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Recommendations based on When the Sacred Ginmill Closesby Lawrence Block
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The Sins of the Fathers
by Lawrence Block
Private investigator Matt Scudder is hired to investigate a series of murders that seem to be connected to a group of men who committed a crime together years ago.
The pretty young prostitute is dead. Her alleged murderer—a minister's son—hanged himself in his jail cell. The case is closed. But the dead girl's father has come to Matthew Scudder for answers, ... (Goodreads)
The Big Sleep
by Raymond Chandler
Private eye investigates a complex case involving a wealthy family and blackmail.
Private investigator Philip Marlowe is called to the home of the wealthy and elderly General Sternwood, in the month of October. He wants Marlowe to deal with an attempt by a bookseller named Arthur ... (Wikipedia)
The Long Goodbye
by Raymond Chandler
A hard-boiled detective's journey to unravel the truth behind a mysterious disappearance.
The novel opens outside a club called the Dancers. It is late October or early November. No year is given for the events but internal evidence and the publication date of the novel place them between ... (Wikipedia)
Taken
by Robert Crais
A private investigator and an ex-Marine team up to solve a kidnapping case.
When Nita Morales hires Elvis Cole to find her missing adult daughter, she isn’t afraid, even though she’s gotten a phone call asking for ransom. She knows it’s a fake, that her daughter is off with ... (Goodreads)
The Hunter
by Richard Stark
A criminal mastermind navigates a dangerous web of crime and violence to carry out the perfect heist.
Double-crossed, shot, and left for dead — by his wife. The thriller that introduces Parker. “A brilliant invention”. Played by Lee Marvin in the John Boorman movie. “The funnies call it the ... (Goodreads)
Gone, Baby, Gone
by Dennis Lehane
Private detectives search for a missing four-year-old girl in an urban environment.
Boston private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are hired to find four-year-old Amanda McCready, abducted from her bed on a warm, summer night. They meet her stoned-out, strangely ... (Goodreads)
The Force
by Don Winslow
An ex-cop's mission to take down the most powerful drug cartel in the world.
Instant New York Times Bestseller Best of 2017 - included on best-of lists by the, New York Times,, NPR, Barnes & Noble,, Publisher's Weekly,, LitHub, BookPage, Booklist, TheRealBookSpy.com, the, ... (Barnes & Noble)
To the Nines
by Janet Evanovich
An FBI agent and a bounty hunter team up to take down a criminal mastermind.
Stephanie's cousin and boss, Vinnie, has written the visa bond for Samuel Singh, an Indian immigrant working temporarily in New Jersey. Now he has gone missing, and his landlord, Mrs. Apusenja, ... (Wikipedia)
Mystic River
by Dennis Lehane
Three childhood friends are reunited by a tragedy that exposes their dark past and tests their loyalty.
The novel revolves around three boys who grow up as friends in Boston — Dave Boyle, Sean Devine, and Jimmy Marcus. When the story opens, Dave is abducted by child molesters while he, Sean, and Jimmy ... (Wikipedia)
The Concrete Blonde
by Michael Connelly
A detective's investigation of a serial killer, uncovering a complex web of deception.
Detective Harry Bosch is pursuing "The Dollmaker", a serial killer who uses makeup to paint his victims. He gets a tip from a prostitute that a recent customer of hers, Norman Church, had a large ... (Wikipedia)
Shutter Island
by Dennis Lehane
A U.S. Marshal investigates a psychiatric hospital on a remote island, uncovering chilling secrets and an unexpected truth.
In 1954, widower U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, go on a ferry boat to Shutter Island, the home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane, to investigate ... (Wikipedia)
The Terror
by Dan Simmons
A gripping survival story set during the doomed Arctic expedition of the HMS Terror.
The story begins, in medias res, in the winter of 1847, when HMS, Terror, and HMS, Erebus, have been trapped in ice, 28 miles north-northwest of King William Island , for more than a year. The ... (Wikipedia)
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
by Anne Brontë
An exploration of 19th-century gender roles, revealing a woman's struggle for independence.
The novel is divided into three volumes. Part One (Chapters 1 to 15): Gilbert Markham narrates how a mysterious widow, Mrs Helen Graham, arrives at Wildfell Hall, a nearby mansion. A source of ... (Wikipedia)
Of Human Bondage
by W. Somerset Maugham
A young man's struggles to find a sense of purpose, despite a series of catastrophic misfortunes.
The book begins with the death of Helen Carey, the much beloved mother of nine-year-old Philip Carey. Philip has a club foot and his father had died a few months before. Now orphaned, he is sent to ... (Wikipedia)
The Story of the Lost Child
by Elena Ferrante
An exploration of the complexities of motherhood and female friendship, spanning four decades.
"Nothing quite like this has ever been published before," proclaimed The Guardian about the Neapolitan novels in 2014. Against the backdrop of a Naples that is as seductive as it is perilous and a ... (Goodreads)
The Player of Games
by Iain M. Banks
A game-player embarks on a journey to win a tournament in a distant world, uncovering secrets along the way.
The Culture - a humanoid/machine symbiotic society - has thrown up many great Game Players. One of the best is Jernau Morat Gurgeh, Player of Games, master of every board, computer and strategy. ... (Goodreads)
Rules of Civility
by Amor Towles
An ambitious young woman looks to make her mark in 1930s New York, learning the complex rules of high society.
This sophisticated and entertaining first novel presents the story of a young woman whose life is on the brink of transformation. On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a ... (Goodreads)
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
by John le Carré
A British agent's mission to infiltrate East Germany during the Cold War, full of suspense and intrigue.
In this classic, John le Carre's third novel and the first to earn him international acclaim, he created a world unlike any previously experienced in suspense fiction. With unsurpassed knowledge ... (Goodreads)
The Story of a New Name
by Elena Ferrante
Two young women's search for identity and independence in a patriarchal society.
In 2012, Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend introduced readers to the unforgettable Elena and Lila, whose lifelong friendship provides the backbone for the Neapolitan Novels. The Story of a New ... (Goodreads)
Middlemarch
by George Eliot
A grand narrative of life in a small English town, exploring the lives of its inhabitants.
Middlemarch centres on the lives of residents of Middlemarch, a fictitious Midlands town, from 1829 onwards – the years up to the 1832 Reform Act . The narrative is variably considered to consist of ... (Wikipedia)
I'd Know You Anywhere
by Laura Lippman
A convicted killer contacts his victim from death row, forcing her to confront the past and question her own memories.
A powerful and utterly riveting tale that skillfully moves between past and present to explore the lasting effects of crime on a victim's life that will leave readers racing to the final page,, I'd ... (Barnes & Noble)
Dorsai!
by Gordon R. Dickson
A young man from a warrior planet becomes a mercenary, fighting in battles across the galaxy.
The book is about Donal Graeme, warrior extraordinaire. In the Childe Cycle universe, the human race has split into a number of splinter cultures. Donal is a member of the Dorsai, a splinter culture ... (Wikipedia)
Beyond the Blue Event Horizon
by Frederik Pohl
A group of humans and aliens travel to a distant planet in search of a mysterious alien artifact.
In Book Two of the Heechee Saga, Robinette Broadhead is on his way to making a fortune by bankrolling an expedition to the Food Factory–a Heechee spaceship that can graze the cometary cloud and ... (Goodreads)
Phantom Prey
by John Sandford
Detective Lucas Davenport investigates a series of murders in Minneapolis, with a phantom-like killer on the loose.
A widow comes home to her large house in a wealthy, exclusive suburb to find blood on the walls, no body — and her college-age daughter missing. She's always known that her daughter ran with a bad ... (Goodreads)
The Black Dahlia
by James Ellroy
A 1940s Los Angeles detective story, exploring the depths of a gruesome unsolved murder.
On January 15, 1947, the torture-ravished body of a beautiful young woman is found in a vacant lot. The victim makes headlines as the Black Dahlia—and so begins the greatest manhunt in California ... (Goodreads)
Nature Girl
by Carl Hiaasen
A woman takes a man on a wild and dangerous adventure through the Florida Everglades.
In his latest New York Times bestseller, Hiaasen introduces impassioned, possibly bipolar, self-proclaimed queen of lost causes Honey Santana, who schemes to help rid the world of irresponsibility, ... (Goodreads)
Devil Said Bang
by Richard Kadrey
Fourth book in the Sandman Slim series, James Stark returns to LA to find it in chaos and must fight his way through Hell and back to save it.
Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim—aka James Stark—is, quite simply, one of the most outrageous uber-anti-heroes ever to kick serious butt on this or any other world or dimension. In his previous three ... (Goodreads)
Rumble Fish
by S.E. Hinton
Rusty-James, a teenage gang member, struggles to find his place in the world and live up to his older brother's reputation.
Rusty-James runs into his old friend, Steve Hays, at the beach. It has been five years since they last saw each other. Steve is in college and Rusty is not long out of the reformatory . When Steve ... (Wikipedia)
The History Boys
by Alan Bennett
A group of boys in a British grammar school prepare for their university entrance exams with the help of their eccentric teachers.
The play opens in Cutlers' Grammar School, Sheffield , a fictional boys' grammar school in the north of England . Set in the early 1980s, the play follows a group of history pupils preparing for the ... (Wikipedia)
The Murder Room
by P.D. James
A group of true crime enthusiasts gather in a museum to discuss notorious murders, but soon find themselves investigating a real-life killing.
The Dupayne Museum is an eclectic collection of English memorabilia from the period between World War I and World War II. The murder room of the title refers to a room displaying relics of murders ... (Wikipedia)
