Here are 97 books that Calculated Risk fans have personally recommended if you like
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I have always loved crime fiction, especially those where justice is served. I love crime stories where ordinary people doing their jobs triumph over evil. But so many crime stories are riddled with profanity, sex, and gratuitous violence. Over the last few years, I’ve searched for books that satisfy my need to read about justice but do it cleanly and in such a way that the story is not compromised. Oh, by the way, I’m also a writer of crime fiction and try to stay true to both justice over evil and telling stories in a clean but realistic way.
I loved Martin’s style of slowly unfolding Murphy Shepherd. Up to the last page, I was learning something new about him. There were a couple of great twists I didn’t see immediately. I found his fight scenes fascinating. No detail at all. I also love the insights that Murphy has on the world.
The most important thing for me is the subject matter–human trafficking. I believe it’s one of the most overlooked and gravest issues we have. I found the specific method of trafficking in a specific geographical area fascinating. This book dealt with a nasty subject in a tasteful way that impacted me enough that I read the other two books in the Murphy Shepherd series.
A riveting story of heroism, heartache, and the power of love to heal all wounds by New York Times bestselling author Charles Martin.
Murphy Shepherd is a man with many secrets. He lives alone on an island, tending the grounds of a church with no parishioners, and he's dedicated his life to rescuing those in peril. But as he mourns the loss of his mentor and friend, Murph himself may be more lost than he realizes.
When he pulls a beautiful woman named Summer out of Florida's Intracoastal Waterway, Murph's mission to lay his mentor to rest at the end…
I have always loved crime fiction, especially those where justice is served. I love crime stories where ordinary people doing their jobs triumph over evil. But so many crime stories are riddled with profanity, sex, and gratuitous violence. Over the last few years, I’ve searched for books that satisfy my need to read about justice but do it cleanly and in such a way that the story is not compromised. Oh, by the way, I’m also a writer of crime fiction and try to stay true to both justice over evil and telling stories in a clean but realistic way.
I love complex, multi-threaded mysteries that keep me guessing, and this book is one of those that was hard to put down.
This mystery kept me enthralled from beginning to end. And I did not figure it out until Ms. Clark wanted me to. Ms. Clark paints fascinating characters caught up in difficult circumstances. There are several twists, the biggest being at the end, which I immensely appreciated.
I usually have things figured out halfway or three-quarters of the way through. Not this one.
From the “Queen of Suspense” Mary Higgins Clark, a gripping and twisting mystery featuring a television news reporter who finds herself drawn into a terrifying web of treachery, where nothing is as it seems and the truth may be too devastating to pursue...
The murdered woman could have been her double. When reporter Meghan Collins sees the sheet-wrapped corpse in a New York City hospital, she feels as if she's staring into her own face. And Meghan has troubles enough already without this bizarre experience. Nine months ago, her much-loved father's car spun off a New York bridge. Now, investigators…
I have always loved crime fiction, especially those where justice is served. I love crime stories where ordinary people doing their jobs triumph over evil. But so many crime stories are riddled with profanity, sex, and gratuitous violence. Over the last few years, I’ve searched for books that satisfy my need to read about justice but do it cleanly and in such a way that the story is not compromised. Oh, by the way, I’m also a writer of crime fiction and try to stay true to both justice over evil and telling stories in a clean but realistic way.
This book is raw, brutal, and a tough read, but it’s also clean, and that’s what I appreciated most about Walker’s telling of a girl’s story who is stuck in sex trafficking. Yes, it is another sex-trafficking book, but for me, it is a masterful insight from the point of view of those caught in it or caught by it.
Besides being a raw account of sex trafficking trauma, it’s also a compelling story that kept me wanting to read to find out what would happen. It’s a thriller and has many moments of high suspense. Watching Emma move through the phases of “the life” broke my heart but also opened my eyes.
I applaud Mr. Walker for this book. It could not have been easy to write, but I’m glad he did.
At only seventeen, Emma is used, abused, and discarded. She runs a thousand miles away from shame and judgment and falls into a stranger's arms. One careless mistake, and she plummets into the hellish world of sex-trafficking. "The life" takes everything from her, starting with her name. Deep in that darkness, Emma must find herself and find a way out. Her story is a tantalizing suspense that awakens hope.
I have always loved crime fiction, especially those where justice is served. I love crime stories where ordinary people doing their jobs triumph over evil. But so many crime stories are riddled with profanity, sex, and gratuitous violence. Over the last few years, I’ve searched for books that satisfy my need to read about justice but do it cleanly and in such a way that the story is not compromised. Oh, by the way, I’m also a writer of crime fiction and try to stay true to both justice over evil and telling stories in a clean but realistic way.
This is another book that deals with the subject of sex trafficking, which is why I was drawn to it.
From the first scene, I was immediately pulled in, fascinated that the protagonist, Jamie Austen, is a lone woman in a foreign land, rescuing helpless victims of this awful scourge. Her courageous and spunky character grew on me. Toler throws in a wonderful twist with a romantic element that Jamie Austen does not want or need but falls for anyway.
This is another example of how an author can deal with difficult subjects yet keep the book clean.
Why are all the best CIA spies always men? They aren't.
Combine the spycraft of Bourne, the toughness of Reacher, and the beauty of a Charlie's Angel and you have Jamie Austen. America's beloved heroine.
The Jamie Austen Spy Thrillers must be good. They've been number one on Amazon in ten different countries.
Jamie's latest adventure takes her to Belarus. Three hundred girls are missing. She is the only one who can save them. Award winning author, Terry Toler, tells this gripping story that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
I resonate with these stories; I feel a kinship with authors of books about teen sexual abuse. My heart breaks for another innocent young person, and I am also inspired by the different ways we find healing and peace. I am so grateful for my healing journey that I want to share what helped me with others who are looking for greater peace with their struggles and scars. I am proud to join the ranks of these authors because we all shine a spotlight on the harm done by this too-common abuse of the trust and innocence of teenage girls.
I like this book because it takes on the troubling theme of consent in the case where one person is an adolescent and the other a significantly older adult. I think in all cases of this power dynamic, the confusion a young person feels when she is eager for the love and attention of the older man blurs the meaning of consent for her.I know it did for me.
Yet the truth is a young teenager isn’t capable of consent; she is unaware of the price she’ll pay for what seems like love but is actually abuse. When the perpetrator is a well-liked or respected leader, like a coach or teacher, the confusion is worse because we are all led to believe this is a trustworthy person.
The devastating and powerful memoir from a French publisher who was abused by a famous writer from the age of thirteen
'Dazzling' New York Times
'A gut-punch of a memoir with prose that cuts like a knife' Kate Elizabeth Russell, author of My Dark Vanessa
Thirty years ago, Vanessa Springora was the teenage muse of one of France's most celebrated writers, a footnote in the narrative of an influential man. At the end of 2019, as women around the world began to speak out, Springora, now in her forties and the director of one of France's leading publishing houses, decided…
I came of age reading Mary Stewart, Daphne du Maurier, and Phyllis Whitney by flashlight after my school night bedtimes. Their plots mingled romance and murder so elegantly, heightening the already incredible stakes of whether they would physically survive intertwined with the anxiety over the couple’s relationship surviving. All these years later, I still love a good story that makes me wonder how in the world the pair will make it through danger—and if there’ll be a kiss at the end.
Some books may shy away from taboos, but Heather Levy writes fearlessly, dragging topics into the open and spotlighting them, so talking about them is unavoidable.
This isn’t only the story of a woman trying to clear her or her stepbrother’s names after the man who abused her throughout her adolescence turns up murdered; it’s a coming of age as she leans into what she desires and steps into that power.
I love that this is set in rural Oklahoma, a part of the country I feel gets overlooked as far as thrillers and noir go, and the second chance romance and potential that builds between Sam and Eric. This book does feature frank discussions of BDSM/kink and how an abuser exploits it, so please read the content warnings before diving in!
A riveting, dark debut psychological thriller perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, S.J. Watson, and Megan Abbott
From an early age, Sam Mayfair knew she was different. Like any young girl, she developed infatuations and lust-but her desires were always tinged with darkness. Then, when Sam was sixteen, her life was shattered by an abuser close to her. And she made one shocking decision whose ramifications would reverberate throughout her life.
Now, fifteen years later, Sam learns that her abuser has been murdered. The death of the man who plagued her dreams for years should have put an end to…
Let’s face it—we spend a lot of time at work. Work is a big part of our lives, but sometimes it’s terrible and feels like there is no winning against institutionalized sexism and capitalism. And you really want to win! I love reading about women who are finding ways to overcome massive obstacles at work no matter what gets in their way, whether it’s by destroying an industry with a spreadsheet, breaking a curse, ditching a bad boss, or just finding a way to survive. Because sometimes that’s all you can do—survive it. Stories of women working feel endlessly relatable because we have so many shared experiences, and that’s why what happens at work shows up in my reading and my writing.
We all have that one boss that we’re pretty sure is cursing our name and our work. In this book, the boss may just be an evil wizard who has actually cursed four women to hide his misdeeds.
What drew me in was the fairy-tale elements of this novel. Again, it’s set in a modern context but uses fantasy elements to drive home the absurdity of modern work culture and the horrors that women experience at work, no matter how good they may be at their jobs. Especially if they’re good at their jobs.
It’s also a powerful story about fierce and angry women who find common ground and work together to improve their collective situations. Anytime women work together to destroy an evil villain, I’m in.
A powerful fairy tale of four women each cursed by the same abusive man. Gripping and essential, it will captivate readers of Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, Heather Walter's Malice and Menna van Praag's The Sisters Grimm.
Four women. Four enchantments. One man. But he is no handsome prince, and this is no sugar-sweet fairy tale. Jo, Abony, Ranjani, and Maia all have something in common: they have each been cursed by the CEO of their workplace after he abused his power to prey on them. He wants them silent and uses his sinister dark magic to keep them quiet…
I got started as a writer through writing fiction intended to accompany a hobby, to deepen worldbuilding, and breathe life into the miniatures in a table-top wargame. I have always been fascinated by the worlds that grab our attention, that yank at our nostrils and dare us to make something more, to tell our own stories in this grander universe. So, I put together this list of books to accompany you as you dream of other worlds and build something with that hobby, whether it is painting miniatures for your friends, knitting, or whatever keeps your hands occupied. Here is a list of books to keep you company.
I am relatively new to the writing of T Kingfisher and my introduction was the fantastic Nettle & Bone. Her prose is wonderful. Her story is whimsical. Strange magic runs throughout the book as an almost-nun determines she needs to kill a prince with the help of a dust-wife, a disgraced warrior, and a godmother who isn’t very good at her job. I am a complete sucker for faerie markets, in this case the Goblin Market. Her writing style is refreshing, and I have already bought a bunch more of her books.
An Instant USA Today & Indie Bestseller An Oprah Daily Top 25 Fantasy Book of 2022 An NPR Best Sci Fi, Fantasy, & Speculative Fiction Book of 2022 A Goodreads Best Fantasy Choice Award Nominee
From Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes an original and subversive fantasy adventure.
*A very special hardcover edition, featuring gold foil stamp on the casing and custom endpapers illustrated by the author.*
This isn't the kind of fairytale where the princess marries a prince. It's the one where she kills him.
When my sister was suddenly arrested in 2017, I was thrust into an upside-down world where I had to quickly understand the severe domestic violence that she had been hiding, while also understanding the criminal legal system that was prosecuting her for killing her abuser. In order to do so, I immersed myself in experts and literature, eventually writing a memoir about the experience. These five books personally helped me understand the full scope of violence against women, whether perpetrated by an abusive person or an abusive system.
Prior to my sister’s arrest, I didn’t spend much time thinking about the prison system. I also didn’t realize that up to 90% of women’s prisons are filled with victims of domestic violence and/or gender-based violence caught in the criminal legal system.
This epidemic is best articulated by Leigh Goodmark, a law professor and prolific writer, who clearly distills the issue in this book, while prescribing common-sense abolitionist solutions. This book is a concise and thorough education on criminalized survival, using the voices and experiences of survivors.
A profound, compelling argument for abolition feminism-to protect criminalized survivors of gender-based violence, we must dismantle the carceral system.
Since the 1970s, anti-violence advocates have worked to make the legal system more responsive to gender-based violence. But greater state intervention in cases of intimate partner violence, rape, sexual assault, and trafficking has led to the arrest, prosecution, conviction, and incarceration of victims, particularly women of color and trans and gender-nonconforming people. Imperfect Victims argues that only dismantling the system will bring that punishment to an end.
Amplifying the voices of survivors, including her own clients, abolitionist law professor Leigh Goodmark…
People experiencing intimate partner and other forms of violence have been taught that police, prosecutors, and courts are there to respond when they are harmed and to keep them safe. But in my practice representing survivors of gender-based violence, I have both heard about and witnessed first-hand the many ways that the criminal system punishes the survivors that it promised to protect. Survivors are harassed, harmed, and arrested by police. Their experiences of trauma are minimized and denied by prosecutors and judges. They are held criminally responsible for acting in self-defense and for the actions of the people who abuse them.
Coming out of law school in 1994, around the time of the passage of the Violence Against Women Act, I firmly believed that criminalization was the way to address intimate partner violence. As a new legal services lawyer, I encouraged my clients to turn to the criminal legal system because I believed it would keep them safe.
This book introduced me to the reality that that system was punishing survivors and showed me how Black survivors of violence were uniquely vulnerable to criminalization. I owe a massive debt to Beth Richie’s work.
