Book picks similar to
Blood Related by William Cook
horror
serial-killer
thriller
psychological-thriller
Stillhouse Lake
Rachel Caine - 2017
But when a car accident reveals her husband’s secret life as a serial killer, she must remake herself as Gwen Proctor—the ultimate warrior mom.With her ex now in prison, Gwen has finally found refuge in a new home on remote Stillhouse Lake. Though still the target of stalkers and Internet trolls who think she had something to do with her husband’s crimes, Gwen dares to think her kids can finally grow up in peace.But just when she’s starting to feel at ease in her new identity, a body turns up in the lake—and threatening letters start arriving from an all-too-familiar address. Gwen Proctor must keep friends close and enemies at bay to avoid being exposed—or watch her kids fall victim to a killer who takes pleasure in tormenting her. One thing is certain: she’s learned how to fight evil. And she’ll never stop.
Birdman
Mo Hayder - 1999
The Met's crack murder squad, AMIP, is called out by nervous CID detectives to a grim discovery. Five bodies, all young women, all ritualistically murdered and dumped on wasteland near the Dome. As each post-mortem reveals a singular, horrific signature linking the victims, officers realize that they are on the trail of that most dangerous offender: a sexual serial killer. Detective Inspector Jack Caffery - young, driven, unshockable - finds himself facing both hostility within the force and echoes of his past in this, his first case with AMIP. Haunted by the memory of a death long ago, he employs every weapon forensic science can offer for he knows it is only a matter of time before this chaotic, sadistic killer strikes again.
Scattershot
Jon Athan - 2018
Viola Santoro, a freelance journalist, is tracking Scattershot for her independent investigation in hopes of writing an exposé. After she unwittingly captures the serial killer's attention, she receives the scoop of a lifetime. Scattershot kidnaps Viola, straps her to an iron chair in his dungeon, and forces her to watch his acts of torture—over and over. He doesn't harm her, though. Instead, he gives her what she wants: his motives, his dreams, his life story. Jon Athan, the provocative author of The Good, the Bad, and the Sadistic, invites you into the broken mind of a disturbed serial killer. WARNING: This book contains scenes of graphic violence. This book is not intended for those easily offended or appalled.
The Poison Artist
Jonathan Moore - 2016
Caleb Maddox is a San Francisco toxicologist studying the chemical effects of pain. After a bruising breakup with his girlfriend, he’s out drinking whiskey when a hauntingly seductive woman appears by his side. Emmeline whispers to Caleb over absinthe, gets his blood on her fingers and then brushes his ear with her lips as she says goodbye. He must find her.As his search begins, Caleb becomes entangled in a serial-murder investigation. The police have been fishing men from the bay, and the postmortems are inconclusive. One of the victims vanished from the bar the night Caleb met Emmeline. When questioned, Caleb can’t offer any information, nor does he tell them he’s been secretly helping the city’s medical examiner, an old friend, study the chemical evidence on the victims’ remains. The search for the killer soon entwines with Caleb’s hunt for Emmeline, and the closer he gets to each, the more dangerous his world becomes.From the first pages up to the haunting, unforgettable denouement, The Poison Artist is a gripping thriller about obsession and damage, about a man unmoored by an unspeakable past and an irresistible woman who offers the ultimate escape.
Dark Origins
Anthony E. Zuiker - 2009
It is well known among law enforcement personnel that murderers can be categorized on a scale of twenty-five levels of evil, from the naive opportunists starting out at Level 1 to the organized, premeditated torture-murderers who inhabit Level 25.What almost no one knows, except for the elite unnamed investigations group assigned to hunt down the world's most dangerous killers, a group of men and women accounted for in no official ledger, headed by the brilliant but reluctant operative Steve Dark, is that a new category of killer is in the process of being defined.Only one man belongs to this group.His targets:Anyone.His methods:Unlimited.His alias:Sqweegel.His classification:Level 26.
The Shadow Man
Helen Sarah Fields - 2021
But he doesn’t keep them safe.Elspeth, Meggy and Xavier are locked in a flat. They don’t know where they are, and they don’t know why they’re there. They only know that the shadow man has taken them, and he won’t let them go. Desperate to escape, the three of them must find a way out of their living hell, even if it means uncovering a very dark truth. Because the shadow man isn’t a nightmare. He’s all too real. And he’s watching. Helen Fields is back with a heart-pounding new book, perfect for fans of Cara Hunter and Stuart MacBride.
Creep
Jennifer Hillier - 2011
. .Dr. Sheila Tao is a professor of psychology. An expert in human behavior. And when she began an affair with sexy, charming graduate student Ethan Wolfe, she knew she was playing with fire. Consumed by lust when they were together, riddled with guilt when they weren’t, she knows the three-month fling with her teaching assistant has to end. After all, she’s finally engaged to a kind and loving investment banker who adores her, and she’s taking control of her life. But when she attempts to end the affair, Ethan Wolfe won’t let her walk away.. . . no one else can.Ethan has plans for Sheila, plans that involve posting a sex video that would surely get her fired and destroy her prestigious career. Plans to make her pay for rejecting him. And as she attempts to counter his every threatening move without her colleagues or her fiancé discovering her most intimate secrets, a shattering crime rocks Puget Sound State University: a female student, a star athlete, is found stabbed to death. Someone is raising the stakes of violence, sex, and blackmail . . . and before she knows it, Sheila is caught in a terrifying cat-and-mouse game with the lover she couldn’t resist—who is now the monster who won’t let her go.
Because She Loves Me
Mark Edwards - 2014
Items go missing in his apartment. Somebody appears to be following him. And as misfortune and tragedy strike his friends and loved ones, Andrew is forced to confront the frightening truth...Is Charlie really the girl of his dreams – or the woman of his nightmares?
Blanket of Blood
Eileen Wharton - 2016
A twisted serial killer is targeting pregnant teenage girls. DI Blood races against the clock to stop the most chilling murderer he’s ever hunted. His private life meanwhile threatens to distract him and derail his investigation. Any mistake, any hesitation on his side, could cost another innocent life... Blanket of Blood is the first in the Gary Blood crime series. A serial-killer thriller which races along. Chilling and thrilling from the first to the last page.
White is the Coldest Colour
John Nicholl - 2015
Be careful who you trust…The Mailer family is oblivious to the terrible danger that enters their lives when seven-year-old Anthony is referred to the child guidance service by the family GP, following the breakdown of his parents’ marriage.Fifty-eight-year-old Dr David Galbraith, a sadistic, predatory paedophile, employed as a consultant child psychiatrist, has already murdered one child in the soundproofed cellar below the South Wales Georgian town-house he shares with his wife and two young daughters.When Anthony becomes Galbraith’s latest obsession he will stop at nothing to make his grotesque fantasies reality.But can Anthony be saved before it’s too late? Brilliantly gripping, White is the Coldest Colour will have you hooked from the very first page and holding your breath to the heart-pounding and shocking conclusion.Please be aware that this book includes content that some readers may find disturbing from the start.
The Killing Lessons
Saul Black - 2015
Two violent predators walk through the door. Nothing will ever be the same.When the two strangers turn up at Rowena Cooper's isolated Colorado farmhouse, she knows instantly that it's the end of everything. For the two haunted and driven men, on the other hand, it's just another stop on a long and bloody journey. And they still have many miles to go, and victims to sacrifice, before their work is done.For San Francisco homicide detective Valerie Hart, their trail of victims-women abducted, tortured and left with a seemingly random series of objects inside them-has brought her from obsession to the edge of physical and psychological destruction. And she's losing hope of making a breakthrough before that happens.But the murders at the Cooper farmhouse didn't quite go according to plan. There was a survivor, Rowena's ten-year-old daughter Nell, who now holds the key to the killings. Injured, half-frozen, terrified, Nell has only one place to go. And that place could be even more dangerous than what she's running from.In this extraordinary, pulse-pounding debut, Saul Black takes us deep into the mind of a psychopath, and into the troubled heart of the woman determined to stop him.
I Am Watching
Emma Kavanagh - 2019
Three bodies, sitting propped up against the ancient stones of Hadrian's Wall. A closer look reveals the horror of their too-white faces, and the ring of vivid red bruises around each neck.The victims were found by schoolgirl Isla Bell, out on an early morning run along the historic site. That day changed the small, close-knit community of Briganton forever, and it also shaped the course of Isla's life. Twenty years later, she's a professor of criminal psychology at the University of Northumberland. She specializes in studying the brain function of psychopaths and serial killers, wrestling with the question that still haunts her: why? Why did Heath McGowan kill those people--and two more besides--before he was finally caught by Isla's police detective father?At last, Isla has a chance to get answers. Heath, previously unforthcoming about the murders, agrees to take part in her research. Isla's husband, Ramsey--the only one of Heath's victims to survive--cautions her against the meeting. But no matter how ready Isla feels to peer within a killer's mind, there is no way to prepare for the fresh horror about to engulf Briganton. Another body is found, displayed just as before . . . and then another. Is this a copycat, someone inspired by or receiving help from the serial killer behind bars? Or could the truth be darker still?A brilliantly twisted thriller--gripping, atmospheric, and skillfully layered, I Am Watching will keep readers guessing until the very end.
Heartsick
Chelsea Cain - 2007
Two years ago, Gretchen kidnapped Archie and tortured him for ten days, but instead of killing him, she mysteriously decided to let him go. She turned herself in, and now Gretchen has been locked away for the rest of her life, while Archie is in a prison of another kind---addicted to pain pills, unable to return to his old life, powerless to get those ten horrific days off his mind. Archie's a different person, his estranged wife says, and he knows she's right. He continues to visit Gretchen in prison once a week, saying that only he can get her to confess as to the whereabouts of more of her victims, but even he knows the truth---he can't stay away.
When another killer begins snatching teenage girls off the streets of Portland, Archie has to pull himself together enough to lead the new task force investigating the murders. A hungry young newspaper reporter, Susan Ward, begins profiling Archie and the investigation, which sparks a deadly game between Archie, Susan, the new killer, and even Gretchen. They need to catch a killer, and maybe somehow then Archie can free himself from Gretchen, once and for all. Either way, Heartsick makes for one of the most extraordinary suspense debuts in recent memory.
The Serial Killer's Daughter
Lesley Welsh - 2017
But when she’s given a series of secret diaries and eight mysterious photographs of women from his possessions, she knows she won’t be able to rest until she knows the truth about him. To Suzanne’s shock, one of the photos is of her friend Sophie, who died ten years ago in an unexplained and devastating fire.But Don only met Sophie once, on an unsettling visit he paid Suzanne just days before Sophie’s death... So why did he have a picture of her? Unable to let Sophie’s memory alone, Suzanne begins to dig into her father’s life. What horrors is she about to unearth in his diaries? And who is it that’s out there, watching her every move?Chilling and utterly page-turning, The Serial Killer’s Daughter is a compelling thriller, perfect for fans of C.L. Taylor, Rachel Abbott, and Tom Bale.