18 books like A Drink Before the War

What to read after A Drink Before the War — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Sacred Dennis Lehane · 1997 · ★ 4.0 · 375p · ≈ 12h · Moderate The master of the new noir, Dennis Lehane brilliantly interweaves beauty and violence, integrity and evil in this thrilling, powerfully resonant novel.A beautiful, grief-stricken woman has vanished without a trace. So has the detective hired to find her. And a lot of money. Enter saavy, tough-nosed private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. Rooted in the no-nonsense streets of… Shares: Détectives, Massachusetts, Boston, Private investigators

The Judas Goat Robert B. Parker · 1978 · 181p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Private eye Spenser returns to take on the terrorists who killed his client's wife and daughters in a London bombing, chasing them across Europe to the Montreal Olympics and a devastating climax. Shares: Massachusetts, Boston, Private investigators

God Save the Child Robert B. Parker · 1974 · ★ 4.0 · 185p · ≈ 6h · Moderate New York Times bestselling author of the Spenser series of crime thrillers - Book 2 in the series -Appie Knoll is the kind of suburb where kids grow up right. But something is wrong. Fourteen-year-old Kevin Bartlett disappears. Everyone thinks he's run away -- until the comic strip ransom note arrives.  It doesn't take Spenser long to get the picture -- an affluent family seething with rage,… Shares: Massachusetts, Boston, Private investigators

The Last Detective Robert Crais · 2003 · ★ 4.3 · 302p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Elvis Cole is back...With his acclaimed bestsellers, Hostage (a New York Times Notable Book) and Demolition Angel, Robert Crais drew raves for his unstoppable pacing, edgy characterizations, and cinematic prose. Now, in The Last Detective, Crais returns to his signature character, Los Angeles private investigator Elvis Cole, in a masterful page-turner that probes the meaning of family and the… Shares: Détectives, Private investigators, Mystery

The Friends of Eddie Coyle George V. Higgins · 1972 · ★ 4.0 · 192p · ≈ 6h · Moderate "Eddie Coyle is a small-time punk with a big-time problem - who to sell out to avoid being sent up again. Eddie works for Jimmy Scalisi, supplying him with guns for a couple of bank jobs. But a cop named Foley is onto Eddie, and he's leaning on him to finger Scalisi, a gang leader with a lot to hide. And then there's Dillon, a full-time bartender and a part-time contract killer pretending to be… Shares: Massachusetts, Boston

The Widening Gyre Robert B. Parker · 1983 · ★ 4.0 · 183p · ≈ 6h · Moderate The adoring wife of a senatorial candidate has a smile as sweet as candy and dots her "i's" with little hearts. A blond beauty, she is the perfect mate for an ambitious politician, but she has a little problem with sex and drugs -- a problem someone has managed to put on videotape. The big boys figure a little blackmail will put her husband out of the race. Until Spenser hops on the candidate's… Shares: Massachusetts, Boston, Private investigators, Mystery

Darkness, Take My Hand Dennis Lehane · 1996 · ★ 4.4 · 511p · ≈ 17h · Moderate The master of the new noir, Dennis Lehane magnificently evokes the dignity and savagery of working-class Boston in this terrifying tale of darkness and redemption. Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro's latest client is a prominent Boston psychiatrist running scared from a vengeful Irish mob. The private investigators know something about cold-blooded retribution. Born and bred on the mean streets… Shares: Massachusetts, Boston, Private investigators, Mystery

Sudden Mischief Robert B. Parker · 1998 · 274p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Brad Sterling - former Harvard football player, ne'er-dowell, and Susan Silverman's long-out-of-touch ex-husband - is, by all appearances, a successful businessman. But when he is charged with sexual harassment in the course of running a vast fund-raiser called Galapalooza, he turns to Susan for help. Though Brad denies the charge, he's desperate, behind in alimony and child support to other… Shares: Massachusetts, Boston, Private investigators

Looking for Rachel Wallace Robert B. Parker · 1980 · ★ 4.5 · 219p · ≈ 7h · Moderate When Spenser accepts a job as a "bodyguard" for a beautiful young woman, he gets in way over his head. Shares: Massachusetts, Boston, Private investigators, Mystery

Gone, Baby, Gone Dennis Lehane · 1998 · ★ 4.2 · 510p · ≈ 17h · Moderate PI Patrick Kenzie is hired to find a four-year-old girl, abducted while the mother was out drinking. The search takes Kenzie through Boston's underworld of drug dealers, kidnapers and pedophiles. Shares: Massachusetts, Boston, Private investigators, Mystery

A Catskill Eagle Robert B. Parker · 1985 · ★ 4.0 · 311p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Spenser loves just one woman, even though she's the one he's just lost. So when her desperate letter arrives, he doesn't think twice. He has to free his best friend from a life sentence, and get Susan out of trouble. Shares: Massachusetts, Boston, Private investigators, Mystery

Mortal Stakes Robert B. Parker · 1975 · ★ 4.0 · 330p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Everybody loves a winner, and the Rabbs are major league. Marty is the Red Sox star pitcher, Linda the loving wife. She loves everyone except the blackmailer out to wreck her life. Is Marty throwing fast balls or throwing games? It doesn't take long for Spenser to link Marty's performance with Linda's past...or to find himself trapped between a crazed racketeer and an enforcer toting an M-16.… Shares: Massachusetts, Boston, Private investigators, Mystery

Pale Kings and Princes Robert B. Parker · 1987 · ★ 4.0 · 312p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Spenser is hired to determine whether a reporter was killed by dope dealers or by an irate husband. Shares: Massachusetts, Boston, Private investigators

Ceremony Robert B. Parker · 1982 · ★ 4.0 · 231p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Spenser tracks down a young high school dropout who has run away from home to a life of prostitution. Shares: Massachusetts, Boston, Private investigators, Mystery

Family Honor Robert B. Parker · 1999 · ★ 4.0 · 321p · ≈ 10h · Moderate PI Sunny Randall of Boston searches for a rich man's daughter who ran away to be a prostitute. After finding her Sunny must guard her because the girl is on a hit list. She witnessed a conspiracy involving state government. Shares: Massachusetts, Boston, Private investigators

Prayers for rain Dennis Lehane · 1999 · ★ 4.1 · 478p · ≈ 15h · Moderate The master of the new noir, Dennis Lehane delivers a shattering tale of evil, depravity, and justice that captures the dark realism of Boston’s gritty blue-collar streets.Private Investigator Patrick Kenzie wants to know why a former client, a perky woman in love with life, could, within six months, jump naked from a Boston landmark -- the final fall in a spiral of self-destruction. What he finds… Shares: Massachusetts, Boston, Private investigators, Mystery

Requiem for a dummy David Stuart Davies · 2009 · 223p · ≈ 7h · Moderate London 1943. Successful ventriloquist Raymond Carter begins receiving death threats over the telephone. These calls are especially unnerving as the threats are made in the voice of his dummy, Charlie Dokes. Carter calls on the services of private detective Johnny Hawke to get to the bottom of this bizarre case. Shares: Détectives, Private investigators

Taken at the Flood Agatha Christie · 1948 · ★ 3.7 · 226p · ≈ 7h · Challenging A few weeks after marrying an attractive young widow, Gordon Cloade is tragically killed by a bomb blast in the London blitz. Overnight, the former Mrs. Underhay finds herself in sole possession of the Cloade family fortune. Shortly afterwards, Hercule Poirot receives a visit from the dead man's sister-in-law who claims she has been warned by 'spirits' that Mrs. Underhay's first husband is still… Shares: Détectives, Private investigators, Mystery

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