Books like 'The Heretic'
Readers who enjoyed The Heretic by Liam McIlvanney also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery crime lgbtq historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller whodunit
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St. Benet's by David Blake
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA girl thrown from a church tower, a man sacrificed to Satan, and a priest murdered at the hands of the Devil. When the body of an old man is found lying in the ruins of St Benet’s Abbey, his throat cut, a knife resting in his open hand, DI John Tanner and DC Jenny Evans are given no choice but to accept a ruling of death by misadventure... -
![Five Decembers by James Kestrel]()
Five Decembers by James Kestrel
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn this novel of World War II, an American police detective trapped while trailing a killer overseas struggles to survive with only the help of a total stranger and his daughter, who risk their lives to protect him. December 1941. America teeters on the brink of war, and in Honolulu, Hawaii, police detective Joe McGrady is assigned to investigate a homicide that will change his life forever...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller 20th-century -
![Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea]()
Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsAvery Mason, host of American Events, knows the subjects that grab a TV audience's attention. Her latest story--a murder mystery laced with kinky sex, tragedy, and betrayal--is guaranteed to be ratings gold. New DNA technology has allowed the New York medical examiner's office to make its first successful identification of a 9/11 victim in years...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller adult audiobook -
![City on Fire by Don Winslow]()
City on Fire by Don Winslow
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTwo criminal empires together control all of New England.Until a beautiful woman comes between the Irish and the Italians, launching a war that will see them kill each other, destroy an alliance, and set a city on fire.Danny Ryan yearns for a more “legit” life and a place in the sun. But as the bloody conflict stacks body on body and brother turns against brother, Danny has to rise above himself...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller adult book -
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![Police at the Station and They Don't Look Friendly by Adrian McKinty]()
Police at the Station and They Don't Look Friendly by Adrian McKinty
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBelfast 1988: A man is found dead, killed with a bolt from a crossbow in front of his house. This is no hunting accident. But uncovering who is responsible for the murder will take Detective Sean Duffy down his most dangerous road yet, a road that leads to a lonely clearing on a high bog where three masked gunmen will force Duffy to dig his own grave...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller 20th-century -
![Edinburgh Dusk by Carole Lawrence]()
Edinburgh Dusk by Carole Lawrence
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe prize-winning author of Edinburgh Twilight returns to the darkening shadows of nineteenth-century Scotland to track a killer on a profane mission of revenge...Categorized as:
historical-fiction crime law-enforcement suspense police-procedural thriller mystery historical -
![The Shadows of Men by Abir Mukherjee]()
The Shadows of Men by Abir Mukherjee
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAward-winning crime novelist Abir Mukherjee is back with another brilliant mystery featuring police detective Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surrender-Not Banerjee, set in 1920s Calcutta.Calcutta, 1923 When a Hindu theologian is found murdered in his home, the city is on the brink of all-out religious war...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural thriller adult audiobook book -
![The Mobster's Lament by Ray Celestin]()
The Mobster's Lament by Ray Celestin
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLike every other mobster, the longer he stayed in the life, the closer he got to a shallow grave . . . New York, 1947. Mob fixer Gabriel Leveson needs to leave this city behind. But his plans to flee are upset when he’s given a job by the boss of all bosses, Frank Costello. A job he can’t turn down . . . Meanwhile, a killing spree in a Harlem flophouse has left an innocent black man on Death Row... -
![The Saboteurs by Clive Cussler, Jack Du Brul]()
The Saboteurs by Clive Cussler, Jack Du Brul
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIsaac Bell returns for another thrilling mission in a new book from the Grand Master of Adventure, Clive CusslerDetective Isaac Bell's wife has said that he is always in the wrong place at the right time. This is certainly the case when Bell thwarts the attempted assassination of a United States Senator shortly after meeting the man...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
![A Fatal Obsession by Faith Martin]()
A Fatal Obsession by Faith Martin
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOxford, 1960. There's a murderer on the loose and two unlikely heroes are poised to solve the case.Meet Probationary WPC Trudy Loveday – smart, enthusiastic and always underestimated.In the hope of getting her out of the way, Trudy’s senior officer assigns her to help coroner Clement Ryder as he re-opens the case of a young woman's death...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense whodunit adult audiobook -
![The Lies That Bind by Marshall Thornton]()
The Lies That Bind by Marshall Thornton
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe eighth book of the best-selling Boystown Mystery Series begins with a phone call in the middle of the night. Private investigator Nick Nowak is pulled into the troubled world of freelance journalist, and all around pain-in-the-ass, Christian Baylor. When Christian can’t stop lying about the corpse in his bathroom things slip slowly out of control... -
![The Sherlock Holmes Mysteries by Arthur Conan Doyle]()
The Sherlock Holmes Mysteries by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIndisputably the greatest fiction detective of all time, Sherlock Holmes lives on-in films, on television, and, of course, through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's inimitable craft. These 22 stories show Holmes at his brilliant best...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement whodunit adult anthologies classics fiction -
![Eyes of the Predator: The Pickham County Murders by Glenn Trust]()
Eyes of the Predator: The Pickham County Murders by Glenn Trust
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratings***For Mature Readers*** Eyes scanning, searching, the predator sits motionless in a parking lot. His next victim is only feet away. Within hours a backwater south Georgia county will be rocked by two seemingly unrelated murders that signal the arrival of a serial killer in the rural southland...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult book -
![Edge of the Grave: A Jimmy Dreghorn Mystery by Robbie Morrison]()
Edge of the Grave: A Jimmy Dreghorn Mystery by Robbie Morrison
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsGlasgow, 1932.When the son-in-law of one of the city’s wealthiest families is found floating in the River Clyde with his throat cut, it falls to Inspector Jimmy Dreghorn to lead the murder case – despite sharing a troubled history of his own with the victim’s widow...Categorized as:
historical-fiction crime suspense law-enforcement police-procedural fiction mystery historical -
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![The Bookseller of Inverness by S.G. MacLean]()
The Bookseller of Inverness by S.G. MacLean
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAfter Culloden, Iain MacGillivray was left for dead on Drumossie Moor. Wounded, his face brutally slashed, he survived only by pretending to be dead as the Redcoats patrolled the corpses of his Jacobite comrades.Six years later, with the clan chiefs routed and the Highlands subsumed into the British state, Iain lives a quiet life, working as a bookseller in Inverness...Categorized as:
historical-fiction crime law-enforcement thriller mystery historical fiction audiobook -
![A Death in Live Oak by James Grippando]()
A Death in Live Oak by James Grippando
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the 2017 winner of the Harper Lee Prize for legal fiction comes a powerful and timely story of race, politics, injustice, and murder as shocking and incendiary as today’s headlines...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller audiobook book -
![Rain Dogs by Adrian McKinty]()
Rain Dogs by Adrian McKinty
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRain Dogs, a stunning installment in the Sean Duffy thriller series, following the Edgar Award-nominated Gun Street Girl, is "another standout in a superior series" (Booklist).It's just the same things over and again for Sean Duffy: riot duty, heartbreak, cases he can solve but never get to court...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller 21st-century -
![A Fatal Mistake by Faith Martin, Stephanie Racine]()
A Fatal Mistake by Faith Martin, Stephanie Racine
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSummer 1960, Oxford In the glorious sunshine of Oxford, on a day when everyone should be celebrating, tragedy strikes when a university student is found floating in the river, dead.Probationary WPC Trudy Loveday finds herself paired with coroner Clement Ryder to investigate and it soon becomes clear that this case is not going to be easy...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural whodunit adult audiobook book -
![Hidden Killers by Lynda La Plante]()
Hidden Killers by Lynda La Plante
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe brilliant new crime thriller from the BAFTA-winning writer behind the TV series Prime Suspect and author of Widows, now a major motion picture When WPC Jane Tennison is promoted to the role of Detective Constable in London’s Bow Street CID, she is immediately conflicted...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller adult audiobook -
![The Water Rituals by Eva García Sáenz de Urturi, Eva García Sáenz]()
The Water Rituals by Eva García Sáenz de Urturi, Eva García Sáenz
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHOW DO YOU UNMASK A KILLER WHO'S SPENT YEARS PREPARING TO HUNT YOU DOWN?A pregnant woman has been murdered in a brutal, ritualistic way: burned, hung, and then placed upside down in a Bronze Age cauldron...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller 21st-century -
![The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke]()
The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThis is James Lee Burke's latest mystery featuring Dave Robicheaux. It is also much more than that...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller 21st-century -
![The Bell in the Fog by Lev A.C. Rosen]()
The Bell in the Fog by Lev A.C. Rosen
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe Bell in the Fog , a dazzling historical mystery by Lev AC Rosen, asks―once you have finally found a family, how far would you go to prove yourself to them?San Francisco, 1952. Detective Evander “Andy” Mills has started a new life for himself as a private detective―but his business hasn’t exactly taken off... -
![Murder in Canton by Robert van Gulik]()
Murder in Canton by Robert van Gulik
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA.D. 681Murder In Canton takes place in 680 A.D. Judge Dee, recently promoted to Lord Chief Justice, is sent incognito to Canton to investigate the disappearance of a court censor... -
![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... -
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![Sunset Swing by Ray Celestin]()
Sunset Swing by Ray Celestin
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLos Angeles. Christmas, 1967. A devil is loose in the City of Angels . . .A young nurse, Kerry Gaudet, travels to the City of Angels desperate to find her missing brother, fearing that something terrible has happened to him: a serial killer is terrorising the city, picking victims at random, and Kerry has precious few leads... -
![The Bleeding Heart by Christopher Fowler]()
The Bleeding Heart by Christopher Fowler
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLondon's wiliest detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, are back on the case in this fiendishly clever new mystery . . . and when a cemetery becomes the scene of a crime, neither secrets--nor bodies--stay buried. Romain Curtis sneaks into St. George's Gardens one evening with his date, planning to show her the stars...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense whodunit thriller adult -
![The Fatal Flame by Lyndsay Faye]()
The Fatal Flame by Lyndsay Faye
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe final installment in Lyndsay Faye’s Timothy Wilde series, which Lee Child called “solid-gold” and Gillian Flynn declared “spectacular.” No one in 1840s New York likes fires, copper star Timothy Wilde least of all. After a blaze killed his parents and another left him with a terrible scar, he has avoided flames of all kinds...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement lgbtq police-procedural suspense whodunit thriller -
![The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney, Angus King]()
The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney, Angus King
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Quaker is watching you…It is 1969 and Glasgow has been brought to its knees by a serial killer spreading fear throughout the city. The Quaker has taken three women from the same nightclub and brutally murdered them in the backstreets.A detective with everything to prove.Now, six months later, the police are left chasing a ghost, with no new leads and no hope of catching their prey...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement lgbtq noir police-procedural suspense whodunit -
![Off the Rails by Christopher Fowler]()
Off the Rails by Christopher Fowler
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsChristopher Fowler’s Peculiar Crimes Unit novels have been hailed for their originality, suspense, and unforgettable characters. Now Arthur Bryant, John May, and their team of proud eccentrics have been given only one week to hunt down a murderer they’ve already caught once and who is now luring them down into the darkest shadows of the London Underground.The young man they seek is an enigma...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense whodunit thriller adult -
![Last Car to Elysian Fields by James Lee Burke]()
Last Car to Elysian Fields by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratings'A lyrical and lovely novel that takes Burke back to the top of the crimewriting tree where he richly belongs' Independent On... -
![A Trick of the Light: An Inspector McLevy Mystery 3 by David Ashton]()
A Trick of the Light: An Inspector McLevy Mystery 3 by David Ashton
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe third in David Ashton's series of McLevy books, A Trick of the Light sees McLevy team up with Arthur Conan Doyle to pursue a ruthless killer. It is 1860 and a Confederate officer, Jonathen Sinclair, arrives in Edinburgh with a sheaf of money to purchase a blockade-runner from Clydeside shipbuilders. He is betrayed to the Union forces and brutally shot dead by their secret agents...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural thriller adult audiobook book -
![Betrayal at Iga: A Hiro Hattori Novel by Susan Spann]()
Betrayal at Iga: A Hiro Hattori Novel by Susan Spann
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAutumn, 1565: After fleeing Kyoto, master ninja Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo take refuge with Hiro's ninja clan in the mountains of Iga province. But when an ambassador from the rival Koga clan is murdered during peace negotiations, Hiro and Father Mateo must find the killer in time to prevent a war between the ninja clans... -
![Peeler by Kevin McCarthy]()
Peeler by Kevin McCarthy
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWest Cork. November 1920. The Irish War of Independence rages. The body of a young woman is found brutally murdered on a windswept hillside. A scrap board sign covering her mutilated body reads 'TRATOR'. Traitor...Categorized as:
historical-fiction crime law-enforcement police-procedural mystery audiobook historical fiction -
![The Rule of Knowledge by Scott Baker]()
The Rule of Knowledge by Scott Baker
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFaith, history, science and love collide in this fast-paced action adventure.High school teacher Shaun Strickland is shocked when he receives a last-minute invitation from Cambridge University to deliver a paper on the relationship between space and time, something he has been studying for years. This could be the break he s been longing for... -
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![The Guilt of Innocents by Candace Robb]()
The Guilt of Innocents by Candace Robb
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt is winter in the year of our Lord 1372. A river pilot falls into the icy waters of the River Ouse during a skirmish between dockworkers and the boys of the minster school—among them Owen Archer’s adopted son Jasper... -
![An Experiment In Treason by Bruce Alexander]()
An Experiment In Treason by Bruce Alexander
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSir John Fielding has trailed a packet of controversial letters from London to the colony of Massachusetts. But when the suspect in the theft is found dead, Sir John turns his eye on the possible involvement of Benjamin Franklin...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural thriller adult book fiction -
![The Willow Pattern by Robert van Gulik]()
The Willow Pattern by Robert van Gulik
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJudge Dee has been appointed emergency governor of the plague- and drought-ridden Imperial City. As his guards help the city fend off a popular uprising, an aristocrat from one of the oldest families in China suffers an "accident" in a deserted mansion... -
![Necklace and Calabash: A Chinese Detective Story by Robert van Gulik]()
Necklace and Calabash: A Chinese Detective Story by Robert van Gulik
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJudge Dee is a magistrate in the fictional Poo-yang district, its a wealthy area through which the Grand Canal of China runs (part of modern-day Jiangsu province). The Emperor's daughter lives in the district at the Water Palace but it falls under a special administration run by the military commander... -
![London's Glory by Christopher Fowler]()
London's Glory by Christopher Fowler
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn every detective’s life there are cases that can’t be discussed, and throughout the Bryant & May novels there have been mentions of some of these such as the Deptford Demon or the Little Italy Whelk Smuggling Scandal... -
![The Chinese Nail Murders by Robert van Gulik]()
The Chinese Nail Murders by Robert van Gulik
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA.D. 676In the fifth installment of Robert Van Gulik's ancient Chinese mystery series based on historical court records, detective Judge Dee is appointed to the magistrate of Pei-chow - a distant frontier district in the barren north of the ancient Chinese Empire...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural adult book fiction historical -
![The Chinese Maze Murders by Robert van Gulik]()
The Chinese Maze Murders by Robert van Gulik
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA.D. 670 Poisoned plums, a cryptic scroll picture, passionate love letters, and a hidden murderer with a penchant for torturing and killing women lead Judge Dee to the heart of the Governor’s garden maze and the answers to three interwoven mysteries...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural adult book fiction historical -
![The Memory of Blood by Christopher Fowler]()
The Memory of Blood by Christopher Fowler
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsChristopher Fowler’s acclaimed Peculiar Crimes Unit novels crackle with sly wit, lively suspense, and twists as chilling as London’s fog. Now the indomitable duo of Arthur Bryant and John May, along with the rest of their quirky team, return to solve a confounding case with dark ties to the British theater and a killer who may mean curtains for all involved...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense whodunit adult audiobook -
![The Chinese Bell Murders by Robert van Gulik]()
The Chinese Bell Murders by Robert van Gulik
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA.D. 668Meet Judge Dee, the detective lauded as the "Sherlock Holmes of ancient China" — Fans of Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series will thrill to this reissue of the first volume in Robert van Gulik's classic Chinese Murders series. The Chinese Bell Murders introduces the great Judge Dee, a magistrate of the city of Poo-yang in ancient China... -
![The Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler]()
The Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLondon's craftiest and boldest detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, are back in this deviously twisting mystery of black magic, madness, and secrets hidden in plain sight. When a young woman is found dead in the pews of St...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense whodunit thriller adult -
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![Now You See Them by Elly Griffiths]()
Now You See Them by Elly Griffiths
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe fifth gripping Brighton-based mystery from the bestselling author of the Dr Ruth Galloway series – a must-read for fans of Agatha Christie, cosy crime and TV series such as Grantchester and Midsomer Murders. One after another, young women go missing in Brighton, but who’s to say they didn’t leave of their own free choice?Ten years have passed since the events described in The Vanishing Box...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller adult audiobook -
![A Killing Kindness by Reginald Hill]()
A Killing Kindness by Reginald Hill
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Yorkshire detectives are upstaged by a Shakespeare-inspired serial killer in this “stylish, superior . . . snappy” mystery (Kirkus Reviews). Reginald Hill “raised the classical British mystery to new heights” when he introduced pugnacious Yorkshire Det. Inspector Andrew Dalziel and his partner, the callow Sgt. Peter Pascoe (The New York Times Book Review)...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense adult audiobook book -
![Polar Bear Dawn by Lyle Nicholson]()
Polar Bear Dawn by Lyle Nicholson
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDetective Frank Mueller of the Anchorage Police Force flies to an oil camp in Alaska’s High Arctic to investigate what is being called a murder/suicide. A man’s body was found outside the camp being consumed by a Polar Bear. His sister found strangled to death in her room...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult animals -
![Traitor by Rory Clements]()
Traitor by Rory Clements
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Elizabethan navy has a secret weapon: an optical instrument so powerful it gives England unassailable superiority at sea. Spain will stop at nothing to steal it and seize the two men who understand its secrets - its operative William Ivory, known as the 'Queen's Eye', and its inventor, the maverick magician Dr Dee...Categorized as:
historical-fiction crime law-enforcement thriller mystery historical fiction early-modern -
![Fever Season by Barbara Hambly]()
Fever Season by Barbara Hambly
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsThe summer of 1833 has been one of brazen heat and brutal pestilence, as the city is stalked by Bronze John - the popular name for the deadly cholera epidemic that tests the healing skills of doctor and voodoo alike. Benjamin January's Paris medical training keeps him all night long with the dying at Charity Hospital...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense adult book female-author -
![Little Scarlet by Walter Mosley]()
Little Scarlet by Walter Mosley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the New York Times bestselling author comes his most riveting and provocative Easy Rawlins novel ever--a searing story of murder and fury during one of the most explosive moments in American history: the 1965 race riots in Los Angeles...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller adult
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