Book picks similar to
Shaded Light: The Case of the Tactless Trophy Wife by N.J. Lindquist
mystery
amazon
digital
first-in-series
The Enemy We Know
Donna White Glaser - 2011
When one of her clients slips free from an abusive boyfriend, Letty becomes the target of his violent rage. Wayne invades Letty's life, slithering his way past the barriers erected between her personal and professional lives, leaving gifts of dead rats, mutilated dolls, and freaky Shakespearian sonnets. Worst of all, Wayne uncovers Letty's deepest shame, infiltrating her AA group and threatening to expose her to the state licensing board. And then--good news--Wayne is murdered. The bad news? The police suspect Letty. Worse yet, the sonnets and bloody souvenirs keep coming. Someone else has been watching Letty. Someone eager to drop bodies at her feet like a cat offering dead mole trophies to his mistress. Someone willing to kill again.
Grave Situation
Alex MacLean - 2011
When he finally decides to leave the force and start over, he's assigned a string of murders that all bear the signs of a serial killer collecting trophies.As Stanton unravels each grisly crime scene, the mounting evidence points uncomfortably close to him and a case more disturbing than anything he's ever seen.
Courage Begins: A Ray Courage Mystery Novella
R. Scott Mackey - 2015
Until Tiffanie is killed in a suspicious accident. Neither the police nor the insurance investigators can prove she was murdered and the case turns cold. Two years later the insurance company asks an intern—former college professor turned private eye Ray Courage—to reopen the investigation. He uncovers little new evidence to support suspicions that Garrett killed his wife for the insurance money. Garrett has the perfect alibi—hundreds of witnesses that place him more than two hours from the scene of Tiffanie’s death. Ray knows he’s missing something. But what? As his search for the truth unfolds, Ray’s life is put in jeopardy and he realizes his adversary is someone who’ll kill before he’ll be caught. In this prequel to Courage Matters, Ray Courage begins his private investigation career, displaying the skills, abilities and sense of humor that have made him a fan favorite around the world.
Ethan Justice: Origins
Simon Jenner - 2012
By the evening, he’s struggling to survive. John Smith’s risk avoidance policy just expired! Waking up beside the gorgeous Savannah Jones, John is shocked to learn she was for hire, and he can’t pay the price - a thousand pounds or broken legs. In desperation, he turns to best friend, Mark, for the money. Only one problem - Mark has a dagger in his back.John and Savannah are plunged into a dangerous world where wits and adrenaline are their only weapons and trust in each other their only certainty. As the body count mounts, they discover Mark wasn’t the person John thought, and his terrifying invention may well end up killing thousands, John and Savannah included. A race to recover the missing invention pits the unlikely pairing against ex-SAS psychopath, Gregory Fisher, a man who will stop at nothing and kill anyone in his way to wreak revenge against the Government who stole his livelihood.When Smith and Jones team up, the result is explosive.This is a fast-paced, action-packed, character-driven thriller, guaranteed to make you laugh out loud, cringe, cry and cheer. This book contains a few violent scenes, a dash of sex and the odd bit of bad language, so please don't buy it if you are easily offended.
New Corpse In Town
Lucy Quinn - 2016
A phone call to the sheriff should mean the end of Cookie’s involvement, but when it’s clear the sheriff has no interest in the investigation, Cookie calls in reinforcements…her ex-partner Hunter O’Neil. Suddenly it’s like old times while the pair questions the residents of Secret Seal Isle. Except it’s not. Now she has both Hunter and Dylan vying for her attention, a wayward hippy mother, and a potential killer on the loose. With her love life heating up, her mother lighting up, and all signs pointing to the most unlikely suspect, Cookie does the only thing she knows to do—focus on solving the case.
Trudy, Madly, Deeply
Wendy Delaney - 2013
With no physical evidence of foul play, Char's on the case, much to the irritation of Detective Steve Sixkiller, who doesn't want her to stick her pretty nose for trouble in his investigation. But she's a woman on a mission to uncover the truth, and she'd better keep her eyes open or the next body on the way to the morgue could be hers....
A Circumstance of Blood
Jeannette Batz Cooperman - 2015
With fifty students, the majority fee paying, he looks forward to being able to offer places to another fifty students whose parents are unable to pay. Working on his staff is University friend Jimmy Cadigan, also a priest, and Father Francis Charron, an elderly priest, who had taught Colin at seminary school. Charron’s brilliant, but he assisted at an exorcism as a young priest and has never recovered from the experience. One of the academy’s students, 17-year-old Philip Grant, dresses like Oscar Wilde and hasn’t troubled to define his sexual orientation. Irreverent and rebellious, he’s researching the private lives of the faculty for a video mashup. He asks to borrow the Matteo Ricci map, a sixteenth century map which has been donated to the school. Philip’s enough of a handful, but then Auxiliary Bishop Matthew Ehrlich arrives at the school to tell Colin that he has a new pupil for him. The son of a local lawyer and psychologist, Graham Dennison has been accused of trying to kill his mother. Colin tries to refuse; Ehrlich, conscious of the fundraising prospects, insists. Miserable, Colin contacts his university friend Sarah Markham, a journalist who has just returned from Haiti. Sarah moves in and starts to develop a profile of the young man. She’s not convinced he’s violent at all. And then one of the boys is found dead from a possible drugs overdose. With her old friend panicking and other faculty members behaving strangely, Sarah starts to call in favours to get to bottom of the murder. Was she wrong about Graham? Can she unravel the mystery swiftly enough to save Colin’s school? Jeannette Cooperman spent a decade as an award-winning investigative reporter, then went on to teach, write, and work as editor-in-chief of St. Louis Magazine. She loathed being in charge and cheerfully sank to staff writer, her current full-time gig. On the side, she has written several non-fiction books. This is her first fiction book for Endeavour. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.
The Cipher
Isabella Maldonado - 2020
Until now…FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera escaped a serial killer’s trap at sixteen. Years later, when she’s jumped in a Virginia park, a video of the attack goes viral. Legions of new fans are not the only ones impressed with her fighting skills. The man who abducted her eleven years ago is watching. Determined to reclaim his lost prize, he commits a grisly murder designed to pull her into the investigation…but his games are just beginning. And he’s using the internet to invite the public to play along.His coded riddles may have made him a depraved social media superstar—an enigmatic cyber-ghost dubbed “the Cipher”—but to Nina he’s a monster who preys on the vulnerable. Partnered with the FBI’s preeminent mind hunter, Dr. Jeffrey Wade, who is haunted by his own past, Nina tracks the predator across the country. Clue by clue, victim by victim, Nina races to stop a deadly killer while the world watches.
Lost And Found
Amy Shojai - 2012
But can she team up with a service dog to save a missing child and catch a murderer?Animal behaviorist September Day protects her broken heart by keeping everyone at arm’s length. Still distraught over her husband’s death in the line of duty, she heads back to her Texas home to launch a dog-training business. But her grief takes a back seat when her autistic nephew goes missing in a freak blizzard.Partnering with the boy’s support pup Shadow, September uncovers a shocking conspiracy hiding a deadly “miracle drug.” Hounded by vengeful enemies, human and dog must learn to work together and sniff out the source of corruption before more vulnerable kids die.Can September and Shadow forge a bond and stop a ruthless conspiracy and relentless killer?Lost And Found is the first action-packed installment in the gripping September and Shadow series. If you like dark suspense, novice detectives, and courageous animals, then you’ll love Amy Shojai’s roller-coaster thrillers.
A Cup of Murder
Cam Larson - 2014
A new upscale chain coffeehouse, Sunrise, opened across the street, and Laila's customers are leaving. The owner of Sunrise, Michael Simms wants to put Roasted Love out of business and enjoys letting them know with his rudeness and his mean Doberman. Jacob Weaver, the owner of Roasted Love won't back down, and he's not being too quiet about it, either. When the owner of Sunrise, Michael Simms, is found murdered by poison in his coffee and the Jacob is the prime suspect, Laila has to decide if Jacob could be guilty and figure out how to save Roasted Love from closing - not to mention balance a cute paramedic and an orphaned Doberman. Between Jacob's mood swings and things not adding up, the clock is ticking on the future of Roasted Love. Book 1 of the Roasted Love Cozy Mystery Series. More Cozy Mysteries are coming. Book 2 of Roasted Love Cozy Mysteries is HOT COFFEE, ICED SANTA - part of a culinary cozy mystery series.
Closure
Randall Wood - 2009
Special Agent Jack Randall of the FBI finds himself appointed to track down and stop the shooter. Not by his superiors, but by the killer himself.As more bodies fall the shooter takes his message to the press, earning the support of the public with his choice of targets and confounding the FBI at every turn. From the desert of Nevada to the urban jungle of New York City, Jack and his team follow the trail of bodies and haunting messages left behind by the killer. With the pressure to find him mounting on Jack, the assassin’s crimes grow bolder, and his message more sinister and closer to home.It becomes clear to Jack that in order to find the shooter, he may have to look inside his own past, and become the man he was years ago.
The Sinister Seminar
Sara Robbins - 2013
She helped launch the Aspen Valley Inn and now she is getting her own story. She operates Enchanted Events which is getting the reputation that they host events to die for. It was a simple writing seminar booking. First someone tries to kill one of the students and next they come after Charlotte. Nothing can stop Charlotte from getting to the bottom of this because this time it's personal. Spend some time with the characters you loved in the Aspen Valley Inn Series and you'll also get to know more about Charlotte in this first book of the Events to Die For Series.This is a novella of approximately 25, 200 words.
Ash
Jason Brant - 2013
10:32 AM EST: An entire floor of government agents leap to their death from their office building. 12:57 PM EST: All the police officers inside a station murder each other. And the day has just begun. Lieutenant Asher Benson left Iraq with a traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and a Purple Heart. His doctors warned that the symptoms would be life altering. They had no idea. As his body healed, the thoughts of those around him began to echo through Ash’s mind, stretching the boundaries of his sanity. Five years later, Ash is drowning the voices with copious amounts of booze and self-loathing. When unidentified intelligence agents abduct him in broad daylight, Ash is thrust into a world of espionage and assassinations. A unique terrorist is operating on U.S. soil, and the government needs Ash, and the malady that has plagued him for half a decade, to find the killer. *Ash is the first book in the Asher Benson thriller series, which is full of snarky humor and nonstop action.
The Candidate's Daughter
Catherine Lea - 2013
But Matt's planned everything down to the last detail—nobody gets hurt, the kid goes home alive. Then Kelsey discovers she’s only got half the plan. By the time she finds out the rest, she’s been framed for murder, and six-year-old Holly McClaine has less than a day to live.Across town, Holly’s mother has no idea what her daughter was wearing when she disappeared. When Holly was born with Down syndrome and a cleft palate, Elizabeth McClaine placed her only daughter in the care of a nanny while she battled post-natal depression. But when Holly is kidnapped and Elizabeth discovers the detective heading the hunt has already failed one kidnapped child, Elizabeth knows she cannot fail hers. Now Kelsey and Elizabeth have twenty-four hours to find Holly. Because in twenty-five, she’ll be dead.
Cold Comfort
Scott Mackay - 1998
The bizarre nature of the crime itself -- apparently the woman was shot after she froze to death -- and the divergent clues do not bode well for a quick and tidy solution. Who trashed the victim's apartment and what was this person looking for? Why did the intruder kill her parrot? Odder still, Cheryl was never seen leaving her building on the lobby security videotape -- so how did she end up on the dock? Add a large sum of stolen money and a dead sister into the equation and Gilbert is tackling a crime filled with dark secrets, dangerous relations and a killer convinced he can get away with murder.