Here are 85 books that Whiskey River fans have personally recommended if you like
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I came to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1988 to serve as a law clerk for a prominent federal judge (played by Martin Sheen in the movie Selma). I was convinced that the death penalty could be justly administered, and seeing Ted Bundyâs final appeal did little to change my mind. Subsequent cases, however, slowly worked a change in my attitude as I saw an executionâs effect on everyone involved in the process. My passion comes from this behind-the-scenes look at capital punishment in America.
I was shaken to my core not only by Capoteâs character study of two different yet partnered killers but also by his behind-the-scenes depiction of the death penalty process. For the first time, I began to see how capital punishment affects all those involved in its machinations.
The chilling true crime 'non-fiction novel' that made Truman Capote's name, In Cold Blood is a seminal work of modern prose, a remarkable synthesis of journalistic skill and powerfully evocative narrative published in Penguin Modern Classics.
Controversial and compelling, In Cold Blood reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock, who, vividlyâŚ
Growing up on a diet of The Godfather, The Sopranos, thrillers, and gangster novels, and living in New York City with eye-opening trips to Sicily, I became slightly obsessed with the Mafia. I came to see the American Mafia as a quintessentially American fabric, woven of family, power, immigrants, money, history, loyalty, legacy, and, yes, crime.
A history of the early 1960s in America, leading up to the assassination of JFK, seen through the eyes of the mobsters and criminals, crooked cops, spies, and sleazos who power the machines of history.
A comprehensive romp through the underbelly of American crime and politics (and you might, after reading this book, wonder whatâs the difference), itâs a novel about characters you donât likeâbut theyâre vivid and fascinating.
Much more than a gritty gangster novel, itâs a tale about the people in historyâs shadows, and, ultimately, history and the ânever innocentâ America itself. â¨
The first novel in Ellroy's extraordinary Underworld USA Trilogy as featured on BBC Radio 4's A Good Read.
1958. America is about to emerge into a bright new age - an age that will last until the 1000 days of John F Kennedy's presidency.
Three men move beneath the glossy surface of power, men allied to the makers and shakers of the era. Pete Bondurant - Howard Hughes's right-hand man, Jimmy Hoffa's hitman. Kemper Boyd - employed by J Edgar Hoover to infiltrate the Kennedy clan. Ward Littell - a man seeking redemption in Bobby Kennedy's drive against organised crime.âŚ
Iâve been a journalist whoâs focused on culture, particularly film, and especially classic film and film noir. That sparked me to write two crime novels, with a third on the way, for Level Best Books. The first came out in February. The next will reach the market in May 2025. The third will come out in 2026. For more information, please go to my website.
In the dark world of hardboiled literature, anything can happen at any time for any reasonâor no reason at all. In my view, that makes things easy for this debut novel about an unemployed LA factory worker named Easy Rawlins, and that makes things challenging for the storyâfor the characterâas well.
A man with money and power offers Easy a job looking for a missing blond-haired, white-skinned beauty. Rawlins faces only two problems: He has no experience as a private detective, and he needs to do the detecting with black skin in a segregated, remarkably unequal 1948 America.
But I think Mosley has found the perfect genre for his character, one whose tough and humane and even psychologically insightful qualities have enabled him to adjust to, learn from, and survive in a place where laws can break out or disappear, depending on the color of his skin. Rawlins finds itâŚ
Devil in a Blue Dress honors the tradition of the classic American detective novel by bestowing on it a vivid social canvas and the freshest new voice in crime writing in years, mixing the hard-boiled poetry of Raymond Chandler with the racial realism of Richard Wright to explosive effect.
Winner of the 2024 New Mexico - Arizona Book Award.
In this deeply researched novel of America's most celebrated outlaw, Mark Warren sheds light on the human side of Billy the Kid and reveals the intimate stories of the lesser-known players in his legendary life of crime. Warren's fictional composerâŚ
Telescopes, microscopes, computer modelingâthese exist because some things are easier to study when you change their shape. Thatâs how we learned about planets, germs, and the economy. Enlarging, shrinking, and filling in details lets us examine and understand. I think literature can do the same thing with ideas. Asking âwhat if?â lets us probe things we canât with our gadgets. Concepts. Hypotheticals. A story that pulls a big idea like taffy? That is a treat. Iâve got five in this dish.
What if Jews settled in Alaska instead of Israel? There is a question Iâd never asked, but I loved chewing on it. Alternative histories are great at exploring questions of cause and effect, the rippling power of people and places, and the very existence of fate.
They are not to everyoneâs taste, so how about a murder mystery instead? Letâs call it that, and you wonât be put off by worries about excessive background and explanation. When exposition comes in the form of detective work, it is so much more palatable. And personal. Chabon feeds the reader ideas the way one might sneak a dog medicineâwrapped in something that goes down easy.
The brilliantly original new novel from Michael Chabon, author of THE ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY and WONDER BOYS.
What if, as Franklin Roosevelt once proposed, Alaska - and not Israel - had become the homeland for the Jews after the Second World War? In Michael Chabon's Yiddish-speaking 'Alyeska', Orthodox gangs in side-curls and knee breeches roam the streets of Sitka, where Detective Meyer Landsman discovers the corpse of a heroin-addled chess prodigy in the flophouse Meyer calls home. Marionette strings stretch back to the hands of charismatic Rebbe Gold, leader of a sect that seems to have drawn itsâŚ
Growing up on a diet of The Godfather, The Sopranos, thrillers, and gangster novels, and living in New York City with eye-opening trips to Sicily, I became slightly obsessed with the Mafia. I came to see the American Mafia as a quintessentially American fabric, woven of family, power, immigrants, money, history, loyalty, legacy, and, yes, crime.
Few writers inhabit history, distill it, and convey the feeling of an era with the verve or immediacy of E.L. Doctorow.
In Billy Bathgate, he trains his lens on the 1930s and introduces us to Billy Behan, a fatherless Irish-Jewish kid from the Bronx, who has a chance encounter with New York gangster Dutch Schultz and decides âwhatever my life was going to be in this world it would have something to do with Mr. Schultz.â
Add a love triangle, a colorful cast of mobsters, murder, blackmail, a special prosecutor, and you have the propulsive plot and rich characters that power this unforgettable novel.
'I was living in even greater circles of gangsterdom than I had dreamed, latitudes and longitudes of gangsterdom'
It's 1930's New York and fifteen-year-old streetkid Billy, who can juggle, somersault and run like the wind, has been taken under the wing of notorious gangster Dutch Schultz. As Billy learns the ways of the mob, he becomes like a son to Schultz - his 'good-luck kid' - and is initiated into a world of glamour, death and danger that will consume him, in this vivid, soaring epic of crime and betrayal.
I am the author of the Will Anderson Detroit mystery series, which began with The Detroit Electric Scheme. I love vivid novels, those that pull me inside the pages and into the story. My interests balance between crime, historical fiction, and literary fiction. In short, I like a good story, and I donât much care what label is placed on it. I live in Michigan with my wife and a pair of reasonably friendly cats.
Ace Atkins has written a number of excellent historical crime novels based on true stories, andDevilâs Gardenis my favorite of the bunch.
The 1921 murder trial of Roscoe âFattyâ Arbuckle created headlines around the world, and Devilâs Garden illustrates the fall from grace of one of Hollywoodâs biggest stars. Atkins brings to life Prohibition-era Hollywood, real-life Pinkerton operative Dashiell Hammett who investigates the murder, William Randolph Hearst, actress Marion Davies, and a large cast of grifters, B-girls, politicians, and hangers-on revolving around Fattyâs trial for the murder of actress Virginia Rappe.
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Quinn Colson series comes a noir crime classic about one of the most notorious trials in American history.
San Francisco, September 1921: Silent-screen comedy star Roscoe âFattyâ Arbuckle is throwing a wild party in his suite at the St. Francis Hotel-girls, jazz, bootleg hooch...and a dead actress named Virginia Rappe.
The D.A. says it was Arbuckle who killed herâcrushed her under his weightâand brings him up on manslaughter charges. William Randolph Hearst's newspapers stir up the public and demand a guilty verdict.
In desperation, Arbuckle's defense team hires an operative fromâŚ
Crime fiction, true crime, mystery, and suspense books allow us to brush up against the worst society has to offer without getting hurt. Thereâs a lot to be said for vicarious thrills, isnât there. I am just a simple man telling simple stories about good vs. evil. And sometimes, in my stories, fiction or not, the bad guys win. But I do love telling stories, and when I find a good one, I canât wait to tell you aboutit. Thatâs what I have done here.
The two books in the Sinners Duet seriesâThere Are No Saints (Book 1), and There Is No Devil (Book 2)âare fascinating and mind-bending crime thrillers.
How could you not love this:
Youâve got two artists, both murderers, competing with each other in San Franciscoâs hotbed of art and in the world of murder.
Add in a young, beautiful woman, an artist, who is desired by both artists for different reasons.
The Sinner Duet booksâand you do have to read both to get the whole storyâare sexy, romantic, blood-soaked crime thrillers that you will never forget.
Cole Blackwell values control. Heâs the hottest sculptor in San Francisco, wealthy, successful, and respected. His only weakness is the dark impulse he carefully concealsâŚ
Mara Eldritch is a nobody. Broke and damaged, she works three jobs while creating paintings no one will ever see.
A chance encounter throws Mara into Coleâs path. When Mara escapes what appears to be certain death, Cole is intrigued. He starts stalking her, realizing thereâs more to the struggling misfit than he ever would have guessed.
Cole becomes obsessed with Mara, breaking the rules that keep his true nature hidden. Mara knows heâs dangerous,âŚ
Crime fiction, true crime, mystery, and suspense books allow us to brush up against the worst society has to offer without getting hurt. Thereâs a lot to be said for vicarious thrills, isnât there. I am just a simple man telling simple stories about good vs. evil. And sometimes, in my stories, fiction or not, the bad guys win. But I do love telling stories, and when I find a good one, I canât wait to tell you aboutit. Thatâs what I have done here.
This is one of the wildest crime thrillers I have ever read. It is a fantastic, hectic, thrill-a-page story in which author Ian Ludlow finds himself in the middle of the plot of one of his best action novels.
Except this time, itâs not fiction; the madness is really happening to him. Hereâs the plot: Chinese intelligence agents have devised a plan to wreck the United States. The CIA figures nobody, but Ludlow can stop them because heâs already done it in one of his books.
Killer Thriller is an excellent example of how an author can take a real-life scenario and, by asking, âwhat if,â turn the world on its head with the answer and create an incredible story.
In #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg's action-packed sequel to the Washington Post bestseller True Fiction, a hapless writer is pitted against an enemy nation mounting a treacherous plot lifted from one of his thrillers.
Everybody loves Ian Ludlow's action novels-especially the CIA-because the spies know something the public doesn't: his fictional plots have a frightening tendency to come true. Ian is in Hong Kong with his resourceful assistant Margo French to research his wildest story yet-a deadly global conspiracy by Chinese intelligence to topple the United States.
What Ian doesn't know is that his horrifying scenario isâŚ
I write cozy mysteries about a house flipper turned sleuth in fictional Crocus Heights, Minnesota. My father was a carpenter, and I was his helper. My childhood was spent on a farm, with the biggest event of the week being a trip to the local library, where I checked out seven books. I would prop my library book in front of my school book and read in class whenever I could. My favorites were mysteries, and later romances, and now cozy mysteries, which combine a bit of both. I am always fascinated by people and their motivations, and that is what I enjoy in all the authors I recommend.
I love that Laurieâs main character in her Psychic Eye series is a modern-day psychic and solves a mystery. I love a good psychic theme where Abby Cooper has an office where she books readings, solves mysteries, and has a serious love interest. Laurie has a website with links to a podcast where she and her sister discuss current murder cases. I might even book a reading with her.
Abby Cooper is a P.I., psychic intuitive. But her insight failed her when she didn't foresee the death of one of her clients-or that the lead investigator for the case is the gorgeous blind date she just met. Now, with the police suspicious of her abilities and a killer on the loose, Abby's future looks more uncertain than ever.
As I mention in my book picks, Iâm a romantic. I love stories with characters who have big emotions, even more so if they face unique challenges. And I have always loved reading â I was the kid lugging 12 books home from the library. (Technically, we were only allowed six at a time, but I used my brotherâs library account and checked out his share too!) Reading that many books, I discovered that a lot of the plots get repeated, so Iâm always on the lookout for something fresh. In my previous Young Adult novels, Iâve tried to put my own stamp on romance by focusing on queer protagonists and kids of color.
If you love music and you love romance, youâre going to adore Love Radio.
Iâm a romantic from way back, so it was a lot of fun watching Prince try to impress Dani with three dates (which he says is all he needs to get her to fall in love with him). I also enjoyed how hard she made it for himâa girl who knows what she wants for her future, she wasnât about to get played.
This was one of my favorite books of 2022 in any category.
âReaders wonât be able to get enough of these dope-ass characters.â âElizabeth Acevedo, author of Clap When You Land
Hitch meets The Sun Is Also a Star in this âmega swoon-worthy, effortlessly coolâ (Casey McQuiston, New York Times bestselling author) novel about a self-professed teen love doctor with a popular radio segment who believes he can get a girl who hates all things romance to fall in love with him in only three dates.
Prince Jones is the guy with all the answersâor so it seems. After all, at seventeen, he has his own segment on Detroitâs popular hip-hop show,âŚ