Book picks similar to
The Sholes Key by Clarissa Draper


1st-in-series
mysteries
crime-mystery-uk
ks_unlimited

The Night Bird


Brian Freeman - 2017
    When a series of bizarre deaths rock San Francisco—as seemingly random women suffer violent psychotic breaks—Frost looks for a connection that leads him to psychiatrist Francesca Stein. Frankie’s controversial therapy helps people erase their most terrifying memories…and all the victims were her patients.As Frost and Frankie carry out their own investigations, the case becomes increasingly personal—and dangerous. Long-submerged secrets surface as someone called the Night Bird taunts the pair with cryptic messages pertaining to the deaths. Soon Frankie is forced to confront strange gaps in her own memory, and Frost faces a killer who knows the detective’s worst fears.As the body count rises and the Night Bird circles ever closer, a dedicated cop and a brilliant doctor race to solve the puzzle before a cunning killer claims another victim.

The Secret Staircase


Melanie Jackson - 2011
    In her unknown relative's ancient house, she discovers that the sins of the past are very much alive and able to be visited on the children. Smugglers and pirates and an old curse are not just things of the past, but dangers and mysteries to be reckoned with today.

Hide and Seek


Rob Costa - 2017
    As the stalker became more obsessive and threatening, her boyfriend Bobby went missing. The town assumed that troublemaking Bobby had been playing a trick and had decided to run away when he got in too deep—or that Mary Anne was behind all of it herself. They were especially suspicious when the stalker disappeared right after Bobby did. Fifteen years later, Mary Anne receives another note from her stalker. She knew exactly who to go to for help. VISIT WWW.CYANIDEPUBLISHING.COM AND DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE CRIME / MYSTERY STARTER LIBRARY

Undertaking Irene


Pamela Burford - 2014
    To dead people.Life gets complicated for Jane and her Death Diva business when she’s hired to liberate a gaudy mermaid brooch from the corpse during a wake—on behalf of the rightful owner, supposedly. Well, a girl’s got to make a living, and this assignment pays better than scattering ashes, placing flowers on graves, or bawling her eyes out as a hired mourner. Unfortunately for Jane, someone else is just as eager to get his hands on that brooch, and he’s even sneakier than she is, not to mention dangerously sexy.Just when she thinks her biggest problem is grand theft mermaid, things take a murderous turn. But hey, when you’ve teamed up with a neurotic seven-pound poodle named Sexy Beast, how can you go wrong?

Damsel In Danger


Olivia Jaymes - 2015
    With a little help from his friends, Logan Wright and Jared Monroe, he’s starting a new business and moving forward. He only thinks about the past during the long, dark nights. It’s then that he feels most alone. Brinley Snow has moved into her dream home. It’s everything she’s wanted and more although she's facing a mountain of renovation work. Luckily it came with the bonus of a sexier than sin neighbor. One sultry summer night, Brinley gathers up her courage and asks Jason to join her for dinner. They’re instantly attracted to one another but the evening quickly goes down hill as she ends up in the interrogation room of the local police. An unknown dead man had her address clutched in his hand. The authorities – and Jason – think she’s the key to finding a cold-blooded murderer. With a first date like that Brinley’s not sure she’ll survive a second. Then again she’s never met anyone like Jason. He’s not the typical boy-next-door. He’s all man. And with a little luck, he could become all hers. They just have to stay alive long enough to catch a killer.

Sweet Masterpiece


Connie Shelton - 2010
    But her real dream is to open her own pastry shop, Sweet's Sweets.Life is a little crazy for Sam right now. At one of her break-in properties a dying woman insists that she take a small wooden box. Sam doesn't realize that the old woman was known locally as a bruja, a witch, until she begins to feel some strange effects from the box, herself.Meanwhile, at another property, she finds an unmarked grave and the authorities come to investigate. The property owner disappeared a few months earlier and Sam wonders--who is the body in the grave? A small mural in the house leads to a connection with a famous artist; a bogus will points to possible fraud; and the handsome deputy investigating the case seems completely enchanted with Sam.While Sam scrambles to fill bakery orders and keep her properties in order, she's equally intrigued with the idea of a new romance. It all makes for a delightful romantic mystery with elements of the paranormal.

Murder 101


Maggie Barbieri - 2006
    Her car has been stolen so she has to walk to the train station to get to her office at St. Thomas, a college in the Bronx, New York. When she arrived she finds two homicide detectives waiting for her. The good news is that they found her car; the bad news is that in the trunk was the body of one of the students in her Shakespeare seminar.Trying to get her name off of the handsome Detective Crawford’s suspect list turns out to be just one of her problems. Alison has to bail her ex out of jail; deal with the victim’s distraught parents, classmates of hers when she was a student at St. Thomas; and grade those Shakespeare exams, which seem to be getting a lot of attention for a boring old stack of reports. And in the meantime, who would want to kill college student Kathy Miceli?

Out of the Dark


Geri Foster - 2013
    His boss arranges for him to hitch a ride with the corporate attorney Emily Richards, who is in Russia as a mediator.Emily Richards wants only to return home then on to a peaceful vacation with her best friend. When armed men invade her hotel room minutes after Mac arrives, Emily is forced to depend on Mac to stay alive. Anger that Mac has entangled her in a life or death struggle quickly turns to fear when the men pursuing them call her by name.Together Mac and Emily engage in a tumultuous ride to escape with their lives and capture a crazed bomber and a vindictive drug lord. More difficult is tearing down their own emotional walls. Can they succeed and admit love is the most precious thing in life?

Ties That Bind


Carolyn Arnold - 2011
    The rest of the world thought she was going crazy—until it was too late.When Laura Saunders is found strangled in her home with a man’s necktie, Detective Madison Knight is assigned the case. Her sergeant at the Stiles Police Department wants her to conclude it was an isolated incident and move on with the investigation, but Madison’s not the type to cave under pressure. She’s haunted by certain unexplainable clues at the crime scene, including the presence of a mysterious photograph. Madison believes the picture may somehow tie into the murder, but before she can dig into it, another woman’s body is discovered in a local park. Heather Nguyen was also murdered with the same brand of necktie that had been used on Laura.On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be anything beyond the way they were killed that connects the women. But as Madison delves into the lives of the victims, she unravels a web of deceit and betrayal and lays bare decades of deadly family secrets. Edging closer to the truth, Madison’s quite sure at least one more woman is slated to die. But can Madison piece together all the clues in time to save her?A gripping crime thriller full of heart-pounding twists. Perfect for fans of Robert Dugoni, J.D. Robb, and Lisa Regan.Readers love Ties That Bind:“Arnold has written one of the best female cops that I’ve ever read… Madison is just one of those characters that will stay with you.” –Harlie’s Books, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“A good detective story with lots of twists and turns and an unexpected ending.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“This is one heck of a mystery!” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“Brace yourself for the ending! I didn't see that one coming.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“I loved Madison Knight and her sassy dialogue.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“I found myself unable to stop reading this book.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“A must-read for the mystery fan.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“So many twists and turns I never saw the ending coming!” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“A solid police procedure mystery.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“If you like true suspense, this is a book to read.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“Like watching an award-winning police drama in my mind.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“Intriguing, suspenseful, and full of surprises!” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“Well-written and researched on police procedures.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“It was very difficult to set this book aside to do something else.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐“From the moment I began reading this book, I was hooked.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Murder in the White House


Margaret Truman - 1980
    Fairbanks discovers only a few highly placed insiders had access to the Lincoln Bedroom that fateful evening. And one of them was the president.

Caribbean Moon


Rick Murcer - 2011
    The couple’s exotic getaway begins in sunny San Juan, Puerto Rico, by attending the June wedding of a fellow Lansing police officer, followed with an incredible week-long Southern Caribbean cruise on the glamorous Ocean Duchess. Tropical paradise appears to be a perfect recipe for desperately needed R and R...until the first dead body. A bizarre, seemingly random murder in their posh San Juan Hotel, and the heinous cruise ship deaths of two of Lansing’s law enforcement family, brings Manny, and his unique skills, out of cruise mode and head-long into the FBI-led investigation. Manny soon discovers that in this killer’s twisted perception nothing is off limits, prompting a race against time that could cost him everything. If you like edge-of-your-seat thrillers laced with humor, you'll love this!Caribbean Moon: "A new standard has been set for thrillers. In Rick Murcer's debut novel, Caribbean Moon, he's mixed the perfect ingredients to lock in readers, starting with the opening witty banter between Manny and Sophie. From there, the book takes off like a run-away roller coaster. Murcer knows just when to slow the pace and when to hit the gas. He's created a twisted mystery, with infectious characters and an unfathomable ending. Manny Williams might be the new Jedi of investigators, and Murcer is a Spielberg-like creative powerhouse. Caribbean Moon is absolutely magnetic!" John W. Mefford, Best-selling suspense author of COMMITTED

In the Dark


Loreth Anne White - 2019
    The perfect getaway. So remote no one will ever find you.The promise of a luxury vacation at a secluded wilderness spa has brought together eight lucky guests. But nothing is what they were led to believe. As a fierce storm barrels down and all contact with the outside is cut off, the guests fear that it’s not a getaway. It’s a trap.Each one has a secret. Each one has something to hide. And now, as darkness closes in, they all have something to fear—including one another.Alerted to the vanished party of strangers, homicide cop Mason Deniaud and search and rescue expert Callie Sutton must brave the brutal elements of the mountains to find them. But even Mason and Callie have no idea how precious time is. Because the clock is ticking, and one by one, the guests of Forest Shadow Lodge are being hunted. For them, surviving becomes part of a diabolical game.

A Peach of a Murder


Livia J. Washburn - 2006
    But even as Phyllis engages in some amateur sleuthing, she won't let it distract her from out-baking her rivals and winning the upcoming Peach Festival contest.She and all the other contestants guard their secret, original recipes with their lives-and talk a whole lot of trash. With her unusual Spicy Peach Cobbler, Phyllis hopes to knock 'em dead. But that's just an expression-never in her wildest dreams did she think her cobbler would actually kill a judge. Now, she's suspected of murder-and she's got to bake this case wide open.

Gone With The Ghost


Erin McCarthy - 2017
    Except that’s exactly what happened. Ryan is very much dead, having shot himself with his own police-issued gun. Guilt and grief shouldn’t cause hallucinations though, but six months after Ryan went into the ground, Bailey is freaking out and swearing his ghost is standing in her kitchen. Which he is… Ryan claims he didn’t commit suicide, but was murdered, and he needs Bailey to help him find his killer so he can earn his ticket out of purgatory. Ryan’s counting on a stairway to heaven, as opposed to wings, since that might be a little unmanly for a cop, even a dead one. An expert in home design, with her own staging business, Bailey can tell you where to place a couch to improve flow and comfort, but solving a crime? Not her area of expertise. But with help from Ryan’s former partner, Marner, she is unraveling the mystery of what happened to Ryan that day… and unwittingly putting herself in grave danger. Murder By Design Series Book 1- Gone With The Ghost Book 2- Silence of The Ghost Book 3- Once Upon a Ghost Bestselling author Erin McCarthy offers her signature humor in this fun series about an uptight fashion-conscious home stager who finds herself stiletto-deep in murder...

The Ranger


Ace Atkins - 2011
    To Quinn Colson, it's home -- but not the home he left when he went to Afghanistan. Now an Army Ranger, he returns to a place overrun by corruption, and finds his uncle, the county sheriff, dead -- a suicide, he's told, but others whisper murder. In the days that follow, it will be up to Colson to discover the truth, not only about his uncle, but about his family, his friends, his town, and not least about himself. And once the truth is discovered, there is no turning back.