Book picks similar to
When the Man Comes Around by Bradley Wright
mystery
thriller
ebook
fiction
The Subway
Dustin Stevens - 2017
Placed there by the Witness Protection Program, he has assimilated into the existence set up for him, trying to gain some level of enjoyment from the life he never asked for and even less wanted. An existence that is completely destroyed by a single phone call, nothing more than a message telling him that his last remaining tether to his old life has been severed in a most tragic and unexpected way. Having no choice but to abandon his adopted life and return to his roots, Scarberry finds himself dropped into a situation far more harrowing than he ever could have imagined. Allied with a single sheriff’s deputy – a young woman he knew only briefly in his youth that is fighting battles of her own – the two face a network of illegal gun runners, apathetic bureaucracy, and federal agency, ultimately squaring off with the very thing Scarberry’s been trying to avoid for so long…
Snatched
Michael Arches - 2021
She survived, but barely. Now, she lives quietly in Durango, Colorado—until a frantic pregnant woman at a gas station shoves a card into Athena’s hand.The card reads: Over forty women and girls—mostly pregnant—held prisoner! Five dead already. About an hour east of Durango. Call the FBI. Sheriff’s office corrupt. PLEASE HELP US!A looming thug with a poorly hidden pistol hustles the pregnant woman and her female friend away. Athena fights a scream and follows. Unfortunately, she can’t do much. Even with the help of a cane, she can barely walk.With panic rising in her throat, Athena takes down the license number of the thug’s Suburban. But what if the plate is fake? Athena follows in her pickup and begs for help from the US Marshal’s Office and the FBI.Both agencies turn her down. Athena keeps following the Suburban, racking her brain for a plan that could save the women's lives without getting herself killed. Unfortunately, the greedy bastards who run the secret prison already have blood on their hands. They won’t hesitate to kill Athena, too.
Bone Maker
D.F. Bailey - 2015
A woman mourns alone. A reporter works a single lead. If you have an appetite for organized crime series, you’ll love this new crime trilogy. Add a slice of noir novels, the juice of steamy PI mysteries, the zest of a financial thriller series. Soon you’ll be stewing in this new technothriller trilogy — and begging for more. Following a family tragedy that has broken his spirit, crime reporter Will Finch returns to his news desk in San Francisco eager to reboot his career and renew his lease on life. When he’s assigned to cover the grisly death of a witness to a multi-million dollar bitcoin fraud, Finch discovers some troubling complications: A Mercedes-Benz abandoned in the wilderness. A wounded bear. A cop who rules a remote town with an iron fist. And the witness’s fiancée — a US senator’s daughter — knows there’s something mysterious about her lover’s death. But what? Inspired by true events, Bone Maker is the first thriller in this series of noir crime new releases — a new crime trilogy that races from coastal Oregon to San Francisco, Moscow, Honolulu and Washington DC. It intersects the worlds of international finance, cryptocurrency software algorithms, and corruption that reaches from the US Senate to Turk Street in the Tenderloin District. Fans of contemporary noir novels will love this technothriller trilogy. Be sure to read this gripping financial thriller series in order: Bone Maker, Stone Eater, Lone Hunter. All three books are available now. Author Interview with D. F. Bailey Q. The first page of Bone Maker states that the novel is “inspired by true events.”* Tell us more. DFB. Two events inspired these books. The first involves a massive bitcoin theft. In the spring of 2014 the bitcoin equivalent of over $450,000,000 simply disappeared from a bitcoin exchange called Mt. Gox. Solving this crime drives the plots of all three novels. At heart, the books are an organized crime series in the form of a technothriller trilogy. Q. What was the second true event? DFB. A few years ago I came across a news article about a convicted murderer — 53-year-old Rory Nelson Wagner — whose corpse was discovered outside his car in a mountain wilderness. Apparently he died of a heart attack and a bear had dragged him from his vehicle and partially devoured him. Horrible as it seems, I was drawn by the notion of some sort of natural justice at play. Early on in Bone Maker, the sheriff handling a similar case refers to the attack as “Murder by Nature.” I considered using that for the book title at one point. Q. Sounds like one of Agatha Christie’s PI mysteries. DFB. Granted, there’s an element of PI mysteries to the trilogy. However, I’m not the sort of writer who likes to create a maze or puzzle with red herrings and hidden clues to fool or mislead the reader. Bone Maker is a crime thriller with a strong noir flavor. Readers learn about the crimes one step at a time, just as our hero Will Finch uncovers the facts of each case. Q. So who is Will Finch? DFB. Finch is a 35 year-old crime reporter working for the San Francisco eXpress. Before becoming a journalist, he served in Iraq, at Abu Graib, in military intelligence. Like all noir heroes, there is an irredeemable quality to him, but he’s not completely lost. He senses that he can find his way back to a normal life, yet he’s not sure how to do it. Q. Tell us about the title, Bone Maker. DFB. Each of the three titles in the trilogy uses the nickname of a bad guy — the antagonist.
Sanctioned
R.A. McGee - 2020
But there’s a bullet out there with his name on it…Covert operative Czerny Clark has had his fill of black-ops and bloodshed. After an assassination mission ends in chaos, he vows to hang up his holster. But when his former partner disappears while tailing a Russian explosives expert, Clark picks up his guns and dives back into the life he thought he left behind.Following a trail of bodies to Central America, Clark will stop at nothing to free his colleague. But while he’s busy squeezing the trigger on his rescue mission, a plan for a devastating act of terrorism brews in the wings.Can Clark neutralize a madman before thousands of innocents die?Sanctioned is the heart-stopping first book in the Blackthorn spy thriller series. If you like gritty heroes, pulse-pounding plots, and top-secret twists, then you’ll love R.A. McGee’s blood-soaked tale.
Follow Me Down
Gordon Mackinney - 2017
Six years earlier, Drax Enterprises’ negligence killed his father and left his mother strung out on Valium. Lucas longs to punish the corrupt behemoth of Cincinnati real estate development, but what can one man do? "Plenty," says old Mr. Blumenfeld, Lucas's boss and a former photojournalist with too many secrets. Evidence to bury Drax exists, he claims, but to find it, Lucas must breach the city's welded-shut subway system. Lucas takes the plunge, aided by his best friend and moral compass, Reuben Klein. The deeper the duo infiltrates the dangerous underground, the further back they turn the clock. They learn that Drax's corruption intertwined with fascism's rise in Germany. That campfire tales of a subway crypt were true. That no one can be trusted, not even Lucas's boss.
A Matter of Latitude
Isobel Blackthorn - 2018
Meanwhile his wife, English expat Paula, is distraught. Her pursuit of answers is deflected when her neighbor, troublesome retiree Shirley Mobad, co-opts Paula on her escapades around the Canary Islands.Paula’s search for her husband quickly descends into mayhem, danger and intrigue. Before long, she realizes she’s being followed. She needs answers, and fast.But where is Celestino, and will he ever make it back alive?
"A Matter of Latitude simmers with danger, betrayal and treachery, drawing the reader into the island’s history of shady dealings and uneasy relationships between natives, tourists and expats... Isobel Blackthorn has crafted an atmospheric and setting-rich novel with alluring lyrical style."
– Sandi Wallace, award-winning crime fiction author
Jet Sweep (Burnside Series # 12)
David Chill - 2021
Burnside is lured into a scheme involving a star football player he had once recruited out of high school, he tries to turn the tables on the perpetrator. But when shots are fired on a darkened L.A. street, he is plunged into a mystifying case where nothing is as it seems – where even murder could be an illusion. The story leads Burnside into the world of startup companies, and the money-hungry people who run them. By pushing his way through a riveting set of clues, he finds a twisted trail of age-old grievances and shocking betrayals. And it wouldn’t be a Burnside mystery if he didn’t manage to also upstage the police, as his investigation is always a step ahead of theirs, creating yet another thorny path for him to navigate.As Burnside races to tie the details together before any more carnage is done, he also gains further insight into his own sketchy history and begins to grasp how his checkered past has led him to where he is now – for better and for worse. His remarkable journey parallels the story and creates depth and texture to one of modern crime fiction’s most irreverent heroes.Jet Sweep is the latest installment of this classic Southern California noir mystery series. With razor-sharp dialogue and sardonic humor, this well-honed thriller is set against a backdrop of an increasingly hot Los Angeles summer. It is a story that comes loaded with high drama, as well as some unexpected surprises!
Irons in the Fire
Bowen Greenwood - 2020
The prime suspect got out of prison way too easily; reporter Sherman Iron needs to know why. But he breaks the law in his quest for answers, and Iron stumbles on the dead body of a corrupt judge with a million in cash in a briefcase in front of him.Then the cops show up.Framed for a murder he didn’t commit, Sherman Iron must clear his name and find the killer who ordered the shooting. But everyone in Hunter has a secret, and learning them might take Iron from the frying pan to the fire.
Skin in the Game
D.P. Lyle - 2019
Of a sort. Employing the skills learned from the “family” and their training, they now fix the unfixable. Case in point: Retired General William Kessler hires the duo to track down his missing granddaughter, a Vanderbilt University co-ed. Their search leads them to a small, bucolic, lake-side town in central Tennessee and into a world of prostitution, human trafficking, and serial murder. The question then becomes: Will their considerable skills be enough for Cain and Harper to save the young woman, and themselves, from a sociopath with “home field” advantage, a hunter’s skills, and his own deeply disturbing agenda?
Collateral Damage (Iris Reid Mystery #4)
Susan Cory - 2020
Her client becomes the prime suspect and Iris sets out to find the real killer. Things go from bad to worse when Iris' boyfriend reconnects with an old flame, bringing up buried secrets and unintended consequences that threaten to change Iris' life forever.“Mystery and distinctive characters hone this remarkable tale.”Kirkus ReviewsCory teases out her twisty plot at the perfect pace, leaving readers on the edge of their seats. Her multilayered characters are working at cross purposes, and even the most astute mystery reader won’t see where everything is headed until the final thread is unknotted. Completely absorbing, fast-paced, well-written and with a shocking ending guaranteed to satisfy.P.M. Steffen, best-selling author of The Profiler’s Daughter and Killing Ulysses.
Under Cover of Daylight
James W. Hall - 1987
Hall’s haunting debut novel first introduced the rugged character Thorn and the breathtaking South Florida landscape where he lives. Thorn’s past includes a savage act of revenge on the drunken hit-and-run killer of his parents. Now, fifteen years later, Thorn still cannot escape that moment, or the darkness he took into his soul that night. Not even his best friend, Sugarman, knows the truth. Not even Sarah Ryan knows the depths of her lover’s pain. Then suddenly, the nightmare begins again as Thorn’s foster mother is found slaughtered. Thorn can almost taste the rage as he stalks her killer and waits. "An exciting, well-crafted first novel that smoothly places complex, believable characters into an action-filled plot."—Washington Post "It starts good and stays good, right to the end."—Chicago Tribune
Steel and Shadows
Stuart Field - 2019
What at first appears to be the work of a serial killer soon turns out to be a deeper level of darkness and deceit, with relentless mercenaries, a shadowy informant and ghosts from the past for both McCall and Steel all involved.As unexpected alliances and Steel’s personal mission reveal a complex web of treachery, will he and McCall find a way to work together and solve the case?
Kiss My Assassin
Dave Sinclair - 2019
He’s on the hunt for a mysterious and powerful arms-dealing organisation named Kali—and they have him squarely in their sights.Along the way he falls for a mysterious woman who may just be the death of him.Fast-paced with whip-smart dialogue and twists at every turn, Kiss My Assassin is the very definition of unputdownable.Note to the reader: Although the Bishop novels can be read in any order, the events described take place before those in the Eva Destruction novels.
The Salish Sea
Susan Lund - 2020
She and her mother moved too many times to a series of cheap motels. There were too many men visiting her mother and none of them were her father. As for him, all Penny knew was that her father was rich and dead.When she was found abandoned on a deserted beach on the Salish Sea when she was four years old, Penny didn't even know her own name. Shunted from one foster home to another, she struggled to overcome the odds.When a Police Detective from the Victoria, B.C. Police Department calls about remains that were identified as belonging to her mother, Penny starts a quest to find out what happened to her and who her father really is. She enlists crime reporter Tess McClintock and Michael Carter to help her find her family, but when they start uncovering Penny's past, not everyone is happy to learn their connection to the girl with no name.The Salish Sea is a new standalone book in the Salish Sea Crime Thriller series.
NEST: Retribution: An Alivia Morgan Story
David J. Antocci - 2017
Instead, that crisp October morning turned into the bloodiest terror attack to strike the city of Boston in more than a decade. In the wake of the attack, the New England Special Terrorist Division—NEST—turned to their most senior and capable agent, Alivia Morgan. She was unwillingly ripped from her home and family, but didn’t have a choice. Though she had no idea just how deeply personal the fight would become. Now, it was up to her to find the extremists and stop another catastrophic blow that would drive the death toll higher. She was captured, alone, and armed only with her years of training and experience in Special Ops and the elite Army Rangers. Alivia quickly realized she was in a race against time as she struggled to escape with her life and stop the impending attacks. Could she do both?