Here are 95 books that Black Lies fans have personally recommended if you like
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My passion for true crime fiction started in 2016 with the murders of eight family members in a neighboring county in Southern Ohio. The case made international news, and five years later there are still more questions than answers. I felt the victims of this heinous crime deserved some closure which the legal system has not yet provided. So, writing a fictional version of this story was my way of providing closure - at least in my own mind.
If mystery and suspense are your thing, this is a who-dun-it that will suck you in quickly. This book totally captivated me from start to finish. I think what hooked me was the way the author took the prologue to actually show the past, and then when the novel started, all the threads of the story were sewn together so beautifully. Full of twists and turns which make a great suspense experience. There is some romantic drama tossed in which is always the icing on the cake for me as well.
A Bestselling Novelist’s book comes back to haunt her.
Kayleigh Carter is starting her life over above a coffee shop in downtown Manhattan. She is also the author of the hit thriller, My Legal Guardian, in which a “bad boy billionaire” plays Fifty Shades of Grey-style mind games on a female protagonist. She discovers the previous tenant, a young college girl, of her apartment went missing—the inspiration for her next thriller. However, someone doesn’t want her found and she soon attracts a psychopath. Someone is also one step ahead of her, leaving her messages signed, XXX. But the deeper Kayleigh…
I’m a writer who values telling difficult stories that don’t always cohere to the idea of the “light, fluffy” romance. I write about social issues, grief, trauma, and do my utmost to research whatever topics my characters endure in order to do justice to readers who share these experiences. Having suffered a major trauma myself (my eldest daughter passed away at the age of ten), I’m very interested in stories that deal with characters overcoming tremendous obstacles in order to reach their happily ever afters. I love writing (and reading) stories that go outside the box, that give the reader something more than what they were expecting, couched in solid writing, and possessing all the feels.
I could actually list all of Fisher’s romances or her newer psychological thrillers under this banner of writing that is outside the box. She has taken the idea of “writing fearlessly” and run with it. Lives by it. There is nothing typical about Mud Vein, with prose that feels like mild electric shocks to the brain one minute and brings you to tears the next. It reads as though Fisher doesn’t waste time questioning herself or second-guessing her words—they’re alive and vibrant, and that’s highly aspirational. I have "write fearlessly" literally tattooed on my body, so I take it seriously. ;)
When reclusive novelist Senna Richards wakes up on her thirty-third birthday, everything has changed. Caged behind an electrical fence, locked in a house in the middle of the snow, Senna is left to decode the clues to find out why she was taken. If she wants her freedom, she has to take a close look at her past. But, her past has a heartbeat…and her kidnapper is nowhere to be found. With her survival hanging by a thread, Senna soon realizes this is a game. A dangerous one. Only the truth can set her free.
My passion for true crime fiction started in 2016 with the murders of eight family members in a neighboring county in Southern Ohio. The case made international news, and five years later there are still more questions than answers. I felt the victims of this heinous crime deserved some closure which the legal system has not yet provided. So, writing a fictional version of this story was my way of providing closure - at least in my own mind.
So I read this book back in the late 1970s and when the title of a book that I read so long ago still floats through my mind, demanding a re-read, then that is a great suspense mystery read. Yes, as I re-read this recently, the book captures the 1970s prior to cell phones, internet, etc., but it still holds up with the twisty events of a woman haunted by a past she does not remember. You will have a challenge in trying to figure out exactly which character to believe! A young woman wakes up on the desert floor with nothing but the clothes on her back. No clue as to who she is, where she is, how she came to be there and how she can find any of the answers to those questions. So she does the only thing she can do: she walks. She finds a…
In this modern twist on a Gothic classic, a woman awakens in the desert with no memory of who she is or how she got there
A screeching hawk circling ominously above rouses a woman from sleep. She finds herself immersed in total darkness, with no idea of who she is or what she’s doing here. Only two things tether her to reality: the intriguing Westerner who gives her a ride into town, and a piece of paper tucked into the waistband of her trousers, containing the handwritten words Captain Michael Devereaux, Luke A.F.B.
James Malloy is a ferry captain--or used to be, until he was unceremoniously fired and replaced by a "girl" named Courtney Farris. Now, instead of piloting Brenton Island’s daily lifeline to the glitzy docks of Newport, Rhode Island, James spends his days beached, bitter, and bored.
My passion for true crime fiction started in 2016 with the murders of eight family members in a neighboring county in Southern Ohio. The case made international news, and five years later there are still more questions than answers. I felt the victims of this heinous crime deserved some closure which the legal system has not yet provided. So, writing a fictional version of this story was my way of providing closure - at least in my own mind.
First of all, do not start reading this book at bedtime--unless you don't have to get up at any specific time in the morning. I was drawn in from the first paragraph and was hooked. I ended up finishing the book in two long sittings, taking only meal and bathroom breaks! It was totally worth it!
There are no mind-bending twists, but there are twists. Overall, it is just a great read for a gloomy afternoon, or anytime you need an escape from reality!
Smart, beautiful and irresistible, Gwin Apollo has the best of intentions. Her special gift is eavesdropping on conversations from troubled women who have been hurt by cheating lovers, and derives great pleasure in relentless quests to teach them a lesson. Unfortunately, her affliction with IED - Intermittent Explosive Disorder, also makes her unpredictable and dangerous. Her pathological anger and rage manifests as chronic resentment, hostility, verbal and physical abuse, deceit and sometimes even murder.A spouse whose partner is plagued by this disorder is often the one who pays the biggest price. In this somewhat dark thriller, Gwin cleverly tricks her…
It seems that all of the fictional main characters I create have anti-hero tendencies. There is always some voice in their head telling them to do right when they are expected to do wrong, or to do wrong when it is supposed they will do right. I find this flaw very compelling, and universal for those of us of flesh and blood. Do sneering, evil characters exist? Well, maybe, but they aren’t very interesting, and I think a weak trope.
This lighter fare is a collaboration of well-known writers (John Brunner, Poul Anderson, Andrew Offutt, Marian Zimmer Bradley, et al) creating a world where each of their characters also live in the other authors’ minds.
In the fantasy city of Sanctuary, their stories and their lives intertwine where a cast of anti-heroes rule the day, or are ruled by the day, depending on the authors’ whims. The cast of morally questionable characters at times are both protagonists and antagonists, depending on the point of view, and each story’s main character and writer.
And though each is, in turn, loved and loathed by Sanctuary and its denizens, the city has no mercy for them.
Contains all of the stories of the first two Thieves' World anthologies (Thieves' World and Tales of the Vulgar Unicorn), with additional material.
Return to the Olden Days of Sanctuary!
Sanctuary, a seedy, backwater town governed by evil forces, powerful magic, and political intrigue
See how Thieves' World all began!
Classic stories by:
Robert Lynn Asprin Lynn Abbey Poul Anderson Marion Zimmer Bradley John Brunner David Drake Philip Jose Farmer Joe Haldeman Janet Morris Andrew J. Offutt A. E.van Vogt
Until the millennium, I was a features journalist with an abiding fascination in Sixties counter-culture. Being a friend of Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, I heard Syd’s story first-hand.
After having my own breakdown and psychiatric treatment, I decided to apply my experience and interests in writing an account of Syd’s short but sweet creative life.
With Gilmour’s tacit blessing, his contemporaries – including Floyd co-founder Roger Waters – gave me access. And through interviewing them, I came to my own understanding of Barrett: by turns a crazy diamond and a dark globe.
No one captures the self-loathing and paradoxical liberty of the moneyed junkie as well as St Aubyn (except perhaps Anna Cavan). The second novel in his almost-autobiographical Patrick Melrose series, Bad News finds our fucked-up anti-hero on a gargantuan smack binge in New York at the age of 22. How the author – now clean – can reconstruct his frame of mind is remarkable; how he can do it with such precision and wit is mind-blowing.
Bad News is the second of Edward St Aubyn's semi-autobiographical Patrick Melrose novels, adapted for TV for Sky Atlantic and starring Benedict Cumberbatch as aristocratic addict, Patrick.
Twenty-two years old and in the grip of a massive addiction, Patrick Melrose is forced to fly to New York to collect his father's ashes. Over the course of a weekend, Patrick's remorseless search for drugs on the avenues of Manhattan, haunted by old acquaintances and insistent inner voices, sends him into a nightmarish spiral. Alone in his room at the Pierre Hotel, he pushes body and mind to the very edge -…
Always Orchid is the moving, award-winning finale to the Goodbye Orchid series that Glamour Magazine called "a modern, important take on the power of love." With themes of identity, disability, and the redemptive power of love, Always Orchid is perfect for fans of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle…
It’s all my father-in-law’s fault. Before I ran into him, I was a card-carrying “literary” high-brow. Shoot, I was reading Faulkner’s “The Bear” in high school and thought I would be the next generation Steinbeck if I ever got around to writing novels. But one weekend, while visiting my wife’s folks, I found myself with nothing to read—a problem solved by my father-in-law’s complete collection of Richard Stark novels. Those books knocked me head-over-heels, which is why when I did get around to writing novels, the first six were hard-edged crime fiction.
This book pulled me from classical American literature (think Steinbeck, Faulkner, and Hemingway) to hardboiled crime fiction, and I haven’t come up for air since.
I was captured by both the substance and the style—the rich possibilities of an antihero protagonist delivered in a prose as direct and compelling as a bullet to the brain. After this one, I couldn’t stop until I had devoured the entire series!
You probably haven't ever noticed them. But they've noticed you. They notice everything. That's their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers' work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack.They're thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They're pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you're planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is…
I’m a backpacker at heart, a high school English teacher, and a bestselling author with an eye on what’s really happening under the surface and what people are really thinking. My mum taught me early to "watch the quiet ones," and I’ve always been fascinated by the way people can promote a very public self while maintaining something totally different on the inside. Perhaps that’s why I love a good twist! I also think that in the current climate of extremely savvy thriller readers, it’s impressive to wrongfoot readers and stay true to the clues hidden in the pages.
This literary thriller is a delicious blend of sneakiness, travel, and treachery. The story begins in New York but soon moves to the humid backdrop of Morocco, where the mysteriously pen-named “Maud” is working on her new novel.
Told in the voice of Maud’s assistant, this book drew me into the main character’s desperate need to be somebody. But who is tricking who? The twists in this book are epic.
'Clever, cunning, and diabolical in the best possible way. Anyone longing for a good old-fashioned thrill need look no further' Ann Patchett
Celebrated, bestselling, elusive...who is Maud Dixon?
Florence Darrow wants to be a writer. Correction: Florence Darrow IS going to be a writer. Fired from her first job in publishing, she jumps at the chance to be assistant to the celebrated Maud Dixon, the anonymous bestselling novelist. The arrangement comes with conditions - high secrecy, living in an isolated house in the countryside . Before long, the two of them are on a research trip to Morocco, to inspire…
I’ve been a huge fan of D&D and RPG games since I’ve been old enough to play them. The idea of grooming a character, growing it in terms of strength and levels until it becomes powerful enough to take on gods always captured my imagination. LitRPG is a relatively new book genre, and reading it (the good ones at least) makes you feel like you’re playing those games yourselves. Following a new protagonist growth and journey, often illustrated by actual numeric values you can easily keep track of (like skills and levels) is so much fun, and I think more people should be aware it exists.
This is a great, innovative new type of storytelling – that from the side of a monster protagonist. He’s more than just an antihero, he’s a certified, evil, people eating, gold grabbing, demon rising monstrosity – that you can’t help but route for. Prepare for having the meaning of the words ‘shinny’ and ‘tasty’ change forever in your eyes. This is a very different type of story told from the perspective of a greedy, evil, man-eating monster, and you can't help cheer for him along the way. Boxy is the funniest, most uncomplicated-complex character I've ever read, and as he meanders through life, causing a cataclysm event in his wake – all he really wants is shiny and tasty things.
Large chests are said to encompass all manner of hopes and dreams. Men covet them. Women envy them. But one fact holds true - everyone wants to get their hands on some big ones.
The same holds true for one intrepid adventurer - a strapping young lad by the name of Himmel. Armed with his grandfather’s trusty longsword and the dream of being the strongest, he sets out on the journey of a lifetime! It is sure to be a long and dangerous road, fraught with danger! And it all starts with a simple test - reach Level 5 in…
I've spent my life feeling out of place in this world which had me diving into novels since I was a little girl able to read. I was increasingly drawn to the supernatural dynamic in shows and novels. On top of that I am neurodivergent which means that I have spent years in and out of my own forms of darkness and self-doubt. As an author I wanted to create a world for characters that struggle with the same issues I struggle with and help them heal and grow through their trials. My hope has always been that in the course of my stories I can help a reader heal as well.
This is the John Constantine series. I am constantly enthralled with the nit and grit of this series.
There are a great deal of historical and biblical references in this series as well as their own twists. I found when writing my book that this was the same feeling and style I wanted. I didn’t want a world that was fluffy and beautiful but I wanted to show a world tortured and used as a battleground for angels and demons.
I couldn’t recommend this series more. The magic in this series is power from supernatural being. It's definitely the closest form of magic we could gain for ourselves as we learn the rules of our dominion over the earth.
London's savviest street sorcerer is a foul-mouthed, cynical, chain-smoking con man, but sometimes he's also our only hope. All of these facets of Constantine's character have made him one of the most popular figures in graphic literature. John Constantine, Hellblazer: 30th Anniversary Celebration collects some of the antihero's greatest stories from some of comics' greatest writers, including Alan Moore, Jamie Delano, Neil Gaiman, Garth Ennis, Brian Azzarello, and Mike Carey, and also features a foreword written by worldwide musical icon Sting!
When all the chips are down and everything's on the line, what would you do to come out on…
