Book picks similar to
The Cold Truth by Jonathan Stone


mystery
fiction
series-adventure-mystery
book-list

Christmas Mystery


James Kipling - 2015
    It is a Christmas story of hope, of human kindness and forgiveness, of mistakes, altruism and regrets. It is engaging, entertaining and surprising - a suspenseful crime thriller that’s filled with twists and turns. The arrest of Maxwell Sheppard, internationally renowned and despised conman, made worldwide news. Max made a fortune duping the mega rich with an ingenious Ponzi scheme, but then his luck ran out. As part of his punishment, the district attorney forces Max to read letters from people he’s hurt and respond to each of them. One of these letters, penned by a teenage boy, stuns him. Someone had used his name and investment firm falsely which threatened many homes to foreclosure in a small Iowa town right before the Christmas holiday. This sends Max on a quest to right his wrongs; to save a small town of hard working, innocent people from losing their homes. Can he save this town? An engaging and entertaining book that leaves you to wonder what will happen next. Buckle up for the surprising ending!

A Field of Red


Greg Enslen - 2013
    Harper is visiting the small Ohio town of Cooper's Mill, trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter and a grandson he's never met. But he finds the town gripped in fear-two young girls have gone missing, taken in broad daylight from a busy street. And the police are coming up blank. But once Harper is drawn reluctantly into the investigation, he'll stop at nothing to find the girls. And he doesn't care who gets in the way.

The Hummingbird Wizard


Meredith Blevins - 2003
    AND SO HELPFUL IN A FAMILY MURDER! Once you marry into a gypsy clan, just try to get out! Annie Szabo loved her husband, but after his death, she was only too happy to leave his outrageous clan behind, especially her pushy mother-in-law, Madame Mina. But Mina wasn't just any pushy relative. As the heart of the close-knit Szabo family, she was also powerful, stubborn, and devoutly to be avoided. Well, too bad for Annie! When her oldest friend, Jerry, turns up dead, she’s plunged back into the family she tried to leave behind. She knows Jerry was murdered, but how is she supposed to prove it? Easy, if you’ve got a gypsy family. Or anyway, easier. So before you know it, Annie’s knee-deep once again in ancient curses, petty theft, and, everyone’s favorite--love magic. All thanks to Madame Mina’s psychic skills and a certain wildly sexy gypsy and his shady P.I. father.

Crawlspace


Dan Padavona - 2015
    After Jerry stumbles delirious from a bloody accident, a beautiful girl rescues the boy and brings him home to her decrepit apartment complex.Soon Jerry discovers a hidden entrance into the attic, a crawlspace through which he can secretly enter any apartment.But he isn't the only person aware of the secret entrance.Crawlspace is a terrifying journey into urban legend, darkness, and murder.

Slip & Fall


Nick Santora - 2007
    He needs money. Fast.Desperate, he approaches his wiseguy cousin Jackie with an insurance scheme--a way for the Mob to collect from guys who owe but can't pay, and a chance for Robert to use his law degree to make a few quick bucks when he needs it most.Robert thinks it will be a one-time thing. It isn't. The scheme works well--too well. The money flows, the violence escalates, and Robert soon learns that getting out of a deal with the Mafia isn't exactly easy...especially when the FBI is onto you.

El Camino del Rio: A Mystery


Jim Sanderson - 1998
    Border Patrol agent Dolph Martinez to the corpse of a man executed in the desert…a murder that shatters the fragile calm in a dusty, Texas town. His investigation pits him against the Mexican Army, the DEA, big-money Houston real estate interests, a Catholic nun who practices voodoo, a charismatic revolutionary wanted on both sides of the border, and perhaps deadliest of all, the demons from his own, tortured past.

Shadow Kill


David Caris - 2021
    Betrayed by his employer and left for dead, Kovac decides to lie low in Tokyo.His plan? Revenge...But when a young woman asks him to protect her from the yakuza, Kovac feels duty-bound to help. She’s a victim of abuse, and long experience tells him if he doesn’t step in tonight she’ll be a corpse before dawn.As Kovac works to uncover the truth of his last job, he finds himself drawn into a conspiracy which goes well beyond the yakuza to a new and terrifying multinational cartel. One that will stop at nothing to control the global drug trade.The kingpins are certain they’ve covered all bases. They're well-funded and utterly ruthless. But they’ve failed to account for one man – John Kovac.SHADOW KILL is the first in a fast-paced, unflinching thriller series that won't in any way shortchange you on action. Perfect for fans of Lee Child, Mark Greaney and Mark Dawson.

Murder in the One Percent


Saralyn Richard - 2018
    Set on a gentleman’s farm in Pennsylvania and in the tony areas of New York, the book shows what happens when someone comes to a party with murder in his heart and poison in his pocket.

The Finger Trap


Johnny Worthen - 2015
    He’s had 12 years to prepare for his divorce and didn’t. He had his entire life to choose a career and hasn’t. Now time’s up, and he’s in a world of trouble. But all of that changes when Tony takes a first date to a drunken party and ends with him facing prison for the murder of a girl he hardly knew. To save himself, wise-cracking Tony must discover who the mysterious girl was, what she was involved in, and what the hell she saw in him in the first place.

The Genevieve Lenard Connections


Estelle Ryan - 2013
    Genevieve Lenard, a brilliant investigator with high-functioning autism, faces her life's greatest challenge when a murder probe uncovers a web of unimaginable corruption. With great reluctance, she becomes part of a team in a race to stop more artists from being murdered.#2 The Dante Connection Despite her initial disbelief, Doctor Genevieve Lenard discovers that she is the key that connects stolen works of art, ciphers and sinister threats. Little does she know that she's about to embark on a journey through not one, but two twisted minds to discover the true target of their mysterious messages. It will take all her personal strength and knowledge as a nonverbal communications expert to overcome fears that could cost not only her life, but the lives of many others.#3 The Braque ConnectionDrugged and kidnapped, Doctor Genevieve wakes up to find that a psychopath has been framing one of her team members for senseless acts of violence. Something has triggered his unpredictable behaviour, something that might result in many more deaths, including those she cares for.

Broken Angels


Russell Heath - 2015
    Nine years. Nine years since she stepped over her mother’s drunken body and into a cold Alaska night running south, lost to her mother forever. How did she find me? She hesitates, not wanting to open the envelope, knowing the letter inside will drag her home; back into the bleakness of a life with no exit. Kris Gabriel, twenty-four, Alaska Native, and fierce like a wolverine, returns to Alaska—to find her mother murdered; shot in the face by the double-barreled blast of a shotgun. Angry her mother is pushed around even in death, guilty she abandoned her in life, Kris only knows to fight. Relentlessly, she tracks a trail of pain, of lost love, of lives ripped apart by the frozen north’s unyielding law of survival, never suspecting it’s not what her mother would have wanted. Never suspecting that she has far more at stake than finding her mother’s killer. Broken Angels is fast-paced Alaskan noir filled with richly drawn characters struggling to survive in a hostile country where there are no second chances.

Closing Time


Jim Fusilli - 2001
    His wife and son were murdered, leaving Terry alone to raise his twelve-year-old daughter Bella. The killer is still out there, roaming the streets of New York. To ease his pain and grief, Terry learns the skills of the PI trade. But the more Terry obsesses about revenge, the more his daughter needs him.

Robbers


Christopher Cook - 2000
    Now, with a pack of cigarettes, a stolen Caddy, and no plan, the two must think fast-and move faster, in this novel with "a lyric voice that sings itself raw."(New York Times Book Review) "My kind of book." (James Ellroy) "Cook's plot tumbles from scene to scene with jarring brilliance, the pathos of his characters lending his otherwise brutal world a certain beauty." (Publishers Weekly) "Elmore Leonard's laconic flair with the dumb and dangerous [and] James Lee Burke's lyric feel for the dark hearts in a New South-Robbers ranges wild and wide, deep through the heart of Texas." (Michael Malone, author of Time's Witness) "Cook clearly has the suspense-building gene...The nerve-jangling plot tick-tick-ticks toward its explosive end." (Texas Monthly) "High-octane...Cook takes the noir chase novel on some remarkable detours." (Booklist, starred review) "This is a terrific book. I haven't enjoyed a novel this much in years." (James Crumley, author of The Last Good Kiss)

A Long Shadow


H.L. Marsay - 2021
    It seems unlikely the two cases are related, and yet some of the same players knew both victims. As Detective Chief Inspector John Shadow and his eager new partner, Sergeant Jimmy Chang, dive into their investigation, they uncover a complicated web of pop stars, pub owners, shopkeepers and old school friends who each have something to hide.John Shadow is a man of contradictions. A solitary figure who shuns company, but is a keen observer of all he meets. A lover of good food, but whose fridge is almost always empty. He prefers to work alone and is perpetually trying to dodge his partner, who’s full of energy, modern ideas and theories.But as the two men gradually learn to work together to solve the case, it’s clear that the past is never as far away as you think.

Twist of Faith


Ellen J. GreenEllen J. Green - 2018
    The photo shows a shuttered, ramshackle house on top of a steep hill. On the back, a puzzling inscription: Destiny calls us.Ava is certain that it’s a clue to her elusive past. Twenty-three years ago, she’d been found wrapped in a yellow blanket in the narthex of the Holy Saviour Catholic Church—and rescued—or so she’d been told. Her mother claimed there was no more to the story, so the questions of her abandonment were left unanswered. For Ava, now is the time to find the roots of her mother’s lies. It begins with the house itself—once the scene of a brutal double murder.When Ava enlists the help of the two people closest to her, a police detective and her best friend, she fears that investigating her past could be a fatal mistake. Someone is following them there. And what’s been buried in Ava’s nightmares isn’t just a crime. It’s a holy conspiracy.