18 books like Hard Time

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

Tears of the Giraffe (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Alexander McCall Smith · 2000 · ★ 4.3 · 230p · ≈ 7h · Moderate In 1999 The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency received two Booker Judges' Special Recommendations and was voted one of the ‘International Books of the Year and the Millennium' by the Times Literary Supplement. Tears of the Giraffe takes us further into the life of the engaging and sassy Precious Ramotswe, the owner and detective of Botswana's only Ladies' detective agency. Among her cases are… Shares: Women private investigators, Women detectives, Mystery & Detective, Private investigators

Boar Island Nevada Barr · 2016 · 374p · ≈ 12h · Moderate "Anna Pigeon, in her career as a National Park Service Ranger, has had to deal with all manner of crimes and misdemeanors, but cyber-bullying and stalking is a new one. The target is Elizabeth, the adopted teenage daughter of her friend Heath Jarrod. Elizabeth is driven to despair by the disgusting rumors spreading online and bullying texts. Until, one day, Heath finds her daughter Elizabeth in… Shares: Women Sleuths, Women detectives, Mystery & Detective

Crash & Burn Lisa Gardner · 2015 · 371p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Nicole Frank, after surviving a car accident, enlists the help of Boston police officer Sergeant Wyatt Foster to find a missing girl. Who is Nicky Frank, and what happened the night her car sailed off the road? Was it a random accident or something more sinister given the woman's lack of family and no close friends? The deeper Wyatt digs, the more concerned he becomes. Because it turns out, in… Shares: Traffic accident victims, Mystery & Detective

The high window Raymond Chandler · 1942 · ★ 3.7 · 198p · ≈ 6h · Challenging Fast-talking, trouble-seeking private eye Philip Marlowe is a different kind of detective: a moral man in an amoral world. California in the 1940s and 1950s is as beautiful as a ripe fruit and rotten to the core, and Marlowe must struggle to retain his integrity amidst the corruption he encounters daily. In The High Window, Marlowe starts out on the trail of a single stolen coin and ends up… Shares: American, Mystery & Detective, Literary Criticism, Private investigators

The silent dead Tetsuya Honda · 2016 · 292p · ≈ 9h · Moderate "When a body wrapped in a blue plastic tarp and tied up with twine is discovered near the bushes near a quiet suburban Tokyo neighborhood, Lt. Reiko Himekawa and her squad take the case. The victim was slaughtered brutally--his wounds are bizarre, and no one can figure out the "what" or the "why" of this crime. At age twenty-nine, Reiko Himekawa of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police's Homicide… Shares: Women Sleuths, Women detectives, Mystery & Detective

The Stranger You Know Jane Casey · 2013 · ★ 4.4 He meets women. He gains their trust. He kills them. That's all London police detective Maeve Kerrigan knows about the man she is hunting. Three women have been strangled in their homes, and it appears to be the work of the same sadistic killer. With no sign of break-ins, every indication shows that the women let their attacker in willingly. The victims' neighbors and friends don't seem to… Shares: Women Sleuths, Women detectives, Mystery & Detective

Blue shoes and happiness Alexander McCall Smith · 2006 · ★ 4.1 · 248p · ≈ 8h · Moderate In this seventh installment in the internationally bestselling, universally beloved series, there is considerable excitement at the shared premises of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency and Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. A cobra has been found in Precious Ramotswe's office. Then a nurse from a local medical clinic reveals to Mma Ramotswe that faulty blood-pressure readings are being recorded there.… Shares: Women private investigators, Private investigators, Mystery

The Alington Inheritance (A Miss Silver Mystery) Patricia Wentworth · 1958 · ★ 3.9 · 222p · ≈ 7h · Moderate When a question of inheritance turns fatal, Miss Silver searches for the killer. Jenny has never been one to feel sorry for herself. The illegitimate child of a wealthy man and a stature less woman, she has been an orphan since before she can remember. It is a hard life made bearable only by the kindness of her guardian, an old woman named Miss Garstone, who has always treated Jenny as her own.… Shares: Women private investigators, Women detectives, Mystery

Dead to me Cath Staincliffe · 2012 · ★ 4.2 · 392p · ≈ 13h · Moderate "A riveting, sharply observed and thoroughly modern police procedural featuring a stellar but unlikely female dectective team, perfect for fans of Tess Gerritsen and Deborah Crombie Detective Constable Janet Scott is subtle and reliable, a diplomatic thinker with a wry sense of humor. She's put in the time and seen it all, but has no desire for the boss's job--she loves her own too much. Rachel… Shares: Women Sleuths, Women detectives, Mystery & Detective

Quicksand Carolyn Baugh · 2015 · 286p · ≈ 9h · Moderate "Quicksand: The beginning of an engrossing new suspense series featuring Philadelphia policewoman Nora Khalil by Carolyn Baugh, acclaimed author of The View From Garden City. Officer Nora Khalil is used to navigating different terrains. As part of a joint task force set up by the Philadelphia Police Department, the FBI, and the local sheriff's offices, she works to keep Philly's mean streets safe… Shares: Women Sleuths, Women detectives, Mystery & Detective

Fünf Ursula Poznanski · 2012 · ★ 3.4 · 324p · ≈ 10h · Moderate "A woman's corpse is discovered in a meadow. A strange combination of letters and numbers has been tattooed on the soles of her feet. Detective inspector Beatrice Kaspary from the local murder squad quickly identifies the digits as map coordinates. These lead to a series of gruesome discoveries as she and her colleague Florin Wenninger embark on a bloody trail - a modern-day scavenger hunt using… Shares: Women Sleuths, Women detectives, Mystery & Detective

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman P. D. James · 1972 · ★ 3.8 · 224p · ≈ 7h · Moderate A Cordelia Gray MysteryMeet Cordelia Gray: twenty-two, tough, intelligent and now sole inheritor of the Pryde Detective Agency. Her first assignment finds her hired by Sir Ronald Callender to investigate the death of his son Mark, a young Cambridge student found hanged in mysterious circumstances. Required to delve into the hidden secrets of the Callender family, Cordelia soon realizes it is not… Shares: Women private investigators, Women detectives, Private investigators, Mystery

Maisie Dobbs Jacqueline Winspear · 2003 · ★ 4.4 · 294p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Maisie Dobbs isn’t just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence—and the patronage of her benevolent employers—she works her way into college at Cambridge. When World War I breaks out, Maisie goes to the front as a nurse. It is there that she learns that coincidences are meaningful and the truth elusive. After the War, Maisie sets up on her own as a private investigator. But her… Shares: Women private investigators, Mystery & Detective, Private investigators, Mystery

The Shape of Dread Marcia Muller · 1989 · 282p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Bobby Foster, carhop at the chic Cafe Comedie, is going to the gas chamber. He’s already confessed to the murder of Tracy Kostakos, the club’s rising star. But two years after the crime, Tracy’s body is still missing and Bobby’s confession is full of holes. All Souls Legal Cooperative’s final appeal sends San Francisco’s number one PI Sharon McCone behind the footlights into the super-charged… Shares: Women private investigators, Private investigators, Mystery

One for the Money Janet Evanovich · 1994 · ★ 4.4 · 320p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Welcome to Trenton, New Jersey, home to wiseguys, average Joes, and Stephanie Plum, who sports a big attitude and even bigger money problems (since losing her job as a lingerie buyer for a department store). Stephanie needs cash--fast--but times are tough, and soon she's forced to turn to the last resort of the truly desperate: family. Stephanie lands a gig at her sleazy cousin Vinnie's bail… Shares: Women detectives, Mystery & Detective, Private investigators, Mystery

An Incomplete Revenge Jacqueline Winspear · 2008 · ★ 4.4 · 313p · ≈ 10h · Moderate With the country in the grip of economic malaise, and worried about her business, Maisie Dobbs is relieved to accept an apparently straightforward assignment from an old friend to investigate certain matters concerning a potential land purchase. Her inquiries take her to a picturesque village in Kent during the hop-picking season, but beneath its pastoral surface she finds evidence that something… Shares: Women private investigators, Private investigators

Blood ties Nicholas Guild · 2015 · 318p · ≈ 10h · Moderate "Homicide detective Ellen Ridley of the SFPD is tracking a serial killer terrorizing young women in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ridley is sure she's cornered her most likely suspect: Stephen Tregear, a hacker and code breaker who works for U.S. Naval Intelligence. But Tregear is not the killer ... he's the killer's son. Ridley and Tregear team up to look for Tregear's father, Walter, in an… Shares: Women Sleuths, Women detectives, Mystery & Detective

Sideswipe Charles Ray Willeford · 1987 · ★ 4.4 · 300p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Hoke Moseley has had enough. Tired of struggling against alimony payments, two teenage daughters, a very pregnant, very single partner, and a low paying job as a Miami homicide detective, Hoke moves to Singer Island and vows never step foot on the mainland again. But on the street, career criminal Troy Louden is hatching plans of his own with a gang including a disfigured hooker, a talentless… Shares: American, Mystery & Detective, Literary Criticism, Mystery

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