Rip-Roaring Rousing Fiction
Discover rip-roaring, rousing fiction with our curated list of thrilling books. Dive into action-packed stories and epic adventures that will keep you on the edge of your seat!
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Plum Lovin'
by Janet Evanovich
From #1 blockbuster bestselling author Janet Evanovich comes a Stephanie Plum novel that takes adventure, action, suspense (and maybe even true love?) to new heights. WATCH YOUR BACK . . . LOOK BOTH WAYS . . . BECAUSE LOVE IS IN THE AIR . . . AND THAT MEANS BIG TROUBLE! Mysterious men have a way of showing up in Stephanie Plum's apartment. When the shadowy Diesel appears, he has a task for Stephanie--and he's not taking no for an answer. Annie Hart is a "relationship expert" who is wanted for armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. Stephanie needs to find her, fast. Diesel knows where she is. So they make a deal: He'll help her get Annie if Stephanie plays matchmaker to several of Annie's most difficult clients. But someone wants to find Annie even more than Diesel and Stephanie. Someone with a nasty temper. And someone with "unmentionable" skills. Does Diesel know more than he's saying about Annie Hart? Does Diesel have secrets he's keeping from Stephanie and the two men in her life--Ranger and Morelli? With Stephanie Plum in over her head, things are sure to get a little dicey and a little explosive, Jersey style!
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Lie Down with the Devil
by Linda Barnes
Boston P.I. Carlotta Carlyle's allegedly unfaithful fiancé disappears right after his supposed mistress turns up dead.
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The Appeal
by John Grisham
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • “Fascinating ... filled with deadly accurate characterizations by an author who knows both the law and politics from the inside.”—Los Angeles Times In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town’s water supply, causing the worst “cancer cluster” in history. The company appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will one day either approve the verdict or reverse it. Who are the nine? How will they vote? Can one be replaced before the case is ultimately decided? The chemical company is owned by a Wall Street predator named Carl Trudeau, and Mr. Trudeau is convinced the Court is not friendly enough. With judicial elections looming, he decides to try to purchase himself a seat on the Court. The cost is a few million dollars, a drop in the bucket for a billionaire like Mr. Trudeau. Through an intricate web of conspiracy and deceit, his political operatives recruit a young, unsuspecting candidate. They finance him, manipulate him, market him, and mold him into a potential Supreme Court justice. Their Supreme Court justice. The Appeal is a powerful, timely, and shocking story of political and legal intrigue, a story that will leave readers unable to think about our electoral process or judicial system in quite the same way ever again. Don’t miss John Grisham’s new book, THE EXCHANGE: AFTER THE FIRM!
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Another Thing to Fall
by Laura Lippman
The "New York Times"-bestselling author of "What the Dead Know" is back with an indelible tale that probes the darkest recesses of the human heart. William Morrow & Company
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Running Scared
by Ken Douglas
Joey Sapphire wakes next to a dead man, the son of the American Ambassador to Trinidad, in a boat at anchor. It quickly dawns on her that she has to get rid of the body, because it looked like she did it and they hang murderers in Trinidad. So she weighs it down and drops it overboard. But she knows she's not safe, because the killer knows about her.
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Still Summer
by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Twenty years after a shared childhood marked by their considerable popularity, Tracy, Olivia, and Holly reunite on a luxury Caribbean cruise during which a chance mistake triggers a series of devastating events that puts their survival in jeopardy. By the author of Cage of Stars. 100,000 first printing.
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Lady Killer
by Lisa Scottoline
Mary DiNunzio is a trademark Lisa Scottoline heroine—she's strong, she's smart, and she's got plenty of attitude. In recent years, she's become a big-time business-getter at Rosato & Associates, but the last person she expects to walk into her office one morning—in mile-high stilettos—is super sexy Trish Gambone, her high school rival. Back then, while Mary was becoming the straight-A president of the Latin Club and Most Likely to Achieve Sainthood, Trish was the head Mean Girl, who flunked religion and excelled at smoking in the bathroom. As it turns out, however, Trish's life has taken a horrifying turn. She's terrified of her live-in boyfriend, who's an abusive, gun-toting drug dealer for the South Philly mob. There's only one problem—Mary remembers the guy from high school too. Unbeknownst to Trish, Mary had a major crush on him. Then Trish vanishes, a dead body turns up in an alley, and Mary is plunged into a nightmare, one that threatens her job, her family, and even her life. She goes on a one-woman crusade to unmask the killer, and on the way, finds new love in a very unexpected place. But before the novel's shocking surprise ending, Mary is forced to confront some very uncomfortable truths about her own past, and the profound effects of lifelong love—and hate.
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Double Take
by Catherine Coulter
Murder, mystery and breathtaking suspense in the roller-coaster ride of the year.
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Christine Falls
by Benjamin Black
The hero of Christine Falls, Quirke, is a surly pathologist living in 1950s Dublin. One night, after having a few drinks at a party, he returns to the morgue to find his brother-in-law tampering with the records on a young woman's corpse. The next morning, when his hangover has worn off, Quirke reluctantly begins looking into the woman's history. He discovers a plot that spans two continents, implicates the Catholic Church, and may just involve members of his own family. He is warned--first subtly, then with violence--to lay off, but Quirke is a stubborn man. The first novel in the Quirke series brings all the vividness and psychological insight of John Banville's writing to the dark, menacing atmosphere of a first-class thriller.
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A Prisoner of Birth
by Jeffrey Archer
International bestseller and master storyteller Jeffrey Archer is at the very top of his game in a story of fate and fortune, redemption and revenge. If Danny Cartwright had proposed to Beth Wilson the day before, or the day after, he would not have been arrested and charged with the murder of his best friend. But when the four prosecution witnesses are a barrister, a popular actor, an aristocrat, and the youngest partner in an established firm’s history, who is going to believe your side of the story? Danny is sentenced to twenty-two years and sent to Belmarsh prison, the highest-security jail in the land, from where no inmate has ever escaped. However, Spencer Craig, Lawrence Davenport, Gerald Payne, and Toby Mortimer all underestimate Danny’s determination to seek revenge, and Beth’s relentless quest to pursue justice, which ends up with all four fighting for their lives, Thus begins Jeffrey Archer’s most powerful novel since Kane and Abel, with a cast of characters that will remain with you long after you’ve turned the last page. And if that is not enough, prepare for an ending that will shock even the most ardent of Archer’s fans.
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Flower Net
by Lisa See
“Lisa See begins to do for Beijing what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did for turn-of-the-century London or Dashiell Hammett did for 1920s San Francisco: She discerns the hidden city lurking beneath the public facade.” –The Washington Post Book World In the depths of a Beijing winter, during the waning days of Deng Xiaoping’s reign, the U.S. ambassador’s son is found dead–his body entombed in a frozen lake. Around the same time, aboard a ship adrift off the coast of Southern California, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Stark makes a startling discovery: the corpse of a Red Prince, a scion of China’s political elite. The Chinese and American governments suspect that the deaths are connected and, in an unprecedented move, they join forces to see justice done. In Beijing, David teams up with the unorthodox police detective Liu Hulan. In an investigation that brings them to every corner of China and sparks an intense attraction between the two, David and Hulan discover a web linking human trafficking to the drug trade to governmental treachery–a web reaching from the Forbidden City to the heart of Los Angeles and, like the wide flower net used by Chinese fishermen, threatening to ensnare all within its reach. “A graceful rendering of two different and complex cultures, within a highly intricate plot . . . The starkly beautiful landscapes of Beijing and its surrounding countryside are depicted with a lyrical precision.” –Los Angeles Times Book Review “Murder and intrigue splash across the canvas of modern Chinese life. . . . A vivid portrait of a vast Communist nation in the painful throes of a sea change.” –People “Fascinating . . . that rare thriller that enlightens as well as it entertains.” –San Diego Union-Tribune A Finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
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Baltimore Blues
by Laura Lippman
Unemployed journalist Tess Monaghan accepts an assigment from a suspected killer who wold have her engage in unorthodox snooping in orde to clear his name
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Special Topics in Calamity Physics
by Marisha Pessl
The mesmerizing bestseller that combines the storytelling gifts of Donna Tartt and the suspense of Alfred Hitchcock—A New York Times Ten Best Book of the Year Special Topics in Calamity Physics is a darkly hilarious coming-of-age tale and a richly plotted suspense story, told with dazzling intelligence and wit. At the center of the novel is clever, deadpan Blue van Meer, who has a head full of literary, philosophical, scientific, and cinematic knowledge. But she could use some friends. Upon entering the elite St. Gallway School, she finds some—a clique of eccentrics known as the Bluebloods. One drowning and one hanging later, Blue finds herself puzzling out a byzantine murder mystery. Nabokov meets Donna Tartt (then invites the rest of the Western Canon to the party) in this novel—with visual aids drawn by the author—that has won over readers of all ages.
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L.A. Outlaws
by T. Jefferson Parker
Investigating the latest crime scene of a celebrity thief who has been staging lucrative heists and donating the spoils to charity, rookie deputy Charlie Hood is forced to make an ethics-testing decision when the thief is targeted by a professional killer.
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Blonde Faith
by Walter Mosley
Fearing his friend, Christmas Black, has met his demise when the ex-Marine's daughter is left on his doorstep, reluctant L.A. detective Easy Rawlins finds the challenges of caring for a child further complicated by his ladylove's imminent marriage and another friend's murder accusation. 125,000 first printing.
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The Sanctuary
by Raymond Khoury
More than 250 years after a pretender marquis escapes the decimated palazzo of his vengeful prince, an American Army unit discovers a secret lab in Baghdad where dozens of victims have been subjected to torturous experiments, a finding that places two bold women on the trail of an ancient mystery. By the author of The Last Templar. 150,000 first printing.
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Last Known Victim
by Erica Spindler
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a grisly discovery is made at one of New Orleans' massive refrigerator graveyards--six severed female hands. It's the signature of The Handyman, who remains at large.
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Hitman
by Parnell Hall
The new Stanley Hastings novel featuring the unlikeliest private eye in New York City.
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Killer Heat
by Linda A. Fairstein
Manhattan D.A. Alex Cooper investigates the murders of three victims while dodging infuriated gang members packing heat. Her interrogation skills lead to someone with a twisted obsession concerning the military, and things grow increasingly dangerous whe
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The Broken Window
by Jeffery Deaver
Chasing down a vicious serial killer who complicates his crimes by leaving behind iron-clan evidence implicating innocent people, Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs reluctantly team up for the investigation only to find themselves rendered the killer's next targets. By the author of The Cold Moon. 300,000 first printing.
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The Venetian Betrayal
by Steve Berry
The "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Alexandria Link" offers a gripping international thriller that sends Cotton Malone on a perilous quest for the truth about the mysterious death of Alexander the Great.
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City of Shadows
by Ariana Franklin
A cultured city scarred by war. . . . An eastern émigré with scars and secrets of her own. . . . A young woman claiming to be a Russian grand duchess. . . . A brazen killer, as vicious as he is clever. . . . A detective driven by decency and the desire for justice. . . . A nightmare political movement steadily gaining power. . . . This is 1922 Berlin. One of the troubled city's growing number of refugees, Esther Solomonova survives by working as secretary to the charming, unscrupulous cabaret owner "Prince" Nick, and she's being drawn against her will into his scheme to pass a young asylum patient off as Anastasia, the last surviving heir to the murdered czar of all Russia. But their found "princess," Anna Anderson, fears that she's being hunted—and this may turn out to be more than paranoia when innocent people all around her begin to die.
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Dragon Bones
by Lisa See
In a magnificent land where myth mixes treacherously with truth, one woman is in charge of telling them apart. Liu Hulan is the Inspector in China’s Ministry of Public Security whose tough style rousts wrongdoers and rubs her superiors the wrong way. Now her latest case finds her trapped between her country’s distant past and her own recent history. The case starts at a rally for a controversial cult that ends suddenly in bloodshed, and leads to the apparent murder of an American archaeologist, which officials want to keep quiet. And haunting Hulan’s investigation is the possible theft of ancient dragon bones that might alter the history of civilization itself. Getting to the bottom of ever-spiraling events, Hulan unearths more scandals, confronts more murderers, and revives tragic memories that shake her tormented marriage to its core. In the end, she solves a mystery as big, unruly, and complex as China itself. Praise for Dragon Bones “Stays with you long after the conventional thriller is forgotten.”—The Washington Post Book World “Lisa See is one of the classier practitioners of . . . the international thriller. . . . She draws her characters . . . with convincing depth, and offers up documentary social detail that reeks of freshly raked muck. See’s China is as vivid as Upton Sinclair’s Chicago.”—The New York Times Book Review