Books like 'Calling Dr. Patchwork'
Readers who enjoyed Calling Dr. Patchwork by Ron Goulart also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
sc-fi mystery humor pulp crime investigator
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Winter's Peak: Winter Black Season Two by Mary Stone
Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt’s lonely at the top. And deadly at the bottom.Sexual harassment isn’t the type of case Private Investigator Winter Black usually takes. But it’s a welcome distraction from whoever’s been sending creepy, anonymous text messages to her phone and set up cameras to spy on her home and office... -
![Top Secret Twenty-One : A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich - Review Summary by J.T. Salrich]()
Top Secret Twenty-One : A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich - Review Summary by J.T. Salrich
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTop Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich is finally here! Janet Evanovich fans will be glad to know that Stephanie Plum is at it again. "Top Secret Twenty-One: A Stephanie Plum Novel" picks up right where Takedown Twenty left off... -
![Deception by Craig Martelle, Michael Anderle]()
Deception by Craig Martelle, Michael Anderle
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLies & deceit leading to a domino of crimes.The Trans-Pacific Task Force is getting ready to deploy but they don’t have what they need. Someone’s been skimming. A contract won through mistruths. Incomplete payments limiting the army’s readiness.Colonel Marcie Walton is angry and calling anyone who will answer.Magistrate Rivka Anoa is on the job and thrown into the middle of two shooting wars... -
![The Incredible Adventures of Professor Shonku by Satyajit Ray]()
The Incredible Adventures of Professor Shonku by Satyajit Ray
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings... -
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![The Face by Jack Vance]()
The Face by Jack Vance
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsKirth Gersen tracks Lens Larque across several worlds, most notably Aloysius, the desert world Dar Sai and the more temperate Methel. He eventually learns that Larque is a Darsh, born Husse Bugold. He had been deprived of an earlobe and made a rachepol or outcast from his clan for a crime considered "repulsive but not superlatively heinous... -
![Doctor Who: The Ruby's Curse by Alex Kingston, Jacqueline Rayner]()
Doctor Who: The Ruby's Curse by Alex Kingston, Jacqueline Rayner
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsShe's got ice in her heart and a kiss on her lips...1939, New York. Private Eye, Melody Malone, is hired to find a stolen ruby, the Eye of Horus. The ruby might hold the secret to the location of Cleopatra's tomb - but everyone who comes into contact with it dies. Can Melody escape the ruby's curse?1939, New York... -
![Orlando People by Alexander C. Kane]()
Orlando People by Alexander C. Kane
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGretch Wolgast is a bit of a dud. Just ask her. She's a 21-year-old college dropout who has a loser job at the mall. Sure, she can lift a tennis ball with her telekinetic powers. But only three feet in the air. And she has to be sitting. Gretch is an OP, one of thousands born in Orlando, Florida, in the early 1980s who mysteriously developed the ability to move things with their minds... -
![The Case of the Damaged Detective by Drew Hayes]()
The Case of the Damaged Detective by Drew Hayes
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsA mystery/road trip/buddy comedy/action adventure from the author of Second Hand Curses. A dance club full of bodies. Cause of death - a mystery. The lone survivor - a man, raving like a lunatic, wearing only a deerstalker hat. Now, the man who calls himself Sherman Holmes is being studied like a lab rat by a top-secret government agency... -
![Oranges and Lemons by Christopher Fowler]()
Oranges and Lemons by Christopher Fowler
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"The most delightfully, wickedly entertaining duo in crime fiction." The Plain Dealer When a prominent politician is crushed by a fruit van making a delivery, the singular team of Arthur Bryant and John May overcome insurmountable odds to reunite the PCU and solve the case in the brainy new mystery from acclaimed author Christopher Fowler...Categorized as:
crime humor mystery fiction audiobook law-enforcement contemporary police-procedural -
![The Wraithbone Phoenix by Alec Worley]()
The Wraithbone Phoenix by Alec Worley
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA Baggit and Clodde NovelA ratling and an ogryn aren't the best-matched pair, but in the crime-ridden heart of Varangantua, anything goes – at least, when there's a big score to be had.READ IT BECAUSEThis is first full length novel featuring the characters Baggit and Clodde from the audio drama Dredge Runners. Follow the duo as they hunt for a treasure that could answer all of their problems... -
![Murder at the Elms by Alyssa Maxwell]()
Murder at the Elms by Alyssa Maxwell
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAs the nineteenth century comes to a close, the illustrious Vanderbilt family dominates Newport, Rhode Island, high society. But when murder arrives, reporter Emma Cross learns that sometimes the actions of the cream of society can curdle one’s blood in the latest installment of this bestselling cozy historical mystery series . . -
![Doorways in the Sand by Roger Zelazny]()
Doorways in the Sand by Roger Zelazny
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe most humorous – and arguably the finest – novel by the master of inventive science fiction. Humanity is not alone in the cosmos. The aliens have given a precious relic to the people of Earth: star-stone. But the harmony of the galaxy is endangered when they discover that the star-stone has disappeared. Likeable Fred Cassidy is an eternal undergraduate... -
![The Palace of Love by Jack Vance]()
The Palace of Love by Jack Vance
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn the midpoint novel of the "Demon Princes" series, Kirth Gersen sets his sights upon the mysterious Viole Falushe. Vance describes this murderous creature as a "sybarite." "Sadistic pervert" would probably be a more apropos phrase... -
![Welcome to Paradise by Laurence Shames]()
Welcome to Paradise by Laurence Shames
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBefore mild-mannered furniture salesman Al Tuschman left New Jersey for a week in Key West, he hadn't an enemy in the world. But a series of puzzling assaults on his privacy, his sanity, and his life has turned his stay at the tasteful Paradise Hotel into Tropical Hell. Maybe it's the humidity. Maybe the Sambuca. Or maybe it's the nickname emblazoned on his license plate: Big Al... -
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![Dome City Blues by Jeff Edwards]()
Dome City Blues by Jeff Edwards
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFor fans of William Gibson, Phillip K. Dick, and Jak Koke…Los Angeles: 2063David Stalin was one of the best detectives in the business, running head-to-head with data-jackers, organ thieves, and the tech-enhanced gangs who ruled the shadowy streets of Los Angeles... -
![Tropical Punch by S.C. Jensen]()
Tropical Punch by S.C. Jensen
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsStrippers, Drugs, and Headless Corpses…All in a day’s work for Bubbles Marlowe, HoloCity’s only cyborg detective.What do an anti-tech cult, a deadly new street drug, and the corrupt Chief of Police have in common?It’s a question Bubbles can’t afford to ask. Last time she got curious it cost her job, a limb, and almost her life.She vows to stay out of police business... -
![氣球人 by Chan Ho-Kei, 陳浩基]()
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![Killer, Come Back To Me by Ray Bradbury]()
Killer, Come Back To Me by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCelebrating Ray Bradbury's centenary, this collection commemorates his finest crime stories – tales as strange and wonderful as his signature fantasy... -
![The Radioactive Redhead by John Zakour, Lawrence Ganem]()
The Radioactive Redhead by John Zakour, Lawrence Ganem
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn this final title in a hilarious trilogy--following "The Plutonium Blonde" and "The Doomsday Brunette"--the last freelance private detective has a new case to solve involving androids, future tech wizards, out-of-control artificial intelligence, and futuristic mayhem. Original... -
![Simon Grave and the Curious Incident of the Cat in the Daytime by Len Boswell]()
Simon Grave and the Curious Incident of the Cat in the Daytime by Len Boswell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“Boswell continues his genre-defying series in this ambitious adventure…” –PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY Murder rocks the seaside town of Crab Cove, but to solve the crime, Detective Simon Grave must first deal with the curious incident of the cat in the daytime... -
![The Authorities™ by Scott Meyer]()
The Authorities™ by Scott Meyer
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSinclair Rutherford is a young Seattle cop with a taste for the finer things. Doing menial tasks and getting hassled by superiors he doesn't respect are definitely not “finer things... -
![The Hard Case Crime Novels of Stephen King: Later / Joyland / The Colorado Kid by Stephen King]()
The Hard Case Crime Novels of Stephen King: Later / Joyland / The Colorado Kid by Stephen King
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Complete Hard Case Crime Stephen King Collection, collecting Stephen King's three homages to the classic crime pulp paperbacks, published by Hard Case Crime. This includes The Colorado Kid (2005), Joyland (2013), and his newest novel, Later (2021)... -
![And He Built a Crooked House by Robert A. Heinlein]()
And He Built a Crooked House by Robert A. Heinlein
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA clever architect designs a house in the shape of the shadow of a tesseract, but it collapses (through the 4th dimension) when an earthquake shakes it into a more stable form (which takes up very little room in our 3-dimensional space... -
![The Name is Archer by Ross Macdonald]()
The Name is Archer by Ross Macdonald
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMYSTERYIncludes the following Find the womanGone girlThe bearded ladyThe suicideGuilt-edged blondeThe sinister habitWild goose chaseMidnight blueSleeping... -
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![Doctor Who: Summer Falls and Other Stories by James Goss, Justin Richards]()
Doctor Who: Summer Falls and Other Stories by James Goss, Justin Richards
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSummer Falls by Amelia Williams In the seaside village of Watchcombe, young Kate is determined to make the most of her last week of summer holiday. But when she discovers a mysterious painting entitled 'The Lord of Winter' in a charity shop, it leads her on an adventure she never could have planned... -
![Edie Investigates by Nick Harkaway]()
Edie Investigates by Nick Harkaway
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the author of "The Gone-Away World" and the forthcoming "Angelmaker"--an exhilarating espionage murder-mystery eShort. There has been a strange death in the quiet village of Shrewton: old Donny Caspian has lost his head. In the Copper Kettle tea rooms, Tom Rice, a junior nobody from the Treasury, puzzles over the details of the case... -
![Delete All Suspects by Donna Andrews]()
Delete All Suspects by Donna Andrews
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAfter a hit-and-run leaves Eddie, a young techie, in the hospital, his grandmother hires Artificial Intelligence Personality Turing’s friend Tim to look closely at Eddie’s business, which he runs out of their computer-filled basement... -
![Forests of the Night by S. Andrew Swann]()
Forests of the Night by S. Andrew Swann
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSet in Cleveland 100 years in the future, this debut novel is the story of Nohar Rajasthan, Private Eye, who's a moreau--descended from genetically manipulated tiger stock. When Nohar is hired by a being illegally created from human stock to look into a murder, he finds himself caught up in a conspiracy of awesome proportions... -
![Hokkaido Popsicle by Isaac Adamson]()
Hokkaido Popsicle by Isaac Adamson
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter an altercation with the director of Wildman for Geisha! -- a movie based on ace reporter Billy Chaka's life -- Chaka finds himself in Hokkaido on mandatory vacation. Trouble starts when the elderly porter of the Hotel Kitty stumbles into Billy's room and dies. That same night, the lead singer of Japan's most popular rock band turns up dead in a sleazy love hotel in Tokyo... -
![Crab Town by Carlton Mellick III]()
Crab Town by Carlton Mellick III
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn this town, everyone's a bottom feeder ... Five desperate criminals are robbing one of the last remaining banks in Freedom City, a town devastated by the previous nuclear war. But these are no ordinary criminals. They are members of the House of Cards, an organization designed to help the less fortunate citizens of the city... -
![The Frost-Haired Vixen by John Zakour]()
The Frost-Haired Vixen by John Zakour
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the year 2060, Zach Johnson, the world's only freelance private investigator, tackles his strangest case yet--solving the murders of two elves at the North Pole. Santana Clausa, the micro-mini skirt clad bombshell and frost-haired mutant who runs the Pole hires Zach to stop the killer or killers before they strike again, destroying the Holiday for billions... -
![The Blue-Haired Bombshell by John Zakour]()
The Blue-Haired Bombshell by John Zakour
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe world's last freelance detective, Zach Johnson, must find the assassin who murdered Sexy Sprocket and two other members of the World Council. His investigation leads him to the Moon-and to a tall, sensuous, blue-haired beauty named Lea who possesses psychic powers, and powerful ambitions.. -
![The Flaxen Femme Fatale by John Zakour]()
The Flaxen Femme Fatale by John Zakour
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe last freelance P.I. on earth, Zach Johnson has been hired to track down a young beauty who happens to be a deadly secret weapon for the World Council. Figuring girls just want to have fun, he follows Natasha to various vacation destinations, but she eludes him, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake... -
![Doctor Who: Grand Theft Cosmos by Eddie Robson]()
Doctor Who: Grand Theft Cosmos by Eddie Robson
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings'Here's to crime, Doctor!'The Doctor and Lucie visit nineteenth-century Sweden and become embroiled in an attempt to steal the infamous Black Diamond.But the stone is guarded by forces not of this world.. -
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![Murder in Greenwich Village by Liz Freeland]()
Murder in Greenwich Village by Liz Freeland
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFor fans of HBO’s The Gilded Age, explore the dark side of the alluring world of America’s 19th century elite in this gripping series of riveting mysteries…A year before World War I breaks out, the sidewalks of Manhattan are crowded with restless newcomers chasing the fabled American Dream, including a sharp-witted young woman who discovers a talent for investigating murder . .Categorized as:
crime investigator mystery historical-fiction fiction historical cozy law-enforcement -
![And Then There Was the One by Martha Waters]()
And Then There Was the One by Martha Waters
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom Martha Waters, the author of the “enchanting” (Entertainment Weekly) Regency Vows series, a new historical romance set in 1930s England with a murder mystery twist. In a quaint village in the Cotswolds, Georgiana Radcliffe has accidentally become an amateur detective after helping solve four murders in a single year... -
![Mallets Aforethought by Sarah Graves]()
Mallets Aforethought by Sarah Graves
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsJacobia “Jake” Tiptree left her high-powered career for a dilapidated fixer-upper and the dream of a quiet existence in the quaint town of Eastport, Maine. But she found that no matter how carefully you remodel your life, murder can take up residence anywhere.It’s Eastport’s most notorious landmark: the old Harlequin House... -
![Soul Intent by Dennis Batchelder]()
Soul Intent by Dennis Batchelder
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA VILLAIN’S REQUESTIn 1946, soon-to-be-executed Nazi General Hermann Goering asks young Soul Identity overseer Archibald Morgan to take his looted gold and deposit it in a soul line collection, there to await his soul’s rebirth. A GRIM RESISTANCEFlora, a seventeen-year-old Gypsy girl whose father died in the Dachau concentration camp, is sure that Goering stole the gold... -
![A Matter of Malice by Thomas King]()
A Matter of Malice by Thomas King
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen a TV producer asks Thumps to assist with an episode about a local woman from a wealthy family whose death was ruled “misadventure,” he is reluctant to get involved. Then the producer dies in the exact same manner, and Thumps finds himself solving two cases... -
![Tik-Tok by John Sladek]()
Tik-Tok by John Sladek
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"A Robot shall not injure a human being, or through inaction allow a human being to come to harm".That's Asimov's celebrated First Law of Robotics. And in the 21st century, all domestic robots are programmed according to that Law... -
![Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski]()
Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this neighborhood, make a wrong turn and you're history. Mickey Wade is a recently-unemployed journalist who lucked into a rent-free apartment – his sick grandfather's place. The only problem: it's in a lousy neighborhood. The one where Mickey grew up, in fact. The one he was so desperate to escape.But now he's back. Dead broke... -
![The Plutonium Blonde by John Zakour, Lawrence Ganem]()
The Plutonium Blonde by John Zakour, Lawrence Ganem
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"My name is Zachary Nixon Johnson. I am the last private detective on Earth...not exactly one hundred percent true, but it sounds good. The year is 2057 and, after a handful of species-altering upheavals, earth-shattering cataclysms, history changing extra-terrestrial contacts, and pop-culture disasters, the world is now a pretty safe place.. -
![The Time Bubble by Jason Ayres]()
The Time Bubble by Jason Ayres
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDiscover a whole new world of time travel adventures!The first Time Bubble novel sets the scene for an epic series of stories, exploring time travel from every possible angle.The adventure begins in 2018, when Charlie and Josh stumble across a mysterious time portal in a railway tunnel.At first it seems like harmless fun, jumping a few seconds at a time into the future... -
![The Thousand-Headed Man by Kenneth Robeson, Lester Dent]()
The Thousand-Headed Man by Kenneth Robeson, Lester Dent
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWith a mysterious black Chinaman, Doc Savage and his amazing crew journey to the jungles of Indo-China in a desperate gamble to destroy the infamous Thousand-headed Man. To the world at large, Doc Savage is a strange, mysterious figure of glistening bronze skin and golden eyes... -
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![Smoke by Donald E. Westlake]()
Smoke by Donald E. Westlake
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDue to a foiled burglary in a high-tech lab doing research for cigarette manufacturers, Freddie Noon, the thief, is now invisible. This condition has clear-cut advantages for a man in Freddie's profession, but now everybody wants a glimpse of Freddie. But Freddie doesn't dare show his face, his shadow, anything. Because Freddie Noon has gotten a taste of invisibility--and he can't quit now... -
![The Art of Murder by Elaine Viets]()
The Art of Murder by Elaine Viets
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the national bestselling author of Checked Out, Helen Hawthorne must pose as a painter to catch an artful killer . . .The art world is a happening place--but a brush with death shouldn't be in the picture. Unfortunately, that's just what happens to Helen Hawthorne and her friend Margery... -
![The Last Iota by Robert Kroese]()
The Last Iota by Robert Kroese
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe year is 2039, and Los Angeles is poised between order and chaos. After the Collapse of 2028, a vast section of LA, now known as the Disincorporated Zone, was disowned by the civil authorities and became a de facto third world country within the borders of the city... -
![The Fictional Man by Al Ewing]()
The Fictional Man by Al Ewing
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHollywood: Niles Golan is writing a remake of a camp-classic spy movie. The studio has plans for a franchise, so rather than hiring an actor, the protagonist will be 'translated' into a cloned human body.It's common practice - Niles' therapist is a Fictional. So is his best friend. So, maybe, is the woman in the bar he can't stop staring at... -
![Invasion by Aaron Wolfe, Dean Koontz]()
Invasion by Aaron Wolfe, Dean Koontz
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHaving just about concluded that it was nothing more than the wind and the storm that was upsetting the horses -- and now they were all leaping and snorting more furiously than ever, as if they were not three ordinary nags but a trio of high-strung thoroughbreds -- I turned toward the door and quite accidentally caught sight of the light which glowed eerily just beyond the only window in the... -
![Killing Is My Business by Adam Christopher]()
Killing Is My Business by Adam Christopher
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA blend of science fiction and stylish mystery noir featuring a robot detective: the stand alone sequel to Made to KillAnother golden morning in a seedy town, and a new memory tape for intrepid PI-turned-hitman--and last robot left in working order-- Raymond Electromatic...
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