Here are 24 books that The House Guest fans have personally recommended if you like
The House Guest.
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My passion is writing crime fiction and more. William J. Warner is my name. I am a retired FBI Agent who worked violent crime cases. I developed a wealth of experience interviewing seedy people around the globe. As such, I love writing their dialogue and incorporating it with those of good intentions. I’ve written seven books. My degrees are in business, forensic psychology, and law. My novels include Holdup Number Six, Appalachian Impasse, Gold Line to Lenox, Going Knee to Knee with FBI Polygraph, Ohio Boys, Hoosier Fields, and Jewels In The Sand where I digressed into a love & war saga with a tear-jerking finish.
Having worked bank robberies as a former FBI Special Agent, I have a keen sense as to what makes these people tick. Most are quite ignorant, however, occasionally clever planning takes place by those as brazen as Hogan has portrayed here. A true masterpiece, Chuck Hogan does a splendid job bringing his characters to life in all the real-life depictions you will enjoy. This is a gut-wrenching roller coaster mixing crime with romantic infatuation to the point you can’t stop reading. I’ll admit, once the movie came out, I had to get the book and now it’s one of my all-time favorite crime thrillers.
From the author of The Strain comes a tense, psychologically gripping, Hammet award-winning thriller.
Four masked men—thieves, rivals, and friends from the tough streets of Charlestown—take on a Boston bank at gunpoint. Holding bank manager Claire Keesey hostage and cleaning out the vault were simple. But career criminal Doug MacRay didn't plan on one thing: falling hard for Claire. When he tracks her down without his mask and gun, their mutual attraction is undeniable. With a tenacious FBI agent following his every move, he imagines a life away from his gritty, dangerous work—a life centered around Claire. But before that…
Mood swings and insomnia are one thing, hot flash-induced psychic visions are quite another. When Olivia Wilde realizes the visions she’s experiencing in the midst of hot flashes are actually premonitions, she must learn to understand and trust what she sees in order to help a friend, preserve a piece…
I’ve always been drawn to locked-room mysteries, the baffling mysteries where the crime looks truly impossible. The mystery becomes not only who did it, but also how. It’s the ultimate puzzle. The best locked-room mysteries include gothic elements that make you wonder if something supernatural is responsible, but then are resolved with a satisfying rational explanation—like Scooby-Doo for adults. I’ve written more than a dozen mystery novels, but until now, I’ve only focused on locked-room mysteries in my short fiction. In my new Secret Staircase mystery series, I’m focusing on these puzzles in my novels. Here, I’m sharing some of my favorite locked-room mysteries that feature truly ingenious puzzles.
Multiple ingenious impossible crimes feature into the first Jessica Blackwood thriller by magician Andrew Mayne. A killer calling himself the Warlock claims to be using supernatural powers to perform deadly miracles, and only former stage magician Jessica Blackwood, now an FBI agent, can see through his tricks. Because magicians create misdirection for a living, they’re perfect characters to unravel seemingly impossible crimes. As a bonus, Jessica Blackwood is a terrific character you’ll root for.
Meet Jessica Blackwood, FBI Agent and ex-illusionist.
Called in because of her past to offer expertise on the mysterious 'Warlock' case, Jessica must put all her unique knowledge to the test as the FBI try to catch a ruthless killer.
Needing to solve the unsolvable, and with the clock ticking, they're banking on her being the only one able to see beyond the Warlock's illusions.
The first in a brilliant new series, Angel Killer will have you feverishly turning the pages, and in Jessica Blackwood, Mayne has created a complex, sassy and unforgettable new heroine.
Haven’t we all seen things? Done things? Felt guilt or remorse over stuff that happened? I’m fascinated by the darkness within and I’m an eternal student of psychology. I was a musician first. I’ve played piano since age three and studied music at Berklee College of Music. Later, I found my artistic calling when I began to write. Those life experiences have added up and it’s not all roses. My characters have good hearts but they’re struggling with demons—like we all do. I hope my readers can relate and if not, maybe they see something true.
Jane Hawk is as fierce and fearless as they come. She’s a rogue FBI agent on a mission to learn why her well-adjusted husband suddenly committed suicide along with hundreds of others. This case has nothing to do with cults, or Kool-Aid. As she gets closer to the truth, Jane is hunted too. She’s lost so much, her one true love and the doting father of their boy, but Jane is driven to make the leader of this horrific tragedy pay. This book is laced with Koontz’s flair for description and his talent for pushing readers to the edge of their seats for a heart-pounding conclusion.
Book 1 in a gripping new thriller series featuring rogue FBI agent Jane Hawk, from the master of suspense and New York Times #1 bestselling author Dean Koontz.
When nowhere is safe...
'I very much need to be dead'
These are the chilling last words left by a man who had everything to live for but took his own life. In the void that remains stands his widow, FBI agent Jane Hawk, determined to do what all the grief and fury inside her demand: find the truth, no matter what.
Farrah Wethers struggles with her new midlife career as a massage therapist. Her wealthy client is murdered on her table making her suspect number one. Can Farrah and her best friend, June Cho, sort through the suspects to find the real killer?
Aside from reading (preferably at the beach), one of my favorite pastimes is watching movies or TV with my husband. We enjoy analyzing plots and talking about what we do or don’t like, what surprised us, or how we might have handled a scene differently. It seems the better ones are most often based on novels, usually with strong, well-developed characters, emotional punch, interesting settings, and/or hard-to-guess plot twists. This is my list of stories I think are strong in those characteristics and would make great movies or TV shows/series.
This story is filled with quirky characters, a beautiful backdrop, suspense, and sweet romance, perfect for a romantic comedy. Escaping an abusive fiancé, Laurel McDowell flees with her feisty feline Rufus and her few belongings to her family home in California’s Big Sur. Trouble quickly follows. Soon, she is embroiled in a money laundering conspiracy and finds herself in the cross-hairs of the Russian Mafia. Luckily, FBI forensic accountant Jake Carlson is on the case. This author has a gift for humor, and I found myself chuckling as I read. The supporting characters—Laurel’s restaurateur mother, her two artist sisters, and a high school friend—are likable to the point I wish I could take a cross-country drive to visit.
Desperate to escape her abusive fiancé, sculptor Laurel McDowell pawns her engagement ring, loads everything she owns into her VW Beetle, and heads for the sanctuary of her family home in Big Sur.
After her ex’s body washes up on Carmel beach, she finds herself dragged into a scheme involving money-laundering Russians, a pair of bikers named Snowflake and Twitchy, and a hot FBI number-cruncher who’s more comfortable in a T-shirt and shorts than a suit.
I am a voracious reader who loves to escape my hectic busy life with a good book when I don’t have the opportunity to do so in person. I’m a sucker for a good love story with a little angst and mystery. I read all genres but sexy romantic thrillers are my absolute favorite. I love them so much I started writing my own sexy stories in this genre. It has become my passion. I currently have three published books, Mr. Black, Mr. Stone, and Mr. Bennett, books one, two, and three of A Black Stone Series. My fourth book, Luke, the first book in my new Cross Security series is scheduled for release later this year.
Definitely a page-turner. A dark mystery/thriller/romance that is fed to you through FBI profiler Lilah Love's eyes. FBI agent Lilah Love leads a complicated life. She's engaged to Kane Mendez, a man most call dangerous, but hey birds of a feather, do flock together. She's dangerous, too, and in ways only Kane understands. As for their happily ever after, well that might have to wait. Right now, an old enemy who should be dead is still living, Junior, her mystery letter writer, is stirring up trouble, and her family is trying to prove they're crazier than her. On top of that, she has a new case: a dead woman in a bloody wedding dress. And since Lilah knows all too well there is no such thing as coincidence, clearly, someone is sending her yet another message. If you love romantic suspense novels, secrets, and scandals with a bit of profiling…
As an FBI profiler, it’s Lilah Love’s job to think like a killer. And she is very good at her job. When a series of murders surface—the victims all stripped naked and shot in the head—Lilah’s instincts tell her it’s the work of an assassin, not a serial killer. But when the case takes her back to her hometown in the Hamptons and a mysterious but unmistakable connection to her own life, all her assumptions are shaken to the core.Thrust into a troubled past she’s tried to shut the door on, Lilah’s back in the town where her father is…
I am a writer and an internationally recognized communications expert who grew up poor, homeless, and oppressed by fear and violence. I am a woman who crashed through the glass ceiling and had an exciting career with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency where I became a leader on the international stage. During my troubled times growing up, I fantasized about being an elite operative who got the bad guys and traveled the world. That’s why I wrote about one. I know how hard it is to be a strong woman. That’s why I celebrate them.
The intriguing plot and the smart strength of the main character, Rowan Smith, kept me reading page after page, which isn’t easy with my short attention span. Rowan is a former FBI agent who wrote a bestselling novel that is being made into a movie. She is stalked by a mysterious killer who is copycatting the murders that she wrote about in her book. This story has all my favorite elements—a strong woman main character, a traumatic past that made her tough, and a story that is non-stop suspense.
First, she imagined it. Then a killer made it real.
“Taut, fast-paced suspense . . . a killer debut.”—Mariah Stewart
Rowan Smith is living in a borrowed Malibu beach house while her bestselling novel is made into a Hollywood movie. A former FBI agent with a haunted past, Rowan thinks she has outrun her demons. But fiction and reality collide when a dismembered body is found in Colorado: the real-life victim had the same name, occupation, and looks as a character in Rowan’s novel. By the time the FBI, the LAPD, and her own private bodyguard gather around her, another…
Cozy mysteries tend to exist in a simpler world, one without extreme violence and heavy swearing. They are often set in bucolic settings, but they deal with murder! I love many of the cozy tropes—tea, cats, dogs or other pets, family shenanigans, food. I think it’s family nuances that draw me the most to cozies. Whether it’s a romantic comedy or just one full of capers and laughter, cozies are my favorite genre.
This is soccer mom meets the film True Lies, with monkeys thrown in for good measure. This caper has laughs, fun, romance, and pacing that had me finishing it in one sitting. Barbara Marr’s mid-life crisis doesn’t end in divorce and finding new love—no, this is more clever.
And after book one, Barb and her friends continue finding dead bodies and household crisis’ that anyone over forty can appreciate. The whole neighborhood is often involved in Barbara Marr capers, each one a tangled mess of clues, mishaps, and criminals.
Film lover Barbara Marr is a typical suburban mom living the typical suburban life in her sleepy little town of Rustic Woods, Virginia. Typical, that is until she sets out to find the missing link between a bizarre monkey sighting in her yard and the bone chilling middle-of-the-night fright fest at the strangely vacant house next door. When Barb talks her two friends into some seemingly innocent Charlie's Angels-like sleuthing, they stumble upon way more than they bargained for and uncover a piece of neighborhood history that certain people would kill to keep on the cutting room floor.Enter sexy PI…
I’ve loved biology and medicine since the fifth grade when I learned about white blood cells and their function. For thirty years, I worked in intensive care where adrenaline levels run high. A good thriller does the same. It keeps my heart beating fast and my attention completely focused. Yet also, I’m a mother of three boys, and I’ve always worked in pediatrics and neonatology. I love kids, and I love being a mom. The heart in these books makes them more than simply an adrenaline fix on the page. I find the blend of heart with page-turning intrigue makes for a perfect read.
I chose this book because it’s another one written for a female audience, in a big way–the author is female, the protagonist is female, the president of the United States in the story is a woman, and the greatest little detail I fully appreciate is when a man serves the coffee to a room full of important people, including the protagonist.
Another book with a great balance of medicine, intrigue, life and death urgency, and best of all, characters I could appreciate and root for.
The President's only child is dying. Terrorists claim to have the cure. When a private plane whisks CDC epidemiologist Madeline Hamilton to Washington D.C. for an urgent medical symposium, she knows something significant is underway—but she doesn't expect to face the most disturbing medical mystery of her career. A debilitating neurological toxin has stricken the children of several political families, and one of them is the son of U.S. President Anna Moreland.
With the lives of children on the line, Madeline assembles a team of medical experts. The investigation takes a horrifying turn when she starts receiving communications from the…
I am a psychiatrist and former American diplomat, who served overseas in Europe, Russia, Mexico, and India. My regional diplomatic travels took me to over 70 countries over several decades. I have always loved spy thrillers because they highlight the intrigue, drama, psychology, and history of different cultures, which brings out the humanity, courage, and tragedy of the characters therein. Good spy thrillers also capture a sense of place, culture, and history, and possess an authenticity that gives them a broader, universal appeal.
I loved this work! And its realism truly frightened me.
James Lawler, a legendary CIA officer, has followed his brilliant debut novel (Living Lies: A Novel of the Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program) with a very frightening and all-too-contemporary thriller about bioweapons. This is not science fiction, and the fields of bioweapons and neuro weapons - think ‘Havana Syndrome’ or lethal viruses such as COVID and EBOLA - have been extensively studied by America’s adversaries.
Jim has told a gripping, taut, and exciting tale of Russia’s and North Korea’s collaboration in the development of such bioweapons. The characters are fascinating and believable, as is the plot line. Lawler’s novel combines espionage, mystery, and science fiction – or not! – in a terrifying, real-world, 21st-century mystery thriller.
"In the Twinkling of an Eye" is a story about espionage, family love, and loyalty, focused on a Russian-North Korean conspiracy to develop a devastating biological weapon for assassination, terror and genocide, as written by a senior CIA operations officer whose career was devoted to battling the spread of weapons of mass destruction. This is the second book in the thrilling Guild Series!
In 1986, a Ukrainian teenager loses his father and his own left eye to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, but he escapes and becomes a top-notch genetics engineer at Moscow State University. There, he is seduced into joining…
As a parent, grandparent, retired educator, historian, and children’s book author, I am an avid reader and advocate for children’s literacy. My forty years of experience working with children and their families gives me the background and expertise to identify high-quality books and the types of subjects that children will want to read and adults in the family will enjoy sharing with them.
I adore the Auntie Lily character who has a penchant for telling silly stories. Each of these stories composed in clever rhymes feature a silly animal doing something outrageous. Children become interactive partners visualizing and acting out the hijinks like a stork riding on a subway train or a fly that works for the FBI. The fun continues because readers get ten riddles to solve at the end of the tale. This book is fun for the whole family from preschooler to grandma!
Have You Ever Seen? is a perfect read right before sleep, as you lighten the mood with Auntie Lily's silly rhymes and thus guarantee bedtime with a smile :)Silly Auntie LilyWho’s tall and also smallImagines silly thingsThat make no sense at allShe tells us silly storiesAnd does so all in rhyme'Cause silly Auntie Lily Is silly all the timeHave fun and help your child develop with Have You Ever Seen? - the hilarious first in the READY TO READ children's books series about funny, silly, and nonsensical situations that will have you and your kids rolling with laughter.
