Here are 58 books that Quarry fans have personally recommended if you like
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Like many readers, I am drawn to stories of vengeance. Stories of someone seeking revenge have a built-in tension and narrative drive. But as the saying goes, when you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. Yes, these tales seldom go smoothly. The consequences of this and the violence that ensues are what I wanted to explore in my latest novel, but several books on my shelf make fascinating stories out of this desire for revenge.
This book surprised me with its sharpened steel edge and uncompromising main character. Joe Reddick has lost it all and is, as a result, a very dangerous man you do not want to cross. When his family is threatened, Joe embarks on a mission to bring down the men who dared cross him and show them what mistakes they had made.
That you root for Joe even as he goes about doing terrible things to more terrible people is a testament to the stellar writing of Haywood in this, one of his most compelling standalone thrillers.
The new novel from the critically acclaimed and award-winning author - When Joe Reddick and his family are threatened in their LA home by a masked, knife-wielding intruder, it means serious trouble for a gang of desperate criminals. The threat sends Joe Reddick over the edge. He's lived the nightmare of losing a family to a crazed killer once, and he's not going to let it happen again. After sending his wife and son to safety, he goes to war, determined to kill those responsible. Soon Reddick’s living nightmare will finally be over. One way or the other . .…
Like many readers, I am drawn to stories of vengeance. Stories of someone seeking revenge have a built-in tension and narrative drive. But as the saying goes, when you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. Yes, these tales seldom go smoothly. The consequences of this and the violence that ensues are what I wanted to explore in my latest novel, but several books on my shelf make fascinating stories out of this desire for revenge.
None of Guthrie’s characters are anyone you want to get on the wrong side of. Pearce, an ex-con and Edinburgh hard man, may be his most dangerous creation. Guthrie’s black humor is fully displayed in this novel of a man out for blood and bound to get it in ever more inventive ways.
The Scottish writer Guthrie is in danger of falling into obscurity, but several of his other evangelists and I are intent on not letting that happen. This book is a good place to start with his work; if you like it, you will have a world of dark pleasures waiting in his other books.
Has Pearce finally found his match? A time-served Edinburgh hard man, Pearce is still recovering from the recent loss of his mother in a stabbing incident in a post office robbery. He's invited by the dysfunctional Baxter family to protect their pregnant 16-year-old daughter from Wallace, her 26-year-old husband, a man with a penchant for killing family pets. Having found out that the baby's not his, Wallace has sworn vengeance. Pearce declines the job: he's no babysitter. But when Wallace kills Pearce's dog, he goes too far. Now it's personal. It's time to find out who the real hard man…
Like many readers, I am drawn to stories of vengeance. Stories of someone seeking revenge have a built-in tension and narrative drive. But as the saying goes, when you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. Yes, these tales seldom go smoothly. The consequences of this and the violence that ensues are what I wanted to explore in my latest novel, but several books on my shelf make fascinating stories out of this desire for revenge.
The first of a trilogy about backwoods Florida criminals and the man who wants to leave his life behind, this book shows Post’s talent for real emotion and pathos in the middle of the chaos of a full-on thriller.
Judah Cannon is a man with morals and a will to do the right thing, but he also comes with skills and experience to bring the fight to those who have wronged him. And, of course, any great protagonist needs a great antagonist, and Post writes them as well as anyone. Sister Tulah is a villain for ages.
Judah Cannon is the middle son of the notorious Cannon clan led by Sherwood, its unflinching and uncompromising patriarch. When Judah returns to his rural hometown of Silas, Florida after a stint in prison, he is determined to move forward and live it clean with his childhood best friend and newly discovered love, Ramey Barrow. Everything soon spirals out of control, though, when a phone call from Sherwood ensnares Judah and Ramey in a complicated web of thievery, brutality and betrayal.
Pressured by the unrelenting bonds of blood ties, Judah takes part in robbing the Scorpions, a group of small-time,…
Liza O’Connell was a horror buff in every sense of the word. But there was one deadly nightmare she would never be able to talk about … her own. A friend murdered. A business in trouble. A marriage struggling to survive. And that’s just the beginning.
Like many readers, I am drawn to stories of vengeance. Stories of someone seeking revenge have a built-in tension and narrative drive. But as the saying goes, when you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. Yes, these tales seldom go smoothly. The consequences of this and the violence that ensues are what I wanted to explore in my latest novel, but several books on my shelf make fascinating stories out of this desire for revenge.
Charlie Swift takes his criminal life seriously. It’s a job, and he wants to be the best at it. But he can step up and set things straight with the best of them when things go south. Pity the man who gets in his way. Charlie Swift is not someone you betray and get away with it.
This is a new crime classic filled with black humor and thrilling action, in a new edition under the title Fast Charlie (to coincide with the film adaptation). If you can get past the opening page without being hooked, something is wrong with you.
Charlie Swift is an old school kind of guy. Runs a tight ship. Respects his boss. Takes care of his mom and kid brother. And, he's a stone cold killer. When a fancy new-wave hood, hungry for the primo Orlando territory Charlie enforces, offs most of Charlie's boys in a bloody mob takeover, our man steps in to make things right. But when word gets out that his boss has gone missing and there's a traitor among his crew of gun monkeys, Charlie knows payback ain't gonna be easy. Shot up, boozed up, and beaten up, Charlie finds the toughest…
My family moved frequently and, as a result, I was raised in a number of different small towns in Montana, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, and Massachusetts. I now live in a large city but the experience has never left me. There was always a certain amount of crime and corruption in the towns I grew up in, but I only had a child’s eye view of it. However, a child’s eye view is usually the most vivid. This experience and the books that I have listed above all had a direct influence on Blue Hotel.
Road to
Perdition takes place during the Great Depression. Like my book,
it concerns a man who betrays his Chicago Irish-American mob boss and is forced
to flee for his life (accompanied by his young son in this case), pursued by a
relentless killer sent by his former boss. Superficially, what appealed to me
was the Depression-era atmosphere that the author of Road to Perdition created.
On a deeper level, it appealed to me as a story of a man in a battle for the
soul of his son. The man, an enforcer for his gangland boss, considers his own
soul to be irredeemably lost because of the crimes he has committed, not only
survive but to thrive.
First there was Max Allan Collins' legendary graphic novel...then came the Academy Award winning movie and his bestselling screenplay novelization. Now Collins presents an epic new novel, combining and expanding upon all that came before, to create the ultimate version of his unforgettable story.;
Depression-era Chicago is awash in liquor and blood, ruled by guns, graft, and gangsters like John Looney. His most feared enforcer is Michael O'Sullivan, known as the "Angel of Death." But when O'Sullivan's twelve-year-old son witnesses a gangland murder committed by Looney's brutal son, O'Sullivan's entire family is marked for execution to cover up the crime.…
I’ve been a long-form journalist for more than 50 years, a voracious reader of both nonfiction and fiction for even longer, and am the author of three true-crime books (as William Swanson) and five suspense novels (as W.A. Winter). I especially love noir fiction, the darker and grittier the better, with complex story lines, multiple characters, adult situations and language, and no happy endings. I’m currently at work on another thriller, this one, like its predecessors, set in post-World War II Minneapolis, where and when I grew up.
Just about any of Leonard’s several dozen suspense novels could have a top spot in this reckoning, including the better known Get Shorty, Freaky Deaky, and Glitz. My vote for the best goes, however, to Killshot, his dark, deftly plotted, highly comedic 1989 thriller about two bumbling killers and a ballsy middle-aged married couple the killers mistake for easy marks. Armand Degas, a soulful Ojibway known as the Blackbird, has grown tired of being a hit man for the Detroit mob. He’s befriended by a moronic thug named Richie Nix, whose bucket list includes robbing a bank in every state. When they decide that Carmen, a real estate agent, and her steelworker husband Wayne Colson hold the keys to a fortune, they learn that, like the Bible says, the wages of sin is death.
The King of Cool returns with another thrilling tale of crime capers.
Arman 'The Blackbird' Degas is a professional hitman: one shot, one kill. But when he's carjacked by ex-con Richie Nix, he finds himself with a lethal partner.
Nix is on his way to shake down a realtor and the Blackbird is along for the ride. But they don't count on Carmen and Wayne Colson getting in their way. Exposed as eyewitnesses, the Colsons are placed in witness protection but soon discover the program contains as many predators as the underworld they're hiding from. But can they outrun the…
What Happened to Frank? is the first book in the Meg Sheppard Mystery Series. Meg is an amateur sleuth who owns racehorses and lives on a horse farm. Her beloved border collie, Kelly, is usually at Meg's side as she investigates murders and solves other mysteries. The books are action-packed…
I've been writing since I was 7 years old. Star Wars had a big influence on me, but as I got older I gravitated toward Halo: Combat Evolved and Starship Troopers. Modern stories by the likes of Jason Anspach and Nick Cole, JN Chaney, and Rick Partlow...these are the stories that keep me up at night, my mind reeling with the insanity of what I've just read, pondering how close we are as a society to achieving the outlandish adventures contained in these books. I was in the Air Force for 14 years as an F-16 mechanic. I found my voice by combining my experiences and my passion for Science Fiction.
Think Starship Troopers updated for a modern audience, with a compelling main character whose rough upbringing launches his career as a military leader against a vicious and unique enemy.
I found myself mesmerized by the nuance, feeling, and technology in this book. No detail is too small to be left out, and it really fleshes out the universe presented in this book. The military lifestyle is captured with stark clarity, political intrusions on the military's operations are poignant and realistic, and the characters come alive with every turn of the page.
Do not sleep on this one, it's exactly the kind of story that will keep you up at night, thinking that the future could turn out just like the ideas presented in this epic story.
For small-time street hustler Cam Alvarez, the choice is simple. He has no family, no friends, no place in the world…nothing to lose. When his latest con results in the death of a cartel hitman, Cam opts to join the Marines and leave Earth to fight a vicious alien enemy.
Drafted into the Marine Drop-Troopers, Cam discovers there’s one thing he’s even better at than running street-con games, and that’s killing the enemy. Wrapped in an armored battlesuit, Cam finds purpose amidst the horror and destruction of the war, and the opportunity for…
I read lots of different genres, but my greatest passion in both writing and reading is romance. Though I am picky! I need humour in the stories. They don’t have to be funny on every page but I do like to smile occasionally when I’m reading. The ability to weave a plot, create interesting characters, and include humour is something I admire greatly. Even in the thrillers and suspense novels I read, it’s those touches of humour that bring the story to life for me. In the 50+ books I’ve written, none are without that spark of fun. Throw in a happy ever after – and you have a perfect romance, guaranteed to brighten the darkest of days.
This book was the first I read by Alice Winters and it is laugh-out-loud funny. I see a lot of books that claim to be that, but this one really is. Alice has a great turn of phrase and you can’t help but fall in love with her characters. Leland is truly one of a kind. I went on to read every book she has ever written! That doesn’t happen very often for me.
What happens when a snarky hitman and a by-the-book PI cross paths? Leland Being a hitman has its perks, but I never thought getting an accidental mooning by an attractive PI while he’s caught on a fence would be one of them. While it’s not exactly love at first sight, he’s captured my interest and won’t let go.Suddenly, I find myself caught in a game of cat and mouse, determined to attract the attention of Jackson, the PI who should be my enemy. He pretends like he’s not flattered by my flowers and the mentions of my totally-not-fictitious blow-up doll…
By François Vigneault and Jonas Madden-Connor
Author
Why are we passionate about this?
We’re a couple of award-winning graphic novel creators who happen to have been friends since middle school. We’ve been enmeshed in films and comic books for our entire lives, and always enjoyed discussing them with each other, sharing hidden gems, and staying up late to pore over what went right (or wrong) when a favorite comic was made into a movie or TV show. We’re in the middle of an ongoing wave of cinematic adaptations, with billion-dollar blockbusters and indie gems alike looking to graphic novels for inspiration. Read these five books now before they show up on a screen near you, and you’ll have the sweet pleasure of pronouncing “The graphic novel was better!”
This slim graphic novel populated with murderous anthropomorphic animals might not seem like an obvious choice for a live-action cinematic adaptation, but the high concept here is irresistible: In a vicious universe where murder for hire is common, a laconic assassin is hired to take out the ultimate target—Adolf Hitler. Time travel, romance, jealousy, and bloody violence ensue, with plenty of twists and turns en route. A surprisingly funny and unremittingly dark sci-fi story that combines effortless French New Wave cool with a Tarantino-esque sense of humor, I Killed Adolf Hitler could become a verifiable dark comedy hit on the big screen.
Unavailable since 2014, I Killed Adolf Hitler is back in print in a newly designed edition!
In this graphic novel, a hitman travels back in time to kill Adolf Hitler in 1939... but things go spectacularly wrong. Full-color illustrations throughout.
San Diego Private Investigator, Brig Ellis, is hired by a wealthy industrialist to help him acquire the final horse in a set of twelve palomino miniatures that once belonged to the last Emperor of China. What begins as a seemingly reasonable assignment quickly morphs into something much more malevolent.
I've lived in Asia for more than 22 years and have extensively traveled around the region, both for work and pleasure, from the Middle East and central Asia to Japan, and Australia, New Zealand, and every country in between. Asia is the perfect setting for a thriller, as a region that’s deeply rooted in traditions, but where modernity and growth are also breathless. There can be political instability at times, and even corruption, unsurpassed wealth and shocking poverty, bankers, and prostitutes. I worked for many years as an investment banker and my experiences inspired me to write my debut thriller, Hard Underwriting, in Hong Kong, and uncover the dark side of Asia’s financial capital.
This is one of the best books in Eisler’s John Rain series, featuring half-American, half-Japanese assassin and Vietnam veteran John Rain.
Eisler himself was a covert operative with the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, and his descriptions of fieldcraft, surveillance, torture, and killing techniques all ring so true, as does his extensive knowledge of modern Japan.
Tokyo is, of course, a fascinating playground for Rain’s adventures. Eisler’s books and unputdownable, and well worth discovering.
Name: John Rain. Vocation: Assassin. Specialty: Natural Causes. Base of operations: Tokyo. Availability: Worldwide.
Half American, half Japanese, expert in both worlds but at home in neither, John Rain is the best killer money can buy. You tell him who. You tell him where. He doesn’t care about why…
Until he gets involved with Midori Kawamura, a beautiful jazz pianist—and the daughter of his latest kill.
A Clean Kill in Tokyo was previously published as Rain Fall, the first in the bestselling John Rain assassin series.
