:- Tough Times All Over by Joe Abercrombie (a Red Country story)- What Do You Do? (aka The Grownup) by Gillian Flynn- The Inn of the Seven Blessings by Matthew Hughes- Bent Twig by Joe R. Lansdale (a Hap and Leonard story)- Tawny Petticoats by Michael Swanwick- Provenance by David Ball- The Roaring Twenties by Carrie Vaughn- A Year and a Day in Old Theradane by Scott Lynch- Bad Brass by Bradley Denton- Heavy Metal by Cherie Priest- The Meaning of Love by Daniel Abraham- A Better Way to Die by Paul Cornell (a Jonathan Hamilton story)- Ill Seen in Tyre by Steven Saylor- A Cargo of Ivories by Garth Nix (a Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz story)- Diamonds From Tequila by Walter Jon Williams (a Dagmar story)- The Caravan to Nowhere by Phyllis Eisenstein (a Tales of Alaric the Minstrel story)- The Curious Affair of the Dead Wives by Lisa Tuttle- How the Marquis Got His Coat Back by Neil Gaiman (a Neverwhere story)- Now Showing by Connie Willis- The Lightning Tree by Patrick Rothfuss (a Kingkiller Chronicle story)- The Rogue Prince, or, A King’s Brother by George R.R. Martin (a Song of Ice and Fire story)
First Love, Last Rites
Ian McEwan - 1975
Taut, brooding, and densely atmospheric, these stories show us the ways in which murder can arise out of boredom, perversity can result from adolescent curiosity, and sheer evil might be the solution to unbearable loneliness. These tales are as horrifying as anything written by Clive Barker or Stephen King, but they are crafted with a lyricism and intensity that compel us to confront our secret kinship with the horrifying.
Traitor
Chris Bradford - 2018
Perfect for fans of Alex Rider,
Tom Clancy's The Division
, and James Bond.
Ash Wild is the most successful teen rockstar in history. Millions of fans adore him. But one fanatic wants him dead.Having been tasked to protect Ash in Bodyguard book 7, Charley Hunter, an inexperienced bodyguard on her first mission, learns the hard way that it's no simple task keeping up with the demands of a celebrity. Yet she is all the stands between him and the business end of a gun . . . and fame makes for an easy target. Can she spot a killer in a crowd of 50,000 screaming fans?Combining pulse-pounding action, diabolical enemies, and an insider's knowledge of the tricks of the trade, this prequel story in the BODYGUARD series is the perfect target for fans of Alex Rider, James Bond, Jack Bauer, and Jason Bourne.
Little Friends
Jane Shemilt - 2020
They hit it off immediately, as kids do. And so the parents are forced to get to know each other. Three wildly different couples. Three marriages, floundering.There are barbecues, dinner parties, a holiday in Greece. An affair begins, resentments flare, and despite it all the three women become closer.Unnoticed their children run wild. The couples are so busy watching each other that they forget to watch their children. Until tragedy strikes.Because while they have been looking the other way, evil has crept into their safe little world and every parent's biggest nightmare is about to come true...'Extremely clever, readable and elegant ... perfect for fans of Big Little Lies. Domestic noir at its best' Suzy K Quinn, bestselling author of Don't Tell Teacher'Intelligent, compelling and deeply unsettling. My kind of book!!' Ali Land, bestselling author of Good Me Bad Me'Such a clever, beautifully written read that was tense and thrilling throughout with an ending that gave me goosebumps' Claire Douglas, author of Then She Vanishes
If Snow Hadn't Fallen
Sharon J. Bolton - 2012
Long-smouldering feelings come to a head in a burst of shocking violence. A young Muslim man is brutally murdered by a masked gang.There is just one witness to the horrific crime: DC Lacey Flint. Or at least that's what she thinks...
Cut Off: Quick Reads
Mark Billingham - 2018
But, for Louise, losing hers in a local café takes her somewhere much darker.After many hours of panic, Louise is relieved when someone gets in touch offering to return the phone. From then on she is impatient to get back to normal life.But when they meet on the beach, Louise realises you should be careful what you wish for...
If you enjoyed Cut Off, try Love Like Blood, the latest novel in the series starring Mark Billingham's detective hero, DI Tom Thorne.
Merry Bloody Christmas
Ellie Scott - 2018
A chocoholic grizzly bear, a talking Christmas tree, mince pie overdoses and a very bloody murder. Will poor old Saint Nick make it out alive? Sad, strange, funny and gruesome, this overlapping, multi-genre collection of tales has a little something for every reader. Curl up with a mulled wine and some fictional festive misery, and discover what Father Christmas really likes to drink when he wriggles down your chimney. Spoiler: it isn’t milk.
The Devil to Pay
Harold Robbins - 2007
The only way for her to get it: A coffee plantation she has inherited. But there's a catch: She has to run the plantation, deep in the jungles of Colombia, a land of drug lords and warlords.
The mysterious inheritance of the plantation, from the father she had never met, comes at the same time a criminal conspiracy is turning her life into a living hell--a conspiracy that stretches all the way to Colombia.
Racing to South America, on the run from the police, she becomes entangled with suspicious characters: Ramon, rich and handsome, with a secret sex life that shocks even Nash though she considers herself an adventurous woman; Josh, an American expatriate, who claims to be a simple gem smuggler and arouses passions in Nash she thought were long dead; and Lily Soong, an erotic Chinese beauty who men--and women--lust after, often to their doom.
But no one brings as much danger to her life as Pablo Escobar, king of the Medellín drug cartels, considered the most dangerous man in Colombia, the murder capital of the world.
Things get even more complicated when Nash's quest to clear herself takes her to Shanghai, home of the powerful Chinese Triads that control the flow of dirty money from gambling, prostitution, drugs and murder.
Refusing to let the cartel's murderers drive her off the plantation and ruin the lives of hundreds of families who work it, Nash tackles organized crime and police agencies on two continents to save her plantation . . . and stay alive.
Foreclosure: A Novel
S.D. Thames - 2015
Given a year to prove he can make rain during Florida’s economic drought, David rolls up his sleeves and lands the client of his dreams—Frank O'Reilly, a real estate developer embroiled in dozens of lawsuits and hell-bent on turning a profit during the recession. Little does David know that Frank's company is involved in a murderous plot to cover up years of mortgage fraud in the Sunshine State. As David prepares for a trial that will make or break his career, he discovers that a secret investor in Frank’s company is responsible for murder and will continue killing to hide the truth. The only thing David can’t figure out is whether Frank is the conspiracy’s victim or its mastermind. To answer that question, David must risk far more than partnership as he unravels one dark secret after another about his client, his law firm, and, ultimately, himself.
The Drop - Free Preview: The First 11 Chapters (A Harry Bosch Novel)
Michael Connelly - 2011
In one morning, he gets two.DNA from a 1989 rape and murder matches a 29-year-old convicted rapist. Was he an eight-year-old killer or has something gone terribly wrong in the new Regional Crime Lab? The latter possibility could compromise all of the lab's DNA cases currently in court.Then Bosch and his partner are called to a death scene fraught with internal politics. Councilman Irvin Irving's son jumped or was pushed from a window at the Chateau Marmont. Irving, Bosch's longtime nemesis, has demanded that Harry handle the investigation.Relentlessly pursuing both cases, Bosch makes two chilling discoveries: a killer operating unknown in the city for as many as three decades, and a political conspiracy that goes back into the dark history of the police department.