Books like 'The Screaming Mimi'
Readers who enjoyed The Screaming Mimi by Fredric Brown also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery 20th century horror noir crime pulp law-enforcement hard-boiled
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The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsThe internationally acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author returns to the magnificent universe he constructed in his bestselling novels The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, and The Prisoner of Heaven in this riveting series finale—a heart-pounding thriller and nail-biting work of suspense which introduces a sexy, seductive new heroine whose investigation shines a light on the dark... -
Warbound by Larry Correia
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsNew York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author's gritty urban fantasy set in an alternate noir 1930s. A tough P.I. battles an interdimensional monster that wants to suck magic power out of the world. Sequel to Hard Magic and Spellbound. Book Three in the Grimnoir Chronicles... -
The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures by Mike Ashley
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe biggest collection of new Sherlock Holmes stories since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle laid down his pen - nearly 200,000 words of superb fiction featuring the Great Detective by masters of historical crime, including Stephen Baxter, H. R. F. Keating, Michael Moorcock and Amy Myers. Almost all the stories here are specially written; the cases presented in the order in which Holmes solved them...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies classics fiction -
King Stakh’s Wild Hunt by Uladzimir Karatkevich
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsKing Stakh's Wild Hunt tells the tale of Andrey Belaretsky, a young folklorist who finds himself stranded by a storm in the castle of Marsh Firs, the seat of the fading aristocratic Yanovsky family. Offered refuge by Nadzeya, the last in the Yanovskys’ line, he learns of the family curse and terrible apparitions that portend her early death and trap her in permanent, maddening fear... -
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The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The War of the Worlds by Manly Wade Wellman, Wade Wellman
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn 1897, the world changed forever when our planet came under attack from Martian invaders. The world's greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes, along with his friend Professor Challenger embark on one of their most dangerous adventures to date... to discover the nature and intent of their extra-terrestrial attackers... -
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsWhen the children of his village were struck with a mysterious illness, Number Ten Ox sought a wiseman to save them. He found master Li Kao, a scholar with a slight flaw in his character. Together, they set out to find the Great Root of Power, the only possible cure...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement pulp 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history ancient-china -
The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe narrator of The Bottoms is Harry Collins, an old man obsessively reflecting on certain key experiences of his childhood. In 1933, the year that forms the centerpiece of the narrative, Harry is 11 years old and living with his mother, father, and younger sister on a farm outside of Marvel Creek, Texas, near the Sabine River bottoms... -
The Spinster's Fortune by Mary Kendall
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMoonlit alleys, shadowy tunnels, and buried secrets…Summer of 1929.Of supposed unsound mind without a penny to her name, Blanche Magruder lies alone in a home for the aged and infirm.Meanwhile, her house, a crumbled ruin in the heart of Georgetown, Washington, D.C., is pillaged nightly by thieves looking for treasure rumored to be hidden there... -
Potsdam Station by David Downing
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsApril, 1945. The Third Reich is on the verge of extinction, and its enemies are already plotting against each other. For John Russell, this has personal importance: his son and girlfriend are trapped in Berlin and only the Soviets can get him in there. But the price of their help will threaten both his and the world's postwar future... -
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes, Paula Rabinowitz
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPostwar Los Angeles is a lonely place where the American Dream is showing its seamy underside—and a stranger is preying on young women. The suggestively named Dix Steele, a cynical vet with a chip on his shoulder about the opposite sex, is the LAPD's top suspect... -
Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHamilton captures the edgy, obsessive and eventually murderous mindset of a romantically frustrated British man in this WWII-era novel. London 1939, and in the grimy publands of Earls Court, George Harvey Bone is pursuing a helpless infatuation with Netta who is cool, contemptuous and hopelessly desirable to George... -
Hard Magic by Larry Correia
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsJake Sullivan is a licensed Private Eye—with a seriously hardboiled attitude. He also possesses raw magical talent and the ability to make objects in his vicinity light as a feather or as heavy as depleted uranium, all with a magical thought. It's no wonder the G-men turn to Jake when they need someone to go after a suspected killer who's been knocking off banks in a magic-enhanced crime spree...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement noir pulp 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history -
The German by Lee Thomas
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the Lambda Literary Award and Bram Stoker Award-winning author Lee Thomas come a thrilling novel. 1944 - Barnard, Texas. At the height of World War II, a killer preys on the young men of a quiet Texas town. The murders are calculated, vicious, and they are just beginning. Sheriff Tom Rabbit and his men are baffled and the community he serves is terrified of the monster lurking their streets... -
Madness in the Ruins by John A. Connell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA mutilated body. No witnesses. The only clue, a message, “Those who I have made suffer will become saints and they shall lift me up from hell.” Winter, 1945. Munich is in ruins, and a savage killer is stalking the city.U.S. Army investigator Mason Collins enforces the law in the American Zone of Occupation. This post is his last chance to do what he loves most—being a homicide detective... -
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Bubba Ho-Tep by Joe R. Lansdale, Don Coscarelli
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe companion book to the popular movie starring Bruce Campbell as Elvis and Ossie Davis as JFK. Stuck in an East Texas old folks home, they must face off against a redneck mummy... -
Sherlock Holmes in Orbit by Mike Resnick, Dean Wesley Smith
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAuthorized by Dame Jean Conan Doyle, this brand-new collection of 26 Sherlock Holmes stories takes place in Holmes' own era, in our present time, and in the future. All the tales contain some science fiction or fantasy element, and all remain true to the spirit and personality of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous and enduring creation...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history anthologies -
The Long Home by William Gay
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn a literary voice that is both original and powerfully unsettling, William Gay tells the story of Nathan Winer, a young and headstrong Tennessee carpenter who lost his father years ago to a human evil that is greater and closer at hand than any the boy can imagine - until he learns of it first-hand... -
The Best American Noir Of The Century by Otto Penzler, James Ellroy
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn his introduction, James Ellroy writes, "Noir is the most scrutinized offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction…It's the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad."Ellroy & Penzler mined the past century to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine stories... -
The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratings1950s Los Angeles: The City of Angels has become the city of the Angel of Death. Communist witch-hunts and insanely violent killings are terrorising the community. Three men are plunged into a maelstrom of violence and deceit when their lives become inextricably linked as each one confronts his own personal darkness...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement noir 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Cape Fear by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHow far would you go to save your family? In John D. MacDonald's iconic masterwork of suspense, the inspiration for not one but two Hollywood hits, a mild-mannered family is tormented by an obsessed criminal--and with the authorities powerless to protect them, they must take the law into their own hands... -
Artists in Crime by Ngaio Marsh, Phillip Franks
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIt was a bizarre pose for beautiful model Sonia Gluck--and her last. For in the draperies of her couch lay a fatal dagger, and behind her murder lies all the intrigue and acid-etched temperament of an artist's colony... -
The West End Horror: A Posthumous Memoir of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMarch 1895. London. A month of strange happenings in the West End. First there is the bizarre murder of theater critic Jonathan McCarthy. Then the lawsuit against the Marquess of Queensberry for libel; the public is scandalized. Next, the ingenue at the Savoy is discovered with her throat slashed. And a police surgeon disappears, taking two corpses with him... -
In the Teeth of the Evidence by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAll that was left of the garage was a heap of charred and smouldering beams. In the driving seat of the burnt-out car were the remains of a body...An accident, said the police. An accident, said the widow. She had been warning her husband about the danger of the car for months. Murder, said the famous detective Lord Peter Wimsey--and proceeded to track down the killer...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement 20th-century adult amateur-sleuth anthologies audiobook classics -
The Pendragon Legend by Antal Szerb
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAt an end-of-London-season soiree, the young Hungarian scholar-dilettante Janos Batky is introduced to the Earl of Gwynedd, a reclusive eccentric who is the subject of strange rumors... -
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Who's Sorry Now? by Maggie Robinson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLondon, England 1925 A Russian prince. A wealthy heir. An impoverished earl's daughter. Which one will make an untimely exit from the London social scene? Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Devenand Hunter finds himself in the middle of a series of upper-class deaths in London... -
Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation by Harlan Ellison
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe original 50 cent paperback edition of this book now goes for $100 in rare book auctions. Why? Because it contains 25 of the best, hardest-to-find stories of the writer the Washington Post calls "one of the great living American short story writers," the unpredictable Harlan Ellison... -
Angel Street: A Victorian Thriller in Three Acts by Patrick Hamilton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA Broadway hit first produced on the West End under the title Gaslight and filmed twice, Angel Street tells the story of the Manninghams who live on Angel Street in 19th Century London. As the curtain rises, all appears the essence of Victorian tranquility. It is soon apparent however, that Mr... -
No Doors, No Windows by Harlan Ellison
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsYOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF! The only trouble is, fear comes in so many different shapes and sizes these days. It comes as rejection by a beautiful woman. It comes in the brutalization of your love by an amoral man... -
The Falcon's Malteser by Anthony Horowitz
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen the vertically-challenged Johnny Naples entrusts Tim Diamond with a package worth over three million pounds, he's making a big mistake. Tim Diamond is the worst detective in the world... -
Cut to the Quick by Kate Ross
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTHERE'S A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG WOMAN IN JULIAN KESTREL'S BED. UNFORTUNATELY, SHE'S DEAD.Add the unflappable Julian Kestrel to the ranks of great sleuths of ages past. He's the very model of a proper Beau Brummell--except for his unusual willingness to plunge headlong into murder investigations... -
The Unclaimed Victim by D.M. Pulley
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLiving decades apart, two women get caught in the web of an infamous serial killer. In 1938, at the height of the Great Depression, a madman hunts his victims through the hobo jungles of Cleveland, terrorizing the city...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book conspiracies -
The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThe Redbreast is a fabulous introduction to Nesbø’s tough-as-nails series protagonist, Oslo police detective Harry Hole...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement noir 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Crippen by John Boyne
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsJuly 1910: A gruesome discovery has been made at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden.Chief Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland Yard did not expect the house to be empty. Nor did he expect to find a body in the cellar. Buried under the flagstones are the remains of Cora Crippen, former music-hall singer and wife of Dr. Hawley Crippen. No one would have thought the quiet, unassuming Dr... -
Rapture: The Big Daddy by Dustin Brubaker
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsArthur Winter, his wife and daughter move to Rapture with the promise of a better life and more importantly a new start. He intends to work hard and one day be wealthy just like Ryan promises everyone who moves to Rapture. He opens a small business. For a few years things are good, almost idyllic. The good life is shattered when one day his daughter mysteriously vanishes without trace... -
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Bloodcircle by P.N. Elrod
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratings"Critics are thirsting for "Vampire Files"...An entertaining blend of detective story and the supernatural". Science Fiction Chronicle"A blend of the hard-boiled detective novel and the vampire tale.. -
Philomel Cottage: An Agatha Christie Short Story by Agatha Christie
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA classic Agatha Christie short story, available individually for the first time on audio.Recently swept off her feet, after a week of courting, the newly married Alix Martin is a woman obsessed by a reoccurring dream of her new husband’s murder. Each time she can see the murderer clearly and it is the mild mannered man she had almost married wreaking his revenge... -
The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEditorial Reviews - The Burning Court From the Publisher A classic tale combining hints of the supernatural and an 'impossible' murder. The death of Miles Despard looks simple enough... -
Art in the Blood by P.N. Elrod
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsI'm a vampire, not an artist, but I know what I like.And I don't like murder:So when the career of a talented young artist is fatally cut short, I know I won't sleep easy in my coffin until I find the killer: But the world of high art--with its big money, bigger egos, and expensive forgeries--makes even bloodsucking seem simple. And safer... -
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He Who Whispers by John Dickson Carr
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA Dr Gideon Fell mystery and classic of the locked-room genre Outside the little French city of Chartres, industrialist Howard Brookes is found dying on the parapet of an old stone tower. Evidence shows that it was impossible for anyone to have entered at the time of the murder, however someone must have, for the victim was discovered stabbed in the back... -
The Golden Gate by Amy Chua
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAmy Chua's debut novel, The Golden Gate, is a sweeping, evocative, and compelling historical thriller that paints a vibrant portrait of a California buffeted by the turbulent crosswinds of a world at war and a society about to undergo massive change... -
The Horror on the Links by Seabury Quinn
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsToday the names of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, and Clark Ashton Smith, all regular contributors to the pulp magazine Weird Tales during the first half of the twentieth century, are recognizable even to casual readers of the bizarre and fantastic... -
The Far Cry by Fredric Brown
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOnce upon a time, a girl named Jenny Ames was murdered in a lonely house. No one knew where she had come from, or why she had died, or who killed her. Years later a man moved into the same house and discovered that nothing is more seductive than an unsolved murder... -
The Adventures of Solar Pons by August Derleth
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSolar Pons: In his Inverness cape Solar Pons steps briskly from No 7B Praed Street onto the mist-shrouded cobblestones of old London's alleyways. The game is afoot...Pons, Solar. Born 1880 in Prague. Public school education. Graduated Oxford University 1889. Unmarried. Member Savile, Diogenes, Athenaeum, Cliff Dwellers, Lambs. Est. private inquiry practice at 7B Praed Street, 1907... -
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A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine, Ruth Rendell
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFaith Severn has grown up with the dark cloud of murder looming over her family. Her aunt Vera Hillyard, a rigidly respectable woman, was convicted and hanged for the crime, but the reason for her desperate deed died with her. Thirty years later, a probing journalist pushes Faith to look back to the day when her aunt took knife in hand and walked into a child's nursery... -
Tokyo by Mo Hayder
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWith the redolent atmosphere of Ian Rankin and the spine-chilling characters of Thomas Harris, Mo Hayder's The Devil of Nanking, takes the reader on an electrifying literary ride from the palatial apartments of yakuza kingpins to deep inside the secret history of one of the twentieth century's most brutal events: the Nanking Massacre... -
Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a carnival-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There’s no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him... -
Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula: The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count by Loren D. Estleman
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAfter a mysterious schooner runs aground in an English harbor with no human passengers--only the dead captain, drained of blood--a series of bizarre nocturnal crimes takes place in London. It can only be the work of Count Dracula, and only one man can save the city: the great Sherlock Holmes...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement noir 20th-century action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook -
The Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsProfessor Charles Grimaud was explaining to some friends the natural causes behind an ancient superstition about men leaving their coffins when a stranger entered and challenged Grimaud's skepticism. The stranger asserted that he had risen from his own coffin and that four walls meant nothing to him. He added, 'My brother can do more..Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement 20th-century action-adventure adult amateur-sleuth book classics -
The Bride Wore Black by Cornell Woolrich
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAMERICA'S MASTER OF SUSPENSE...FIRST IN THE DEFINITIVE SERIES OF THIS AMERICAN GENIUSNo one knew who she was, where she came from, or why she had entered their lives. All they really knew about her was that she possessed a terrifying beauty-and that each time she appeared, a man died horribly..
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