Book picks similar to
Penalties by Stephen Leather


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Netwars: The Code


M. Sean Coleman - 2014
    A high-tech serial thriller from the dark side of the net. Episode 1.Welcome to the Deep Web. Those parts of the internet no search engine explores. The place where you can buy anything. Drugs, children, weapons. Anyone can do it. And get away free. Anthony Prince, head of PrinceSec, a firm which provides high-tech security for the government and major corporations, dies in a plane crash when crossing the English Channel. Responsible for Prince's death is a hacker named Strider. His real name is Scott Mitchell and in his day job at the National Cyber Crime Unit he uses legitimate means to get the bad guys. As Strider, his means are less legal. On the same night, PrinceSec is the target of a cyber-attack. When the NCCU is called to assess the damage, a link is found between Prince and a criminal hacker group called Black Flag. The race is on for Mitchell to protect his identity as Strider and to stop Black Flag before it's too late.

Murder on the Lusitania


Edward Marston - 2021
    George Porter Dillman sets sail from Liverpool on the Lusitania''s maiden voyage. Hired by the ship''s captain to pose as a passenger, George is in fact a private detective for the Cunard Line. In the first days of his voyage, George only has to deal with a few petty crimes. But then an expensive piece of jewelry is reported stolen and a body is found. Working quickly to solve both crimes, George makes an unusual friend, Genevieve Masefield, and the two uncover secrets aboard the ship that prove explosive.

Born Bad


Marnie Riches - 2017
    Tensions are running high, and as the body count begins to grow, the O’Brien family must face a tough decision – sell their side of the city to the infamous Boddlington gang or stick it out and risk losing their king.But war comes easy to the bad boys, and they won’t go down without a fight. So begins a fierce battle for the South Side, with the leading Manchester gangsters taking the law into their own hands – but only the strongest will survive…

A Murder in Gurgaon


Manish Dubey - 2016
    December 2014. A young event manager, an ex-cop's son, ismurdered. Inspector Ajai Singh vows justice. There is little to begin with, andfrustration mounts when the initial suspect – a reclusive woman with amysterious past – is found missing.Digging deeper, Singh uncovers a sordid tale of adultery, blackmail andrevenge, only to find himself staring at a conspiracy unlike any he has seen.There are deceits, little and big, to decode; the predator and victim areindistinguishable; his witnesses could be misleading; his closest ally may not bean ally at all.Will Singh succeed? Or has the sick, wily mind behind the crime always been afew steps ahead?Refreshingly told, with a cast of morally ambivalent characters and an accenton the minutiae of crime, A Murder in Gurgaon will keep you hooked till thevery end.

Our Little Secret


Roz Nay - 2017
    What they don't say though, is that sometimes your first love won't forget you...A police interview room is the last place Angela expected to find herself today. It's been hours, and they keep asking her the same inane questions over and over. "How do you know the victim?" "What's your relationship with Mr. Parker?" Her ex's wife has gone missing, and anyone who was close to the couple is a suspect. Angela is tired of the bottomless questions and tired of the cold room that stays the same while a rotating litany of interrogators changes shifts around her. But when criminologist Novak takes over, she can tell he's not like the others. He's ready to listen, and she knows he'll understand. When she tells him that her story begins a decade before, long before Saskia was in the picture, he gives her the floor.A twenty-something young professional, Angela claims to have no involvement. How could she? It's been years since she and H.P., Mr. Parker that is, were together. As her story unfolds, it deepens and darkens. There's a lot to unpack... betrayal, jealousy, and a group of people who all have motives for retribution. If Angela is telling the truth, then who's lying?

Toys In The Dust


N.M. Brown - 2019
    He is sad that he doesn’t have a doll to play with like the girls do, so Suzy hurries home to fetch one. When she returns, Suzy discovers both Tina and the stranger have vanished. A short while later, traffic officer Leighton Jones, who is fighting his own demons, is driving home from the scene of a near-fatal accident. When Leighton sees a young girl race out in front of his car and vanish into the countryside, he reports the sighting. Unfortunately, his superiors, who are increasingly concerned about Leighton’s mental health, doubt the child exists. But after Tina’s mother confirms her daughter’s disappearance, Leighton risks his job by pursuing his own investigation of the case. Meanwhile, in the Californian countryside, a child killer is relentlessly searching for the one who got away. Leighton has his work cut out. But can he prove his sanity and find Tina before the stranger does? Toys in the Dust is a gripping and fast-paced serial killer thriller, which will appeal to fans of authors like Damien Boyd, Keith Houghton, Mark Edwards and Angela Marsons. It is loosely connected to N.M. Brown's previous thrillers, also featuring Leight Jones, The Girl on the Bus and Carpenter Road, and can be read as part of a series or as an unmissable stand-alone.

Before You Leap


Keith Houghton - 2016
    But when Scarlett’s killer is released early from prison with a cast-iron alibi, Greg realizes that his past is about to explode into his present, with terrifying consequences.To expose the truth he must open up old wounds. As a talk therapist, Greg knows all about dark secrets, but when a childhood friendship comes to the fore and the police turn their spotlight on him, the thought of analyzing his own psyche is a disturbing prospect. How far can he trust his own memories?With his life coming apart at the seams, and his grip on reality beginning to unravel, Greg must face the ghosts of his past if he hopes to prove his innocence and live to see another day.

Try Not to Breathe


Holly Seddon - 2016
    Only fifteen years old, Amy disappeared walking home from school one day and was found in a coma three days later. Her attacker was never identified and her angelic face was plastered across every paper and nightly news segment.Fifteen years later, Amy lies in the hospital, surrounded by 90’s Britpop posters, forgotten by the world until reporter Alex Dale stumbles across her while researching a routine story on vegetative patients.Remembering Amy’s story like it was yesterday, she feels compelled to solve the long-cold case.The only problem is, Alex is just as lost as Amy—her alcoholism has cost her everything including her marriage and her professional reputation.In the hopes that finding Amy’s attacker will be her own salvation as well, Alex embarks on a dangerous investigation, suspecting someone close to Amy.Told in the present by an increasingly fragile Alex and in dream-like flashbacks by Amy as she floats in a fog of memories, dreams, and music from 1995, Try Not to Breathe unfolds layer by layer to a breathtaking conclusion.

Dark Tide


Elizabeth Haynes - 2012
    She’s found the perfect vessel: Revenge of the Tide. She already feels less lonely; as if the boat is looking after her.But the night of her boat-warming party, a body washes up, and to Genevieve’s horror, she recognizes the victim. She isn’t about to tell the police, though; hardly anyone knows about her past as a dancer at a private members’ club, The Barclay. The death can’t have anything to do with her. Or so she thinks...Soon, the lull of the waves against Revenge feels anything but soothing, as Genevieve begins to receive strange calls and can’t reach the one person who links the present danger with her history at the club. Fearing for her safety, Genevieve recalls the moment when it all started to go wrong: the night she saw her daytime boss in the crowd at The Barclay...Dark, sexy, and exquisitely chilling, Dark Tide is another superb mystery from acclaimed rising star Elizabeth Haynes.

Saving Grace


Debbie Babitt - 2021
    Orphaned at eleven, she was forced to go live with her Bible salesman uncle, wheelchair-bound aunt, and a cousin who tortured and killed small animals. At school, a bully made her life a nightmare. Everything changed when a newcomer to town became her only best friend, and changed a second time when that friend and another classmate vanished two months later, never to be seen again.Today, Mary Grace is the first female sheriff of her rural town, a position that doesn’t sit well with some of the locals. Keeping order and her demons at bay becomes an impossible task when the Black drifter suspected in the earlier disappearances returns to Repentance . . . and another sixth grader vanishes. With old prejudices and new secrets spilling out into the open, the modern world soon illuminates the village’s darkest corners. The case becomes even more fraught as a cult of white supremacists brings its gospel of hate to Repentance and violence explodes, claiming more lives. Racing to find the missing girl while fearing for the safety of her own sixth-grade daughter, Mary Grace must confront an unspeakable truth—and face a decision no parent should ever have to make. Set in a remote mountain town, where the secrets run as deep as the hollows, Saving Grace is at once a spell-binding tale of innocence lost and a twisty, edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller. This startling debut novel introduces a captivating protagonist whose concept of good and evil can shape a young girl—then and now.

Awake


Natasha Preston - 2015
    She starts to remember pieces of a past that frighten her. A past her parents hid from her…and a secret that could get her killed.

The Hand of Strange Children: A nerve-shredding mystery thriller


Robert Richardson - 1993
     Details trickle in: the house belongs to wealthy merchant banker Charles Stansfield; present are well-known news editor Richard Barlow and members of his family. But the victims identities are withheld. Who are they? Why has a family gathering exploded into violence and death? Through their individual voices the lives of Richard, Tim and Naomi Barlow and their mother, Florence, unfold and a shocking crime comes to light - one that has gone undetected and unpunished, culminating in a double-killing a quarter of a century later. The Hand of Strange ChildrenPraise for Robert Richardson ''With this, his first novel, Robert Richardson makes a most impressive debut as a writer of the classical English detective story… He knows how to create suspense and an atmosphere of incipient evil; he provides us with a genuine puzzle, his characters are believable people, and the motive of his murderer is psycho-logically credible.” P D James “Skilful rerouting and the taste of real tears” The Sunday Times “Eccentrics, suspects and witty writing abound” The Times “Here is a book to be missed only at your own peril” Armchair Detective “Elegantly written, beautifully characterised, suspenseful and oddly moving” Mystery Reader’s Journal “Grand entertainment, deft handling and suave wit” Publishers Weekly Robert Richardson is a journalist and editor who lives in England.

No One Knows


J.T. Ellison - 2016
    Ellison will make you question every twist in her page-turning novel—and wonder which of her vividly drawn characters you should trust.The day Aubrey Hamilton’s husband is declared dead by the state of Tennessee should bring closure so she can move on with her life. But Aubrey doesn’t want to move on; she wants Josh back. It’s been five years since he disappeared, since their blissfully happy marriage—they were happy, weren’t they?—screeched to a halt and Aubrey became the prime suspect in his disappearance. Five years of emptiness, solitude, loneliness, questions. Why didn’t Josh show up at his friend’s bachelor party? Was he murdered? Did he run away? And now, all this time later, who is the mysterious yet strangely familiar figure suddenly haunting her new life?In No One Knows, the New York Times bestselling coauthor of the Nicholas Drummond series expertly peels back the layers of a complex woman who is hiding dark secrets beneath her unassuming exterior. This masterful thriller for fans of Gillian Flynn, Liane Moriarty, and Paula Hawkins will pull readers into a you’ll-never-guess merry-go-round of danger and deception. Round and round and round it goes, where it stops…no one knows.

Lie Still


Julia Heaberlin - 2013
    Pregnant with her first child, Emily just wants to start over. But as she is drawn into a nest of secretive Texas women—and into the unnerving company of their queen, Caroline Warwick—Emily finds that acceptance is a very dangerous game. It isn’t long before Caroline mysteriously disappears and Emily is facing a rash of anonymous threats. Are they linked to the missing Caroline? Or to Emily’s terrifying encounter in college, years earlier? As the dark truth about Caroline emerges, Emily realizes that some secrets are impossible to hide—and that whoever came for Caroline is now coming for her.

The Long Shadow


Mark Mills - 2013
    Blood brothers or sworn enemies? You never forget what the fight was about... THE LONG SHADOW is a stunning depiction of resentment and revenge.Ben Makepeace has barely thought of Jacob since school. What he remembers is a competitive, manipulative boy, impinging on his life.Now Ben is the wrong side of forty with a young son to support and in need of a backer. A call to meet hedge-fund billionaire Victor Sheldon is promising, but there's a surprise in store - Victor is Jacob, now firmly entrenched in a gilded world of riches and glamour. History can cast a long shadow and while Ben believes his childhood is well over, he soon discovers the roots of the past dig deep.