Books like 'A Simple Story'
Readers who enjoyed A Simple Story by Leonardo Sciascia & Paul Bailey also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary mystery 20th century classics crime organized-crime noir espionage political-intrigue
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Term Limits by Vince Flynn
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsAlternate-cover edition for ISBN 9780671023188 here TAKING AMERICA BACK ... ONE POLITICIAN AT A TIME In one bloody night, three of Washington's most powerful politicians are executed with surgical precision. Their assassins then deliver a shocking ultimatum to the American government: set aside partisan politics and restore power to the people...Categorized as:
crime espionage political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult assassins audiobook -
![Point Of Impact by Stephen Hunter, Beau Bridges]()
Point Of Impact by Stephen Hunter, Beau Bridges
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHe was one the best Marine snipers in Vietnam. Today, twenty years later, disgruntled hero of an unheroic war, all Bob Lee Swagger wants to be left alone and to leave the killing behind.But with consummate psychological skill, a shadowy military organization seduces Bob into leaving his beloved Arkansas hills for one last mission for his country, unaware until too late that the game is rigged...Categorized as:
crime espionage political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
![Absolute Power by David Baldacci]()
Absolute Power by David Baldacci
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsA grizzled professional cat burglar gets trapped inside the bedroom closet of one of the world's richest men, only to witness, through a one-way mirror, two Secret Service agents kill the billionaire's trampy young wife as she tries to fight off the drunken sexual advances of the nation's chief executive...Categorized as:
crime espionage political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
![Trunk Music by Michael Connelly]()
Trunk Music by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsBack on the job after an involuntary leave of absence, LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch is ready for a challenge. But his first case is a little more than he bargained for. It starts with the body of a Hollywood producer in the trunk of a Rolls-Royce, shot twice in the head at close range - what looks like "trunk music," a Mafia hit... -
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![The Flaw by Antonis Samarakis]()
The Flaw by Antonis Samarakis
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA man is seized from his afternoon drink at the Café Sport by two agents of the Regime - though what exactly he is suspected of we do not know, and neither, apparently, does he.What follows is a journey by car toward Special Branch headquarters, and the interrogation that undoubtedly awaits him there... -
![Cianură pentru un surâs by Rodica Ojog-Braşoveanu]()
Cianură pentru un surâs by Rodica Ojog-Braşoveanu
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsÎntr-un imobil oarecare din strada Crăiței, cu ocazia unei inundații, cinci locatari dau peste două tablouri de o valoare inestimabilă. Cei cinci fac planuri pentru a se îmbogăți, dar, unul câte unul, încep să moară otrăviți. De fiecare dată, cei rămași trebuie să ascundă cadavrele și să fenteze Miliția, ducând mai departe, în paralel, planul pentru a vinde tablourile peste hotare... -
![I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories by William Gay]()
I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories by William Gay
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWilliam Gay established himself as "the big new name to include in the storied annals of Southern Lit" (Esquire) with his debut novel, The Long Home, and his highly acclaimed follow-up, Provinces of Night. Like Faulkner's Mississippi and Cormac McCarthy's American West, Gay's Tennessee is redolent of broken souls... -
![The Firm by John Grisham]()
The Firm by John Grisham
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsWhen Mitchell McDeere qualified third in his class at Harvard, offers poured in from every law firm in America. The firm he chose was small, but-well respected. They were prepared to match, and then exceed Mitch's wildest dreams: eighty thousand a year, a BMW and a low-interest mortgage. Now the house, the car and the job are his...Categorized as:
classics crime espionage organized-crime political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Pulp Fiction: A Quentin Tarantino Screenplay by Quentin Tarantino, Manohla Dargis]()
Pulp Fiction: A Quentin Tarantino Screenplay by Quentin Tarantino, Manohla Dargis
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsQuentin Tarantino - director of "Reservoir Dogs" and writer of "True Romance" - won the Palme d'Or for best film at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival for "Pulp Fiction, " his unique vision of the underworld, starring John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Samuel Jackson, and Harvey Keitel... -
![Without Remorse by Tom Clancy]()
Without Remorse by Tom Clancy
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 53 ratingsJohn Kelly, former Navy SEAL and Vietnam veteran, is still getting over the accidental death of his wife six months before, when he befriends a young woman with a decidedly checkered past. When that past reaches out for her in a particularly horrifying fashion, he vows revenge and, assembling all of his old skills, sets out to track down the men responsible, before it can happen again...Categorized as:
classics crime espionage political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow]()
Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsIn Presumed Innocent, Rusty Sabich, family man and the number-two prosecutor of Kindle County, is handed an explosive casethe brutal murder of a woman who happens to be his former lover. A shocking turn of events suddenly transforms him from the accuser into the accused and plunges him into a nightmare world where nothing seems real and no one can be presumed innocent...Categorized as:
classics crime political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
![The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño]()
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFirst published in Spanish in 1998, The Savage Detectives was immediately hailed as a critical success, wining the Herralde Prize and the Romulo Gallegos Prize. But with the 2007 English-language translation the book became more than a bestseller -- it began the global sensation of Bolanomania. New Year's Eve 1975, Mexico City... -
![The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler]()
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsDown-and-out drunk Terry Lennox has a problem: his millionaire wife is dead and he needs to get out of LA fast. So he turns to the only friend he can trust: private investigator Philip Marlowe. Marlowe is willing to help a man down on his luck, but later Lennox commits suicide in Mexico and things start to turn nasty... -
![Running Blind by Lee Child, Dick Hill]()
Running Blind by Lee Child, Dick Hill
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsIn Jack Reacher, Lee Child has created an epic hero: tough, taciturn, yet vulnerable. His first three Reacher novels, Killing Floor, Die Trying and Tripwire, were published to great acclaim; Killing Floor was recently awarded the Anthony Award in America for the Best First Novel, and Die Trying was selected as a Thumping Good Read by W.H. Smith in the U.K...Categorized as:
crime espionage political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
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![Night in Question by Tobias Wolff]()
Night in Question by Tobias Wolff
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAuthor most recently of a stunningly clear-eyed memoir, This Boy's Life, Tobias Wolff's new collection of short stories maintains a similar steady gaze on his fictional creations. The author steels himself with a fine sense of irony and an awareness of moral ambiguity against the unjust suffering that is part of life... -
![The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman]()
The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNote: This is an alternate cover edition of ISBN 0449235637.While waiting for a view of her night-blooming cereus, the mild-seeming Mrs. Pollifax received urgent orders for a daring mission to aid an escape. Soon, the unlikely-looking international spy was sporting a beautiful new hat that hid eight forged passports...Categorized as:
classics crime espionage political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Crimson Rivers by Jean-Christophe Grangé]()
Crimson Rivers by Jean-Christophe Grangé
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA horrifically mutilated corpse is discovered wedged in an isolated crevice. The highly-regarded but unpredictable ex-commando Pierre NiTmans is sent from Paris to the French Alps to investigate. Meanwhile, Karim Abdouf, a young Arab policeman, is trying to find out why the tomb of a young child has been desecrated... -
![Write to Kill by Daniel Pennac]()
Write to Kill by Daniel Pennac
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsBenjamin Malaussene is a downtrodden publisher at Vendetta Press. Treated as a scapegoat by Queen Zabo, the redoubtable doyenne of publishing, he has finally had enough. After one row too many with her, he resigns, only to have Zabo offer him a starring role. All he has to do is impersonate the world's best-loved but hitherto anonymous author, J.L.B... -
![Beetle in the Anthill by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky]()
Beetle in the Anthill by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsMaxim Kammerer is given a high-priority assignment as a security officer: track down Lev Abalkin, whose unorthodox, individualistic way of living threatens the status quo... -
![The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy]()
The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 73 ratingsHere is the runaway bestseller that launched Tom Clancy's phenomenal career. A military thriller so gripping in its action and so convincing in its accuracy that the author was rumored to have been debriefed by the White House. Its theme: the greatest espionage coup in history. Its story: the chase for a top secret Russian missile sub. Lauded by the Washington Post as "breathlessly exciting...Categorized as:
classics crime espionage political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![The Lime Works: A Novel (Vintage International) by Thomas Bernhard]()
The Lime Works: A Novel (Vintage International) by Thomas Bernhard
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFor five years, Konrad has imprisoned himself and his crippled wife in an abandoned lime works where he’s conducted odd auditory experiments and prepared to write his masterwork, The Sense of Hearing. As the story begins, he’s just blown the head off his wife with the Mannlicher carbine she kept strapped to her wheelchair... -
![Out of Time by Dave Sinclair]()
Out of Time by Dave Sinclair
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAtticus Wolfe is a man out of time.November 1963As an MI6 spy in 1963, Atticus Wolfe should be enjoying everything the swinging sixties has to offer.But he’s not.That’s because Atticus Wolfe is from the 21st century.Accidentally torn from present day and flung into 1960s London in the midst of a cultural revolution, Atticus must acclimatise to a time not his own...Categorized as:
espionage political-intrigue fiction sci-fi time-travel mystery contemporary action-adventure -
![The Dead Girls by Jorge Ibargüengoitia]()
The Dead Girls by Jorge Ibargüengoitia
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis is the first appearance in English of a Mexican novelist of enormous talent. His brilliant novel is based on fact: the discovery in the yard of a small-town brothel of the corpses of six prostitutes... -
![Monsieur Malaussène by Daniel Pennac]()
Monsieur Malaussène by Daniel Pennac
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsParisian scapegoat Benjamin Malaussène, along with his family of half sisters and brothers, are once again the target for a series of increasingly catastrophic mishaps that culminate in Malaussène’s imprisonment on 21 counts of murder. Meanwhile, the real serial killer remains at large... -
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![The Way Through The Woods by Colin Dexter]()
The Way Through The Woods by Colin Dexter
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsMorse is enjoying a rare if unsatisfying holiday in Dorset when the first letter appears in THE TIMES. A year before, a stunning Swedish student disappeared from Oxfordshire, leaving behind a rucksack with her identification. As the lady was dishy, young, and traveling alone, the Thames Valley Police suspected foul play... -
![The Mark Of The Assassin by Daniel Silva]()
The Mark Of The Assassin by Daniel Silva
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsCIA Agent Michael Osbourne stars in this suspenseful series from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Gabriel Allon novels.When a commercial airliner is blown out of the sky off the east coast, the CIA scrambles to find the perpetrators. A body is discovered near the crash site with three bullets to the face: the calling card of a shadowy international assassin...Categorized as:
crime espionage political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult assassinations assassins -
![If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon]()
If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsThis is a story of intrigue and revenge. Tracy Whitney is young, beautiful and intelligent - and about to marry into wealth and glamour. Until, suddenly, she is betrayed, framed by a ruthless Mafia gang, abandoned by the man she loves. Only her ingenuity saves her and helps her fight back... -
![The Client by John Grisham]()
The Client by John Grisham
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 47 ratingsIn a weedy clearing on the outskirts of Memphis, two boys watch a shiny Lincoln pull up to the curb...Eleven-year-old Mark Sway and his younger brother were sharing a forbidden cigarette when a chance encounter with a suicidal lawyer left Mark knowing a bloody and explosive secret: the whereabouts of the most sought-after dead body in America...Categorized as:
classics crime organized-crime political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker]()
No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAfter serving an eight-year term in Folsom State Prison, Max Dembo is determined not to return to his former way of life, in a realistic, suspenseful study of the pressures facing ex-convicts as they attempt to negotiate the straight world. Reissue... -
![The Hustler by Walter Tevis]()
The Hustler by Walter Tevis
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe legendary novel from the bestselling author of The Queen's Gambit about an ambitious pool shark who discovers what it takes to make the big time. The basis for the acclaimed film starring Paul Newman. To the strangers he plays in darkened pool halls, at first "Fast" Eddie Felson seems like a sloppy pool player with bright eyes and an extraordinary grin... -
![The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley]()
The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAn unforgettable detective story starring C.W. Sughrue, a Montana investigator who kills time by working at a topless bar. Hired to track down a derelict author, he ends up on the trail of a girl missing in Haight-Ashbury for a decade. The tense hunt becomes obsessive as Sughrue takes a haunting journey through the underbelly of America's sleaziest nightmares... -
![The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins, Mark Hammer]()
The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins, Mark Hammer
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsEddie Coyle works for Jimmy Scalisi, supplying him with guns for a couple of bank jobs. But a cop named Foley is on to Eddie and he's leaning on him to finger Scalisi, a gang leader with a lot to hide. And then there's Dillon-a full-time bartender and part-time contract killer--pretending to be Eddie's friend. Wheeling, dealing, chasing, and stealing--that's Eddie, and he's got lots of friends... -
![Death Is Now My Neighbor by Colin Dexter]()
Death Is Now My Neighbor by Colin Dexter
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe peaceful quadrangle of Lonsdale College seems remote from the shocks of the outside world—such as the shooting of a young woman in her North Oxford home. But things at Lonsdale are not as tranquil as they appear. The Master of the college is retiring, and two senior dons, Denis Cornford and Julian Storrs, are vying, discreetly but furiously, to succeed him... -
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![The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri]()
The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn the third book in Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series, the urbane and perceptive Sicilian detective exposes a viper's nest of government corruption and international intrigue in a compelling new case... -
![The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin]()
The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Hanging Gardens of Babylon... The hanging of four French villagers in World War II... The hanging of an old man in a Scottish cemetery... Seemingly random facts linked to one man.. -
![Stalking the Angel by Robert Crais]()
Stalking the Angel by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe second blistering Elvis Cole novel from the bestselling author of THE FIRST RULE.Bradley Warren had lost something very valuable, something that belonged to someone else: a rare thirteenth-century Japanese manuscript called the Hagakure... -
![The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais]()
The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsTaking the mystery community by storm, this Elvis Cole novel was nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, Shamus, and Macavity awards and won both the Anthony and Macavity for Best Novel of the Year.When Ellen Lang's husband disappears with their son, she hires Elvis Cole to track him down. A quiet and seemingly submissive wife, Ellen can't even write a check without him...Categorized as:
crime espionage noir political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![The Runaway Jury by John Grisham]()
The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsEvery jury has a leader, and the verdict belongs to him. In Biloxi, Mississippi, a landmark tobacco trial with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake begins routinely, then swerves mysteriously off course. The jury is behaving strangely, and at least one juror is convinced he's being watched. Soon they have to be sequestered...Categorized as:
classics crime political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
![Killing Floor by Lee Child, Dick Hill]()
Killing Floor by Lee Child, Dick Hill
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 73 ratings3 Compact Discs / 3 hoursWhen Jack Reacher suddenly decides to ask a Greyhound bus driver to let him off near the town of Margrave, Georgia, he thinks it's because his brother once mentioned that the famed blues guitarist Blind Blake died there...Categorized as:
crime espionage noir political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![The Fairy Gunmother by Daniel Pennac]()
The Fairy Gunmother by Daniel Pennac
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsMaybe the worst indignity for a Paris cop is to be shot dead by an old granny he is trying to help cross the street in Paris on a frosty morning. An old lady needs protection with so many druggies around these days. Dressed as an elderly Vietnamese woman, Inspector Van Thian goes to investigate... -
![Biochips by William Gibson]()
Biochips by William Gibson
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsTurner, corporate mercenary, wakes in a reconstructed body, a beautiful woman by his side. Then Hosaka Corporation reactivates him for a mission more dangerous than the one he's recovering from: Maas-Neotek's chief of R&D is defecting. Turner is the one assigned to get him out intact, along with the biochip he's perfected...Categorized as:
classics crime espionage noir political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The Firm by Robin Waterfield, John Grisham]()
The Firm by Robin Waterfield, John Grisham
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 47 ratingsAdaptation for younger readers.Mitch McDeere, a Harvard Law graduate, becomes suspicious of his Memphis tax firm when mysterious deaths, obsessive office security, and the Chicago mob figure into its operations...Categorized as:
classics crime organized-crime political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
![Marathon Man by William Goldman]()
Marathon Man by William Goldman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsTom "Babe" Levy is a runner in every sense: racing tirelessly toward his goals of athletic and academic excellence--and endlessly away from the specter of his famous father's scandal-driven suicide. But an unexpected visit from his beloved older brother will set in motion a chain of events that plunge Babe into a vortex of terror, treachery, and murder--and force him into a race for his life . .Categorized as:
classics crime espionage political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult assassinations -
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![The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester]()
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIn a world in which the police have telepathic powers, how do you get away with murder?Ben Reichs heads a huge 24th century business empire, spanning the solar system. He is also an obsessed, driven man determined to murder a rival. To avoid capture, in a society where murderers can be detected even before they commit their crime, is the greatest challenge of his life... -
![Plum Island by Nelson DeMille]()
Plum Island by Nelson DeMille
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsThe hair-raising suspense of The General's Daughter... the wry wit of The Gold Coast...this is vintage Nelson DeMille at the peak of his originality and the height of his powers.Wounded in the line of duty, NYPD homicide cop John Corey is convalescing in rural eastern Long Island when an attractive young couple he knows is found shot to death on the family patio...Categorized as:
classics crime espionage noir political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré]()
The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsJohn le Carre's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him unprecedented worldwide acclaim...Categorized as:
classics crime espionage noir political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The Scapegoat by Daniel Pennac]()
The Scapegoat by Daniel Pennac
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsPathetic, contrite and hapless, Benjamin is nonetheless the scapegoat at The Store: there is nothing for which he cannot be blamed. While his blunders remain minor, most of his unwitting victims can find it in their hearts to forgive him, but when violent explosions begin to follow him around, he inevitably becomes the prime suspect... -
![First Blood by David Morrell]()
First Blood by David Morrell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFirst came the man: a young wanderer in a fatigue coat and long hair. Then came the legend, as John Rambo sprang from the pages of First Blood to take his place in the American cultural landscape...Categorized as:
classics crime espionage political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish by Dorothy Gilman]()
Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish by Dorothy Gilman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAll Mrs. Pollifax has to do is to masquerade as the aunt of an inept CIA representative while he confirms the identities of seven undercover agents in Morocco—and keep him from making an unpleasant ass of himself. Immediately, things go horribly wrong. The first informant is murdered minutes after Mrs. Pollifax and her companion identify him in his brassware stall in Fez...Categorized as:
crime espionage political-intrigue 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book
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