14 books like What It Was

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

Right as Rain George Pelecanos · 2001 In this thrilling noir, ex-cop Derek Strange is hired by the mother of a slain police officer to investigate the killing, and quickly stumbles across a cop filled with guilt after being involved in the incident. Derek Strange is a black ex-cop in Washington DC who now makes a living running his own private detective agency. He is hired to investigate the killing of an off-duty black policeman… Shares: Washington, African Americans, Private investigators

The Spy Clive Cussler & Justin Scott · 2010 · ★ 4.0 · 436p · ≈ 14h · Moderate Detective Isaac Bell, hero of The Chase and The Wrecker, returns in the remarkable new adventure from the #1 New York Times-bestselling author.It is 1908, and international tensions are mounting as the world plunges toward war. When a brilliant American battleship gun designer dies in a sensational apparent suicide, the man's grief-stricken daughter turns to the legendary Van Dorn Detective… Shares: Washington, Private investigators

Up from Slavery Booker T. Washington · 1900 · ★ 4.1 · 168p · ≈ 5h · Challenging Booker T. Washington, the most recognized national leader, orator and educator, emerged from slavery in the deep south, to work for the betterment of African Americans in the post Reconstruction period. "Up From Slavery" is an autobiography of Booker T. Washington's life and work, which has been the source of inspiration for all Americans. Washington reveals his inner most thoughts as he… Shares: Washington, African Americans

Little Green Walter Mosley · 2013 · ★ 4.5 · 291p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Surviving a near-fatal car wreck and cruising the streets of the Sunset Strip during the heyday of the late 1960s, Easy Rawlins investigates the disappearance of a young African-American, a case that is complicated by Rawlins's changing perspectives. Shares: African Americans, Private investigators

Kill Alex Cross James Patterson · 2011 · ★ 4.1 · 384p · ≈ 12h · Moderate The President's son and daughter are abducted, and Detective Alex Cross is one of the first on the scene. But someone very high-up is using the FBI, Secret Service, and CIA to keep him off the case and in the dark. A deadly contagion in the water supply cripples half of the capital, and Alex discovers that someone may be about to unleash the most devastating attack the United States has ever… Shares: Washington, African Americans

Supreme Justice Phillip Margolin · 2010 · ★ 4.0 New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin returns to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C., with an exciting thriller about a ghost ship and the President's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.Sarah Woodruff, on death row in Oregon for murdering her lover, John Finley, has appealed her case to the Supreme Court just when a prominent justice resigns, leaving a vacancy.Then, for no… Shares: Washington, Private investigators

River, Cross My Heart Breena Clarke · 1999 · ★ 3.5 · 256p · ≈ 8h · Moderate The impact of a child's drowning on a black family in 1925 Washington, especially on the 12-year-old sister who was baby-sitting the girl. Told against the background of the lot of African Americans at the time. Shares: Washington, African Americans

Executive Privilege Phillip Margolin · 2008 · ★ 4.0 · 360p · ≈ 12h · Moderate New York Times bestselling author Phillip Margolin is back, this time with a powerful tale of murder that snakes its way through Washington, D.C.'s halls of power, leading straight to the White House and the most powerful office on earth.When private detective Dana Cutler is hired by an attorney with powerful political connections, the assignment seems simple enough: follow a pretty college… Shares: Washington, Private investigators

Hell to Pay George Pelecanos · 2002 · ★ 3.9 · 360p · ≈ 12h · Moderate Derek Strange and Terry Quinn, the team of private investigators who made their stunning debut in Right As Rain, are hired to find a 14-year-old white girl from the suburbs who's run away from home and is now working as a prostitute. The two ex-cops think they know D.C.'s dangers, but nothing in their experience has prepared them for Worldwide Wilson, the pimp whose territory they're intruding… Shares: Washington, Private investigators

311 Pelican Court (Cedar Cove, Book 3) Debbie Macomber · 2003 · 384p · ≈ 12h · Moderate One thing about Cedar Cove—people sure are interested in what other people are doing. Take Zach and Rosie Cox, for instance. Everybody in town knows that they recently got a divorce. Everybody also knows that I decreed a somewhat unusual custody arrangement. It won't be the kids moving between Rosie's place and Zach's. They'll continue to live in the family home at 311 Pelican Court. Their… Shares: Washington, Private investigators

Double Cross James Patterson · 2000 · ★ 3.6 · 448p · ≈ 14h · Moderate Just when Alex Cross's life is calming down, he is drawn back into the game to confront a criminal mastermind like no other. The elaborate murders that have stunned Washington, DC, are the wildest that Alex Cross and his new girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, have ever seen. This maniac adores an audience, and stages his killings as spectacles in public settings. Alex is pursuing a genius of… Shares: Washington, African Americans

Along Came a Spider James Patterson · 1993 · ★ 4.1 · 454p · ≈ 15h · Moderate A missing little girl named Maggie Rose.A family of three brutally murdered in the projects of Washington, D.C.The thrill-killing of a beautiful elementary school teacher.A psychopathic serial kidnapper/murderer who calls himself the Son of Lindbergh. He is so terrifying that the FBI, the Secret Service, and the police cannot outsmart him - even after he's been captured. Gary Soneji is a… Shares: Washington, African Americans

Susannah's Garden Debbie Macomber · 2006 · ★ 4.0 · 400p · ≈ 13h · Moderate It was the year that changed everything… When Susannah Nelson turned eighteen, she said goodbye to her boyfriend, Jake—and never saw him again. She never saw her brother, Doug, again, either. He died unexpectedly that same year. Now, at fifty, Susannah finds herself regretting the paths not taken. Long married, a mother and a teacher, she should be happy. But she feels there's something missing… Shares: Washington, Private investigators

DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS (Easy Rawlins Mysteries) Walter Mosley · 1990 · ★ 4.0 · 219p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins has few illusions about the world--at least not about the world of a young black veteran in the late 1940s in Southern California. His stint in the Army didn't do anything to dissuade him from his belief that justice doesn't come cheap, especially for men like him. "I thought there might be some justice for a black man if he had money to grease it," Easy says. Fired… Shares: African Americans, Private investigators

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