18 books like What It Was

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

Right as Rain

Right as Rain George Pelecanos · 2001 Shares Washington, African Americans, Private investigators with this book.

The Ivory Grin

The Ivory Grin Ross MacDonald · 1952 · 204p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Traveling from sleazy motels to stately seaside manors, The Ivory Grin is one of Lew Archer's most violent and macabre cases ever.A hard-faced woman clad in a blue mink stole and dripping with diamonds hires Lew Archer to track down her former maid, who she claims has stolen her jewelry. Archer can tell he's being fed a line, but curiosity gets the better of him and he accepts the case. He… Shares Private investigators

The visitation Frank E. Peretti · 1999 · 528p · ≈ 17h · Moderate Shares Washington with this book.

Little Green

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

The Spy

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 · Moderate 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

The Unseen Lee Driver · 2004 · 305p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Shares Private investigators with this book.

Supreme Justice

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

Murder in the Ball Park

Murder in the Ball Park Robert Goldsborough · 2014 · 240p · ≈ 8h · Moderate A killer hiding among the crowd at a Dodgers-Giants game forces Nero Wolfe to step up to the plate in this "superb" mystery (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Archie Goodwin and Saul Panzer have ventured into the wilds of northern Manhattan to watch the Giants take on the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds. The national anthem is just winding down when Panzer spies a notable in the box seats:… Shares 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

When the Sacred Ginmill Closes

When the Sacred Ginmill Closes Lawrence Block · 1986 · ★ 4.0 · 261p · ≈ 8h · Moderate In the dark days, in a sad and lonely place, ex-cop Matt Scudder is drinking his life away -- and doing "favors" for pay for his ginmill cronies. But when three such assignments flow together in dangerous and disturbing ways, he'll need to change his priorities from boozing to surviving. Shares Private investigators

Strega

Strega Andrew Vachss · 1987 · ★ 4.0 · 293p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Andrew Vachss's implacable private eye has a new client, Strega. She wants Burke to find an obscene photograph--and that search will take him into the ocean that flows just beneath the city, an ocean whose currents are flesh and money, the anguish of children and the pleasure of twisted adults. It is a place that Burke can visit only at the risk of his sanity and his life. But between the power… Shares 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

The Cutthroat

The Cutthroat Clive Cussler & Justin Scott · 2017 · ★ 4.1 · 388p · ≈ 12h · Moderate "The year is 1911. Chief Investigator Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Detective Agency has had many extraordinary cases before. But none quite like this. Hired to find a young woman named Anna Pape who ran away from home to become an actress, Bell gets a shock when her murdered body turns up instead. Vowing to bring the killer to justice, he begins a manhunt which leads him into increasingly more… Shares Private investigators

R. Holmes & Co. John Kendrick Bangs · 1906 · ★ 3.4 The son of Sherlock Holmes (who also happens to also be the grandson of thief A. J. Raffles) decides to have his own adventures published. Upon selecting the man who will chronicle his life (much as Watson did for Holmes), we get the tale Raffles' astonishing origin, followed by an exciting series of adventures involving burglary, extortion, armed robbery, and more-with Raffles treading the fine… Shares Private investigators

Executive Privilege

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

Ticktock Dean Koontz · 1996 · ★ 3.8 · 318p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Tommy Phan is a 30-year-old Vietnamese-American detective and novelist living in Southern California, and a chaser of the American Dream. He drives home his brand-new Corvette one day to discover a strange doll on his doorstep. It's a rag doll made entirely of white cloth, with no face or hair or clothes. Where the eyes should be, there are two crossed stitches of black thread. Five sets of… Shares Private investigators

Hell to Pay

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

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