Book picks similar to
A Question of Despair by Maureen Carter


mystery
crime-thriller
thriller
british-mystery

The Snowdonia Killings


Simon McCleave - 2019
    A big city detective. Can she unravel the gruesome trail of clues before the killer strikes again? Detective Inspector Ruth Hunter lives with the pain of her partner’s mysterious and unsolved disappearance. About to hit fifty, the veteran police officer trades in the crime-ridden streets of London for a more peaceful life in rural North Wales. But Ruth has barely settled into her new position in North Wales Police, when the body of a brutally murdered woman is discovered…with strange symbols carved into her skin. Teaming up with an obstinate deputy, Ruth struggles to eliminate anyone from a long line of suspects. When another slain victim is discovered with the same cryptic markings, she’s forced to re-think the investigation. Has Ruth got what it takes to solve the case before the murderer attacks again? The Snowdonia Killings is the first book in the DI Ruth Hunter Crime Thriller series and set against the majestic backdrop of Snowdonia, a timeless land of Arthurian legend, folklore and myth. If you like dark police procedurals, psychologically complex characters, and shocking twists, then you’ll love Simon McCleave’s pulse-pounding debut novel.

Mallory's Oracle


Carol O'Connell - 1994
    Adopted off the streets as a little girl by a police inspector and his wife, she is still not altogether civilized now that she is a sergeant in the Special Crimes section. With her ferocious intelligence and green gunslinger eyes, Mallory (never Kathleen, never Kathy) operates by her own inner compass of right and wrong, a sense of justice that drives her in unpredictable ways. She is a thing apart.And today, she is a thing possessed. Although more at home in the company of computers than in the company of men, Mallory is propelled onto the street when the body of her adoptive father, Louis Markowitz, is found stabbed in a tenement next to the body of a wealthy Gramercy Park woman. The murders are clearly linked to two other Gramercy Park homicides Markowitz had been investigating, and now his cases become Mallory's, his death her cause. Prowling the streets, sifting through his clues, drawing on his circle of friends and colleagues, she plunges into a netherworld of light and shadow, where people are not what they seem and truth shifts without warning. And a murderer waits who is every bit as wild and unpredictable as she....Filled with deep, seductive atmosphere and razor-sharp prose, Mallory's Oracle is gripping, resonant suspense of tantalizing complexity—a genuinely unforgettable novel.

Snapped


C.M. Sutter - 2017
     Former sheriff’s department sergeant Jade Monroe has just graduated from the FBI’s serial crimes unit in homicide and is called to Houston with her partner, J.T. Harper, to take on her first assignment—apprehending the person responsible for these gruesome crimes. With victims piling up and the clock ticking, Jade and J.T. need to intensify their search because there’s no sign the killer is slowing down. After a late-night epiphany while she’s alone, Jade suddenly comes face to face with the killer, and now Jade is missing. The clock continues to tick—but this time it’s for her. Note: All Jade Monroe books are standalone stories but since characters carry over, they are best read in chronological order. Series One - Detective Jade Monroe Crime Thriller Series #1 Maniacal #2 Captive #3 Fallacy #4 Premonition #5 Exposed Note: The Jade Monroe FBI Thriller books follow on the heels of the conclusion of Exposed, Book 5 in the Detective Jade Monroe Crime Thriller Series. Series Two – Agent Jade Monroe FBI Thriller Series #1 Snapped #2 Justified

The Merchant's House


Kate Ellis - 1998
    Then Wesley's old friend from university, archaeologist Neil Watson, unearths the bodies of a strangled young woman and a new-born baby on the site of a seventeenth century merchant's house: though luckily for the overstretched police force the skeletons are centuries old. But as the search for the missing child intensifies and the true identity of the body on the cliff path is established, Wesley begins to suspect a tragic link, spanning the centuries, between his investigations and Neil's: for motives of jealousy, sexual obsession and desperate longing are as old as time. And when the dark secret of the merchant's house is finally revealed, Wesley must act swiftly to avert a further tragedy.

Field of Blood


Denise Mina - 2005
    The vicious murder of a young child provides rookie journalist Paddy Meehan with her first big break when the suspect turns out to be her fiance's 11-year old cousin. Launching her own investigation into the horrific crime, Paddy uncovers lines of deception deep in Glasgow's past, with more horrific crimes in the future if she fails to solve the mystery. Infused with Mina's unique blend of dark humor, personal insights and social injustice, the story grips the reader while challenging our perceptions of childhood innocence, crime and punishment, and right or wrong.

Human Face


Aline Templeton - 2018
    She has learned to turn a blind eye to some strange goings on, however; parties for donors who don't seem the philanthropic type and a merry-go-round of 'housekeepers'. It's best not to think about that. But when the latest housekeeper, Eva, suddenly disappears, the police and DI Kelso Strang are called in.Keen to move on from recent personal horrors, Strang revels in the responsibility the investigation affords, as a former sniper, he has no problems with making solitary decisions. But when he and the team make some fatal errors, Strang has his work cut out to avoid the case ending in disaster and death.

In Bitter Chill


Sarah Ward - 2015
    One girl, Rachel, is later found unharmed but unable to remember anything except that her abductor was a woman.Over thirty years later the mother of the still missing Sophie commits suicide. Superintendent Llewellyn, who was a young constable on the 1978 case, asks DI Francis Sadler and DC Connie Childs to look again at the kidnapping to see if modern police methods can discover something that the original team missed. However, Sadler is convinced that a more recent event triggered Yvonne Jenkins’s suicide.Rachel, with the help of her formidable mother and grandmother, recovered from the kidnapping and has become a family genealogist. She remembers nothing of the abduction and is concerned that, after Yvonne Jenkins’s suicide, the national media will be pursuing her for a story once more. Days later, the discovery of one of her former teachers’ strangled body suggested a chain of events is being unleashed.Rachel and the police must unpick the clues to discover what really happened all those years ago. But in doing so, they discover that the darkest secrets can be the ones closest to you.

The Crossing Places


Elly Griffiths - 2009
    Ruth Galloway is in her late thirties and lives happily alone with her two cats in a bleak, remote area near Norfolk, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants—not quite earth, not quite sea. But her routine days of digging up bones and other ancient objects are harshly upended when a child’s bones are found on a desolate beach. Detective Chief Inspector Nelson calls Galloway for help, believing they are the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing a decade ago and whose abductor continues to taunt him with bizarre letters containing references to ritual sacrifice, Shakespeare, and the Bible. Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson receives a new letter—exactly like the ones about Lucy. Is it the same killer or a copycat murderer, linked in some way to the site near Ruth’s remote home?

Hushabye


Celina Grace - 2013
    A murdered girl. A case where everyone has something to hide...Hushabye (A Kate Redman mystery) is the new novel from crime writer Celina Grace, author of Lost Girls and The House on Fever Street.On the first day of her new job in the West Country, Detective Sergeant Kate Redman finds herself investigating the kidnapping of Charlie Fullman, the newborn son of a wealthy entrepreneur and his trophy wife. It seems a straightforward case... but as Kate and her fellow officer Mark Olbeck delve deeper, they uncover murky secrets and multiple motives for the crime.Kate finds the case bringing up painful memories of her own past secrets. As she confronts the truth about herself, her increasing emotional instability threatens both her hard-won career success and the possibility that they will ever find Charlie Fullman alive...

Crime in the Choir


Catherine Moloney - 2018
    This was not a centuries-old Christian burial. They are wearing modern-day clothes and there is evidence of foul play. Consecrated land has been sadistically violated. Detective Inspector Gilbert Markham is a rising talent of the Bromgrove police force. He is on the trail of the murderer, when another life is brutally claimed. Who is the savage killer lurking in this innocent place? DI Markham and his team are met with intense hostility when they step up their operation. Is this just local panic? Or are they about to stumble into a web of corruption which runs deeper than they could have ever anticipated? DI MARKHAM FACES A RACE AGAINST TIME TO SAVE HIS GIRLFRIEND FROM BEING THE NEXT VICTIM.

A Poison Tree


J.E. Mayhew - 2020
    A coincidence or a connection?Will Blake is determined to find out, but as he unearths the past, questions are raised about the original investigations and it becomes clear that The Wirral has a killer on the loose once again.Victor Hunt, the father of the last dead girl from the original case, lies in a hospice with weeks to live. The truth lies hidden in Hunt’s tangled family tree, and the actions of his wayward daughter. Time is against Blake and his fractious team. If they don’t get to the root of past crimes, then innocent blood will flow again.A Poison Tree is the first thrilling mystery in the Will Blake crime series. A great read for fans of Luca Veste's and JD Kirk’s Jack Logan series.

Salt Lane


William Shaw - 2018
    There are people here, in plain sight, that no-one ever notices at all.DS Alexandra Cupidi has done it again. She should have learnt to keep her big mouth shut, after the scandal that sent her packing - resentful teenager in tow - from the London Met to the lonely Kent coastline. Even murder looks different in this landscape of fens, ditches and stark beaches, shadowed by the towers of Dungeness power station. Murder looks a lot less pretty.The man drowned in the slurry pit had been herded there like an animal. He was North African, like many of the fruit pickers that work the fields. The more Cupidi discovers, the more she wants to ask - but these people are suspicious of questions.It will take an understanding of this strange place - its old ways and new crimes - to uncover the dark conspiracy behind the murder. Cupidi is not afraid to travel that road. But she should be. She should, by now, have learnt.Salt Lane is the first in the new DS Alexandra Cupidi series.

Talking to the Dead


Harry Bingham - 2012
    . . . At first, the murder scene appears sad, but not unusual: a young woman undone by drugs and prostitution, her six-year-old daughter dead alongside her. But then detectives find a strange piece of evidence in the squalid house: the platinum credit card of a very wealthy--and long dead--steel tycoon. What is a heroin-addicted hooker doing with the credit card of a well-known and powerful man who died months ago? This is the question that the most junior member of the investigative team, Detective Constable Fiona Griffiths, is assigned to answer.But D.C. Griffiths is no ordinary cop. She's earned a reputation at police headquarters in Cardiff, Wales, for being odd, for not picking up on social cues, for being a little overintense. And there's that gap in her past, the two-year hiatus that everyone assumes was a breakdown. But Fiona is a crack investigator, quick and intuitive. She is immediately drawn to the crime scene, and to the tragic face of the six-year-old girl, who she is certain has something to tell her . . . something that will break the case wide open.Ignoring orders and protocol, Fiona begins to explore far beyond the rich man's credit card and into the secrets of her seaside city. And when she uncovers another dead prostitute, Fiona knows that she's only begun to scratch the surface of a dark world of crime and murder. But the deeper she digs, the more danger she risks--not just from criminals and killers but from her own past . . . and the abyss that threatens to pull her back at any time.

A Wicked Mercy (Harriet Quinn Crime Thriller, #1)


Bilinda P. Sheehan - 2019
    Although the police are convinced that these are open and shut cases, Forensic psychologist Harriet Quinn is certain the deaths are due to foul play. Her suspicions deepen when her own friend becomes one of the victims.Fighting the police’s indifference, she sets out to prove that a murderer stalks the village. A murderer that her training tells her might be hiding in plain sight.  Book One of the Harriet Quinn series is an explosive crime fiction series debut where murder and mystery take centre stage in this dark thriller. For fans of LJ Ross, Val McDermid, JD Kirk, Chris Carter, Joy Ellis, Angela Marsons, and Sally Rigby

The Sedleigh Hall Murder


Roy Lewis - 1980
    Enjoy a beautifully told story from a time before smart phones and DNA testing. Full of twists and turns, this will have you gripped from start to finish. Please note this book was first published as “A Certain Blindness” “Jolly good reading with a protagonist you’ll like” Chicago Tribune “Lewis skillfully ties up everything . . . smoothly written. Compassionate yet with plenty of force” New York Times “Well devised and moving. Lewis excels with a certain type of anti-hero, beset with problems, no longer young” Financial Times “Legal shenanigans explicable, whodunit finely spun . . . A nice piece of work, in fact” Oxford Mail “Lewis at his well-rooted best in this drama of bent solicitors and corrupt businessmen living high in the North East. Well worked out investigation, excellent characterisation and a tense climax against Northumbrian scenery. Highly recommended” Sunday Telegraph A SUSPICIOUS DEATH AND A LARGE INHERITANCE WITHOUT ANYONE TO RECEIVE IT. Eric Ward thinks there is something odd about Arthur Egan's life and death. But Ward is a former police inspector, and trained to be suspicious. Egan left a large sum. But Ward makes no progress tracing the dead man's offspring. A photograph of an unknown tombstone is his only clue. He discovers Egan served a term for manslaughter, and that the evidence against him may have been planted. Why had he accepted his fate so meekly? Despite warnings that he is wasting the firm's time, Ward persists in his investigations. AND HIS PERSISTENCE LEADS TO MURDER. And by the time he realizes why, he finds his life and career are both at risk. AND WHAT IS THE CONNECTION TO LORD MORCOMB AT SEDLEIGH HALL? This fast-paced mystery will have you enthralled from the start. Set in England in the late 1970s, this is the first book to feature Eric Ward. More coming soon. DISCOVER YOUR NEXT FAVOURITE MYSTERY WRITER Perfect for fans of Peter James, Ruth Rendell, P.D. James and Peter Robinson. THE DETECTIVE Eric Ward is forced to retire from the police when he discovers he suffers from glaucoma but qualifies as a solicitor (lawyer) and sets up his practice on the Quayside in Newcastle, where he deals with the seamier side of the law. When he marries a wealthy young woman she attempts to persuade him to settle in Northumberland and work with wealthier clients but he stubbornly refuses to give up his criminal practice in Newcastle. Although she draws him into the world of high finance he still insists on continuing at the Quayside—which causes tensions within his marriage, and lead to fatal consequences. Roy Lewis is one of the most critically acclaimed crime writers of his generation. ERIC WARD BOOKS Book 1: THE SEDLEIGH HALL MURDER INSPECTOR CROW BOOKS Book 1: A LOVER TOO MANY Book 2: ERROR OF JUDGMENT Book 3: THE WOODS MURDER Book 4: MURDER FOR MONEY Book 5: MURDER IN THE MINE Book 6: A COTSWOLDS MURDER Book