Books like 'Sayonara Bar'
Readers who enjoyed Sayonara Bar by Susan Barker also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary sc-fi mystery noir magical-realism crime realistic literary-fiction
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Unparalleled by D.S. Smith
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWaking up in a strange house, with no memory of how or why he is there, Stuart Milton finds his life has changed beyond recognition. His pregnant wife is missing, but his only living relative, his brother, is incapable of substantiating his claim. Lost in a world of confusion that is spiralling out of his control, Stuart finds temporary salvation in a psychiatrist assigned to his case... -
Surviving the Collapse by James Hunt
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCaptain Kate Holloway moved her family to New York to start over, and break the barriers that her work had created. But when an EMP brings New York to its knees, Kate must fight to survive amid the terror descending upon the city and rescue her family...Categorized as:
crime literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic book contemporary dystopia -
All In A Name by Honor Raconteur
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSomeone left Jamie a prezzie and she would like to return it with a no thank you.It all starts with a dead Robert Martin, the man who killed RM Burtchell. Jamie doesn’t know how, but it’s obvious he was yanked out of high security prison, murdered, and dumped on her front doorsteps.Now the situation is entirely out of control... -
The Girl from Devil's Lake by J.A. Jance
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsArizona County Sheriff Joanna Brady solves her biggest case yet, from a body in the desert to crimes spanning decades and countries, in the thrilling latest installment in the New York Times bestselling suspense series.Sheriff Joanna Brady is looking forward to the holidays with her busy family, and to celebrating her daughter Jenny’s graduation from the police academy...Categorized as:
crime literary-fiction mystery fiction audiobook suspense serial-killers law-enforcement -
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The Pulse by Skylar Finn
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn EMP means the end of the world as they know it for a family who fights to survive. When disaster strikes in the form of an EMP, Charlie's family flees to their homestead. They fortify their ranch and prepare to ride out the worst of the chaos. Unfortunately, the gang of scavengers who followed them from the city have other plans... -
A Spell of Rowans by Byrd Nash
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRaised by a narcissistic mother, the Rowan children’s magical talents were twisted to fit her needs. When Rachel dies, her children must confront the past to have a future.Rachel Rowan could sniff out secrets and her antique shop, Rosemary Thyme, was a front to torment the residents of Grimsby. When she dies, her children are faced with the deadly fallout of blackmail, murder, and magic... -
The Presence by T. Davis Bunn, Davis Bunn
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHaving taken a stand of integrity that cost him his election, T.J. Case, a North Carolina lawyer and politician, soon finds himself propelled into the middle of Washington politics in an effort to help reshape twisted lives and challenge corrupt systems... -
Effacement by Hieronymus Hawkes
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen recording every aspect of your life has become the law, what happens when your connection to the world is severed? With the advent of BioNarratus’s Vitasync neurochip, serious crime has all but disappeared. Without a lifelog you can’t get a bank account, medical insurance, or a job... -
A Naked Singularity by Sergio de la Pava
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA Naked Singularity tells the story of Casi, a child of Colombian immigrants who lives in Brooklyn and works in Manhattan as a public defender--one who tellingly has never lost a trial. Never. In the book, we watch what happens when his sense of justice and even his sense of self begin to crack--and how his world then slowly devolves... -
Lane: A Case For Willows And Lane by Peter Grainger
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratings“So I thought I might take up para-gliding. You know, buy one on eBay and just jump off the cliff one morning.” Emily Willows is middle-aged, widowed, wealthy and bored. When she makes those flippant remarks to her son over coffee one Friday, she has no inkling that within a few hours she will be facing the most terrifying situation of her life... -
Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHeartbreaking and heart-stealing, this bestselling modern-day fable is an unforgettable novel about sorrow, joy, friendship and love.When Isaac Addy walks into the woods on the worst day of his life and finds something extraordinary there, he already knows he's going to take it home.A grieving Isaac and his curious new friend are unlikely companions. They don't even speak the same language...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism fiction contemporary fantasy sci-fi audiobook mystery -
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn the stories of Adjei-Brenyah’s debut, an amusement park lets players enter augmented reality to hunt terrorists or shoot intruders played by minority actors, a school shooting results in both the victim and gunman stuck in a shared purgatory, and an author sells his soul to a many-tongued god.Adjei-Brenyah's writing will grab you, haunt you, enrage, and invigorate you...Categorized as:
crime literary-fiction magical-realism realistic 21st-century adult afrofuturism anthologies -
The Probability of Everything by Sarah Everett
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA heart-wrenching middle grade debut about Kemi, an aspiring scientist who loves statistics and facts, as she navigates grief and loss at a moment when life as she knows it changes forever.Eleven-year-old Kemi Carter loves scientific facts, specifically probability. It's how she understands the world and her place in it. Kemi knows her odds of being born were 1 in 5... -
Love in the Time of Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe latest installment in the delightful 44 Scotland Street series finds all our favorite residents up to their usual hilarious hijinks. In the microcosm of 44 Scotland Street, all of life's richness is found in the glorious goings-on of its residents... -
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1984: An Audible Original adaptation by Joe White, George Orwell
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the age of uniformity.From the age of solitude and doublethink.From the age of Big Brother.From me, Winston Smith.Greetings.It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith... -
Blood and Water by J. David Osborne
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter discovering a body in a local fishing hole, two brothers come to terms with their own poverty as they're inescapably drawn into a surreal world of dangerous criminals.Set against a rural Oklahoma backdrop, Blood and Water is a story of family responsibility, the lure of easy outs and even easier scores, and our own violent impulses... -
Double Cross by Beth McMullen, Kelsey Navarro
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsShannon Hale’s Princess Academy meets Stu Gibbs’s Spy School series in the third book in the Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls series.Abby and her classmates have all been invited to Briar Academy to participate in The Challenge, a prep school competition where teams compete for prizes and the glory of being the best of the best...Categorized as:
crime realistic action-adventure audiobook book children children-books contemporary -
Murder on an Irish Farm by Carlene O'Connor
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn this enchanting new read in the fan-favorite series from a USA Today bestselling author, garda of County Cork, Ireland, Siobhán O’Sullivan and Macdaras Flannery, are about to get married at last... -
Leave No Trace by Jo Callaghan
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of In the Blink of an Eye comes a gripping thriller that pits algorithms versus experience, logic versus instinct, and one undetectable killer versus two extraordinary detectives... -
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... -
Le Problème à trois corps by Liu Cixin, Gwennaël Gaffric
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsPremier volume d'une trilogie culte, récompensé par le Hugo du meilleur roman en 2015, Le Problème à trois corps signale l’arrivée d’un auteur majeur sur la scène de la hard SF... -
One Door Away from Heaven by Dean Koontz
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsMichelina Bellsong is on a mission. She is following a missing family to the edge of America...to a place she never knew existed--a place of terror, wonder, and shattering revelation.What awaits her there will change her life and the life of everyone she knows--if she can find the key to survival... -
Murder by Other Means by John Scalzi
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWelcome to the new world, in which murder is all but a thing of the past. Because when someone kills you, 999 times out of 1,000, you instantly come back to life. In this world, there are dispatchers—licensed killers who step in when you’re at risk of a natural or unintentional death. They kill you—so you can live... -
The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOn an evening in late summer, the great financier Harry Wainwright, nearing the end of his life, arrives at a rustic fishing camp in a remote area of Maine. He comes bearing two things: his wish for a day of fishing in a place that has brought him solace for thirty years, and an astonishing bequest that will forever change the lives of those around him... -
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Travel by Bullet by John Scalzi, Zachary Quinto
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Audible and New York Times best-selling "Dispatcher" series returns with a brand-new mystery, performed by Zachary Quinto.The world has changed. Now, when someone is murdered, they almost always come back to life—and there are professionals, called "dispatchers," who kill in order to save lives, to give those near the end a second chance... -
The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik by David Arnold
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis is Noah Oakman → sixteen, Bowie believer, concise historian, disillusioned swimmer, son, brother, friend. Then Noah → gets hypnotized. Now Noah → sees changes—inexplicable scars, odd behaviors, rewritten histories—in all those around him. All except his Strange Fascinations . . -
On the Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the marvelous third installment of Balle’s “astonishing” (The Washington Post) septology, Tara’s November 18th transforms when she discovers that she is no longer alone in her endless autumnal day. For she has met someone who remembers, and who knows as well as she does that “it is autumn, but that we’re not heading into winter. That spring and summer will not follow...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism fiction sci-fi time-travel audiobook contemporary female-author -
One of Us by Michael Marshall Smith
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt's not what you've done that counts it's what you remember....If you could sell your conscience, could you get away with murder?Hap Thompson works the gray area between truth and lies. He works for REMtemp, taking on other people's memories. It's illegal, but usually harmless. Maybe a petty criminal wants to pass a lie detector test. Or an unfaithful spouse wants to enjoy a guiltless affair... -
2666, Part 1: The Part About The Critics by Roberto Bolaño
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsComposed in the last two years of Bolaño's life, 2666 has been greeted as his greatest achievement, surpassing even his previous work in its strangeness,beauty, and scope. Its throng of unforgettable characters include academics and convicts, an American sportswriter, an elusive German novelist, and a teenage student caring for her widowed, mentally unstable father... -
My Death by Lisa Tuttle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA widowed writer begins to work on a biography of a novelist and artist—and soon uncovers bizarre parallels between her life and her subject’s—in this chilling and singularly strange novella by a contemporary master of horror and fantasy.The narrator of Lisa Tuttle’s uncanny novella is a recent widow, a writer adrift...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism horror fiction fantasy contemporary 21st-century folk-horror -
Urban Outlaws by Peter Jay Black
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDeep beneath the city live five extraordinary kids: world-famous hacker Jack, gadget geek Charlie, free runner Slink, communications chief Obi, and decoy expert Wren. Orphans bonded over their shared sense of justice, the kids have formed the Urban Outlaws, a group dedicated to outsmarting criminals and handing out their stolen money through Random Acts of Kindness (R.A.K.s)... -
Little Boy Blue by Edward Bunker
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsRaised within the confines of a system that has done nothing but provide him with pain, Alex Hamilton's frustration and anger are completely natural--and inherently dangerous.Since his parents split up, Alex has been constantly running from foster homes and institutions, yearning to be with his father, a broken man who cannot give his son the home he desperately needs... -
The Cadaver Factory by Kenneth Jarrett Singleton
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsJack Rally is an eighteen-year-old boy who is evil and witty. He receives an opportunity from an older film-maker named Mr. Bigsley whose films are films of actual murders. Jack takes the opportunity and runs with it, becoming a master of his murderous profession... -
Money Run by Jack Heath
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTake two child geniuses (thieves in their spare time), one obsessed assassin, and the richest man in the world to create a compelling, completely unpredictable young adult thriller. Fifteen-year-olds Ashley and Benjamin have concocted a daring master plan: to steal billionaire Hammond Buckland's most precious belonging, hidden in the depths of his conspicuous corporate building... -
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Shadow of a Broken Man by George C. Chesbro
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMeet Dr. Robert Frederickson, or "Mongo" to his friends. He's a former circus tumbler, black belt in karate, doctor of Criminology, and professor at a New York City university. And he's quite an unusual fellow as well, not only because he's a private investigator but also because he's a dwarf.. -
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAstrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos, invents planets every night for a bedtime story. He raises Robin, 9, after a car crash took their Aly. The family is strict vegetarians, Theo tells us each dish.Robin is bright, but full of anger that explodes in a flash. He suffers over animals tortured, killed to feed humans...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism realistic 21st-century adult animals audiobook book -
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsWritten in 1914 but not published until 1925, a year after Kafka’s death, The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information... -
Reamde by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsFour decades ago, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa family, fled to a wild and lonely mountainous corner of British Columbia to avoid the draft. Smuggling backpack loads of high-grade marijuana across the border into Northern Idaho, he quickly amassed an enormous and illegal fortune... -
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World, blistering gangster noir meets howling absurdist comedy as the forces of good square off against the forces of evil, and only an unassuming clockwork repairman and an octogenarian former superspy can save the world from total destruction.Joe Spork spends his days fixing antique clocks...Categorized as:
crime literary-fiction magical-realism noir 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history -
Tumbled Graves by Brenda Chapman
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA missing child. A dead mother. Kala Stonechild is about to discover what one betrayal can lead to.When Adele Delaney and her daughter, Violet, go missing, Jacques Rouleau is called upon to investigate. However, struggling with the impending death of his ill ex-wife, he sends Kala Stonechild and Paul Gundersund instead... -
Shallow End by Brenda Chapman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsStill waters run deep.Teacher, mother, wife, and convicted child molester Jane Thompson makes parole after losing everything — her husband, her children, her career, and her reputation. But just as she begins trying to build a life out of the public eye, the bludgeoned body of the student she abused four years earlier is found on the shores of Lake Ontario...Categorized as:
crime literary-fiction mystery fiction contemporary murder law-enforcement police-procedural -
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD“Wondering if there’s a novel out there that gives Cormac McCarthy’s The Road a run for its money? Here you go. [A Guardian and a Thief is] an indelible piece of writing, in equal parts dazzling and devastating...Categorized as:
literary-fiction fiction sci-fi dystopia contemporary historical-fiction mystery book -
The Trial by Franz Kafka, Arthur H. Samuelson
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 71 ratingsWritten in 1914 but not published until 1925, a year after Kafka's death, The Trial is one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information... -
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Gonzalez & Daughter Trucking Co.: A Road Novel with Literary License by María Amparo Escandón
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom the author of L.A. Weather comes “a whimsical, humorous, and passionate mystery that explores the love and hurt of a father and daughter on the run” (Jorge Ramos, News Anchor for Univision).“1,001 nights in a Mexicali women’s prison . . . González and Daughter Trucking Co. is about our compulsion to make events into stories and stories into bridges of understanding...Categorized as:
literary-fiction realistic crime fiction contemporary young-adult womens-fiction family -
The Royal Family by William T. Vollmann
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSince the publication of his first book in 1987, William T. Vollmann has established himself as one of the most fascinating and unconventional literary figures on the scene today...Categorized as:
crime literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure adult book classics contemporary -
Olivia Twisted by Vivi Barnes
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTossed from foster home to foster home, Olivia's seen a lot in her sixteen years. She's hardened, sure, though mostly just wants to fly under the radar until graduation. But her natural ability with computers catches the eye of Z, a mysterious guy at her new school. Soon, Z has brought Liv into his team of hacker elite―break into a few bank accounts, and voila, he drives a motorcycle... -
One of the Boys by Jayne Cowie
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIf you could test your son for a gene that predicts violence, would you do it?Antonia and Bea are sisters, and doting mothers to their sons. But that is where their similarities end.Antonia had her son tested to make sure he didn’t possess the "violent" M gene.Bea refuses to let her son take the test. His life should not be determined by a positive or negative result... -
The Wolves of Eternity by Karl Ove Knausgård, Karl Ove Knausgaard
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the internationally bestselling author Karl Ove Knausgaard, a sprawling and deeply human novel that questions the responsibilities we have toward one another and ourselves—and the limits of what we can understand about life itselfIn 1986, twenty-year-old Syvert Løyning returns from the military to his mother’s home in southern Norway. One evening, his dead father comes to him in a dream...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism fiction mystery audiobook philosophy contemporary fantasy -
Ex-KOP by Warren Hammond
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this hardboiled science fiction thriller, Juno, having been booted off the police force, is barely getting by as a low-level bagman and photographer for the scandal rags. But it gets worse: his wife is in critical condition at the hospital and Juno doesn’t have the money to pay her bills. Desperate for cash, Juno agrees to help his ex-partner, Maggie Orzo, solve a difficult case...
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