Here are 13 books that Billy Boyle World War II Mystery fans have personally recommended once you finish the Billy Boyle World War II Mystery series.
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From when I first got lost in a book—I think it was Herman Wouk’s Winds of War—I discovered I really loved stories which thrust me into their world. From favorites like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which I read to my kids, to Peter Benchley’s Jaws, I loved getting lost in the snowy world of Narnia or out in the water in the small boat with Brody. When I read any new author, I notice how well they paint the scene and how skillfully they describe the what and where of their tale. Does the story capture the details, idiosyncrasies, and nuances of this place and time? If it does, I’m in.
I’ve always been drawn to writers who capture such a vivid setting I can actually picture myself right in the pages of the book. I think Kent Kreuger does this better than any author, and readers can select any entry in his Cork O’Connor series and find themselves transported into a mesmerizing scene, but this 21st entry in the series really grabbed me. His word paintings of a field, a blueberry patch and the ancient Indian, Henry Miloux’s cabin is so real I could almost feel, see and smell the scene.
Kreuger has the rare skill to use such colorful and powerful language in his prose; some passages border on the poetic. Not to mention, the story about two missing girls—one white, one Native— is truly gripping, too.
A disappearance and a dead body put Cork O'Connor's family in the crosshairs of a killer in the twentieth book in the New York Times bestselling series from William Kent Krueger , "a master storyteller at the top of his game" (Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author).
The disappearance of a local politician's teenaged daughter is major news in Minnesota. As a huge manhunt is launched to find her, Cork O'Connor's grandson stumbles across the shallow grave of a young Ojibwe woman-but nobody seems that interested. Nobody, that is, except Cork and the newly formed Iron Lake Ojibwe…
I love mysteries, but I find that after a while, a lot of them tend to run together in my head. So I just love it when I find a book with a setting so unique that it sticks in my mind forever. And it’s even better when the author uses that setting to show me something new about human nature, history, or society while still delivering me a plot that keeps me turning pages.
Like a lot of folks, I found out about this book when the movie version came out, Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
The world-building in the movie was so compelling and unique that I decided to pick up the book. And I’m so glad that I did. The plot in the book is much more complicated, and the social satire is even sharper. One of my all-time favorite noir mysteries.
From when I first got lost in a book—I think it was Herman Wouk’s Winds of War—I discovered I really loved stories which thrust me into their world. From favorites like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which I read to my kids, to Peter Benchley’s Jaws, I loved getting lost in the snowy world of Narnia or out in the water in the small boat with Brody. When I read any new author, I notice how well they paint the scene and how skillfully they describe the what and where of their tale. Does the story capture the details, idiosyncrasies, and nuances of this place and time? If it does, I’m in.
I have never been to the untamed lands of Wyoming and Montana but after reading this and other books by C J Box, this region certainly moved to the top of my travel list. This author is so adept at transporting readers into his scenes, I felt the biting cold of the wind off the Bighorn Mountains, experienced the chafing of riding my horse up and down the valleys and mountains, heard bullets sing through the air and tasted the bile in my own throat at seeing an animal mutilated.
This is the first entry in this bestselling mystery/adventure series, now at 25. Even in this first book, I loved that the story involved the whole Pickett family, Game Warden Joe, his wife MaryBeth, and his daughters, Lucy and Sheridan.
Winner of 2009's highly coveted Edgar Award for Best Novel Winner of the Anthony Award for Best First Novel Winner of the Gumshoe Award for Best First Novel Winner of the Barry Award for Best First Novel Winner of the Macavity Award for Best First Novel
There's nothing unusual about the sound of a gunshot in Twelve Sleep. Here in remotest Wyoming, where elk roam the pine forests and cougars prowl the mountains, everyone owns a gun. But when Joe Pickett hears two sharp cracks ring out months before hunting season, it's his job to investigate.
I love morally complex sci-fi noir books because they tend to ask the hard questions that I find interesting. What is the point of seeking justice in an unjust world? How can we judge others when we ourselves are corrupt? Often, we think of noir as being dark—and it is—but it’s the pinpricks of light that make the shadows fascinating to me. I try to blend this complexity into my own writing, whether it’s in a tense relationship with religion, rampant corruption, or a struggle to do the right thing when there just aren’t any options left.
I love this book because it perfectly blends the surreal with noir and science fiction and comes together with its own brand of dark humor. While parts of this book are unsettling and strange, there’s a solid throughline of the investigator seeking the truth in a broken world.
Of all the books here, I think this one has the most damaged society, and the main character, Conrad Metcalf, is a match for it. Drugs that make you forget everything and be complacent. Baby heads. Uplifted animals. The book is never afraid to get stranger, but it also tackles some pretty heavy themes. This is a world where asking questions is taboo, and the moral and ethical implications of that shape the entire world in which Metcalf lives.
The first novel by Jonathan Lethem (author of the award-winning Motherless Brooklyn) is a science-fiction mystery, a dark and funny post-modern romp serving further evidence that Lethem is the distinctive voice of a new generation.
Conrad Metcalf has problems. He has a monkey on his back, a rabbit in his waiting room, and a trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. (Maybe evolution therapy is not such a good idea). He's been shadowing Celeste, the wife of an Oakland urologist. Maybe falling in love with her a little at the same time. When the doctor turns up dead, Metcalf finds himself caught…
From when I first got lost in a book—I think it was Herman Wouk’s Winds of War—I discovered I really loved stories which thrust me into their world. From favorites like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which I read to my kids, to Peter Benchley’s Jaws, I loved getting lost in the snowy world of Narnia or out in the water in the small boat with Brody. When I read any new author, I notice how well they paint the scene and how skillfully they describe the what and where of their tale. Does the story capture the details, idiosyncrasies, and nuances of this place and time? If it does, I’m in.
I love listening to Evanovich’s hilarious tales of Stephanie Plum’s misadventures as a wannabe bail/bondsman. These books are my wife’s and my favorite distraction on long road trips. While her mysteries may be thin, her characters are so real and her stories so crazy, I didn’t miss the whodunit. I included her in this August list because she captures the seedy side of Trenton, New Jersey, with amazing clarity, even while laughing at the place.
I picture myself riding in one of her cars—which she destroys regularly—along with her friend, the former ho, LuLu, hair flowing in the stinky wind blowing off deserted warehouses, sleezy girl joints and questionable car repair shops. This is the first in a series that is now at 31.
Stephanie Plum is down on her luck. She's lost her job, her car's on the brink of repossession, and her apartment is fast becoming furniture-free.
Enter Cousin Vinnie, a low-life who runs a bail-bond company. If Stephanie can bring in vice cop turned outlaw Joe Morelli, she stands to pick up $10,000. But tracking down a cop wanted for murder isn't easy . . .
And when Benito Ramirez, a prize-fighter with more menace than mentality, wants to be her friend Stephanie soon knows what it's like to be pursued. Unfortunately the best person to protect her just happens to…
I love mysteries, but I find that after a while, a lot of them tend to run together in my head. So I just love it when I find a book with a setting so unique that it sticks in my mind forever. And it’s even better when the author uses that setting to show me something new about human nature, history, or society while still delivering me a plot that keeps me turning pages.
This is the first book of the Phryne Fisher Mysteries.
Phryne is a 1920s flapper who was a nurse in World War 1 and has now started her own detective agency in Melbourne, Australia. It’s a fascinating period and location, and the books bring both to life. I also love the main character: She’s a liberated woman who’s in constant conflict with a society that doesn’t know what to make of her.
Bored socialite Phryne Fisher leaves the tedium of the London season for adventure in Australia!
Tea-dances in West End hotels, weekends in the country with guns and dogs... Phryne Fisher - she of the grey-green eyes and diamante garters - is rapidly tiring of the boredom of chit-chatting with retired colonels and foxtrotting with weak-chinned wonders. Instead, Phryne decides it might be amusing to try her hand at being a lady detective - on the other side of the world!
As soon as she books into the Windsor Hotel in Melbourne, Phryne is embroiled in mystery: poisoned wives, drug smuggling…
I started my motherhood journey when I was barely out of my teens. For the next two decades, I only knew myself as a wife and mother. As my brood of five children grew into adults, I found myself poorly equipped to parent independent Gen X and Z’ers. Then, at 46 years of age, when perimenopause hit me like a hurricane, I found myself evolving into another woman altogether. The good news was – I really liked her! I hope you enjoy these books about mid-life women parenting adult children and rediscovering themselves in the never-ever-done-aftermath of motherhood.
A New York Times bestseller | Soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment
"Witty, endearing and greatly entertaining." -Wall Street Journal
"Don't trust anyone, including the four septuagenarian sleuths in Osman's own laugh-out-loud whodunit." -Parade
Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves A female cop with her first big case A brutal murder Welcome to... THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club.
I’ve loved both history and fantasy since I was a child. The first book I can remember reading at all was The Hobbit. The first historical novel I fell in love with was The Killer Angels. I visited the battlefield of Gettysburg with my family, and currently teach the movie every year to my high school film class. (I’ve never visited Middle Earth, but plan to visit New Zealand as soon as possible). I’ve been reading both genres ever since—and quite by accident my first novel contains a mix of both genres.
I was living in Madrid, Spain, when one of my friends and fellow English-language teachers, Heather, nudged me and said, “James, you have to read this.”
I was in my “James only reads highbrow literature” era, so I told her that the cover looked too pulpy (yes, I was guilty of judging a book by its cover). Thankfully, my respect for Heather forced me to overlook my biases and give Pillars a shot. I’m so glad I did.
The prose style is simple and accessible (obeying Animal Farm author George Orwell’s advice to write prose as transparent as a “windowpane”). And that’s good, because the content draws you in completely.
A village in Medieval England decides to build a cathedral. The characters range from evil knights to noble monks to savvy businesswomen to scheming clerics. The world is rich with detail and the pages are addicting, almost turning themselves. It’s…
The "extraordinary . . . monumental masterpiece" (Booklist) that changed the course of Ken Follett's already phenomenal career-and begins where its prequel, The Evening and the Morning, ended.
"Follett risks all and comes out a clear winner," extolled Publishers Weekly on the release of The Pillars of the Earth. A departure for the bestselling thriller writer, the historical epic stunned readers and critics alike with its ambitious scope and gripping humanity. Today, it stands as a testament to Follett's unassailable command of the written word and to his universal appeal.
I’ve always wanted to write. It took years to get started, and after working in the library and information technology fields for over thirty-five years, I quit the day job routine in 2011 to write full time. I've learned two valuable lessons since I started writing which have been of immense help. The first is a quote from writer and activist Mary Heaton Vorse, who said, "The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair." The second is from novelist Rachel Basch, who told me that "the story has to move down, as well as forward." Both sound simple. Neither is.
A writing group provides invaluable help for aspiring writers. I participated in a group for several years, which helped me hone my first two manuscripts that were then published as the start of the Billy Boyle WWII mystery series.
All Write focuses on how to organize a group and includes tips on writing and constructive critiquing. Mandel, with her background as a writer, copyeditor, writing group member, and psychotherapist, offers concrete how-to advice on how to maximize the effectiveness of a writing group for all members. This book is packed with writing tips, lessons, and group exercises that can be immediately put to work.
All Write teaches you how to organize a writing group and includes tips on writing and constructive critiquing. Mandel, with her background as a writer, copyeditor, writing group member, and psychotherapist, offers concrete how-to advice on how to maximize the effectiveness of a writing group for all members. This book is packed with writing tips, lessons, and group exercises that can be immediately put to work.
INCLUDING:
writing tips
writing lessons
and group exercises
Well-done, concise, organized. I could have used these chapters as a lesson plan for my high school writing classes. —J. Ellis
I’ve always wanted to write. It took years to get started, and after working in the library and information technology fields for over thirty-five years, I quit the day job routine in 2011 to write full time. I've learned two valuable lessons since I started writing which have been of immense help. The first is a quote from writer and activist Mary Heaton Vorse, who said, "The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair." The second is from novelist Rachel Basch, who told me that "the story has to move down, as well as forward." Both sound simple. Neither is.
Now in its tenth edition, this book is for committed writers only. A highly valuable textbook on the writing process, Burroway covers story form, plot, structure, building character, place, and setting, and takes a detailed look at point of view. Each section comes with examples of how things do and do not work, as well as providing a list of suggested readings and writing prompts for further study. This book is a master class in creative writing that also calls on us to renew our love of storytelling and to celebrate the skill of writing well.
A creative writer's shelf should hold at least three essential books: a dictionary, a style guide, and Writing Fiction. Janet Burroway's best-selling classic is the most widely used creative writing text in America, and for more than three decades it has helped hundreds of thousands of students learn the craft. Now in its tenth edition, Writing Fiction is more accessible than ever for writers of all levels-inside or outside the classroom.
This new edition continues to provide advice that is practical, comprehensive, and flexible. Burroway's tone is personal and nonprescriptive, welcoming learning writers…
