The Last Thing She Ever Did


Gregg Olsen - 2018
    . .The community along Oregon's Deschutes River is one of successful careers and perfect families. For years, up-and-comers Liz and Owen have admired their good friends and neighbors, Carole and David. They appear to have it all--security, happiness, and a beautiful young son, Charlie.Then Charlie vanishes without a trace, and all that seemed safe is shattered by a tragedy that is incomprehensible--except to Liz.It took one fleeting moment for her to change the lives of everyone she loves--a heartrending accident that can't be undone. Neither can the second-worst mistake of her life: concealing it. As two marriages crack and buckle in grief and fear, Liz retreats into her own dark place of guilt, escalating paranoia--and betrayals even she can't imagine. Because there's another good neighbor who has his own secrets, his own pain, and his own reasons for watching Liz's every move.And only he knows that the mystery of the missing boy on the Deschutes River is far from over.

The Hanging Shed


Gordon Ferris - 2010
    Now, the war is over but victory's wine has soured and Brodie's back in Scotland to try and save childhood friend Hugh Donovan from the gallows. Everyone thought Donovan was dead, shot down in the war. Perhaps it would have been kinder if he had been killed. The man who returned was unrecognizable: mutilated, horribly burned. Donovan keeps his own company, only venturing out for heroin to deaden the pain of his wounds. When a local boy is found raped and murdered, there is only one suspect...Donovan claims he's innocent but a mountain of evidence says otherwise. Despite the hideousness of the crime, ex-policeman Brodie feels compelled to try and help his one-time friend. Working with Donovan's advocate Samantha Campbell, Brodie trawls both the mean streets of the Gorbals and the green hills of western Scotland in their search for the truth. What they find is an unholy alliance of church, police and Glasgow's deadliest razor gang, happy to slaughter to protect their dark secrets. As time runs out for the condemned man, and the tally of murdered innocents rises, Brodie reverts to his wartime role as a trained killer. It's them or him.

Cicada Spring


Christian Galacar - 2015
    . .On a warm May evening in the spring of 1979, the people of Heartsridge, Massachusetts, are living the American dream. Families are gathered for barbecues. Kids are playing in front yards. Gardens are being kept. Meanwhile, Kara Price stumbles home through the woods, raped and beaten, her life shattered by a wicked act of violence, perpetrated by one of the town’s most beloved and public figures. Surrounding Kara is a cast of compelling and nefarious characters—a violent-tempered mayor who can do no wrong in the eyes of the town, a sheriff bound by the rules and plagued by a guilty conscience, a father bent on revenge, a serial killer in the midst of an identity crisis. And at the center of it all there's Kara, who just wants to move on with her life and forget everything that happened to her. But how can she do that when everyone thinks she is a liar who is only out for attention? With plot and emotion braided together by a careful hand, this haunted group of people all acting on behalf of their own interests begs the question: How far would you go to protect your own?

Keep the Ghost


Scott Kelly - 2015
    She's met a couple of experts, and they've sold her on faking her death - wiping the slate clean, emerging a new person. But, she needs a witness. When Kayla begs, Sean gets roped in. I mean, nothing too serious: just lie about when he last saw her. Except, things fall apart in a hurry. The police don't see an accident, they see murder - and Sean is their suspect. She's vanished, and he's facing prison. His only hope is to chase Kayla's trail and reach out to the enigmatic strangers who make a life out of pretending to be dead. They call it enlightenment, but Sean calls it crazy. But at least they have a plan, even if the first step is to kill himself. Will Sean have the strength to take the plunge? And if he does, who will come out the other side?

3 Lies


Helen Hanson - 2010
    . .On hiatus from the corporate treadmill, Clint finds love to last a lifetime in Beth. While she recovers from kidney failure through dialysis, Beth is kidnapped from her home. But Clint’s the only one who suspects foul play in her disappearance. In spite of the evidence, her family refuses to admit she’s in danger. And without routine dialysis, Beth won’t survive.Five hundred miles south, the case attracts the attention of spy trackers at the CIA. Can Clint find Beth before her kidneys fail or her abductors unload a bullet in his head?An espionage and suspense thriller with a techno bent, 3 LIES is set along the Massachusetts coast.The 3 LIES story continues with Book 2 of The Masters CIA Thriller Series — THE MASTERS’ KEY.Interview with the Author:Q: What does Helen Hanson bring to the thriller genre?HH: Heart-skipping pace, life-critical stakes, and broody, looming danger wrapped in a twenty-first century skin. We live in a time when technology surrounds us. The kid down the street has instant access to information unfathomable a century ago. Consequently crime had gone digital, online, and victims rarely see what hit them.Because of my background, I present the technology employed by my characters in a fluent way to readers. They say I write about techno topics in a way that makes them enjoyable. I don’t burden the prose with jargon. Most readers want to know what kind of gun is fired, not how to field strip it.Q: Tell us about your characters.HH: My characters are unique beings, each requiring a different spark to light the fire. I explore their sparks. I create believable characters with realistic dialogue engaged in page-flipping action. I like to watch ordinary people find the extraordinary in themselves when facing adversity. No one is surprised when Jason Bourne takes out a detachment of Marines, but we can’t say that about waitress Maggie Fender.My protagonists don’t possess the Special Forces skills of a super spy. They stumble into dangerous situations and use technology to advance their position even if it isn’t strictly legal. The stakes have to be worthy of a fight.Plus, they’re witty people who possess veins of humor. As in life, it punctuates disaster.Q: Where do your thrillers take place?HH: The action in my thrillers takes place in a variety of locations around the globe. So far, we’ve landed in: Russia, Boston, San Francisco, Pakistan, Washington D.C., Santa Cruz, Venezuela, Half Moon Bay, and Mongolia. Since the characters across my novels exist in the same story world, they often appear in other works, though the current titles are not a single series.Q: Do you write your thrillers in series?HH: At the request of my readers, I am. The sequel to 3 LIES is now out and called THE MASTERS’ KEY, with a third volume on deck.

Ash


Jason Brant - 2013
    10:32 AM EST: An entire floor of government agents leap to their death from their office building. 12:57 PM EST: All the police officers inside a station murder each other. And the day has just begun. Lieutenant Asher Benson left Iraq with a traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and a Purple Heart. His doctors warned that the symptoms would be life altering. They had no idea. As his body healed, the thoughts of those around him began to echo through Ash’s mind, stretching the boundaries of his sanity. Five years later, Ash is drowning the voices with copious amounts of booze and self-loathing. When unidentified intelligence agents abduct him in broad daylight, Ash is thrust into a world of espionage and assassinations. A unique terrorist is operating on U.S. soil, and the government needs Ash, and the malady that has plagued him for half a decade, to find the killer. *Ash is the first book in the Asher Benson thriller series, which is full of snarky humor and nonstop action.

One Small Sacrifice


Hilary Davidson - 2019
    A mysterious disappearance. Did one man get away with murder—twice?NYPD detective Sheryn Sterling has had her eye on Alex Traynor ever since his friend Cori fell to her death under suspicious circumstances a year ago. Cori’s death was ruled a suicide, but Sheryn thinks Alex—a wartime photojournalist suffering from PTSD—got away with murder.When Alex’s fiancée, Emily, a talented and beloved local doctor, suddenly goes missing, Sheryn suspects that Alex is again at the center of a sticky case. Sheryn dislikes loose ends, and Cori’s death had way too many of them.But as Sheryn starts pulling at the threads in this web, her whole theory unravels. Everyone involved remembers the night Cori died differently—and the truth about her death could be the key to solving Emily’s disappearance.

Monte Rio


Mark Joseph - 2018
    The Pirates rely on high-tech electronics, vintage technology, and old-fashioned nerve — just for fun, because they can.And when they are co-opted by the FBI to help improve security at the Grove, they stumble across a cell of genuine terrorists in the most unlikely of places. As the suspense builds, the Pirates' true mettle is put to the test.

The Blackwell Files: Volumes I, II, & III


Steven F. Freeman - 2015
     NEFARIOUS: a fast-paced foray charting the investigation of an ex-Army captain and an intelligent, beautiful FBI agent into a covert, sinister project. "A heady thriller that gathers force with the understated menace of a tidal wave, then smashes home...Readers will be absorbed by Freeman's never-flashy expertise...Superb touches of eeriness creep in." Kirkus Indie Reviews RUTHLESS: Alton and Mallory strive to identify the culprit behind a series of perplexing homicides, racing to unravel the mystery in time to avoid becoming the killer’s next victims. But will their growing relationship survive the presence of the beautiful Chelsea Mancini, who seems to lie in the center of the chaos? T WAVE: FBI agent Mallory Wilson begins investigating the potential theft of narcotics at a local hospice, but the case quickly escalates as she and boyfriend Alton Blackwell uncover a series of questionable patient deaths. Can they unravel the mystery in time to stop a potential killer?

The Devil's Deep


Michael Wallace - 2011
    He suffers from total paralysis, locked within a prison of his own mind. After years of silence, he establishes contact with a young nurse's aid through a single blinking eye, but then she is abducted and a staff member begins to administer dropperfuls of cleaning solution into his communicating eye.A heart-pounding thriller that will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned, the Devil's Deep is a top rated suspense that travels from the hell of a long-term care facility to the rain forest of Costa Rica. And a crime committed under tropical waters, the dive known as El Bajo del Diablo--the Devil's Deep.

Dead Certain


Adam Mitzner - 2017
    By night, she pursues her passion for singing in the darkest clubs of Manhattan.No one knows her secret, not even Charlotte, the younger sister she practically raised. But it seems she’s not the only one in the family with something to hide. When Charlotte announces she’s sold her first novel, Ella couldn’t be more thrilled…until she gets a call that her sister’s gone missing.Ella starts investigating with the help of Detective Gabriel Velasquez, an old flame in the NYPD, and what she finds is shocking. If art imitates life, then her sister’s novel may contain details of her real-life affairs. And any one of her lovers could be involved in her disappearance.Desperate to bring Charlotte home, Ella works through her list of suspects, matching fictitious characters with flesh-and-blood men. But will it be too late to save the sister she only thought she knew?

Creatures of Appetite


Todd Travis - 2013
    Everyone else calls it a nightmare. Locked doors don't stop him. He leaves no trace behind. He only takes little girls. His nickname... The Iceman. A deranged serial killer roams wintry rural Nebraska with a demented purpose no one can fathom. Special Agent EMMA KANE, a former DC cop and damaged goods now with the FBI, is assigned to babysit burnt-out profiler JACOB THORNE, once the best in the business but now said to have lost his edge, as they both fly to Nebraska to catch this maniac. Thorne is erratic, abrasive and unpredictably brilliant, but what he and Kane find in the heartland is much more than anyone bargained for, especially when the Iceman challenges them personally. The clock is ticking and a little girl's life is on the line. And maybe even more with that, once they find out what he's really up to.NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This book has frank and profane adult language within... this is often how many a law enforcement officer speaks, in my experience. Not all, but many, very many. The book also has violence and adult situations, but the profanity is the only thing that some folks have been noting, for some odd reason, so I'm warning you now that it has profanity. I totally understand that not everyone wants to read curse words. However, to write a book like this without a cop cursing would not, in my mind, be authentic. Therefore, if you can't handle HBO-style language, (a la THE WIRE, etc.) this book is not for you. If fictional bad language bothers you more than the fictional murder of young people, this book is definitely not for you, but I thank you for your time and consideration.

Broken


Matthew Storm - 2013
    The Laughing Man spared her life, but the nightmares that followed ended her career as a police officer.Having lost everything, Nevada is content to do odd jobs to keep a step ahead of the bill collectors and fund her out-of-control drinking problem. But that changes when Alan Davies, a local crime lord, comes to her with a problem. His wife and daughter are missing and he can’t go to the police. If Nevada helps him, he’ll pay her enough that she’ll never have to worry about money again.But what should have been a simple missing persons case quickly turns deadly. Alan Davies has enemies, and in the course of trying to save his family Nevada finds herself in the middle of a gang war. But her own demons are even more menacing, and the Laughing Man is still out there.

The Girl on the Burning Boat


Gregg Dunnett - 2018
    But they didn’t bury his secrets… Alice is the smart and beautiful daughter of a powerful businessman. She lives a charmed life - until her father is killed in a tragic accident. Then she meets Jamie, a young man from a very different background, who has evidence that her father met a much darker end. Together they embark upon a search for the truth, delving into the murky background of Alice’s family fortune. What they discover leads Alice to question everything about her father - and herself. But it also turns them into targets. Because whoever put Alice’s father in his grave, meant his secrets to die with him. And now they’re scrambling to bury them deep. Along with anyone who gets in their way. Can Alice unearth the truth before it’s too late? Or will her judgement be clouded by her increasingly strong attraction to Jamie? With everyone around her lying, she must pick someone to trust. But get it wrong, and her next move will be her last. The Girl on the Burning Boat is a gripping psychological thriller from British author Gregg Dunnett. His previous books have all been UK and US Amazon bestsellers with thousands of five star reviews, and people are calling this one ‘his best yet!’ Start reading today and find out if Alice can avenge her father’s death. Or if she will become his killer’s next victim…

The Enemy We Know


Donna White Glaser - 2011
    When one of her clients slips free from an abusive boyfriend, Letty becomes the target of his violent rage. Wayne invades Letty's life, slithering his way past the barriers erected between her personal and professional lives, leaving gifts of dead rats, mutilated dolls, and freaky Shakespearian sonnets. Worst of all, Wayne uncovers Letty's deepest shame, infiltrating her AA group and threatening to expose her to the state licensing board. And then--good news--Wayne is murdered. The bad news? The police suspect Letty. Worse yet, the sonnets and bloody souvenirs keep coming. Someone else has been watching Letty. Someone eager to drop bodies at her feet like a cat offering dead mole trophies to his mistress. Someone willing to kill again.