Books like 'The Dreadful Lemon Sky'
Readers who enjoyed The Dreadful Lemon Sky by John D. MacDonald also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
mystery action / adventure crime law-enforcement suspense investigator hard-boiled noir classics pulp
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Firewalk by L.T. Ryan, Brian Christopher Shea
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsStarting over is never easy.For Hatch nothing ever is.Seeking a connection to her past,Hatch crosses paths with a girl in need.And she'll risk everything to save her.In the most intense novel to date, ex-military police officer Rachel Hatch faces off with a criminal enterprise trafficking girls. Hatch can't look the other way and is called by her code of justice to seek resolution... -
![August Origins by Alan Lee]()
August Origins by Alan Lee
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMack August, frustrated Los Angeles police detective, moves to a smaller city in Virginia to start over. Rather than join the force, he opens his own P.I. shop and hires out to local attorneys--until Sheriff Stackhouse comes calling, a stunner in designer khakis. Trouble has arrived, she explains, in the form of a gang general from the West Coach... -
![Never Cry Mercy by L.T. Ryan]()
Never Cry Mercy by L.T. Ryan
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsEven a drifter has to stop once in a while... Jack Noble has crossed the country, never staying too long in one spot. He's not running or hiding. He's buying time. Simply living until the day he can disappear and provide his daughter with a normal life. But when his Jeep dies outside a small Texas town, he finds a reason to stick around for a couple days. An old friend... -
![Missing Persons by James Patterson, Adam Hamdy]()
Missing Persons by James Patterson, Adam Hamdy
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn Afghanistan, a US Special Forces pilot is shot down during a covert mission.In New York, a mother is forced to flee with her two young children.A wealthy businessman approaches Jack Morgan, head of Private - the world's largest investigation agency - with a desperate plea to track down his daughter and grandchildren, who have disappeared without a trace...Categorized as:
crime suspense law-enforcement investigator mystery fiction audiobook action-adventure -
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![Where the Wild Roses Grow by Willow Rose]()
Where the Wild Roses Grow by Willow Rose
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Queen of scream novels does it again! - It's laced with a terrifying nail-biting tension and characters that make your skin crawl. With her blankly staring eyes seeming to gaze into the sky, he put a red rose between her teeth and then gently pushed her into the water. She slowly sank into the slow, flowing river... -
![Complete Novels: Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett]()
Complete Novels: Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsComplete in one volume, the five books that created the modern American crime novelIn a few years of extraordinary creative energy, Dashiell Hammett invented the modern American crime novel... -
![Indigo Slam by Robert Crais]()
Indigo Slam by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsLife in the California sun suits Elvis Cole—until the day a fifteen-year-old girl and her two younger siblings walk into his office. Then everything changes. Three years ago, a Seattle family ran for their lives in a hail of bullets. Hired by three kids to find their missing father, Elvis now must pick up the cold pieces of a drama that began that night...Categorized as:
classics crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement noir suspense action-adventure -
![The Depth of Darkness by L.T. Ryan, Sean Patrick Hopkins]()
The Depth of Darkness by L.T. Ryan, Sean Patrick Hopkins
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDetective Mitch Tanner's life hangs in the balance. He clings to the daughter in his care. He agonizes over the disappearance of his son and estranged wife. Twelve months has yet to turn up a solid lead.While investigating the apparent accidental death of Dusty Anne Miller, Mitch and his partner Sam Foster find themselves in the middle of a fiendish plan that strikes too close to home... -
![No Way Back by Rick Mofina, Christian Rummel]()
No Way Back by Rick Mofina, Christian Rummel
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSan Francisco crime reporter Tom Reed is burned out. On the day he decides to finally quit the news business, a sensational story breaks. A heart-stopping robbery-homicide at a jewelry store. The suspects have shot and killed a police officer before fleeing with a female hostage. Reed rushes to the scene, his passion resurrected for one last big story...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement suspense action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Collected Stories by Raymond Chandler]()
Collected Stories by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratings(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)The only complete edition of stories by the undisputed master of detective literature, collected here for the first time in one volume, including some stories that have been unavailable for decades... -
![The Blind Trust by Colin Conway]()
The Blind Trust by Colin Conway
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsA quiet death in a small town. A double homicide in the big city. Only a murderer knows they’re connected. Whitman County Sheriff Tom Jessup wants a nice, safe county. Unfortunately, things are about to get deadly. A seemingly normal death points Jessup north where he finds Detectives Quinn Delaney and Marci Burkett investigating a double murder...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement suspense hard-boiled mystery fiction audiobook action-adventure -
![Tell No One / Gone For Good by Harlan Coben]()
Tell No One / Gone For Good by Harlan Coben
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben comes an unforgettable duet of classic novels—two top-notch thrillers filled with the author’s signature storytelling genius.TELL NO ONEFor Dr. David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams... -
![Blueblood by Matthew Iden]()
Blueblood by Matthew Iden
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFour unrelated murders. Nothing special in Washington DC. Not even good enough to make the evening news. But then a concerned police lieutenant approaches retired homicide detective Marty Singer with a simple fact that changes everything. They were all cops... -
![The Lonely Silver Rain by John D. MacDonald]()
The Lonely Silver Rain by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"Travis McGee is back in action and he is in fine, fine form....What a treat. It is John D. MacDonald's 21st Travies McGee book and, without reservaton, his best."THE SAN DIEGO TRIBUNESearching for a wealthy friend's yacht, Travis McGee puts himself square in the center of the international cocaine trade, and finds himself the target of some of the most ruthless villains he's ever met... -
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![Blood of Others by Rick Mofina]()
Blood of Others by Rick Mofina
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe disappearance and murder of a lonely San Francisco insurance clerk puts a relentless crime reporter and legendary homicide cop on separate tracks in their pursuit of a killer.The suspect lures solitary women out of their quiet worlds and into his nightmare as he races the clock and travels the globe searching for the one woman who will forgive the unforgivable...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement suspense action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Dead to Me by J.M. Dalgliesh]()
Dead to Me by J.M. Dalgliesh
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLet go of your past... or it will be the death of you...When a man's body is discovered crammed into the boot of an abandoned car in a remote location, DI Tom Janssen and his team must unpick his life to find out how he came to be there.The victim was a local man, popular with some although hated by others, and he had a habit of making enemies, enemies that any sane man would seek to avoid... -
![Lockstep by Robert P. French]()
Lockstep by Robert P. French
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA mysterious kidnapping. A political ransom. To save a child, an ex-cop with a dark past must risk his future… Recovering addict Cal Rogan would do anything to preserve his relationship with his daughter. So when one of her friends disappears, Cal splits his efforts between three separate cases... -
![Sunset Express by Robert Crais]()
Sunset Express by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsProminent restaurateur Teddy Martin is facing charges in his wife’s brutal murder. But he’s not going down without spending a bundle of cash on his defense. So his hotshot attorney hires P.I. Elvis Cole to find proof that Detective Angela Rossi tampered with the evidence. Rossi needs a way back to the fast track after falling hard during an internal investigation five years ago...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement noir suspense 20th-century action-adventure -
![Truth Kills by Nanci Rathbun]()
Truth Kills by Nanci Rathbun
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsCan you really reinvent yourself? After a bad divorce, Angelina Bonaparte trades the life of a suburban housewife for a toned body, designer duds, a cherry-red Miata convertible, and a new career as a private investigator. When Anthony Belloni is arrested for the murder of his mistress. his pregnant wife begs Angie to clear her man... -
![The Dead Tracks by Tim Weaver]()
The Dead Tracks by Tim Weaver
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"The Dead Tracks" is the second in the David Raker series from Tim Weaver. A serial killer more terrifying than you could ever imagine...Seventeen-year-old Megan Carver was an unlikely runaway. A straight - a student from a happy home, she studied hard and rarely got into trouble. Six months on, she's never been found. Missing persons investigator David Raker knows what it's like to grieve... -
![Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton]()
Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt's a beautiful place to die... The latest superb novel from EDGAR AWARD-winning author of THE LOCK ARTIST. In the dead of winter a young man is found hanging from a tree on a remote shore of Lake Superior known as Misery Bay. There's no evidence of foul play. Nothing to suggest it's anything other than a tragic teenage suicide...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement suspense action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Free Fall in Crimson by John D. MacDonald, Carl Hiaasen]()
Free Fall in Crimson by John D. MacDonald, Carl Hiaasen
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMcGee tracks killers who brutally murder an ailing millionaire. He renews unfinished adventure with Hollywood actress who leads him into a nasty nest of murderers involving a motorcycle gang, porn movies, and mad balloonists. And Mcgee relearns old lesson. Only close to the edge of death does he feel completely alive... -
![Flamingo by James Lee Burke]()
Flamingo by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA routine assignment transporting two death-row prisoners to their executions goes fatally wrong, leaving Dave Robicheaux brutally wounded and his partner dead. Obsessed with revenge, Dave is persuaded by the DEA to go undercover into the torrid sleepy depths of New Orleans, a volatile world of Mafia drug-running and Cajun voodoo magic... -
![Crusader's Cross by James Lee Burke]()
Crusader's Cross by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCritically acclaimed and bestselling crime writer James Lee Burke delivers his most exciting thriller ever featuring beloved hero Dave Robicheaux, and this time he's sleuthing his way through Louisiana's hotbed of sin and uncertainty.In Crusader's Cross, a deathbed confession from an old schoolmate reminds Dave Robicheaux of a girl he once knew, sending him on a hunt for her whereabouts... -
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![Eight Million Ways to Die by Lawrence Block]()
Eight Million Ways to Die by Lawrence Block
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNobody knows better than Matthew Scudder how far down a person can sink in this city. A young prostitute named Kim knew it also—and she wanted out. Maybe Kim didn't deserve the life fate had dealt her. She surely didn't deserve her death. The alcoholic ex-cop turned p.i. was supposed to protect her, but someone slashed her to ribbons on a crumbling New York City waterfront pier... -
![When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block]()
When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDowning a bourbon or two with a couple of cronies, Scudder witnesses a heist. The Morrisey brothers who run the joint are strangely submissive during the raid, but eager to see Scudder track down the thieves without involving the regular forces of law and order... -
![The Long Lavender Look by John D. MacDonald, Darren McGavin]()
The Long Lavender Look by John D. MacDonald, Darren McGavin
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMcGee has become part of our national fabric." SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER A lovely young girl steps in front of Travis McGee's headlights. McGee misses the girl but lands in ten feet of swamp water. As he's limping along the deserted road, someone in an old truck takes a few shots at him... -
![Tango One by Stephen Leather]()
Tango One by Stephen Leather
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 11 ratings***Now a motion picture, out 5th March 2018*** In different parts of London, three recruits prepare for their first day at the Metropolitan Police's training centre at Hendon. All three had succeeded in getting into the police in spite of weaknesses. But on their first day, the assistant commissioner announces that he wants them to join a team of undercover detectives... -
![Salvation Lake by G.M. Ford]()
Salvation Lake by G.M. Ford
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAt the end of an especially raucous day at his neighborhood bar, private eye Leo Waterman is surprised to see his old flame, Rebecca Duval, walk in the door. But King County’s medical examiner is here on business, not pleasure. Two dead bodies, covered by an old coat that once belonged to Leo’s father, have turned up in the trunk of a car...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement suspense action-adventure adult amateur-sleuth -
![The Outfit by Richard Stark]()
The Outfit by Richard Stark
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen the Outfit tries to kill him, Parker declares war. Ripping off the syndicate is easy, but going one-on-one with Bronson, the Outfit's big boss, is the hard part. Hard for anyone but Parker, because the entire underworld understands that whatever Parker does -- he does for keep... -
![The Green Ripper by John D. MacDonald]()
The Green Ripper by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBeautiful girls always grace the Florida beaches, strolling, sailing, relaxing at the many parties on Travis McGee's houseboat, The Busted Flush. McGee was too smart--and had been around too long--for many of them to touch his heart. Now, however, there was Gretel. She had discovered the key to McGee--to all of him--and now he had something to hope for. Then, terribly, unexpectedly, she was dead... -
![Blood is the Sky by Steve Hamilton]()
Blood is the Sky by Steve Hamilton
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBefore Blood is the Sky, the Alex McKnight series had already hit bestseller lists and won awards, but this novel took it to a whole new level. Set in the forests of northern Ontario, a land of savage beauty and sudden danger, Blood is the Sky shows why Steve Hamilton is one of the most acclaimed crime novelists writing today...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement suspense action-adventure adult audiobook -
![A Ticket to the Boneyard by Lawrence Block]()
A Ticket to the Boneyard by Lawrence Block
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTwelve years ago, Matthew Scudder lied to a jury to put James Leo Motley behind bars. Now the ingenious psychopath is free. And the alcoholic ex-cop-turned-p.i. must pay dearly for his sins. Friends and former lovers -- even strangers unfortunate enough to share Scudder's name -- are turning up dead... -
![The Reluctant Detective by Tom Fowler]()
The Reluctant Detective by Tom Fowler
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA novice PI. A ruthless old acquaintance. Will C.T. Ferguson's first case be his last? Three weeks in a brutal prison—that was hacker C.T. Ferguson's punishment for helping Americans and dissidents evade the Chinese government. Deported home, C.T. uses his digital skills as a private investigator.Suspecting her husband is cheating on her, Alice hires C.T. to investigate... -
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![Pale Gray for Guilt by John D. MacDonald]()
Pale Gray for Guilt by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTush Bannon was in the wrong spot at the wrong time. His measly plot of land just so happened to sit right in the middle of a rich parcel of five hundred riverfront acres that big-money real estate interests decided they simply must have.It didn’t matter that Tush was a nice guy with a family, or that he never knew he was dealing with a criminal element... -
![Purple Cane Road by James Lee Burke]()
Purple Cane Road by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDave Robicheaux has spent his life confronting the age-old adage that the sins of the father pass onto the son. But what has his mother's legacy left him? Dead to him since youth, Mae Guillory has been shuttered away in the deep recesses of Dave's mind. He's lived with the fact that he would never really know what happened to the woman who left him to the devices of his whiskey-driven father... -
![Early Autumn by Robert B. Parker]()
Early Autumn by Robert B. Parker
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"[Robert B.] Parker's brilliance is in his simple dialogue, and in Spenser."--The Philadelphia InquirerA bitter divorce is only the beginning. First the father hires thugs to kidnap his son. Then the mother hires Spenser to get the boy back. But as soon as Spenser senses the lay of the land, he decides to do some kidnapping of his own... -
![Cinnamon Skin by John D. MacDonald]()
Cinnamon Skin by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen Travis McGee's friend Meyer lent his boat to his niece Norma, and her new husband Even, the boat exploded out in the waters of the Florida Keys. Travis McGee thinks it's no accident, and clues lead him to ponder possibilities of drugs and also to wonder where Evan was when his wife was killed...."Proves again that MacDonald keeps getting better with each new adventure... -
![The Empty Copper Sea by John D. MacDonald]()
The Empty Copper Sea by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"The professional's professional of suspense writers."THE NEW YORK TIMESVan Harder, once a hard drinker, has found religion. But that doesn't keep folks from saying he murdered his employer, Hub Lawless, whose body hasn't been found. To clear his name, and cear up the mystery, Van asks friend-in-need Travis McGee to find out what really happened... -
![Chance by Robert B. Parker, Burt Reynolds]()
Chance by Robert B. Parker, Burt Reynolds
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsSearching for a big-time hoodlum's missing son-in-law, Spencer and Hawk probe organized crime...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Lupa nera by Juan Gómez-Jurado]()
Lupa nera by Juan Gómez-Jurado
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsRestare viva non è mai stato tanto difficile. Dopo Regina Rossa, che ha incoronato Antonia Scott come la nuova protagonista assoluta del thriller spagnolo, il secondo capitolo della trilogia bestseller di Juan Gómez-Jurado. Antonia Scott e Jon Gutiérrez sono ancora alla ricerca di Sandra Fajardo, quando Mentor li convoca per un altro caso al momento più pressante... -
![The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories by Otto Penzler]()
The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories by Otto Penzler
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn unstoppable anthology of crime stories culled from Black Mask magazine the legendary publication that turned a pulp phenomenon into literary mainstream. Black Mask was the apotheosis of noir. It was the magazine where the first hardboiled detective story, which was written by Carroll John Daly appeared... -
![The Million Dollar Wound by Max Allan Collins]()
The Million Dollar Wound by Max Allan Collins
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom a foxhole on Guadalcanal (shared with Barney Ross) to the glitzy underworld of Hollywood in the '40s, Nate Heller fights his memories and the Mob.Something happened at the Canal, something Heller's blocking out. What he can't block, though, is the wound he received--the "million-dollar wound," the one that got him home... -
![Last Ditch by G.M. Ford]()
Last Ditch by G.M. Ford
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSeattle p.i. Leo Waterman knows the city like no one else. And he knows how to stretch the limits of the law, when necessary, to accomplish what needs to be done--a very useful talent Leo acquired from his late, larger-than-life father, once one of the region's most powerful and colorful political characters... -
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![The Way We Die Now by Charles Willeford]()
The Way We Die Now by Charles Willeford
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen Miami Homicide Detective Hoke Moseley receives an unexplained order to let his beard grow, he doesn't think much about it. He has too much going on at home, especially with a man he helped convict ten years before moving in across the street... -
![Backflash by Richard Stark]()
Backflash by Richard Stark
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsParker's got a couple of rules that have helped keep him alive throughout his long career. One of those is never to work on a boat. But with a gambling boat cruising down the Hudson, stuffed to the gunwales with cash, Parker’s got a plan, a team, and a new rule: a shot at a big enough score makes any rule worth breaking... -
![No Way to Die by M.D. Grayson]()
No Way to Die by M.D. Grayson
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSeattle mathematician Thomas Rasmussen had everything to live for. He had a beautiful, loving wife and two great kids. He was well known and respected in his field . His startup company – Applied Cryptographic Solutions recently finished building a revolutionary decryption device called The Starfire Protocol that was already attracting offers in the millions... -
![The Seventh by Richard Stark]()
The Seventh by Richard Stark
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhy not?Just because no one had ever tried it before? What better place for a heist, if it was timed right, than a football stadium?There'd have to be money in the box office; the game was a sellout. Every eye in the place would be glued to the action down on the field. Even the getaway would be a cinch... -
![The Long Cold Winter by Colin Conway]()
The Long Cold Winter by Colin Conway
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsA thirty-year old case. A body discovered in the snow. For one grieving detective, it's going to be a long, cold winter.After the passing of his wife, Major Crimes Detective Dallas Nash is handed a cold case to ease him back into the job.Three decades prior, a teenaged girl was strangled to death... -
![The Turquoise Lament by John D. MacDonald]()
The Turquoise Lament by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOne of the most enduring and unusual heroes in detective fiction." THE BALTIMORE SUN Now that Linda "Pidge" Lewellen is grown up, she tells Travis McGee, once her girlhood idol, that either she's going crazy or Howie, her affable ex-jock of a husband is trying to kill her. McGee checks things out, and gives Pidge the all clear...
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