Best of
Mystery-Thriller

2001

The Harry Bosch Novels, Volume 1: The Black Echo / The Black Ice / The Concrete Blonde (Harry Bosch,#1-3)


Michael Connelly - 2001
    This one is personal. Billy Meadows was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat," fighting the VC and the fear they used to call the Black Echo. Harry let Meadows down once. He won't do it again.The Black Ice:The corpse in the hotel room seems to be that of a missing LAPD narcotics officer. Rumors abound that the cop had crossed over - selling a new drug called Black ice. Now Harry's making some dangerous connections, leading from the cop to a string of bloody murders, and from Hollywood Boulevard's drug bazaar to Mexico's dusty back alleys. In this lethal game, Harry is likely to be the next victim.The Concrete Blonde:When Harry Bosch shot and killed Norman Church, the police were convinced it marked the end of the hunt for the Dollmaker - L.A.'s most bizarre serial killer. But now Church's widow is accusing Harry of killing the wrong man - a charge that rings terrifyingly true when a new victim is discovered with the Dollmaker's macabre signature. For the second time, Harry must hunt the murderer down, before he strikes again.

Safe Haven


Patricia MacDonald - 2001
    . .Dena returns to her hometown for a high school reunion. She gets together with Brian, her high school crush, and ends up pregnant.She moves back to the small town where she grew up to start a new life with horse breeder Brian.But behind closed doors, Dena’s perfect life becomes the perfect nightmare.Heavily pregnant, Dena flees to her best friend’s place.But someone out there wants to take that away from her too. Days later, Dena’s friend is found battered to death.Did Brian do it?

Ruthless Game


Danielle Girard - 2001
    There were eleven, in all. She was last in line, but he was getting closer. He’d be to her soon... As though stumbling out of a nightmare, rookie cop Alex Kincaid awakens in her car, dazed and confused. Parked on an unfamiliar street, she's outside an unfamiliar home with no recollection of how she got there, and no memory of the night before. Then her nightmare becomes reality. Alex's first call of the day takes her to the same street, to the same house, where a man has been brutally killed. Alex thinks the man is a perfect stranger--until she finds herself the main suspect in his murder. And now, as she races to clear her name, she’s haunted by memories of a horrific thirty-year-old crime--a crime that links her to the dead man...and marks her as the killer’s next target. OTHER SUSPENSE NOVELS by Danielle Girard: Chasing Darkness Savage Art Cold Silence The Rookie Club

Envy


Sandra Brown - 2001
    Maris is intrigued enough to search for him.Her trip to Georgia to meet the mysterious author takes her to an eerie, ruined cotton plantation, where Maris finds Parker Evans, a man confined to a wheelchair who carefully hides his past. Coaxing his novel from him chaper by chapter, Maris becomes caught up in his tale of two friends who rent a boat with a young woman for a night of sex and drinking. Only one person will return from that trip.Disturbed about her sexual attraction to Parker and worried about her marriage to author and her co-publisher Noah Reed, Maris returns to New York, where the delivery of Parker's newest chapters convince her they are more than fiction. She wonders how well she knows her husband and begins a harrowing search for a truth that ties back to a terrifying crime and a man who will use her, or anyone, to get his revenge.©2001 Sandra Brown Management, Ltd; (P)2001 Simon & Schuster Inc.; AUDIOWORKS Is an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc.

Mystic River


Dennis Lehane - 2001
    But then a strange car pulled up to their street. One boy got into the car, two did not, and something terrible happened -- something that ended their friendship and changed all three boys forever.Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con who owns a corner store. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay -- demons that urge him to do terrible things. When Jimmy's daughter is found murdered, Sean is assigned to the case. His investigation brings him into conflict with Jimmy, who finds his old criminal impulses tempt him to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave, who came home the night Jimmy's daughter died covered in someone else's blood.A tense and unnerving psychological thriller, Mystic River is also an epic novel of love and loyalty, faith and family, in which people irrevocably marked by the past find themselves on a collision course with the darkest truths of their own hidden selves.

1st to Die


James Patterson - 2001
    So these women form a Women's Murder Club to collaborate outside the box and pursue the case by sidestepping their bosses and giving each other a hand. The four women develop intense bonds as they pursue a killer whose crimes have stunned an entire city. Working together, they track down the most terrifying and unexpected killer they have ever encountered--before a shocking conclusion in which everything they knew turns out to be devastatingly wrong.Full of the breathtaking drama and unforgettable emotions for which James Patterson is famous, 1st to Die is the start of the #1 New York Times bestselling series of crime thrillers.

Tell No One


Harlan Coben - 2001
    David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last night he saw her alive.Everyone tells him it's time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible- that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive.Beck has been warned to tell no one. And he doesn't. Instead, he runs from the people he trusts the most, plunging headlong into a search for the shadowy figure whose messages hold out a desperate hope.But already Beck is being hunted down. He's headed straight into the heart of a dark and deadly secret- and someone intends to stop him before he gets there.

Blindsighted


Karin Slaughter - 2001
    But it's only when town pediatrician and coroner Sara Linton does the autopsy that the full extent of the killer's twisted work becomes clear. Sara's ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, leads the investigation -- a trail of terror that grows increasingly macabre when another local woman is found crucified a few days later. But he's got more than a sadistic serial killer on his hands, for the county's sole female detective, Lena Adams -- the first victim's sister -- wants to serve her own justice. But it is Sara who holds the key to finding the killer. A secret from her past could unmask the brilliantly malevolent psychopath .. or mean her death.

The Surgeon


Tess Gerritsen - 2001
    His surgical skills lead police to suspect he is a physician - a physician who, instead of saving lives, takes them.But as homicide detective Thomas Moore and his partner Jane Rizzoli begin their investigation, they make a startling discovery. Closely linked to these killings is Catherine Cordell, a beautiful doctor with a mysterious past. Two years ago she was subjected to a horrifying rape and shot her attacker dead.Now the man she believes she killed seems to be stalking her once again, and this time he knows exactly where to find her...

Bone Cold


Erica Spindler - 2001
    A madman kidnapped her, cut off her pinkie, then vanished. Today Anna lives in New Orleans, writing dark thrillers under another name. She finally feels safe.Suddenly Anna's quiet life takes a frightening turn. Letters start to arrive from a disturbed fan. Anna is followed, her apartment broken into. Then a close friend disappears.Anna turns to homicide detective Quentin Malone, but Malone's more concerned with the recent murders of two women in the French Quarter. But after a third victim is found a redhead like Anna, her pinkie severed Malone is forced to acknowledge that Anna is his link to the killer and could be the next target.Now Anna must face the horrifying truth her past has caught up with her.

Secret Sanction


Brian Haig - 2001
    When the legal maverick is assigned by the top brass to investigate a Bosnian massacre in which a Green Beret A-team and the Kosovo Liberation Army detachment they were "advising" got trapped behind Serbian lines, he gets the subtext that's part of his orders. What the Army doesn't need are headlines about the cold-blooded execution of 35 Serbian soldiers, and they're counting on Drummond to clean things up fast, before a public scandal blows dirt all over their medals. Drummond is provided with two associates to help with the investigation: an attractive young woman captain who's a Harvard Law School graduate, and an equally illustrious Judge Army General's Corps lawyer whose reputation precedes him.Once Drummond and his team get to Bosnia, it's clear that the accused Green Berets have their own cover-up going, and they're not going to make it easy for the lawyers to figure out what happened. Drummond has a few tricks up his own sleeve, and when he finds out that his CO has put a spy on his team, he's even more determined to get to the bottom of what really went on, even if he has to bully his way out of a murder frame-up to do it. The moral dilemma Drummond faces when he learns the real story (and understands why the Army is so desperate to keep the cover-up going) reveals the man behind the maverick, and lifts Brian Haig's novel a cut above the genre. Haig might have spent more time making his secondary characters as interesting as his protagonist and tightened up his narrative. Still, fans of military thrillers will find this a good enough read.

Last Man Standing


David Baldacci - 2001
    As the FBI investigates, suspicion surrounding Web deepens. Now, he needs help from an unlikely ally in his desperate search for the killer of his friends, and finds himself up against a force intent on finishing the job that began in the alley.

Tahoe Deathfall


Todd Borg - 2001
    Now, at the ripe old age of 14, Jennifer has come to believe that her sister's death was not the accident that everyone says. When McKenna investigates, he uncovers a long-buried secret that is still driving a murderer to kill. McKenna is desperate to catch the killer before he strikes again because McKenna believes that Jennifer is next to die...

Hostage


Robert Crais - 2001
    Hotly pursued by the police, they crash into the suburban home of an accountant and take the family hostage. Soon the mafia are on the scene.

The Girls He Adored


Jonathan Nasaw - 2001
    Pender has been investigating the apparently random disappearances of a dozen women across the country. The only detail the cases have in common is the strawberry blond color of the victims' hair, and the presence of a mystery man with whom they were last seen.Then, in Monterey, California, a routine traffic stop erupts into a scene of horrific violence. The local police are stunned by a disemboweled strawberry blond victim and an ingenious killer with multiple alternating personalities. Pender is convinced he has found his man, but before he can prove it, the suspect stages a cunning jailbreak and abducts his court-appointed psychiatrist, Irene Cogan.In a house on a secluded ridge in Oregon, Irene must navigate through the minefield of her captor's various egos -- male and female, brilliant and naive, murderous and passive -- all of whom are dominated by Max, a seductive killer who views her as both his prisoner and his salvation. Irene knows that to survive she must play along with Max's game of sexual perversion. Only then will she be able to strip back the layers to discover a chilling story of a shattered young boy -- and all the girls he adored.A sexually charged thriller of extraordinary originality and page-turning suspense, The Girls He Adored moves furiously from the inner recesses of the psyche to its final, startling climax. Jonathan Nasaw brilliantly portrays two equally intense characters -- a deviant killer and the expert who can unlock his darkest secrets -- and introduces one of the most likable sleuths in recent fiction.

Invitation to Valhalla


Mike Whicker - 2001
    She is the Nazis' top spy. Code-named Lorelei, she is the English speaking daughter of Hitler's old comrade and a member of the Fuhrer's inner circle. She is beautiful, athletic, and clever--the epitome of Aryan womanhood. She'll stop at nothing to accomplish her mission, including masquerading as a Jew. Joe Mayer. A prominent American metallurgist working on a top secret project for the U.S. Navy. Mayer holds the secret Erika Lehmann is sent to the United States to steal--a secret that could alter the course of the war. Axel Ryker. The Gestapo's top henchman. Ryker is Heinrich Himmler's top problem solver, i.e. murderer. As ruthless as he is cunning, Ryker is sent to America with a startling mission--find and kill their own spy, Erika Lehmann. The year is 1942. In Evansville, Indiana, a Jewish metallurgist named Joseph Mayer is conducting top secret experiments for the U.S. Navy. Life could not be better for Joe Mayer: he loves his job, and he is dating a beautiful, young Jewish woman...Highly impressive is Whicker's knowledge of the minutiae of spying at all levels in WW II Germany, Britain, and the USA. Clancy's Hunt for Red October. Whicker is especially good at portraying the vicious infighting that went on constantly among the Nazi leaders. The suspense grows gradually but inexorably till the very end. --Dr. Bernard Norling, author and professor emeritus of European history, University of Notre Dame

Hot Blooded


Lisa Jackson - 2001
    Miles away, in a rambling plantation house on Lake Ponchartrain, late-night radio host Dr. Samantha Leeds receives a threatening crank call. But who would think to link the two?As more dead bodies turn up, Samantha's ominous caller persists, along with someone claiming to be a woman from her past—who's been dead for years. With Detective Rick Bentz convinced that the serial killer prowling the streets is somebody close to Samantha, she doesn't dare trust anyone. Especially not Ty Wheeler, her seductive new neighbor who seems to know more about her than a stranger should.Somebody has discovered Samantha's darkest secret. Somebody is convinced that lives must be sacrificed to pay for her sins. So far, the victims have been strangers. But as a cold-blooded killer grows bolder, Samantha wonders if she will be the next to die.

Pursuit


Thomas Perry - 2001
    . . . Pursuit is relentless, filled with twists and turns, that rare page-turner that keeps one reading late into the night to finish.”–The Boston GlobeThirteen bodies are found in a Louisville restaurant. When the police can find no suspect or motive, a victim’s family seeks the services of the enigmatic and solitary specialist Roy Prescott, known for his ability to find people who don’t want to be found. Working outside the law and willing to do what the police can’t, Prescott hunts the killer, an elusive adversary who is as smart, as methodical, as deadly as he is. The only way to conduct this pursuit is to goad the killer into believing that he must kill Roy Prescott. It is a contest fought from one end of the country to the other, and both men understand that when it’s over, only one of them will be alive.From the Paperback edition.

Death Benefits


Thomas Perry - 2001
    All signs point to a long successful career--until Max Stillman, a gruff security consultant, appears without warning at the office. It seems a colleague with whom Walker once had an affair has disappeared after paying a very large death benefit to an impostor. Stillman wants to find and convict her; Walker is convinced the woman is innocent. Now Walker teams up with Stillman on an urgent north-by-northeast race--relentlessly leading to a pay-off that just might shock the life out of him. . . .

The Blue Nowhere


Jeffery Deaver - 2001
    To stop him, the authorities free imprisoned former hacker Wyatt Gillette to aid the investigation. Teamed with old-school homicide detective Frank Bishop, Gillette must combine their disparate talents to catch a brilliant and merciless killer.

Open Season


C.J. Box - 2001
    When he finds a local hunting outfitter dead, splayed out on the woodpile behind his state-owned home, he takes it personally. There had to be a reason that the outfitter, with whom he's had run-ins before, chose his backyard, his woodpile to die in. Even after the "outfitter murders," as they have been dubbed by the local press after the discovery of the two more bodies, are solved, Joe continues to investigate, uneasy with the easy explanation offered by the local police. As Joe digs deeper into the murders, he soon discovers that the outfitter brought more than death to his backdoor: he brought Joe an endangered species, thought to be extinct, which is now living in his woodpile. But if word of the existence of this endangered species gets out, it will destroy any chance of InterWest, a multi-national natural gas company, building an oil pipeline that would bring the company billions of dollars across Wyoming, through the mountains and forests of Twelve Sleep. The closer Joe comes to the truth behind the outfitter murders, the endangered species and InterWest, the closer he comes to losing everything he holds dear.

A Soul in Torment / Dead Air / Where the Heart Is


Paul McCusker - 2001
    Now, as the vicar of an ancient church in a small English village, Gilbert finds himself at the center of one strange mystery after another. Recorded in London with some of England's finest actors, these original audio dramas capture the imagination. Three episodes include "A Soul in Torment," "Where the Heart Is," and "Dead Air."

Hello, Darkness


Sandra Brown - 2001
    To her loyal listeners, she is a wise and trusted friend who not only takes their music requests but listens to their problems and occasionally dispenses advice. Paris's world of isolation is brutally threatened, however, when one listener -- a man who identifies himself only as "Valentino" -- tells her that her on-air advice to the girl he loves has caused her to leave him and that now he intends to exact his revenge. First he plans to kill the girl, whom he has abducted -- which he says he will do in 72 hours -- then he will come after Paris. Joined by the Austin police department, Paris plunges into a race against time in an effort to find Valentino before he can carry out his threat to kill -- and to kill again. To her dismay, she finds that one of the people she must work with is crime psychologist Dean Malloy, a man with whom she shares a history that had a catastrophic effect on both their lives. His presence arouses old passions, forcing Paris to confront painful memories that she had come to Austin to forget.As the clock ticks down, and Valentino's threats come closer and closer to becoming a reality, Paris suddenly finds herself forced to deal with a killer who may not be a stranger at all.

Since You've Been Gone


Carlene Thompson - 2001
    Then came the shocking kidnapping that hit close to home; the first crime she couldn't solve. Haunted by guilt since the shattering day her beloved kid brother was found murdered, Rebecca has finally made a fresh start in New Orleans. Then comes the all-too-familar vision: Mind-numbing terror. Shattering pain. The grim certainty that somewhere, a child has been kidnapped from his bed in the middle of the night. A child who shares Rebecca's last name--and perhaps, her brother's grim fate. Back in quaint Sinclair, West Virginia, Rebecca intends to use her psychic gift to find her cousin's missing son before it's too late. But some people in town--and in the Ryan household itself--still resent her for what her second sight did. Some haven't forgiven her for what it couldn't do. And one vengeful soul is determined that Rebecca and her family will once again pay a deadly ransom...

Murder in the Seventh Cavalry


Robert Broomall - 2001
    Lysander goes undercover as an enlisted man to find the killer, who is believed to have been one of the officer’s men. He discovers that the vaunted Seventh Cavalry is not the elite regiment that the papers make it out to be, and that a large number of its officers and enlisted man despise their famous commander. Lysander reluctantly teams up with newspaper reporter Verity Winslow. Lysander and Verity mix like oil and water, but Verity has information that’s important to the case and she won’t share it unless Lysander agrees to let her help. As the two of them dig deeper, they start to believe that Custer may not want them to find the real killer . . .

The Hunted


Alan Jacobson - 2001
    Lauren Chambers was sure she could rely on, it was her beloved husband, Michael. Recovering from an agoraphobic depression and prone to episodes of blinding anxiety, Lauren is a gifted psychologist for whom her husband's love and support mean everything. So when Michael suddenly and mysteriously vanishes, Lauren once again finds herself balancing on a knife's edge, haunted more than ever by an all-too-familiar paranoia. Is there more to it than paranoia, though? Private investigator Nick Bradley believes so. As the pair takes off on a cross-country journey in search of answers -- a search that yields a series of unsettling truths about the husband Lauren believed she knew so well -- bestselling author Alan Jacobson sets into motion a page-turning tale of concealed identities, an assassin's vendetta, and murderous revenge. Once again proving his mastery of the shocking twist and the ingenious turn, Jacobson leads readers on an exhilarating road thriller built for hairpin turns and unexpected detours as Lauren heads for a face-off with the most dangerous secret of all: the truth.From Alan Jacobson, "one of the brightest stars of the publishing world" (CNN), comes a chilling follow-up to his breakthrough national bestseller "False Accusations": a high-velocity thriller of deadly revenge and psychological mayhem.

Collected Short Stories


Shirley Jackson - 2001
    Each book presents a collection of the author's best short stories, a biography, and insightful notes about the stories.

The Trojan Sea


Richard Herman - 2001
    The first female President of the United States sits in the White House. Monster corporations wield the real global power And all the old rules have been changed.A military functionary toiling in bureaucratic tedium, Lt. Colonel Mike Stuart is resigned to serving his country in his own quiet way. But when he dutifully reports an unusual pattern of oil tanker movements to his superiors, his ordinary life starts spinning dangerously out of control. Suddenly powerful forces are closing in on one inconspicuous man, threatening to brutally change the political face of a hemisphere, bring a government down in flames and chaos...and take the life of America's President. Called upon to defend his nation in ways he never imagined, Mike Stuart's sole chance for success -- and survival -- is to become something he has never been: a warrior.

The Complete Miss Marple


Agatha Christie - 2001
    They include:1. The Moving Finger2. Sleeping Murder3. Nemesis4. A Caribbean Mystery5. 4.50 From Paddington6. A Pocket Full of Rye7. They do it With Mirrors8. At Bertram's Hotel9. The Body in the Library10. The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, and two more.Librarian's note: this entry is for the collection, "The Complete Miss Marple." Entries for each of the individual novels can be found elsewhere on Goodreads. Librarian's note #2: the word "Complete" in the title implies the full set of 12 Miss Marple novels. That means that the other two are "The Murder at the Vicarage," and "A Murder is Announced."

Mindgame


Anthony Horowitz - 2001
    A thriller that actually manages to thrill, and a very dark comedy that twists and spirals towards a completely unexpected ending. This is one play where seeing isn't quite believing and reading the text is the only way to uncover all the clues.

Eight Great Sherlock Holmes Stories


Arthur Conan Doyle - 2001
    Also included are such perennial favorites as "A Scandal in Bohemia," "The Red-headed League," "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb," "The Musgrave Ritual," "The Adventure of the Empty House," and "The Adventure of the Dancing Men."This Dover edition is specially designed for those who need or prefer large print and meets the standards of the National Association for the Visually Handicapped.A scandal in Bohemia --The red-headed league --The adventure of the speckled band --The adventure of the engineer's thumb --The final problem --The Musgrave ritual --The adventure of the dancing men --The adventure of the empty house.

A King's Ransom


James Grippando - 2001
    Now his trademark gifts are wonderfully demonstrated in a taut new tale of intrigue that will keep you guessing to the final, breathtaking scene.Just two years out of law school, Nick Rey is on the career fast track at a hot Miami law firm when he is suddenly plunged headfirst into a dangerous bid to save his father. Matthew Rey has been kidnapped while on business in Columbia's exotic port city of Cartagena. The ransom demand of three million dollars is far more than the Rey family can ever hope to raise.Fortunately, Matthew had purchased an insurance policy to protect against just such a threat. Unfortunately, the kidnappers seem to know all about the policy, and the insurance company, suspecting fraud, is refusing to pay out. With nowhere to turn, Nick links up with Alex, a beautiful, street-smart woman who may be the only person capable of negotiating with Matthew's abductors. But Nick soon discovers that the gravest dangers to him and his family are not the kidnappers and their guns, but the men in suits: lawyers, to be exact, at a powerful firm with something to hide, and they will stop at nothing to keep Nick from unleashing the truth.

The Mystery of the Haunted Caves


Penny Warner - 2001
    But they face stiff competition from the other troops -- especially Troop 7, whose members love to pull pranks on them. When a mysterious clue hints at treasure buried in Camp Miwok's Haunted Caves, Becca and her friends are determined to get their hands on that, too -- even if it means sneaking from camp, hanging out with bats, and being threatened by robbers...