Books like 'Shaft'
Readers who enjoyed Shaft by Ernest Tidyman also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary mystery action / adventure 20th century crime noir hard-boiled dark-academia dark law-enforcement
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Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsFrom the acclaimed international bestseller Keigo Higashino (The Devotion of Suspect X) comes a sweeping novel in the tradition of Les Miserables and Crime and Punishment... -
![L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais]()
L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsRobert Crais (Free Fall, Monkey's Raincoat) returns with his eighth Elvis Cole mystery, L.A. Requiem, a breakneck caper that leaves the wise-cracking detective second-guessing himself. Cole's partner, the tight-lipped, charm-free Joe Pike, gets a call from his friend Frank "Tortilla" Garcia. Not only is Garcia a wealthy businessman, he's a political heavyweight and father of Karen, Joe's ex... -
![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... -
![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...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement noir 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
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![Nancy Drew: #1-64 by Carolyn Keene]()
Nancy Drew: #1-64 by Carolyn Keene
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNancy Drew has been solving mysteries, and delighting fans, for over 75 years...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement 20th-century action-adventure book children children-books classics -
![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... -
![Four to Score by Janet Evanovich]()
Four to Score by Janet Evanovich
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsNabbing Maxine Nowicki, thief and extortionist, would be the answer to Stephanie’s prayers and monetary woes. The only trouble is that Maxine is no where to be found, and her friends have been mysteriously turning up dead. To make matters worse, Stephanie’s arch nemesis since grade school is also looking for Nowicki, hoping to cash in first.Stephanie’s mentor and tormentor, Ranger, needs her... -
![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... -
![Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich]()
Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsAlso see: Alternate Cover Editions for this ISBN [ACE] ACE #1 - ACE #2 - ACE #3 Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum debuted in Janet Evanovich's award-winning "One for the Money". Now she's back, packing a whole lot of attitude -- not to mention stun guns, defense sprays, killer flashlights and a... -
![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... -
![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... -
![Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich]()
Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsStephanie Plum, the brassy babe in the powder blue Buick is back and she's having a bad hair day -- for the whole month of January. She's been given the unpopular task of finding Mo Bedemier, Trenton's most beloved citizen, arrested for carrying concealed, gone no-show for his court appearance... -
![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 hard-boiled law-enforcement 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
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![Tripwire by Lee Child, Dick Hill]()
Tripwire by Lee Child, Dick Hill
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsOn the publication of Lee Child's debut novel, the multiple award-winning Killing Floor, critics nationwide marked its success. His last book, Die Trying, inspired the Chicago Tribune to call him "a suspense writer to be reckoned with." In Tripwire, Reacher is settling into lazy Key West when his life is interrupted by a stranger who comes looking for him...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
![The Valley of Adventure by Enid Blyton]()
The Valley of Adventure by Enid Blyton
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNothing could be more exciting than a night flight on Bill’s plane! But Philip, Dinah, Lucy-Ann, and Jack soon find themselves flying straight into a truly amazing adventure...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children children-books -
![The Black Echo by Michael Connelly]()
The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsFor maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal...because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement noir 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![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... -
![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... -
![The Black Ice by Michael Connelly]()
The Black Ice by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsNarcotics office Cal Moore's orders were to look into the city's latest drug killing. Instead, he ends up in a motel room with a fatal bullet wound to the head and a suicide note stuffed in his back pocket.Working the case, LAPD detective Harry Bosch is reminded of the primal police rule he learned long ago: don't look for the facts, but the glue that holds them together...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement noir 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy]()
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsIn his blistering new novel, Cormac McCarthy returns to the Texas-Mexico border, the setting of his famed Border Trilogy. The time is our own, when rustlers have given way to drug-runners and small towns have become free-fire zones. One day, Llewellyn Moss finds a pickup truck surrounded by a bodyguard of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back... -
![Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane]()
Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 28 ratings“Chilling, completely credible….[An] absolutely gripping story.” —Chicago TribuneNew York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island) vividly captures the complex beauty and darkness of working-class Boston in this gripping, deeply evocative thriller... -
![Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr., Darren Aronofsky]()
Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr., Darren Aronofsky
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsIn Coney Island, Brooklyn, Sarah Goldfarb, a lonely widow, wants nothing more than to lose weight and appear on a television game show. She becomes addicted to diet pills in her obsessive quest, while her junkie son, Harry, along with his girlfriend, Marion, and his best friend, Tyrone, have devised an illicit shortcut to wealth and leisure by scoring a pound of uncut heroin... -
![Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl]()
Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsA wine connoisseur with an infallible palate and a sinister taste in wagers. A decrepit old man with a masterpiece tattooed on his back. A voracious adventuress, a gentle cuckold, and a garden sculpture that becomes an instrument of sadistic vengeance. Social climbers who climb a bit too quickly. Philanderers whose deceptions are a trifle too ornate... -
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![People of Darkness by Tony Hillerman]()
People of Darkness by Tony Hillerman
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWho would murder a dying man? Why would someone steal a box of rocks? And why would a rich man's wife pay $3,000 to get them back? These questions haunt Sgt. Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police as he journeys into the scorching Southwest... -
![Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter]()
Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDon Carpenter's Hard Rain Falling is a tough-as-nails account of being down and out, but never down for good?a Dostoyevskian tale of crime, punishment, and the pursuit of an ever-elusive redemption. The novel follows the adventures of Jack Levitt, an orphaned teenager living off his wits in the fleabag hotels and seedy pool halls of Portland, Oregon... -
![Chance by Robert B. Parker, Burt Reynolds]()
Chance by Robert B. Parker, Burt Reynolds
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsSearching for a big-time hoodlum's missing son-in-law, Spencer and Hawk probe organized crime...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
![A Time to Kill by John Grisham]()
A Time to Kill by John Grisham
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 55 ratingsAn alternate cover edition for the ISBN 9780385338608 can be found here.Before "The Firm" and "The Pelican Brief" made him a superstar, John Grisham wrote this riveting story of retribution and justice... -
![Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane]()
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 68 ratingsThe year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this remote and barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance... -
![A Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman]()
A Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratings“All of Tony Hillerman’s Navajo tribal police novels have been brilliant, but A Thief of Time is flat-out marvelous.”—USA TodayFrom New York Times bestselling author Tony Hillerman, A Thief of Time is the eighth novel featuring Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee as they find themselves in hot pursuit of a depraved killer...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement noir 20th-century action-adventure adult archaeology audiobook -
![Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane]()
Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsWhen Boston private investigator Patrick Kenzie meets Karen Nichols, she strikes him as an innocent from a protected upbringing...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement noir 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![One False Move by Harlan Coben]()
One False Move by Harlan Coben
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsShe's smart, beautiful, and she doesn't need a man to look after her. But sports agent Myron Bolitar has come into her life -- big time. Now Myron's next move may be his last.Brenda Slaughter is no damsel in distress. Myron Bolitar is no bodyguard. But Myron has agreed to protect the bright, strong, beautiful basketball star...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled humor law-enforcement 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Thunderhead by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child]()
Thunderhead by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsSince the days of Coronado, explorers have been captivated by the search for Quivira, the fabled Lost City of Gold. Now, guided by a mysterious letter, archaeologist Nora Kelly is about to remount an expedition her father conducted 16 years earlier -- before mysteriously vanishing in the remote canyon country of southeast Utah...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement pulp 20th-century action-adventure adult archaeology audiobook -
![Red Dragon by Thomas Harris]()
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 71 ratingsA second family has been massacred by the terrifying serial killer the press has christened "The Tooth Fairy" Special Agent Jack Crawford turns to the one man who can help restart a failed investigation?Will Graham. Graham is the greatest profiler the FBI ever had, but the physical and mental scars of capturing Hannibal Lecter have caused Graham to go into early retirement... -
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![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... -
![Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick]()
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 83 ratingsIt was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill.Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignment--find them and then..."retire" them... -
![The Score by Richard Stark, John Banville]()
The Score by Richard Stark, John Banville
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt was an impossible crime: knock off an entire North Dakota town called Copper Canyon—clean out the plant payroll, both banks, and all the stores in one night. Parker called it "science fiction," but with the right men (a score of them), he could figure it out to the last detail. It could work... -
![The Secret of Terror Castle by Robert Arthur]()
The Secret of Terror Castle by Robert Arthur
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFinding a genuine haunted house for a movie set sounds like fun -- and a great way to generate publicity for the Three Investigators' new detective agency... -
![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... -
![For Kicks by Dick Francis]()
For Kicks by Dick Francis
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDaniel Roke, Australian who established a stud farm to raise orphaned siblings, accepts undercover stable lad job from the Earl of October, investigating steeplechase doping in England. At least ten horses win adrenalin-high stimulated, but regular lab tests show nothing. Gorgeous October daughters distract, detract, and fatally endanger. Tension builds into an explosive fight to the death...Categorized as:
crime humor law-enforcement 20th-century action-adventure adult amateur-sleuth animals -
![The Dark Wind by Tony Hillerman]()
The Dark Wind by Tony Hillerman
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA corpse whose palms and soles have been "scalped" is only the first in a series of disturbing clues: an airplane's mysterious crash in the nighttime desert, a bizarre attack on a windmill, a vanishing shipment of cocaine. Sgt. Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police is trapped in the deadly web of a cunningly spun plot driven by Navajo sorcery and white man's greed... -
![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... -
![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... -
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![The High Window by Raymond Chandler]()
The High Window by Raymond Chandler
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA wealthy Pasadena widow with a mean streak, a missing daughter-in-law with a past, and a gold coin worth a small fortune—the elements don't quite add up until Marlowe discovers evidence of murder, rape, blackmail, and the worst kind of human exploitation... -
![Fade Away by Harlan Coben]()
Fade Away by Harlan Coben
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe past is catching up with Myron Bolitar... A gripping novel from the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of SIX YEARS. Myron Bolitar once had a promising career as a sportsman, until an accident forced him to quit. After a spell in the FBI he now runs his own business.Then Myron is approached to find Greg Downing...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled humor law-enforcement 20th-century action-adventure adult amateur-sleuth -
![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... -
![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... -
![Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less by Jeffrey Archer]()
Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less by Jeffrey Archer
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe conned: an Oxford don, a revered society physician, a chic French art dealer, and a charming English lord. They have one thing in common. Overnight, each novice investor lost his life's fortune to one man. The con: Harvey Metcalfe!!A brilliant, self-made guru of deceit. A very dangerous individual. And now, a hunted man... -
![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...
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