Book picks similar to
Blood, Smoke and Ashes by Bradley Convissar
horror
mystery
fiction
thriller
Heartsick
Chelsea Cain - 2007
Two years ago, Gretchen kidnapped Archie and tortured him for ten days, but instead of killing him, she mysteriously decided to let him go. She turned herself in, and now Gretchen has been locked away for the rest of her life, while Archie is in a prison of another kind---addicted to pain pills, unable to return to his old life, powerless to get those ten horrific days off his mind. Archie's a different person, his estranged wife says, and he knows she's right. He continues to visit Gretchen in prison once a week, saying that only he can get her to confess as to the whereabouts of more of her victims, but even he knows the truth---he can't stay away.
When another killer begins snatching teenage girls off the streets of Portland, Archie has to pull himself together enough to lead the new task force investigating the murders. A hungry young newspaper reporter, Susan Ward, begins profiling Archie and the investigation, which sparks a deadly game between Archie, Susan, the new killer, and even Gretchen. They need to catch a killer, and maybe somehow then Archie can free himself from Gretchen, once and for all. Either way, Heartsick makes for one of the most extraordinary suspense debuts in recent memory.
Mayhem
Sarah Pinborough - 2013
Though newspapers have dubbed him ‘the Torso Killer’, this murderer’s work is overshadowed by the hysteria surrounding Jack the Ripper’s Whitechapel crimes. The victims are women too, but their dismembered bodies, wrapped in rags and tied up with string, are pulled out of the Thames – and the heads are missing. The murderer likes to keep them.Mayhem is a masterwork of narrative suspense: a supernatural thriller set in a shadowy, gaslit London, where monsters stalk the cobbled streets and hide in plain sight.
The Last House on Needless Street
Catriona Ward - 2021
A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.All these things are true. And yet they are all lies...You think you know what's inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you've read this story before. That's where you're wrong.In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it's not what you think...
Extreme Malice
R.E. Swirsky - 2011
Eighteen year old Josh Anderson, the college boy from next door, is charged with her murder. It was his guitar string around her neck. His footprints are found inside her house. Her earring found under his bed. Donna Gardner's husband Jack was hundreds of miles away on business. Was it the perfect Murder?
Another One
Tony Faggioli - 2017
After two tours in the Afghanistan War, he thought the horrors that he witnessed there were behind him. But the death of his partner has now opened a dark hole of memories that are threatening to swallow Parker alive. Desperate to maintain his grip, he focuses on the last unsolved case his partner left behind: the brutal murder of Hymie Villarosa. Father Bernardino Soltera is being destroyed by the present. After ministering to the gang ridden streets of East L.A. for over twenty years, he's unable to see past the pain and suffering that drugs and violence have wreaked on his neighborhood; he’s ready to give up. But when a young girl confesses that she's pregnant and her boyfriend will hurt her if she doesn't get an abortion? Father Soltera decides to make one more stand. Hector Villarosa is being mocked by the future. After being released from jail he discovers the love of his life is with another man. As the leader of his gang, losing face could mean losing his life, and the fact that detectives are now asking questions about the death of Hector's cousin, Hymie, isn't helping. But Hector's bigger problem is the demon that has followed him out of jail and on to the mean streets of East L.A. Three men, one neighborhood. All about to discover that the veil between this world and the next is razor thin. “Faggioli does an astonishing job bringing both criminals and cops to life as three-dimensional, sympathetic characters.” – Amazon 5 Star Review “This is a book that so profoundly illustrates the never ending battle of good and evil, I'm almost without the words to explain it.” – Amazon 5 Star Review
All the Blue-Eyed Angels
Jen Blood - 2012
The Solar Temple. Heaven's Gate. In the summer of 1990, the Payson Church of Tomorrow joins the ranks of those infamous cult suicides when thirty-four members burn to death on a small island off the coast of Maine. At ten years old, Payson member Erin Solomon watches helplessly as the church and its congregation are reduced to ash and embers.More than twenty years later, Erin is an accomplished investigative journalist when she receives word that she has inherited Payson Isle... and all its ghosts. She returns to Maine to learn the truth behind the tragedy that has haunted her since childhood, aided by the rakish mentor who's stood by her side since she was a teenager, her trusty mutt Einstein, and a mysterious stranger with his own dark past.Soon, Erin is enmeshed in violence, conspiracy, and scandal, as she fights to unearth the secrets of the Payson Church of Tomorrow -- secrets someone will kill to keep buried.
Unseen
John Michael Hileman - 2012
When Jake's estranged sister, Holly, finds herself the target of a national serial killer who has chosen her son as his next victim, Jake begins to wonder if there is a connection. Could these children be the ghosts of the killer's victims?As the kidnapper's plan unfolds, Jake uncovers a startling secret about the unseen children that will change his life forever--and Holly discovers just how far she is willing to go to save her son. Unseen is a riveting story of rescue, restoration, and romance that will leave you thinking long after the last page has been turned.
Desecration
J.F. Penn - 2013
Her career is on the ropes. Her daughter is dying — there are only hours left before the end, and decisions have to be made. Museum curator Blake Daniel is a man on the edge of destruction. Cursed with the ability to “read” objects — to see where they’ve come from, and the bloody histories they experience — Blake splits his time between working as a researcher at the British Museum… and binge-drinking to forget his nightmare visions.Together, these two broken souls are all that stand between London and a serial killer. A young woman has been murdered, her uterus and unborn child removed during a gala event at a college of surgeons, any of whom could have committed the crime. The only clue is a small ivory figure of a woman undergoing a Cesarean section, dating to the seventeenth century.Body modification, grave robbery, Nazi eugenics, a laboratory that specializes in extreme genetic experiments. All come together to create a mystery unlike any Jamie has experienced, and a danger greater than any Blake has ever seen in his visions. It will take all Jamie’s detective skills, and all Blake’s psychic abilities, to find the killer. To end the murders. To stop something that wants to destroy all that is good… and leave behind only DESECRATION.Desecration is the first book in a thrilling new series by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author J.F. Penn: a blend of crime, psychological thriller — and the supernatural.
The Cipher
Isabella Maldonado - 2020
Until now…FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera escaped a serial killer’s trap at sixteen. Years later, when she’s jumped in a Virginia park, a video of the attack goes viral. Legions of new fans are not the only ones impressed with her fighting skills. The man who abducted her eleven years ago is watching. Determined to reclaim his lost prize, he commits a grisly murder designed to pull her into the investigation…but his games are just beginning. And he’s using the internet to invite the public to play along.His coded riddles may have made him a depraved social media superstar—an enigmatic cyber-ghost dubbed “the Cipher”—but to Nina he’s a monster who preys on the vulnerable. Partnered with the FBI’s preeminent mind hunter, Dr. Jeffrey Wade, who is haunted by his own past, Nina tracks the predator across the country. Clue by clue, victim by victim, Nina races to stop a deadly killer while the world watches.
The Girls Across The Bay
Emerald O'Brien - 2017
A bond stronger than blood. A connection that could end it all. Madigan Knox and Grace Sheppard became sisters the day they entered their foster home. After living through a childhood nightmare, one brave act set them free, but split them apart into different homes.As adults, they are reunited in the small coastal town they dreamed of living in as children, but the reality of life in Tall Pines is far from what they had imagined.When a woman is found dead in her home, Madigan reports on the crime while Grace investigates. A dark connection to the victim is discovered, pulling them both closer to the crime and the traumatic past they are desperate to move on from. With old wounds ripped open and dark secrets threatening their bond, the sisters must rely on each other more than ever before to survive.
The Haunting of Thores-Cross: A Yorkshire Ghost Story
Karen Perkins - 2012
A haunting historical thriller set in Britain's North Yorkshire Moors about isolation, superstition and persecution, The Haunting of Thores-Cross explores 18th century life in a picturesque but isolated village in the North Yorkshire Moors. When a vulnerable young girl is ostracised within her community and accused of witchcraft, the descendants of her neighbours will suffer for centuries to come.*Silver Medal Winner, European fiction - 2015 IPPY Book Awards *#1 Bestseller in 6 Amazon Categories, including Ghost Suspense, British Horror and Gothic Romance*Top 10 Bestseller in 8 more, including Historical Thrillers and Occult Horror*Over 100 5-STAR reviews on Amazon.com Likened by independent reviewers on Amazon to the Brontë sisters, Edgar Allen Poe, Barbara Erskine and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Karen Perkins' novels are filled with unflinching honesty and an acute understanding of human nature. She explores not only the depths of humanity, but the depths of human motivation behind the actions and pain people inflict upon each other, as well as the repercussions of these actions not only in the short term, but also the later generations who live with the implications of the past. Emma Moorcroft is still grieving after a late miscarriage and moves to her dream house at Thruscross Reservoir with her husband, Dave. Both Emma and Dave hope that moving into their new home signifies a fresh start, but life is not that simple. Emma has nightmares about the reservoir and the drowned village that lies beneath the water, and is further disturbed by the sound of church bells - from a church that no longer exists. Jennet is fifteen and lives in the isolated community of Thores-Cross, where life revolves about the sheep on which they depend. Following the sudden loss of both her parents, she is seduced by the local wool merchant, Richard Ramsgill. She becomes pregnant and is shunned not only by Ramsgill, but by the entire village. Lonely and embittered, Jennet's problems escalate, leading to tragic consequences which continue to have an effect through the centuries. Emma becomes fixated on Jennet, neglecting herself, her beloved dogs and her husband to the point where her marriage may not survive. As Jennet and Emma's lives become further entwined, Emma's obsession deepens and she realises that the curse Jennet inflicted on the Ramsgill family over two hundred years ago is still claiming lives. Emma is the only one who can stop Jennet killing again, but will her efforts be enough? The Haunting of Thores-Cross was previously titled Thores-Cross.The Yorkshire Ghost Stories are all stand-alone, complete books, and can be read in any order
Gypsy Hunted
Andrea Drew - 2014
Her heroic attempt to intervene is repaid with a collision between the attacker's van and a brick wall. She awakens in hospital, paralyzed on her left side and unable to speak. Unable to share vital information about the crime she witnessed. Fortunately, her telepathic connection with her niece helps her throw a line out, attracting the attention of a police detective: Connor Reardon, Gypsy's date the night of the attack.Stepping in to protect Gypsy, Connor even listens to her claims of psychic power. She soon senses he's concealing certain powers of his own. Nor are they all he's concealing. A part of Gypsy's new ally's mind is closed to her”"what she cannot know is that Connor suspects the kidnapper is someone close to him, and the victim holds secrets that will tear through Connor's department, putting careers and lives at risk. Including Gypsy's, as she is left recovering in hospital and vulnerable as the attacker turns his sights on her once again.Can she use her powers to track down the perpetrator in time to prevent her own murder?
Dawn Girl
Leslie Wolfe - 2016
A few specks of sand clung to her long, dark lashes. Her beautiful face, immobile, covered in sparkling flecks of sand. Her lips slightly parted as if to let a last breath escape.Who is the beautiful girl found at dawn, on a deserted stretch of white sand beach? What is her secret?FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett searches for answers relentlessly. With each step, each new finding, she uncovers unsettling facts leading to a single possible conclusion: Dawn Girl is not the only victim. Her killer has killed before.Hiding a terrible secret of her own, Special Agent Tess Winnett faces her inmost fears, in a heart-stopping race to catch a killer who’s getting ready to end yet another life. Will she find the killer in time? Will she be able to stop him? At what cost? The rules of the game have changed. So has the textbook definition of a serial killer.Special Agent Tess Winnett is the bold, direct, and short-fused heroine of Dawn Girl. Putting her life on the line, she doesn’t pull any punches, searching only for the truth, and for the man who takes lives on her watch. Intelligent, resourceful, and uncompromising, Tess will take readers on a memorable, white-knuckled journey in this suspenseful, gripping serial killer thriller.
What Lies Beneath
Richard Denney - 2013
And when she begins to receive disturbing gifts and letters from her supposed dead boyfriend, she attempts to figure out what is going on before the darkness consumes her. Nothing is as it seems and the startling truth is going to rip Blair right out of this world. Is Blair simply losing her mind? Or is something vicious and dark after her sanity and soul?
A Criminal Defense
William L. Myers Jr. - 2017
The defendant, David Hanson, was Mick’s close friend in law school, and the victim, a TV news reporter, had reached out to Mick for legal help only hours before her death.Mick’s played both sides of Philadelphia’s courtrooms. As a top-shelf defense attorney and former prosecutor, he knows all the tricks of the trade. And he’ll need every one of them to win.But as the trial progresses, he’s disturbed by developments that confirm his deepest fears. This trial, one that already hits too close to home, may jeopardize his firm, his family—everything. Now Mick’s only way out is to mastermind the most brilliant defense he’s ever spun, one that will cross every legal and moral boundary.