Book picks similar to
The West Country Crime Mysteries: books 1-3 by Bernie Steadman


betrayals
friends-are-for-death
miscarriage-of-justice
mystery

Deadly Little Lies


Stephanie DeCarolis - 2021
    A loving husband, a career as an attorney, and a cozy apartment in Manhattan to call home.But when she gets a message from an old college friend, her blood runs cold. Remember me?ONE DEADLY LIEJuliana drops her phone as though she’s been scalded. The name Jenny Teller shines out from the screen… but Jenny can’t have sent that message.Because Jenny is dead.Juliana’s other college friends have all received the same message. The four of them are the only ones who know the truth about the night Jenny died. It’s a secret they have kept buried for fifteen years.WHO DO YOU TRUST?With ‘Jenny’ now blackmailing them and threatening to expose their secret, only one thing is certain. Someone else knows the truth about that night… or one of them is lying.

A Mother's Lie


Jo Crow - 2017
    When the two-year-old is diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer, only an experimental treatment can save his life. She desperately needs money to pay for the surgery, but she’ll have to travel back to the site of her darkest memories to get it.
 Clara has escaped the demons of her youth—or so she thinks. It’s been ten years since the mysterious disappearance of her parents. Widely suspected of murdering her mother and father, Clara fled west to start a new life. Now, a documentary film crew is offering cold, hard cash—enough to pay for James’s treatment—in exchange for the sordid secrets of her past.
 With no other choice but to delve into a long-ago tragedy, Clara must unravel the lies surrounding that terrible night. Facing hostile gossip, Clara is fighting to clear her name and learn the truth about what really happened. But how far will she go into the dark to save her son—and herself?

The Haunting of The Meade Mansion (A Riveting Haunted House Mystery, #1)


Skylar Finn - 2019
    But when she and her husband Jesse arrived at the house, they discovered that Aunt Matilda was murdered—and the culprit was still at large. Guided by the ghosts of Matilda and the orphans she raised, can Emily and Jesse catch the criminals and save themselves?

A Perfect Shot


Robin Yocum - 2018
    Nearly two decades after he made the winning shot in the state championship basketball game, he remains much adored and the focal point of community pride. Hardly a day passes when someone doesn't want to talk about "the game." Now approaching forty, Duke no longer wants to be defined solely by something he did when he was eighteen. So he decides to parlay his local popularity into a successful restaurant--"Duke's Place."But no sooner does he get his restaurant up and running than disaster strikes. One day, "Little Tony" DeMarco, his brother-in-law and a known mob enforcer, comes into the restaurant and murders Duke's oldest friend. Now Duke faces the hardest decision of his life. DeMarco thinks he's untouchable, but Duke discovers a way to take him down, along with his mob superiors.To do so, however, means leaving Mingo Junction and sacrificing his treasured identity as the town legend. And if he follows through, what will remain of his life?

The Perfect Neighbour


Susanna Beard - 2021
    She wishes she could make friends with her beautiful neighbour Oksana. She longs for a new group of friends. Welcoming neighbours to visit. Coffee dates and dinner parties.But life here feels so closed. Then Beth runs into Oksana’s garden one day to fetch her runaway dog, and she sees something shocking that makes her wonder who her new neighbours really are.A girl in the window.A pale desperate face.A hastily scribbled sign bearing only two words.HELP ME.Who is the girl? What are the neighbours hiding?Sometimes, it’s the most perfect neighbours that hide the most terrible secrets.

The Greenway


Jane A. Adams - 1995
    The Greenway lingered in my mind for days. It takes the psychological suspense novel into new realms of mystery.” Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News “A haunting debut.” Minette Walters “Compellingly told and rich with psychological insight.” Independent “Nail-biting stuff.” Ms London “An assured first novel, with a strong cast and a plot which twists and turns without a glitch.” Yorkshire Evening Post “Adams has a distinctive voice, which I predict will be heard by the majority of mystery fans.” Shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Award and for the Author's Club Best First Novel Award. AUGUST 1975: Cassie Maltham’s life changes forever one scorching day. She and her twelve-year-old cousin Suzie take a shortcut through the Greenway, an ancient pathway steeped in Norfolk legend. Somewhere along this path Suzie simply vanishes . . . TWENTY YEARS LATER: Cassie is still tormented by nightmares, parts of her memory completely erased. With her husband Fergus and friends Anna and Simon, she returns to Norfolk, determined to confront her fears and solve a mystery that won’t let her rest. Then another young girl goes missing at the entrance to the Greenway, and Cassie is pushed once more into the darkest recesses of her mind. John Tynan, the retired detective who’d been in charge of Suzie’s case, is still haunted by her disappearance. He offers his help to Detective Inspector Mike Croft who is leading the increasingly frantic search for the missing child. Has evil returned? And what really happened all those years ago and who can be believed? Perfect for fans of Nualla Ellwood, Kl Slater, Gillian Flynn, and Lucy Clarke. ONE OF THE MOST HAUNTING PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS YOU WILL READ THIS YEAR, FULL OF ASTONISHING TWISTS.

The Old Boys


Mark Gillespie - 2021
    It’s a past that goes back twenty-five years. Back to when they were a gang of teenage bullies known as the Lads – a gang that delighted in torturing their classmates at every opportunity.The kidnappers are waiting outside. But who are they?After all these years, have the victims come back to turn the tables on the bullies?The Old Boys is a dark psychological thriller about friendship and the deterioration of once seemingly unbreakable childhood bonds. It’s also a story of revenge and regret. If you love tense, claustrophobic thrillers packed full of mystery and suspense, you’ll love The Old Boys.

Resurrection: The Kidnapping of Abby Drover


John Griffiths - 1999
    Instead, Abby survived four more months of rape, starvation and psychological torture before she was dramatically rescued. Here, John Griffiths tells the incredible story of Abby's ordeal, the nationwide search that went on for her while she lay captive less than a half a block from her own home, and her courageous recovery.. "Additionally, Griffiths explores the twisted mind of Abby's abductor, Donald Alexander Hay, a repeat sex offender Abby believed was a trusted friend. Covering Hay's recent bids for parole after more than twenty years in jail, the book raises important questions around prisoner rehabilitation, victim's rights and the very nature of justice.

The Rich and the Dead


Liv Spector - 2014
    In collaboration with branding powerhouse Alloy Entertainment comes a thrilling new series featuring a former Miami PD detective on the hunt for a mass murderer, who must face the past she thought she left behind.On New Year's Day 2015, twelve powerful, wealthy people were found dead—shot in a lavish Star Island estate. In 2018, the murderer remains at large.As a detective and lead investigator on the case of the century, Lila Day was consumed by her hunt for the Star Island Killer. But that was before she was pushed out from the force, and her life unraveled.Years later, down on her luck and no longer a police officer, Lila is approached by mysterious billionaire Teddy Hawkins. He has a job for her, he says—solving the Star Island murders. Lila laughs. After all, how do you solve a crime when all the leads have long grown cold? The answer, Teddy tells her, is to be there before it happened. He is going to send her back in time.With nothing left to lose, Lila travels back in time to 2014, determined to stop the Star Island killer once and for all. There's one catch: she must gather the evidence to bring the murderer to justice in her own time, without trying to save anyone. Easy enough, until she starts to care for the people who are destined to die. Now Lila must be willing to say good-bye—or risk setting into motion events that could change the future forever.

Mastering the Virgin Box Set Two


Simone Leigh - 2018
    Now Rivals James the Dom 'Bought a Virgin' at auction, then shared her with his friend of years, Michael. However, both men have fallen for her. Will their friendship survive the rivalry this causes? A BDSM Ménage Erotic Romance Explicit Adult content: For mature readers only This Box Set contains the following previously published books Part Five – Rivals Part Six – Lovers Part Seven – Masters Part Eight – Dominants Total Approx 76,000 words

Thomas Berrington Books 1-3


David Penny - 2017
     THE RED HILL A killer who can’t be stopped. A request that can’t be refused. In 1482 the Englishman Thomas Berrington is living in the last remnants of Moorish Spain. A physician, he is an unwilling friend to the most powerful man in the kingdom. Bodies are discovered, each showing the marks of a savage attack, and Thomas is asked to investigate. When one of the Sultan’s wives is brutally murdered, what begins as a reluctant task turns into a fight for survival. Together with the eunuch Jorge, Thomas attempts to hunt down the killer before they become his next victims. Except nothing is as it seems—friends turn into enemies and enemies into friends. Thomas’s investigation lays bare the secrets of the Red Hill and the people who inhabit it. His discoveries culminate in a battle not only for his own life, but for the lives of those he loves. BREAKER OF BONES March 1483, and surgeon Thomas Berrington makes a reluctant journey to Qurtuba at the request of his master. He expects only to operate on a Spanish prince and return home to Moorish al-Andalus. But fate has something else in store for him and his companion, the eunuch Jorge. A warped killer has been murdering young women to create twisted creatures from their bodies. When Thomas is tasked by Queen Isabel to hunt down the culprit he is propelled into an unfamiliar world of religious mania where it is impossible to tell the innocent from the guilty. Meanwhile Jorge is on a quest of his own—to track down the family he abandoned twenty years before. When Jorge’s new found niece is taken as the Bonebreaker’s next victim, the pair are faced with their most dangerous challenge yet. Can Thomas and Jorge expose the killer before yet another life has to pay the price for one man’s madness? THE SIN EATER Moorish Spain, 1484, and no-one is innocent. Thomas Berrington, emigre Englishman who has made the doomed city of Garnatah his home, is once again attempting to solve a series of mysterious deaths. Accompanied by his companion, the palace eunuch Jorge, Thomas struggles to discover the truth while those in power seek to distract him. As his investigation continues, his personal life splinters into chaos and he finds the Spanish once more demanding his presence. As Thomas and Jorge draw closer to their quarry, the killer’s attention turns on them and those they love. Will the pair be able to unmask the sin eater before the lives of those close to them become forfeit?

Innocent


Erin Kinsley - 2020
    But at a lavish summer wedding a local celebrity is discovered slumped in the gardens, the victim of a violent assault that leads to a murder investigation.As the police search for answers, suspicion and paranoia build - and the lives of the locals are turned upside down. Secrets that lurk beneath the pristine façade of Sterndale come to light as detectives close in on the truth...

Long Shot


Dan Ames - 2015
    When he is murdered during a sailboat race, no one sees it coming. Private investigator John Rockne investigates the killing and soon unravels a web of greed and betrayal. A hard-hitting, action-packed story in the bestselling and award-winning John Rockne Mystery Series.

Pretty Little Killers


Rita Herron - 2018
    She is his most guilty secret—the one-night stand who almost cost him everything.Korine has her own demons. As a child, she witnessed her father’s murder, and she’s spent her life waiting for the killer’s return. She and Hatcher are both looking for closure, but the disturbing case that draws them together could be their last.When the mutilated body of a corrupt Savannah judge surfaces, Hatcher and Korine find themselves on the trail of a vigilante who is showing no mercy. Not for the predators who’ve gone free. And not for anyone who gets in the way.As the body count rises, and as Hatcher’s and Korine’s own pasts unfold, they must risk their lives tracking a killer they’ve come to understand all too well. After all, the ends justify the means.

The Reluctant Witch: A Paranormal Cozy Mystery


Amelia Hopegood - 2020