Here are 39 books that A Cold, Cold World fans have personally recommended if you like
A Cold, Cold World.
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As an author, it’s all about character for me. I like to find characters doing the unexpected, finding strength when they thought all was lost, and fighting back when it seems hopeless. I write these kinds of characters, and often it’s a woman in the lead role where they face additional challenges and obstacles in their path—solely because of their gender. Working for 29 years in some of the toughest prisons in the country, I worked with strong, kickass women. I can't but help for some of their influence to bleed out on the page. I know you’ll enjoy these titles as much as I did.
Secrets always intrigue me. Shana Merchant has secrets, and she’s spent years running from them. Shana’s past writhes around her like a poisonous vine. She can’t break free from it, and if she’s not careful, it will suffocate everything around her.
The first book in this series establishes Shana as a smart, once-successful big-city cop, but this isn’t a simple redemption story. I found Shana’s path over the course of this series insightful as she tries to overcome PTSD after being held by a serial killer—not just any serial killer. The connection between the two blew me away and it threads through the series.
Fantastic characters, immersive settings, and tight plots drew me into this series, and I’m waiting for more.
A storm-struck island. A blood-soaked bed. A missing man. In this captivating mystery that's perfect for fans of Knives Out, Senior Investigator Shana Merchant discovers that murder is a family affair.
Thirteen months ago, former NYPD detective Shana Merchant barely survived being abducted by a serial killer. Now hoping to leave grisly murder cases behind, she's taken a job in her fiancé's sleepy hometown in the Thousand Islands region of Upstate New York.
But as a nor'easter bears down on her new territory, Shana and fellow investigator Tim Wellington receive a call about a man missing on a private island.…
The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.
The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.
Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…
I am a long-time lover of mysteries. Whether it be books, TV, or movies, I love when there is an unknown element to puzzle out. I remember staying up long past my bedtime as a child, reading because I just had to know what happened. I write across a number of genres for different age groups, but at the heart of every story I take on is a mystery that I want to figure out for myself. I love it when readers and audiences come along for the ride, joining me for the plot twists and turns.
I started this book for the unlikely main character–Sister Holiday, a chain-smoking, tattooed, queer nun–but it was the mystery that kept me reading. I always love it when a writer can make me feel like I am the one on the line, like I am fighting for my life or to prove my innocence. This book did just that.
I found I was holding myself tightly as Sister Holiday investigated but just kept finding more evidence against herself. The snippets of her past life made me feel for her more and more, taking the character from an unlikely hero to someone I cared deeply about. I can’t wait to get my hands on the second in the series.
Sister Holiday, a chain-smoking, heavily tattooed, queer nun, puts her amateur sleuthing skills to the test in this "unique and confident" debut crime novel (Gillian Flynn).
When Saint Sebastian's School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding New Orleans community are thrust into chaos.
Patience is a virtue, but punk rocker turned nun Sister Holiday isn't satisfied to just wait around for officials to return her home and sanctuary to its former peace, instead deciding to unveil the mysterious attacker herself. Her investigation leads her down a twisty path of…
As an author, it’s all about character for me. I like to find characters doing the unexpected, finding strength when they thought all was lost, and fighting back when it seems hopeless. I write these kinds of characters, and often it’s a woman in the lead role where they face additional challenges and obstacles in their path—solely because of their gender. Working for 29 years in some of the toughest prisons in the country, I worked with strong, kickass women. I can't but help for some of their influence to bleed out on the page. I know you’ll enjoy these titles as much as I did.
I like to learn something as I get lost in a story. This book explores a phenomenon of “Heirs Property” that’s prevalent in many rural communities.
An older generation dies without a will, and the family home is at risk. Deena Woods is an attorney who, after suffering a huge triple trauma, returns home to rural Georgia. I loved the characters and family dynamics, and I loved watching Deena become more resilient. There might be a slight supernatural edge to the story too, which I found fascinating.
Cultural exploration, traditions, and a multi-dimensional main character ticks off all the boxes.
Award-winning author Wanda Morris returns with a powerful, haunting thriller following a lawyer who after the mysterious disappearance of a local landowner and the death of his sister just months before, uncovers a conspiracy that dates back to Reconstruction and persists in half the United States today.
Deena Wood’s life has fallen apart in the aftermath of losing her beloved mother, her marriage, and her prestigious job at an Atlanta law firm. She needs what the Geechee people of coastal Georgia call a “dayclean,” a fresh start.
She returns to her childhood home in Brunswick, Georgia, to heal. But her…
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
As an author, it’s all about character for me. I like to find characters doing the unexpected, finding strength when they thought all was lost, and fighting back when it seems hopeless. I write these kinds of characters, and often it’s a woman in the lead role where they face additional challenges and obstacles in their path—solely because of their gender. Working for 29 years in some of the toughest prisons in the country, I worked with strong, kickass women. I can't but help for some of their influence to bleed out on the page. I know you’ll enjoy these titles as much as I did.
Domestic suspense is having a moment. These aren’t your “damsel in distress” stories where a woman waits for someone to save her. I like women who bounce back hard after a setback, and this book is exactly that.
Without spoilers, when Stella’s husband goes missing after a bombing, she can’t accept the fact she has to start over. I love the fact she wants answers, and when she doesn't get them, she strikes out on her own.
Kimberly Belle creates strong female lead characters in her books, and if you’re like me, they keep you turning the pages. Kimberly is always one of my must-buy authors—The Paris Widow is no exception.
From the USA Today bestselling author of The Marriage Lie, don't miss this gripping thriller from Kimberly Belle, perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty and Shari Lapena.
A DREAM HOLIDAY
Stella and her husband Adam are on the trip of a lifetime, a three-week tour across Europe. But then the unthinkable happens. On the last day of their holiday, a Parisian cafe explodes with Adam inside.
A SHOCKING ACCUSATION
What initially looks like a gas leak turns personal when the gendarmerie identify Adam as the target of the explosion, and they confront Stella with some startling allegations about her beloved…
There's something about broken people trying to do good that has always resonated with me. In basic training, a drill sergeant with debilitating PTSD told us what combat would be like through a storm of choking sobs and a haze of tears. He needed us to know. Even if it broke him. Working as an investigator in Denver and Washington, I watched people with complicated pasts and uncertain futures fight tooth and nail (sometimes literally) to put human traffickers behind bars. Literature has always been a bridle for that wildness I saw in the world. A tool for taking the ghashing, stomping, unruliness of the human experience and making it rideable, relatable, survivable.
This one is a standout of the Longmire series. A bus full of serial killers mashes its potatoes into the side of a mountain during a whiteout and it’s up to Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire to get rounded them up. There’s an epicness about this story that leaves you feeling like you’re riding a literary wave into the pilings and Craig Johnson paints the whole debacle with a Hillerman-esque mysticism and his own singular brand of stoic humor.
The seventh book in the New York Times bestselling Longmire series, featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire.
Raynaud Shade, an adopted Crow Indian and one of the country's most dangerous sociopaths, has just confessed to murdering a boy twenty years ago and burying him deep within the Bighorn Mountains. Absaroka County Sherriff Walt Longmire must escort Shade through a snowstorm to the site, but the mission turns personal when Walt learns whom the dead boy's family is.
Guided only by Indian mysticism and a battered paperback of Dante's Inferno, Walt braves the icy hell of the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area, cheating death…
Deserts are inherently mysterious places. This likely explains why so many good mystery novels have been set in them. We spent better than forty years doing field work in the American Southwest, and we have found mystery novels based in this region among the very best. All good mystery novels must have strong plots and memorable characters, but to us an equally important component is setting. Jane is a botanist with expertise in the use of plant evidence in solving murder cases. Carl is a vertebrate zoologist and conservation biologist. Upon retirement we began writing mysteries. Some are set in the desert grasslands of Arizona, and all are inspired by the southwestern authors we have selected as our favorites.
Bill Gastner is the sort of detective you’d expect to find working the mean streets of an inner city: a rumpled overweight insomniac addicted to coffee and cigarettes. Instead his beat is the Chihuahan Desert of a fictitious county on the border between New and Old Mexico. In Heartshot, Undersheriff Gastner must solve multiple murders related to the illegal drug trade, including the loss of a fellow officer. The killer turns out to be somebody nearly as surprising and dangerous as the place where Gastner finds him. In his first book in the Posadas County series, author Havill skillfully brings to life both the rewards and challenges of life in a harsh yet beautiful place, where the people of two cultures are trying to figure out ways to live with one another.
First book in the Posadas County Mystery Series When a series of crimes disrupts the tranquil community in Posadas County, New Mexico, a group of small-town cops will have to fight for their lives to keep the county safe Posadas County, New Mexico, has very few mean streets and no city-slick cop shop. But it has an earnest, elected County Sheriff and his aging Undersheriff-William C. Gastner. Pushing sixty, widower Bill has no other life than in law enforcement-and doesn't want one, even if he's being nudged gently toward retirement. Then big time trouble strikes. A car full of teens,…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
I have a passion for character bonds which come from my day-to-day “normal” life.
Outside of being a writer, I’ve been working at one of our city’s busiest hospitals for the past 7 years as a communications operator. Every day, I interact with people who are facing challenges, struggling, and in need of help. With that being said, I also interact with people who are supportive, grateful and overall happy. I find myself drawn to how people come together in both the good and the bad times.
In my opinion, you need to be able to relate to the characters in order for the story to become a success.
I loved this story for many reasons. The first thing that caught my attention was having a strong female lead. Her no-nonsense character was out of this world. She was relatable in many ways, especially with her black sheep antics. She had me caught up in some hilarious moments that had me in stitches.
The second thing was the murder mystery. This had me hooked right off the bat, wanting to know who the killer was. That really kept me intrigued throughout, and I couldn’t wait to see how it would all play out. Although I was upset to have finished this wonderful story, I was quite thrilled with how it ended.
The happiest day of Payton Lambert's life was the day she graduated high school and watched Bald Knob, Kentucky get smaller and smaller in her rearview mirror. She wanted more for her life than a tiny town where everyone knows your business and you can’t find a decent cup of coffee for at least forty miles. Twelve years later, an unexpected phone call in the middle of the night has her packing up her life in Chicago and racing back home to the one person she ever regretted leaving behind.Upon her return, she sees that Leo Hudson, the scrawny boy…
I've been a lawyer for 30 years, 20 of them as an elected district attorney, and writing relieves stress for me. Real crime is messy and irrational; crime fiction restores order. But literary fiction is too slow—a novel must compel the reader to turn the page. Good thrillers tackle major issues, revealing themes that deepen our understanding of humanity. I've witnessed courage during grief and stress, but I'd never betray that trust by writing nonfiction accounts. I deliberately jumbled character traits and real events and combined them with my understanding of modern police techniques like geofencing and DNA.
The king of the cowboy detectives, Walt Longmire, must choose a course for his life after Vietnam. We know our hero devoted his life to serving his neighbors, yet here we confront the moment of stark paths before him. The choice not only represents a personal sacrifice but requires those he loves to sacrifice. The calling to seek justice demands a constant commitment.
Johnson presents a villain who has surrendered to his baser nature. A trope of mystery fiction contrasting with a hero capable of overcoming such self-destructiveness. I listened to the audiobook.
The thirteenth novel in Craig Johnson's beloved New York Times bestselling Longmire series, the basis for the hit Netflix series Longmire
Sheriff Walt Longmire is enjoying a celebratory beer after a weapons certification at the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy when a younger sheriff confronts him with a photograph of twenty-five armed men standing in front of a Challenger steam locomotive. It takes him back to when, fresh from the battlefields of Vietnam, then-deputy Walt accompanied his mentor Lucian to the annual Wyoming Sheriff's Association junket held on the excursion train known as the Western Star, which ran the length of…
My favorite mode of transport is being on the back of a good horse. I have enjoyed horse treks in Ecuador on the Inca Trail, in the backcountry of British Columbia, the High Sierras, and on the Wild West coast of Ireland, as well as numerous stays at guest’s ranches in the U.S. My equestrian articles have appeared in Equus, Horse Illustrated, and California Riding Magazine, to name a few. A back injury forced me to give up my mare and the riding world I loved. Writing The Cowgirl Jumped over the Moon was my way of letting go and moving forward in life.
I bought this book because I am a Longmire fan. The tight-lipped, tough Wyoming sheriff with a big heart and true grit is my kind of guy. I expected a juicy murder mystery, but not the heart-catching ride on a black beauty double.
Although Longmire's wild bareback ride on an unbridled mare stretches credulity, it is great fun to be there. If you like the haunting landscape of the West, the relentless pursuit of the truth, the mysticism of the Native Americans, and a good mystery, you will tick off all those boxes here.
The fifth book in the New York Times bestselling Longmire series, featuring Sheriff Walt Longmire
Wade Barsad locked his wife Mary's horses in their barn and then burned it down. In return she shot him in the head six times - or so the story goes. Sheriff Walt Longmire doesn't believe Mary's confession, and he's determined to dig deeper.
Posing as an insurance claims investigator, Walt goes undercover and soon discovers that the population of an entire town might have wanted Wade dead, including a beautiful Guatemalan bartender and a rancher with a taste for liquor but not so much…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I'm an actor turned journalist and writer. After a series of roles on low-budget movies and forgettable soap operas, I moved to Latin America to write about travel and life and all the heartbreak and humour it entails. El Flamingo follows the misadventure of a struggling actor who gets mistaken for a rogue assassin in Mexico and is forced to assume the mysterious identity in order to survive. It is a preposterous plot that could never happen in real life, yet the essence of it all was inspired by places I went, people I crossed paths with, and a sense of adventure that, to me, was authentic.
This is somewhat of an underground, little-known novel that I came across deep in the midst of a rural second-hand bookshop a few years back.
Set in 1958, the novel follows its deputy sheriff protagonist on a journey from the mid-west to Los Angeles via the famous Route 66. It has elements of noir, suspense, romance, adventure, and a good-guy vs mafia dynamic, all while tipping its hat to the American Road genre.
As a reader, you feel like you’re just another guy along for the ride, passing through state lines, watching the story unfold.
An innocent cup of coffee at a roadside diner on Route 66 embroils vacationing deputy sheriff Kevin Pulaski in a dangerous case involving a beautiful woman and missing fortune in Mafia loot.
