Book picks similar to
Bad Road to Nowhere by Linda Ladd


mystery
fiction
romantic-suspense
thriller

Countdown: Part 1 of 8


Carla Cassidy - 2017
    Tock. BOOM.FBI Special Agent Lara Grant had thought that she’d put her past behind her—finally—with her last case. But now a serial bomber is targeting Manhattan’s elite power players, offering them a choice between saving hundreds of lives or seeing their darkest secrets exposed. Lara is working with the Crisis Management Unit to stop the bomber, but how will she react when she’s the one who has to choose between truth...or death?Part 1 of 8: an explosive new installment in the thrilling FBI serial from New York Times bestselling author Carla Cassidy and Tyler Anne Snell, Emmy Curtis and Janie Crouch.

Chasing Darkness


Danielle Girard - 2002
     A tough special-agent with the Department of Justice, and a dedicated single mother to her orphaned nephews, Samantha Chase is unbreakable. Until two women, both from the shadows of Sam’s past, are discovered strangled. For Sam, the most unnerving detail is the eucalyptus branch tucked behind the victims’ ears—the signature of a notorious serial murder already convicted and executed for his crimes. To detective Nick Thomas, the only link to the copycat killings is Sam herself. And when she becomes the target of threats—each one more menacing than the last—his feelings for her just might jeopardize the case. But to understand the killer’s twisted motive is to explore Sam’s past—and a crime she’s spent a lifetime trying to bury... AWARDS: Winner of the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award OTHER SUSPENSE NOVELS by Danielle Girard: Savage Art Ruthless Game Cold Silence The Rookie Club

Bloodline


Jess Lourey - 2021
    Perfect homes. Perfect families. It’s enough to drive some women mad…In a tale inspired by real events, pregnant journalist Joan Harken is cautiously excited to follow her fiancé back to his Minnesota hometown. After spending a childhood on the move and chasing the screams and swirls of news-rich city life, she’s eager to settle down. Lilydale’s motto, “Come Home Forever,” couldn’t be more inviting.And yet, something is off in the picture-perfect village.The friendliness borders on intrusive. Joan can’t shake the feeling that every move she makes is being tracked. An archaic organization still seems to hold the town in thrall. So does the sinister secret of a little boy who vanished decades ago. And unless Joan is imagining things, a frighteningly familiar figure from her past is on watch in the shadows.Her fiancé tells her she’s being paranoid. He might be right. Then again, she might have moved to the deadliest small town on earth.

The Mark


Jason Pinter - 2007
    He just landed his dream job as a reporter at the renowned New York Gazette, has a great girlfriend, and the world at his fingertips. Henry is smart. Ambitious. Determined. He’s ready to take the world by storm. But Henry's dream is about to turn into a nightmare...On his first assignment, a man ends up dead, and Henry finds himself on the run and accused of murder. On his trail is a dogged cop who wants to see Henry behind bars, and a ruthless, demented assassin who wants to see Henry dead. Henry’s only hope of survival is a woman he barely knows, as they embark on a cross-country flight barely one step ahead of disaster. The only chance he has to clear his name is to find the truth about the bizarre murder, and to uncover a secret that some very dangerous people are willing to kill to conceal...The first novel in Jason Pinter’s bestselling, acclaimed Henry Parker series, THE MARK is "A gripping page-turner you won't be able to stop reading." —James Patterson

The Missing


Karl Vadaszffy - 2012
    He pulls into the London Gateway Services, leaving Jennie in the car. But when he returns, she has disappeared. Frantic with worry, he turns to the police for help. The police doubt that Jennie exists: there is no trace that she ever existed.John, convinced Jennie was not a figment of his imagination, sets out in a desperate attempt to find the woman he fell in love with. He has the help of Detective Sergeant Kate Nielsen, herself haunted by a botched undercover operation that led to her being raped four years earlier.Everything he can remember of Jennie – where she worked, where she lived – turns out to be untrue. Nielsen, following John as he lurches from one lead to another, begins to wonder if Jennie could be the eleventh victim of a serial killer. Their investigation becomes increasingly urgent and threatens to bring back dark and murky images from Nielsen’s past.Praise for The Missing:“Karl Vadaszffy’s The Missing is a terrifying and perplexing debut mystery, spare and fast-paced with a terrific ending. I wouldn’t be surprised if it spawns a DS Kate Nielsen series.”
 Glenn Cooper (Library of the Dead and Book of Souls)“A thriller to make your pulse race. Desperation and frustration stain the pages – a cracking good read.”
 James Becker (The First Apostle and The Moses Stone)“Karl Vadaszffy delivers a real treat in The Missing, a thriller written with the passion and intensity of a master storyteller. Mystery, action, a flawed but determined protagonist, this book has it all. I’m a fan of Karl’s skill.”
 Matt Hilton (Dead Men’s Dust and Judgement and Wrath)“A mystery that grips, provokes and most definitely causes the spine to tingle. Nothing is as it seems in this suspense-laden tale, the pith darkening on each exquisitely written page. The Missing moves at a relentless pace, taking the reader on a journey into the twisted mind of a very dark soul. A spellbinding thriller.”
 C. M. Palov (The Templar’s Quest and The Templar’s Code)“The Missing plunges you into a nightmare scenario worthy of Harlan Coben at his best. However, this is more than a suspense novel, it is a perceptive and intriguing human drama. All the interactions ring true and the characters – even the monsters – are always believable.” Elly Griffiths (The Crossing Places and The Janus Stone)
“The Missing is a fast and compelling book, by turns tender and brutal, with a pounding sense of approaching crisis. The author’s command of the scenes is impressive.” Patrick Lennon (Corn Dolls and Steel Witches)“The Missing is a nightmare of a book, triggering a reader’s darkest fears and keeping him in a state of tension from the first page until the last.” Thomas Perry (Strip and Silence)"Karl Vadaszffy's 'The Missing' is a superior thriller, at once an exercise in vicarious paranoia and a horrifyingly convincing look into the mind of a killer. It's a shame Hitchcock isn't around to film it, it's exactly the kind of story he did best." Scott Phillips (The Ice Harvest and The Walkaway)“Karl Vadaszffy is just the sort of writer we should encourage – young, ambitious and creative.” Michael Dobbs (House of Cards and Winston’s War)Visit karlvad.com for Karl's official website.

Her Final Words


Brianna Labuskes - 2020
    The teenage girl confesses to murdering a young boy. Disturbingly composed, she reveals chilling details only the killer could know. Beyond that Eliza doesn’t say another word, leaving a vital question met with dead silence: Why did she do it?To find the answer, Lucy goes to the scene of the crime in the small Idaho town of Knox Hollow. But Lucy’s questions are only mounting. Especially when she’s drawn deeper into the life of the victim. Then a combing of the woods yields unsettling evidence that Eliza isn’t the only one in this close-knit rural community with secrets.Getting to the truth is becoming Lucy’s obsession. And it’s a dangerous one. Because for the good folks of Knox Hollow, hiding that truth will take more than silence.

The Missing Children


M.A. Comley - 2017
    "I want my mummy..."The whisper seems to echo through the rooms of the abandoned house. DI Kayli Bright and her partner, DS Dave Chaplin, aren't strangers to dealing with bad cases, but no one can prepare for the emotional and mental anguish the discovery of a child's remains evokes.Determined to find the responsible culprit, several of the dead child's family members surface on their radar of suspects...until they learn of another child's abduction.The investigation leads Kayli to the shocking conclusion that even more children in the area have been abducted. A race against time ensues to find the children before they get lost in a sinister, evil world.

Shake Down


Joel Goldman - 2008
    Kate Scranton, whose job is spotting lies for high-priced courtroom lawyers, is convinced that mild-mannered Latrell Kelly knows something about the crime. But Latrell is hiding far more than Kate can guess. And with Jack half-blinded by an imploding personal life, and someone on his own side leaking crucial information, they're headed straight for the ultimate danger zone...

Lust


Mike Wells - 2011
    When her father is falsely arrested for passing counterfeit $100 bills, Elaine vows to become a Secret Service agent and track down the man responsible. After barely surviving the arduous Secret Service Training Academy in Laurel, Maryland, she is transferred to bleak and blustery Great Falls, Montana. But things do not go as planned, and Elaine soon finds herself betrayed and thrown into an adventure that takes her halfway around the world, from dark and mysterious Sofia, Bulgaria, to Moscow Russia, and finally, to Milan, Italy. In the end, will Elaine find the love and happiness she truly seeks…or will she turn to a life of obscene wealth, power and corruption?

Unforeseen


Nick Pirog - 2008
    After all, it was his case, and he doesn t need to be reminded of the gruesome details. The book dubbed the serial killer, Tristen Grayer, The MAINEiac. Grayer is allegedly dead, but only Prescott knows the truth, Grayer is alive and lurking in the shadows. On October 1st, the anniversary of the first murder, Tristen resurfaces, killing someone special from Prescott's past. Suddenly, it s deja vu for Prescott except this time the women closest to him begin to fall victim at the hands of Grayer. With the help of former flame, medical examiner Dr. Caitlin Dodds, and Eight in October author, Alex Tooms, Prescott must race against the clock to stop Tristen from completing his encore.

Dead Man's Bridge


Robert J. Mrazek - 2017
    But things only turn for the worse when the college’s richest and most powerful alumnus is found hanging from a campus footbridge on the eve of homecoming weekend.Jake is convinced the man was murdered, but with no honor to his name, no one agrees―at least not until a second body is found hanging from the same bridge. Unable to push aside his military training, Jake and Bug finds themselves working to bring justice to the small college town. But as a vicious hurricane sweeps up the Eastern seaboard and the college’s homecoming weekend rapidly unfolds, the clock is ticking and it’s only a matter of time before the killer strikes again.From award-winning author Robert Mrazek, comes Dead Man’s Bridge, the first in a new heart-pounding mystery series sure to keep readers hooked until the very last page.

Rick Cantelli, P.I.


Bernard Lee DeLeo - 2013
    After twenty successful years, Rick's old high school girlfriend shows up to turn their world upside down. Suddenly, they're back killing bad guys, facing down mobsters, and escorting movie stars. They were a deadly team in their CIA years, and they prove they’re just as deadly now.

The Bad Place


M.K. Hill - 2019
    A remote farm out on the Thames estuary, where six children were held captive for two weeks. Five of them got out alive. That was twenty years ago. Now adults, they meet up annually to hold a candlelit vigil for their friend who died. The only rule is that no-one can talk about what happened the night they escaped. But at this year's event, one of them witnesses a kidnapping. A young girl, Sammi, is bundled into a van in front of their eyes. Is history repeating itself? Is one of them responsible? Or is someone sending them a twisted message? DI Sasha Dawson, of Essex Police, is certain that the key to finding Sammi lies in finding out the truth about The Bad Place. But she also knows that with every second she spends trying to unlock the past, the clock ticks down for the missing girl...

The Last Time She Saw Him


Jane Haseldine - 2016
    Thirty years ago, her nine-year-old brother Ben—the person who promised he would always protect her—was abducted from the room they shared. Try as she might to recall any clue or detail, there is a black hole where Julia’s memories of that terrible event should be.Now a crime reporter at a Detroit newspaper, Julia tries to give others the closure she’s never found. But guilt and grief over Ben’s disappearance have left her fearful that whoever took her brother is going to come back. Nowhere seems safe—not the city, not the suburbs, not even the secluded lake town where she plans to raise her children. And then, on the anniversary of Ben’s disappearance, Julia’s worst fears are realized when her two-year-old son, Will, is snatched from his bed.Convinced that the crimes are related, Julia tries to piece together memories from her final day with Ben. Are the sudden reminders of her brother clues that will lead her to her son’s abductor, or merely coincidence? Julia knows she has hours at best to find Will alive, but the deeper she digs, the more personal and terrifying the battle becomes, and an undying promise may be her only hope of saving herself and her son.

Harry Starke


Blair Howard - 2015
    Harry Starke was there, on the bridge, and he want's to know why Tabitha Willard decided to kill herself. Was it his fault? . “….she saw me, stopped running, put her hands to her mouth, looked desperately around, then turned, ran to the rail, and started to climb….” Tormented by guilt and the thought that he might have caused the girl’s death, Harry vows to find out why Tabitha killed herself and plunges headlong into an investigation that pits him against a corrupt congressman, a beautiful United States senator, a local crime boss, and a sadistic killer. It's a case that will push Harry to the extremes of the law as he works his way through a web of deceit, extortion, high finance, corruption, sex, and three murders. In the end… well, as always, there’s a twist in the tale, several, in fact. Scroll up and grab a copy today.