Book picks similar to
Courier by Terry Irving


thriller
mystery
first-reads
fiction

Dark Quarry


David H. Fears - 2010
    FearsThis first in the "Dark" series of Mike Angel, Private Investigator mysteries is a wild ride, set in the New York/New Jersey and Chicago areas in 1960. If you like complex plots, soul-tortured protagonists, and suspense, you'll be hooked by this series. The first volume is historical fiction, involving names and places connected with remnants of the infamous Purple Gang of the 1930s. Suspense, seduction and even some supernatural elements are involved, though this is more of a mystery series in the vein of Chandler, Spillane, Hammett. Burdened by the unsolved murder of his father, a career NYPD lieutenant whose "voice" warns whenever danger is near, 30-year-old Mike Angel is a Korean vet and bored private investigator of insurance fraud. When a wealthy ex-college buddy hires him to tail Joe Ambler, a petty blackmailer, Mike fixates on Kimbra, the blackmailer's woman, a stunning beauty who commits murder. Mike impulsively helps her dispose of the body and finds himself on the wrong side of the law.Mike then discovers the dead man was the grandson of a feared and legendary mob leader, founder of Detroit's Purple Gang of the 1920s and 30s, possibly still alive. The same week, a well-dressed thug comes looking for Ambler, and the wealthy buddy who hired Mike runs off with Kimbra and is murdered in the Bahamas. Kimbra disappears. While searching for her Mike stumbles across connections to the Russian-Cuban branch of the ring responsible for a string of unsolved murders in three states. Seduction, deception, murders, shootouts, and crooked officials take Mike on a dangerous mission to the final showdown at Russian mob headquarters outside the small town of Mattoon, Illinois, where he hopes to discover who killed his father and save the life of Nika, a woman he has fallen for. You may have quite a few laughs at Mike's sarcasm and approach throughout. Consistenly rated high.

Closure


Randall Wood - 2009
    Special Agent Jack Randall of the FBI finds himself appointed to track down and stop the shooter. Not by his superiors, but by the killer himself.As more bodies fall the shooter takes his message to the press, earning the support of the public with his choice of targets and confounding the FBI at every turn. From the desert of Nevada to the urban jungle of New York City, Jack and his team follow the trail of bodies and haunting messages left behind by the killer. With the pressure to find him mounting on Jack, the assassin’s crimes grow bolder, and his message more sinister and closer to home.It becomes clear to Jack that in order to find the shooter, he may have to look inside his own past, and become the man he was years ago.

Someone Else's Daughter


Linsey Lanier - 2011
    Independent. Skeptical.Thirteen years ago her abusive husband stole her baby and gave it up for adoption.She comes to Atlanta to find her daughter.THE PIWade Parker.Ace detective.Wealthy owner of the Parker Investigative Agency.The most eligible forty-four-year-old bachelor in Atlanta.Still mourning the death of his socialite wife, he must solve a disturbing murder case.Before the killer strikes again.THE MURDERERA serial killer strangling young girls in a bizarre ritual.Why?She doesn't need a man.He needs to find a killer.Together, can they save a thirteen year old girl?

Killing Me Softly


Bianca Sloane - 2012
    Her body was discovered days later, her beautiful face bashed in with a rock. Police determine her brutal death to be a mugging gone wrong and drop the matter into their cold case files.Over a year later, Tracy’s sister, Sondra, still can’t come to grips with what happened. She throws herself into her work as a documentary filmmaker to try and forget the cruelty of her sister’s death. However, a chance encounter with a man from Tracy’s past rips the wound open and sends Sondra on a desperate search for answers about the secrets from her sister’s life that may have led to her death.As Sondra struggles to uncover what happened to Tracy, she’s launched into a tangled web of deceit and danger that put her on a collision course with life and death…

The CEO


Peter Ralph - 2007
     He was forty-five and time was running out when fate dealt him an unexpected opportunity. The company was old, staid and well-respected but it was under performing and Aspine was determined to turn it around no matter who he had to crush. Soon he was at war with the company's employees, unions, suppliers, financiers and co-directors but nothing was going to stop him. Not his chairman, not his wife, not his mistress, not the anonymous death threats and definitely not the press. Aspine could almost taste the glory, the riches and peer recognition he'd craved for so long. He knew he had countless detractors and enemies who he contemptuously labelled "losers"and paid no heed to. Would this prove to be a miscalculation of monumental proportions or would he prevail?

Choice of Weapon


C. Marten-Zerf - 2013
    To others he was a soldier, forged in the flames of war. But to Manon, who needed his help, he was her ultimate Choice of Weapon.Garrett had spent most of his adult life fighting other people’s wars. Now he lives in the highlands of Scotland. Alone but not lonely. Reclusive. Hiding from the person that he had become. Eschewing the violence that was once his way of life. But then he receives a phone call from a friend who needs his help. An orphanage in South Africa is missing some of its children, suspected kidnapped, and the local corrupt police will not help. It is up to Garrett. And he is once more drawn into a world of dark and deep brutality as he tries to do what is right. Together with the guard from the children’s home and an old combat compatriot, he discovers a world of darkness and depravity that threatens to overwhelm him, forcing him to react in the only way that he knows how. The way that he swore never to follow again… because someone has to protect the children.

Back to Lazarus


Judy K. Walker - 2014
    He beat and choked her to death. I'm told that he was found hanging from a homemade noose in his cell. I want to know why he waited so long to do it." Sydney Brennan isn't sure how to answer her client's question, short of holding a séance, and the Tallahassee detective has some questions of her own. Why does Noel Thomas remember so little about her childhood? Why is she delving into her father's suicide now? And, most importantly, why isn't Noel telling her the truth?Sydney crisscrosses the Florida Panhandle, reconstructing the tragic Thomas family history. The violence that destroyed the Thomas family connects to a present-day web of deceit and corruption through a desperate man willing to do anything to keep his secrets safe. To discover his identity, Sydney must go Back to Lazarus, back to the town where Noel's beautiful but troubled mother began her inevitable descent over twenty years ago. But by following in the footsteps of the murdered woman, does Sydney risk sharing her fate?Rooted in bars and back roads and Panhandle prisons, forgotten towns and forgotten people, at its heart Back to Lazarus is about stories: the stories people tell us, the stories we tell ourselves, and what happens when we realize it's all a lie.

Fires of Alexandria


Thomas K. Carpenter - 2011
    One hundred years later, Heron of Alexandria--the city's most renowned inventor and creator of Temple miracles--receives coin from a mysterious patron to investigate the crime. Desperate to be free of the debts incurred by her twin brother, she accepts and sets in motion a chain of events that will shake the Roman Empire and change the course of history forever.

The One You Love


Paul Pilkington - 2011
    Her fiancé vanishes, leaving the battered and bloodied body of his brother in their London apartment. Someone is stalking her, watching her every move. And her family are hiding a horrifying secret; a secret that threatens all those she loves. In a desperate race against time, Emma must uncover the truth if she ever wants to see her fiancé alive again. The One You Love is a fast-paced suspense mystery, full of twists and turns, following in the tradition of writers such as Nicci French and Sophie Hannah.

The Advocate


Teresa Burrell - 2009
    The search for her brother and her career as a juvenile court attorney collide when she defends a nine-year-old whose father will go to any length to obtain custody. Sabre finds herself immersed in a case with too many unanswered questions. Her quest for the truth takes her coast to coast and five years into the past. Confronted with mysterious clues and strange occurrences, Sabre is threatened by someone wanting to make her suffer the unbearable anguish of losing everything-including her life. As Sabre's passion to find the answers intensifies, she discovers a twisted history of desperation, deceit, and revenge. And she discovers how obscure and treacherous the truth can be.

Critical Vulnerability: A Sasha McCandless Companion Novel


Melissa F. Miller - 2014
    It's convenient and efficient. And potentially deadly. Assistant U.S. Attorney Aroostine Higgins put her personal life on hold to join the Department of Justice's elite Criminal Division. Now she’s prosecuting two men accused of attempting to bribe a foreign government official. But everything's going wrong. Her pretrial motion vanishes from the federal court's electronic docketing system. Her apartment catches fire. Routine dental surgery turns into a near-death experience. When Aroostine's past comes crashing into her present, her most critical vulnerability is exploited and she finally admits she isn't simply suffering a string of bad luck. An unseen enemy is determined to destroy her—and the only man she's ever loved—unless she finds him first. Critical Vulnerability is the latest whip-smart legal thriller by USA TODAY Bestselling Author Melissa F. Miller.

Hunt Them Down


Simon Gervais - 2019
    Will his daughter pay the price?Former Army Ranger Pierce Hunt is no stranger to violence. Fresh off a six-month suspension, he’s itching to hit a notorious Mexican drug cartel where it hurts, even if that means protecting crime boss Vicente Garcia, a witness in the case against sadistic cartel leader Valentina Mieles. But things spiral out of control when the cartel murders Garcia and kidnaps his granddaughter and an innocent bystander, Hunt’s own teenage daughter.Mieles wants the new head of the Garcia family on a plate—literally. Hunt has seventy-two hours to deliver, or Mieles will execute the girls live on social media. With the clock ticking, Hunt goes off the grid and teams up with Garcia’s daughter, a former lover and current enemy. To save the girls, Hunt will have to become a man he swore he’d never be again: an avenging killer without limits or mercy.

Patriot (A Brooke Kinley Adventure #1)


A.S. Bond - 2014
    But why is the White House determined to protect this businessman, and why does the answer seem to lie in the Canadian wilderness? In a dangerous journey to the remotest parts of the world and the darkest corners of men’s hearts, Brooke races to prevent a catastrophic attack on America, but can she uncover the real traitor?Patriot is a pulse pounding, high octane adventure thriller with a heroine who is as happy running rapids as she is asking difficult questions at the Pentagon. For fans of Clive Cussler, Andy McDermott or Stella Rimington.Advance Praise for Patriot:“Patriot moves at a cracking pace, Homeland channelled by Bear Grylls... the name's Bond, AS Bond, watch this space“ Nick Hazlewood, Author of "Savage; the Life and Times of Jemmy Button"

The Taste of Fear


Jeremy Bates - 2012
    When robbed of their money and passports, they seek help from the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam on the very day Al Qaeda chooses to bomb it. In an eyeblink they are taken hostage and whisked across the border deep into the Congo, one of the last truly wild places left on earth.Battling terrorists, deadly wildlife, and cannibalistic rebels, Scarlett and Sal must find a way to survive in a violent, primeval world. And the only person who may be able to save them is the assassin sent to kill them.

Younger


Suzanne Munshower - 2015
    Desperate to prove she is still relevant, the fiftysomething accepts a shady job offer from Pierre Barton, secretive billionaire owner of Barton Pharmaceuticals. Isolated in a facility outside London, she agrees to test a new top-secret product guaranteed to make her look thirty years younger. Anna is starting to look on the outside the way she feels on the inside: ageless. But she soon discovers that her predecessor died under mysterious circumstances, leading her to research just who stands to gain—and lose—with this miraculous product. When Pierre drops dead in front of her, she takes off on a dangerous journey across Europe hoping to stay alive long enough to uncover the truth.With the hard-won knowledge that younger isn’t always better, Anna is determined to escape and reclaim her life before it’s too late.