Book picks similar to
In Her Shadow by August McLaughlin
mystery
thriller
suspense
fiction
Doll House
John Hunt - 2017
She will be on her own, in a new place hopeful to meet new friends. On the night she moves in, she is taken off the street by two masked men. She is placed in a room which is little more than a cell. A pink cell. A room made for a doll. She is now part of their collection.
Chill Factor
Sandra Brown - 2005
Not so, lately. Four women have disappeared from Cleary over the past two years. And there’s always a blue ribbon left near the spot where each of the women was last seen. There are no bodies, no other clues, and no suspicion as to who their abductor might be. And now, another woman has disappeared without a trace. It is to this backdrop that Lilly Martin returns to close the sale of her mountain cabin, marking the end of her turbulent eight-year marriage to Dutch Burton, Cleary’s chief of police. Dutch’s reluctance to let her go isn’t Lilly’s only obstacle. As she’s trying to outrun a snowstorm, her car skids on the icy road and strikes a man who emerges from the woods on foot. She recognizes the injured man as Ben Tierney, whom she’d met the previous summer. They’re forced to wait out the storm in the cabin, but as the hours of their confinement mount, Lilly begins to wonder if the greatest danger to her safety isn’t the blizzard outside, but the mysterious man right beside her. Is Ben Tierney the feared abductor? Or is he who he claims to be...her rescuer from harm and from the tragedy that haunts her?
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 Dark Lure
Loreth Anne White - 2015
The killer was caught, but Sarah lost everything: her marriage, her child, and the life she loved.Struggling with PTSD, Sarah changes her name to Olivia West and finds sanctuary working on Broken Bar Ranch. But as her scars finally begin to heal, a cop involved with her horrific case remains convinced the Watt Lake Killer is still out there. He sets a lure for the murderer, and a fresh body is discovered. Now Olivia must face the impossible—could the butcher be back, this time to finish the job?As a frigid winter isolates the ranch, only one person can help Olivia: Cole McDonough, a writer, adventurer, and ranch heir who stirs long-dormant feelings in her. But this time, Olivia’s determination to shut out her past may destroy more than her chance at love. It could cost her her life.
The Trophy Child
Paula Daly - 2017
In her unsettling new domestic thriller, The Trophy Child, Daly digs beneath the serene surface of the idyllic suburban Lake District community where families strive for perfection, delivering a suspenseful, surprising story of motherhood and fallibility.Karen Bloom is not the coddling mother type. She believes in raising her children for success. Some in the neighborhood call her assertive, others say she’s driven, but in gossiping circles she’s known as: the tiger mother. Karen believes that tough discipline is the true art of parenting and that achievement leads to ultimate happiness. She expects her husband and her children to perform at 200 percent—no matter the cost. But in an unending quest for excellence, her seemingly flawless family start to rebel against her.Her husband Noel is a handsome doctor with a proclivity for alcohol and women. Their prodigy daughter, Bronte, is excelling at school, music lessons, dance classes, and yet she longs to run away. Verity, Noel’s teenage daughter from his first marriage, is starting to display aggressive behavior. And Karen’s son from a previous relationship falls deeper into drug use. When tragedy strikes the Blooms, Karen’s carefully constructed facade begins to fall apart—and once the deadly cracks appear, they are impossible to stop.A thrilling tale of ambition and murder, Daly’s richly imagined world of suburban striving and motherly love is an absorbing page-turner about the illusions of perfection and the power games between husband and wife, parent and child.
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.
Creatures of Appetite
Todd Travis - 2013
Everyone else calls it a nightmare. Locked doors don't stop him. He leaves no trace behind. He only takes little girls. His nickname... The Iceman. A deranged serial killer roams wintry rural Nebraska with a demented purpose no one can fathom. Special Agent EMMA KANE, a former DC cop and damaged goods now with the FBI, is assigned to babysit burnt-out profiler JACOB THORNE, once the best in the business but now said to have lost his edge, as they both fly to Nebraska to catch this maniac. Thorne is erratic, abrasive and unpredictably brilliant, but what he and Kane find in the heartland is much more than anyone bargained for, especially when the Iceman challenges them personally. The clock is ticking and a little girl's life is on the line. And maybe even more with that, once they find out what he's really up to.NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This book has frank and profane adult language within... this is often how many a law enforcement officer speaks, in my experience. Not all, but many, very many. The book also has violence and adult situations, but the profanity is the only thing that some folks have been noting, for some odd reason, so I'm warning you now that it has profanity. I totally understand that not everyone wants to read curse words. However, to write a book like this without a cop cursing would not, in my mind, be authentic. Therefore, if you can't handle HBO-style language, (a la THE WIRE, etc.) this book is not for you. If fictional bad language bothers you more than the fictional murder of young people, this book is definitely not for you, but I thank you for your time and consideration.
You Will Pay
Lisa Jackson - 2017
Among the teen counselors, tensions and hormones are running high. No wonder the others agree when Jo-Beth Chancellor suggests they scare Monica O Neal a little .or a lot. Monica has it coming, and no one will really get hurt. What could go wrong?Everything.Twenty years later, Lucas Dalton, a senior detective with the sheriff s department, is investigating the discovery of human remains in a cavern at what used to be Camp Horseshoe. Lucas knows the spot well. His father, a preacher, ran the camp, and Lucas worked there that infamous summer when two girls went missing. One is believed to have been killed by a convict on the loose. Monica O Neal is thought to have drowned and been washed out to sea.Lucas knows he should step down from such a personal case. He s already jeopardized his career by removing evidence of his involvement. But maybe it s time to uncover the whole truth at last. That s why five former female counselors are coming back to the small Oregon town among them, Bernadette Warden, the woman Lucas has never forgotten. Each one knows something about that terrible night. Each promised not to tell. And as they reunite, a new horror unfolds. First come notes containing a personal memento and a simple, terrifying message: You will pay. Then, the murders begin.It started years ago. But it will end here as a web of lust, greed, and betrayal is untangled to reveal a killer waiting to enact the perfect revenge.
Breath of Scandal
Sandra BrownSandra Brown - 1991
Robbed of her youthful ideals and at the center of scandal and tragedy, Jade ran as far and as fast as she could. But she never forgot the sleepy "company town" where every man, woman, and child was dependent on one wealthy family. And she never forgot their spoiled son, who, with his two friends, changed her life forever. Someday, somehow, she'd return, exact a just revenge -- and free herself from fear, and the powerful family that could destroy her.
If She Knew
Blake Pierce - 2018
Kate thought she left the FBI behind after 30 years as their top agent, respected for her brilliant mind, tough street skills and her uncanny ability to hunt down serial killers. Yet Kate, bored with the quiet town, at a crossroads in life, is summoned by a friend she can’t turn down. As Kate hunts the killer, she soon finds herself at the forefront of a manhunt, as more bodies turn up—all suburban moms in perfect marriages—and it becomes apparent there is a serial killer stalking this quiet town. She unearths secrets from her neighbors she wishes she never knew, discovering that all is not what it seems in this picture of model streets and neighbors. Affairs and lying are rampant, and Kate must sift through the town’s underbelly if she will stop the killer from striking again. But this killer is one step ahead of her, and it may end up being Kate who is in danger.
What We Saw
Ryan Casey - 2012
As the story twists and turns towards a shocking conclusion, the secrets of the seemingly sleepy community begin to unravel…What We Saw is a touching and thrilling British mystery novel with elements of comedy, friendship, fear and loss. Told from the innocent perspective of a child, it poses the ultimate question: if you stumbled upon a shocking discovery as a child, how would you react?
Stolen Things
R.H. Herron - 2019
H. Herron. “Mama? Help me.” Laurie Ahmadi has worked as a 911 police dispatcher in her quiet Northern California town for nearly two decades. She considers the department her family; her husband, Omid, is its first Arab American chief, and their teenaged daughter, Jojo, has grown up with the force. So when Laurie catches a 911 call and, to her horror, it’s Jojo, the whole department springs into action. Jojo, drugged, disoriented, and in pain, doesn’t remember how she ended up at the home of Kevin Leeds, a pro football player famous for his on-the-field activism and his work with the CapB—“Citizens Against Police Brutality”—movement. She doesn’t know what happened to Kevin’s friend and trainer, whose beaten corpse is also discovered in the house. And she has no idea where her best friend Harper, who was with her earlier in the evening, could be. But when Jojo begins to dive into Harper’s social media to look for clues to her whereabouts, Jojo uncovers a shocking secret that turns everything she knew about Harper—and the police department—on its head. With everything they thought they could rely on in question, Laurie and Jojo begin to realize that they can’t trust anyone to find Harper except themselves . . . and time is running out.
That Weekend
Kara Thomas - 2021
But it's clear something terrible happened when Claire wakes up alone and bloodied on a hiking trail with no memory of the past forty-eight hours.Three went up the mountain, but only one came back.Now everyone wants answers - most of all, Claire. She remembers Friday night, but after that... nothing. And now Kat and Jesse - her best friends - are missing.That weekend changes everything.What happened on the mountain? And where are Kat and Jesse? Claire knows the answers are buried somewhere in her memory, but as she's learning, everyone has secrets - even her best friends. And she's pretty sure she's not going to like what she remembers.