Book picks similar to
Winter's Law by Stephen Penner


thriller
thriller-romance
unlimited
2023

The Outcast Child


Jacobo Priegue - 2019
    When she discovers Kevin, an abandoned two-year-old boy injured and on the verge of starvation, Laura thinks she has finally found a purpose and decides to devote herself to saving the child.However, what looks like a case of neglect turns out to be something much darker, and Laura finds out very soon that to save Kevin she will have to fight ignorance and superstition, not only in the slum in Cusco but also back in England.In her search of happiness for her and her family, Laura’s life becomes an eternal struggle against prejudice and ignorance that makes her doubt about everything she knows, only to discover that the greatest obstacle in her way is none other than she herself.

Cool Heat


Richter Watkins - 2013
    Her crusade will propel her into a deadly underground battle involving a former border patrol agent who can't seem to resist her, a highly imaginative hit man, and a brilliant prostitute with revenge on her mind.

Perfect Crime


Jack Parker - 2018
     The First Crime: Many people had reason to kill the victim, and they tried 'til they got it right. You'd think that would leave plenty of clues, but they don't add up right. Can a 16-yr-old. The Second Crime: A teacher was found dead and a lot of other students have had accidents, some serious. Gracie Greene's not so sure they were accidents, but can she find the pattern and motive before someone else dies? The Third Crime: At 18 years old Gracie Greene has already solved 2 murders. Now she finds herself a suspect in a 3rd murder and must solve it to clear herself.

Prejudicial Error


Bill Blum - 1995
    district attorney’s office finds a second home at Swanson’s Bar and Grille. Since his resignation from the D.A’s office, he’d done his best with small-time criminal cases. So, finding a place to drown his sorrows seemed appropriate. Lead dancer, Sally Sutton, kept the Mustang Club ahead of its competition. Fully packed until the lights went out, the Mustang Club was popular amongst business men and general party-animals. But ‘Mustang Sally’ hadn’t always lived her life in the limelight. Coming from a small Nebraska farm, her career aspirations had taken her along several small-time roles, before she was noticed. Sally was tight with some of the local police. Particularly Jim Rowinski, a SWAT team specialist who was gearing himself to becoming a homicide detective. Hot-headed and rash, he would do anything to get his way. When Joe Richards, a fifteen-year veteran is shot dead outside the Mustang Club, in Sally’s presence, Juan Javahn Thomas, notorious for his gang-banging lifestyle, is arrested. Homicide Lieutenant Tom Gallagher, Rowinski and Mary Delgado, the only female member of the arrest team, are present at the time of the arrest. To Solomon’s surprise, Judge Burton Lawler and D.A. Simon Lasker appoint him as the public defender in the case of Richards’s murder. Worse still, he was to go up against the prosecutor, Howard Ainsworth, the man who had taken his place as chief deputy, his arch-nemesis! In a bid to redeem himself, Solomon takes on the case. Ignoring all the insecurities that engulf him, he launches himself into the electrifying thrill of the courtroom. Working with his ally, Jimmy Johnson and going up against his former lover, Mary, Solomon’s task is taken up a notch. In the courtroom, as the trial unfolds, Solomon races against his opponent. Determination driving him, the details that unfold point to Sally knowing more than she originally let on. Bringing Sally back in under the heat of scrutiny, she breaks. It is all Solomon needs, yet the outcome is one no one was expecting…Prejudicial Error is a legal thriller filled with suspense that will keep you gripped until the very end. Bill Blum is an experienced attorney. Familiar with the ins and outs, and the pitfalls of criminal procedures, he presents a riveting, hard-hitting and authentic legal thriller, one that offers a fascinating insider’s look at the shifting political dynamics within the criminal justice system. Bill Blum has also written for a wide array of publications, including the Los Angeles Times, ABA Journal, The Nation and California Lawyer , hosted a radio talk show, and lectured widely. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and family.

Three Ways to Die


Lee Goldberg - 2009
    But Monk knows that danger -- like dirt -- lurks everywhere. Look at Helen Gruber, the rich tourist who took a fatal blow from a coconut. The police say it fell from a tree, but Monk suspects otherwise. His assistant, Natalie, isn't exactly thrilled about Monk's latest investigation. It was bad enough that Monk followed her on vacation, and now it looks as though the vacation is over....Smooth-talking TV psychic Dylan Swift is on the island and claims to have a message from beyond -- from Helen Gruber. Monk has his doubts about Swift's credibility. But finding the killer and proving Swift a fraud -- all while coping with geckos and the horror of unsynchronized ceiling fans -- may prove a tough coconut to crack....

Blood Ties


Ashley Fontainne - 2015
    The slower pace, compared to the craziness of Los Angeles, is a welcome distraction for them both. Taking care of her aging parents and their small farm is just what LiAnn needs to forget her twenty-five-year career as a detective. And Karina's new love interest brings back the smile she lost from years of undercover work and her cheating ex-boyfriend.The BondsTheir idyllic lifestyle changes the minute a family friend, Cecil Pickard, pays a visit. He lives at The Magnolia, an independent living facility in Hot Springs, and believes someone is stealing from him. LiAnn and Karina offer to investigate and suddenly find themselves inside a living nightmare.Are PermanentTheft isn't the only criminal activity taking place inside the historic, stately walls of The Magnolia. Organized crime has infiltrated Hot Springs, and what they're after is not only money, but life itself. As LiAnn and Karina dig deeper, they might just be digging their own graves.

Speed Dating with the Dead


Scott Nicholson - 2010
    . .a man’s promise to his late wife that he’d summon her spirit . . . a daughter whose imagination goes to dark places . . .and demonic evil lurking in the remote hotel’s basement, just waiting to be awoken.When Digger Wilson brings his paranormal team Spirit Seekers International to the White Horse Inn, he is skeptical that his dead wife will keep her half of the bargain. He doesn’t believe in ghosts. But when one of the conference guests channels a mysterious presence and an Ouija board spells out a pet phrase known only to Digger and his wife, his convictions are challenged.And when people start to disappear, Digger and his daughter Kendra must face the circle of demons that view the hotel as their personal playground. Because soon the inn will be closing for good, angels can’t be trusted, and demons don’t like to play alone..........

The Gender Experiment


L.J. Sellers - 2016
    After discovering they were born at the same clinic two decades earlier, she investigates further and uncovers a startling list. With the realization that more gender-fluid people are targeted for elimination, Taylor kicks her investigation into high gear. But the researchers who conducted the experiment aren’t about to let anything interfere with their plans. Soon Taylor is in deep trouble and needs the help of FBI Special Agent Bailey. As Bailey scrambles to track down leads, events spin out of control and she finds herself blocked at every step by powerful military forces. With the clock ticking on Phase 2 of the experiment, can Bailey and Taylor uncover the truth in time to save the other subjects?

Judgment Call


J.C. Ryan - 2016
    After ten years inside he had abandoned all hope and resigned himself to the fact that he would remain there for the rest of his life. But the fact that Andy has admitted defeat and thrown in the towel didn’t mean his wife, Jamie, did. Disillusioned and worn out by the justice system, the Honorable Judge Regan St Clair was just about to pack in too when a letter from Jamie Gibbons arrived on her desk… Before long Regan St Clair and Jake Westley, a former Special Forces operator, stumble into a quagmire world of deceit and menace. A world where nothing is as it seems, and no one and nothing can be trusted. Is Andy Gibbons really innocent? Can he be exonerated? At what price? ~~~ JUDGMENT CALL is a full-length novel, a crime suspense-thriller about a corrupt organization with a sinister agenda that exploits every weakness and every dark corner of the fallible justice system. This fast-paced legal thriller is the first book in J C Ryan’s Exonerated Series.

The Forgotten Eden


Aiden James - 2010
     Only one person has ever survived a visit to this place long enough to tell about it. His name is Jack Kenney. Thirteen years old at the time of the event, Jack and his family were forced to flee Carlsdale and head north to the larger city of Tuscaloosa. The menace from their former home left them in peace for nearly eight years. But after the brutal murder of a noted archaeologist and teacher at the University of Alabama, everything changed. Jack and his older brother, Jeremy, attend the University and are close friends of the late professor. Within days of his death, they are abducted by the FBI, held against their will in a secret holding facility near Manassas, Virginia. Frustrated by the brothers' seeming refusal to cooperate, the agency's interrogations become increasingly violent, until Jack gains a welcome reprieve when Special Agent Peter McNamee arrives from the FBI's Richmond office. He befriends Jack and gains his trust, drawing upon a similar supernatural event from his own youth. Willing, finally, to talk after so many years spent in sworn silence, Jack leads Peter on an extraordinary roller-coaster ride involving a mystical and deadly realm located in America's Deep South....

Hidden in the Dark


Rashell Lashbrook - 2017
    More focused on avoiding punishment than the well-being of her three daughters, she ignored the terror inflicted on them by their father during their childhood. She kept his secrets. Now, in her sixties, Genny has had enough. She needs her daughters to help her escape. Can she count on them? Lilly has tried for decades since leaving that little Texas farmhouse to erase the unspeakable things that were done to her. After snagging a wealthy man, she reinvents herself into a polished member of San Antonio’s old-money society. Can she keep up this facade, or will the secrets she hides cause her to lose everything? Always Daddy’s favorite, thirty-five-year-old Randi tries to bury her shame in a mountain of sex and drugs. Estranged from her parents for nearly a decade, the news of Mother’s leaving forces her to face old wounds. Will she survive? Much younger than her sisters, Raine was left to deal with Daddy’s horrific abuse after the others left. Shanti, free of a conscience, was conjured to help protect little Raine by whatever means necessary. Raine’s mother and father are back in the picture, and Shanti is on a rampage. Every family has secrets. Some are worth dying for.

The Family Dictionary


Lisa Walker - 2013
    Quiet, that is, until threatening notes show up to disturb the peace. Trying to discover who is sending the notes leads them to investigate long-dead relatives and a family heirloom, the dictionary passed down through generations. Connie and Rebecca rush to figure out the secrets enclosed in the family dictionary with the help of local cop, Brad Hamilton. But will they find the clues in time?

Code for Murder


Eliot Parker - 2017
    Six months later, Stacy’s first case back from medical leave involves the murder of Cleveland Browns football player Devon Baker. With little forensic evidence connecting anyone to the crime, Stacy sets out to find the killer. As Stacy comes very close to unraveling the tangled threads of the case, the killer wants her, and those close to her, to suffer for another impulsive decision she made in the line of duty. The killer just may be more familiar to Stacy than she realizes.

The Last Innocent Hour


Barbara Taylor Sissel - 2000
    It lurks at the periphery of Beth's vision. Her husband Charlie can't help, if she could even remember him; he's doing time for a murder he didn't commit. The small child Beth was found with, whom she doesn't know either, was taken to foster care. There isn't much time now. If Beth doesn't recall the hideous events that stole her memory soon, the killer will strike again, and someone else will die.

Ant Farm


James M. Jackson - 2015
     But the deadly picnic outside Chillicothe, Ohio, isn't the only treacherous investigation facing Seamus; he also worms his way into a Cincinnati murder investigation when the victim turns out to be a church friend's fiancé. While police speculate this killing may have been the mistake of a dyslexic hit man, Seamus uncovers disturbing information of financial chicanery, and by doing so, puts his son in danger and places a target on his own back. Can Seamus bring the truth to light, or will those who have already killed to keep their secrets succeed in silencing a threat once more?