Book picks similar to
Without Mercy by Alicia Dean
romantic-suspense
suspense
ll-read
mystery
Slanted
H.L. Wegley - 2019
When she finds an orphaned girl, Sam, hidden in some bushes along the Rogue River, in an instant, a bond is formed. AJ quickly learns that Sam's and her guardian's lives are in danger from a team of hired killers. But AJ commits to helping eight-year-old Sam. A competitive athlete, AJ Scott isn't one to quit, give up, or do anything halfway, not even when she and Sam end up in a road race with killers in pursuit.When Hunter Jones's cousin dies, he becomes eight-year-old Samantha Wilson's guardian and sets aside any pursuit of personal happiness. Sam becomes his lot in life, and he loves her dearly. But Hunter, a big data analyst, will soon release a research report proving that the largest Internet search engine in the world is being used by its owners to influence American political thought with the intent of controlling elections. He hints at his findings in a radio interview and the news goes viral. Within hours, a team of hired killers attacks Hunter and Sam, intending to eliminate them and steal his research findings. Hunter hides Sam and eludes the killers. But when he returns, Sam is gone. Enraged, Hunter Jones will storm the gates of Hades to get her back, and whoever took her will pay a steep price.Set in Southern Oregon, Seattle, Washington DC, and Eastern Oregon, near Paulina Lake, Slanted is a gritty, high-action, romantic suspense adventure about commitment, sacrifice, love and faith.
Flight For Control
Karlene Petitt - 2012
But her husband, Captain Bill Jacobs, has his concerns. While her twin daughters are off at camp, and Bill is actively campaigning for the Pilot Union Presidency, Kathryn secretly begins her investigation. What she learns will shock the nation. Flight For Control is a thriller that reads like a mystery. But to Kathryn, there is no mystery on the condition of the airline industry—it’s broken. Planes are crashing. Pensions are lost. Pilots are financially and emotionally bankrupt due to fatigue, furloughs, and loss of seniority. It’s time that someone takes control before it’s too late—unless it already is. Your life is in your pilot’s hands. Do you know who’s flying your plane?
Another Five Patients
Melissa Crickard - 2019
When one of the resident physicians, Dr. Kip Paiva, becomes a critically ill patient herself, the team is forever changed. This suspenseful story of medical fiction traces foreign medical graduate Dr. Kip Paiva, an emigrant and survivor of human trafficking in post-apartheid South Africa. Her refuge from a Zulu militant captor comes to an end, as his brutal violence has finally tracked her across the ocean. While her past catches up to her, Dr. Paiva also becomes the scapegoat of a malpractice suit. Frightened for her and her son’s lives, Dr. Paiva begins a journey fueled by bottomless resiliency and a mother’s love. Her story intertwines through five others, all riveting, and all taking place in the busy Spectrum General Hospital in New York. Debut author Melissa Crickard uses this microcosm to illustrate larger aspects of modern medicine. Another Five Patients combines international intrigue and hospital politics with individual human stories involving hospital staff, patients, and their families. The result is a captivating, at times satirical, experience that reminds us that, whether doctor, mother, or child, we are all people, with flaws and emotions in a world of uncertainty.
The Delphi Chronicle, Bundle Book 2 & 3 - The Tortoise and the Hare, and Phoenix Rising
Russell Blake - 2011
This bundle of book 2 & 3 continues the saga of NY private eye Michael Derrigan, as he comes into possession of a manuscript that will change the world order if its secrets are aired. Clandestine factions of the U.S. government will do anything to keep the story buried, & a trail of butchery follows Derrigan as he races for his life in a chase that takes him from New York, to Mexico, to Havana. A roller-coaster ride of a thriller, The Delphi Chronicle's unflinching & often disturbing twists and turns question the nature of reality & of the integrity of our governments in a post-modern world of lies, deceit & betrayal.+++Questions & Answers with bestselling author Russell Blake.Question: The Delphi Chronicle posits a troubling & plausible conspiracy. Where did you get the idea?Russell Blake: The idea stemmed from the title. I was originally going to call the trilogy The Pegasus File, & I'd conceptualized a cool cover, so I Googled it to confirm there weren't any other books with that name. The original conspiracy was much tamer than what I wound up with. I had the idea of a literary agent getting a manuscript detailing a shocking scheme, but I hadn't defined what it was, exactly. From that search came this conspiracy, & I have to admit I considered toning it down a lot, because it scared even me. So readers? This is fiction, OK? And U.S. government? No need to send a wet team after me. We all understand it's fictional. As in, an invention, not real. That's my official position. Readers can decide how plausible theinvention is for themselves. Some will hate it, as it portrays the U.S. government in a negative light. Can't please everyone.Q: Why write it as a trilogy?RB: It would have been a long single volume if I'd tried to squeeze it all into one book. Given the success I saw with the Zero Sum trilogy, I wanted to do another one, & this was just naturally written in three volumes, although I think most will get the first one, & then buy the specially-priced bundle of Books 2 & 3 if they're interested in following the story to its thrilling conclusion (wink wink).Q: How do your novels compare to the work of your peers?RB: I think they're faster paced than most. I try to catapult readers through a series of twists & turns at such aggressive velocity they're left gasping by the end. And I dislike books where I can see the ending coming a third of the way through. Just hate that. I try to write racing, intelligent thrillers that don't pander & aren't formulaic. All have gotten raves, so I'm fooling at least some of the people most of the time...Q: Part of Delphi unfolds in Mexico. Any particular reason?RB: I live in Mexico. Have for almost a decade. Modern Mexico is very different than as portrayed by the U.S. media. Many parts are indistinguishable from medium sized cities in the U.S. Strip malls, high rises, melting-pot racial integration, etc. It's not cactus & sombreros. One of the things I find fascinating is how different it is than what my expectations were when I moved here, & I try to impart that. Most novels set in modern Mexico I've read are caricatures of the truth. Mission bells, white-garbed peasants, stereotypical characters. I try to imbue my fiction with reality, not a Hollywood portrayal based on a snapshot from the 1950s. I think readers will find that distinction interesting.
A Slow Burning
Stanley Pottinger - 2000
All those years haven't dimmed Nat's memory or satisfied his hunger for justice. When a routine homicide investigation unexpectedly leads to an opportunity to avenge the murder, the NYPD detective does not hesitate to act—but only at enormous risk to himself and the woman he loves.Dr. Cush Walker lives with the childhood memory of watching the Ku Klux Klan lynch his father. A pioneering brain surgeon, Walker has dedicated his life to perfecting a breakthrough medical procedure designed to eradicate the kind of hatred that caused his father's death—but with dangerous consequences to his patients and himself.Camilla Bisonette is brought to the doctor's clinic barely clinging to life. Now Nat Hennessy's fiancée—but once romantically linked to Cush Walker—she might be saved, but only if Walker stretches his ethics and medical expertise to the breaking point—and only if he joins forces with his bitter rival, Nat Hennessy.From an explosive secret that stretches back more than half a century to the mysteries of memory locked away in the human brain… from the impulses and passions that drive us to acts of rage to the shattered lives we leave behind, Stanley Pottinger weaves an unrelentingly suspenseful novel of deception, murder, love, and science rapidly spinning out of control.
Slice
David Hodges - 2010
THERE’S A KILLER INSIDE THE POLICE STATION. A police station should be a safe place. But not when there’s a psychotic serial killer working there. THE FIRST VICTIM IS FOUND GRUESOMELY MUTILATED IN HIS MOST SENSITIVE AREA. HE IS DRESSED IN A JUDGE’S WIG. Detective Superintendent Jack Fulton takes on the grisly murder enquiry and discovers that his murderer might actually be one of the police station staff. MORE EMINENT VICTIMS FOLLOW. KILLED IN THE SAME SADISTIC MANNER. The press nickname the razor-wielding assassin “The Slicer.” With the killer stalking the shadowy Victorian building, Fulton has to contend not only with press harassment and police who will stop at nothing to get a result, but also with other problems much closer to home. As the killer leads him on a grim game of cat and mouse, Fulton has little idea of just how personal that game is about to become . . . YOU WON’T WANT TO PUT THIS ONE DOWN Perfect for fans of Rachel Abbott, Robert Bryndza, Mel Sherratt, Angela Marsons, Colin Dexter, or Ruth Rendell. THE AUTHOR A former police superintendent, with thirty years’ service. Since ‘turning to crime’, he has received critical media acclaim, including a welcome accolade from Inspector Morse’s creator, the late great, Colin Dexter, and he is now a prolific novelist with eleven published crime novels and an autobiography on his police career to his credit. His previous police experience has enabled him to provide a gritty realism to his thrillers and his Somerset Murder Series, featuring feisty female detective, Kate, and her partner, Hayden, has gone from strength to strength, attracting interest in the United States as well as in the UK. DETECTIVE KATE HAMBLIN MYSTERY SERIES Book 1: MURDER ON THE LEVELS Book 2: REVENGE ON THE LEVELS Book 3: FEAR ON THE LEVELS Book 4: KILLER ON THE LEVELS Book 5: SECRETS ON THE LEVELS Book 6: DEATH ON THE LEVELS STANDALONES SLICE
Not What She Seems
Victorine E. Lieske - 2010
What he doesn't know is that interfering in her life will put his own life in danger.When billionaire Steven Ashton couldn't stand his high society social life anymore, he left the stress of New York on a vacation for his soul. The need to meet real down to earth people led him to a small Nebraska town. He didn't want to lie about who he was, but he couldn't exactly tell them the truth.Emily could have easily fallen in love with Steven, under different circumstances, but her past was catching up with her and she needed a new life. If the authorities found out about her, she could lose the one thing that meant everything, her four year old son.Not What She Seems is approximately 67,000 words long.This book is a "sweet" romantic suspense, appropriate for all ages.Like clean romance? Check out cleanromancebooks.com!
Private Eye: Cameron Caldwell Mystery
Jason Deas - 2014
But, after getting a DUI in his police cruiser it isn’t really an issue. The real issue now is staying alive. Cameron knows secrets that could cost him his life and flees to what he hopes is a quiet mountain retreat. Launching a detective agency in the town of Miner’s Bluff, he unknowingly stumbles into a world of murder, moonshine, shifty characters, and even deeper secrets. But the biggest secret belongs to him. It’s the cornerstone of all his troubles. Cam can look into another’s eyes and see their darkest sin—their most evil act. And it’s beginning to take a toll on his sanity. The murder investigations of his past and present collide as Cam tries to keep his life from unraveling and his eyes from tearing him apart.
Danger in Plain Sight: A Callie James Thriller
Burt Weissbourd - 2020
Celebrated Seattle restaurateur Callie James is more than a little thrown when her ex-husband, French investigative reporter Daniel Odile-Grand, shows up after fourteen years asking for her help. Even more disturbing: as she throws him out, Daniel is deliberately hit by a car, hurled through the front window of her restaurant--broken, bloody and unconscious. He flees from the hospital and breaks into Callie's apartment, where he passes out. Reluctantly, Callie hides him. When she gets back to her restaurant, two assassins walk in, insisting that she find Daniel for them by tonight or pay the consequences. Overwhelmed and hopelessly out of her depth, Callie hires the only man she knows who can help her: Cash Logan, her former bartender, a man she had arrested for smuggling ivory through her restaurant two years earlier, and who still hasn't forgiven her. The assassins blow up her restaurant. It's Callie's nightmare. And the worst is yet to come as she and her unlikely, incompatible ally discover that the most perilous dangers are far closer to home than they'd imagined.
Wyatt's Hurricane / Bahama Crisis
Desmond Bagley - 2009
But David Wyatt has developed a sixth sense about hurricanes. He is convinced that Mabel will change course to strike the island of San Fernandez and its capital, St Pierre. But nobody believes him, and the hurricane is only one of the problems that threaten San Fernandez…BAHAMA CRISISTom Mangan was a sharply successful entrepreneur who lured the super-rich to his luxury hotels in the sun-soaked Bahamas. Then violent tragedy struck: his own family disappeared, and a series of misfortunes, accidents and mysterious epidemics began to drive the tourists away and wreck Mangan's livelihood. Fatally, he becomes determined to confront his enemy - and the hunt is on…Includes a unique bonus - Desmond Bagley's introduction to the Crime Wave anthology, and his own author biography, both written in 1981.
Just You, Me and a Secret
Ganga Bharani Vasudevan - 2013
She sees a stranger in the mirror and seems to be living with another stranger, Ashruth. Ashruth, a doctor by profession and a clown by appearance, claims that he is her fiancé. They were engaged to be married and would have been married already if not for the accident. He keeps on emphasizing on how much she loved him and yet, he keeps her apart from her family for her 'mental state'. Armed with what seems to be her personal diary, Meera tries to grasp her identity and her reality. But no matter how hard she tries, she just seems to be unable to connect. Will Meera break through the hurdles in front of her and be able to connect to her friends and family again? Most importantly, will she ever regain her identity again?
The Hand of Strange Children: A nerve-shredding mystery thriller
Robert Richardson - 1993
Details trickle in: the house belongs to wealthy merchant banker Charles Stansfield; present are well-known news editor Richard Barlow and members of his family. But the victims identities are withheld. Who are they? Why has a family gathering exploded into violence and death? Through their individual voices the lives of Richard, Tim and Naomi Barlow and their mother, Florence, unfold and a shocking crime comes to light - one that has gone undetected and unpunished, culminating in a double-killing a quarter of a century later. The Hand of Strange ChildrenPraise for Robert Richardson ''With this, his first novel, Robert Richardson makes a most impressive debut as a writer of the classical English detective story… He knows how to create suspense and an atmosphere of incipient evil; he provides us with a genuine puzzle, his characters are believable people, and the motive of his murderer is psycho-logically credible.” P D James “Skilful rerouting and the taste of real tears” The Sunday Times “Eccentrics, suspects and witty writing abound” The Times “Here is a book to be missed only at your own peril” Armchair Detective “Elegantly written, beautifully characterised, suspenseful and oddly moving” Mystery Reader’s Journal “Grand entertainment, deft handling and suave wit” Publishers Weekly Robert Richardson is a journalist and editor who lives in England.
Prime Target
Ellis Vidler - 2014
Madeleine Schier heeds her husband's panicked call and runs home, only to witness his brutal murder by a crime boss and become a target herself. Under police security, she vows to testify. But when the police protecting her are killed, the last of her NYC life disintegrates, leaving her no place to hide. She flees, relying on her wits and imagination to survive on a dangerous journey to become someone else. Who can she trust? The helpful widower who advises her on farming? The damaged recluse who's always near? The neighbor who brings cherry pie? With the murderer still searching, one wrong move could be her last.
Richter Ten
Rob Leininger - 2014
In Eastern Oregon, 90,000 cubic feet of mantle-hot gas is roaring out of the Devil's Pore fumarole every second. To Bell, this is just a "leak," a pinhole, relatively speaking. But what is leaking? Where is all that gas coming from? And why is 700 square miles of land subsiding, inch by inch, year by year? The fumarole, it turns out, is just the visible tip of an iceberg. A disaster of monstrous proportions is brewing. Bell wants the fumarole plugged in order to study the problem, but the hot gas is carrying with it a rare-earth element worth billions, an element with military applications. The U.S. government wants Bell to shut up and go away; Drew Gannon wants Bell dead; 14-year-old Lissa Bell just wants to spend the summer with her dad; and gorgeous ex-model Kate is caught in the middle, forced into a disturbing agenda of her own. Forces of nature, government, greed, and love collide with the potential for an explosion that could make a major earthquake on the San Andreas Fault look like a whisper in the wind.
Smoke Screen
Sandra Brown - 2008
The blaze left seven people dead, but the death toll would have been much higher if not for the bravery of Jay and three other city officials who risked their lives to lead others to safety.Firefighter Raley Gannon, Jay's lifelong friend, was off-duty that day. Though he might not have been a front-line hero, he was assigned to lead the investigation into the cause of the fire. It was an investigation he never got to complete. Because on one calamitous night, Raley's world was shattered.Scandalized, wronged by the people he trusted most, Raley was forced to surrender the woman he loved and the work to which he'd dedicated his life. For five years his resentment against the men who exploited their hero status to further their careers -- and ruin his -- had festered, but he was helpless to set things right.That changes when he learns of Jay Burgess's shocking death and Britt Shelley's claim that she has no memory of her night with him. As the investigation into Jay's death intensifies, and suspicion against Britt Shelley mounts, Raley realizes that the newswoman, Jay's last sexual conquest, might be his only chance to get personal vindication -- and justice for the seven victims of the police station fire.But there are powerful men who don't want to address unanswered questions about the fire and who will go to any lengths to protect their reputations. As Raley and Britt discover more about what happened that fateful day, the more perilous their situation becomes, until they're not only chasing after the truth but running for their lives.Friends are exposed as foes, heroes take on the taint of criminals, and no one can be trusted completely. A tale about audacious corruption -- and those with the courage to expose it -- Smoke Screen is Sandra Brown's most searing and intense novel yet.