Books like 'The Return of the Dancing Master'
Readers who enjoyed The Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery crime law-enforcement noir politics political-intrigue police-procedural
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The Border by Don Winslow
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe explosive, highly anticipated conclusion to the epic Cartel trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Force.What do you do when there are no borders? When the lines you thought existed simply vanish? How do you plant your feet to make a stand when you no longer know what side you’re on?The war has come home... -
Deadly Choices by Rachel McLean
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratings'You get one of your children back. Your choice.' When Alison Osman takes her children on a trip to Cadbury World, she thinks their squabbling is her worst problem. But when she turns to find them gone, she's plunged into every mother's worst nightmare. And then the message arrives, telling Alison she has three days to choose one of her children... -
City on Fire by Don Winslow
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTwo criminal empires together control all of New England.Until a beautiful woman comes between the Irish and the Italians, launching a war that will see them kill each other, destroy an alliance, and set a city on fire.Danny Ryan yearns for a more “legit” life and a place in the sun. But as the bloody conflict stacks body on body and brother turns against brother, Danny has to rise above himself...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural adult book fiction historical historical-fiction -
Chiefs by Stuart Woods
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the bitter winter of 1920, the first body is found in Delano, Georgia; the naked corpse of an unidentified teenager. There is no direct evidence of murder, but the body bears marks of what seems to be a ritual beating. The investigation falls to Will Henry Lee, a failed cotton farmer newly appointed as Delano's first chief of police... -
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The Stone Chamber by Kate Ellis
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe brand new mystery in the bestselling DI Wesley Peterson crime series!'A beguiling author who interweaves past and present' The Times __________________On a summer evening, Robert and Greta Gerdner are shot dead at their home in the Devon countryside... -
Dead Lucky by Matt Brolly, David Monteath
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA fast-paced crime-thriller, full of chilling twists, turns and grisly surprises, Matt Brolly’s Dead Lucky will have you gripped from beginning to end! DCI Michael Lambert is back… When a woman is murdered, the twisted killer forcing her husband to watch her slow and painful death, DCI Michael Lambert knows that his next case might be his toughest yet... -
Murder on the White Cliffs by L.B. Hathaway
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsYou can hunt. But do you really want to find?Bonfire Night, November 1924Posie Parker once failed a client. And now that client is dead.Elsie Moncreiff, a Housekeeper, has fallen from the White Cliffs of England in a howling storm...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural mystery fiction historical-fiction cozy historical -
The Dirty Dozen by Lynda La Plante
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe fifth book in the Sunday Times bestselling Jane Tennison series.April 1980 and Jane is the first female detective to be posted to the Met's renowned Flying Squad, commonly known as the 'Sweeney'. Based at Rigg Approach in East London, they investigate armed robberies on banks, cash in transit and other business premises... -
The Royal Secret by Andrew Taylor
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the No.1 bestselling author of The Last Protector and The Ashes of London comes the next book in the phenomenally successful series following James Marwood and Cat Lovett during the time of King Charles II.Two young girls plot a murder by witchcraft. Soon afterwards a government clerk dies painfully in mysterious circumstances... -
A Gambling Man by David Baldacci
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsAloysius Archer, the straight-talking World War II veteran fresh out of prison, returns in this riveting new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci.The 1950s are on the horizon, and Archer is in dire need of a fresh start after a nearly fatal detour in Poca City...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement noir political-intrigue politics action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Heretic by Liam McIlvanney
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSet in 1976, seven years after the murders recounted in Liam McIlvanney’s breakout novel, The Quaker, this new Glasgow noir novel is a standalone mystery featuring serial character, Detective Duncan McCormack.McCormack has returned to Glasgow after a stint with the Metropolitan Police in London. The reason for his return is left a lurking mystery throughout...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural noir mystery historical-fiction fiction historical -
The Samurai Cipher by Ernest Dempsey
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsAt the end of World War II, the greatest Samurai sword of all time vanished without a trace. Rumors abound as to its whereabouts. Some historians claim it was destroyed with the rest of Japan’s weapons. Others believe it is hidden somewhere. Theories about its location vary from intricate cave systems to monks protecting the blade in a shrine deep in the mountains...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement political-intrigue politics action-adventure adult assassinations book -
The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsContains Chandler's essay on the art of detective stories and a collection of 8 classic Chandler mysteries... -
In the Morning I'll Be Gone by Adrian McKinty
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDetective Sean Duffy works to crack a locked room mystery while tracking an escaped IRA master bomber.The early 1980s. Belfast. Sean Duffy, a conflicted Catholic cop in the Protestant RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary), is recruited by MI5 to hunt down Dermot McCann, an IRA master bomber who has made a daring escape from the notorious Maze Prison... -
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Metropolis by Philip Kerr, John Lee
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBerlin, 1928, the dying days of the Weimar Republic shortly before Hitler and the Nazis came to power. It was a period of decadence and excess as Berliners - after the terrible slaughter of WWI and the hardships that followed - are enjoying their own version of Babylon. Bernie is a young detective working in Vice when he gets a summons from Bernard Weiss, Chief of Berlin's Criminal Police...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement noir police-procedural political-intrigue politics 20th-century adult -
Gun Street Girl by Adrian McKinty
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBelfast, 1985, amidst the “Troubles”: Detective Sean Duffy, a Catholic cop in the Protestant RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary), struggles with burn-out as he investigates a brutal double murder and suicide. Did Michael Kelly really shoot his parents at point blank and then jump off a nearby cliff? A suicide note points to this conclusion, but Duffy suspects even more sinister circumstances...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement noir police-procedural political-intrigue politics 20th-century 21st-century -
Hidden Killers by Lynda La Plante
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe brilliant new crime thriller from the BAFTA-winning writer behind the TV series Prime Suspect and author of Widows, now a major motion picture When WPC Jane Tennison is promoted to the role of Detective Constable in London’s Bow Street CID, she is immediately conflicted... -
Hang on St. Christopher by Adrian McKinty
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRain slicked streets, riots, murder, chaos. It's July 1992 and the Troubles in Northern Ireland are still grinding on after twenty-five apocalyptic years. Detective Inspector Sean Duffy got his family safely over the water to Scotland, to "Shortbread Land". Duffy's a part-timer now, only returning to Belfast six days a month to get his pension. It's an easy gig, if he can keep his head down...Categorized as:
crime noir law-enforcement police-procedural politics political-intrigue europe british-isles -
The King’s Evil by Andrew Taylor
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWinner of The HWA Gold Crown 2020From the No.1 bestselling author of The Ashes of Londonand The Fire Court comes the next book in the phenomenally successful series following James Marwood at the time of King Charles II.A royal scandal that could change the face of England forever… London 1667...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement political-intrigue politics action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Winter Work: A novel by Dan Fesperman
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn exhilarating spy thriller inspired by a true story about the precious secrets up for grabs just after the fall of the Berlin Wall--from the acclaimed author of The Cover Wife On a chilly early morning walk on the wooded outskirts of Berlin, Emil Grimm finds the body of his neighbor, a fellow Stasi officer named Lothar, with a gunshot wound to the temple and a pistol in his right hand...Categorized as:
crime politics law-enforcement political-intrigue fiction historical-fiction espionage mystery -
Trouble in Triplicate by Rex Stout
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThey all thought they were about to die . . . and they were right. Dazy Perrit was an underworld kingpin until a hail of bullets sent him into early retirement. Ben Jensen was a well-connected publisher until a determined gunman severed all his connections. Eugene R. Poor made novelties like exploding cigars until one of them blew him to kingdom come... -
Last Car to Elysian Fields by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratings'A lyrical and lovely novel that takes Burke back to the top of the crimewriting tree where he richly belongs' Independent On... -
A Trick of the Light: An Inspector McLevy Mystery 3 by David Ashton
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe third in David Ashton's series of McLevy books, A Trick of the Light sees McLevy team up with Arthur Conan Doyle to pursue a ruthless killer. It is 1860 and a Confederate officer, Jonathen Sinclair, arrives in Edinburgh with a sheaf of money to purchase a blockade-runner from Clydeside shipbuilders. He is betrayed to the Union forces and brutally shot dead by their secret agents... -
Betrayal at Iga: A Hiro Hattori Novel by Susan Spann
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAutumn, 1565: After fleeing Kyoto, master ninja Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo take refuge with Hiro's ninja clan in the mountains of Iga province. But when an ambassador from the rival Koga clan is murdered during peace negotiations, Hiro and Father Mateo must find the killer in time to prevent a war between the ninja clans... -
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The Queen of the Night by Paul Doherty
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRome: August 314 AD, and as the sun's insidious heat beats down, murderous forces lurk in the underbelly of the city. The normally cosseted world of Rome's rich and powerful is rocked by a series of violent abductions, as children of the elite are kidnapped and held for ransom...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement political-intrigue politics adult ancient-civilization book female-mc -
Peeler by Kevin McCarthy
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWest Cork. November 1920. The Irish War of Independence rages. The body of a young woman is found brutally murdered on a windswept hillside. A scrap board sign covering her mutilated body reads 'TRATOR'. Traitor...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural historical-fiction mystery audiobook historical fiction -
An Experiment In Treason by Bruce Alexander
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSir John Fielding has trailed a packet of controversial letters from London to the colony of Massachusetts. But when the suspect in the theft is found dead, Sir John turns his eye on the possible involvement of Benjamin Franklin...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural adult book fiction historical historical-fiction -
Jack, Knave and Fool by Bruce Alexander
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this fifth Sir John Fielding mystery, the legendary eighteenth-century London judge takes on his most difficult case to date. John Fielding was famous not only as cofounder of London's first police force, the Bow Street Runners, but also as a magistrate of keen intellect, fairness and uncommon detective ability. What made this all the more remarkable was that he was blind...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural adult amateur-sleuth book fiction historical -
True Crime by Max Allan Collins
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBy the author of The Road To Perdition, this title sees Private Eye Nate Heller trying discover who the gunshot victim was, found next to the Biograph Theatre, the man the FBI confidently identified as John Dillinger. His search for the answer leads him into a confrontation with J. Edgar Hoover... -
Poets and Murder by Robert van Gulik
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA.D. 668Master detective Judge Dee sets out to solve a puzzling double murder and discovers that complicated passions lurk beneath the seemingly tranquil landscape of academic life. A student has been murdered; a beautiful poetess is accused of whipping her maidservant to death; and further mysteries lie in the shadows of the Shrine of the Black Fox...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement noir police-procedural politics action-adventure adult asian-mc -
The Jane Austen Murders by Jean G. Goodhind
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOriginally published as Killing Jane Austen.Honey Driver is thrilled when members of a film crew check in to her hotel. They offer her work as an extra in their sumptuous new flick about Jane Austen.Honey jumps at the chance — any excuse to don a corset and a frilly bonnet — but soon finds out showbiz isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The cameras have barely begun to roll when . . -
Todo lo mejor by César Pérez Gellida
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsUna ciudad separada por un muro y unida por un sanguinario asesino. Dos investigadores que descubrirán que la crueldad no tiene límites.Una historia negra para iniciarse en el género Gellida.Viktor Lavrov es un joven talento perteneciente al KGB destinado en Berlín durante el periodo más crudo de la Guerra Fría...Categorized as:
crime noir law-enforcement political-intrigue fiction mystery historical-fiction suspense -
The Chinese Nail Murders by Robert van Gulik
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA.D. 676In the fifth installment of Robert Van Gulik's ancient Chinese mystery series based on historical court records, detective Judge Dee is appointed to the magistrate of Pei-chow - a distant frontier district in the barren north of the ancient Chinese Empire...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural adult book fiction historical historical-fiction -
The Chinese Maze Murders by Robert van Gulik
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA.D. 670 Poisoned plums, a cryptic scroll picture, passionate love letters, and a hidden murderer with a penchant for torturing and killing women lead Judge Dee to the heart of the Governor’s garden maze and the answers to three interwoven mysteries...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural adult book fiction historical historical-fiction -
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A Killing Kindness by Reginald Hill
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Yorkshire detectives are upstaged by a Shakespeare-inspired serial killer in this “stylish, superior . . . snappy” mystery (Kirkus Reviews). Reginald Hill “raised the classical British mystery to new heights” when he introduced pugnacious Yorkshire Det. Inspector Andrew Dalziel and his partner, the callow Sgt. Peter Pascoe (The New York Times Book Review)... -
Seven Days by Deon Meyer
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"I'll shoot one policeman every day, until you arrest the murderer of Hanneke Sloet," says the e-mail to the South African Police Services. And then the sniper turns threat into reality.Bennie Griessel has to reopen the Sloet dossier. The case is 40 days old, the trail has gone cold...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural political-intrigue politics adult audiobook book -
Polar Bear Dawn by Lyle Nicholson
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDetective Frank Mueller of the Anchorage Police Force flies to an oil camp in Alaska’s High Arctic to investigate what is being called a murder/suicide. A man’s body was found outside the camp being consumed by a Polar Bear. His sister found strangled to death in her room... -
Midnight in Malmö by Torquil MacLeod
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen a woman is stabbed to death while jogging in Malmö’s main park, the Criminal Investigation Squad need to discover who she is before the case can properly get under way. Soon they realise the victim had flown in from Switzerland, and with links to important people in the city, she wasn’t everything she seemed...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement noir police-procedural political-intrigue action-adventure adult assassins -
The Lost Empress by Steve Robinson
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom acclaimed author Steve Robinson comes a bold new Jefferson Tayte mystery.On a foggy night in 1914, the ocean liner Empress of Ireland sank en route between Canada and England. The disaster saw a loss of life comparable to the Titanic and the Lusitania, and yet her tragedy has been forgotten... -
Fever Season by Barbara Hambly
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsThe summer of 1833 has been one of brazen heat and brutal pestilence, as the city is stalked by Bronze John - the popular name for the deadly cholera epidemic that tests the healing skills of doctor and voodoo alike. Benjamin January's Paris medical training keeps him all night long with the dying at Charity Hospital... -
The Prince of Darkness by Paul Doherty, P. Harding
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt is 1301 and a fragile peace exists between Edward of England and Philip IV of France. In the fetid alleys and slums of London and Paris it is a different matter. Here the secret agents of both countries still fight their own, silent, deadly battles... -
Execution Dock by Anne Perry
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOn the bustling docks along the River Thames, Great Britain’s merchant ships unload the treasures of the world. And here, in dank and sinister alleys, sex merchants ply their lucrative trade. The dreaded kingpin of this dark realm is Jericho Phillips, who seems far beyond the reach of the law... -
Blonde Faith by Walter Mosley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsEasy Rawlins, L.A.'s most reluctant detective, comes home one day to find Easter, the daughter of his friend Chrismas Black, left on his doorstep. Easy knows that this could only mean that the ex-marine Black is probably dead, or will be soon. Easter's appearance is only the beginning, as Easy is immersed in a sea of problems... -
The Other End of the Line by Andrea Camilleri
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA wave of refugees has arrived on the Sicilian coast, and Inspector Montalbano and his team have been stationed at port, alongside countless volunteers, to receive and assist the newcomers. Meanwhile, Livia has promised their presence at a friend's wedding, and the inspector, agreeing to get a new suit tailored, meets the charming master seamstress Elena Biasini... -
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The Terrorists by Maj Sjöwall, 麥伊·荷瓦兒
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFinished just a few weeks before Per Wahloo's death, The Terrorists is the last Martin Beck mystery, a marvelous summing up of the series. The series finale finds Beck attempting to save an American diplomat from the bloody hands of a terrorist group.The book is, in effect, a marvelous summing up of the series. The story centers on the visit of an American senator to Stockholm...Categorized as:
crime noir law-enforcement police-procedural political-intrigue europe scandinavia sweden -
Romanzo Criminale by Giancarlo De Cataldo
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt is 1977. A new force is terrorising Rome - a mob of reckless, ultraviolent youths known as La Banda della Magliana. As the gang ruthlessly take control of Rome's heroin trade, they begin an inexorable rise to power. Banda della Magliana intend to own the streets of Rome - unless their internal struggles tear them apart... -
Evan Blessed by Rhys Bowen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsEvans' search for a hiker gone missing in the Welsh hills places his fiancé in the path of a killer in this tantalizing installment in this award-winning author's cozy... -
Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert, Michael Mcstay
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAnother classic Michael Gilbert thriller, set within the legal profession. The mystery begins when the body of a client is found dead in a deed-box of the impeccable legal firm of Horniman, Birley and Crane. But why? And how was the Horniman system broken? A classic English murder mystery.Michael Francis Gilbert ( 1912- 2006) is recognized as one of the most versatile British mystery writers...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural political-intrigue politics 20th-century adult audiobook -
The Lady Chapel by Candace Robb
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsOwen Archer, the intriguing Welsh archer-turned-sleuth, is back-in another riveting challenge to Ellis Peters!High summer, 1365-and York is glorious with pageantry for the Feast of Corpus Christi. But wool merchant Will Crounce, who acts in "The Last Judgement," meets his maker all too soon, his throat slit in the shadow of the great cathedral... -
Hall of Mirrors by Christopher Fowler
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsLondon, 1969. With the Swinging Sixties under way, Detectives Arthur Bryant and John May find themselves caught in the middle of a good, old-fashioned manor house murder mystery.Hard to believe, but even positively ancient sleuths like Bryant and May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit were young once . . . or at least younger...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural political-intrigue adult audiobook book conspiracies
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