Book picks similar to
Point of Departure by Laurie Breton


romantic-suspense
breton-laurie
box-3
mystery-thrillers

Puppet


Joy Fielding - 2005
    As for the things she hates, they include nicknames, the color pink, clients who don't follow her advice... and memories. Unfortunately, running from her past becomes a lot harder when one of her ex-husbands calls from her hometown of Toronto with the alarming news that her mother has shot and killed a complete stranger. Now she must return to face her demons--a love that once consumed her and a mother who seems to hold a strange, dark power over everyone she encounters. But Amanda is no longer willing to acquiesce to her mother's fatal whims--no matter what the cost.

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.

Dead Silence


Brenda Novak - 2006
    She was only thirteen the night it all went wrong. And now, like then, she has no choice but to keep her mouth shut.Grace left the town of Stillwater thirteen years ago, trying to forget, trying to make good. As an assistant D.A. in Jackson, she's finally achieved the success that was supposed to change her life. But it hasn't so she's come back to confront her own history. Which means returning to the farmhouse now owned by her brother and facing the people of Stillwater, a number of whom suspect the truth.Widower Kennedy Archer is one of those people. He's running for mayor and needs to stay as far away from Grace as possible. And yet she's an enigma he can't resist. Even though her enemies are close to finding out what really happened and that could ruin them both."

The Deadliest Strain


Jan Coffey - 2007
    When a flesh-eating microbe is identified naturally bioterrorism is suspected & Homeland Security must go to extraordinary lengths to defend America, even to the extent of resurrecting the dead.

No Escape


Heather Lowell - 2004
    When the investigation leads her to chic nightclubs, shadowy business deals and whispers of sexual slavery, Tessa understands that she's out of her league. So she asks for help from a man whose contacts and experience can help her bring Kelly home.Burned by the system in the past, private investigator LukeNovak plays by his own rules -- and he's not about to change them to accommodate a smart, classy blonde from the D.A.'s office. But when a killer strikes frighteningly close to home, Tessa has nowhere to turn -- except to Luke. Because somewhere in a neon underworld, a young girl is running for her life. And Tessa is determined to get her out, even if it means placing her own life in the hands of a renegade she has no choice but to trust ...

The Betrayers


James Patrick Hunt - 2007
    Louis has ever seen. Did Deputy Chris Hummel and Deputy Wade Childers simply pull over the wrong reckless driver, or did someone target these two for a more sinister reason? Lieutenant George Hastings is the primary investigator on the case, along with his detective Bobby Cain, an inexperienced but connected detective who is ambitious and impolitic. Hastings and Cain dissect the lives the two murdered officers, focusing in on Hummel after they learn that he did a year-long stint with narcotics undercover and helped put away one of the biggest meth dealers in the area. But what they uncover is much bigger than one bitter dealer's revenge, and much more personal. With The Betrayers, James Patrick Hunt decisively marks his territory as a crime novelist to rival the best writers on the shelf today.

Bad Girl


Michele Jaffe - 2003
    . . .For Chicago Thomas, aka Windy, it was an offer too good to refuse: the chance to head the forensics lab at the Las Vegas Police Department. With her six-year-old daughter in tow, Windy moves to Sin City hoping to start over with a loving fiancé—far from the sad memories of a first marriage that ended in tragedy. But the job of her dreams is about to take a nightmarish turn.She wanted to be a good girl. . . .Though the first murders appear to be random, they are savage in their intensity: an entire family, butchered in their own home. Only a few days later, another family meets the same grisly fate. To Ash Leighton, the enigmatic chief of the Metro Violent Crime Unit, the signs are clear: a serial killer is stalking Las Vegas.But she just couldn’t help herself. . . .In a breathless race against time, the lines between good and bad, right and wrong, begin to blur, and Windy and Ash find themselves irresistibly drawn to each other. In a town where nothing is what it seems, only the evidence doesn't lie. And Windy may have to pay for the truth with her life. Sometimes being good is dangerous.

Dark of the Night


Dee Davis - 2002
    As a result she vowed never to desert her father, a brilliant young congressman whose star was on the rise. Now, twenty-one years later, after trading her dreams of a normal life for his ambitions, Riley stands by her father’s side as he makes a bid for the presidency. Growing up in the political spotlight, she has become an expert at hiding her feelings behind the surface of her regal beauty. But her defenses are about to be shattered.Investigative reporter Jake Mahoney resents wasting his time covering an ice princess at a presidential campaign rally. But when a car bomb throws him–literally–on top of the candidate’s daughter, Jake quickly realizes that Riley O’Brien is pure fire. No one has ever gotten under his skin like this before. Their attraction is instant, and possibly fatal, as dangerous secrets from the past explode into the present, destroying one life after another in a nightmare of blind ambition.

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.

Dark River Road


Virginia Brown - 2011
    Unchallenged, until now.Like everyone else in Cane Creek, Mississippi, Chantry Callahan grew up in the shadow of town boss Bert Quinton. Quinton held the lives of local people in his harsh grasp, never letting go. He knew where all their secrets were buried, along with the bodies of anyone who had dared to defy him.As a boy, Chantry couldn't best Quinton. Couldn't protect the people he loved, including his own mother. But now Chantry is grown. He's come back for answers.And for justice.

The Professionals


Owen Laukkanen - 2012
    And then, suddenly, it's no joke.

Mary Higgins Clark Carol Higgins Clark Ebook Christmas Set: Christmas Thief, Deck the Halls, Dashing Through the Snow


Mary Higgins Clark - 2010
    When a call comes through on Regan's cell phone, telling her that her father and his driver, Rosita Gonzalez, are being held for $1,000,000 ransom, Alvirah insists that Regan allow her to lend a hand in trying to gain their release. While Regan may be a licensed private detective, based in Los Angeles, Alvirah has many valuable contacts among the ranks of New York's law enforcement community—including the head of the NYPD Major Case Squad, Jack “no relation” Reilly. Further complicating the situation is the fact that Regan's mother, the popular and very successful mystery writer Nora Regan Reilly, was hospitalized only the day before with a badly broken leg. Regan must comfort her while trying to meet the harsh demands of her father's kidnappers—and their tough deadline. The Christmas Thief The folks who picked a beautiful eighty-foot blue spruce from Stowe, Vermont, to be Rockefeller Center’s famous Christmas tree don’t have a clue that Packy Noonan, a scam artist just released from prison, hid priceless diamonds in it more than twelve years ago. Anxious to retrieve his loot, Packy breaks parole and heads to Vermont. When he learns that his special tree will be heading to New York City the next morning, he knows he has to act fast. What Packy doesn’t know is that Alvirah Meehan, everyone’s favorite lottery winner turned amateur sleuth, and Regan Reilly, a savvy young private investigator, are visiting Stowe with their friend Opal, who lost all her lottery winnings in Packy’s scam. And just when they’re supposed to head home, they learn that the tree is missing...and that Opal has disappeared. Dashing Through the Snow In the picturesque village of Branscombe, New Hampshire, the townsfolk are all pitching in to prepare for the first (and many hope annual) Festival of Joy. The night before the festival begins, a group of employees at the local market learn that they have won $160 million in the lottery. One of their co-workers, Duncan, decided at the last minute, on the advice of a pair of crooks masquerading as financial advisers, not to play. Then he goes missing. A second winning lottery ticket was purchased in the next town, but the winner hasn't come forward. Could Duncan have secretly bought it? Alvirah Meehan, the amateur sleuth, and private investigator Regan Reilly have arrived in Branscombe for the festival. They are just the people to find out what is amiss. As they dig beneath the surface, they find that life in Branscombe is not as tranquil as it appears. So much for an old-fashioned weekend in the country!

Desert Heat (Victor Loshak #4)


L.T. Vargus - 2022
    A human body draped over the limbs of a cactus. Sand scouring the naked flesh every time the wind blows.A shocking death launches Special Agent Victor Loshak on a new investigation with an ominous message: They know everything. He heads to Tucson, Arizona, where a recent murder spree seems to be linked to the human trafficking conspiracy he's been working in secret for months.Loshak still has dreams about the Kansas City case. Nightmares about the team of techs peeling up the floorboards in a suburban home. Finding the rotting bodies face down in the muddy earth of the crawlspace. A grisly discovery that ultimately led to more questions than answers.Now he may be closer than ever to solving the puzzle.If you follow the conspiracy rabbit hole all the way down, you eventually reach the bottom.The task force working the desert murders seems oblivious to the conspiracy link, and Loshak must tread lightly. He doesn't know who to trust, what information to share.The tendrils of the human trafficking ring lead in all directions outward from that Kansas City crawlspace. Their influence reaches the highest levels of government and law enforcement. They have eyes and ears everywhere.Even with the complications, the Tucson case slowly unravels the web of connections behind the crimes, both the murders and the conspiracy.Questions get answered. Names and faces are laid bare. Puzzle pieces snapping into place at long last.But the revelations bring about the gravest danger yet.

Sight Unseen


Samantha Graves - 2007
    Sight Unseen is a paranormal tale of a heist gone bad, a stolen painting, and a sizzling attraction between two people forced together in a madman's scheme. Can an art thief earn an honest living? Raven Callahan does, with the help of a rare psychic power that lets her read the emotions locked inside ancient objects. But when her partner is kidnapped and Raven is forced to steal a priceless masterpiece to save him, ESP takes a backseat to quick wits, steely nerves, and the lethal skills she needs to survive. Ex-cop Dax Maddox made just one mistake on the job, but it took a young rookie's life and cost Dax his ability to see color. Now stalking a killer brings Raven into his life-and floods his gray world with vivid and conflicting emotions: anger and lust, suspicion and awe. Are the criminals they seek one and the same? If so, Dax and Raven's growing need for each other could inspire a madman to go for the ultimate revenge....

Split Image


Judy Mercer - 1998
    When she learns that he was at the center of one of the most notorious crime stories she ever covered, Ariel begins to reconstruct the events leading to his hung jury.