Here are 100 books that Her Deadly Game fans have personally recommended if you like
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I've been an avid reader of murder mysteries since I was a kid when my grandmother gave me my first Agatha Christie novel for Christmas. What I love about Christie and the books I’ve picked here is that just when you think you have the whole thing figured out, the writers give you a big SMACK up side the head. So, whether the mysteries are cozies, courtroom dramas or femme noir, they all give you that moment toward the end where you cry out loud, “No way!” and then flip furiously back through the pages to see how you missed it.
Louise Penny has hooked me again with another great installment in the Inspector Gamache series. I was so excited when I opened the book and found I would be returning to Three Pines for a new murder and an old story line Penny has been dangling in front of me since book one.
Both are resolved in this book (I think, but you never know) and the end is more than satisfying. There's still a lot of unfinished business in that little town and this incredible cast of characters just keeps me coming back for more. Moreover, (I remind my husband every time I start a new book in the series), I would run away with Armand Gamache if given even the slightest chance.
How the Light Gets In is the ninth Chief Inspector Gamache Novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny.
"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." —Leonard Cohen
Christmas is approaching, and in Québec it's a time of dazzling snowfalls, bright lights, and gatherings with friends in front of blazing hearths. But shadows are falling on the usually festive season for Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Most of his best agents have left the Homicide Department, his old friend and lieutenant Jean-Guy Beauvoir hasn't spoken to him in months, and hostile forces are lining…
I've been an avid reader of murder mysteries since I was a kid when my grandmother gave me my first Agatha Christie novel for Christmas. What I love about Christie and the books I’ve picked here is that just when you think you have the whole thing figured out, the writers give you a big SMACK up side the head. So, whether the mysteries are cozies, courtroom dramas or femme noir, they all give you that moment toward the end where you cry out loud, “No way!” and then flip furiously back through the pages to see how you missed it.
What a wild ride! Author Susie Black didn’t let me off this roller coaster until I’d twisted and turned my way through a fantastic whodunit.
The tenacious amateur sleuth, Holly Schlivinik, is VP of sales at Ditzy Swimwear, and right out of the chute, she’s in a mess of a murder. Both friends and foes are implicated, and even Holly herself looks suspicious.
The writing is witty, fast paced and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. There’s also a great group of women called the yentas, who both support Holly and have no problem telling her when she’s lost her mind. With this being the first in a series of Holly Swimsuit Mysteries, I’m going to put the kettle on and settle in for the mayhem to come.
Everyone wanted her dead…but who actually killed her? The last thing swimwear sales exec Holly Schlivnik expected was to discover ruthless buying office big wig Bunny Frank's corpse trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey with a bikini stuffed down her throat. When Holly's colleague is arrested for Bunny's murder, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to find the real killer. Nothing turns out the way Holly thinks it will as she matches wits with a wily murderer hellbent for revenge.
I've been an avid reader of murder mysteries since I was a kid when my grandmother gave me my first Agatha Christie novel for Christmas. What I love about Christie and the books I’ve picked here is that just when you think you have the whole thing figured out, the writers give you a big SMACK up side the head. So, whether the mysteries are cozies, courtroom dramas or femme noir, they all give you that moment toward the end where you cry out loud, “No way!” and then flip furiously back through the pages to see how you missed it.
I found this to be a wonderful read. It's fun, entertaining, and filled with just enough twists and misdirection to keep me turning pages.
Kendall built such great characters and left just enough clues that I thought maybe the whole town had done it right up until the end. She also gave me a glimpse behind the scenes into the world of handbag design (not a subject I thought I cared about until I read this book).
A great book for a rainy afternoon. I hear she has another In Purse-Suit Mystery in the works. And who doesn't like a mystery series?
When celebrated international purse designer, Katherine Watson, hosts a gala for her Purse-onality Museum, she never expected the next day's headline to read: 'Murder at the Gala Premiere.' But after a dead body is found during the event, that's exactly what happened.
Working to solve the murder, Katherine matches wits with local cop Jason Holmes and his K-9 partner, Hobbs. Although Holmes and Watson disagree often, they discover an undeniable attraction building between them. But they'll have to put their feelings on hold and focus on solving the murder, before Katherine becomes the killer's next knock off.
The first female police detective in Acapulco, Emilia Cruz, dives into an ocean of secrets and lies when she is forced to lead the investigation into her own lieutenant's murder.
Caught between the powerful head of the police union and resentful colleagues, Emilia becomes a pawn in a game of…
I've been an avid reader of murder mysteries since I was a kid when my grandmother gave me my first Agatha Christie novel for Christmas. What I love about Christie and the books I’ve picked here is that just when you think you have the whole thing figured out, the writers give you a big SMACK up side the head. So, whether the mysteries are cozies, courtroom dramas or femme noir, they all give you that moment toward the end where you cry out loud, “No way!” and then flip furiously back through the pages to see how you missed it.
To say Revenge in 3 Parts is a page-turner doesn’t do it justice. And justice is the name of this game for Angeline Porter, a woman who makes no excuses for any and all actions needed to find out who killed her sister.
Book one of the trilogy kept me on edge, wondering what Ang was going to do at any given moment. About halfway through, I stopped trying to predict what was on the next page and just enjoyed it with full abandon.
A GRIPPING TALE OF REVENGE, BETRAYAL, AND JUSTICE DENIED.
Her sister is dead. The FBI, the mob, and a stalker all played a part. Now they’d better watch their backs…
Angeline Porter won’t budge from her convictions. After getting disbarred for breaking the rules to put a criminal away, the former attorney still believes in doling out justice. So when her troubled sibling takes her own life, Angeline’s quest for the truth turns into a frenzied hunt for vengeance.
Caught in a whirlpool of grief, her relentless chase for answers exposes an ugly chain of betrayal, sex, and extortion that…
A few years ago (okay, decades, really), I left the seminary to become a young evangelist, then a denominational youth director, a college public relations director, a guest lecturer, an adjunct professor, and a pastor in three churches. And now I write.
I was in Israel when terrorists landed on the beach, intending to attack a hotel filled with travelers. Maybe my hotel. Their mission was thwarted, but I started thinking about terrorists attacking my homeland. And then it happened. Over the years, I’ve studied issues involving terrorism and even graduated from the Seattle FBI Citizens Academy. This is why I write inspirational thrillers today.
I love how the story drew me into the racially charged Civil Rights 60’s era with totally believable characters: a white male lawyer who is in over his head, defending a black handyman charged with murdering a white elderly couple, and an experienced female black attorney who partners with him to defend the accused.
A well-written storyline and an unlikely cast of characters kept me up late. I’ve read many Baldacci books, giving this story a definite Five Stars. It might be his best!
Set in the tumultuous year of 1968 in southern Virginia, a racially-charged murder case sets a duo of white and Black lawyers against a deeply unfair system as they work to defend their wrongfully-accused Black defendants in this courtroom drama from #1New York Timesbestselling author David Baldacci.
Jack Lee is a white lawyer from Freeman County, Virginia, who has never done anything to push back against racism, until he decides to represent Jerome Washington, a Black man charged with brutally killing an elderly and wealthy white couple. Doubting his decision, Lee fears that his legal skills may not be enough…
I’m a seventh-generation West Virginian. My husband and I own the farm that’s been in my family since before the Civil War. My Appalachian roots are sunk deep, so when it comes to “writing what you know,” this is it! I was baptized in stories by my father who transformed my ancestors and my history into a living, breathing cast of characters I longed to meet. So, I began to write their stories in the guise of novels about made-up people. My seven novels (and two novellas) are love letters to the place that shaped me.
Don’t you love that title?!? And the novel is based on a true story about a ghost who testified at her own trial. Seriously. Testimony from the Greenbrier Ghost was accepted in a court of law. I’m just sorry I didn’t get around to writing about this one before Sharyn did!
From New York Times bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb comes this finely wrought novel set in nineteenth-century West Virginia, based on the true story of one of the strangest murder trials in American history-the case of the Greenbrier Ghost.
Lakin, West Virginia, 1930-Following a suicide attempt and consigned to a segregated insane asylum, attorney James P.D. Gardner finds himself under the care of Dr. James Boozer. Eager to try the new talking cure for insanity, Boozer encourages his elderly patient to reminisce about his experiences as the first black attorney to practice law in nineteenth-century West Virginia. In his forty-year career,…
With plot elements inspired by presidential elections in both the US and Mexico, Barracuda Bay follows Acapulco’s first female police detective, Emilia Cruz, as she investigates the murder of the mayor’s sister—only to become a fugitive hunted by killers disguised as cops in Washington, DC. The stakes couldn’t be higher…
I have been an avid sci-fi/fantasy lover and tabletop gamer my whole life. Many of my best memories involve me inventing stories explaining why my buddy’s armies and mine were duking it out on the battlefield or interpreting what the dice rolls really meant for my character. Today, I write for one of my favorite game universes, Kings of War. I have made a living out of stories by writing them or teaching about them. I love making my universes believable while still maintaining integrity to their original source material. I also love making flawed, relatable characters to give readers hope as they read about them overcoming those flaws.
What kind of list would this be about massive universes without mentioning the Cosmere? Brandon Sanderson is the undisputed king of worldbuilding because he is so meticulously obsessed with the details, and is so good at juggling all of them in a way that interweaves like a tapestry of crossing stories.
The fact that this story holds dozens of nods to characters from his other stories that exist within the same universe as the worlds on which this book takes place while not being confusing to someone unfamiliar with all that the Cosmere has to offer is why I want to recommend this book in particular, though.
I will freely admit that I am not a Cosmere aficionado. The task of trying to keep up on everything that Sanderson writes is entirely too daunting for me (how does the man write so much, so well, and so fast?!!). But I…
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson―creator of The Stormlight Archive, the Mistborn Saga, and countless bestselling works of science fiction and fantasy―comes this gripping story set in the Cosmere universe told by Hoid, where two people from incredibly different cultures must work together to save their worlds from certain disaster.
Yumi has spent her entire life in strict obedience, granting her the power to summon the spirits that bestow vital aid upon her society―but she longs for even a single day as a normal person. Painter patrols the dark streets dreaming of being a hero―a goal that…
As well as featuring kick-ass female lead characters, all the books listed delve into why people do what they do – and this has always fascinated me; it’s why I became a journalist. Talking to victims of crime, I was always struck by their strength (and that was never more true than when I fronted an award-winning campaign for victims of domestic abuse). Prior to that, I worked at a high-security men’s prison, and getting to know the prisoners had a profound impact on me. Now, whether reading or writing a book, I love to get under the skin of characters and find their ‘why.’
What’s better than a strong female lead character? A whole cast of them! A group of servants gang together to pull off the ultimate heist, clearing an entire house during a party. How audacious is that?! As soon as I read that premise, I had to find out how on earth they would pull it off.
Rather like an Edwardian, all-women Ocean’s Eleven, the plot has clever twists and turns that kept me turning the pages. I really enjoyed getting to know each one of the gang, too, as they’re all so different, and the book as a whole was such a refreshing take on both historical fiction and the heist genre.
The night of London's grandest ball, a bold group of women downstairs plot a daring revenge heist against Mayfair society in this dazzling historical novel about power, gender, and class
Named a Best Book of Summer by The Washington Post * Good Housekeeping * Harper's Bazaar * Reader's Digest
“Rollicking fun and entirely original... Anyone who relishes a good party gone wrong will devour this.” —Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Apothecary
Mrs. King is no ordinary housekeeper. Born into a world of con artists and thieves, she’s made herself respectable, running the grandest home in…
I’ve heard many stories from friends who, as adults, discovered that the person they always believed to be their mother or father was not, and saw what it did to their sense of self. I became fascinated by the how and why a family would perpetuate such a lie, and it made me wonder about the difference between a secret and a lie, and if there is one. This set me off writing novels about family secrets, and reading many more. I enjoy exploring what such devastating news does to a person, and to the entire family, once the secret is discovered.
This story grabbed my heart, sometimes clutching it in pain, sometimes bursting with pleasure.
This is a family saga I will long remember. I love a book with gorgeous prose that makes me stop and re-read. Napolitano’s sentences and phrases, metaphors, and similes did that. I wanted to savor the words, like rich dark chocolate, on my tongue.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Edward comes a poignant and engrossing family story that asks: Can love make a broken person whole?
“Hello Beautiful is exactly that: beautiful, perceptive, wistful. It’s a story of family and friendship, of how the people we are bound to can also set us free. I loved it.”—Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman…
I love horror, as a writer and a reader, especially books where something or someone is changed. It could be a change to some unknown entity, or to a loved one that the main character knows inside and out. The question remains: what do we do when someone or something comes back to us, but they’re not the same? How do we navigate the unease that comes from an uncomfortable blend of the familiar and unfamiliar? The books in this list left me asking these and many other questions. I hope you enjoy them.
In this book, one of the main characters comes back wrong—early on, too. I really felt for poor Finch, who was saved by something mysterious in the lake after a car crash with her parents. She’s grieving their loss, dealing with her strange new reality, and adjusting to life at boarding school.
Finch’s tie to the mysterious being that saved her made this book hard to put down and added an intriguing element to the story after Finch and her friends let out a monster under their school. I loved the explorations of self-identity and what we value that this book raised.
Two girls, inexplicably linked. An ancient creature rising in the dark. And a town on the verge of being devoured. My Dearest Darkest is a sharp, feminist horror debut, about girls claiming their power, and the price we sometimes pay for wanting. Finch Chamberlin is the newest transfer student to the ultra-competitive Ulalume Academy... but she's also not what she seems. Months before school started, Finch and her parents got into an accident that should have left her dead at the bottom of the river. But something monstrous, and ancient, and terrifying, wouldn't let her drown. Finch doesn't know why…
