Books like 'Four Play'
Readers who enjoyed Four Play by Cindy Blackburn also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery comedy cozy humor female-mc grief law-enforcement suspense friendship
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Saving Time by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsLife is good for Team Weird, now heroes and fully fledged Time Police officers. Luke can't wait to bear arms. Jane has a date. And Matthew still hasn't had his hair cut.But Time waits for no one and neither do criminal masterminds. A major threat to the Timeline is looming, one far deadlier than mere idiots who want to change history... -
The Good, The Bad and The History by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSt Mary's is under investigation. Their director has been shot and Max is Number One Suspect. Can things get any worse? We all know the answer to that one.Max needs to get away - fast - and a Brilliant Idea soon leads her to a full-scale uprising in twentieth-century China. If she can come by a historical treasure or two in the process, even better. That is, if she makes it out alive... -
Hope for the Best by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe tenth book in the bestselling Chronicles of St Mary's series which follows a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets as they hurtle their way around History. If you love Jasper Fforde or Ben Aaronovitch, you won't be able to resist Jodi Taylor.You can't change History. History doesn't like it. There are always consequences.Max is no stranger to taking matters into her own hands...Categorized as:
female-mc friendship humor suspense action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook -
Hard Time by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.53 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsA time slip in Versailles, problems in the Ice Age and illegal time travellers in need of rescue. Must be a job for the Time Police. Luke, Jane and Matthew are back and ready to cause havoc, inadvertently or otherwise, in their latest adventures, moving towards the end of their grunt work and towards becoming fully fledged Time Police officers... -
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What Could Possibly Go Wrong? by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsMax is back! New husband, new job, and a training regime that cannot fail – to go wrong! Take one interim Chief Training Officer, add five recruits, mix with Joan of Arc, a baby mammoth, a duplicitous Father of History, a bombed rat, Stone Age hunters, a couple of passing policemen who should have better things to do, and Dick the Turd...Categorized as:
female-mc friendship humor suspense action-adventure adult alpha-mc alternate-history -
An Argumentation of Historians by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.54 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsBehind the seemingly innocuous facade of St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research, a different kind of academic work is taking place. Just don’t call it “time travel”―these historians “investigate major historical events in contemporary time.” And they aren’t your harmless eccentrics either; a more accurate description, as they ricochet around history, might be unintentional disaster-magnets...Categorized as:
female-mc friendship humor suspense action-adventure adult alpha-mc alternate-history -
Lies, Damned Lies, and History by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 34 ratings'I've done some stupid things in my time. I've been reckless. I've broken a few rules. But never before have I ruined so many lives or left such a trail of destruction behind me.'As Max would be the first to admit, she's never been one for rules. They tend to happen to other people. But this time she's gone too far and everyone is paying the price...Categorized as:
female-mc friendship humor suspense action-adventure adult alpha-mc alternate-history -
And the Rest Is History by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsNo one knows quite how, but Max and her baby are safe at last.No one knows quite how, but Peterson has persuaded Dr Foster to marry him.No one knows quite how, but Markham’s marital status remains unknown.Certainly no one knows quite how a twelve-foot-high teapot could mysteriously materialise on the South Lawn, but it does.But they do know that Clive Ronan is back... -
The Fatal Flying Affair by T.E. Kinsey
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAugust 1911. Emily Hardcastle and her inimitable lady’s maid Florence Armstrong are enjoying a fine summer until Harry, Lady H’s brother, turns up out of the blue with a mystery for them to solve.A routine parachute test at a local aeroplane factory has gone horribly wrong—with pilot Dickie Dupree plummeting to his death...Categorized as:
cozy female-mc friendship humor law-enforcement action-adventure adult amateur-sleuth -
No Time Like The Past by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThe fifth book in the bestselling British madcap time-travelling series, served with a dash of wit that seems to be everyone’s cup of tea.Behind the seemingly innocuous facade of St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research, a different kind of academic work is taking place. Just don’t call it “time travel”—these historians “investigate major historical events in contemporary time...Categorized as:
female-mc friendship humor suspense action-adventure adult alpha-mc alternate-history -
A Second Chance by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe third book in the bestselling British madcap time-travelling series, served with a dash of wit that seems to be everyone’s cup of tea.Behind the seemingly innocuous facade of St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research, a different kind of academic work is taking place. Just don’t call it “time travel”—these historians “investigate major historical events in contemporary time...Categorized as:
female-mc friendship humor suspense action-adventure adult alpha-mc alternate-history -
To Steal a Heart by Jen Turano
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAfter a childhood as a street thief, Gabriella Goodhue thought she'd put her past behind her until a fellow resident at her boardinghouse is unjustly accused of theft. In the middle of breaking into a safe that holds the proof to prove her friend's innocence, Gabriella is interrupted by Nicholas Quinn, the man she once considered her best friend—until he abandoned her... -
A Trail Through Time by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsSt Mary’s is back and is facing a battle to survive in this, the fourth instalment of the Chronicles. Max and Leon are re-united and looking forward to a peaceful lifetime together. But, sadly, they don’t even make it to lunchtime...Categorized as:
female-mc friendship humor suspense action-adventure adult alternate-history alternate-universe -
Doing Time by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.34 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsIntroducing The Time Police, the brand-new series by international bestselling author, Jodi Taylor - an irresistible spinoff from the much-loved Chronicles of St Mary's series. Perfect reading for fans of Doctor Who, Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde. 'The best way to describe this book: lots of fun' British Fantasy Society'Inventive and entertaining..Categorized as:
friendship humor suspense action-adventure alternate-history alternate-universe audiobook book -
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To Disguise the Truth by Jen Turano
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen Arthur Livingston arrives out of the blue at the Bleecker Street Inquiry Agency, anxious to hire the agency to seek out a missing heiress, Eunice Holbrooke realizes her past has finally caught up with her.Having fled from the scene of her grandfather's murder seven years before, Eunice is a lady with secrets--the most important that she is the missing heiress Arthur is seeking... -
To Write a Wrong by Jen Turano
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMiss Daphne Beekman is a mystery writer by day, inquiry agent by night. Known for her ability to puzzle out plots, she happily works behind the scenes for the Bleecker Street Inquiry Agency, staying well away from danger. However, when Mr... -
The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBestselling author Peters brings back 19th-century Egyptologist Amelia Peabody and her entourage in a delicious caper that digs up mystery in the shadow of the pyramids... -
Death Around the Bend by T.E. Kinsey
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsSeptember 1909, and Lady Hardcastle and her maid, Florence, have been invited to Lord Riddlethorpe’s country estate for a week of motor racing and parties. They both agree that it sounds like a perfectly charming holiday...Categorized as:
cozy female-mc humor law-enforcement 20th-century action-adventure adult amateur-sleuth -
The Roald Dahl Omnibus: Perfect Bedtime Stories for Sleepless Nights by Roald Dahl
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsEver since his stories first appeared, people have been telling and re-telling each other Roald Dahl's sometimes shocking and always brilliant and bizarre assortment of terror-tinted gems. Bawdy, funny, touching, and downright outrageous, there's simply no one else like Roald Dahl.This volume is a diabolical collection of 28 of Dahl's best stories... -
Wild Rover No More: Being the Last Recorded Account of the Life & Times of Jacky Faber by L.A. Meyer, Katherine Kellgren
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsJust when it looks like Jacky Faber and her beloved Jaimy will finally find their romance, Jacky is accused of treason and must flee Boston while her friends attempt to clear her name. Of course that means wild adventures for our fun-loving heroine, who manages to secure a job as a governess…and run away with the circus. The highly anticipated grand finale of the Bloody Jack Adventures... -
Killing Time by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA ghost train, lost in Time, hurtles through the night...Two members of Team 236 are trapped on board. Not ideal under any circumstances but catastrophic when they're at each other's throats...Categorized as:
humor suspense time-travel sci-fi audiobook fiction historical-fiction action-adventure -
The Return of the Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald, Mercer Mayer
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTom Fitzgerald, alias The Great Brain, is back, struggling to stay reformed now that his friends have threatened to ostracize him if he pulls even one more swindle. But his brother J.D. knows Tom's reformation is too good to be true, and as a reformed Great Brain makes for a dull life, J.D... -
Children of the Storm by Elizabeth Peters
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe fifteenth adventure for Amelia, Emerson and the whole Peabody-Emerson clan! At last the Great War is over. Amelia, her distinguished Egyptologist husband Emerson and their extended family are preparing for another season of excavation in Egypt. To everyone's great joy their son Ramses and his wife Nefret have become parents...Categorized as:
cozy female-mc humor law-enforcement suspense 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure -
The Falcon at the Portal by Elizabeth Peters
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAmelia and family have arrived in Egypt for the 1911 archeological season -- after the marriage of young Ramses' best friend David to Amelia's niece Lia. But trouble finds them immediately when David is accused of selling ancient artifacts. While Amelia and company try to clear his name and expose the real culprit, the body of an American is found at the bottom of their excavation shaft... -
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The Cairo Curse by Pepper Basham
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsClue meets Indiana Jones with a fiction-loving twist only Grace Percy can provide. Newlyweds Lord and Lady Astley have already experienced their fair-share of suspense, but when a honeymoon trip takes a detour to the mystical land of Egypt, not even Grace with her fiction-loving mind is prepared for the dangers in store... -
The Impertinent Miss Templeton by Lynn Messina
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA PATENT FOR PASSION No, no, no! It doesn’t matter how many times the Duchess of Trent (The Harlow Hoyden) requests her help with a delicate matter regarding a patent for her sister’s invention, Tuppence Templeton will not lend a hand... -
The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsMrs. Virgil (Emily) Pollifax of New Brunswick, New Jersey, was a widow with grown children. She was tired of attending her Garden Club meetings. She wanted to do something good for her country. So, naturally, she became a CIA agent. This time, the assignment sounds as tasty as a taco. A quick trip to Mexico City is on her agenda. Unfortunately, something goes wrong, and our dear Mrs...Categorized as:
cozy female-mc humor law-enforcement suspense 20th-century action-adventure amateur-sleuth -
Magic Ahoy! by Caroline Carlson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsHilary Westfield is a pirate. In fact, she’s the Terror of the Southlands! She’s daring, brave, fearless, and . . . in a rut. Maybe she hasn’t found any treasure lately. And maybe she isn’t fighting off as many scallywags as she’d like... -
Masque by W.R. Gingell
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBeauty met the Beast and there was . . . Bloody murder? It’s the Annual Ambassadorial Ball in Glause, and Lady Isabella Farrah, the daughter of New Civet’s Ambassador, is feeling pleasantly scintillated. In the library is Lord Pecus, a charming gentleman whose double mask hides a beastly face, and who has decided that Isabella is the very person to break the Pecus curse... -
Guardian of the Horizon by Elizabeth Peters
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis book is the lost season 1907-08 and fits in between books 10 and 11 if you want to read them in that order... -
Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding by Rhys Bowen
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn this delightful new Royal Spyness Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of On Her Majesty's Frightfully Secret Service, Georgie is plotting a trip down the aisle but finds herself embroiled in a murder that hits a little too close to home...Georgie is finally able to plan for her wedding in the summer... -
A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBook Two in the madcap time-travel series based at the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research that seems to be everyone's cup of tea... -
Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe 1895-96 season promises to be an exceptional one for Amelia Peabody, her dashing Egyptologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson, and their precocious (some might say rambunctious) eight-year-old son, Ramses. The long-denied permission to dig at the pyramids of Dahshoor has finally been granted, and the much-coveted burial chamber of the Black Pyramid is now theirs for the exploring... -
Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsShe's going too far to go it alone.It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and spinster, is trying to get through life, surviving on scraps... -
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Rogue's Home by Hilari Bell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Boys Are Back!Sir Michael Sevenson and his squire, Fisk, can't seem to keep out of hot water. After five long years, Fisk has been called home to Ruesport to investigate who framed his sister Anna's husband, Max, as a blackmailer. Anna figures that Fisk, with his criminal past, is uniquely qualified to find out who set Max up...Categorized as:
friendship humor law-enforcement action-adventure animals anti-hero book children-books -
Electric Barracuda by Tim Dorsey
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratings“Dorsey differs from writers such as Carl Hiassen, James Hall, and Elmore Leonard…These guys fire bullets. Dorsey makes sure his gun is filled with hollow-point.”—Sarasota Herald TribuneReaders who can’t get enough of lovable serial killer Serge A. Storms can rejoice... -
Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThe storyline of Miss Buncle's Book (1934) is a simple one: Barbara Buncle, who is unmarried and perhaps in her late 30s, lives in a small village and writes a novel about it in order to try and supplement her meagre income. D.E. Stevenson had an enormously successful writing career: between 1923 and 1970, four million copies of her books were sold in Britain and three million in the States... -
Thraxas and the Elvish Isles by Martin Scott
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the fourth book of the Thraxas series, Thraxas is invited to the Elvish Island of Avula. Sailing south means he can avoid the harsh Turanian winter, and escape from Makri, who's recent behaviour has outraged all decent citizens. Makri refuses to be left behind, much to the displeasure of the Turanian Prince, who knows her Orcish blood isn't going to be welcome on any Elvish island... -
Thraxas at War by Martin Scott
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the enchanted city of Turai, the royal family is corrupt, the politicians can be bought, and the civic guards have better things to do than guarding. Thraxas may look unprepossessing, being overweight and not quite overbrained, and more interested in pursuit of his next glass of beer than pursuit of justice, but if you're in trouble in Turai this portly private eye is probably your only hope... -
Thraxas Under Siege by Martin Scott
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn the enchanted city of Turai, the royal family is corrupt, the politicians can be bought, and the civil guards have better things to do than guarding. Thraxas, the overweight and somewhat disreputable private eye working out of an even more disreputable neighborhood, has often grumbled about that sorry state of affairs... -
Love vs The Ooze Monster! by Cassandra Gannon
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNevermore County, 1922: Slaughter at a speakeasy! A mysterious creature has killed all the revelers at an illegal bar. It left nothing behind but bottles of tainted moonshine and a trail of orange slime.For a bootlegger like Mabel Harrison, this situation could be a professional catastrophe. Now, she’s got to team up with the most prominent gangster around to discover who made the poisoned liquor... -
Thraxas at the Races by Martin Scott
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt's a bad day for Thraxas when he's fined in court, then threatened by two old enemies – Rittius, head of Palace Security, and Glixius Dragon killer, a very unfriendly sorcerer. Thraxas is hired by his old army commander to locate a missing painting but everything goes wrong when the commander ends up dead... -
The Case of the Singing Sword by Tee Morris
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Chicago, 1929. There are a thousand stories in the naked city; and when you're a dwarf at four-foot-one, they all look that much taller." It is The Era of Prohibition, where crime runs rampant in the streets and a city divided into territories serves as the ultimate prize. Somewhere in this Underworld of Chicago, an enchanted weapon holds the key to ending The Gangland Wars... -
The Pig in the Derby Hat: Trussel and Gout: Paranormal Investigations No.1 by M.A. Knights
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsYoung Clementine Trussel didn’t go looking for the supernatural. It found her.When a small pig wearing a derby hat falls out of her Granny’s window, Clementine is inclined to believe she’s seeing things. Only someone else saw it too, the mysterious Theophilius Gout, and he claims to be an expert in the paranormal... -
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Bubba Ho-Tep by Joe R. Lansdale, Don Coscarelli
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe companion book to the popular movie starring Bruce Campbell as Elvis and Ossie Davis as JFK. Stuck in an East Texas old folks home, they must face off against a redneck mummy... -
Six of One by Rita Mae Brown
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsPerched right on the Mason-Dixon line, tiny Runnymede, Maryland, is ripe with a history almost as colorful as the women who live there—from Celeste Chalfonte, headstrong and aristocratic, who murders for principle and steals her brother’s wife, to Fannie Jump Creighton, who runs a speakeasy right in her own home when hard times come knocking... -
The Pope of Palm Beach by Tim Dorsey
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom Florida’s king of mayhem—"compulsively irreverent and shockingly funny" (Boston Globe) New York Times bestselling author Tim Dorsey—comes a diabolically madcap adventure featuring the indomitable Serge A. Storms.No one worships the Sunshine State as much as Serge A. Storms. Perpetually hunting Floridian arcana and lore, he and his permanently baked sidekick, Coleman, are on the road again... -
The Unseen Guest by Maryrose Wood
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe third book in the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place the acclaimed and hilarious Victorian mystery series by Maryrose Wood, perfect for fans of Lemony Snicket and Trenton Lee Stewart has a brand-new look.Since returning from London, the three Incorrigible children and their plucky governess, Miss Penelope Lumley, have been exceedingly busy... -
Venus in Copper by Lindsey Davis
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMarcus Didius Falco, Imperial Rome's answer to Columbo, is hired by relatives of a wealthy real estate developer, Hortensius, to find his murderer. What Falco uncovers is a hotbed of crime in the unscrupulous business dealings of Hortensius. The third book in the series of amusing, romantic detective thrillers set in ancient Rome...Categorized as:
cozy humor law-enforcement suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult ancient-civilization -
Village School by Miss Read
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe first novel in the beloved Fairacre series, Village School introduces the remarkable schoolmistress Miss Read and her lovable group of children, who, with a mixture of skinned knees and smiles, are just as likely to lose themselves as their mittens...
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