Book picks similar to
The Royal Kidnapping by J. Jack Bergeron
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Mary's the Name
Ross Sayers - 2017
That must’ve been why the robbers used hammers.”Orphaned Mary lives with her granpa, but after he is mixed up in a robbery at the bookies where he works, they flee to the Isle of Skye. Gradually, Mary realises that her granpa is involved. And the robbers are coming after him–and their money.Mary’s quirky outlook on life, loss, and her love of all things Elvis, will capture your heart. Full of witty Scots banter, Mary’s the Name will have you reaching for the hankies, first with laughter, then with tears.Heart-warming and heart-breaking, this darkly comic debut is from a fresh voice set to become Scotland’s answer to Roddy Doyle.
The Deepest Secret
Carla Buckley - 2013
. . about our marriages, our children, and ourselves. Eve Lattimore’s family is like every other on their suburban street, with one exception. Her son Tyler has a rare medical condition that makes him fatally sensitive to light, which means heavy curtains and deadlocked doors protect him during the day and he can never leave the house except at night. For Eve, only constant vigilance stands between an increasingly restless teenage son and the dangers of the outside world. Until the night the unthinkable happens. When tragedy strikes, it becomes clear that this family is not the only one on the quiet cul-de-sac that is more complicated than it appears. And as Eve is forced to shield her family from harm, there are some crises she cannot control—and some secrets that not even love can conceal. Deeply moving and stunningly suspenseful, The Deepest Secret is a novel of rare power—a story about hope and forgiveness, about the terrifying ways our lives can spin out of control and the unexpected sacrifices that may save us.
Concrete Pearl
Vincent Zandri - 2011
She's also had to rebuild her family business from the bottom up thanks to bad luck and bad fines. So it's easy to see why OSHA, breathing down her neck on her latest job at Albany's PS 20, has the contractor on edge. She's used to putting out fires, but this is about to be a full-on explosion--three hundred students at risk for exposure to deadly asbestos--and the asbestos removal contractor, Jimmy Farrell, is nowhere to be found. The clues--Jimmy's cleared-out office, his impounded car, his "gone fishing" story to his wife--point to something more troubling, possibly foul play. Armed with a framing hammer in lieu of a gun, Spike must sleuth her way through a world of deception, greed, and murder if she's going to nail a killer.
The Man in the Arena: From Fighting ISIS to Fighting for My Freedom
Eddie Gallagher - 2021
His incarceration was the culmination of a year-long whisper campaign started by a group of disgruntled members of his SEAL platoon after a successful deployment fighting ISIS in Mosul, Iraq. At the end of that deployment, Chief Gallagher was named the #1 chief at SEAL Team 7, put in for a Silver Star for valor on the battlefield, and listed for promotion to Senior Chief. The junior members whom Chief Gallagher had called out for cowardice and ineptitude in combat decided they couldn't let any of those things stand, and escalated minor complaints into false accusations of stabbing a captured ISIS fighter and shooting noncombatants that gained international attention. Despite a corrupt investigation and a deceitful prosecutor who would be removed from the case for spying on defense attorneys, Chief Gallagher was found innocent on all major charges, and freed from prison. But only after his family was put through hell, and President Trump intervened to allow Chief Gallagher a fair trial in a military justice system designed to break and persecute our country's warfighters. While heavily covered in the media, the full story of how a war hero was railroaded and nearly sent to prison for life for crimes he didn't commit has never been told. Chief Gallagher did not testify at his trial, and has spoken in little detail about how this travesty came about. Until now. A shocking, raw, tell-all expose that pulls no punches, and identifies each and every bad actor in this surreal story.
Convergence
Ginny L. Yttrup - 2019
A mother propelled by love. A stalker bent on destruction. Psychology professor Dr. Denilyn Rossi contends that the past is either a shadow that haunts us or a force that propels us. The choice is ours, she tells her students. What she doesn’t tell them is that her own past is a shadow she can’t seem to shake. Fear has immobilized her and is taking a costly toll. Adelia Sanchez, however, has embraced Dr. Rossi’s teaching. She is ready to confront fear and render it powerless—using the trauma of her past to propel her to entrap the man who stalked and brutally attacked her. As Denilyn’s past and Adelia’s present converge at the Kaweah River, a dangerous man bent on destruction threatens them both. Will he uncover the secret Deni and Adelia have fought so hard to protect?
Poison Lake
L.G. Davis - 2021
She had to save herself from a man who hurt her more than he loved her.As Eden Sparks, she now lives in Liar's Island, where she spends her days running her interior design business or hiding from the world inside her secluded lake house.Each day she still looks over her shoulder, still expects him to emerge from the shadows.When he finally does, she's far from prepared.Is it time to stop running and fight for her life? Or has she already lost before fate deals her another blow?***Welcome to Liar’s Island, a stand-alone series of interconnected, novella-length domestic thrillers set in the picture-perfect community of Liars Island. Here, nothing is quite as it seems.On this island, families, and friendships are more than meets the eye...secrets, deceptions, and jealousies threaten to ruin everything these influential people have built. But it isn’t only the rich that live here...and power comes in all shapes and sizes. Everyone here is a liar...just how far would you go to get what you want?
Screaming To Be Solved
Lauren Hope - 2013
Without even a body to bury, Marxie is left to deal with the sorrow of his abrupt and brutal end. Seeking to start anew, she packs up and moves east to Savannah.But when Detective Grant Carter knocks on her door two years after the accident, Marxie’s carefully rebuilt world turns upside down once more. The grim detective gives Marxie unimaginable news: Evan’s body has been found in a nearby canal.Desperate for answers, Marxie embarks on a fascinating, complex and heart-wrenching journey to find out exactly what happened to the man she loved. And though the intriguing detective may be working under ulterior motives, he puts his whole being into helping the young widow bring closure to a mystery that haunts her every waking moment. Together, Grant and Marxie work to unearth a secret that runs as deep and murky as Savannah’s canals.
Someone You Know: Part One
Brian McGilloway - 2014
Can't wait that long? Start reading Part One of Three now (chapters 1 – 22). It is not the whole book.Love what you've read? To get the entire story, you can buy Parts One & Two (chapters 1 – 49) on May 13, 2014, and Part Three (chapters 50 – 64) or the full-length book on May 20, 2014.An unforgettable and moving novel for fans of Tana French and Elizabeth George, from the author of the New York Times bestseller Little Girl Lost.Just before Christmas, the body of a sixteen-year-old girl is found along the train tracks on the outskirts of a small town. As Detective Lucy Black investigates the teenager's tragic last hours in search of clues to her death, she realizes that some of the victim's friends may have been her most dangerous enemies—and that whoever killed her is ready to kill again. Haunted by the memory of a case gone wrong, and taunted by a killer on the loose, Lucy finds herself pitted against a lethal opponent hiding in plain sight.From an author described by John Connolly as "a major force" in suspense literature, Someone You Know is one of the most atmospheric, powerful thrillers you'll read all year.
Nameless
Candle Sutton
Nothing links the victims, except the kidnapper. FBI Special Agent Dakarai Lakes suspects the victim count will only increase… unless he and his team can stop the criminal.His team’s newest agent might be their greatest weapon.Special Agent Kevyn Taylor has a reputation as a mind reader. As a licensed clinical psychologist, she’s spent years honing her skills to read and predict human behavior with a high degree of accuracy. She might be the secret weapon they need to get inside the kidnapper’s head – if her rule-bending, renegade tactics don’t drive Dak crazy first.Then the first body is found.The kidnapper is escalating. As more people disappear, and more bodies are discovered, the team fights an unseen enemy to stop him before he kills another victim. Because if they fail, the next body found just might be one of their own.Nameless, the suspenseful first book in the Sinister Secrets trilogy, is a faith-based novel exploring the power of loneliness, friendship, and faith-filled living. Get your copy today!
Swimming in the Dark
Paddy Richardson - 2014
She must decide whether to shelter the girl and endanger herself and her mother, or to tread the route of safety in the face of corruption and brutality she had thought left far behind in the years of her childhood.A fast-paced and beautifully told story of three women and the real meaning of courage.
The Reckoning Stones
Laura DiSilverio - 2015
She runs away on the night someone beats the pastor into a coma and kills his wife. Two decades later, Mercy has become Iris Dashwood, an emotionally troubled but brilliant jeweler. She thinks she's in control of her life until news of Pastor Matt's miraculous awakening broadsides her and leaves her unable to design. Iris returns to Lone Pine, Colorado, determined to confront her past to restore her creativity. Iris reconnects with her mother, best friend, and boyfriend who harbor secrets she must unearth to find a killer. In the final reckoning, the truth may cost more than she anticipates. Will it bring redemption...or devastation?
Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe: Three Words and Four Weeks that shaped a pandemic
Bonnie Henry - 2021
Bonnie Henry has been called one of the most effective public health figures in the world by The New York Times. She has been called a calming voice in a sea of coronavirus madness, and our hero in national newspapers. But in the waning days of 2019, when the first rumours of a strange respiratory ailment in Wuhan, China began to trickle into her office in British Colombia, these accolades lay in a barely imaginable future.Only weeks later, the whole world would look back on the previous year with the kind of nostalgia usually reserved for the distant past. With a staggering suddenness, our livelihoods, our closest relationships, our habits and our homes had all been transformed.In a moment when half-truths threatened to drown out the truth, when recklessness all too often exposed those around us to very real danger, and when it was difficult to tell paranoia from healthy respect for an invisible threat, Dr. Henry's transparency, humility, and humanity became a beacon for millions of Canadians.And her trademark enjoinder to be kind, be calm, and be safe became words for us all to live by.Coincidentally, Dr. Henry's sister, Lynn, arrived in BC for a long-planned visit on March 12, just as the virus revealed itself as a pandemic. For the four ensuing weeks, Lynn had rare insight into the whirlwind of Bonnie's daily life, with its moments of agony and gravity as well as its occasional episodes of levity and grace. Both a global story and a family story, Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe combines Lynn's observations and knowledge of Bonnie's personal and professional background with Bonnie's recollections of how and why decisions were made, to tell in a vivid way the dramatic tale of the four weeks that changed all our lives.Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe is about communication, leadership, and public trust; about the balance between politics and policy; and, at heart, about what and who we value, as individuals and a society.The authors' advance from the publisher will be donated to charities with a focus on alleviating communities hit particularly hard by the pandemic: True North Aid with its Covid-19 response in Northern Indigenous communities, and First Book Canada, with its focus on reading and literacy for underserved, marginalized youth.
Royally Unexpected: The Nord Kingdom Accidental Baby Trilogy (Surprise Baby Stories Book 3)
Lilian Monroe - 2021
Purity Kills
Andy Maslen - 2022
After a bungled ransom demand, she was taken sceretly to the mainland. Now known as Wei Mei, she has known no other life but the rural village where ‘Mummy Rita’ raised her. When men with guns arrive in the village looking for her, she runs away to the Chinese megacity of Shenzhen, and a life on the streets.Witnessed by a talent scout defending herself from an assault by three rich kids, Mei is recruited for a Communist Party school for assassins. The training is brutal, but Mei makes a couple of friends along the way: ‘Rats’ and ‘Sis’. Then, after an arduous training exercise, something happens that tears the tight-knit trio apart.Mei’s dreams hint at a life she can’t remember. Determined to escape and return to make sure Mummy Rita is safe, she ends up in even worse danger than before, as foreign agents close in. Then she discovers the secret that will destroy any chance she has of returning to a normal life.She hatches a daring plan to free herself from the Party’s clutches before it’s too late. But with just 24 hours before she is taken to a Beijing facility where her fate will be sealed, time is running out, fast.
The Virus
Stanley Johnson - 1984
But powerful forces are conspiring against him, determined to keep the secrets of the virus's origin kept deliberately under wraps. And with a global epidemic on the rise, Kaplan must go to unimaginable lengths to save mankind.