18 books like The vulgar boatman
Dead winter
When a minister's son is accused of murder, Boston lawyer Brady Coyne doesn't know whom to trust in this "very satisfying caper" (Publishers Weekly).
 
Desmond Winters has had more trouble than a Unitarian minister deserves. Over six years ago, his wife disappeared with their fourteen-year-old daughter, promising to return someday. The daughter came back after six months; the wife never…
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Death at Charity's Point
A Boston lawyer investigates a prep school teacher's suspicious suicide in this debut for "one of the most likeable sleuths to appear on the crime scene" (The Washington Post Book World).
 
Brady Coyne never meant to become the private lawyer to New England's upper crust, but after more than a decade working for Florence Gresham and her friends, he has developed a reputation for discretion…
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Dead meat
When Native Americans claim a friend's fishing lodge as protected land, lawyer Brady Coyne heads to Maine—where a complex case quickly turns deadly.
 
He may be a millionaire, but Vern Wheeler never forgot that he is a son of Maine—land of big sky, wide lakes, and the fattest salmon on the East Coast. To escape the boardroom, he buys a rundown fishing lodge in the wilds of his home state,…
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Defending Billy Ryan
Twelve years ago Jerry Kennedy delivered his first report, Kennedy for the Defense, on being the classiest sleazy criminal lawyer in Boston, as Mack, his then-wife, called him. Seven years ago, Jerry called in again, with Penance for Jerry Kennedy. After that, things only got worse. Much worse. But in this latest dispatch, we learn that Jerry is digging himself out of a big hole, defending Billy…
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The Friends of Eddie Coyle
"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
A Hallowed Place
Beneath the calm exterior of the elite barristers' chambers at 5 Caper Court rumour and uncertainty begin to take their toll. Cameron Renshaw, the head of chambers, is dying, and Leo Davis, the QC with the charmed but amoral life, is about to find his dubious past catching up with him.
Shares: Lawyers, Legal stories
Next of Kin
Next of kin is a persons closest living blood relative or relatives.
Shares: Boston, Lawyers, Legal stories
The Judas Goat
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
God Save the Child
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
A chain of evidence
missing pages 10-11
Shares: Lawyers, Legal stories
The Widening Gyre
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, Mystery
Darkness, Take My Hand
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…
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Sudden Mischief
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
A Drink Before the War
Taking on a seemingly simple assignment to pinpoint the whereabouts of a cleaning woman who has allegedly stolen confidential State House documents, private investigators Patrick Mckenzie and Angela Gennaro uncover a ring of extortions, assassination, and child prostitution.
Shares: Massachusetts, Boston, Mystery
Looking for Rachel Wallace
When Spenser accepts a job as a "bodyguard" for a beautiful young woman, he gets in way over his head.
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Putting Lipstick on a Pig
"Bowen effectively captures his Midwestern locale and takes readers on a fast-paced, exciting ride."—Publishers WeeklyVance Hayes died while joyriding on a snowmobile late one night near the Wisconsin Dells. The cold-hearted, hard-headed lawyer goes unmourned by clients, colleagues, or anyone else—including his reluctant eulogist, fellow attorney Rep Pennyworth.In fact, interest in Hayes' death…
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Gone, Baby, Gone
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.
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Sacred
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…
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