Book picks similar to
The Missing Nurse by Roger Silverwood
mystery
crime
british
fiction
Murder on the Oxford Canal
Faith Martin - 2004
Not only has she lost her husband, but his actions have put her under investigation for corruption. Then a bashed and broken body is found floating in the Oxford Canal. It looks like the victim fell off a boat, but Hillary is not so sure. Her investigation exposes a dark background to the death. Can Hillary clear her name and get to the bottom of a fiendish conspiracy on the water?
A Journal of Sin
Darryl Donaghue - 2014
A troubled priest is brutally murdered, leaving behind a journal of the resident's confessional secrets; secrets certain people would prefer he took to the grave. As word spreads, the pressure rises as the eyes of the town watch her every move. With no forensic team, no support and a savage killer hiding in a turbulent town, is PC Sarah Gladstone up to the task?
Dark Crimes
Michael Hambling - 2013
She has been stabbed through the heart. It seems like a simple crime for DCI Sophie Allen and her team to solve. But not when the victim’s mother is found strangled the next morning. The case grows more complex as DCI Sophie Allen discovers that the victims had secret histories, involving violence and intimidation. There’s an obvious suspect but Detective Allen isn't convinced. Could someone else be lurking in the shadows, someone savagely violent, looking for a warped revenge?
Deadly Lies
Chris Collett - 2004
A syringe is in his arm and a note by his side reads, ‘No More.’Open and shut case of suicide? Not for DI Mariner. Hours before, he saw Barham picking up a woman in a bar. And then Mariner discovers Barham's younger brother, Jamie, hiding in a cupboard under the stairs.Jamie is the only witness to his brother's death, but his severe autism makes communication almost impossible. Mariner is determined to connect with Jamie and get to the truth. Is the journalist’s death related to his investigation of a local crime kingpin? What other dark secrets does Jamie hold the key to and can Mariner keep his relationship professional with Barham’s attractive sister, Anna?In a nail-biting conclusion, Mariner races against time to prevent more lives being lost.Perfect for fans of Peter James, Ian Rankin and Peter Robinson.
The Burning
Jane Casey - 2010
It's the name the media has given a brutal murderer who has beaten four young women to death before setting their bodies ablaze in secluded areas of London's parks. And now there's a fifth.
Maeve Kerrigan is an ambitious detective constable, keen to make her mark on the murder task force. Her male colleagues believe Maeve's empathy makes her weak, but the more she learns about the latest victim, Rebecca Haworth, from her grieving friends and family, the more determined Maeve becomes to bring her murderer to justice. But how do you catch a killer no one has seen when so much of the evidence has gone up in smoke?
Maeve's frenetic hunt for a killer in Jane Casey's gripping series debut will entrance even the most jaded suspense readers.
Under a Silent Moon
Elizabeth Haynes - 2013
A reported suicide at a local quarry.Can DCI Louisa Smith and her team gather the evidence and discover a link between them, a link which sealed their fate one cold night, Under a Silent Moon?A tense, compelling and unsettling novel mystery brimming with source material and evidence set over just six days, Under a Silent Moon will keep you gripped until the very last page and asks:Can you connect the clues and name the Killer?In the crisp, early hours of an autumn morning, the police are called to investigate two deaths. The first is a suspected murder at a farm on the outskirts of a small village. A beautiful young woman has been found dead, her cottage drenched with blood. The second is a reported suicide at a nearby quarry. A car with a woman's body inside was found at the bottom of the pit.As DCI Louisa Smith and her team gather evidence, they discover a shocking link between the two cases and the two deaths-a bond that sealed their terrible fates one cold night, under a silent moon.In this first entry in a compelling new detective series, Elizabeth Haynes interweaves fictional primary source materials-police reports, phone messages, interviews-and multiple character viewpoints to create a sexy, edgy, and compulsively readable tale of murder, mystery, and unsettling suspense.
Sticks and Stones
John Carson - 2019
Fifteen years ago, a man brutally murdered his wife, before taking his own life. Now, DCI Harry McNeil is heading up a Major Investigation Team and he is called to a small town in the Scottish Highlands. A bride has gone missing from the hotel on her wedding night, and despite a search, there is no sign of her. McNeil and his team are there to back-up a local MIT along with a team from Glasgow. The bride and groom are from very powerful families from the east and west coasts, and the police need to be seen to be doing something. While hunting for the bride, somebody turns up dead, murdered in a similar way to the woman from fifteen years ago. McNeil and the others are pressured into getting a quick result, but how do you catch a killer who is one step ahead and watching your every move? It is going to take all they have to bring him to justice. Until then, he's going to keep on killing... Sticks and Stones is the first novel in a new series featuring DCI Harry McNeil.
Loose Tongues
Chris Simms - 2018
A series of chilling murders has left Manchester in a state of terror. Women are being found dead in their homes, their bodies arranged in the same macabre pose. Each has been strangled, her mobile phone forced down her throat.How is the killer getting in to each victim's house? What have they done to become a target? Why have none put up a fight?Fresh-faced and full of enthusiasm, newly-qualified Detective Constable Sean Blake has just landed a position on the investigating team. Desperate to prove himself, Sean realizes that, if he is to catch the killer, he's going to have to think outside the box. But is he prepared for the vengeful wrath of a truly twisted mind...?
As The Crow Flies
Damien Boyd - 2013
Killed in a fall whilst practising a new route on High Rock, Cheddar Gorge. Convinced that Jake would not have made such a simple mistake, Nick Dixon starts digging and uncovers a web of intrigue and criminal activity that will rock the sleepy seaside town of Burnham-on-Sea to its core.As the body count rises, Dixon is forced to break every rule in the book and put his own life on the line to bring the killer out into the open.A fast paced crime thriller that will leave you gasping for breath, As The Crow Flies is a spine tingling introduction for DI Nick Dixon and a spectacular debut novel from crime fiction writer, Damien Boyd.
Murderland
Pamela Murray - 2019
When DI Joe Burton and DS Sally Fielding are called to investigate a suspicious death in a care home, it is just the start of their problems.
As further bodies are discovered, with playing cards placed beside their bodies, the Manchester police realise they have their work cut out.With the press closing in on the case, a criminal profiler is called in to help work out what the killer’s motive is.With the clock ticking and more victims uncovered, Fielding and Burton must race to track down a twisted killer before it’s too late.
But could the killer be closer to home than anyone ever imagined?
Gone to Ground
John Harvey - 2007
From one of Britain’s leading crime writers — Flesh and Blood, Ash and Bone — comes his new book — sure to go straight to the top of the bestseller lists.Will’s first thought when he saw the man’s face: it was like a glove that had been pulled inside out.When police detective Will Grayson and his partner, Helen Walker are called upon to investigate the violent death of Stephen Bryan, a gay Cambridge academic, their first thoughts are of an ill-judged sexual encounter, of rough trade gone wrong.But as their investigation widens, their attention focuses on the biography Bryan was writing about the life and death of fifties film star, Stella Leonard, whose death from drowning, when the car she was driving skidded mysteriously off a lonely Fenland road, uncannily echoed the climax of her most notorious film, Shattered Glass.With Bryan’s journalist sister egging them on, and bringing herself into mortal danger as she conducts her own investigation, Will and Helen gradually peel away the secrets of a family blighted by a lust for wealth and power and its own perverted sexuality.
Only the Innocent
Rachel Abbott - 2011
But when the billionaire philanthropist is discovered murdered in his London home, tied naked to a bed, the scandal is only a shadow of the darkness lurking off-camera.Laura Fletcher returns from an Italian vacation to find her husband dead and her home under siege by paparazzi. Is she shocked? Yes. But is she distraught? Not exactly. Especially when Chief Inspector Tom Douglas reveals his suspicions that Hugo’s killer is female. Laura always knew she wasn’t the only woman in Hugo’s life. And she knows she wasn’t the only one with a motive to kill.The deeper Douglas digs, the more sordid details about Hugo Fletcher he uncovers. And yet nothing compares to the secret Laura guards, a secret that could bring the guilty to justice—or destroy an innocent life forever.
The Eye Thief
M.K. Farrar - 2020
Blind. With holes in their head where their eyes used to be.DI Erica Swift is caught between the stresses of trying to take care of a young family, a father with dementia, and a demanding job. Working for the Violent Crimes Task Force, she does her best not to let her work life encroach on her family, but it’s not always easy.The case the papers have dubbed ‘The Eye Thief’ is a welcome distraction, though London’s residents are fearful of who will be next.When one of the victims dies, turning it into a murder case, Erica and her team find themselves on the trail of a killer.But a chance encounter drags a horrific event in Erica’s past to collide with her present.The killer has one thing on their mind…Revenge.
Gallows View
Peter Robinson - 1987
Investigating these cases is Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, a perceptive, curious and compassionate policeman recently moved to the Yorkshire Dales from London to escape the stress of city life. In addition to all this, Banks has to deal with the local feminists and his attraction to a young psychologist, Jenny Fuller. As the tension mounts, both Jenny and Banks’s wife, Sandra, are drawn deeper into the events. The cases weave together as the story reaches a tense and surprising climax."--Author's website.
The Mermaids Singing
Val McDermid - 1995
Now, in THE MERMAIDS SINGING, she continues her trademark ingenuity for suspense, and introduces criminal profiler Tony Hill, who has spent years exploring the psyches of madmen. But now he's become one of the hunted...YOU ALWAYS REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME...This was the summer he discovered what he wanted—at a gruesome museum of criminology far off the beaten track of more timid tourists. Visions of torture inspired his fantasies like a muse. It would prove so terribly fulfilling.BUT THE NEXT TIME WOULD BE BETTER...The bodies of four men have been discovered in the town of Bradfield. Enlisted to investigate is criminal psychologist Tony Hill. Even for a seasoned professional, the series of mutilation sex murders is unlike anything he's encountered before. But profiling the psychopath is not beyond him. Hill's own past has made him the perfect man to comprehend the killer's motives. It's also made him the perfect victim.AND PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.A game has begun for the hunter and the hunted. But as Hill confronts his own hidden demons, he must also come face-to-face with an evil so profound he may not have the courage—or the power—to stop it...