Book picks similar to
Only One Will Fall by Ruth Bainbridge


mystery
genre-myst-thrill-susp
waiting-at-home
police-fbi-thriller

Way Down There


P.J. Fernor - 2020
    Now her sister is dead - a tragic hit and run accident - and Allie leaves her busy city life to come back to her hometown to raise her teenage niece. She's now in the role as mother instead of the 'cool, fun' aunt. Her niece is grieving the death of her mother and Allie has more questions than answers about what really happened the night Alex was killed. Sandemor is a sleepy town. A place not many would know or remember. Compared to the city detective life, Allie isn't sure how she's going to make this work. Trying to track down a missing cat isn't exactly what she signed up for. Then comes the day two frantic - and newly divorced - parents show up to the police station. Pointing the finger at each other, claiming the other forgot to pick up their daughter from dance class two nights ago. All Allie hears is that a little girl has been missing for about forty-eight hours. If that's not bad enough, both parents end up getting caught in lies as to what they were doing the night their daughter went missing. Allie is thrust into the disappearance case, but she's not alone. She didn't know Ben Welloski became a detective. Last time she saw him, he was working in his father's garage. The secret sparks between them are still there, but the focus has to be on finding young Jessie. Clues lead Allie to another kidnapping case in a different town. The lead detective is an arrogant jerk, and the man accused of the kidnapping swears he's innocent. Without enough evidence to make an arrest, Allie wonders if the man has struck again. Just as she begins to piece things together, a call comes in that a body has been found nearby. When Allie arrives and sees who it is, she suddenly feels like she's back in the big city again. Only here in her small town, any young child could be the next victim if she doesn't act fast enough.

The Other Side of Goodbye (Norman Green Book 1)


Ben Follows - 2018
    He has created a career out of working for those the police have turned their back on. The only people he won't work with are child abusers, rapists, and journalists. However, when Robin Sweetwater, a journalist working for the same paper that destroyed Norman's athletic career, comes begging for help, Norman finds himself dragged into the same web of lies and deception that destroyed his life once before. In order to find the truth surrounding the alleged suicide of Robin's younger brother, a star athlete himself, Norman will need to wade through the dark depths of his past and unravel a conspiracy stretching farther than he could ever have imagined. Praise for Ben Follows's novels: "Explosive, extraordinary and engrossing; this is how I would describe this exceptional book. The Absence of Screams is a sensational crime/thriller novel that chilled me to my core from beginning to end." "What a great book. I found this book in my hands every time I had a spare minute. " "I couldn't go to sleep until I finished this book." "Ben Follows does it again; another excellent read by an accomplished writer."

Murder Revisited


William Coleman - 2020
    But before he can make a start, he is suddenly reassigned by his boss, Terrance Singleton, to the cold case of Timothy Waters, who had served 20 years in prison for the murder of Elizabeth Mitchell, the daughter of the then mayor.A review of his conviction has set him free and as a friend of the family, Singleton wants to make sure Mallory finds more evidence to put him back behind bars.But the case is complex and before long Mallory discovers that there is a lot more to it than meets the eye; family tensions, a witness run out of town and the possibility the victim had a second boyfriend. It all points to a shoddy investigation and a blunder that sent an innocent man to prison.When Mallory’s investigation reveals a link between the girl in the alley, Elizabeth, and another murder victim from seven years ago, he can’t help but wonder if they are connected. With the motive unclear, and the perpetrator a mystery, Mallory must piece together the evidence that may solve three cases instead of one, overcome a miscarriage of justice and uncover a killer who may be closer than he thinks.

Girl, Kidnapped


Peter R. Stone - 2020
    Wearing a threadbare knee-length dress and with her badly-bruised ankles encased in leg irons, she's filthy, malnourished and covered in burn scars. She has no memory of how she got there, where she has been or even who she is. A doctor's examination reveals that her memory has been deliberately erased by repeated electric shock therapy.Desperate to find out who did this to her and why, and displeased with the police superintendent's plodding pace, Caitlyn launches an investigation of her own. However, she is unnerved by her brother's insistence that she talk to him first when her memories start returning because he suspects that their father is the one who did this to her...

Non-Suspicious: A Detective Brook Deelman Mystery


Ed Church - 2020
    Homicide can’t see anything suspicious. In fact, the only person asking questions is a jaded Met detective with breakfast beers on his mind. Shame for the killer…You shouldn’t underestimate Brook Deelman.Standing between Brook and the truth: a police cover-up, a professional hitman, and a dark secret going back to the final throes of WW2. But what exactly happened in those last days at Stalag IV-B? And why is the past catching up with people now?In a web of loyalty and betrayal, revenge and redemption, an old police saying has never been truer: Assume nothing. The closer Brook Deelman gets to the heart of the conspiracy… the more seismic the twists will become.

Death in Copper Town


Lakota Grace - 2017
    Fate intervenes when a dead body turns up in an old copper mining pit. The man is a three-time loser disowned by even his own mother. Peg’s sheriff boss declares the death an accident and tells her to “move on.” She wants to agree, but then her office is ransacked and her assistant kidnapped. When Peg herself is assaulted, she convinces her safe-cracking grandfather to break the law one last time to help her. Will they find the killer before he strikes again? Set against the Southwest backdrop of summer monsoons in the high desert plateau of Arizona, this fast-paced mystery, at times humorous and romantic, tells the story of a young woman at odds with herself. Peg must ultimately decide which comes first: her family, her job, or her life.

Murder by the Roadside: a 509 Crime short Story


Colin Conway - 2019
    A body dumped along the roadside sends a sheriff across his county in search of a killer.Discover The 509 Crime Stories with this free short story.Then check out the books The Side Hustle The Long Cold Winter The Blind Trust The Suit What readers are saying about The Side Hustle★★★★★ “… just looking for my next thriller fix, I discovered this gem.” – John Barksley★★★★★ “… a great read! A different kind of police procedural.” – Mickey★★★★★ “This book was hard to put down.” – Amazon Customer★★★★★ “…kept me reading.” – Mary Arnold★★★★★ “Loved my first foray into the 509 series… and Quinn!” – Cynthiareads★★★★★ “The story is well crafted and kept me quickly ‘turning the pages.’” – Sally★★★★★ “Great read.  Very enjoyable.” – Amy Dalton

The Ambassador's Wife


Jake Needham - 2008
    So, Inspector Samuel Tay of Singapore CID asks himself, why is it no one wants him to find their killer?The first body is in Singapore, on a bed in an empty suite at the Marriott Hotel. The second is in Bangkok, at a seedy apartment near the American embassy. Both American women, both viciously beaten and lewdly displayed. The FBI says it’s terrorism, but the whispers on the street tell a different story. They say a serial killer is stalking American women across Asia.Inspector Samuel Tay is a little cranky, a little lonely, a little overweight, and he smokes way too much. A lot of people think he's a lousy policeman, but he's the best detective the Singapore cops have ever had. It makes the bosses nervous as hell to put this case in Tay's hands, but with something this tricky on their plate they know they have no choice.Still, there's a big problem. Before Tay can even get the investigation started, everybody wants a piece of it. The FBI demands to take over the case, the American Diplomatic Security Service insists on being in charge, Bangkok's Special Branch won't allow itself to be ignored, Singapore's Internal Security Department is going to have a major say, and even the American Ambassador sticks his nose right into the middle of everything.That's a lot of people walking all over Tay's murder case. But here's the thing. He realizes that none of them, not a single one, really want him to find the killer.

Olive Park


C.J. Booth - 2011
    One of the most intensive investigations in California history fails to find any trace of the killer and the case goes cold.15 years later - the newly formed Ongoing Investigation Division, charged with closing cold cases, is handed as its very first case – the Olive Park Murders. Detectives Stan Wyld and Jake Steiner, together with assistant Mallory Dimante, reopen the Olive Park case and find nothing new, until their examination of the original burial site turns up one chilling piece of evidence that proves Olive Park is no longer just a cold case about three dead children.The truth is much worse.For the twisted killer of Olive Park has never stopped and has already chosen its next victim. And no one will be able to protect her. No one.

The Bodies We Won't Bury: Love is Dangerous


Daniel Norrish - 2017
     HE'S STEALING MOBILE PHONES AND USING THE DEVICES TO LURE INNOCENT LOVERS INTO VIOLENT PUBLIC SNARES AROUND THE TOURIST HAUNTS OF SYDNEY. Detective Inspector Stephanie Saxon is getting closer to finding him, and even the media can see that she'll be the one to break down his door. The stalker Saxon is desperately chasing knows where she lives, and whom she's sleeping with, and where he can find her family, but he does not know that she carries an unlicensed firearm on her ankle, and she's closer than he thinks. Will Stephanie Saxon send him to an ice cold slab in the morgue, or the blistering, chained yard of the slammer for leaving behind all of these BODIES WE WON'T BURY?

The Trouble with San Francisco


Adrianne Ambrose - 2020
    She gets roped into following a friend’s cheating husband. But tailing a middle-aged lawyer through the streets of San Francisco is more challenging than it sounds.Sam’s “easy gig” drags her into one perilous predicament after another, where she encounters a wide array of the citizens San Francisco has on offer, including: a hot cop, an out-of-control frat boy, a feisty grandmother who plays loose with the law, friendly leather daddies, an aging biker, a shady dude she used to know in high school, and worst of all, Slain. He’s a professional PI., who is so hardboiled he needs a Google Translate button. And he doesn’t appreciate some dame filching a gig from a hard-working shamus. Slain goes out of his way to make Sam understand that being a private detective is a dangerous business. And ends up making her life miserable in the process.If you love a good laugh, and can’t quite figure out how anyone could leave their heart in San Francisco, then grab a copy of The Trouble with San Francisco and fall in love with its madcap cast of characters. What else would you expect from the City by the Bay?

Come What May


Larry Darter - 2016
    Or so he thought until he is caught up in a run of bad luck and his life starts falling apart. The worst of it, his unfortunate entanglement in a spate of fatal on-duty shootings at a time when activists are protesting the use of deadly force by police and rioting all over the country. On edge and questioning his judgment, Malone's LAPD superiors speculate that he may be too quick to use deadly force.Relieved from street duty, Malone is sequestered in Robbery-Homicide Division's Cold Case Homicide Section to keep him under wraps while he undergoes department-mandated psychiatric evaluation. His work-related problems compounded by a vindictive ex-wife intent on bleeding him dry financially sends Malone into a spiral of depression that soon has him drinking too much in the attempt to cope.Initially resentful over his reassignment to the cold case section, Malone's attitude starts to change when he and new partner, Detective Jaime Reyes, come across the files of a cold as ice, 23-year-old unsolved murder case. The more they study the case, the more certain they become that the theory pursued by the original investigators was completely wrong.Since the decades-old murder does not fit the unit's criteria for reopening a cold case for active investigation, Malone and Reyes embark on an "off-the-books" investigation. Predictably, that creates some problems, especially for Malone. It quickly becomes clear that there are powerful forces at work both inside and outside the LAPD determined to keep the truth behind the murder buried along with the corpse.The more resistance he encounters, the more unwavering Malone becomes in his unwillingness to let sleeping dogs lie, even when things start to get increasingly personal. His persistence in digging up bones from the past begins to threaten his very career with the LAPD. Even when the investigation sends him hurtling into more trouble than he ever dreamed possible, Malone is unrelenting. He is determined to solve the mystery and to uncover the truth behind the brutal 23-year-old unsolved murder, come what may.

The Mic Files: Books 1-3


Judith Lucci - 2020
    DudeMichaela, Dottie and Angel work the kidnapping of a young women who never returns home from a job interview.The Case of the Dead DowagerFear grips Richmond, Virginia as madmen invade restaurants and bars and terrorize patrons.The Case of the Man OverboardMic, Dottie, and Angel take a restful Mediterranean cruise until a research scientist goes overboard and Michaela finds her clothes cut to shreds in her stateroom.

Off the Record: An Avery Rich Mystery (Avery Rich Mysteries Book 1)


Sara B. Gauldin - 2016
    But she is soon forced to keep her investigation "off the record" and gets paired with an unusual consultant. The world of crime and conspiracy takes on a dangerous edge as she finds herself dealing with kidnapped bankers, high stakes cover ups, and criminals who are determined to keep her quiet. To save herself from the unthinkable, she must sort out the conspiracy from the crime and find out who she can trust to finish the case before they can derail her investigation, permanently!

When Murder Comes Home


Shana Frost
    Who is responsible? 
 Aileen Mackinnon ditched spreadsheets and a steady salary for the adventurous shores of Loch Fuar in the Scottish Highlands.
Now she's an amateur innkeeper to ten guests. But when one is murdered in his bed and an heirloom goes missing, can Aileen save the inn?
 DI Callan Cameron won't have her nosing about, but with another body he has little choice in the matter.
Tension sizzles as Aileen and Callan step into a world of murders, fibs and heists. They might not always see eye to eye, but can they agree whodunnit?JD Robb meets Agatha Christie in this pageturning murder mystery with a dash of romance.Grab your copy now!Best enjoyed in order: 1. When Murder Comes Home2. When Eyes Don’t Lie3. When Birds Fall Silent