92 books like The Red Pole of Macau

By Ian Hamilton,

Here are 92 books that The Red Pole of Macau fans have personally recommended if you like The Red Pole of Macau. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of A Gambling Man

Delvin Chatterson Author Of No Easy Money

From my list on where the action hero is everyone.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been a storyteller and I’m fascinated by the use of language and how a story can be told well. I’ve used storytelling as an entrepreneur, executive, and management consultant, and my two business books for enlightened entrepreneurship use real-life stories to make the messages and lessons learned more memorable. Fictional versions of those stories were wandering through my imagination to make them more fun to read (and to write) for about fifteen years before they emerged in the Dale Hunter crime thriller series to show that entrepreneurs are not all evil, selfish monsters; sometimes they’re the hero!     

Delvin's book list on where the action hero is everyone

Delvin Chatterson Why did Delvin love this book?

A retro pulp-fiction novel from one of the world’s best-selling authors, David Baldacci.

A Gambling Man is the second intriguing story in Baldacci’s Archer Series about a former WWII veteran working as a private detective. Archer is joined en route to Los Angeles by a beautiful young lady with ambitions in Hollywood who leads them into dangerous territory with murderous gangsters and politicians trying to improve the odds in their favour.

Baldacci’s Archer Series is modeled on the early detective stories of authors like Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane. He creates a tough guy detective in the style of the early masters while making Archer more appealing to modern readers – less macho and more respectful of the independent women joining his fight to stop the death and destruction. 

By David Baldacci,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A Gambling Man as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Aloysius Archer, the straight-talking World War II veteran fresh out of prison, returns in this riveting #1 New York Times bestselling thriller from David Baldacci.

The 1950s are on the horizon, and Archer is in dire need of a fresh start after a nearly fatal detour in Poca City. So Archer hops on a bus and begins the long journey out west to California, where rumor has it there is money to be made if you’re hard-working, lucky, criminal—or all three.
 
Along the way, Archer stops in Reno, where a stroke of fortune delivers him a wad of cash and…


Book cover of Déjà Dead

Delvin Chatterson Author Of No Easy Money

From my list on where the action hero is everyone.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been a storyteller and I’m fascinated by the use of language and how a story can be told well. I’ve used storytelling as an entrepreneur, executive, and management consultant, and my two business books for enlightened entrepreneurship use real-life stories to make the messages and lessons learned more memorable. Fictional versions of those stories were wandering through my imagination to make them more fun to read (and to write) for about fifteen years before they emerged in the Dale Hunter crime thriller series to show that entrepreneurs are not all evil, selfish monsters; sometimes they’re the hero!     

Delvin's book list on where the action hero is everyone

Delvin Chatterson Why did Delvin love this book?

This book is the best model for me of what I wanted to write with my own Dale Hunter crime thriller series: a scientist, entrepreneur, or professional as the hero, not a private detective or law enforcement officer, and it’s set in Montreal with all the unique characteristics of that fascinating, multicultural historic city, including the bilingual dialogue unique to Montrealers that Reichs manages to untangle for readers to follow easily.

In addition, she tells the terrifying story of a forensic anthropologist helping to track down a serial killer who finds herself to be the next targeted victim. Déjà Dead is the novel that launched Tempe Brennan novels and the award-winning Bones TV series.      

By Kathy Reichs,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Déjà Dead as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Bagged and discarded, the dismembered body of a woman is discovered in the grounds of an abandoned monastery.

Dr Temperance Brennan, Director of Forensic Anthropology for the province of Quebec, has been researching recent disappearances in the city.

Soon she is convinced that a serial killer is at work. But when no one else seems to care, her anger forces her to take matters into her own hands. Her determined probing has placed those closest to her in mortal danger, however.

Can Tempe make her crucial breakthrough before the killer strikes again?


Book cover of The Accident

Delvin Chatterson Author Of No Easy Money

From my list on where the action hero is everyone.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been a storyteller and I’m fascinated by the use of language and how a story can be told well. I’ve used storytelling as an entrepreneur, executive, and management consultant, and my two business books for enlightened entrepreneurship use real-life stories to make the messages and lessons learned more memorable. Fictional versions of those stories were wandering through my imagination to make them more fun to read (and to write) for about fifteen years before they emerged in the Dale Hunter crime thriller series to show that entrepreneurs are not all evil, selfish monsters; sometimes they’re the hero!     

Delvin's book list on where the action hero is everyone

Delvin Chatterson Why did Delvin love this book?

Linwood Barclay is a fellow Canadian crime writer who imagines terrifying scenarios and takes stories through startling twists and turns of non-stop tension and suspense better than most.

Stephen King is a big fan of his writing in the style of horrifying domestic thrillers. In The Accident, we meet the humble hard-working neighbour with an eight-year-old daughter who discovers his wife killed in a car accident. The police claim she was the drunk driver who was responsible for it.

Garber has to believe the evidence but starts to explore what really happened and learns that his friends and neighbours are involved with dangerous criminals who are prepared to kill to protect their illegal activities. 

By Linwood Barclay,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Accident as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A drunk-driving accident hides more than one dark secret in No. 1 bestseller Linwood Barclay's gripping thriller Glen Garber's life has just spiralled out of control. His wife's car is found at the scene of a drunk-driving accident that took three lives. Not only is she dead, but it appears she was the cause of the accident. Suddenly Glen has to deal with a potent mixture of emotions: grief at the loss of his wife, along with anger at her reckless behaviour that leaves their young daughter motherless. If only he could convince himself that Sheila wasn't responsible for the…


Book cover of Her Last Goodbye

Delvin Chatterson Author Of No Easy Money

From my list on where the action hero is everyone.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been a storyteller and I’m fascinated by the use of language and how a story can be told well. I’ve used storytelling as an entrepreneur, executive, and management consultant, and my two business books for enlightened entrepreneurship use real-life stories to make the messages and lessons learned more memorable. Fictional versions of those stories were wandering through my imagination to make them more fun to read (and to write) for about fifteen years before they emerged in the Dale Hunter crime thriller series to show that entrepreneurs are not all evil, selfish monsters; sometimes they’re the hero!     

Delvin's book list on where the action hero is everyone

Delvin Chatterson Why did Delvin love this book?

A gifted storyteller and USA Today bestselling author, Rick Mofina is a master of the thriller page-turner that starts with a family-friendly story and quickly accelerates through terrifying discoveries of the killer in the house, or next door, or rising from the character’s haunted past.

In Her Last Goodbye, we have the husband waking from some regrettable misbehavior and finding that his wife has not come home from her book club the previous night. He cannot answer his son’s question, “Where’s Mommy?” nor explain that he is the main suspect in his wife’s disappearance.

The mystery may never be explained either and a happy ending seems even more unlikely as he digs into the untold stories of their dark past.    

By Rick Mofina,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Her Last Goodbye as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Family ties run deep. Family secrets run deeper.

Perfect wife. Doting mom. Jennifer Griffin was loved by everyone, including the women in her suburban-neighborhood book club. Their meetings sometimes went late, but Jenn always came home.

Until that night.

When Greg Griffin wakes to find his wife is not in bed, his blood runs cold. Her book club friends say Jenn left for home hours ago. But she’s missing. Greg tells detectives their marriage is good, but his alibi is razor-thin. With their young son away at a sleepover, Greg had all night to commit a crime. And there are…


Book cover of The Immortalists

Deborah Gaal Author Of Synchronicities on the Avenue of the Saints

From my list on inducing laughter and tears on the same page.

Why am I passionate about this?

Nothing gives me more joy than painting stories in the colors of every human emotion in our spectrum.  And combining laughter and tears on the same page elicits a delicious thrill that keeps me sitting in the chair. It doesn’t happen to me on every page, (I’d be lying to say it did.) When it does, I don’t want to let it go. A former theater major (probably “a bad actor”) I started my novel-writing journey when I sent a resignation email to a few thousand employees I was managing at the time. “Hey girl, you made me laugh and cry in that email. Maybe you might think about writing.”

Deborah's book list on inducing laughter and tears on the same page

Deborah Gaal Why did Deborah love this book?

I love the magical realism aspect of this novel, which Benjamin handles with such a deft hand you don’t question whether or not the impossible is possible. A fortune teller’s prediction and old-world superstition create a heavy weight that exquisitely-drawn characters must navigate. The power of belief and its effect on destiny is a complex topic. Is it good or bad to know our future? Should we act on what we’ve been told? Should we ignore it? If we believe something does that make it happen? If we disbelieve does it not happen? Every character is a gem, including Klara: an extraordinary magician who convinced me we must embrace the mysteries of the world even if we can’t comprehend them.   

By Chloe Benjamin,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Immortalists as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Boundlessly moving' Observer

'Immersive and impressive' The Sunday Times

'Benjamin writes with verve and charm' Guardian

The NEW YORK TIMES Top Ten Bestseller

It's 1969, and holed up in a grimy tenement building in New York's Lower East Side is a travelling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the date they will die. The four Gold children, too young for what they're about to hear, sneak out to learn their fortunes.

Such prophecies could be dismissed as trickery and nonsense, yet the Golds bury theirs deep. Over the years that follow they attempt to ignore, embrace, cheat…


Book cover of Siblings: You're Stuck with Each Other, So Stick Together

Dawn Huebner Author Of The Sibling Survival Guide: Surefire Ways to Solve Conflicts, Reduce Rivalry, and Have More Fun with Your Brothers and Sisters

From my list on for siblings who squabble.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a Child Psychologist and Author turned Parent Coach who often hears about the bickering, put-downs, jealousy, and conflict sapping families with multiple children. Telling them to “cut it out” clearly does nothing. Kids need not only the skills (how to talk, how to listen, how to manage feelings and resolve conflict) but also the motivation to use them, a combination I have spent my career thinking about, writing about, and teaching. All of the books I have written, and all that I recommend, include this winning combination of skills and motivation with the aim of helping children live happier lives.

Dawn's book list on for siblings who squabble

Dawn Huebner Why did Dawn love this book?

This was one of the first books targeting not preschoolers adjusting to a new baby but older kids struggling to get along. It is perfectly pitched to middle-grade readers, with just the right balance of direct talk and humor. The book normalizes sibling conflict while providing solutions 8-13-year-olds can implement on their own or with the help of a parent. Written in 2010, this book stands the test of time.

By James J. Crist, Elizabeth Verdick,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Siblings as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Humorous yet practical advice for building positive sibling relationships. Turn sibling rivalry into positive sibling relationships with this fun, humorous pocket guide for kids. Siblings can make for great friends, and it s nice to have someone who ll love you no matter what. But kids know that sibling relationships can be hard when problems of fairness, jealousy, conflict, tattling, privacy, and other things come up and they usually do. Siblings teaches kids how to deal with sibling rivalry and more, including special situations such as siblings with special needs, step-siblings, and adopted siblings, and it focuses on building positive…


Book cover of Six Feet Below Zero

Linda Joy Singleton Author Of The Curious Cat Spy Club

From my list on for young readers on puzzling and magical mysteries.

Why am I passionate about this?

My love for magical and mysterious books was inspired by Harriet the Spy, Nancy Drew, Judy Bolton, and Harry Potter. Since I was 8 years old, I longed to write my own mystery series—SO I DID! My latest mystery series, The Curious Cat Spy Club, is based on my own childhood club. My friends and I played cryptic games, spied on suspicious neighbors, and helped abandoned kittens. I love writing about mysteries + animals. And I’m excited to share my favorite mysterious and magical books with you!!

Linda's book list on for young readers on puzzling and magical mysteries

Linda Joy Singleton Why did Linda love this book?

I love a thrilling mystery with secrets, humor, and surprises. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to find out if anyone would realize Rosie and Baker were hiding their Great-Grandma in a freezer. It was all Great-Grandma's idea! The kids race against time to piece together clues to find a missing will and save the family home from destruction. Reminiscent of an Alfred Hitchcock story with unexpected twists and heart-pounding danger. Fun mystery!

By Ena Jones,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Six Feet Below Zero as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

A dead body. A missing will. An evil relative. The good news is, Great Grammy has a plan. The bad news is, she's the dead body.

Rosie and Baker are hiding something. Something big. Their great grandmother made them promise to pretend she's alive until they find her missing will and get it in the right hands. The will protects the family house from their grandmother, Grim Hesper, who would sell it and ship Rosie and Baker off to separate boarding schools. They've already lost their parents and Great Grammy--they can't lose each other, too.

The siblings kick it into…


Book cover of The Latecomer

Lauren Aliza Green Author Of The World After Alice

From my list on novels about dysfunctional families.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been drawn to family stories, from King Lear to Anna Karenina. The ties that bind us to family—however strained or frayed those ties might be—contain within their fibers the entire spectrum of human emotion. For a writer, this is fertile territory. I could contemplate endlessly the rivalry that exists between a pair of siblings, or the expectations a child has for their parent. Family dynamics are often kept private, which makes encountering them on the page even more thrilling. To be let in on the life of another, granted permission to bear witness to their secrets and innermost longings, is the rare gift that literature brings us. 

Lauren's book list on novels about dysfunctional families

Lauren Aliza Green Why did Lauren love this book?

Meet the Oppenheimer triplets, the stars of this book, whose loathing for one another borders on the Shakespearean. As a reader, I was instantly drawn in by Korelitz’s shrewd writing—and held there by her wondrous talents as a plot-maker. Indeed, this novel twists and turns in thrilling ways that kept my eyes glued to the page. 

By Jean Hanff Korelitz,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Latecomer as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

*A New York Times Notable Book of 2022*
*A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction*
*An NPR Best Book of the Year*

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Plot, Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Latecomer is a layered and immersive literary novel about three siblings, desperate to escape one another, and the upending of their family by the late arrival of a fourth.

The Latecomer follows the story of the wealthy, New York City-based Oppenheimer family, from the first meeting of parents Salo and Johanna, under tragic circumstances, to their triplets born during the early days of IVF.…


Book cover of Superfudge

Rachelle Bergstein Author Of The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us

From my list on retro for kids that still hold up.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was once a little girl who loved reading, and now I'm a mother who shares that passion with my kid. Over the past few years, I've been revisiting my own childhood favorites with him (it's been a serendipitous mix of work and pleasure as I was also researching a book on one of the all-time great children's book authors, Judy Blume). The novels I've recommended here are ones that seemed to spark pleasure in the most discerning—and honest—of audiences: an 8-year-old. And unlike some old books that will go unnamed, they didn't make me cringe as a 21st-century parent.

Rachelle's book list on retro for kids that still hold up

Rachelle Bergstein Why did Rachelle love this book?

This is the first book that made me laugh out loud as a kid. When I read it to my son, I remembered why. Not only is Fudge just a bonkers character, but this novel—the second in the Fudge series—features the silliest pet ever, a myna bird named Uncle Feather.

Uncle Feather’s catchphrase is "Bonjour, Stupid" and of course, he says it at inappropriate times. As an adult, I still think "Bonjour, Stupid" is funny. You can imagine the effect it has on an 8-year-old.

By Judy Blume,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Superfudge as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

He knows a lot of big words, but he doesn't know where babies come from. He's never heard of a stork, but he plans to be a bird when he grows up. He's Superfudge, otherwise known as Farley Drexel Hatcher. And, according to his older brother Peter, the biggest pain ever invented. Among other things.

As fans of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing already know, nothing is simple for Peter Hatcher. He is far from overjoyed at the turn the family fortunes are taking. It looks as if Peter will be spending the sixth grade far from Central Park,…


Book cover of Ginger Pye

Margaret Finnegan Author Of We Could Be Heroes

From my list on where the dog lives.

Why am I passionate about this?

I write middle-grade fiction. I write funny thoughtful books where diverse characters, including those with disabilities, are featured prominently. My books often include dogs, and I promise you this right now, the dogs will always live!

Margaret's book list on where the dog lives

Margaret Finnegan Why did Margaret love this book?

This is one of my all-time favorites. But it’s an old one. It was first published in 1951. It is adorable and funny, and I don’t think it’s ever been out of print. It’s about a boy who searches for his dognapped dog, Ginger Pye. No worries. Love will triumph!

By Eleanor Estes,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ginger Pye as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 9, 10, 11, and 12.

What is this book about?

A heartwarming, yet quirky, story about a boy called Jerry whose much-loved puppy, Ginger Pye, goes missing. Jerry and his sister begin a desperate hunt for Ginger, who they're convinced has been stolen away by the stranger in the yellow hat. After months of fruitless searching the children are about to give up hope when a chance gust of wind reveals the villain to the children and Ginger Pye is saved. BLA book which has stood the test of time and deals with the special relationship between a boy and his dog in a fun and lively way


Book cover of A Gambling Man
Book cover of Déjà Dead
Book cover of The Accident

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