Book picks similar to
An Eye For An Eye by Paul Heatley


crime
knuckle-cracking-novellas
have-but-not-read
neo-noir

Bust


Ken Bruen - 2006
    When you hire someone to kill your wife, don’t hire a psychopath.2. Drano is not the best tool for getting rid of a dead body.3. Those locks on hotel room doors? Not very secure.4. A curly blond wig isn’t much of a disguise.5. Secrets can kill.

Last Days


Brian Evenson - 2009
    The story follows Kline, a brutally dismembered detective forcibly recruited to solve a murder inside the cult. As Kline becomes more deeply involved with the group, he begins to realize the stakes are higher than he previously thought. Attempting to find his way through a maze of lies, threats, and misinformation, Kline discovers that his survival depends on an act of sheer will. Last Days was first published in 2003 as a limited edition novella titled The Brotherhood of Mutilation. Its success led Evenson to expand the story into a full-length novel. In doing so, he has created a work that’s disturbing, deeply satisfying, and completely original.

Murder Most Fowl: A Libby Sarjeant Short Story


Lesley Cookman - 2017
    Once again, local butcher Bob is playing the dame, but the whole production is put under threat when someone sabotages his business. Libby Sarjeant recruits Fran Wolfe to help find the culprit and restore the Steeple Martin pantomime.

Sophie's Search (Search the North Country Book 1)


Sherri Gallagher - 2017
    If only he didn't hate her. Widowed and buried in debt, Sophie Stearns is not going to pin her dreams on a man again - even if Patrick O'Brien is the man of her dreams. Making her environmental engineering company a financial success is her only hope for a secure future. Patrick O'Brien learned the hard way city girls will rip a man's heart out to get what they want. After his ex-wife's betrayal, he bolted to the Adirondacks to lick his wounds and forge a new life protecting the fragile mountain ecosystem from development. The best way to stop the newest threat, Shopsmart is to shutdown their environmental engineering contractor, Sophie Stearns. When a saboteur destroys Sophie's project and threatens her life, only Patrick's intervention can save her business. But Patrick must decide which is more important: his principles or his need to protect the Adirondacks. With the project deadline looming, Sophie must choose between using Belle to rescue a special needs child or saving her fledgling business. Will their choices lead to love or loneliness? About the Author: Sherri Gallagher is passionate about canine search and rescue, delighting readers with her keen understanding of the singular trust between dog and handler. Her teen novels, Turn, Go Find, and Bark Alert have hit the Amazon bestsellers list for multiple weeks. Her unique experiences as a woman engineer, business owner, and canine handler come alive on the pages of her latest series, Search the North Country. Sophie's Search is the first of a four-book series.

Wrong Exit: Nick Stryker Series, Book Four


Vicki Graybosch - 2016
     What if the detour signs you are following are a trap? Sharon Perez is finally getting her big break to become a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Kevin, a seasoned crime reporter has offered to share a breaking news story with her in hopes of sparking a relationship. As Sharon races toward the seedier side of town her GPS guides her to Exit 141. An exit where she is kidnapped, drugged and next in line to face an unspeakable horror. Detectives Nick Stryker and Jen Taylor are called to a crime scene at an abandoned brewery. They find themselves standing over a young family entombed in blue hazmat body bags. The condition of their remains a testament to the evil they had encountered. This highly organized team of killers made two mistakes. The first was leaving a clue as to their identity; the second was committing murder in Detective Nick Stryker's jurisdiction. Nick and Jen frantically follow the one clue they have into a vapor trail of evidence and a storm of violence. As they peel through the layers of horror in the case they realize that Sharon is in the hands of the killers. With time running out and the forces of money and power aligned against them, Nick and Jen fight their way to the twisted and shocking truth.

Joe Pickett Series Bundle (Book 7-12)


C.J. Box - 2019
    Attorney Clay McCann admitted to slaughtering four campers in a back-country corner of Yellowstone National Park - a 'free-fire' zone with no residents or jurisdiction. In this remote fifty-square-mile stretch a man can literally get away with murder. Now McCann's a free man, and Pickett's about to discover his motive - one buried in Yellowstone's rugged terrain, and as dangerous as the man who wants to keep it hidden.Blood TrailGame wardens have found a man dead at a mountain camp-strung up, gutted, and flayed as if he were the elk he'd been hunting. Is the murder the work of a deranged anti-hunting activist or of a lone psychopath with a personal vendetta? Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is the man to track the murderer and stop him, before someone declares open season on humans...Below ZeroSix years ago, Joe Pickett's foster daughter, April, was murdered. Now, someone is leaving phone messages claiming to be the dead girl. As his family struggles with the disturbing event, he discovers that the calls have been placed from locations where serious environmental crimes have occurred. And as the phone calls grow closer, so does the danger...Nowhere to RunIt's Joe Pickett's last week as a temporary game warden in the mountain town of Baggs, Wyoming, but his conscience won't let him leave without checking out the strange reports coming from the wilderness: camps looted, tents slashed, elk butchered. What awaits him is like something out of an old campfire tale, except this story is all too real-and all too deadly.Cold WindA body hangs from a wind turbine, a bullet hole in his chest: Earl Alden, millionaire property developer. His wife, Missy, is the prime suspect. It wouldn't be a problem for Joe Pickett, if Missy weren't his mother-in-law. Missy claims she's innocent, and for his wife's sake, Joe would like to believe her... but all the early signs point to her being as guilty as sin. With his wife on one side and the law on the other, Joe needs to get to the truth before his family is ripped apart.Force of NatureYears ago Joe Pickett's best friend, Nate Romanowski, was in a Special Forces unit abroad when his commander, John Nemecek, did something terrible. Now the high-ranking government official and cold-blooded sociopath is determined to eliminate anyone who knows about it - like Nate, who's hidden himself away in Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains. And he knows exactly how Nemecek will do it-by targeting Nate's friends to draw him out. That includes his friend, game warden Joe Pickett, and Pickett's entire family. The only way to fight back is outside the law. Nate knows he can do it, but he isn't sure about his straight-arrow friend. And all their lives could depend on it.

Bend The Law 1


Levi Fuller - 2020
    Defending a criminal is easy for Attorney Luke.Never lost a case in years, Attorney Luke finds himself in the most challenging case ever.He doesn’t want to take the case, but he doesn’t seem to have a choice.This is not a regular case, all the evidence is against the defendant.Most importantly Luke believes she is innocent.He has to be prepared for the worst…Luke is great at his job.Can Luke defend her against the strongest evidence?Will Luke be able to prove her innocence?This legal thriller will take you for a ride through the courtroom, and leave you with unexpected twists and turns.

A Hitta Has Feelings Too: Dallas and Chloe's Hood Love Story


M. Monique - 2020
    Settling down is nowhere on her radar. When she gets in a sticky situation, she seeks out the help of the last person she wanted to deal with or even lay eyes on.Dallas McQueen is a man any woman would love to have show them any attention; except the headstrong Chloe. A man that has known nothing but war his whole life has a soft spot for the petite beauty and will stop at nothing until he gets her.Chloe knew the blue-eyed Hitta was the man she wanted to be with but she didn’t know if she was prepared for the lifestyle he lived. Already having a family of Hitta’s, she wanted something different and thought it would be easy getting away from him.Dallas had to come harder than ever to prove to Chloe that Hitta’s have feelings too and the way he feels for her is like no other. Will Chloe give in and allow Dallas to finesse her heart? Or will she continue to run from what her heart really wants.

Coyote Songs


Gabino Iglesias - 2018
    A woman offers colonizer blood to the Mother of Chaos. A boy joins corpse destroyers to seek vengeance for the death of his father.These stories intertwine with those of a vengeful spirit and a hungry creature to paint a timely, compelling, pulpy portrait of revenge, family, and hope.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?


Horace McCoy - 1935
    The marathon dance craze flourished during the 1930s, but the underside was a competition and violence unknown to most ballrooms—a dark side that Horace McCoy's classic American novel powerfully captures."Were it not in its physical details so carefully documented, it would be lurid beyond itself." —Nation

Bolero (A Nick Sayler Novel)


Joanie McDonell - 2012
    Introducing noir detective, Nick Sayler, it is a nonstop ride to an unexpected twist ending. Despite his bronze star with its prized V for valor, Nick Sayler was once a thief, junkie, and prime suspect in a murder case. Now he’s a mostly changed man, a private investigator with a long list of rich clients and a good life. But even after ten years there’s not enough whiskey in the world to wash away acid-etched memories of Julia Carteret, the beautiful woman who took a bullet meant for him. He never expected a second chance to make things right until he got a midnight call from a distraught young doctor and a plea from a fragile dancer with no money, no memory, nothing in her pocket except Sayler’s card, and the number 44 carved across her back. With bewitching violet eyes she looks so much like Julia, Sayler thinks keeping her safe could put him back on the road to redemption. But not long after he takes her home to his Hudson River barge, he learns that she has a past as dark as his own, and soon he’s protecting her from a patient sociopath with seemingly preternatural power to be in two places at once. Sayler needs his wingman Meriwether, the brilliant savant, and his restless backup, Tommy Fallon NYPD homicide, whose dicey investigative methods keep them under the radar, which is the only place to be when Sayler taunts danger. As he nears old secrets linking the dancer to a strange group: a voluptuous redhead, a concert pianist, a skateboarder, and a Polish nanny, he starts to learn why the murderer’s sex-stoked obsession can’t end until the girl is dead. When the killer who never sleeps gets the best of an exhausted Sayler on an isolated island off the coast of Connecticut, in Manhattan’s meatpacking district, and on the streets of Harlem, smart money might bet both ways, except for one sure thing: in spite of his bad leg and worse habits, no matter what the cost, Nick Sayler will not let another woman die.

Christmas in Peakview Box Set


Jill Haymaker - 2019
    If you love small town western romances you'll love these stories of hope and second chances. COLORADO COWBOY CHRISTMAS Cynthia Welch has made a name for herself as one of Chicago’s top divorce attorneys at the expense of her personal life. Burnt out, she heads to Peaktop Guest Ranch for a couple of months of solitude over the holidays. AJ Coulter, a cowboy from Wyoming, has been a loner and a drifter ever since his divorce and his teenage daughters leaving for college. He finds a temporary job at Peaktop Ranch as the head wrangler. When their paths cross, Cynthia begins to question her life in Chicago, and AJ struggles to find a way to keep her in Colorado. Can the spirit of Christmas bring these two people from very different worlds together and help them find their way to true love? COLORADO GOLDEN SUNRISE Forty-three year old, Kelly Charm, feels her life slipping away in Prairie, Nebraska. A single mom, she longs for a better life for herself and her teenage son, Ethan. Having scoured online job ads for months, she finally finds an ad for a hardware store manager in picturesque Peakview, Colorado and decides to take a chance. Forty-six year old, Jake Midnight, is Peakview County’s most beloved EMT. He’s the best at what he does—professionally, that is. After a failed marriage, which ended over twenty years ago, he’s put his personal life on hold. He’s content to live alone. That is if you don’t count his three horses, two dogs, five cats, and two pigmy goats. When the unfamiliar high altitude of the Colorado Rockies causes Ethan to have an asthma attack, Jake is quick to jump to the conclusion that Kelly is an irresponsible parent. Kelly is furious at the arrogance of this man who know nothing about her or her son. Sparks fly, but there’s no denying the underlying attraction that sizzles between them. The warmth of the holiday season has been known to melt hearts, even one’s which have been closed for years. A PEAKVIEW CHRISTMAS Only five days until Christmas, and FAITH OWENS has had enough. Not willing to spend one more holiday with her abusive, alcoholic husband, she loads her two young daughters, Gracie and Hope, in her car and leaves her life in Scorpion, New Mexico behind. Newly divorced, ZANE WILDER, faces his first Christmas without his son, Ace. He can’t wait for the holiday to be over. To escape sitting home sulking, he travels from Montana to Colorado to spend the week training his young horse, Storm Cloud. When their paths collide at Hearts Haven Bed and Breakfast near scenic Peakview, Colorado, they find more than a place to rest. Two lonely, cautious hearts are brought together by the magic of Christmas, with a little help from Violet Crandall or maybe Santa himself. Will their budding romance continue when the holiday ends? Can two broken families find the missing pieces that lead to happiness? This Christmas, come home to Peakview, Colorado where everyone has a chance at love.

Harder They Fall


Solomon Carter - 2018
    MOMENTS LATER HIS LIFE IS CHANGED FOREVER. A BLOODY VENDETTA HAS BEGUN. After a devastating attack, PI business partners and lovers Eva Roberts and Dan Bradley are left picking up the pieces.They must track down a ruthless killer. But Dan’s scars won’t heal easily - and their nemesis may strike at any time.The PIs travel to North Devon to investigate the curious death of a celebrity blogger...  But the trip turns out to be anything but relaxing. Dan’s nightmare tracks him down. There are more victims. Some are in denial – too scared to face the truth. But Dan has no choice. He must face his demons… or die trying. In a truly thrilling conclusion, an infamous murder case is brought back to life and a killer is exposed. But the monster behind the cruel vendetta is waiting in the wings... Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin, Helen Durrant, Joy Ellis and LJ Ross. If you love to read gripping thrillers with flawed characters, a touch of humour and a hint of romance, you’ll love Harder They Fall. THE HARDER THEY FALL SERIES: HARDER THEY FALLTHE STONE GIRLHARVEST OF BLOODLAST MAN STANDINGIf you love page-turning crime novels, noir crime thrillers, heist novels, private detective series or detective crime mysteries then Harder They Fall is the book for you.OTHER SERIES BY SOLOMON CARTERLONG TIME DYING LUCK AND JUDGMENTLONDON CALLINGTHE FINAL TRICKTHE LAST LINETHE DARKEST LIESAND MUCH, MUCH MORE… For more information visit SolomonCarter.net

This Doesn't Happen In The Movies


Renee Pawlish - 2011
    A rich, attractive femme fatale. A missing husband. A rollicking ride to a dark and daring ending. Reed Ferguson’s first case is a daring adventure, complete with a dose of film noir, and a lot of humor. With a great supporting cast of the Goofball Brothers, Reed’s not too bright neighbors, and Cal, Reed’s computer geek friend, This Doesn’t Happen In The Movies is detective noir at its best. Follow Reed as he solves crime akin to his cinematic hero, Humphrey Bogart. Great for fans who love a fast-paced, humorous read, without a lot of swearing or sex.

Dig Two Graves


Kim Powers - 2015
    After a hushed-up scandal over his Olympics win and the death of his wife in a car accident five years ago, Ethan wants nothing more than to forget his past. Skip is not only the light of Ethan's life--she is his life. Then, Skip is kidnapped. A series of bizarre ransom demands start coming in that stretch Ethan's athletic prowess to its limits, and he realizes with growing horror that they are modern versions of the Twelve Labors of Hercules, demanded in tricky, rhyming clues by someone who seems to have followed every step of Ethan's career.