Books like 'Hairspray and Lighter'
Readers who enjoyed Hairspray and Lighter by J. Jupes also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary mystery drama investigator hard-boiled
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An Invisible Client by Victor Methos
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFor high-powered personal injury attorney Noah Byron, the good things in life come with a price tag—cars, houses, women. That’s why he represents only cases that come with the possibility of a nice cut of the action. But as a favor to his ex-wife, he meets with the mother of twelve-year-old Joel, a boy poisoned by tainted children’s medicine... -
![Nothing to Lose by J.A. Jance]()
Nothing to Lose by J.A. Jance
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe newest thrilling Beaumont suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author J. A. Jance, in which Beaumont is approached by a visitor from the past and finds himself drawn into a missing person's case where danger is lurking and family secrets are exposed. Years ago, when he was a homicide detective with the Seattle PD, J. P. Beaumont's partner, Sue Danielson, was murdered... -
![Forever Mine by Linsey Lanier]()
Forever Mine by Linsey Lanier
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn old friend. A bad smell. A body stuffed into a wall. You'll never escape. After she left her abusive husband thirteen years ago, Miranda Steele became a fighter. Over the years, she picked up martial arts and street fighting tactics, and now that she works for the Parker Investigative Agency, she can handle a weapon. But the battle with her inner demons? Not so easy... -
![One Day Gone: A Mylas Grey Mystery by Luana Ehrlich]()
One Day Gone: A Mylas Grey Mystery by Luana Ehrlich
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMylas Grey is a private investigator but don’t call him a private detective. That title belongs to his father—not to him. Mylas is the Chief Investigator for Senator Davis Allen, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. His job is to do background investigations for the President’s judicial nominees, and that’s the only kind of investigation he’s interested in doing... -
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![Kill Them Cold by J.M. Dalgliesh]()
Kill Them Cold by J.M. Dalgliesh
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOne lie requires commitment... Multiple lies require dedication...When the remains of a young woman are discovered near to Branodunum, a Roman archaeological site on the Norfolk coast, DI Tom Janssen and his team must work to discover who she was and how she came to be buried there.The area is steeped in myth and folklore, a site excavated many times over the years... -
![Extreme Prey by John Sandford]()
Extreme Prey by John Sandford
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAn extraordinary Lucas Davenport thriller from #1 "New York Times" bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner John Sandford.After the events in "Gathering Prey", Lucas Davenport finds himself in a very unusual situation—no longer employed by the Minnesota BCA... -
![The Crossing by Michael Connelly]()
The Crossing by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsDetective Harry Bosch has retired from the LAPD, but his half-brother, defense attorney Mickey Haller, needs his help. A woman has been brutally murdered in her bed and all evidence points to Haller's client, a former gang member turned family man. Though the murder rap seems ironclad, Mickey is sure it's a setup.Bosch doesn't want anything to do with crossing the aisle to work for the defense... -
![Death Leaves a Shadow: A Marlowe Black Mystery by Gabriel F.W. Koch]()
Death Leaves a Shadow: A Marlowe Black Mystery by Gabriel F.W. Koch
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThen comes the brutal announcement that his pregnant fianc�e has committed suicide. Marlowe simply cannot accept the official verdict, and as anguish and rage replace the love he once felt, he is driven by a madness that forces him to question his own integrity while he hunts an elusive killer."Koch is an author who has his priorities in order... -
![Body In The Woods by Behcet Kaya]()
Body In The Woods by Behcet Kaya
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAward-winning author Behcet Kaya has once again brought his PI protagonist Jack Ludefance to life in a novel of suspense and mystery, filled with indelible characters, and laced with threads of credible circumstances, in his latest book titled Body in the Woods... -
![Murder on the Naval Base by Behcet Kaya]()
Murder on the Naval Base by Behcet Kaya
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMurder on the Naval Base begins with a blurry account of a cold-blooded shooting of a couple, singled out while having dinner at an Officer's Club. The prime suspect is apprehended hours later while apparently attempting to flee the state... -
![Matrimony Meltdown by Kathi Daley]()
Matrimony Meltdown by Kathi Daley
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAfter a year and a half of on again off again relationship status, Zak and Zoe are finally getting married. Not only has her own mother morphed into Momzilla, but Zak’s mother shows up a month before the wedding with plans to stay until the big day. When the mom’s gang up to undo all of Zoe’s wedding plans, things become tense... -
![Jingle Bells, Rifle Shells by Bruce Hammack]()
Jingle Bells, Rifle Shells by Bruce Hammack
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJingle Bells, Jingle Bells…Rifle Shells? Blind private investigator Steve Smiley and his partner, Heather McBlythe, hear a rifle shot. Hordes of Christmas shoppers scatter. A famous big-game hunter drops to the sidewalk. They grab the beautiful teen who was arguing with the camo-clad man and flee to safety. The girl is Bella, the adopted daughter of the victim and a celebrity in her own right... -
![The Bones at Point No Point by D.D. Black]()
The Bones at Point No Point by D.D. Black
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDive into the #1 best-selling mystery series readers are comparing to Connelly, Patterson, and Baldacci.How do you catch a killer who's already behind bars?Thomas Austin was once a star NYPD detective, known for locking up a psychopathic serial The Holiday Baby Butcher... -
![Deadly Alliance: A Fortis/Purgatory Crossover Novel by Maddie Wade, India Kells]()
Deadly Alliance: A Fortis/Purgatory Crossover Novel by Maddie Wade, India Kells
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFortis and Purgatory are both exceptional covert agencies composed of deadly operatives. With the Atlantic Ocean between them, they never thought they would ever collaborate until a series of horrible murders force them to unite... -
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![Five Card Murder by Bruce Hammack]()
Five Card Murder by Bruce Hammack
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn inheritance worth millions. A killer with a list…and Smiley’s on it.A phone call from out of the blue leads blind PI Steve Smiley to become executor of a large Texas estate—one which includes the last undeveloped lakefront property in the state. While the sheriff is hunting for the rancher’s killer, a second death occurs. The ranch foreman is found murdered... -
![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... -
![A Grave Denied by Dana Stabenow]()
A Grave Denied by Dana Stabenow
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsEveryone knew Len Dreyer, a handyman for hire in the Park near Niniltna, Alaska, but no one knew anything else about him. Even Kate Shugak, who was planning to ask him to help build a small second cabin on her property, knew him. But she, the Park's unofficial P.I., seems to have known less about him than anyone... -
![Un hijo by Alejandro Palomas]()
Un hijo by Alejandro Palomas
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsGUANYADOR DEL PREMI JOAQUIM RUYRA 2014Una novel·la plena de tendresa i intriga pels lectors de Una mare i El curiós incident del gos a mitjanit.En Guillem és un nen introvertit, amb un somriure permanent, i és un àvid lector de tot allò que li cau a les mans. Té només una amiga. Fins aquí tot en ordre... -
![Night of the Rat by Tanya Thompson]()
Night of the Rat by Tanya Thompson
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThere are just some men you can’t send from the house at midnight with a live rat in a trap and expect them not to somehow get the police involved. Granted, it sounds like an exaggeration, but Silas was more panicked about leaving the house than even the rat. Neither wanted to go. One had a family, the other had social anxiety... -
![UNDER THE BUS by Kyle Keyes]()
UNDER THE BUS by Kyle Keyes
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHomicide detectives, Donde Clark and Juanito Lewis moved to Hobbs Creek just days before banker, Richard Ghetti was gunned down in the front room of his Lake Powhattan, water front cabin.Barbershop talk had it that divine providence played some part in transferring the two NYC lawmen from the Big Apple to this backwater town in South Jersey... -
![Betrayal of Faith by Mark M. Bello]()
Betrayal of Faith by Mark M. Bello
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHow can one have faith when faith itself is corrupt? When Jennifer Tracey discovers that her new parish priest has harmed her two sons, she seeks justice. Standing in her way? The Coalition-a secret church organization tasked with the responsibility of taking care of these types of incidents quickly and quietly and by any means necessary... -
![Tooth for Tooth by J.K. Franko]()
Tooth for Tooth by J.K. Franko
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhat would YOU do?What would you do if you got away with murder? Would you stop there? Could you?Susie and Roy thought that they committed the perfect crime.Their planning was meticulous. Their execution was flawless. But, there is always a loose end, isn’t there? Always a singing bone.Now, while enemies multiply and suspicions abound, their perfect world begins to crumble... -
![Where There's Smoke by Kirsten Fullmer]()
Where There's Smoke by Kirsten Fullmer
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA picturesque mountain town, sparks of romance, a threatening mystery, and a secret society of devious women…“Wonderful characters, a real mix of women with varied strength and foibles” -Goodreads review 5 stars“I loved the first book in the Sugar Mountain series so I was really second to read the second installment and get back to investigating with the Sugar Mountain Ladies Historical Society”... -
![Runaway by Martina Cole]()
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![Maura's Game by Martina Cole]()
Maura's Game by Martina Cole
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMaura Ryan was the queen of the criminal underworld when she pulled off the most audacious gold bullion robbery of all time. Since then she's retired from a life of crime to be with the only man she's ever loved. But enemies from her past are closing in and they're about to learn that they should never cross Maura Ryan. The dangerous lady is back and she's as lethal as ever . . -
![The Sacred Well Murders by Susan Rowland]()
The Sacred Well Murders by Susan Rowland
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA simple job turns deadly when Mary Wandwalker, novice detective, is hired to chaperone a young American, Rhiannon, to the Oxford University Summer School on the ancient Celts. Worried by a rhetoric of blood sacrifice, Mary and her operatives, Caroline, and Anna, attend a sacrifice at a sacred well. They discover that those who fail to individuate their gods become possessed by them... -
![Murder Al Dente by Nancy Skopin]()
Murder Al Dente by Nancy Skopin
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“An intuitive detective, a kidnapped child, and an assassin with a heart of gold …”In Murder Al Dente, PI Nicoli “Nikki” Hunter once again gets herself in hot water when she’s hired by a multimillionaire boat owner, (and sex toy manufacturer,) to find out who’s trying to kill him. Nikki has barely begun her investigation when he’s found dead aboard his mega yacht... -
![Murder Served Cold by Nancy Skopin]()
Murder Served Cold by Nancy Skopin
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsPI Nicoli 'Nikki' Hunter is blindsided when someone close to her is murdered, and their body dumped in an alley. Detective Bill Anderson catches the homicide and, knowing Nikki, doesn't even attempt to discourage her from conducting her own investigation, which, in this case, takes a village... -
![A Woman to Blame by Vincent Panettiere]()
A Woman to Blame by Vincent Panettiere
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHours after a thoroughbred racehorse collapses and dies after finishing last in a race he was favored to win, his trainer—a young woman with a promising career—is found dead on a suburban Chicago beach. To the police, it's a simple case of murder-suicide. But Mike Hegan, veteran police detective, refuses to believe the official story... -
![Blood Work by Michael Connelly]()
Blood Work by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly presents his most ambitious, most gripping achievement to date--a novel of masterly suspense and righteous obsession that will never let you go.When Graciella Rivers steps onto his boat, ex-FBI agent Terrell McCaleb has no idea he's about to come out of retirement. He's recuperating from a heart transplant and avoiding anything stressful... -
![The Hard Way by Lee Child]()
The Hard Way by Lee Child
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsJack Reacher is alone, the way he likes it.He watches a man cross a New York street and drive away in a Mercedes. The car contains $1 million of ransom money. Reacher's job is to make sure it all turns out right - money paid, family safely returned. But Reacher is in the middle of a nasty little war where nothing is simple... -
![The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke]()
The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsJames Lee Burke's eagerly awaited new novel finds Detective Dave Robicheaux back in New Iberia, Louisiana, and embroiled in the most harrowing and dangerous case of his career. Seven young women in neighboring Jefferson Davis Parish have been brutally murdered... -
![Pleasant Day by Vera Jane Cook]()
Pleasant Day by Vera Jane Cook
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWITH MURDER IN COMMON FRIENDSHIP IS INEVITABLE. In the town of Hollow Creek, South Carolina two separate murders, fifteen years apart, unite fifteen-year-old Pleasant Day and sixty-year-old Clarissa Blackwell. As Pleasant Day struggles with her mother's distance, her father's infidelity and the death of her best friend, she draws closer to Clarissa, an older woman with the secrets to heal her... -
![Case of the One-Eyed Tiger by Jeffrey M. Poole]()
Case of the One-Eyed Tiger by Jeffrey M. Poole
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“[T]hank you Jeffrey Poole for again creating another adventure …. excited to see many more in the future!” – S. Redwing, 5 stars, AmazonFirst book in a new cozy mystery series. When a shocking murder shatters the tranquility of a sleepy Oregon town, and a priceless sculpture turns up missing, all fingers soon start pointing at new resident Zack Anderson... -
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![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 Last Teacher by Alan Lee]()
The Last Teacher by Alan Lee
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsMackenzie August is starting a new life. After a successful but destructive career as a high-profile California homicide detective, and then a less successful and even more destructive stint working for a church, he has moved to Virginia to start over as a teacher. The only thing he’s bringing with him is Kix, his infant baby boy... -
![To Dream the Blackbane: A Novel of the Anomaly by Richard J. O'Brien]()
To Dream the Blackbane: A Novel of the Anomaly by Richard J. O'Brien
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA cosmic event in 2015 fused earth with the faerie realm. Scientists refer to the event as the Anomaly. A byproduct of the Anomaly was the advent of hybrid beings - people who became mixed with whatever animal or object was nearest them the moment the Anomaly occurred. Humans, or Pedigrees, soon relegated fairy refugees and hybrids into ghetto zones in large cities... -
![Ramonst by A.F. Knott]()
Ramonst by A.F. Knott
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHidden in the mountains of East Tennessee, an eleven-year old goes about the business of being a boy during the summer of 1970. Within a balance of terror and innocence, he bears silent witness to ghosts of the dead and the cruelties of a teenage killer while local justice plays out in a community carved from legacies of coal mining and religion... -
![Pistols and Poinsettias by Bruce Hammack]()
Pistols and Poinsettias by Bruce Hammack
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSteve isn’t celebrating Christmas…he’s trying to survive it.Blind PI Steve Smiley loathes Christmas—too many memories. When his partner secures an invitation for them to teach at a mystery writers’ conference in Miami, what promises to be a welcome early December escape turns into a tidal wave of mysteries to solve... -
![Dark Hollow by John Connolly]()
Dark Hollow by John Connolly
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDark Hollow is a masterful second novel from a young Irish writer whose storytelling skills were established with Every Dead Thing. Now his fiery, ingenious detective, Charlie Bird Parker, returns to uncover a legacy of evil that has haunted Maine citizens for decades... -
![The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais]()
The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsElvis Cole is back...With his acclaimed bestsellers, Hostage (a New York Times Notable Book) and Demolition Angel, Robert Crais drew raves for his unstoppable pacing, edgy characterizations, and cinematic prose... -
![Lullaby Town by Robert Crais]()
Lullaby Town by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsHollywood's newest wunderkind is Peter Alan Nelson, the brilliant, erratic director known as the King of Adventure. His films make billions, but his manners make enemies. What the boy king wants, he gets, and what Nelson wants is for Elvis Cole to comb the country for the airhead wife and infant child the film-school flunkout dumped en route to becoming the third biggest filmmaker in America... -
![Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane]()
Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsMaster of new noir Dennis Lehane magnificently evokes the dignity and savagery of working-class Boston in Darkness, Take My Hand, a terrifying tale of redemption.Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro’s latest client is a prominent Boston psychiatrist, running scared from a vengeful Irish mob. The private investigators know about cold-blooded retribution... -
![Dark Signal by Shannon Baker]()
Dark Signal by Shannon Baker
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDark Signal by Shannon Baker is the second installment in the Kate Fox mystery series, called "A must read" by New York Times bestselling author Alex Kava, starring a female Longmire in the atmospheric Nebraska Sandhills.Reeling from her recent divorce, Kate Fox has just been sworn in as Grand County, Nebraska Sheriff when tragedy strikes... -
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![Kane and Abel / The Prodigal Daughter / Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less by Jeffrey Archer]()
Kane and Abel / The Prodigal Daughter / Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less by Jeffrey Archer
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThis collection of Jeffrey Archer novels includes "Kane and Abel" the sequel "The Prodigal Daughter" and the novel "Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less"... -
![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... -
![Murder on the Menu by Nancy Skopin]()
Murder on the Menu by Nancy Skopin
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsPrivate Investigator Nicoli “Nikki” Hunter has lost enthusiasm for the bar and restaurant surveys that pay the bills but no longer challenge her. When the brutal murder of socialite, (and stripper), Laura Howard lands on her desk, she finally encounters a case worthy of her talent.Murder on the Menu is the first in a series of mysteries featuring Nikki Hunter... -
![Treacherous Estate: Crime Story by Behcet Kaya]()
Treacherous Estate: Crime Story by Behcet Kaya
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsPrivate Investigator... -
![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... -
![Skeleton's Key by Stacy Green]()
Skeleton's Key by Stacy Green
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsCage Foster can’t catch a break. The discovery of a dusty skeleton in the antebellum home he’s caring for is bad enough. But the unearthing of two fresh bodies, buried during his tenure at Ironwood Plantation, may land Cage on Mississippi’s death row...
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