Book picks similar to
Risky Mission by Dan Latus
shelf-l-authors
crime
good-authors
z-digital-free
The Lion Trees
Owen Thomas - 2016
The Johns family is unraveling. Hollis, a retired Ohio banker, isolates himself in esoteric hobbies and a dangerous flirtation with a colleague's daughter. Susan, his wife of forty years, risks everything for a second chance at who she might have been. David, their eldest, thrashes to stay afloat as his teaching career capsizes in a storm of accusations over a missing student and the legacy of Christopher Columbus. While Tilly, the black sheep, trades her literary promise for an improbable career as a starlet, and then struggles to define herself amidst a humiliating scandal and the judgment of an uncompromising writer. By turns comical, suspenseful and poignant, the Johns family is tumbling toward the discovery that sometimes youhave to let go of your identity to find out who you are.
Red Velvet Cupcakes to Die For
Alaine Allister - 2017
A peculiar cat. A dead deliveryman? When a handsome stranger comes to town, life gets exciting. Coffee shop owner Liana Campbell can’t remember the last time she had such a massive crush. Unfortunately, her attempts to get to know Sugarcomb Lake’s newest resident are overshadowed by a mysterious murder. When folks start speculating that Liana may be the killer, she knows she needs to clear her name - and fast. Can Liana save her business and find true love? Or is she doomed to become a crazy cat lady?
Code for Murder
Eliot Parker - 2017
Six months later, Stacy’s first case back from medical leave involves the murder of Cleveland Browns football player Devon Baker. With little forensic evidence connecting anyone to the crime, Stacy sets out to find the killer. As Stacy comes very close to unraveling the tangled threads of the case, the killer wants her, and those close to her, to suffer for another impulsive decision she made in the line of duty. The killer just may be more familiar to Stacy than she realizes.
A Precarious Homecoming: An Arabella Stewart Historical Mystery
D.S. Lang - 2021
An immediate impediment arises when she becomes involved in a murder investigation. Helping solve the crime is crucial, but Bella must work with Constable Jackson Hastings. Once part of her life, Jax turned his back on Bella after her brother, his best friend, died in the trenches. His cold attitude hasn’t softened, but she can’t let that stop her. Both her hometown and family resort, once popular tourist destinations, may not survive if the crime isn’t solved quickly.Jax, a war veteran, faces his own challenges. Wounded in body and spirit, his dreams shattered, he finds himself doing what he said he’d never do—follow in his father’s footsteps as constable. When a wave of crimes hit the town, culminating in murder, his competence is questioned. In a struggle to find the killer and save his job, Jax needs all the help he can get—but he doesn’t want assistance from Bella. Not when he feels responsible for her brother’s death. But more is at stake than his job. He can’t stand by and let Moreley become a ghost town. Nor can he watch while Bella loses Ballantyne.Working together is the only way to solve the crime and offer hope—to their community and for themselves. Will their efforts succeed, or will it be a precarious homecoming?
Murder at the Nineteenth
J.M. Gregson - 1989
Instead, James Shepherd, Chairman of the Golf Club calls to say he needs to see Lambert urgently. Despite his misgivings, Lambert honours the not-so-polite request and makes his way to the Golf Club later that night. Surprised by the lack of human presence at the Club, Lambert begins a room-by-room search for the chairman. Surely, he must still be around, after all, it had been Shepherd’s request to meet. And, Shepherd’s unmistakable Rolls Royce was still parked outside. Finding a very dead James Shepherd was not something Lambert had been expecting. The heavy knife that protruded from his chest suggested that this night was only about to get longer… Sergeant Bert Hook joins Lambert on the tedious task of speaking to all who’d last seen Shepherd. With the coroner’s estimated time of death to work on, Lambert focuses on the members of the committee who’d last seen Shepherd. The only problem is that none of them seem the least bit sorry about Shepherd’s death… Lambert is puzzled. Digging further into the movements of the key suspects, Lambert and Hook narrow down the potential motivation each suspect could have had and as the investigation unfolds, another call to Lambert and another request for an impromptu meeting throws another murder into the mix. Only this time, none of the suspects have alibis… Lambert is going to have to work hard and fast to bring this string of murders to a close. Or was the murderer too clever for their own good? Murder at the Nineteenth is a complex mystery full of suspense and misdirection. Praise for J M Gregson ‘Begins with quiet observation before pouncing to murderous effect’ - Sunday Express ‘A chilling story that never flags from start to finish’ - Bolton Evening News James Michael Gregson taught for twenty-seven years in schools, colleges and universities before concentrating on full-time writing. He has written books on subjects as diverse as golf and Shakespeare. His other crime novels include Bring Forth Your Dead, Dead on Course, Making a Killing, Stranglehold and Body Politic.
Only Time Will Tell
James Kipling - 2014
Will she make the right choice? An unknown woman is murdered and detectives Pierce Carson, Chelsea Madden and a new recruit, Dean Weston, are assigned to the case. Their search for the killer leads to several dead ends and a suspected drug connection, as even more people are killed. In the process of helping to solve the first murder and those that follow, Chelsea realizes that she is walking a very thin line between personal revenge and professional responsibility. She too has suffered at the hands of a murderer, who brutally snuffed out the life of her parents, giving her a reason to join the police force. To complicate matters, she finds herself attracted to Dean. She knows little about the newcomer to Homicide, only that he’d been a successful undercover agent. Normally a loner, she finds him surprisingly easy to talk to, as she unburdens herself of her past, kept secret for years. As the case becomes more complicated and passions are stirred, questions arise about a mole in the force, and Dean is on the list of possible suspects. Chelsea is torn between trust and doubt, fear and love; her desire for vengeance and belief in the system of which she is now a part. The strands of the plot become intertwined, with unexpected twists and turns, and Chelsea finds herself caught in a life and death struggle in a most unexpected way. Only time will tell if she survives to right the wrong or decides to let it go and find a new direction for her life. Detective Chelsea Madden is the cool, calm, and collected hero of Only Time Will Tell. Putting her life on the line, she doesn’t pull any punches, searching only for the truth, and for the person who takes lives on her watch. Intelligent, resourceful, and uncompromising, Chelsea will take readers on a memorable, white-knuckled journey in this suspenseful, gripping serial killer thriller. <
The Whole of the Moon
Kevin McManus - 2016
or take it. Conor Doyle is a haunted man. In the winter of 1988, he returns from London to his old home town in Western Ireland, hoping to find a reason to stay. What he thought would be a joyful reunion becomes something more, as he's drawn into the fallout surrounding a shocking crime. While the Irish Garda are looking for the prime suspect, Conor's relationships are tested with jealousy and betrayal, and he must look deep inside himself to make the decision that will change his life forever.
Lawdog: The Life and Times of Hayden Tilden
J. Lee Butts - 2001
Lee Butts! Legendary as the meanest, most fearless lawdog of the Old West, Hayden Tilden sometimes blurs the line between U.S. Marshal and hired assassin. His adventures all began with one murderous, cold-blooded bastard: Saginaw Bob Magruder. The depraved killer butchered Tilden’s entire family and hurled the young man into a ruthless, bloody crusade for vengeance and a career as a U. S. Marshal. Tracking down Magruder will be just the beginning of Tilden’s adventures, bringing his own brand of justice to the wild and lawless West. “Lawdog has it all. I couldn’t put it down.” —Jack Ballas, author of A Town Afraid “Lawdog should assume its rightful place beside other Western classics.” —Peter Brandvold, bestselling author of Once Hell Freezes Over About the Author: J. Lee Butts is the author of 22 published books and numerous magazine articles and short works. His book Brotherhood of Blood was runner-up for the Western Writers of America Spur Award in 2005. He’s worn many hats over the years (teacher, administrator, pool manager, IBM supervisor, and western author), and he and his late wife lived everywhere from Los Angeles to Dallas. Currently he’s hanging those hats back in White Hall, Arkansas.
The Woman from the Blue Lias (a murder mystery)
D.M. Mitchell - 2013
M. Mitchell has been compared to Ruth Rendell, Martina Cole, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, M. R. James, Linwood Barclay, Umberto Eco, Charles Dickens and many more. Now's the time to discover D. M. Mitchell for yourself... THE WOMAN FROM THE BLUE LIAS - a murder mystery and psychological thriller with a difference... Toby Turner didn’t expect to stumble upon the remains of a human skeleton, washed down from the cliff top by a recent landslip. He runs a small bookshop in the quiet seaside town of Lyme Regis in Dorset. His life’s not quite on track; his bookshop’s not doing too well, for one thing, and he’s not sure his relationship with his girlfriend-cum-fiancé Trisha is going anywhere either – at least, nowhere she would like it to go. Toby takes a walk along the Blue Lias cliffs on Monmouth Beach to think things through, and here he finds the body of a woman; a woman, it transpires, who was murdered in 1978. The gruesome discovery and the resulting media attention he receives would have been hard enough to cope with, but he soon suspects the woman who keeps coming into his shop is the woman from the Blue Lias, that he is being haunted by the very woman he found on the beach. What’s more, he finds himself falling for her, eventually feeling he is unable to live without her. Is she real, or is he imagining things? His strange obsession starts to have a negative effect on his life and his health, which begins to deteriorate. He decides to try and solve the mystery of her death and why she chose him, of all people, hoping by discovering what happened to her all those years ago they can both find peace. And so begins Toby Turner’s bizarre journey of discovery that will lead him into very dark and dangerous territory. His search leads him to a hotel that used to stand high on the cliff, lost to a landslide in the 1980s, and to an old musician called Steely Jacobs who appears to be linked to the dead woman. But events take an unexpectedly disturbing contemporary turn when Toby discovers his best friend Mark has been secretly amassing information on a number of missing young women going back a decade or more. He learns about Mark’s secret past and how he'd been implicated in the murder of his teenage girlfriend. Is this tragic death connected to the list of missing young women he's made? And what has their disappearance got to do with the body Toby discovered on the beach, a woman murdered thirty-five years ago? How is all this connected to the mysterious hotel called the Belle Vue, long ago collapsed into the sea, and the aged guitarist called Steely Jacobs? Not only has he uncovered a body, Toby Turner had inadvertently scuffed away the thin covering of dirt from dark, long-held secrets that will lead him into a corrupt world of vice and murder. His life will never be the same again. D. M. Mitchell pens yet another taut psychological thriller complete with supernatural chills, peopled with an array of larger-than-life characters, deliciously devious twists and turns, with every seemingly disparate thread coming neatly together in a trademark surprise ending that will leave you speechless…
Sealfinger
Heide Goody - 2021
She's got bigger things to worry about - keeping on top of her job at DefCon4 Security Services isn't easy - particularly since her manager is a cactus and no one will tell her what her job actually is.But when the ghost-spotting client goes missing and only Sam suspects foul play, she is compelled to dig deeper.Aided by her retired stage magician father and the owner of the most outlandish junk shop on the sea front, Sam dives into a mystery involving psychotic seals, unexploded air force munitions, DIY foot surgery and a corpse that just won't quit.
The Curse: A Cozy Mystery From the 1920s
Alice Simpson - 2018
Jane grapples with a vandalized shop, a kidnapping, a creepy doll with seemingly supernatural powers, and a stolen diamond necklace. What do all these have in common? It's up to Jane to find out. About the Jane Carter Historical Cozy Mystery Series: This quirky historical cozy mystery series is set in the fictional American city of Greenville during the 1920s, and features Jane Carter, a young widow who returns home to live with her father after the tragic death of her journalist husband. Jane’s father owns a local newspaper, and wants Jane to take it over someday, but Jane is adamant that she has no desire to be a reporter. Instead, she turns her talent for writing to concocting melodramatic romances for fly-by-night rags who almost never pay on time. This work pays so poorly that Jane supplements her income by becoming an agony aunt, soliciting letters from the lovelorn through advertisements in the back of women’s weekly magazines. Jane dispenses advice to all and sundry, but her personal life is in shambles. Jane claims that she's holding out for a millionaire before she marries again, but the only man who makes her heart beat faster is Jack, a reporter on her father's staff. Not only has Jane vowed she will never be a newspaper man herself, she's doubly insistent on never again marrying one. While trying to turn out enough column inches of overwrought romantic bilge to keep her old car on the road, and herself in shoes, Jane runs into the most extraordinary circumstances. In Jane's madcap world, it's a constant round of kidnappings, curses, stolen jewels, counterfeit paintings, and hidden stashes of gold. There's plenty of crime to go around, but nary a murder. Accompanying Jane on her adventures is her best friend, Florence. Jane and Flo may get into one perilous situation after another, but they are never damsels in distress, because, as Jane puts it, "A real lady always carries her own pocket knife." Neither Jane nor Flo think it beneath them to slip a cosh into their handbag, either, should the situation call for it. All this getting into harm's way alarms the Carter's housekeeper, Mrs. Timms. Mrs. Timms believes it's her mission in life to turn motherless Jane into a proper lady, but seeing as Jane has just turned twenty-four, Mrs. Timms considerable efforts appear to have been in vain. However, the housekeeper won't give up trying, just as Jane won't give up on seeing Mrs. Timms and her father center-aisling it to the alter and saying, "I do." If you like light-hearted historical mysteries with quirky characters and a bit of zany humor, this may be the series for you! These are murderless mysteries. Despite a constant crime wave, there seem to be no murders in the city of Greenville. There may be plenty of peril in the form of kidnappings, heists, and the occasional assault, but nobody ever dies, and justice is always served. There’s plenty of romance, but sex is strictly behind closed doors. Suitable for readers looking for a "clean" mystery novel. This series may be of interest to fans of: Lee Strauss (Ginger Gold Mysteries), Jaqueline Winspear (Masie Dobbs Mysteries), Patricia Wentworth (Miss Silver Mysteries), Jessica Ellicot (Berl and Edwina Mysteries Series), Clara Benson, L. B. Hathaway (Posie Parker Mysteries), Leighann Dobbs (Hazel Martin Mysteries), T. E. Kinsey (Lady Hardcastle Mysteries), Margarete Addison (Rose Simpson Mysteries), Emily Organ (Penny Green Mysteries), and the Phryne Fisher Mystery Series.
Operation Neurosurgeon
Barbara Ebel - 2009
Can Danny’s situation get any worse after the alluring lady disappears, he inherits her roguish retriever, and his Albert Einstein historical book turns up missing? A pack of Tennessee attorneys pursue Danny while he develops a scheme with his paramedic best friend to payback the mysterious woman who left in a hurry.
East Jesus South
T.R. Pearson - 2014
That was the plan anyway. When Buck noses around in an old missing persons case by way of returning a favor to a neighbor, he unearths more corruption and criminal mischief than he ever suspected the rugged uplands could hide. A departure for T.R. Pearson, East Jesus South is not a comedy. It’s a creepy, unsettling look at the rot beneath the honeyed, 'Aw Shucks' veneer of the American South.
Perfect Crime
Jack Parker - 2018
The First Crime: Many people had reason to kill the victim, and they tried 'til they got it right. You'd think that would leave plenty of clues, but they don't add up right. Can a 16-yr-old. The Second Crime: A teacher was found dead and a lot of other students have had accidents, some serious. Gracie Greene's not so sure they were accidents, but can she find the pattern and motive before someone else dies? The Third Crime: At 18 years old Gracie Greene has already solved 2 murders. Now she finds herself a suspect in a 3rd murder and must solve it to clear herself.
Smith: A Detective Jason Smith Thriller
Stewart Giles - 2014
It is Christmas Day in York. A woman is found dead in her bed. A suicide note is found on her chest. It reads ‘I am so sorry Martin’. Hours later the police are called to a house a few miles away. A mother and her daughter have been brutally attacked; the mother is dead and the daughter is barely alive. The father is found shaking uncontrollably in the corner of the room. He is covered in blood but he is unharmed. His name is Martin Willow. Detective Sergeant Jason Smith is put in charge of the investigation. After reaching dead end after dead end, Smith starts to put the pieces together and figures out that Martin Willow is innocent and the killer is still out there. The little girl who was attacked on Christmas Day wakes from her coma and gives Smith a clue about the attacker; a piece of a song she heard directly before the attack. Smith then finds himself in a race against time to find this maniac before he kills again.