Book picks similar to
The Last Billable Hour by Susan Wolfe
mystery
edgar-award
mysteries
fiction
Dry Bones in the Valley
Tom Bouman - 2014
Tom Bouman's chilling and evocative debut introduces one of the most memorable new characters in detective fiction and uncovers a haunting section of rural Pennsylvania, where gas drilling is bringing new wealth and eroding neighborly trust.Dry Bones in the Valley is the first book in the Henry Farrell series. Tom Bouman's Officer Farrell returns in Fateful Mornings, available in June 2017.
Gypsy in Amber
Martin Cruz Smith - 1971
When you are a gypsy, an antique dealer, and you've been entrusted with a very old highboy in which a dead body is discovered, you have a major problem.Sorcery and the dark sciences lie at the heart of a terrible murder that threatens to force the police into a confrontation with New York's gypsy community. However, Roman Grey decides to unearth the truth about the killing, whatever the cost.
The Defendants
John Ellsworth - 2014
Ermeline's persecutors are not only the District Attorney but also the Chicago Mob and Illinois governor in this legal thriller. Set in small-town Illinois, the Governor is in the business of accepting payoffs from state contractors on construction jobs. In the end he is at the bottom of the plot to send Ermeline to the execution chamber for the murder she didn't commit. You never win against the Mob, Thaddeus is warned. Now the FBI has the lowdown on the players and Thaddeus needs their help but is afraid they will come after his client too. For Ermeline to walk away from the murder charges Thaddeus Murfee must not only prove her innocence but must also outwit the Mob and the Governor and stay alive himself. A murder trial ensues, which is followed by a show-down between the Mob's hitman and Thaddeus while the surprise ending leaves the reader breathless in this courtroom thriller.
Her Final Words
Brianna Labuskes - 2020
The teenage girl confesses to murdering a young boy. Disturbingly composed, she reveals chilling details only the killer could know. Beyond that Eliza doesn’t say another word, leaving a vital question met with dead silence: Why did she do it?To find the answer, Lucy goes to the scene of the crime in the small Idaho town of Knox Hollow. But Lucy’s questions are only mounting. Especially when she’s drawn deeper into the life of the victim. Then a combing of the woods yields unsettling evidence that Eliza isn’t the only one in this close-knit rural community with secrets.Getting to the truth is becoming Lucy’s obsession. And it’s a dangerous one. Because for the good folks of Knox Hollow, hiding that truth will take more than silence.
Penance
David Housewright - 1995
High-level friends at police headquarters were dangling clues from a recent murder case in front of him, stringing him along. Reluctantly investigating the slaying, Taylor was led to the offices of Minnesota gubernatorial candidate and media darling Carol Catherine Monroe. She needed Taylor's help to diffuse a scandal that could rattle the skeletons in her closet. But the murder of an innocent campaign worker hit Taylor where it hurt and taught him a simple truth: Some sins can never be forgotten - or forgiven...
Killing Me Softly
Bianca Sloane - 2012
Her body was discovered days later, her beautiful face bashed in with a rock. Police determine her brutal death to be a mugging gone wrong and drop the matter into their cold case files.Over a year later, Tracy’s sister, Sondra, still can’t come to grips with what happened. She throws herself into her work as a documentary filmmaker to try and forget the cruelty of her sister’s death. However, a chance encounter with a man from Tracy’s past rips the wound open and sends Sondra on a desperate search for answers about the secrets from her sister’s life that may have led to her death.As Sondra struggles to uncover what happened to Tracy, she’s launched into a tangled web of deceit and danger that put her on a collision course with life and death…
The Gauguin Connection
Estelle Ryan - 2012
Masterful forgeries. Art crime at its worst.A straightforward murder investigation quickly turns into a quagmire of stolen Eurocorps weapons, a money-laundering charity, forged art and high-ranking EU officials abusing their power.As an insurance investigator and world renowned expert in nonverbal communication, Dr Genevieve Lenard faces the daily challenge of living a successful, independent life. Particularly because she has to deal with her high functioning Autism. Nothing - not her studies, her high IQ or her astounding analytical skills - prepared her for the changes about to take place in her life.It started as a favour to help her boss' acerbic friend look into the murder of a young artist, but soon it proves to be far more complex. Forced out of her predictable routines, safe environment and limited social interaction, Genevieve is thrown into exploring the meaning of friendship, expanding her social definitions, and for the first time in her life be part of a team in a race to stop more artists from being murdered.
Death On a High Floor
Charles Rosenberg - 2011
Simon was an abusive boss and had recently been on the warpath, clearing the "dead wood" from the legal firm he treated as his personal fiefdom. Nearly a thousand attorneys and associates, scattered across four continents, had good reason to want Rafer dead, but homicide Detective Spritz has his eye trained on Marbury Marfan partner Robert Tarza, in particular. Tarza and his friend and colleague---and maybe a bit more---Jenna are soon forced to play detective themselves, in a race to find the real killer or killers before Spritz finishes assembling a collection of evidence that will make a very credible case against Tarza.
The Lagoon: A Collection of Short Stories
Janet Frame - 1951
It won the Hubert Church Award, and a threatened brain operation was averted. These stories bring into focus a crucial turning point in her life.
The Kind One
Tom Epperson - 2008
According to the fellas, he used to pull all kinds of shoot-ups and shenanigans...but damned if he can't remember a thing from before last year, when he got hit over the head with a lead pipe. Sadistic mobster Bud Seitz known to friends and enemies alike as "The Kind One" seems to have big plans for him, but truthfully, Danny can't stomach the dirty work. His aim is off, the other wiseguys laugh at him, and he'd gladly trade in the drunken parties and the endless broads for a day at the movies with his colorful and mysterious neighbor Dulwich and eleven-year-old Sophie, whose deadbeat mother delivers an endless stream of emotional and physical abuse. But when Bud's beautiful girlfriend Darla begs Danny to help her escape the Kind One's dark, brutal world, Danny must confront a dangerous test of loyalty that could irrevocably change his future and his past forever.
Low Pressure
Sandra Brown - 2012
Bellamy's fear of storms is a legacy of the tornado that destroyed the crime scene as well as her memory of one vital fact that still eludes her... Now, 18 years later, Bellamy has written a novel based on Susan's murder. It's her first book, and it's an instant sensation. But because the novel is based on the most traumatic event of her life, she's published it under a pseudonym to protect herself and her family.But when a sleazy reporter for a tabloid newspaper discovers that the book is based on a real crime, Bellamy's identity - and dark family secrets -- are exposed. Suddenly, she finds herself embroiled in a personal conflict and at the mercy of her sister's killer, who for almost two decades has gotten away with murder...and will stop at nothing to keep it that way.
Till Death Us Do Part: A True Murder Mystery
Vincent Bugliosi - 1978
A year later, when a woman was found brutally killed, shreds of evidence suggested a connection between the two murders.In the Palliko-Stockton trial, prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi offered a brilliant summation that synthesized for the jury the many inferences and shades of meaning in the testimony, fitting all the pieces together in a mosaic of guilt. But will the jury be persuaded?
One O'Clock Hustle
Joanne Pence - 2014
This is their first full-length story. When San Francisco Homicide Inspector Rebecca Mayfield arrives at the scene of a deadly shooting, she's shocked to find that the witnesses have caught the killer, and that he's someone she knows. Rebecca's a by-the-book detective, and she's always done her job according to the rules, without hesitation ... until Richie Amalfi comes back into her life. Richie knows his way around everything and everyone in his city. When people say they "know a guy who knows a guy," Richie's the guy they're talking about. He can usually help people out of tight situations, but suddenly finds he can't get himself out of hot water when he's accused of murder. Richie's on the run, and he runs straight to Rebecca to help him prove his innocence. From the nightclubs of North Beach to the scenic heights of Twin Peaks, dangers lurk and more deaths happen. As Rebecca discovers there's a lot more to Richie than she thought, and a lot more to like than she imagined, she soon fears not only for her life, but also her heart.
A Game of Proof
Tim Vicary - 1992
Then in a terrible irony her own son, Simon, is arrested and charged with a series of brutal rapes and murders. The evidence against him appears so strong that his QC advises a guilty plea, but Simon swears he is innocent and begs his mother take on his defence. There is no law against a mother representing her son, so Sarah agrees. The only other obvious suspect for the murders, however, is a man who has already been acquitted once - with Sarah acting as his defence lawyer ...Has Sarah, in her single-minded determination to create a career for herself, neglected her son so much that she no longer knows him? Since he has often lied to her in the past, how can she trust him when he says he is innocent this time? And what should she do when she herself uncovers evidence that seems to suggest his guilt?It seems that telling the whole truth must be weighed in the balance against keeping certain information well hidden ...