Books with author Brian Harvey

Piano tuner and jazz musician Frank Ryan is in Japan teaching bored housewives how to play piano. Then he gets a gig in a trendy underground bar and ends up ensnared with a young woman with a grudge and the crime boss who owns the bar. Drawn into Tokyo Girl’s vendetta, Frank stumbles into an underworld where transgressions are paid for by the flash of a razor-sharp cleaver. And for a pianist, that’s not a good thing.Tokyo Girl is the follow-up to Beethoven’s Tenth, featuring reluctant sleuth Frank Ryan.

Piano tuner and jazz musician Frank Ryan is in Japan teaching bored housewives how to play piano. Then he gets a gig in a trendy underground bar and ends up ensnared with a young woman with a grudge and the crime boss who owns the bar. Drawn into Tokyo Girl’s vendetta, Frank stumbles into an underworld where transgressions are paid for by the flash of a razor-sharp cleaver. And for a pianist, that’s not a good thing. Tokyo Girl is the follow-up to Beethoven’s Tenth, featuring reluctant sleuth Frank Ryan.

It's November, 1864. Private Jeb Reynolds is done with battlefields and the slaughter of troops all around him. Knowing his best friend and compatriot, Butch Hardee, won’t survive another grueling battle, Jeb, Butch and another private, T-Bone, flee south from the bloody Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. When they are caught up in a skirmish, and Jeb is wounded, they stumble across a massive plantation house in coastal Georgia. Margaret Whittle, her brother, and a few slaves still reside within the crumbling walls of Tidewell, fighting to survive as Yankee marauders steal food and livestock on a regular basis. Margaret takes in these Southern deserters, hiding them, and tending to Jeb’s wounds. Even when the first stirrings of love begin to take hold for Jeb, Margaret knows their existence is held in the grip of something more powerful. The real danger to Jeb, Butch, and T-Bone is not discovery by the scavenging Northern troops as Sherman continues his march, or the fear of execution from the Confederacy if caught, it’s what lies upstairs behind a locked door. Turns out, slavery comes in so many forms. If you love the works of R.L. Stine, Justina Ireland's "Dread Nation" or Paige McKenzie's "The Haunting of Sunshine Girl", you will love this story!

In 1853, Mary McCradden and her family head for a new life in California. Their wagon train knows that it faces danger and hardships crossing the rugged terrain, but Mary's greatest danger lies in a renegade minister named Hyrum Diggins, who calls himself Preacher Man. His flock are all heading west in search of religious freedom with their caravan. What Mary doesn’t realize is how deranged Preacher Man really is, or how far he will go to make sure she becomes his new wife. During a massive thunderstorm, Diggins whips his followers into a frenzy. They sabotage the wagon train, forcing Mary, her new sister-in-law, Lindsey, and her wounded brother to escape into the darkness on horseback. Lost, with no provisions or weapons, they face a hopeless situation. Stumbling through the night, they find a mining town on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains called Rivendale. It’s here Mary finds friendship she never expected in the people who save them. But Hyrum Diggins won’t give up. His pursuit of Mary puts him on a collision course with her, the strangers who live among the ruins of the town, and Rivendale itself. For it’s like no other town on earth, and its secrets are about to be exposed. If you are a fan of Alma Katsu's "The Hunger", Victoria McKernan's "The Devil's Paintbox" or the works of Kristiana Gregory and Jennifer L. Holm, you will want to dive into this thrilling and mysterious novel!

The year is 1920 and Cathy Harmon arrives with her family to the remote community of Bullet Creek, West Virginia. Her father, Reverend Harmon, discovers a town in chaos: prostitution, gambling, moonshining. But her father also finds an ally in Sam Buchanan, who helps the Harmons build a new church and mission, unaware that Sam is one of the most prolific moonshiners in the area. Sam’s son, Johnny, wrestles with his growing attraction to Cathy and trying to keep the family business a secret, but more importantly, Johnny wants to protect Cathy and Ella from the Halseys, a family living on an isolated farm in the mountains. Cathy and her sister, Ella, are determined to get to the truth. What sort of bargain has Bullet Creek made with this family, the Halseys, that has caused such moral laxity? Why are other communities on the creek line besieged with disappearances? Why has Bullet Creek established The Pickin’, a ritualistic drawing of names where folks give livestock just to keep the Halseys away. Cathy and Ella find themselves caught in the thicket of the strange customs of the people and come face-to-face with the infection that has turned the Halseys into something less than human; something that has taken hold and fastened itself like roots in their veins; something that has made them very hungry for flesh. If you loved Darren Shan's "Cirque Du Freak", Ransom Riggs "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" and the work of R.L. Stine, you will love this story!

If you are a fan of Harry Potter or Charlie Bone, you will be thrilled by this action-packed story in which a group of Depression-era children unearth a set of old books and the town of Carson Corners, North Carolina will never be the same. The most famous creatures of all time explode from the pages of fiction and spill out into the autumn of 1935. Now the Book Battling Kids must arm themselves and attempt to force the characters back between the pages before it’s too late. But they will have to hurry. The lake rises, winged monkeys descend from the skies and a centuries-old evil prowls the night. The adventure is just beginning!

Kayle Dalton is a typical seventh grader at Cobbler’s Grove Middle School. She has her best friends, Tonnie and Joe, she’s joined the debate team, and her dreams of being a journalist are on target with a great new internship at the local newspaper. Then her grandfather, Tub Pearson, dies unexpectedly. Tub had been a celebrated detective in Missouri, and had retired just four years ago, moving back to the tiny hamlet of Cobbler’s Grove, North Carolina to be near his granddaughter and her mother. But the last unsolved case Tub worked was the Kansas City Killer. You probably remember the case? Sure you do. It was in all the papers, splashed across Buzzfeed and Yahoo News. All those women found missing their heads? When Kayle starts receiving cards that indicates the killer is stalking her, resuming some sort of twisted game he played with her grandfather, she enlists the help of her friends, and Tub’s old partner, to try and catch an elusive killer and draw him into the open. But as the suspects grow, Kayle doesn’t know who to trust, or what to believe. The killer is consumed with a horrible set of paintings from 1973 called The Dark Spot Seven and he seems to be ritualistically acting out the gruesome murders from the paintings.Details about the case continue to surface making Kayle question if the Kansas City Killer is just a man praying on his victims, or something inhuman. If you are a fan of Gillian Flynn, Caroline Cooney, R.L. Stine, or Christopher Greyson, you will want to dive into this intriguing murder mystery!

New technology can change the world. It can also change lives.Sometimes these changes are not for the good. Smart phone batteries explode. Three-D printers create undetectable guns. Operating systems leave security holes unpatched.When four high-school students get illegal technology upgrades that feed data straight into their brains, they start dying one by one. The only clue is a holy shrine called Stonehenge.

Avery A Woodeward was a British field mouse who preferred not to live in the field. The vacant Old Vicarage suited him perfectly - that is, until a rowdy family of Americans and their territorial terrier arrived. Before long, Avery would have to face peanut butter temptations, outwit invading squirrels, and protect the children from forgotten danger.The Vicarage Mouse is an advanced chapter book that engages a young audience (8-12) while still challenging with robust vocabulary. With its illustrated short chapters, readers feel a sense of accomplishment and pace as they quickly progress. Endearing in the classic spirit of “Wind in the Willows” or “Charlotte’s Web”, the animals tell the story with humans in the background; and our main character learns how anonymous heroism can be its own reward.