Books like 'The Players'
Readers who enjoyed The Players by Minette Walters also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical historical-fiction politics crime early-modern literary-fiction
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Silva Rerum II by Kristina Sabaliauskaitė
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsRomāna darbība notiek no 1707. līdz 1710.gadam. Karš, mēris, bads, nesamērīga greznība un nāvīgs izsalkums, zviedru un krievu karavīri, jūdu ārsti, holandiešu kāršu spēlmaņi, turku konkubīnes, franču dāmas, spītīgi žemaiši un ironiski viļņieši, bezvārda mūks, kurš apglabājis vairāk nekā divdesmit tūkstošus mēra upuru, un, protams, vēl viena bajāru Norvaišu dzimtas paaudze... -
Sarah and Solomon: Only A Stone Should Be Alone by Roberta Kagan
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“…Fathers and Give me your children!” – Chaim RumkowskiIt is September 1942, and the already battered occupants of the Lodz Ghetto have just been dealt another horrendous blow from Hitler’s iron fist. They must surrender their sick, elderly, and children for ‘deportation... -
The Lanterns of the King of Galilee: A Novel of 18th-Century Palestine by Ibrahim Nasrallah
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn eighteenth-century Palestine, on the shores of Galilee's Lake Tiberias, visionary political and military leader Daher al-Umar al-Zaydani undertakes a journey toward the greatest aim anyone could hope to achieve in his day: the establishment of an autonomous Arab state...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics adult audiobook book fiction historical -
يسمعون حسيسها by أيمن العتوم
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsخلف الوادي انتشرت أشجار هرمة . إلا انها ظلت خضراء على طول عمرها الذي تجاوز مئات السنين . -
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A Mind at Peace by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLibrarian note: Alternate cover edition of: 9780976395096Set on the eve of World War II, A Mind at Peace captures the anxieties of a Turkish family facing the difficult reality entrenched in the early republic, founded on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire in 1923...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult book classics fiction -
Erin's Child by Sheelagh Kelly
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFamily ties have united the Feeneys through famine and poverty, but can they withstand success? It is 1875 and the Feeneys have left the squalor of York’s slums behind them. Yet all is not well. Patrick remains a man of simple tastes, increasingly out of touch with Thomasin’s ambition to expand her business empire still further across Yorkshire... -
The Island We Left Behind by Kate Hewitt
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“I love you. Of course I do. But we haven’t any choice in the matter, do we? If our little boy’s health, even his survival, is at stake, we have to do whatever it takes.”1928, New York City: Ellen and Lucas Lyman have made a heart-wrenching decision to leave their beloved Amherst Island behind in search of a new life... -
The Royal Secret by Andrew Taylor
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the No.1 bestselling author of The Last Protector and The Ashes of London comes the next book in the phenomenally successful series following James Marwood and Cat Lovett during the time of King Charles II.Two young girls plot a murder by witchcraft. Soon afterwards a government clerk dies painfully in mysterious circumstances... -
The Poison Keeper by Deborah Swift
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNaples 1633Aqua Tofana – One drop to heal. Three drops to kill.Giulia Tofana longs for more responsibility in her mother’s apothecary business, but Mamma has always been secretive and refuses to tell her the hidden keys to her success. But the day Mamma is arrested for the poisoning of the powerful Duke de Verdi, Giulia is shocked to uncover the darker side of her trade...Categorized as:
historical-fiction early-modern crime literary-fiction historical fiction audiobook feminism -
Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPerhaps the most important work in modern Iranian literature, this starkly beautiful novel examines the trials of an impoverished woman and her children living in a remote village in Iran, after the unexplained disappearance of her husband, Soluch.Lyrical yet unsparing, the novel examines her life as she contends with the political corruption, authoritarianism, and poverty of the village...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult audiobook book fiction -
The Neighbors by Ahmad Mahmoud
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAhmad Mahmoud sets The Neighbors against the backdrop of the oil nationalization crisis that gripped Iran in the early 1950s...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics adult audiobook book fiction historical -
Success by Lion Feuchtwanger
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn enthralling roman à clé depicting the rise of Nazi ideology in Germany. Martin Krüger, a museum director in Munich, has become quite unpopular and some people would like to be rid of him. Consequently, the lawsuit against him does not turn out to his favor. However, his friends keep fighting to prove his innocence. "The novel Success is more than a 'documentation of Bavaria... -
Heart of Disaster: A Titanic Novel of love and loss by Rachel Wesson
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThursday, April 11, 1912 Inspired by true events, Heart of Disaster is the fictionalized story of the Irish steerage passengers who joined RMS Titanic. The legend says "Thursday's child has far to go" but nobody knew just how troublesome this journey would prove. Four single friends, a newly married couple and a stoker who works in the belly of the gigantic ship meet that fateful night... -
The Maiden by Kate Foster
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsInspired by a real-life case and winner of the Bloody Scotland Pitch Perfect Award, Kate Foster's The Maiden is a remarkable story with a feminist revisionist twist, giving a voice to women otherwise silenced by history."In the end, it did not matter what I said at my trial. No one believed me."Edinburgh, October 1679...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction crime early-modern historical fiction mystery feminism -
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When the Yellow Mocker Calls by Lila M Beckham
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the South Carolina Hills, along the Savannah River Watershed, in the fall of 1829, 14-year-old, three-quarter Cherokee, Sahani, whose Christian name is Charity, sets out on a journey with her 83-year-old maternal, white grandfather to Fort Charlotte, for what she thinks is a trip to trade the pelts he has accumulated in order to replenish their supplies... -
Theodoros by Mircea Cărtărescu, Marian Ochoa de Eribe
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsUn ejercicio de pura libertad literaria, una obra torrencial, libérrima, exuberante, inclasificable. Una novela épica que va desde lo realista hasta lo fantasmagórico.Tudor es el hijo menor de dos sirvientes de la corte de un gran boyardo de la atrasada Valaquia... -
The Trench by عبد الرحمن منيف
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMunif sets this second volume of his critically acclaimed Cities of Salt trilogy in a Middle Eastern kingdom during the 1950s... -
حديث الجنود by أيمن العتوم
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsمفتاح الثورة كلمة، وتصنع الثورة كلمة: (العدو من أماكم والبحر من ورائكم)، وأول الرسالة كلمة:(اقرأ)، وأول الرحمة كلمة: (كوني برداً وسلاما)، واعظم العذاب كلمة: (اخسؤوا فيها ولا تكلمون)، وأشد الحسرة كلمة: (سلام عليكِ .. -
An Apartment Called Freedom by Ghazi A. Algosaibi
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFirst published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company... -
News from the Empire by Fernando del Paso
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsOne of the acknowledged masterpieces of Mexican literature, Fernando del Paso's News from the Empire is a powerful and encyclopedic novel of the tragic lives of Maximilian and his wife, Carlota, the short-lived Emperor and Empress of Mexico...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics fiction historical 20th-century book adult -
Where The Winds Dwell by Böðvar Guðmundsson, Bovar Gumundsson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWritten as a letter from a father to a daughter, Where the Winds Dwell is compassionate and real. Guðmundsson brings together past and present in this tragic story of the historic journey to Nýja Ísland, the world's largest Icelandic community outside of Iceland... -
El Rey de Les Halles by Juliette Benzoni, Francisco Rodriguez de Lecea
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWearing a dress that is splattered with blood and clasping a doll to her chest, Sylvie de Valaines, a four-year-old girl, wanders the streets of the small village of Anet. The year is 1626 and her entire family has just been murdered, likely on the orders of Cardinal Richelieu. When a young boy of 10--Francois de Borbon-Vendome, the prince of Martigues--finds her, he brings her to his castle... -
Beside the Ocean of Time by George Mackay Brown
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this novel set on the fictitious island of Norday in the Orkneys, George Mackay Brown beckons us into the imaginary world of the young Thorfinn Ragnarson, the son of a crofter... -
India Gray by Sujata Massey
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTravel to the Indian subcontinent with a new collection of Sujata Massey's suspenseful historical fiction. This boxed set includes five works. The title story, INDIA GRAY, is a poignant adventure set on the 1945 battlefront iof Assam, India and features Kamala and Simon, much-loved characters from the 2013 historical saga, THE SLEEPING DICTIONARY... -
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The Girl from Oto by Amy Maroney
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“An exquisite novel.” Martha Conway, author of Thieving Forest A Renaissance-era woman artist and an American scholar. Linked by a 500-year-old mystery… The secrets of the past are irresistible—and dangerous. 1500: Born during a time wracked by war and plague, Renaissance-era artist Mira grows up in a Pyrenees convent believing she is an orphan...Categorized as:
early-modern historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book family fiction historical -
Tales of Protection by Erik Fosnes Hansen
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn eccentric scientist lies dead in his coffin reflecting on the past and his last experiment--collecting random incidents from human history and finding the underlying pattern that connects them... -
Pour the Dark Wine by Dinah Lampitt
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn Pour The Dark Wine, Dinah Lampitt again shows her ability to interweave fact and fiction to create an historical novel of impact and passion. The story of the rise and fall of the Seymours was dramatic in its own right and her imaginative skills and impeccable research cast new light on one of the most exciting periods in English history... -
The Painter's Apprentice: A Novel of 16th-Century Venice (Venetian Artisans) by Laura Morelli
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWould you rather sacrifice your livelihood, your lover, or your life? When the Black Death comes knocking on your door, you'd better decide quickly. Venice, 1510. Maria Bartolini wants nothing more than to carry on her father’s legacy as a master gilder. Instead, her father has sent her away from the only home she’s ever known to train as an apprentice to Master Trevisan, a renowned painter...Categorized as:
early-modern historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book female-author fiction historical -
A Song of Sixpence: The Story of Elizabeth of York and Perkin Warbeck by Judith Arnopp
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn the years after Bosworth, a small boy is ripped from his rightful place as future king of England. Years later when he reappears to take back his throne, his sister Elizabeth, now Queen to the invading King, Henry Tudor, is torn between family loyalty and duty... -
The Flames by Sophie Haydock
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsVienna at the dawn of the 20th century. An opulent, extravagant city teeming with art, music and radical ideas. A place where the social elite attend glamorous balls in the city's palaces whilst young intellectuals decry the empire across the tables of crowded cafes. It is a city where anything seems possible - if you are a man... -
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দোজখ্ঁনামা by Rabisankar Bal
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWho tells the greatest story — God or Manto? Dozakhnama: Conversations in Hell is an extraordinary novel, a biography of Manto and Ghalib and a history of Indian culture rolled into one. Exhumed from dust, Manto’s unpublished novel surfaces in Lucknow. Is it real or is it a fake? In this dastan, Manto and Ghalib converse, entwining their lives in shared dreams... -
Where the Air Is Clear by Carlos Fuentes
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Where the Air Is Clear," Carlos Fuentes's first novel, is an unsparing portrayal of Mexico City's upper class. Departing from a traditional linear narrative, Fuentes overlays Mexican myths onto contemporary settings, showing that even the rich and powerful must succumb to the indomitable spirit of Mexico, which undermines all institutions and shapes all destinies...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult book classics fiction -
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 early-modern mystery historical fiction law-enforcement thriller -
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تذكرة وحيدة للقاهرة by أشرف العشماوي
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsماذا لو تعرض انسان لصراعات تفوق قدراته ،وعاش حيوات تتخطى طموحاته؟ رحلة ملحمية يسافر فيها البطل وحيدًا، تعكس ما حوله من هزات المجتمع المصري منذ مشارف الأربعينات ، من أطراف جنوب الوادي إلى نادي الجزيرة بقلب القاهرة ومن حي الزمالك العريق إلى حواري عابدين العتيقة، ثم محطات متلاحقة بالاسكندرية وسويسرا وأسوان ، مسافر وحيد عبر تغيرات سريعة الإيقاع ببساطة لا يدركها حتى هو، لتصبح قصته "عجيبة" بالفعل... -
Fire Catcher by C.S. Quinn
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratings1666. London burns. And a killer tracking a dangerous secret fuels his own deadly blazes…Charlie Tuesday is the city’s best thief taker. And as fire ravages London he’s on the hunt for a killer fanning the flames. But time is running out. Each death brings the murderer closer to the ultimate prize—a fabled chest with the power to destroy London...Categorized as:
crime early-modern historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Zayni Barakat by Gamal al-Ghitani, جمال الغيطاني
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"In the course of my long travels I have never seen a city so devastated. After a long time I ventured out into the streets. Death, cold and heavy, hung in the air. Walls have no value here, doors have been eliminated. No one is certain that they will see another day...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult book fiction historical -
A Million Drops by Víctor del Árbol
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn intense literary thriller that tears through the interlocked histories of fascism and communism in Europe without pausing for breath. Gonzalo Gil is a disaffected lawyer stuck in a failed career and a strained marriage, dodging the never-ending manipulation of his powerful father-in-law... -
The Words in My Hand by Guinevere Glasfurd
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Words in My Hand is the re-imagined true story of Helena Jans, a Dutch maid in 17th-century Amsterdam, who works for Mr. Sergeant, the English bookseller. When a mysterious and reclusive lodger arrives - the Monsieur - Mr Sergeant insists everything must be just so. It transpires that the Monsieur is René Descartes...Categorized as:
early-modern historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book fiction historical humor -
A Famine of Horses by P.F. Chisholm, Patricia Finney
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn the year 1592, Sir Robert Carey comes north to Carlisle to take up his new post. He has wangled his appointment to be nearer his true love. And of course, he can use the money....Rich in atmosphere and packed with vivid real and fictional characters, few novels are as well imagined or as much fun as this romp through roguish courtiers, rival gangs, rustling, treason, and high ambition... -
The Four Books by Yan Lianke
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom the Franz Kafka Prize–winning author of Lenin’s Kiss, a “stupendous and unforgettable” novel of Mao’s China (The Times, London). In the ninety-ninth district of a re-education compound, freethinking artists and academics are detained to strengthen their loyalty to Communist ideologies...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics fiction historical 21st-century humor satire -
Eating Fire and Drinking Water by Arlene J. Chai
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"I was someone hungry for stories; more specifically, I was someone who craved after facts. I was, you see, a person with no history. Lacking this, I developed a curiosity about other's people's stories. . . ."Clara Perez is a reporter on a small South seas island. An orphan raised by nuns, she is a young woman with origins shrouded in mystery...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics adult anthologies classics female-author fiction -
Cor Rotto: A Novel of Catherine Carey by Adrienne Dillard
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe dream was always the same … the scaffold before me. I stared on in horror as the sword sliced my aunt's head from her swan-like neck. The executioner raised her severed head into the air by its long chestnut locks. The last thing I remembered before my world turned black was my own scream... -
Tempest at Dawn by James D. Best
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAs featured on The Glenn Beck Show . Tempest at Dawn is on the Glenn Beck Reading List. The United States is on the brink of total collapse. The military has been reduced to near extinction, economic turmoil saps hope, and anarchy threatens as world powers hover like vultures, eager to devour the remains... -
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The Shogun's Queen by Lesley Downer
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOnly one woman can save her world from barbarian invasion but to do so will mean sacrificing everything she holds dear -- love, loyalty and maybe life itself . . .Japan, and the year is 1853... -
Thank You, Mr. Nixon by Gish Jen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn her first collection of stories since the acclaimed Who's Irish?, the beloved author of The Resisters refracts the fifty years since the opening of China through the lives of ordinary people. Beginning with a cheery, kindly letter penned by a Chinese girl in heaven to "poor Mr. Nixon" in hell, Gish Jen embarks on an eleven-story journey through U.S...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction politics fiction audiobook historical anthologies poc-author -
The Enemies of Versailles by Sally Christie
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the final installment of Sally Christie’s “tantalizing” (New York Daily News) Mistresses of Versailles trilogy, Jeanne Becu, a woman of astounding beauty but humble birth, works her way from the grimy back streets of Paris to the palace of Versailles, where the aging King Louis XV has become a jaded and bitter old philanderer...Categorized as:
historical-fiction early-modern literary-fiction romance historical fiction royalty audiobook -
Without a Glimmer of Remorse by Pino Cacucci
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA fascinating dramatized fiction of the life and times of Jules Bonnot, his ‘gang’, and associates, the individualist anarchists of the time, including the young Victor Serge... -
The Auerbach Will by Stephen Birmingham
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA poignant and unforgettable rags-to-riches family saga following three generations of a remarkable clan from downtown ghetto to Park Avenue opulence Marrying Jack Auerbach was Essie Litsky’s salvation, enabling her to break free of her strict Russian-Jewish immigrant parents and escape New York’s poor, dirty, overcrowded Lower East Side... -
Very Like a Queen by Martin Lake
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe King’s favor was her sanctuary—until his desire turned dangerous.Alice Petherton is well practiced at using her beauty and wits to survive in the Court of King Henry VIII. As the King’s favorite, she enjoys his protection, but after seeing the downfall of three of his wives, she’s determined to avoid the same fate. Alice must walk a fine line between mistress and wife...
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