Here are 52 books that The Killing Kind fans have personally recommended if you like
The Killing Kind.
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Before W. Somerset Maugham became the most popular writer in the world, he spent five years as a doctor in a London hospital. He says it was perfect training to be a novelist: he learned everything about human behavior from his patients. I’ve been a criminal lawyer for more than 33 years, and every day, someone tells me a story I could never dream up. I meet my clients at the point of crisis and work with them through shock, anger, depression, denial, bargaining, and acceptance. It’s the same for my characters, who are as alive to me and my readers as anyone in my life.
The first time I talked to my New York agent, I told her my three favorite novels were The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, the Eye of the Needle, and, of course, the Day of the Jackal. She caught her breath. “I’ve just written an article,” she said, “saying those were the three best thrillers ever.”
Here’s a secret. Old City Hall is not the first book I’ve written. I spent ten years writing a thriller inspired by Jackal. Set in 1988, an assassin is on her way to Toronto to kill the G-7 world leaders meeting there. The manuscript never sold. Then, last year, I pulled out my “book-in-a-drawer” and updated it as a prequel. Now it’s my new novel. I’ve moved in my writing from legal thrillers to historical dramas (my last novel is based on a Nazi massacre in Italy in 1944) and…
The Day of the Jackal is the electrifying story of the struggle to catch a killer before it's too late.
It is 1963 and an anonymous Englishman has been hired by the Operations Chief of the O.A.S. to murder General De Gaulle. A failed attempt in the previous year means the target will be nearly impossible to get to. But this latest plot involves a lethal weapon: an assassin of legendary talent.
Known only as The Jackal, this remorseless and deadly killer must be stopped, but how do you track a man who exists in name alone?
Assassins are always compelling characters. They fit within that archetype of the gunslinger and the private eye and the ronin samurai, highly-skilled characters with a strict moral code who take the law into their own hands to deliver justice in an unjust world. But more than that, they’re fantastic vehicles for exploring the moral gray areas of the world. As a concept, it’s pretty straightforward: kill someone and collect a paycheck. But I’m always looking for books that do something new and special with the genre.
Angoe didn’t just write a ripping thriller; she offered another unique look at the genre by centering the story around Aninyeh, a woman born in a village in Ghana who was captured and sold into captivity as a teen.
She’s adopted and trained by the Tribe, a business group uniting various African countries into a strong economic force. Assassin stories tend to be US-centric, but these types of characters flourish on an international stage. Moreover, it’s a deeply affecting story about the reclamation of power and identity.
A smash debut novel from rising star Yasmin Angoe, Her Name Is Knight features an elite assassin heroine on a mission to topple a human trafficking ring and avenge her family.
Stolen from her Ghanaian village as a child, Nena Knight has plenty of motives to kill. Now an elite assassin for a powerful business syndicate called the Tribe, she gets plenty of chances.
But while on assignment in Miami, Nena ends up saving a life, not taking one. She emerges from the experience a changed woman, finally hopeful for a life beyond rage and revenge. Tasked with killing a…
Assassins are always compelling characters. They fit within that archetype of the gunslinger and the private eye and the ronin samurai, highly-skilled characters with a strict moral code who take the law into their own hands to deliver justice in an unjust world. But more than that, they’re fantastic vehicles for exploring the moral gray areas of the world. As a concept, it’s pretty straightforward: kill someone and collect a paycheck. But I’m always looking for books that do something new and special with the genre.
This book is a unique spin on the classic assassin story. It follows four women in their 60s, retired from their careers as killers, who are now targeted and trying to survive.
Raybourn’s book is funny and action-packed, but it does incredible work with the characters. It explores a traditionally macho genre from a female perspective, which offers a whole host of new opportunities and insights.
Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that's their secret weapon.
Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. But now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates their real-world resourcefulness in an age of technology.
When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses-paid trip to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realise they've been marked for death.
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan. The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced, it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run the…
Assassins are always compelling characters. They fit within that archetype of the gunslinger and the private eye and the ronin samurai, highly-skilled characters with a strict moral code who take the law into their own hands to deliver justice in an unjust world. But more than that, they’re fantastic vehicles for exploring the moral gray areas of the world. As a concept, it’s pretty straightforward: kill someone and collect a paycheck. But I’m always looking for books that do something new and special with the genre.
This book doesn’t just give us one assassin—it gives us a diverse and deadly cast of killers. It’s a locked-room mystery with a ton of double-crosses and loaded with jet-black humor.
And it all moves just as fast as the train the story is set on. Sure, it was recently a movie starring Brad Pitt, but as is usually the case… the book is better.
Bullet Train is an original and propulsive thriller that fizzes with incredible energy through a series of double-crosses and twists. "Fueled by a seductively explosive premise, it's fast, deadly, and loads of fun." (NPR's Fresh Air)
An international bestseller and the basis for the major motion picture starring Brad Pitt.
Kimura’s young son is in a coma thanks to the Prince, and Kimura has tracked him onto a bullet train heading from Tokyo to Morioka to exact his revenge. But Kimura soon discovers that they are not the only dangerous passengers on board.
Satoshi—the Prince—looks like an innocent schoolboy but…
After a lifetime of reading fantasy, I have a career professionally writing fantasy! Whether it’s for animation, video games, or children’s books, crafting adventures in worlds of whimsy and wonder is a treat. Writing has sharpened my senses to recognize and appreciate well-crafted stories in all their forms, and the books on this list are some of the very finest romps.
While this is technically a science fiction book, Korean mythology is front and center in this space opera.
Min is from a long line of fox spirits and yearns to join her brother in the Space Forces. When Jun is reported missing, Min sets out to find him. I love the Korean mythology woven into every part of this sci-fi tale, making this a standout adventure.
Rick Riordan Presents Yoon Ha Lee's space opera about thirteen-year-old Min, who comes from a long line of fox spirits.
But you'd never know it by looking at her. To keep the family safe, Min's mother insists that none of them use any fox-magic, such as Charm or shape-shifting. They must appear human at all times.
Min feels hemmed in by the household rules and resents the endless chores, the cousins who crowd her, and the aunties who judge her. She would like nothing more than to escape Jinju, her neglected, dust-ridden, and impoverished planet. She's counting the days until…
I have always felt most at home looking out a window. I should specify I’m not an outdoorsy person - take me hiking and I will simply collapse - but I’m at my happiest when there’s a view out to something green. Reading about the climate and reading fiction that centers landscape both offer me that view, and while I’m not an expert in the particulars of climate change, I am an expert in this: finding books that connect me to the natural world, and books that express the grief of always being a little bit separate from it. The selected books are some of my favorites.
If you don’t have much time to read, this is the one for you. Offill is known for her brevity - her 2014 novel Dept. Of Speculation (equally worth your time) is similarly short, and similarly shot through with humor - and for the punch she can pack into a limited space. In Weather, she brings together the mundane grind of daily life with the larger existential terror many of us experience when we think about climate change, and bridges that gap, forcing her characters to confront how their daily lives are in fact not separate from these bigger concepts at all.
From the beloved author of the nationwide best seller Dept. of Speculation—one of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of the Year—a “darkly funny and urgent” (NPR) tour de force about a family, and a nation, in crisis
Lizzie Benson slid into her job as a librarian without a traditional degree. But this gives her a vantage point from which to practice her other calling: she is a fake shrink. For years she has tended to her God-haunted mother and her recovering addict brother. They have both stabilized for the moment,…
I love stories about everyday people ripped out of their normal lives and forced to face the craziest situations head-on. I mean, can you even imagine? Could you find a way to survive and win? To face down life-threatening danger and evil people and rise from the ashes stronger and smarter? I’m pretty sure I’d kill if it meant protecting my children…but strand me in the wilderness and I’d likely perish from eating the wrong berries. I hate to be hungry, but I love to bring edgy romantic suspense and twisty psychological suspense to readers. Enjoy!
Perhaps don’t choose this one if you are getting on a flight, otherwise—read it now! Two women are desperate to escape their lives. They both come up with plans that involve brave cunning and sheer determination—but a twist of fate makes those plans collide. The author keeps the twists coming (I was so impressed) and you won’t guess them all (even more impressed). It’s gripping, page-turning, fascinating—and everyone I’ve recommended this book to has also loved it!
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY BESTSELLER, & INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER! "The Last Flight is thoroughly absorbing-not only because of its tantalizing plot and deft pacing, but also because of its unexpected poignancy and its satisfying, if bittersweet, resolution. The characters get under your skin."-The New York Times Book Review Two women. Two flights. One last chance to disappear. Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of ten, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is…
Steven A. Cook is the Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for the Middle East and Africa studies and director of the International Affairs Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is a columnist at Foreign Policy magazine and an expert on Arab and Turkish politics as well as U.S. Middle East policy.
This brief volume was first published 35 years ago but stands up over time. It is an allegory about Egypt during the early years of Anwar al-Sadat's rule, but speaks to the larger issues of corruption, the arrogance of power, and the fraying of societal bonds under authoritarian leaders.
Egypt on the eve of the 1973 October war. A young man has been drafted into the army. His father, the village elder, persuades a poor night-watchman to send his own son as a stand-in. But the impersonation plan goes horribly wrong, with tragicomic results. Qa'id's tale of the fiasco — steeped in irony and black humor — parodies outrageous corruption and ludicrous bureaucracy. A skillfully crafted mosaic of life in modern Egypt.
My father was a Civil War historian, and literally, every vacation was spent traipsing over battlefields, with him pointing out the position of cannons and armies and, invariably, what military mistakes were made. Sometimes, we’d squat in the tall grass and imagine what it would look like when the enemy charged over the hill. My father related family tales with great relish, which are the basis of many of my historical stories. As a genealogist and family story lecturer, the past (especially the Civil War) has been a lifelong love. However, I must admit, I wouldn’t want to leave behind present-day comforts to live in the past.
I picked this book because I was intrigued by how on earth a girl could pass for a boy in the close confines of a military unit while obviously sharing tents. It is told from the point of view of real-life Sara Edmonds, who donned boy’s clothing and enlisted in the Union Army.
I was surprised she managed the deception for two years, during which she served as a fighter, nurse, post rider, and spy. Occasionally, something stretched believability, but if I had a critique, it would be often there was too much internal thought over being discovered. However, in the end, I admired her tenacity and dedication to the cause. Since I like to stay moored in time, I appreciated the timeline of the war at the back of the book.
Historical fiction at its best, this novel by bestselling author Marissa Moss tells the story of Sarah Emma Edmonds, who masqueraded as a man named Frank Thompson during the Civil War. Her adventures include serving as a nurse on the battlefield and spying for the Union Army, and being captured by (and escaping from) the Confederates. The novel is narrated by Sarah, offering readers an in-depth look not only at the Civil War but also at her journey to self-discovery as she grapples with living a lie and falling in love with one of her fellow soldiers. Using historical materials…
Buried Secrets. A web of deceit, betrayal, and danger. Can she survive her fight for justice and truth? Laura thought she knew everything about her late husband before he died. Now, her life and the lives of those she loves are in danger. As Laura delves into his previous role…
I’m an Irish author of romantic comedy and I’m passionate about the genre. I love smart, intelligent romcoms that are full of fun, with witty dialogue, sharp observations, and a great spark between the main characters. One of my favourite romance tropes is the fake relationship, because I’m not a fan of instalove and pretending to be in a relationship gives the characters a reason to spend a lot of time together until they gradually realise they’re perfect for each other. It also offers so much scope for comedy, with seemingly mismatched characters thrown together in awkward situations. Fun times guaranteed!
Joanna Bolouri is one of my favourite romcom writers because she’s so damn funny! Her books are genuinely hilarious and totally live up to the ‘laugh-out-loud’ tag. I love them all, but this is my favourite. Emily is a great character, and Ethan is so cute and adorable. I’m a sucker for a player with hidden depths, and the fact that he’s younger than Emily too is a refreshing change. Throw in a Christmas break with her eccentric family, and you’re guaranteed oodles of fun.
Emily has it all: a good job, awesome friends, a great boyfriend, and a wonderful flat exactly 411 miles away from her nightmarish family.
But when her boyfriend Robert dumps her mere days before Christmas, Emily's devastated. Knowing there's no way she can face her family alone, Emily enlists the help of her party-boy neighbour Evan. All he needs to do is pretend to be Robert.
The only trouble is Evan's not exactly boyfriend material. He likes flirting, loud music, and louder sex. Can Emily handle Evan and her family, or is she heading straight for…
