Book picks similar to
TWENTY THREE by Murray McDonald


mystery-police-fbi-procedural
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fiction-crime

Fortune and Fame


Mark Len Mayfield - 2016
    Shortly after a second murder in Sinful had been solved, Fortune believes she has recognized a woman, now going by the name Georgia Fame, who has been using her affections to prey on well-to-do elderly men, leaving them heartbroken, penniless and sometimes even... dead. Ingeniously clever, the woman has alluded authorities for decades and Fortune soon begins to understand why. With Ida Belle and Gertie at her side, the swamp team begin to build their case but the woman always covers her tracks and stays one step ahead of them. Fortune gets close but Georgia always manages to stay just out of reach. When she realizes her suspect may get away forever, she tries one last act of desperation. “Fortune and Fame” is fast-paced, filled with humor, romance, twists and turns. From KindleWorld’s Mark Len Mayfield, author of the Wayward Pines novel, “The Journey of Peter McCall.”

Bunburry - Lost and Found: A Cosy Mystery Series (Countryside Mysteries: A Cosy Shorts Series Book 13)


Helena Marchmont - 2022
    

Blue Madagascar


Andrew Kaplan - 2021
    Now a Homeland Security Special Agent, the future of America may depend on what she does next.A Presidential candidate commits suicide, and no one knows why. A mysterious man is killed during a jewel heist on the French Riviera. Intelligence agencies around the world are scrambling. U.S. Homeland Security sends the one woman who might be able to solve the secret of "Blue Madagascar" before it's too late.The trail leads her on a cat-and-mouse chase across Europe. But others are interested - and they will kill to get it.Move over Jack Reacher, Mitch Rapp, and Jason Bourne and make room for Casey Ramirez, a heroine for our times. A woman whose story you won't be able to put down or forget. The glowing early reviews are in. Join the excitement!

THE COMPLETE TITAN SERIES & DETECTIVE TOM LANGE BOX SET seven gripping crime thrillers


T.J. Brearton - 2020
    

Relative Malice


Marla Madison - 2013
    In the murder house, she discovers an empty crib with blood drops next to it on the wood floor. The family: a father, mother, teenage daughter, and young son have been fatally shot . . . but where is baby Philly?The desperate search to find the child derails when a man is arrested for murdering the family and claims to have killed the baby. Suspecting he had an accomplice, Kendall isn’t convinced. Refusing to give up on finding the child, Kendall persists in unearthing the family’s secrets. With the help of a hacker turned spurious fortune-teller and a former cop hired by the missing baby’s uncle, she discovers a furtive pedophile ring is planning on buying and sharing a baby. Can she stop them while there's time to save Philly?

The Collector


John Maher - 2020
    The Collector doesn’t agree.When world renowned archaeologist Philip Carlton suddenly and unexpectedly commits suicide, the police are called to investigate. Heading up the investigation is Detective Lucy O’Hara, a Forensic Linguist – and she immediately sees something is wrong with the suicide note. In her gut, she knows this was cold-blooded murder.Battling sceptical superiors and the Irish establishment, Lucy digs for the truth and begins to uncover a shadowy trade in ancient artefacts led by a mysterious figure known only as ‘The Collector’.As Lucy works to uncover his identity, she soon realises she is up against a ruthless mastermind who is systematically eliminating anyone who might lead her to him. But Lucy won’t give up and soon The Collector turns his attention to her…The Collector – the first in a gripping new series featuring Detective Lucy O’Hara.

Blindsighted / Indelible / A Faint Cold Fear / Kisscut / Triptych / Faithless


Karin Slaughter - 2008
    

Merlin's Misfortune


Shari Hearn - 2015
    I'm Merlin. Yeah, Fortune Redding's cat. I'm with the Sinful Feline League. And together with older-than-the-Sphinx Lula Mae and her sidekick, Spoolie, we solve mysteries and protect the welfare of cats all along the bayou.We make sure life is good for the cats of Sinful.Until one of us goes missing. Then another. And another. Something doesn't smell right, and it's not the kitty litter.Merlin's Misfortune is a fast-paced novella (approximately 24,000 words) set in the world of the Miss Fortune Mysteries, complete with tail-switching suspense and a few licks of humor.AUTHOR'S NOTE: Merlin's Misfortune is a story in the Miss Fortune World, wherein Jana DeLeon has allowed writers to create stories using the world of Sinful and the wacky characters it's famous for. I wish to thank Ms. DeLeon for graciously allowing other writers to explore their own writing in a most Sinful way.

Silent Witness


Nicola Beaumont - 2010
    Deception. Conspiracy . . .In the shadow of forgotten memories, lies the deadly truth. The arrival of a mysterious letter turns an accident into murder and drives Nina Thomas to investigate her father's death. But what lurks in the past is a secret so deadly that searching for answers may be the last thing Nina ever does. H. Rylan Anderson has been undercover for years. Just when he's about to close the case, Nina shows up. Now he has to protect his identity, protect the girl, and keep hidden the truth about himself that threatens to shatter her life forever.To chip away the lies and unlock the mysteries hidden in her mind, Nina must learn to trust the one man who s sworn to help her . . . but how can she trust him when he may be the very soul responsible for her father s death?

Girl One: Murder


Molly Black - 2021
    She’s one of BAU’s rising stars and the go-to agent for hard-to-crack serial cases. When she receives a handwritten postcard promising to release 12 kidnapped women if she will solve 12 cold cases, she assumes it’s a hoax.Until the note mentions that, among the captives, is her missing sister.Maya, shaken, is forced to take it seriously. The cases she’s up against are some of the most difficult the FBI has ever seen. But the terms of his game are simple: If Maya solves a case, he will release one of the girls.And if she fails, he will end a life.Maya embarks with an urgency unlike any she’s ever felt. In a race against time, and with her sister’s life hanging in the balance, she must unravel the link between the 12 captives and end the killer’s dark game once and for all. Is this killer toying with her? Does he truly have her sister? Will he ever give her back?Or will Maya end up sucked too deep into this killer’s twisted cat-and-mouse game to notice that she, herself, is the prey?

Spoken Bones


N.C. Lewis - 2021
    When the body of a retired artist is discovered atop the blackened embers of the town bonfire, the community is rocked to the core.It falls to DI Fenella Sallow and her team to find out how she came to be there. In her fifties, the veteran detective inspector thought she had seen it all. But behind the curtained windows and closed doors of the idyllic Cumbria coastal setting lurks pure evil.Fenella must confront her dark past. Haunted by the unsolved case of a missing girl, she knows it is a race against time. Can she stop this death from slipping through her fingers, too?Before long, it becomes disturbingly clear that the killer is playing a twisted game and will do anything to conceal the terrible truth of what happened on the beach on Bonfire Night.Set against the backdrop of beautiful coastal Cumbria, an ancient land of legend, folklore and myth, Spoken Bones is the first book in the Detective Inspector Fenella Sallow series.This page-turning crime thriller will keep you hooked until the very end. If you like police procedurals with psychologically complex characters and shocking twists, then you’ll love Spoken Bones.Perfect for fans of L. J. Ross, JD. Kirk, Simon McCleave, Stuart MacBride, Matt Brolly, Angela Marsons, Alex Smith, JM. Dalgliesh, JE. Mayhew, David J. Gatward, TG Reid, Jack Gatland, Robert F Barker and JR. Ellis.

City of Fallen Angels


Paul Buchanan - 2020
    A scorching heatwave is suffocating L.A. PI John Keegan is offered a small fortune to find a beautiful woman from a set of photographs. He refuses; the job seems suspicious.But the next day the same woman, Eve, turns up, unbidden, on his doorstep. Eve fears for her safety. She is being watched. Before Keegan knows it, someone has been killed with Keegan s own gun, and he gets sucked into a world of suspicion and betrayal where he s never quite sure where the truth lies. Before long he s the prime suspect in a murder he didn't commit, and all the evidence seems to point in his direction.It s almost like someone planned it that way.

Only Murder


Rylie Dark - 2021
    Back in her home state, a place she vowed she would never return, Sadie, running from a secret in her recent past and back into her old one, finds herself facing her demons—including her sister’s unsolved murder—while assigned to hunt down a new serial killer.Two women are found dead in a remote area of Northern Alaska, near Sadie’s hometown, floating under the ice, their bodies preserved, much the same way Sadie’s own murdered sister was found—a memory that still plagues her. The case strikes way too close to home, blurring Sadie’s judgment, stirring up memories of her estranged father and murdered sister, memories she’s not ready to grapple with.This part of Alaska—icy, rough, remote, populated by outcasts—proves impenetrable even for a seasoned FBI agent like Sadie. The killer, matching his landscape, is more sinister and smart than anyone Sadie has encountered. Amidst the perplexing clues, Sadie remains sure of only one thing: he will strike again.Against her wishes, Sadie must team up with Sheriff Logan Cooper—single, begrudging, and with a dark past of his own. Together, they must enter the canals of this killer’s twisted mind and seek help from the locals, however hostile, to solve the pattern of these murders before another girl turns up dead.With a major storm coming, can Sadie solve the murders before it’s too late? Or will she end up as the next body floating under the ice?An action-packed page-turner, the SADIE PRICE series is a riveting crime thriller, jammed with suspense, surprises and twists and turns that you won’t see coming. It will have you fall in love with a brilliant and scarred new character, while challenging you, amidst a barren landscape, to solve an impenetrable crime.

The Complete Detective Kate Hamblin Mystery Series


David Hodges - 2020
    YOU GET *SEVEN* BREATH-TAKING CRIME THRILLERS, FROM THE PEN OF A FORMER POLICEMAN.IN THIS SEVEN-BOOK BOX SET:BOOK 1: MURDER ON THE LEVELSDetective Kate Hamblin is doing surveillance on the Somerset Levels, on the trail of a crazed arsonist. She leaves the van for a moment. Then it goes up in flames, killing her colleagues. Kate is accused of abandoning them. There’s nothing she won’t risk to clear her name. But can she nail the killer before he takes out the only witness?BOOK 2: REVENGE ON THE LEVELSTwo years ago Larry “Twister” Wadman vanished without a trace. Kate Hamblin is the sole survivor of his murderous rampage. Then a prostitute dressed as a policewoman is found brutally slain, and Kate realizes her old enemy is back. Can she catch him before he has his revenge?BOOK 3: FEAR ON THE LEVELSA teenage girl last seen leaving a party at the height of a local scarecrow festival is found strangled and stripped in her own barn. The crime is an exact copy of the murder of peasant girl, Martha Tinney. But Martha died 150 years ago at the hands of a spectral scarecrow named Strawfoot. Or so legend has it. Can Kate track down the flesh-and-blood copycat before he adds to his kill list?BOOK 4: KILLER ON THE LEVELSJournalist Ellie Landy is found drowned in the River Parrett. The only clue: a cryptic line about “Sandman” jotted in a paperback by her bed. Everyone assumes her death was an accident. And then the Sandman strikes again. Can Kate unmask the killer before he puts anyone else to sleep?BOOK 5: SECRETS ON THE LEVELSDetective Kate finds herself staring down the wrong end of a shotgun out on the lonely marshes. She’s hunting escaped con Lenny Stallard. He should be serving time for a botched burglary that ended in murder. Revenge appears to be the motive. But it’s all a bit too convenient for Kate. Can she uncover the truth before her own number is up?BOOK 6: DEATH ON THE LEVELSA man writes to the police station, threatening to kill his aunts. No one takes him seriously — until an elderly woman is found strangled in her home. “RIP Auntie” is written on the floor in red lipstick. As the body count rises, Kate realizes she is up against a deadly foe. Can she stay one step ahead? If not, whose aunt will be next on the kill list?BOOK 7: POISON ON THE LEVELSA young woman snatched from a festival. A poison pen letter writer driving people to take their own lives. Kate has her work cut out solving the two cases. Probing deeper, she finds herself caught up in a dark, complicated web of deceit, wagging tongues and false trails. Then she realizes she’s being watched. By a shady figure who knows her every move. Can she find the missing girl in time to save both their lives?

Free to Burn (Katie Freeman Mysteries Book 8)


Julie Mellon - 2019
    The similarities between this scene and one from a month prior are too great to be ignored. And many questions linger. Aside from the horrific manner of death, what do these newlywed couples have in common? Were these crimes of opportunity, or were these couples targeted? As Katie and Michael dig to find answers to all their questions, they uncover ties to a long-since forgotten disappearance and a death strikingly comparable to their present-day murders. In the end, uncovering answers and capturing a killer might cost Katie more than she’s ready to sacrifice.