Book picks similar to
Fig Tree by Conn Iggulden


historical-fiction
short-stories
conn-iggulden
rome

Infernal Parade


Clive Barker - 2016
    His body of work constitutes a great and varied contribution to modern popular culture.This astonishing novella, Infernal Parade, perfectly encapsulates Barker’s unique abilities. Like the earlier Tortured Souls, an account of bizarre–and agonizing–transformations, Infernal Parade is tightly focused, intensely imagined, and utterly unlike anything else you will ever read. It begins with the tale of a convicted criminal, Tom Requiem, who returns from the brink of death to restore both fear and a touch of awe to a complacent world. Tom becomes the leader of the eponymous “parade,” which ranges from the familiar precincts of North Dakota to the mythical city of Karantica. Golems, vengeful humans both living and dead, and assorted impossible creatures parade across these pages. The result is a series of highly compressed, interrelated narratives that are memorable, disturbing, and impossible to set aside.Infernal Parade is quintessential Barker: witty, elegantly composed, filled with dark and often savage wonders. It proves once again that, in Barker’s hands, the Fantastique is not only alive and well, but flourishing. This is vital, visionary fiction by a modern master of the form.

A Perry Mason Casebook: The Gilded Lily / The Daring Decoy / The Fiery Fingers / The Lucky Loser


Erle Stanley Gardner - 1993
    The case of the sulky girl -- The case of the careless kitten -- The case of the fiery fingers.

Swordpoint: The WWII Collection


Max Hennessy - 1980
    Famous for its ancient hilltop monastery, Monte Cassino achieved a new and grimmer renown in the Second World War when it became a German bastion against the Allied advance through Italy.Even in February 1944, when the abbey buildings had been reduced to rubble by aerial bombardment, the mountain itself continued to command the adjoining river valleys and to block the road to Rome.Cassino had to be taken. Frontal assault had proved a costly failure, but now the highly ambitious Brigadier Heathfield had devised a plan for an outflanking operation. Total victory, or total defeat, could hinge on this single mission. A stirring and powerful thriller concerning the final years of the Second World War, perfect for fans of Alistair MacLean, David McDine and Jack Higgins.

The Boy Vanishes


Jennifer Haigh - 2012
    Taut and powerful, it is a keen reimagining of a whodunit in which everyone is implicated and no one is safe. It’s the summer of 1976 on the South Shore of Massachusetts. The Bicentennial is a season-long celebration, and flags are everywhere, snapping in the seaside winds, ironed onto T-shirts, tattooed into biceps. Tim O’Connor works the Cigarette Game booth at Funland—toss a quarter placed on an eight-sided ball into the right slot and you win two packs of smokes or maybe, if you’re lucky, a carton. If asked his age, he’d say he’s seventeen, but in truth he’s fourteen. Yet the kids in blue-collar Grantham—a town first imagined by Haigh in her devastating bestseller "Faith"—grow up fast, are known for being wild, and more often than not drop out of school to punch the clock at the nearby Raytheon plant. When Tim disappears after the park’s closing one night, no one makes much of it till late morning. It’s not the first time his mother, Kay, has forgotten to pick him up. It’s not the first time he has stayed out all night. By the time local cops begin their investigation, there is little trace of the boy, only witnesses to a complicated set of relationships in a place where surviving isn’t always thriving and where disappointment mixes with the salt in the air. In this superbly crafted story, the search for a missing boy becomes a search for the American dream, laying bare how destructive its promises often are. Recalling Dennis Lehane in setting and subject and masters like Graham Greene and Richard Ford in tone and style, Haigh’s latest work is a testament to all that short fiction can be. It’s a searing portrait of how much a community loses when one of its own is lost.

The Homecoming


Anna Smith - 2004
    Nonetheless in this close community friendships go deep and the pub of an evening is a cheery place, at least until too much drink is taken. Fifteen years ago, Joe McBride left Westerbank under a cloud, and in his absence life has moved on, the secrets he took with him disturbing only occasionally those who were caught up in them. But now Joe McBride is coming home, a changed man, and one who needs to face up to the past before it's too late. The truth about the mysterious death of a young girl fifteen years ago is about to come out, and nothing in Westerbank will ever be quite the same again.

Ma'ame Pelagie


Kate Chopin
    A grove of majestic live-oaks surrounded it.Thirty years later, only the thick walls were standing, with the dull red brick showing here and there through a matted growth of clinging vines. The huge round pillars were intact so to some extent was the stone flagging of hall and portico. There had been no home so stately along the whole stretch of Cote Joyeuse. Every one knew that, as they knew it had cost Philippe Valmet sixty thousand dollars to build, away back in 1840. No one was in danger of forgetting that fact, so long as his daughter Pelagie survived. She was a queenly, white-haired woman of fifty. "Ma'ame Pelagie," they called her, though she was unmarried, as was her sister Pauline, a child in Ma'ame Pelagie's eyes a child of thirty-five.

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

The Adventures of Charlie Smithers


C.W. Lovatt - 2012
    Make way for Charlie Smithers.The time is the nineteenth century. The place, the Serengeti Plain, where one Charlie Smithers – faithful manservant to the arrogant bone-head, Lord Brampton (with five lines in Debrett, and a hopeless shot to boot) – becomes separated from his master during an unfortunate episode with an angry rhinoceros, thereby launching Charlie on an odyssey into Deepest Darkest Africa, and subsequently into the arms of the beautiful Loiyan…and that’s where the trouble really begins.Maasai warriors, xenophobic locals, or evil Arab slavers, the two forbidden lovers encounter everything that the unforgiving jungle can throw at them."A truly engaging read that will keep anyone’s attention from the hilarious beginning until the last word. I highly recommend this 5 star novel." ~ Chapters & Chats

The House of Pride and Other Tales of Hawaii


Jack London - 1912
    Originally published in 1912, this collection contains six stories:- The House of Pride- Koolau the Leper- Good-bye, Jack- Aloha Oe- Chun Ah Chun- The Sheriff of KonaA departure from London's normal tales of the frozen North, all of these tales take place in the islands of Hawaii.

Succession


Steven Veerapen - 2020
    She has yet to nominate an heir.The crown looks set to fall to James of Scotland.But it is far from inevitable.Gowrie, a sinister Scottish traitor, has arrived in England. On him is a document containing a shocking secret that will compromise King James.Languishing in prison, artful thief Ned Savage is freed by his patron, the queen’s principal secretary, Sir Robert Cecil. His mission is to find the document before it can be made public. If he succeeds, his life will be spared.But he is not alone in seeking Gowrie.On his trail are a ruthless gang of conspirators. The Red Cross Plot aims to prevent any foreigner from taking the English throne. And the Knights of the Red Cross will kill to secure the document.In a journey that will take him from London to Derbyshire and Scotland, Savage must foil the Red Cross Plot, protect King James’s darkest secret, and keep himself safe from execution.And he must do it all before the curtain falls on Elizabeth’s reign.

The Berlin Escape (An Aubrey Endeavours Spy Thriller Book 1)


Warren Court - 2021
    America's newest spy is trying to stop it!Young, beautiful and fearless, Aubrey Endeavours fought for recognition in the male dominated world of aviation.And Won!Then her country called.Recruited into America’s fledgling spy agency. Her first mission; to steal vital information about Hitler's next move.Now she is alone and undercover in Berlin. Hunted by the Gestapo. Torn between her loyalty to her country……and the enemy she’s fallen in love with.This time, Aubrey is fighting for her life.If you like historical spy thrillers mixed with romantic suspense then you’ll love The Berlin Escape.Get your copy today!

Thriller Thirteen: 13 Bestselling Thriller Novellas Packed With Mystery, Action, & Adventure!


Mark DawsonL.T. Ryan - 2016
    Their mission: RESCUE THOUSANDS. PROTECT MILLIONS. PROVE THAT JUSTICE FOR THE POOR IS POSSIBLE. *** BOOKS INCLUDED: ONE THOUSAND YARDS (A John Milton Novella) By Mark Dawson LOW LIFES (A Crime Mystery Novella) By Simon Wood LIGHTNING RIDER (Arthur Ellis Award Winner for Best Short Story) By Rick Mofina CHASING IVAN (A Kyle Achilles Novella) By Tim Tigner THE GUARDIAN (A Marty Singer Short Story) By Matthew Iden THE UNEXPECTED HERO (An Evan Nash Novella) By Michael Grumley ORIGINS (A Black Flagged Short Story) By Steve Konkoly BOUND IN BLOOD (A Ray Fletcher Novella) By Abraham Falls A KILLING TRUTH (A Leine Basso Novella) By D.V. Berkom CHOSEN By (A Corps Justice Short Story) C.G. Cooper NOBLE INTENTIONS (A Jack Noble Novella) By L.T. Ryan THE WAY OF THE WOLF (A Noah Wolf Novella) By David Archer THADDEUS MURFEE (A Thaddeus Murfee Novella) By John Ellsworth This boxed set will only be available for a limited time. So don't hesitate to grab your copy now, and make sure to it share with your friends and family!

Trapped


Richard Greener - 2011
    He had violent hallucinations based on the Iraq war and the reports of terrorism and violence constantly playing on his hospital TV tuned into CNN. He believed his family to be in danger, but he had no way to communicate with them. For a long time after the whole ordeal, he had trouble knowing what had happened. What was real and what wasn't. If part of the core of who we are is our memory, what does it mean when the memory is still there, but false?

Roger Ascham and the Dead Queen's Command


Matthew Reilly - 2020
    

The Knight Banneret


Richard Woodman - 2018
    William Marshal is portrayed as being brave, intelligent - but flawed and human too.” Michael Arnold William Marshal was born in a time of civil war. In a time of bloodshed and honour. As a boy he is used as a pawn, during the conflict between Stephen and Matilda. But as a young man he trains as a knight. Marshal learns his trade in England and Normandy, fighting in tournaments and war-games, gaining friends and enemies alike. But the boy must become a man - and the squire must become a knight. Marshal soon finds himself embroiled in the campaigns of Henry II and the rivalry between French Kings. Where once he fought for fame and riches, the young knight finds himself fighting for his life. The Knight Banneret is the first book in an epic series chronicling the story of William Marshal, “the Greatest Knight”. For fans of Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden and Michael Jecks. Praise for Richard Woodman: “This series could develop into something very special. Richard Woodman knows how to tell a story, but has a healthy respect for history... Compulsive reading.” Saul David “Brings medieval Europe to life. The well-crafted action and historical insights enthral and entertain.” Richard Foreman, author of Band of Brothers. ‘Richard Woodman reminds us of the importance of merchant ships and our debts to the seafarers – men and women – who manned.’ HRH Princess Anne ‘If Neptune’s Trident sets the standard for what is to follow - we can at least rest assured that there is a series that truly does justice to our proud merchant maritime past.’ Nautilus UK Telegraph ‘Richard Woodman tells many a good tale in this first volume and it is fascinating to read. I highly recommend this first volume in the Neptune s Trident for anyone with an interest in the early modern period. If the rest of the series is as good as this one, they should all be on the bookshelves of those studying the history of Britain, from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries.’ Open History Captain Richard Martin Woodman LVO is an English novelist and naval historian. He is the author of the series ‘A History of the British Merchant Navy’ and the Sword of State trilogy, which recreates the true story of George Monck, a giant of the 17th Century.