Book picks similar to
Cornered by Alan Brenham


author-request
free-book-for-honest-review
paperback
thrillers-mysteries

Death is in the Details


Heather Sunseri - 2019
    A killer who won't let her forget.Faith Day's condition curses her to recall her mother’s fiery murder like it was yesterday. And when the forensic photographer’s convicted stepbrother is somehow cleared 12 years later and released from prison, Faith wonders if he'll put an end to her tortured memories. But after a string of eerily familiar fires tear through her small town, Faith starts to question every detail of her traumatic past.Luke Justice won't rest until he catches a notorious serial killer masking his murders in arson. Following a trail of deadly blazes to Faith's doorstep, the FBI agent senses she holds the key to the case. But if he can't convince her to open up, Luke fears he'll miss his best chance to put a psychopath behind bars.As Faith fights the resurgence of dark emotions, an arsonist begins leaving personal totems in her home. Determined to stay alive, she taps into the only weapon she has against the vicious murderer: the echoes of her childhood nightmare.Can Faith help Luke unmask the true killer before they both go up in flames?Death is in the Details is a chilling standalone thriller novel. If you like small-town mysteries, psychological thrillers, and spine-tingling twists, then you'll love Heather Sunseri's latest page-turning tale.

Dead White


M.K. Coker - 2011
    Acting Sheriff Karen Mehaffey asks for a part-time detective to teach her the ropes and loses what she changed jobs to keep: peace in her family.Together, estranged detective and sheriff stand uneasily over the frozen body of Dale Hansen, operations manager at the local meat-packing plant. The intriguing words "White Out" are carved into one bare arm, the raw wrist chained to a barbed-wire fence. What does the message mean? Is it racial—as Dale wasn't popular with his Hispanic workers—or merely a weather report, done in understated Dakota style?Both Karen and Marek doubt their ability to give the victim justice. Karen is a former police dispatcher without a shred of investigative experience. Marek has enough experience for both of them, but he'd rather dust off his carpenter’s license to save the last takeout restaurant in town from hooligans. Besides, saving his half-Hispanic, motherless daughter from starvation is a higher priority for him than arguing with a hard-headed sheriff. They'll both be out in the cold, though, if they can't put aside their differences to find a killer.Neither cozy nor hardboiled, DEAD WHITE is a character-driven police procedural of a rural bent. Word Count: 115,000. Occasional profanity. Minimal gore.REVIEWDEAD WHITE's characters seemed to walk right out of a familiar Dakota town, bickering with every step. I couldn't stop reading! —Linda M. Hasselstrom, Author of No Place Like Home

The Innocents (Wil Hardesty, #1


Richard Barre - 1995
    Children -- innocents -- whose long-buried remains are uncovered by a flash-flood. No one knows who could have committed such a crime. Clues are scarce, and with the media turning the story into a law enforcement nightmare, time is short. Only Wil Hardesty, a private eye who has more in common with the case than anyone knows, is willing to push hard enough -- and dig deep enough -- to find the cruelest of killers. The killer of The Innocents...

East of A (Payton Sherwood #1)


Russell Atwood - 1999
    . . .

Diamond Reef


Douglas Pratt - 2020
    Chase Gordon has the life.The former Marine works part-time as a bartender to support his life island-hopping on his 40-foot sailboat.When the pretty young wife of one of his fellow Marines shows up looking for her husband, Chase steps in to help her out.Immediately, he finds himself in a stand-off between one of South Florida's most dangerous drug dealers and the D.E.A.Now, he's left wondering what kind of trouble his friend might be facing.Can Chase even save him?Filled with action and adventure, Chase Gordon is the next Travis McGee.

Kill For You


Lisa Regan - 2013
    Stuffed into her mouth is a job application with the words "For You" scrawled across it. FBI profiler Kassidy Bishop is assigned to help find the killer. Despite being scarred by her twin sister's mysterious death fifteen years earlier, Kass is now a rising star in the Bureau's Behavior Analysis Unit. But as more victims turn up dead around the country--all with the serial killer's trademark message left at the scene--Kassidy is left with more questions than answers. The victims seem to have nothing in common, and the meticulous killer is as inconsistent as he is brutal.As Kass delves deeper into the mind of the killer, a shocking connection begins to emerge--one that is both personal, and deadly.Told from the alternating viewpoints of Kassidy and the For You Killer, Kill for You is an edge-of-your-seat, roller coaster ride of a thriller.

Shattered Secrets


Karen Harper - 2014
    Abducted and held captive as a young girl, she is unable to remember anything about the crime that destroyed her childhood and tore her family apart. Now a grown woman with a bright future, she is certain she has put the past behind her. But when she inherits the family home, Tess must confront the demons that still haunt her and the town of Cold Creek. Gabe McCord has always blamed himself for what happened to Tess. He had been a teenager when she was snatched from the group of children he was responsible for watching. Now Gabe has taken on the role of sheriff and hopes to shed new light on the cold case, especially given his growing feelings for Tess. Tess isn't ready to recall what happened to her, and she has no intention of digging up any details that might remind her of the truth. But when another child in the town goes missing, she's certain it's related to her return to Cold Creek. Together,Tess and Gabe will have to work to unlock their painful memories in order to save another child and heal their damaged souls, for good…

Brutal


Mandasue Heller - 2019
    And with a daughter emigrating to Australia and a son who has his own marital problems, Frank feels resigned to a life of loneliness. Then one night he finds a frightened young woman hiding at the back of his farmhouse. She explains that her name is Irena and was brought to this country by a man who promised her the world and then forced her into prostitution. Frank offers her a bed for the night but it’s the middle of winter, and when heavy snowfall prevents her from leaving the next day, he’s forced to extend the invitation. But the longer Irena stays, the easier it gets for the men she’s trying to escape from to find her.People-trafficking could just be the tip of the iceberg, and Frank has no idea what these people are really capable of.

The Attic Room


Linda Huber - 2015
    a mother’s lie... a family mystery. An unexpected phone call – and Nina’s life takes a disturbing twist. Who is John Moore? And how does he know her name? Nina travels south to see the house she inherited, but sinister letters arrive and she finds herself in the middle of a police investigation. With her identity called into question, Nina uncovers a shocking crime. But what, exactly, happened in the attic room, all those years ago? The answer could lie close to home. The arrival of her ten-year-old daughter compounds Nina’s problems, but her tormentor strikes before she can react. Searching for the truth about the Moore family puts both Nina and her child into grave danger. A fast-moving, chilling suspense novel by the author of The Cold Cold Sea, The Paradise Trees and Chosen Child. ...packed with suspense and intrigue. Carol Sampson

Risky Business


Nora Roberts - 1986
    But everything changes when her employee is murdered and his grieving twin brother storms into Liz’s life with revenge in his heart. Suddenly Liz is plunged into the dangerous world of drug smugglers, and she discovers how impossible it is to resist both the mystery…and the passionate man trying to solve it.

To Hell and Gone in Texas


Russ Hall - 2014
     Retired sheriff’s detective Al Quinn hasn’t spoken to his brother, Maury, in twenty years. When Maury lands in the hospital under suspicious circumstances, though, Al reluctantly abandons his quiet country seclusion to look into the matter. A second attempt to take Maury out drives the brothers back to Al’s lakeside home, where Al knows the territory, but they’re not alone for long. ICE agents demand that Maury rat on his silent partner, city cop Fergie Jergens comes investigating the murders of Maury’s lady friends, and someone takes a match to Al’s house. Al soon learns his problems are only getting started—his brother’s in trouble on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Caught in a ruthless power struggle between the ICE and Los Zetas, a vicious Mexican mafia bent on ascendancy, Al learns the hard way who he can trust—and who’s willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. With everything he loves on the line, Al will find out just how far he’ll go to protect his own.

Paper Dolls


Cory Toth - 2014
    The beloved girl's best friend and childhood crush, Landon, is the only key to unlock the mystery of what happened to her. When Landon is found wandering in a daze far from his home after the disappearance, he is clueless as to the events that took place or the whereabouts of Emily. The only thing keeping him from knowing what happened to his best friend, and girl of his dreams, are the memories which have hidden themselves far within the folds of his brain. He must delve deep within his mind to remember the events of that fateful day so that he can hopefully be reunited with her, but at the same time he is scared to death of what role he played in her disappearance. As Special Investigator Carter VanDusen races against time to learn the truth, Landon can only pray that the greatest danger is not within himself.

OLD SINS, LONG MEMORIES


Angela Arney - 2014
    Lizzie Browne moves from London to a small town on the coast, looking forward to a quiet life, but when she finds a murdered patient on her first day it seems that perhaps Stibbington is not so quiet after all. DCI Adam Maguire, and colleague Steve Grayson, haven’t been challenged by a case for a long time, and welcome this break from their normal routine, except that there seems to be no apparent motive for anyone to kill a harmless young drop-out. When a second body, similar to the first, is found in Lizzie’s garden she is drawn into Adam’s investigation against her will, and against her better judgment her quiet life is riven with tension and conflict.

The Remains


Vincent Zandri - 2010
    Vowing to keep it a secret the two grow up struggling with their past and their belief in God. Thirty years later their attacker is released from prision. One of the twins is dead from cancer, the remaining twin must face her biggest fear and face a killer who wants her dead. The Remains will test your faith and will bring you through the question of why bad things happen to good people.

Separated at Death


J.J. Salkeld - 2013
    This DI Andy Hall's third ever murder case and leads are hard to come by, and his personal life is in crisis. Meanwhile, his Sergeant, ex-Marine Ian Mann is faced with a very puzzling case, involving a local bad lad who suddenly seems to be scaling the ladder of criminality. Are the two cases connected? Can Hall and his team crack the murder case, and offer the very coldest of comfort to the bereaved family? Separated at Death is the first in The Lakeland Murders Police procedural novel series, set in and around England's beautiful Lake District, and introduces the team of DI Hall, DS Mann and DC Jane Francis, a former research scientist and the newest member of Kendal CID. Mat Coward's review of Separated at Death appeared in the Morning Star on the 19th of June 2013: "If you like your police procedurals to be thoroughly British - and stuffed cover to cover with them - then I recommend Separated At Death by JJ Salkeld (currently only available as an e-book, £1.53). The beautiful Lake District has plenty of problems the tourists don't see but even so Kendal CID's Andy Hall is rarely called upon to investigate a murder. When the teenage daughter of a leading local businessman is found killed, with no evidence of a sexual motive for her death, DI Hall and his team look closely at her family and friends. With the police suffering from austerity budgets and merger threats, Hall is painfully aware that the resources he spends on this investigation could mean job losses next year. Separated At Death is a solidly plotted, well-peopled and a very enjoyable start to what looks like a most promising series." And readers have enjoyed it too: ' I genuinely couldn't put it down. Roll on number 2.' 'I found the book to be well written with a distinct feeling of being set in the here-and-now and with flashes of wry humour. I'm looking forward to the second of the Lakeland Murders series." 'Found it difficult to put the book down towards the end, and very much look forward to the second installment.'