Book picks similar to
O'Brien's Desk by Ona Russell


history-biography
mysteries-and-horror
mystery
mystery-thriller

Mermaids of Bodega Bay (Terrence Reid Mystery Series)


Mary Birk - 2014
     Anne, a talented historic garden designer, doesn’t know whether to bless or curse the luck that had her husband show up on her doorstep just as disaster strikes the Grainger Art Colony. Moving on after he left her was hard, but she’d done it with Andrew Grainger’s help. When Anne and her lover become the FBI’s chief suspects, Reid, compelled to exonerate the woman he still loves, steps in to investigate—and in the process, uncovers a shocking web of deceit and danger.

The First Stella Cole Boxset: The Revenge Trilogy: Hit and Run, Hit Back Harder, Hit and Done


Andy Maslen - 2018
    Forget the law. She wants revenge Meet Stella Cole. An ambitious detective inspector with the Metropolitan Police Service. Her career and her life look rosy until a hit and run driver kills her husband. Grief drives her to booze and pills. Back at work after a year’s compassionate leave, Stella secretly re-investigates his death and begins to suspect a cover-up. The legal conspiracy she uncovers rocks her faith in everything she holds dear, from the law itself to the people enforcing it and those dispensing justice. But the people running Pro Patria Mori have no intention of giving up. They want Stella dead. But they’ve reckoned without Stella’s determination, fighting skills and powerful but increasingly violent alter ego she dubs “Other Stella”. Thriller fans have awarded this nail-biting trilogy hundreds of five-star reviews. This boxset gives you all three novels – over 1,000 pages of unputdownable action. Book 1: Hit and Run Detective Inspector Stella Cole was a rising star in London’s Metropolitan Police. Then a hit-and-run driver killed her husband, Richard, a human rights lawyer. Freelance journalist Vicky Riley was working with Richard to expose corruption buried deep inside the legal system. Unaware that powerful people are out to stop her, she contacts Stella. Vicky’s research confirms Stella’s worst fears. The people who should be upholding the law are turning it on its head. Stella thinks she’s closing in on the truth. Then a horrific discovery threatens her very sanity. What began as a search for justice is now a raging thirst for revenge. “OMG! You don't want to get on the wrong side of this lady. Found this book absolutely riveting. Honestly struggled to put it down. Read it over two days. You'll love it.” Sheila Riddoch, Amazon 5-star review Book 2: Hit Back Harder Detective Inspector Stella Cole only has one case. To find, and kill, the remaining members of a legal conspiracy who turned her world into ashes. But their leader’s pulling in friends from the underworld to take the fight to Stella. Chief among them, an Albanian drug lord nicknamed, The Shark". Regrouping in Spain, Stella makes contact with an old adversary. A retired gangster named Ronnie “The Razor” Wilks. He proposes a deal that tests Stella’s resolve to the limit. “Noooo! That ending twist was so unexpected and that's what I exclaimed when I read it! This book kept me awake at night... it didn't give me nightmares although I suppose the graphic detail could have done. No, it was its gripping storyline that was the problem. I like to read for a short while before settling to sleep at night, but I couldn't put the book down and ended up with some very, very late nights.” Carol E. Bentley, Amazon 5-star review The only problem? Stella is losing her mind to a second, unrelentingly brutal version of herself she’s dubbed “Other Stella”. As the violence escalates, the question is, which one will win? Book 3: Hit and Done Stella has almost completed her bloody quest to avenge the hit and run killings of her husband and daughter. Only one member of the legal conspiracy who murdered them remains. But he’s not going to go down without a fight. Even if it means having Stella sectioned and trying for the third time to murder her.

Murder on Gold Street


Rod Moore - 2015
    The investigation into his murder unearths a more than questionable lifestyle where it seems that everyone who knew him had a reason to see him dead. Detectives Steve Rickets and his partner Detective Sarah Branson follow a trail of dead ends that lead them scratching their heads. Is it the disgruntled business partner, the angry and upset daughter, the woman who secretly loves him, of the crime figure he owes thousands to? This classic who done it murder mystery will keep you guessing to the end. An unexpected twist will lead you right to the killer if you spot it. This short story of 12,000 words (appx) is ideal for lovers of hard boiled detective crime thrillers and murder mystery short stories.

Son of Simon : A Mystery


Thomas Fincham - 2021
    A beautiful wife at home, a successful business, and all the trappings that come with money. After a brutal attack that leaves him bloodied and bruised, Simon is approached by a woman he has not seen in twenty years. What he discovers will changes his life forever.Detective Helen Sloan is months away from retirement. She wants nothing more than to wrap up one last case before she hangs up her badge and gun. A simple investigation of a dead body found next to a bus shelter leaves Helen with more questions than answers.Can a single lie change the course of so many lives? And who is the mysterious man that connects Simon and Helen to a crime that happened years ago?SON OF SIMON is a jaw-dropping page-turner about revenge, loss, and redemption. Fans of James Patterson, Harlan Coben, and David Baldacci will love this book!

The Last Door


M.M. Boulder - 2020
    Because Amy Harrison's perfect life is a LIE. She has the perfect adoptive parents, perfect job, perfect friends, and she's about to marry the perfect man. There's only one problem. She can't remember the first twelve years of her life, and she's terrified something horrible happened, something she should have never forgotten. Amy starts taking an experimental drug in an effort to recover her lost past before her wedding, and all she can see is blood.Can her chaotic flashes of memory be real? Bloody halos. Doors and a car and chocolates. Whiskey. Pink. A voice. Someone who loved her. Someone she loved. And death. So much death. Determined to protect her fiancée and her unborn children from her past, she keeps pushing forward; but the memories take over more and more of her, pushing Amy away and replacing her with someone else.Will Amy be able to recover her past, learn the terrible secret that made her forget it all, and save her own life before she loses everything?

The Mystery of Lincoln's Inn


Robert Machray - 1912
    Cooper Silwood, precise in attire, composed in appearance, and punctual as usual to the minute, walked into his room on the first floor of 176 New Square, Lincoln's Inn, where were the offices of Eversleigh, Silwood and Eversleigh, the well-known and long-established firm of solicitors of which he was a partner. He was met, as was customary, on his entrance by the head-clerk, John Williamson, who had already opened and sorted out methodically the letters received over-night. An admirable specimen of his class, Williamson generally wore an air of great imperturbability, but this morning his face had a troubled expression. "Anything special, Mr. Williamson?" asked Silwood quietly, putting away his hat and gloves.

The Murdered Family - Mystery of the Wolf Family Murders


Vernon Keel - 2010
    A wave of fear sweeps across the barren prairies of central North Dakota in April of 1920 with the tragic news that seven members of a farm family and their hired boy have been brutally murdered at their home just north of Turtle Lake in McLean County. A massive search for the killers begins immediately in the midst of an intense statewide election campaign. Three weeks later, eager investigators encouraged by nervous politicians get a signed confession from one of the prime suspects in the case. He is sentenced that same day to life in the state penitentiary in what the New York Times referred to then as ''the most rapid administration of justice in the country.'' From the beginning, the man denies his guilt and says his confession was obtained under duress, intimidation and fear. In November, his lawyers file a motion in district court asking that his plea of guilty be withdrawn and for a trial upon the merits. Their motion is strengthened when some new evidence is discovered on the Wolf family farm only days before the motion is filed. Some ninety years later, people in the area still recall the words the convicted man was supposed to have said: ''My eyes have seen but my hands are clean!''

Only The Good Die Young : And I'm Not A Saint


Akash Verma - 2021
    She thinks that chapter of her life hasended, and starts afresh in Mumbai. But strangely, it seems her past is trying to catch up. Dhruv suddenlycomes back into her life. Even as they try to figure out their relationship, horrible things start happening to people they know. Together, Anuradha and Dhruv need to find out who it is that cannot bear to see them together. Who is carrying out these shocking crimes? Are they really soulmates cursed to stay apart, or is there some karmic debt they have to repay? Taut and thrilling, Only the Good Die Young is unputdownable.

The Never List: Free First Chapter


Koethi Zan - 2013
    And then, very suddenly and without warning, there were three. Even though the fourth person hadn't made any noise at all in several months, the room got very quiet when she was gone. For a long time after that, we sat in silence, in the dark, each of us wondering what this meant for her and for us, and which of us would be the next in the box.NEVER GET IN THE CARFor years, best friends Sarah and Jennifer kept what they called the 'Never List': a list of actions to be avoided, for safety's sake, at all costs. But one night, they failed to follow their own rules.NEVER GO OUT ALONE AFTER DARKSarah has spent ten years trying to forget her ordeal. But now the FBI has news that forces her to confront her worst fears.NEVER TAKE RISKSIf she is to uncover the truth about what really happened to Jennifer, Sarah needs to work with the other women who shared her nightmare. But they won't be happy to hear from her. Because down there in the dark, Sarah wasn't just a victim.NEVER TRUST ANYONE

The Second Sight Bride


Emma Ashwood - 2020
    

Against The Rules


Mara Jacobs - 2016
    Jack Schiller and I are back together. Raymond James is settling in to life in Vegas. Life is good.Of course it couldn't last.A golfing legend dies after playing poker with me and once again I become embroiled in one of Jack's cases. And it's one too many for him. He's done--and not just with me.I try to protect Raymond's identity from being made public during the spectacle of the sports hero's death by offering up myself as a scapegoat. Life is getting pretty complicated... And then JoJo shows up. What are the odds I make it out of this one alive? *NOTE: The case is solved, the perpetrator caught, but there are a few threads that are continuing on through the next book and the series.Books in the Anna Dawson series thus far:1 - Against The Odds2 - Against The Spread3 - Against the Rules

The Beachside Cafe (Saltwater Secrets Book 6)


Sage Parker - 2021
    

FINDING FRANKIE (A Tuper Mystery #2)


Teresa Burrell - 2019
    But why? And how did Squirrely, a homeless man, acquire a duffle bag stuffed with thousands in cash, a pistol, and a 25-year-old newspaper?As Squirrely lies in a coma, Tuper’s techie sidekick, Lana, uncovers fifty-year-old secrets about his connection to the death of a high school classmate. The cold case pops to the front burner when a second classmate dies in the same manner.A Senator, his barren wife, and a long-ago illegal adoption heat up the complications. As Tuper and Lana dig deeper, lies, fraud, and blackmail bubble to the surface. When they get too close, the killer panics and tries to take them out too.The case reaches a boiling point—just as Tuper unties a fifty-year-old twist and the cold truth finally puts the fire out.

Foreign Involvement: A Chuck Winters Thriller


Robert E. Smith - 2018
    He soon gets caught up with a nemesis character that spews death and destruction, hiding throughout the world like a chameleon---causing Winters to leave his serene retirement and take chase.

The Pajama Affair


Vanessa Gray Bartal - 2011
    She clings tenaciously to Dirk, her boyfriend of five years, employing every trick she can to keep his interest. When she finds a message taped inside her pajamas, she thinks Dirk has finally proposed. But he hasn't, and Liza's life is about to become interesting in ways she never imagined.Agent Link Stone thinks Liza Benson is a mousy schoolteacher who needs attention, but when she tells him she's worried about a message in her pajamas, he's sure she's insane. Grudgingly he begins to investigate her story only to realize Liza has somehow become involved in a sinister plot. Now he's convinced her boyfriend is a cold-blooded killer, but how to convince Liza? And, more importantly, how to keep from falling for her himself?