Book picks similar to
Crime after Crime by Tara W. Kent


mystery
amazon
nevermind
a-pending-placement

Black Beast


R.S. Guthrie - 2011
    The death of his partner; the loss of his own leg in the line of duty; the companionship of his beloved wife to cancer; his faith in God to his inner demons.After the man who ruined his leg and killed his first partner is executed, Macaulay becomes the lead detective investigating the Sloan's Lake murders. The method of killing in this double-homicide is so heinous it leads Macaulay and his partner down an ever-darkening path—one that must be traversed if they are to discover the evil forces behind the slaughter. Just when Bobby Macaulay is questioning the very career that has been his salvation, he will discover a heroic history buried within his own family roots: The Clan MacAulay—a deep family lineage of protectors at the very core of a millenniums-long war against unimaginable evil."Black Beast" is the first in a series of Clan of MacAulay novels—a stellar first outing for new author R.S. Guthrie. The book is a page-turner that avoids meandering, written with tight prose that keeps the action flowing. The reader is taken inside the heart and mind of a common hero who will make you believe in good again—Macaulay is a believable, flawed character with whom each of us can relate and for whom each of us will cheer.

Killen


P.H. Figur - 2020
    Anyone wanting to know what it was like to live there, only had to read a small wooden sign on the outskirts of town: “Welcome to Killen…a little piece of Heaven.” Those words rang true for most of Killen’s first 200 years. But there was one exception. It was the time that Killen lived up to its name and a little piece of heaven...became...a little piece of hell. When Thomas Dalton was 13-years-old, a string of murders in a North Georgia received unwanted national attention. With the passing of time, facts got distorted, turning Killen into a macabre tourist destination. But for Thomas, it became personal when his own parents, suddenly disappeared and were subsequently declared dead. He goes to school to become an investigative reporter and gets a job at a national cable television station. Thomas then is assigned to a national case tracking down a serial killer. What Thomas doesn’t realize is the serial killer he is looking for, will not only solve a national mystery it will also solve his own mystery. Throughout Thomas’s journey he is driven to find out who killed his parents. But he also desperately wants to restore the reputation of Killen and rebuild the family business.The only question that remains is…can he make Killen a little piece of heaven once again?

Beyond the Grave


R.W. Wallace - 2021
    A small bump in the ground next to her grave marks former police officer Robert’s last resting place.And in thirty years, no visitors for either of them.Confined within the cemetery borders and yearning for closure to move on, the two ghosts can’t go after the people who killed them.Until Clothilde receives her very first visitor — and along with it, the means to escape the cemetery.Beyond the Grave is the first novel in the Ghost Detective series, following Robert and Clothilde in their search for justice.

California Blood


Pete Palamountain - 2011
    Baldy.• Suicide of a wandering derelict.• Murder of a wealthy matriarch.• Murder of a charismatic Catholic priest.

Revenge: No Statute of Limitations


Whit Gentry - 2011
    The story starts fast and quickly explodes into multiple stories as the kidnapper maintains his captives, the FBI conducts their taskforce investigations, and the lives of the husbands and wives are exposed. As the stories progress, action escalates and leaves the reader little time to catch a breath. The twists are stimulating and the conclusion is unforeseen and rewarding because revenge has no statute of limitations. The affluent estate community of Evergreen, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, is stunned to discover that four women have been kidnapped. The Evergreen Police chief and the Sheriff of Boulder County willingly gave the case to the Denver FBI office. Three months passes with no ransom request, no bodies, nor any specific suspect, the FBI team theorizes that the women are no longer alive based on history of other cases. The four women are friends and neighbors: one is in her early forties and a mother of two preteen girls; one married to a doctor and a successful business woman; one a princess, unhappily married, and a social butterfly; the fourth woman is the matriarch, a closet alcoholic, married to a successful attorney who plans to be the next US Senator for Colorado. Months into their abduction with no beauty salons, nail salons, withdrawal from children and alcohol, the women's true personalities begin to blossom.The twenty-eight-year-old kidnapper questions who will be changed the most, him or his captives. He has promised to release them in seven months, allowing them to return to their lives with new perspectives and tell the FBI what happened. But will he keep his word? Moreover, what could be the driving reason behind the women's kidnapping? A cryptic, mind-boggling mystery awaits readers as this saga unfolds a bitter sweet expression of "Revenge."

The Case of the Pig in the Evening Suit


R.R. Gall - 2013
    A far from ordinary detective. A topical thriller.The Case of the Pig in the Evening Suit is the first book in a trilogy of murder mystery thrillers.In the Scottish town of Dumfries, people come to Jin Johnstone with their problems - but this can lead to problems of his own.A missing son, a beautiful, enigmatic woman, a pig in an evening suit: it is the swift start to a deadly turn of events.

Low End of Nowhere


Michael Stone - 1996
    Streeter is hired by the scheming woman he nailed for insurance fraud to go after her dead boyfriend’s stash of drug money… and has to single-handedly face off against a greedy, violent pack of lowlifes and sociopaths killing their way to the big score.

Buried in Benidorm


L.H. Thomson - 2012
    He's finally got a little free time ... until a big-shot turns up dead at a local golf course. Now, his former employer is calling in an old debt, and Max is neck-deep in gangsters, grifters and girls with grudges. A decades-old secret could hold the key to solving the case, but can Max figure it out before one of them leaves him ... Buried in Benidorm?

Murder Revisited


William Coleman - 2020
    But before he can make a start, he is suddenly reassigned by his boss, Terrance Singleton, to the cold case of Timothy Waters, who had served 20 years in prison for the murder of Elizabeth Mitchell, the daughter of the then mayor.A review of his conviction has set him free and as a friend of the family, Singleton wants to make sure Mallory finds more evidence to put him back behind bars.But the case is complex and before long Mallory discovers that there is a lot more to it than meets the eye; family tensions, a witness run out of town and the possibility the victim had a second boyfriend. It all points to a shoddy investigation and a blunder that sent an innocent man to prison.When Mallory’s investigation reveals a link between the girl in the alley, Elizabeth, and another murder victim from seven years ago, he can’t help but wonder if they are connected. With the motive unclear, and the perpetrator a mystery, Mallory must piece together the evidence that may solve three cases instead of one, overcome a miscarriage of justice and uncover a killer who may be closer than he thinks.

CHURCH GIRLS DON'T TELL: Church Girl Short Stories Book 1 (The Preacher Preyed)


Temple Leery - 2014
    But she's managed to find herself right in the middle of one. She's caught between a rock and a hard place as her faith and devotion to God clashes with the lustful passion she feels for the forbidden man who has forced his way into her heart. Her simple small-town girl life quickly begins to spin out of control as she battles her demons and tries desperately to keep her unholy desires a secret. Short story. Approximately 12,000 words.

Precious Things: Some things are worth killing for.


Marie Reyes - 2021
    

Return of the Phoenix


Heath Stallcup - 2012
    For centuries, stories of things that go ‘bump’ in the night have been passed down and shared. When creatures of the night proved to be real, the best of America’s military came together to form an elite band of rapid response teams. Their mission: to face to challenge and keep the civilian populace safe from those threats and hide all evidence of their existence. But during a routine mission, when things go horribly wrong, the Monster Squad finds themselves having to rebuild from the ashes of what they once were.This time, they face not only the monsters that threaten the peaceful lives of the citizens they are sworn to protect, but their own government, as a dark storm brews on the horizon. A storm that will threaten not just the squad and their existence, but the lives of every human on earth…

No Police Like Holmes


Dan Andriacco - 2011
    Benignus College in Erin, Ohio. But when theft and murder come to campus, college public relations director Jeff Cody finds himself knee-deep in Sherlockian suspects, besieged by an aggressive reporter he loves but no longer dates, and competing with his eccentric brother-in-law, Sebastian McCabe, to solve the crimes first. The mess worsens when Jeff and his ex-girlfriend, Lynda Teal, themselves fall under suspicion of murder - and with good reason, for they have something to hide. This satirical romp takes Sherlock Holmes seriously, but not Holmesians. A witty and engaging spoof sure to delight not only the deerstalker set but mystery fans in general.

Death Wore Brown Shorts


Audrey Claire - 2015
    They enjoyed the view when he wore those brown shorts every spring and summer. But someone is less appreciative of Paul’s muscular legs. Annie Holloway, mystery writer and lover of a good challenge, finds Paul strangled to death in his truck. She is determined to finger the murderer. Annie enjoys the excitement of what she does for a living, especially when it comes to research. Nothing is better than the hands-on approach. The task is that much harder because of Annie’s dark family history. Then there’s the fact that she’s self-diagnosed as having borderline obsessive-compulsive disorder. Not that anything can stop Happy Holloway! A new cozy mystery series.

Dark Remnants


L.K. Hill - 2013
    Especially handsome detectives with kind voices and beautiful eyes. So when her conscience just won’t shut the hell up, and convinces her to corner one such cop in a dark parking lot to tell him what she’s learned, she can just feel this won’t be the end of it. She doesn’t have time to worry about it, though. She has gangsters to piss off, homicidal gangs to infiltrate, and people to search for. Yes, this is Kyra’s life. The endgame is worth it, though. If she lives long enough to attain it. Join Kyra and Gabe in a pulse-pounding chase through Abstreuse City to find a killer and save a child before it’s too late. Because everyone loves good cop meets mysterious woman meets serial killer. And darkness lives in us all. “Intriguing storyline. Good fun…Highly recommend!” –R.V.P. Author Interview: What got you into writing crime fiction? Like so many others, I’ve always loved mysteries. Even a minor mystery is compelling to me and I’ve finished otherwise mediocre books, just to learn what the answer is. I watch a lot of police procedurals and have always especially been fascinated with criminal psychology and serial killers. It was always just a matter of time before I started writing about it. Yeah, but what’s a nice Christian girl like you doing writing about serial killers? Kind of dark subject matter, isn’t it? *laughs* It’s a question I’ve gotten a lot. It’s definitely dark subject matter. I prefer it that way, though. The darker the story becomes, the greater the capacity for character redemption. Lovers of horror understand this concept well. If the character can’t demonstrate a visceral ability to overcome a ridiculous amount of darkness, they’re almost not worth rooting for. Nothing is darker than a person willing to coldly take the lives of other human beings. I think that’s why our society is so interested in this type of villain. It’s a darkness we can’t understand, but want to, if for no other reason than to keep it at bay in ourselves. As an author, exploring that is both fascinating and kind of fun. Why this story? Why Abstreuse and the Mire? I came up with this story all at once. Many authors come up with stories based on the story they would like to see told, but haven’t found. It was more or less that way for me. There wasn’t any specific crime fiction story I was unsatisfied with, but rather while reading and watching them, I couldn’t help but start to form something in my mind I’d love to read myself. By the time I sat down to write, I had the entire draft of book 1 already formed in my head, and basic shape of the rest. It’s one of those stories that took on an urgency because I became so excited to tell it. So I did! You’ve written stories about both urban and rural crime. Do you have a preference? No, I don’t think I prefer one over the other. Being something of a country girl myself, writing about a killer in a small desert town held an interest all its own. But the urban setting of the inner city can definitely prove grittier. They present us with two different feels to the same kind of darkness. I personally find both tremendously compelling.