18 books like Darktown

What to read after Darktown — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

In the Heat of the Night John Ball · 1981 · 176p · ≈ 5h · Moderate A small southern town in the 1960s. A musician found dead on the highway. It's no surprise when white detectives arrest a black man for the murder. What is a surprise is that the black man-Virgil Tibbs-is a skilled homicide detective, passing through racially tense Wells, South Carolina, on his way back to California. Even more surprising, Wells's new police chief recruits Tibbs to help with the… Shares: African American police, African American, Race Relations, African Americans

Lightning men Thomas Mullen · 2017 · ★ 4.1 · 374p · ≈ 12h · Moderate "Reads like the best of James Ellroy."--Publishers Weekly (starred review, on Darktown) "Mullen is a wonderful architect of intersecting plotlines and unexpected answers."--The Washington Post, on Darktown From the acclaimed author of The Last Town on Earth comes the gripping follow-up to Darktown. Officer Denny Rakestraw and "Negro Officers" Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith have their hands full in… Shares: African American police, Atlanta, African American, Race Relations

The Force Don Winslow · 2017 · ★ 4.1 · 482p · ≈ 16h · Moderate "The explosive and sensational next novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Cartel"-- Shares: Police corruption, Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective, Crime

Killing by colours Wonny Lea · 2014 A twisty and unputdownable detective crime novel perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Faith Martin, J.R. Ellis, LJ Ross, Miss Marple and Midsummer Murders!'Killing by Colours' is the fourth instalment in Wonny Lea's DCI Martin Phelps series, set in the thriving Welsh capital city of Cardiff.When the body of the killer's first victim is discovered at a popular Cardiff leisure… Shares: Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective

Dark Country Darren E Laws · 2015 · 304p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Three related famous country and western singers are kidnapped over a period of 50 years. Only one body has ever been found.Battling a debilitating illness, FBI agent Georgina O’Neil joins forces with newly licensed private investigator, Leroy La Portiere to find Susan Dark, the latest in the Dark family to go missing as she is on the verge of national stardom. But Georgina’s search for the truth… Shares: Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective

Cop Town Karin Slaughter · 2012 · ★ 3.9 · 416p · ≈ 13h · Moderate "In 1974, the Atlanta Police Department is investigating a serial cop killer hardly welcomes women, so they partner Kate and Maggie to isolate them from the action. But the move will backfire, putting them right at the heart of it"-- Shares: Atlanta, Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective

Goodnight Nobody Paul Von Helsing · 2000 Shares: Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective

Into Oblivion Arnaldur Indriðason · 2016 · ★ 3.8 · 345p · ≈ 11h · Moderate "Into Oblivion, the follow-up to the gritty prequel Reykjavik Nights, gives devoted fans another glimpse of Erlendur in his early days as a young, budding detective. A woman swims in a remote, milky-blue lagoon. Steam rises from the water and as it clears, a body is revealed in the ghostly light. Miles away, a vast aircraft hangar rises behind the perimeter fence of the US military base. A… Shares: Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective

Death by his grace Kwei Quartey · 2017 · 257p · ≈ 8h · Moderate "Katherine Yeboah's marriage to Solomon Vanderpuye is all the talk of Accra high society. But when it becomes apparent that Katherine is infertile, Solomon's extended family accuses her of being a witch, hounding her until the relationship is so soured Solomon feels compelled to order Katherine out of the house they shared. Alone on her last night there, Katherine is brutally murdered by an… Shares: African American, Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective

Murder on the Mediterranean Alexander Campion · 2014 · ★ 4.4 · 384p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Even on a well-deserved Mediterranean cruise, murder follows Commissair Capucine Le Tellier. Shares: Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective, Crime

Dangerous behavior Nancy Bush · 2017 · 394p · ≈ 13h · Moderate SOME COUPLES Just one look, and it's clear they're perfect together. It's in the way they touch, talk, and kiss. They share the same interests. The same twisted passions. They do everything together. Even kill… ARE TOO GOOD Julia St. James Ford has washed up on a beach near her home in Seaside, Oregon, with no memory of how she got there or how her husband, Joe, died. The police rule the case an… Shares: Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective, Crime

A rap on race Margaret Mead · 1971 · ★ 4.0 · 256p · ≈ 8h · Moderate (From the introduction) On August 25, 1970, anthropologist Margaret Mead and writer James Baldwin met for the first time to have three recorded conversations, totaling more than seven hours of tape that, once transcribed, would compose the book, A Rap on Race (1971). The Mead and Baldwin Book is an amazing account documenting the meeting of two of the twentieth century's paradigmatic thinkers and… Shares: African American, Race Relations, African Americans

Find The Lady Roger Silverwood · 2008 · 224p · ≈ 7h · Moderate When gangster Mike Spagliotti is found shot through the head inside his locked New York hotel suite, it is a perplexing problem for Detective-Inspector Flannel. And when newspaper reporter Anita Curzon begins to interfere, Flannel's temper does not improve ... In THE EGYPTIAN TOMB Tony Gilmour and his friends Ron and Alan travel to Egypt to investigate the suspicious death of Ron's father - but… Shares: Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective, Crime

Murder in Montague Place Martyn Beardsley · 2012 Great Scotland Yard 1844. When the beautiful Eleanora Scambles claims that her husband has been wrongly arrested for the murder of Edward Mizzentoft, Inspector Bucket of the recently formed Detective Department is intrigued, but there are two problems. The case is already being handled by Bucket's colleague, who is in no doubt about his man's guilt; and someone else observed the conversation… Shares: Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective

Leaving Atlanta Tayari Jones · 2002 · ★ 4.1 · 272p · ≈ 9h · Moderate "It was the end of summer, a summer during a two-year nightmare. African American children around Atlanta were vanishing, and twenty-nine would be murdered by the end of 1981. Like all kids across the city, fifth-grade classmates Tasha Baxter, Rodney Green, and Octavia Harrison were discovering that back-to-school now meant special safety lessons, indoor recess, and being thrown into a world… Shares: Atlanta, African Americans

NCIS Los Angeles Jerome Preisler · 2016 Shane Brennan Shares: Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective, Crime

Murmurs of insanity Gerrie Ferris Finger · 2014 · 307p · ≈ 10h · Moderate In the wake of a teen drug runner's disappearance after a murder in Atlanta, Moriah Dru and Richard Lake question his ex-wife's half-brother about two missing students who were staging a controversial conceptual art performance. Shares: Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective

The caller Karin Fossum · 2012 "Pranks can have lethal consequences, even when they seem harmless to start with. . . . A poison bonbon that ranks with the best of Ruth Rendell." —Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly One mild summer evening, a young couple are enjoying dinner while their daughter sleeps peacefully in her stroller under a tree. When her mother steps outside she is stunned: the child is… Shares: Police Procedural, Mystery & Detective, Crime

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