Books like 'The Big Blow'
Readers who enjoyed The Big Blow by Joe R. Lansdale also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery horror historical-fiction crime sports literary-fiction rural
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King of Kings by Wilbur Smith
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe sequel to Wilbur Smith's worldwide bestseller, The Triumph of the Sun.An epic story of love, betrayal, courage and war that brings together two of Wilbur Smith's greatest families in this long-awaited sequel to his worldwide bestseller, The Triumph of the Sun. Cairo, 1888. A beautiful September day. Penrod Ballantyne and his fiancee, Amber Benbrook, stroll hand in hand...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook classics fiction -
![The Canterbury Murders by E.M. Powell]()
The Canterbury Murders by E.M. Powell
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA fire-ravaged cathedral. An ungodly murder.Easter, 1177. Canterbury Cathedral, home to the tomb of martyr Saint Thomas Becket, bears the wounds of a terrible fire. Benedict, prior of the great church, leads its rebuilding. But horror interrupts the work. One of the stonemasons is found viciously murdered, the dead man’s face disfigured by a shocking wound... -
![All of a Winter's Night by Phil Rickman]()
All of a Winter's Night by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIt begins in the fog, with a bleak village funeral. In the early hours of the following morning, Merrily Watkins and her daughter Jane are made aware that Aidan Lloyd, son of a wealthy farmer, will not be resting in peace. A rural tradition is displaying its sinister side as an old feud re-ignites... -
![Cardinal Black by Robert McCammon]()
Cardinal Black by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsCardinal Black is the latest installment in Robert McCammon's unique series of historical thrillers featuring Matthew Corbett, professional problem solver, who has been called "the Early American James Bond." December 1703 finds Berry Grigsby living as Mary Lynn Nash in a small English village where she has fallen victim to Professor Fell's involuntary drug experiments... -
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![The Pit and the Pendulum - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe]()
The Pit and the Pendulum - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsGet set for true terror in one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous short stories.We enter the mind of a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. The dank prison room is without light and he begins to feel his way around the walls...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction anthologies audiobook classics dark fiction -
![The Providence Rider by Robert McCammon]()
The Providence Rider by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"The Providence Rider is the fourth installment in the extraordinary series of historical thrillers featuring Matthew Corbett, professional problem solver. The narrative begins in the winter of 1703, with Matthew still haunted by his lethal encounter with notorious mass murderer Tyranthus Slaughter... -
![Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll]()
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsAn extraordinary novel inspired by the real-life sorority targeted by America's first celebrity serial killer in his final murderous spree.January 1978. A serial killer has terrorized women across the Pacific Northwest, but his existence couldn’t be further from the minds of the vibrant young women at the top sorority on Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee...Categorized as:
historical-fiction crime literary-fiction fiction mystery historical audiobook true-crime -
![Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring]()
Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe play is a farcical black comedy revolving around Mortimer Brewster, author who wrights against marriage who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, New York, as he debates whether to go through with a honeymoon with the woman he loves and has recently agreed to marry...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics -
![Judgment of The Witch by Robert McCammon]()
Judgment of The Witch by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAfter a decade, New York Times bestselling author Robert McCammon returns with an epic novel of suspense that reinstates him as one of the great storytellers of our time.... The Carolinas, 1699: The citizens of Fount Royal believe their town is cursed by a witch... -
![Evil Unveiled by Robert McCammon]()
Evil Unveiled by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"New York Times" bestselling author Robert McCammon continues his triumphant return with the conclusion of an epic tale of suspense that reinstates him as one of the great storytellers of our time....The Carolinas, 1699: After hearing damning testimony from the townspeople of Fount Royal, magistrate Isaac Woodward sentences the accused witch, Rachel Howarth, to death by burning... -
![The Spinster's Fortune by Mary Kendall]()
The Spinster's Fortune by Mary Kendall
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMoonlit alleys, shadowy tunnels, and buried secrets…Summer of 1929.Of supposed unsound mind without a penny to her name, Blanche Magruder lies alone in a home for the aged and infirm.Meanwhile, her house, a crumbled ruin in the heart of Georgetown, Washington, D.C., is pillaged nightly by thieves looking for treasure rumored to be hidden there... -
![The King of Shadows by Robert McCammon]()
The King of Shadows by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt’s January of 1704, and Matthew Corbett continues his mission to Italy, accompanied by Hudson Greathouse and former enemy Professor Fell. They seek Brazio Valeriani and information about the mirror created by his father, the sorcerer Ciro. Legend claims the mirror can be used to summon demons from beyond...Categorized as:
historical-fiction crime horror mystery fiction action-adventure historical law-enforcement -
![The Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb]()
The Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsInspired by serial killer Harry Powers, "The Bluebeard of Quiet Dell," who was hung in 1932 for his murders of two widows and three children. This best-selling novel, first published in 1953 to wide acclaim by author Grubb, (who like Powers lived in Clarksburg, West Virginia), served as the basis for Charles Laughton's noir classic...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction rural 20th-century adult anthologies children -
![The Headless Horseman by Thomas Mayne Reid]()
The Headless Horseman by Thomas Mayne Reid
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsTexas in the 19th century. The War with Mexico is still a recent memory, marauding Comanches are a daily threat for new settlers of the Lone Star State. Louise Poindexter, a beautiful newcomer, is courted by two men - the arrogant and vindictive Cassius Calhoun and the dashing but poor mustanger Maurice Gerald...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure book children classics fiction -
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![The Werewolf of Bamberg by Oliver Pötzsch]()
The Werewolf of Bamberg by Oliver Pötzsch
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsIn 1668, hangman Jakob Kuisl, his daughter Magdalena, and her husband Simon are traveling to the town of Bamberg. But what was planned as a family vacation soon becomes a nightmare: there is a murderer in Bamberg who is leaving the severed limbs of victims in the trash outside the city... -
![Leviathan by Robert McCammon]()
Leviathan by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt is August of 1704, and Matthew Corbett and his companions have narrowly escaped the island of Golgotha and are recuperating in the town of Alghero on the northwestern coast of Sardinia, currently under Spanish rule. Hudson Greathouse is at his limits, both mentally and physically, after their harrowing ordeal...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction horror fiction mystery action-adventure fantasy supernatural -
![Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray]()
Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn this thriller set on the battlefields of the Somme after the end of World War I, a woman investigates the disappearance of her fiancé.The Great War has ended, but for Amy Vanneck there is no peace. Her fiancé, Edward Haslam, a lieutenant in the 7th Manchesters, is missing, presumed dead. Amy travels to the desolate battlefields of northern France to learn his fate and recover his body...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century 21st-century adult book drama -
![Kissyman & the Gentleman by Scott Sigler]()
Kissyman & the Gentleman by Scott Sigler
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsNew York City, 1946. No one knows his real name, but when the job is too dirty, too dangerous, they call Kissyman. Once an elite Nazi SS commando, an honorable soldier, a taker of lives. When he was assigned to Dachau and saw what he was actually fighting for, he went AWOL and ran as far away as he could — to America. He still makes his living with a gun, but he no longer kills for his country... -
![An Ancient Evil by Paul Doherty]()
An Ancient Evil by Paul Doherty
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn Ancient Evil inaugurates an ingenious new series of historical mysteries by P. C. Doherty, each one using characters from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. In Chaucer's poem, the pilgrims narrate tales to pass the time during their journey to the sacred shrine of Canterbury; Doherty's pilgrims entertain their companions with stories of mystery, terror, and murder... -
![High Cotton by Joe R. Lansdale]()
High Cotton by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis collection of Joe R. Lansdale stories represents the best of the “Lansdale” genre—a strange mixture of dark crime, even darker humor, and adventure tales. The stories are varied in setting and theme, but they are all pure Lansdale—eerie, amusing, and occasionally horrific. In “The Pit,” modern gladiators square off against one another using Roman methods...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction rural action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies apocalyptic -
![Ten Great Mysteries by Edgar Allan Poe]()
Ten Great Mysteries by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Pit and the Pendulum...The Purloined Letter...The Tell-Tale Heart...A Descent into Maelstrom...and six other choice chillers by the acknowledged master of mystery, fantasy, and horror. These ten absorbing stories, selected by a famed anthologist of science-fiction and the supernatural, prove that even after a century Poe's imagination still works it macabre magic... -
![Întâlnire cu Thomas Cresswell by Kerri Maniscalco]()
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![The Hound of the Baskervilles, with "the Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Arthur Conan Doyle]()
The Hound of the Baskervilles, with "the Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Hound of the Baskervilles (1901–02) is Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated Sherlock Holmes adventure. At the end of the yew tree path of his ancestral home, Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead. Close by are the footprints of a gigantic hound. Called to investigate, Holmes seems to face a supernatural foe...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction classics mystery fiction industrial-era victorian -
![The Long Home by William Gay]()
The Long Home by William Gay
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn a literary voice that is both original and powerfully unsettling, William Gay tells the story of Nathan Winer, a young and headstrong Tennessee carpenter who lost his father years ago to a human evil that is greater and closer at hand than any the boy can imagine - until he learns of it first-hand... -
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![The Rookery by Emily Organ]()
The Rookery by Emily Organ
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThere’s a killer in the slums. London 1884. When a thief robs Fleet Street reporter Penny Green, she finds herself caught up in a horrifying murder. Someone is terrorizing the residents of St Giles Rookery and Scotland Yard sends Inspector James Blakely to investigate. When the serial killer claims a victim outside the slums, Victorian London is sent into panic... -
![The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock]()
The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom Donald Ray Pollock, author of the highly acclaimed The Devil All the Time and Knockemstiff, comes a dark, gritty, electrifying (and, disturbingly, weirdly funny) new novel that will solidify his place among the best contemporary American authors.It is 1917, in that sliver of border land that divides Georgia from Alabama...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction rural 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![The Beast Within by Émile Zola]()
The Beast Within by Émile Zola
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsHis haunting, impressionistic study of a man's slow corruption by jealousy, Emile Zola's The Beast Within (La Bete Humaine) is translated from the French with an introduction and notes by Roger Whitehouse in Penguin Classics.Roubaud is consumed by a jealous rage when he discovers a sordid secret about his young wife's past... -
![The House of Closed Doors by Jane Steen]()
The House of Closed Doors by Jane Steen
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn Nell Lillington's small Midwestern town of the 1870s, marriage is the obvious fate of a young woman of some social standing. Yet Nell is determined to elude the duties and restrictions of matrimony. So when she finds herself pregnant at the age of 17, she refuses to divulge the name of the father and even her childhood friend Martin is kept in the dark... -
![Folly by Laurie R. King]()
Folly by Laurie R. King
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAn acclaimed master of suspense creates a heroine you will never forget in this superbly chilling novel of a woman who begins a desperate undertaking that may transform her life--or end it.WHAT HAPPENS IF YOUR WORST FEARS AREN’T ALL IN YOUR MIND?Rae Newborn is a woman on the edge: on the edge of sanity, on the edge of tragedy, and now on the edge of the world...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult audiobook book dark -
![Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell]()
Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLEGENDARY THRILLER WRITER DAVID MORRELL TRANSPORTS READERS TO THE FOGBOUND STREETS OF LONDON, WHERE A KILLER PLOTS TO ASSASSINATE QUEEN VICTORIA.The year is 1855. The Crimean War is raging. The incompetence of British commanders causes the fall of the English government. The Empire teeters...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult audiobook book fiction -
![Estudio en escarlata/El sabueso de los Baskerville by Arthur Conan Doyle]()
Estudio en escarlata/El sabueso de los Baskerville by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLa popularidad de Sherlock Holmes ha sido inmensa e incesante... si muchos le parodiaron (a Conan Doyle) casi todos los escritores posteriores han moldeado sus héroes conforme a uno de los poliédricos aspectos del gran Sherlock. Este dejó de ser un personaje literario, se convirtió en una criatura viviente y borró la memoria de su creador...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult book classics fiction -
![The Listener by Robert McCammon]()
The Listener by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratings1934. Businesses went under by the hundreds, debt and foreclosures boomed, and breadlines grew in many American cities. In the midst of this misery, some folks explored unscrupulous ways to make money. Angel-faced John Partlow and carnival huckster Ginger LaFrance are among the worst of this lot... -
![The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle]()
The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBrother and sister Roderick and Pamela Fitzgerald flee their busy London lives for the beautiful but stormy Devon coastline. They are drawn to the suspiciously inexpensive Cliff End, feared amongst locals as a place of disturbance and ill omen. Gradually, the Fitzgeralds learn of the mysterious deaths of Mary Meredith and another strange young woman... -
![The History of Things to Come by Duncan Simpson]()
The History of Things to Come by Duncan Simpson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe mind of a genius can hold the darkest of secrets A razor-sharp thriller A Bosnian gangster is gunned down in a packed London restaurant. In his possession is a notebook once belonging to Isaac Newton. This is just the latest in a series of shocking crimes connected to objects once belonging to the famous scientist. The police are stumped and the pressure for an arrest is mounting...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult book conspiracies fiction -
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![The Lake of the Dead by André Bjerke]()
The Lake of the Dead by André Bjerke
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDeep in the darkest part of the Norwegian woods stands Dead Man's Cabin, the site of tragedy a century earlier when Tøre Gruvik, in a fit of madness, murdered his sister and her lover, beheading them and throwing their corpses in a nearby lake before drowning himself to join them in death... -
![Resurrectionist by James McGee]()
Resurrectionist by James McGee
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood brings his own form of justice to the salons and slums of Regency London in the gripping sequel to 'Ratcatcher'. For the body snatchers, death is a lucrative business. But it's the corpse they leave behind, horribly mutilated and nailed to a tree, which sets Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood on their trail...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult book fiction historical -
![Entwined by Lynda La Plante]()
Entwined by Lynda La Plante
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNo matter how cruelly twins are separated, their lives will always be entwined.In the newly liberated streets of modern Berlin two women, a pampered, beautiful Baroness, losing control of her mind, and a fearless wild animal trainer, facing the greatest challenge of her career, are drawn together by a series of tragic and extraordinary coincidences... -
![The Candle Man by Alex Scarrow]()
The Candle Man by Alex Scarrow
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLocked in an eerily quiet room on the Titanic, a dying man tells a young girl his life story as the ship begins to sink. It all starts in Whitechapel, London in 1888, as the Ripper murders began... -
![Orpheus Builds a Girl by Heather Parry]()
Orpheus Builds a Girl by Heather Parry
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsBased on a true story, Orpheus Builds a Girl is a novel of sisterly love, sinister obsession, and the battle for control of the story. A dark, chilling debut novel from award-winning writer Heather Parry.German doctor Wilhelm Von Tore shares with the reader the story of his one true ove; a love written in the stars, decades in the making, a love so strong it transcended death itself...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction horror fiction gothic retellings historical dark -
![The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal]()
The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Doll Factory, The Burial Plot is an unstoppable historical thriller about murder, manipulation, and a young woman trying to wrestle power from the hands of a dangerous man. But he’s always one step ahead . . .London, 1839...Categorized as:
historical-fiction crime literary-fiction gothic historical fiction mystery industrial-era -
![The Soul Slayer by Paul Doherty]()
The Soul Slayer by Paul Doherty
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn medieval folk lore, if a warlock can take out the heart of his victim before death, and the victim does not die in a state of grace, the warlock can call upon that soul to do his bidding. In 1562, Queen Elizabeth has been on the throne for four years and the Protestant faith has been reaffirmed... -
![Whispers in the Dark by Jonathan Aycliffe]()
Whispers in the Dark by Jonathan Aycliffe
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn this second chilling novel by Jonathan Aycliffe, orphaned Charlotte Metcalf arrives on the doorstep of her relatives, the mysterious Ayrtons, in the hope of locating her younger brother Arthur. Their home, Barras Hall, is at first a welcome refuge, until Charlotte realizes that the manor has become her prison, and that she is surrounded by a horror she cannot escape... -
![The Rose Demon by Paul Doherty]()
The Rose Demon by Paul Doherty
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMatthias Fitzosbert is the illegitimate son of the parish priest of the village of Sutton Courteny. Despite the recent spate of murders, each day he braves the dark woods to visit his friend, a mysterious hermit who shows him many strange and beautiful things... -
![Tales of Suspense by Edgar Allan Poe]()
Tales of Suspense by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTales of Suspense - Edgar Allen Poe - Illustrations by: Steve Salerno - THE WORLD'S BEST READING - The Reader's Digest Association...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction adult anthologies audiobook classics early-modern fiction -
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![Cut to the Quick by Kate Ross]()
Cut to the Quick by Kate Ross
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTHERE'S A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG WOMAN IN JULIAN KESTREL'S BED. UNFORTUNATELY, SHE'S DEAD.Add the unflappable Julian Kestrel to the ranks of great sleuths of ages past. He's the very model of a proper Beau Brummell--except for his unusual willingness to plunge headlong into murder investigations...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult book cozy female-author -
![Twilight by William Gay]()
Twilight by William Gay
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA Southern gothic novel about an undertaker who won’t let the dead rest. Suspecting that something is amiss with their father’s burial, teenager Kenneth Tyler and his sister Corrie venture to his gravesite and make a horrific discovery: their father, a whiskey bootlegger, was not actually buried in the casket they bought for him... -
![Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Nikolai Leskov, Gilbert Adair]()
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Nikolai Leskov, Gilbert Adair
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn this powerful and brutal short story, Leskov demonstrates the enduring truth of the Shakespearean archetype joltingly displaced to the heartland of Russia. Chastened and stifled by her marriage of convenience to a man twice her age, the young Katerina Lvovna goes yawning about the house, missing the barefoot freedom of her childhood, until she meets the feckless steward Sergei Filipych...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction adult anthologies audiobook classics drama -
![The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis]()
The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsThe Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides in this haunting debut about five sisters in a small village in eighteenth century England whose neighbors are convinced they’re turning into dogs...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction horror fiction historical mystery fantasy animals -
![Black Sun by Owen Matthews]()
Black Sun by Owen Matthews
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA thrilling debut set at the height--and in the heart--of Soviet power, with intricately plotted machinations, secrets and surveillance, corrupt politicos and puppet masters in the Politburo, and one devastating weapon.It is the dawn of the 1960s...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
![The Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin]()
The Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsThe hero and guiding force of this epic fantasy is an insomniac young man who, unable to sleep, guides the reader through the narrow streets of Cairo—a mysterious city full of deceit and trickery.He narrates a complex tangle of dreams and imaginings that describe an atmosphere constantly shifting between sumptuously learned experiences, erotic adventure, and dry humor...
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