Book picks similar to
Preacher Boy by Gwyn G.B.


arc-reviewed
crime
first-in-series
mystery-crime

She's Gone


M.A. Comley - 2021
    she was gone!After months of fighting the court system to see five-year-old Adele, Martin Jenkins finally has his daughter back. It’s only for a week’s holiday, but he’ll take that to have her near him once more.Keeping three children under the age of eight amused is no mean feat. Whilst Martin’s girlfriend, Louise, is looking after her daughter and Adele, Martin is playing football with her son close by.Excitement fills the air at the local beauty spot in the beautiful Lake District until a chilling scream rocks Martin’s world.The police, Mountain Rescue and other volunteers are brought in to help with the search but Martin’s life is ripped to shreds that day.The day his daughter is declared missing.

The Cannibal's Daughter


Mitchell Nelson - 2014
    She’s a nobody. And that’s the way she likes it. Her father, on the other hand — Hank Keeling, the serial killer and occasional cannibal better known as the Pork Chop Killer — has just gone viral. Thanks to a prison guard’s error, a cell phone video of Keeling’s botched execution is quickly becoming an internet sensation. After watching her father die in all his pixelated glory, Caroline is taken off-guard when Keeling himself shows up at her front door, looking very much not dead. And he has a plan. A plan involving Caroline. A plan Caroline is going to take part in whether she wants to or not. Success means wealth beyond her dreams. Failure means death. Soon Caroline is whisked away from her bland life to face down killers, gangsters and a well-meaning cop in a hunt for long-lost fortune. Deceit, avarice and unrelenting violence collide in a coming-of-age story like none you’ve ever read.

Rollover


James Raven - 2012
    . . THEN GETS MURDERED, AND YOU’RE THE NUMBER ONE SUSPECT. Saturday night at Danny Cain’s home. As their daughter sleeps upstairs, Danny and his wife watch the national lottery draw. This week a massive rollover jackpot. Within minutes, Vince, Danny’s best friend and business partner, calls and claims that he’s won the jackpot. A TAUT CRIME THRILLER THAT WILL HAVE YOU GRIPPED FROM THE FIRST PAGE. Vince tells Danny to drop everything and come over to his cottage in the New Forest. But when Danny gets there he finds his friend has been murdered. His winning lottery ticket has gone. Before Danny can alert the police he receives a call from the killer who claims he’s kidnapped Danny’s wife and daughter. The man warns him not to tell anyone about the ticket. Danny is plunged into a terrible nightmare. He’s faced with a desperate race against time to save his family. CAN DETECTIVE JEFF TEMPLE FIND THE REAL KILLER BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE? DCI Jeff Temple heads up Hampshire's Major Investigations Team based in Southampton. He's a no-nonsense copper who relishes the challenges presented by the most brutal and high-profile cases. But at the same time he's still struggling to get his personal life back on track following the tragic death of his beloved wife. Things are looking up, but it's an uphill struggle. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT ROLLOVER “Very addictive and couldn't put this book down!” Lucy “The plot is pacy and compelling – the essence of the polished ‘unputdownable’ novel/” View Magazine. “Extremely satisfying thriller and great entertainment.” Books Monthly Review. “The pages kept turning faster and faster.” Ginny “One of the best books I have ever read. I found it thrilling and exciting right from the first page.” Michael THE BEST-SELLING DETECTIVE JEFF TEMPLE SERIES Book 1: ROLLOVER Book 2: URBAN MYTH Book 3: RANDOM TARGET Book 4: DYING WISH Book 5: THE BLOGGER Join the Joffe Books mailing list for updates on the next mystery coming soon!

A Parent Apart


Gary Wright - 2021
    A momentary lapse in supervision. A parent's worst fears realised.--------------------------------------------------------------------Andrew Wicks would do anything for his family. When tragedy strikes, he is forced to make a split-second decision, one that is layered with deception, desperation and self-preservation. As a tenacious police officer unravels his web of lies and exposes the truth, worlds collide.There is no greater pain than losing a child. There is no greater torment than knowing it was avoidable.Gripping, haunting and totally compelling, this is a novel that will make you question how far you would go to preserve the sanctity of family life.

Drivers


Peter Carroll - 2014
    Revenge, justice, loyalty, lies, love, anger and an identity crisis. Turns out, the new chauffeur is not her only driver...so buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Mountain Man's Fever: The Complete Series Box Set


Lauren Wood - 2018
    I didn't know what I was missing before I found Ayla. She was a stranger that made my heart race and my body hot. All I had to do was get my lips on hers and give her the temptation." Mountain Man's Proposal "Her smile was innocent, but her body was so damn hot. She got a job and I got a new outlook on life. She brought out the side of me that I didn’t even know was alive. With her, I started to think about the future." Mountain Man's Bride "He was back and everything was changing. He wanted something from me, more than I first thought. It was hard to think when he was near and now Chris was too close. His lips were so demanding and I yearned for the power that he possessed over my body." Mountain Man's Secret Baby "Just like the tall peaks of Alaska… Ethan is untamed and rough around the edges. No one knows why he’s here in Nome, But something draws me to his stormy eyes… And I lose control of everything." Mountain Man's Fever is a complete series box set. As always, lots of love and romance and a very satisfying HEA!

Creepy Crawly (DI Jake Sawyer, #1)


Andrew Lowe - 2018
    Sharp, tough and pathologically fearless.Now he’s quit the capital and returned to his home town in England’s Peak District, to investigate the savage murder of his mother, thirty years earlier.When the body of a teenage boy is found in a shallow grave, close to woodland where Sawyer used to play as a child, he’s called in to help decode the killer’s nightmarish methods.But as the victims stack up and the case takes an unexpected turn, Sawyer must risk his own life to hunt the hunter and save an innocent. Creepy Crawly is Book One in the DI Jake Sawyer series. Dive in now and discover a new breed of detective, with stories that reveal the dark side of one of England's brightest beauty spots. Praise for Andrew Lowe:"Prose that gets under your flesh and into your bones.""Taut and compelling. Not a wasted word.""Plot and character perfectly intertwined.""Keeps you reading through the night.""Poetic and utterly gripping."(Amazon reviews).

I Know What I Saw


S.K. Sharp - 2020
    She understands nothing.Only a handful of people in the world have a truly perfect memory. Nicola is one of them.With her condition proving to be more of a curse than a blessing, she has spent years trying to live a quiet life.But a body has been found, a discovery that threatens to tear the community apart.Nicola remembers the night with perfect clarity, but she never discovered the truth of what happened.Now she must use her ability to solve the murder from decades agoAnd save the man she loved from being wrongly convicted of the crime.

Rules


Dustin Stevens - 2021
    Rules for the rest of us to follow.”Retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Detective Solomon Hill hasn’t heard the name in years. A man he hasn’t thought about since sending him away more than two decades prior for attempted murder. One of the biggest arrests of his entire career, a person the the world is better off without.Or so it was for the last twenty-one years in the time prior to his sudden inclusion on a list of governor’s pardons. A free pass undoing all that occurred, releasing a man with a short fuse and a long list of people he holds responsible for what happened.People that Hill still feels responsible for, even if his current physical condition will no longer allow him to make good on it.Low on time and options, Hill does the only think he can think of, calling in an old marker—a favor owed from his early days on the force, extended from one of the last vestiges of the original Las Vegas. Someone accustomed to handling issues in a way Hill isn’t accustomed to.Three hundred miles to the south, Ham muddles her way through the final months of a slow winter. Endless hours spent training for an unknown opponent, each day without the phone ringing heightening her desire for action. The need to be moving again, unable to feel fully alive without the adrenaline of the job after years spent relegated to the sidelines.A craving that sends her hurtling up out of the desert the instant she hears what happened in Las Vegas...Right into a head-on collision with a deadly opponent.

Meredith & Hodge Boxset: Books 1-3


M.K. Turner - 2021
    However, nothing gets in the way of them solving a case. Discover them and their world in this three book box set, containing over 1300 pages of murder, mystery, twists and turns and find out why over 60,000 readers have downloaded M K Turner’s popular series. Misplaced Loyalty – Assisted suicide or euthanasia? Meredith calls it murder! Ill Conceived – Why is an apparently innocent young woman prime suspect in a motiveless, senseless murder? The Wrong Shoes – Why did a pair of shoes set off a string of murders and a kidnapping? Want the answers? Buy the box set now!

Detective Nikki Galena Books 1–5


Joy Ellis - 2021
    A talented young student goes missing on the marsh. Nikki and Joseph find themselves joining forces with a master criminal to save her. They need to look behind the masks, but when they do, they find something more sinister than they ever expected.Book 2: SHADOW OVER THE FENSA man is found executed on a piece of wasteland. The cold-blooded murder triggers terrible memories for Detective Joseph Easter. Just when things seemed to be going better, he realizes that the nightmare is coming back, threatening his career, his sanity, and maybe even his life.Book 3: HUNTED ON THE FENSA vicious criminal is targeting Detective Nikki Galena and her team. One by one he will hunt them down and destroy their lives — unless Nikki can stop him first. Can she save her team and herself from her most determined adversary yet?Book 4: KILLER ON THE FENSDetective Nikki Galena’s dying father has one final request: “Find Eve.” But tracing the mysterious Eve is a challenge that will stretch DI Galena to the limit. Meanwhile a dead drug dealer is found on an abandoned airfield that the locals say is haunted. The trail of both mysteries will lead to the most shocking discovery of Nikki’s career and put her whole team in mortal danger.Book 5: STALKER ON THE FENSDI Nikki Galena’s friend Helen Brook is involved in a serious accident where she is trapped in a collapsed cellar. Weeks on, Helen is still getting flashbacks to a man she says was down there with her and who confessed to a murder.No trace of this man can be found. Then Helen tells Nikki that someone is watching her.Perfect for fans of LJ Ross, Peter May, JD Kirk, Angela Marsons, JM Dalgliesh, Elly Griffiths or Ann Cleeves.

133 Hours


Zach Abrams - 2020
    Has she been ill or had a breakdown - or could she have been drugged and abducted?Doubting her own sanity, Briony is fearful of what lies beyond the surface, yet driven to discover the truth. Going through her scarce memories, she realizes that something terrible might have happened to her during the time she has no recollection of.Assisted by her friends Alesha and Jenny, they team up with a retired detective to uncover the truth. But where was she for 133 hours... and why?

The Complete Detective


Helen H. Durrant - 2020
    Their boss thinks it’s all down to drug lord Ray Fallon, but Calladine’s instincts say something far nastier is happening on the Hobfield housing estate. Can the duo track down the murderer before anyone else dies and before the press publicize the gruesome crimes?BOOK 2: DEAD SILENTA body is found in a car crash, but the victim was already dead . . . Calladine and Ruth Bayliss race against time to catch a vicious serial killer. The first two victims are American university students and both have livestock tags fixed to their earlobes. Who wanted them dead and what’s the connection? The detectives piece together the forensic evidence and track down the witnesses, to reach a shocking conclusion.BOOK 3: DEAD LISTAn unlikely serial killer with a bucket list of victims . . .Calladine and Bayliss battle a murderer who is working their way through a list of victims. Each murder is meticulously planned and unique, and a tarot card is left at the scene of the crime. When two children disappear in the local area, the stakes are raised and the team are baffled by the link between the crimes. Calladine and Bayliss race against time to prevent any more carnage.BOOK 4: DEAD LOSTAn abandoned cotton mill holds horrific secretsBOOK 5: DEAD & BURIEDAnnie Naden and her husband buy a remote country cottage at auction. It’s the home of their own they wanted, but as they begin renovations, Annie discover a schoolgirl’s satchel in a dusty old hidden cupboard. Inside are the usual schoolbooks, now over 40 years old, and a girl’s diary. Among the record of day-to-day crushes and pop concerts, is a secret that may have had terrible consequences. What happened to that girl forty years ago?BOOK 6: DEAD NASTYA GIRL’S BODY IS FOUND IN A DUSTBIN. DEAD MEAT IS WRITTEN ON A NOTE FOUND WITH HER. When another girl goes missing from the same group of friends, Calladine must look elsewhere for the killer and comes across a sinister online predator who was in touch with all the girls.BOOK 7: DEAD JEALOUSTwo mothers have lost their daughters — seventeen years apart. can Detective Calladine bring them justice?BOOK 8: DEAD BADA woman’s body is found in a disused church, a homemade stuffed toy by her side. The victim had been dumped there months ago. The crime has the hallmarks of twenty-year-old case whose alleged perpetrator is in prison.BOOK 9: DEAD GUILTYDetectives Calladine and Bayliss hunt for a missing child in a mystery with a shocking ending.Sophie Alder is the three-year-old daughter of local factory owner, Richard Alder. Richard and his wife Annie are locals from the rough housing estate who’ve made it big.

Southern Gothic


Dale Wiley - 2017
    Meredith can keep the manuscript to herself, or publish it under her own name. Her decision results in a bestseller, but the novel contains a coded secret; one that will put her on trial for murder and in hiding from "the blood stalker," proving too late that making a deal with the devil comes at a heavy price.

A Mighty Fortress (Milo Porter Mystery Series Book 1)


S.D. Thames - 2016
    The Iraq war veteran runs routine private investigations by day and coaches powerlifting at night. When Chad Scalzo, the grandson of a rumored mob boss, goes missing, Milo takes the seemingly easy case. After Chad turns up dead, Milo goes from investigator to suspect. As he seeks to clear his own name, Milo finds himself at the crossroads of two crooked investigations -- one by the mob and the other by the police. With the body count climbing, Milo discovers the key to the case in the last known person to see Chad alive. But can Milo get to her before someone else does?A Mighty Fortress is the first book in the Milo Porter mystery series, a set of gritty crime thrillers that will remind you of the characters from Robert B. Parker and Robert Crais. If you like gripping suspense, hardboiled crime-solvers, and heart-stopping action, then you’ll love the powerful series starter from S.D. Thames. Buy A Mighty Fortress to get caught up in the mystery today!