Book picks similar to
The Health of Strangers by Lesley Kelly
crime
fiction
mystery
mysteries
Free to Kill
Julie Mellon - 2014
After being reassigned from Louisiana to middle Tennessee, her new bosses suspect that her reassignment is due to an indiscretion with her previous partner. Now, she and her new partner, Michael Powell, are asked to assist on the bewildering case of a woman who was kidnapped, tortured and left for dead on her own front porch. Before they can make any headway, a second woman disappears. As the number of missing women rises, Katie and Michael must work to figure out how the women are being abducted and where they are being held. Will they be too late to save the latest woman? Complicating matters even further is a cold case left behind by Michael’s former partner. Who murdered Henry Stephens twenty-six years ago? What happened to Henry’s wife? And why does one of the suspects act like he knows Katie?
Shadow Season
Tom Piccirilli - 2009
The one thing he can still see is the body of his wife, Dani, and a crime scene that won't fade from his mind's eye. Now a professor, Finn never would have guessed that an isolated girls' prep school could be every bit as dangerous as city streets. Especially when he stumbles upon a local girl lying in a graveyard in the middle of a raging blizzard.Finn may live in a world of total darkness, but it's about to get a splash of red. The memories that torment him still have the power to kill, and a group of innocent students has been put in harm's way by a pair of vicious criminals stalking Finn for unknown reasons. Secrets are creeping from the shadows around him—the kind that even a man with perfect vision never sees until it's too late. They're about to become terrifyingly clear to Finn—and it all begins with the scent of blood.
Swimming in the Dark
Paddy Richardson - 2014
She must decide whether to shelter the girl and endanger herself and her mother, or to tread the route of safety in the face of corruption and brutality she had thought left far behind in the years of her childhood.A fast-paced and beautifully told story of three women and the real meaning of courage.
The Surrey Stalker
B.L. Pearce - 2019
An ambitious young detective. A case that could destroy everything he holds dear.When a young woman is found raped and strangled along the Thames River path, it looks like a personal vendetta by an enraged ex-lover. Then two more women die in the same manner and it becomes clear that a deranged serial killer is on the loose. All three women were engaged to be married. Could this be the link between them?The case is assigned to DI Rob Miller, a young, ambitious detective, whose job it is to catch the killer before any more women are murdered. Rob throws himself into the investigation to the detriment of his own fiancé who is planning their wedding. When Rob begins to hone in on the killer, his fiancé disappears, and Rob knows it's only a matter of time before the killer makes this personal.
Sweet Water
Cara Reinard - 2021
Marriage to her childhood sweetheart, Martin. Living in a historic mansion in Pennsylvania’s most exclusive borough. And Finn, a teenage son with so much promise. Until…A call for help in the middle of the night leads Sarah and Martin to the woods, where they find Finn, injured, dazed, and weeping near his girlfriend’s dead body. Convinced he’s innocent, Sarah and Martin agree to protect their son at any cost and not report the crime.But there are things Sarah finds hard to reconcile: a cover-up by Martin’s family that’s so unnervingly cold-blooded. Finn’s lies to the authorities are too comfortable, too proficient, not to arouse her suspicions. Even the secrets of the old house she lives in seem to be connected to the incident. As each troubling event unfolds, Sarah must decide how far she’ll go to save her perfect life.
Ghost in the Machine
Ed James - 2012
He is assigned a Missing Persons case which has stretched his uniform colleagues. Caroline Adamson - a young, recently divorced mother from Edinburgh - has disappeared whilst on a date. The more Cullen digs into her disappearance, the more he unravels her private life. Who was she on a date with? What happened during her divorce from Rob Thomson? As Cullen's own private life gets messier and the relationship with his DI deteriorates, Caroline's body turns up and he finds himself hunting for a ghost in the machine. Book one of the Scott Cullen series.
Thirteen Steps Down
Ruth Rendell - 2004
In musty old St. Blaise House, where he is the lodger, there are thirteen steps down to the landing below his rooms, which he keeps spick and span. His elderly landlady, Gwendolen Chawcer, was born in St. Blaise House, and lives her life almost exclusively through her library of books, so cannot see the decay and neglect around her.The Notting Hill neighbourhood has changed radically over the last fifty years, and 10 Rillington Place, where the notorious John Christie committed a series of foul murders, has been torn down.Mix is obsessed with the life of Christie and his small library is composed entirely of books on the subject. He has also developed a passion for a beautiful model who lives nearby — a woman who would not look at him twice.Both landlady and lodger inhabit weird worlds of their own. But when reality intrudes into Mix’s life, a long pent-up violence explodes.
The Puppet Master
Jan Coffey - 2008
and one person is holding the strings. The Rocket Scientist On the eve of a new satellite launch, the fiancé of NASA Project Manager Alanna Mendes is killed in a fishing accident…only to be spotted six months later in Silicon Valley. The Computer Genius Four years after being caught by Homeland Security hacking into NASA's mainframe computer, Jay Alexi is still blacklisted from the top colleges and computer companies. Now a changed man with a pregnant wife, he is desperate for a second chance. The Financial Wizard Once a successful international banking CFO, today David Collier is a broken man who can't afford the expensive treatment for his daughter's rare kidney disorder. The American Dream When a terrorist group abducts the son of rags-to-riches Steven Galvin, the billionaire is trapped in a nightmare where no amount of money can help him. One person ties them together... THE PUPPET MASTER.
The Cleansing
Bill Rogers - 2009
Christmas approaches. A killer dressed as a clown haunts the streets of Manchester. For him the City’s miraculous regeneration had unacceptable consequences. This is the reckoning. DCI Tom Caton enlists the help of forensic profiler Kate Webb, placing her in mortal danger. The trail leads from the site of the old mass cholera graves, through Moss Side, the Gay Village, the penthouse opulence of canalside apartment blocks, and the bustling Christmas Market, to the Victorian Gothic grandeur of the Town Hall. Time is running out. For Tom, for Kate…and for the City.
Lead Me Home
C.S. Savage - 2018
As an overworked NHS psychiatrist, Dr Clancy Mclean is used to dealing with mental illness. But she is stressed – trying to balance her career and the needs of her only child, Rowan. And she has her work cut out trying to keep her patients well. She knows two of them are psychotic, and becoming overwhelmed by their voices. If they act on them it could prove disastrous. Rowan is troubled. Her boyfriend is abusive but she doesn’t want to end the relationship – she’s too scared of being lonely. Can she find someone else to keep her company? And, as if Clancy doesn’t have enough to worry about, another of her patients is paranoid and convinced she is being stalked. Is it just a symptom of her mental illness? Because there is a stalker on the prowl and he is getting closer to his victim with each passing day.
Life Ruins
Danuta Kot - 2019
But no one will believe her, and she can hardly even trust herself.Kay, recently widowed and coming to terms with life on her own, suddenly finds herself forced to get involved. For years she and her husband fostered difficult children – including Becca, whom trouble follows like a stray puppy. And now Becca seems to be in the worst trouble of her life. And then Jared and Becca meet. Becca, strong-minded and fiercely independent, is confident they can figure out what’s going on. She pulls Kay into the mix, knowing they’ll need all the help they can get… because the police don’t believe them. And more girls are vanishing.Separately, Kay, Becca and Jared believe their lives have hit rock bottom. But drawn together under extraordinary circumstances, they’ll discover the strength to fight back… and ultimately rebuild their lives from the ruins.Set amidst the bleak landscape of the east Yorkshire coast, LIFE RUINS combines haunting landscapes that will appeal to readers of PETER MAY and ANN CLEVES with the thoughtful, internal crime writing of DENISE MINA in a new and unforgettable novel.
The Western Wind
Samantha Harvey - 2018
When a man is swept away by the river in the early hours of Shrove Saturday, an explanation has to be found: accident, suicide or murder? The village priest, John Reve, is privy to many secrets in his role as confessor. But will he be able to unravel what happened to the victim, Thomas Newman, the wealthiest, most capable and industrious man in the village? And what will happen if he can’t?Moving back in time towards the moment of Thomas Newman’s death, the story is related by Reve – an extraordinary creation, a patient shepherd to his wayward flock, and a man with secrets of his own to keep. Through his eyes, and his indelible voice, Harvey creates a medieval world entirely tangible in its immediacy.
Don't Point that Thing at Me
Kyril Bonfiglioli - 1972
He's not one to pass up a drink - or too many - and he prides himself on being stylishly dressed for whatever occasion may present itself, no matter how debauched. Don't miss this brilliant mixture of comedy, crime, and suspense.
Daddy Darkest
Ellery A. Kane - 2017
Bury them deep... A month after her high school graduation, small-town-girl Samantha “Sam” Bronwyn boards a plane with her best friend, Ginny. Destination: San Francisco. But when Ginny disappears inside an airport bathroom wearing Sam’s letterman jacket, it doesn’t take her long to figure out she was the intended target. Alone in a strange city, Sam’s on a run for her life—drawn into a dark past she never knew existed. A past where secrets aren’t all that’s buried and where revenge comes at the highest price. Who is Sam really—and who can she trust? The mysterious stranger in 4A who secreted a gun in his backpack? The guilty ex-con? The disarming FBI agent? Her own mother? Only one thing is certain. Someone is after her. Someone who knows more about her than she does. Someone who wants to teach her a hard lesson: There are worse things than murder. Daddy Darkest is a standalone and the first in the Doctors of Darkness series.
The Visitors
Catherine Burns - 2017
A timid spinster in her fifties who still sleeps with teddy bears, Marion does her best to shut out the shocking secret that John keeps in the cellar.Until, suddenly, John has a heart attack and Marion is forced to go down to the cellar herself and face the gruesome truth that her brother has kept hidden.As questions are asked and secrets unravel, maybe John isn't the only one with a dark side.