Pretty Corpse


Linda Berry - 2019
    The startling revelation hits the news and sends a shockwave through the city. A serial rapist with a “death” fetish is at large in San Francisco. The attack is intensely personal to Lauren. Not only did she find the victim, but the girl is a close friend of her daughter, Courtney. Lauren feels compelled to do some off-duty investigation. The perpetrator is keenly intelligent and methodical, and essentially, invisible. But Lauren has uncanny skills for detection, and routinely finds evidence missed by the detectives. She earns official trouble for her effort, but the warnings from her superiors don’t keep her from tugging at elusive clues. As she gets closer to the predator, he takes notice. Taunting Lauren, he demonstrates that he can get close to her, and to Courtney, without a trace. Lauren has put her daughter right in his crosshairs, and put herself on a collision course. Stressed and sleep-deprived, she is determined to find him and bring him down. But can she succeed before her daughter becomes his next victim?

Just Kill Them: British Detective (Jonathan Roper Investigates)


Michael Leese - 2019
    Three terror attacks that sent shock waves through London, triggering plans to evacuate the Royal Family. Police, politicians and the security services are left scrabbling for answers. When a previously unknown group claims responsibility the mystery deepens. This is the dramatic back drop to the most challenging investigation yet undertaken by autistic crime solver, Jonathan Roper, and his mentor and friend, Chief Inspector Brian Hooley. The pair are the detectives Scotland Yard turns to when all else fails. Before long they are sucked into the case and are about to discover they will face challenges that will test them to the limit. To have any chance of success they are going to need every ounce of Hooley’s policing know-how… but above all they will need Roper at his brilliant best. His autism has given him savant like qualities that enable him to spot things others miss and make intuitive leaps before anyone else realises there are connections. These qualities make him a superb investigator, but he lacks social skills and can be a complex man to deal with. He’s already been on the brink of being thrown out of Scotland Yard because he has managed to put so many back’s up. Hooley can see past the problems to the special detective underneath but, as his father always told him, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” The veteran DCI has to ride some intense personal observations as he helps the younger man stay on track. It is this “special relationship” that makes the Roper series stand out. It provides unexpected warmth and genuine humour at even the darkest moments. But this time it emerges that fate has a few nasty surprises in store for Brian Hooley. Not only does he need to support Roper, his own health will become an issue that sets the clock ticking. The investigation also sees Hooley and Roper running a new team, unofficially dubbed the “Odd Bods” and introduces two new investigators that Roper is championing. Just Kill Them is a dark, page turning thriller that grabs you by the throat from the beginning... don’t be surprised to find yourself laughing out loud.

Take a Breath


Jaimie Roberts - 2013
    Feelings which had been bottled up for so long are now bursting to get out. I can no longer hide the overwhelming emotions that flow through me.Unfortunately, neither can a serial killer on the loose dubbed “The Blonde Killer.” I am his obsession.And Jake, the senior detective in charge of the Major Investigations Unit, is responsible for catching the murderer.I’m scared, but I know Jake will do everything in his power to protect me.I feel things can’t get any worse.Until they do.

Cowboy Bikers MC Lawmen: Sweet Treat


Esther E. Schmidt - 2022
    Though, one exceptional encounter changes my choice drastically.Sometimes all you need is the unexpected to cross your path to put everything into perspective. Unless it involves missing persons and dead bodies, then things get complicated rapidly and irreversibly for all involved.Sweet Treat is a crossover between Rebel Rage MC Rocker by Addy Archer and Cowboy Bikers MC Lawmen by Esther E. Schmidt.

Exit Row


Judi Culbertson - 2015
    But when Lee isn’t on the plane, Fiona begins to get nervous. It seems Lee isn’t the only passenger who never arrived. Three other people are also missing. Worse, it seems they were never on the flight.With no help from the airline, it’s up to Fiona and the friends and family of the missing passengers to discover what happened—and, more importantly, to find Lee. But when Fiona receives a mysterious note—It happened in between Denver and Taos—the patchwork team is thrust into a dangerous race against time…a race that could cost them more than who they’ve already lost. Published by William Morrow

The Langthorne Series box set


Charlie Gallagher - 2017
    She happens to be the mayor’s niece. It’s the final straw for the local community. The police are desperate to get results and decide on a risky course of action involving undercover infiltration of the notorious Effingell Estate. Detective George Elms knows this hellish place extremely well, and his sharp investigative mind is put to work to solve the crime. The police are under immense media pressure and conveniently a local lowlife confesses to the attack. But George is not convinced. There are many layers of criminal and police motivation, and few people are what they seem. BOOK 2: PANIC BUTTON “A man is stood in front of me with a gun. He has a message for me and for us all. He says that he will come for us. He will come for all of us one by one. Until it is finished.” Someone is killing the officers of the Langthorne Police one by one. And in a sadistic twist he makes each victim push their radio panic button before they die, thus broadcasting their last moments to the entire force. And as the police face this ruthless adversary, Detective George Elms is in no fit state to help. What is the connection between ruthless former officer Ed Kavski and the wave of killings? And can their boss Helen Webb do anything to stop the carnage? BOOK 3: BLOOD MONEY What would you do to save your dying son? Imagine the doctors told you there was a cure, but only if you had the money. What would you do to get that money to save your son’s life? Tony Robson faces this choice when he’s told he needs £3000 per month to carry on the life-saving experimental treatment for his son’s rare disease. So Tony gets in touch with the criminal element in town. And they have a well-paying job for him . . . And that decision will blow up everything for the Langthorne Police. If you like Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott, Ian Rankin or Mark Billingham you will be gripped by this exciting new crime fiction writer.

The Boy in the Well


Dan Clark - 2021
    A gruesome find. A race for the truth.After her husband and son are killed in a tragic car accident, Carolyn goes to stay with her mother in a quiet, rural town. She hopes the break will help her cope with her loss.Soon, Carolyn discovers that the small town holds unforgivable secrets. One she stumbles upon when she discovers the body of a young boy down a well – only to find he has disappeared when she returns with the police.The local residents, including Carolyn’s mother, doubt her discovery and blame it on her current state of mind. Rumours begin to spread.With somebody determined to stop Carolyn uncovering the truth, she knows she needs to prove what she saw. Not just for the boy and his family but also for herself.Will Carolyn be able to find the proof she needs? Or will her life be in danger if she continues her search?

Out of the Black


John Rector - 2013
    But just as the little girl—who survived the accident—finally starts thriving, Matt’s former in-laws threaten to take her away via a bitter custody battle. Desperate to keep Anna and in debt to some dangerous local thugs, Matt has no good options. But he does have Jay, one very bad friend. Just out of jail and plagued by drug addiction, Jay tempts Matt with a foolproof kidnapping scheme. But what sounds like the perfect solution to all his problems eventually leads Matt through a nightmarish maze of betrayals and reversals, pushing him to his breaking point—and beyond.

Targeted


Katie Reus - 2013
    But he still has the same tortured memories—which include the woman he let get away years ago, when they were teenagers. Now his new assignment in Miami will put him so close to the woman he’s never been able to forget, he could reach out and touch her—if only she weren’t under suspicion.When Sophie Moreno uncovers evidence linking the medical supply company she works for with arms smuggling—and worse—she doesn’t know who to turn to. After a shocking betrayal, she realizes the only person she can trust is a mysterious new person in the company—a man with hauntingly familiar eyes.As Sophie questions her intense attraction to this man and Jack struggles not to blow his cover, the two of them must race against the clock to stop terrorists from killing scores of people—starting with them.

The Harry Bosch Novels, Volume 5: The Overlook, Nine Dragons, The Drop (Harry Bosch, #13, 15, 17)


Michael Connelly - 2012
    When a physicist is murdered in LA it seems the killer has no fear of publicity, leaving the body on The Mulholland overlook, a site with a stunning view over the city. And when it's discovered that the victim turned over a quantity of a lethal chemical to his killer before he died, Harry knows he has more than just a single death to worry about. Alongside the forces of Homeland Security, Harry realizes he must solve the murder or face unimaginable consequences. In Nine Dragons, the shooting of a Chinese liquor store owner in LA brings Harry Bosch back to the Rodney King riots and the moment a stranger gave a young cop sanctuary. Now, the debt must be repaid, and Harry soon discovers the old man's death was no ordinary holdup. Homing in on clues disregarded by the cops on the scene, Harry builds a picture of corruption and intimidation, with the local Triads at the heart of it. But as he tries to build a case and breach the impenetrable wall of silence in the local community, he finds he is taking a dragon by the tail - a dragon whose talons reach well beyond LA, and even the States.Suddenly the most precious thing in Harry's life is under threat, and he will need to leave the familiarity of his home turf, alone and without backup, if he is going to stop his worst nightmare from happening. Harry Bosch is facing the end of the line in The Drop. He's been put on the Deferred Retirement Option Plan - and given three years before his retirement is enforced. Seeing the end of the mission coming, he's anxious for cases. He doesn't have to wait long. First a cold case gets a DNA hit for a rape and murder which points the finger at a 29-year-old convicted rapist who was only eight at the time of the murder. Then a city councilman's son is found dead - fallen or pushed from a hotel window - and he insists on Bosch taking the case despite the two men's history of enmity. The cases are unrelated but they twist around each other like the double helix of a DNA strand. One leads to the discovery of a killer operating in the city for as many as three decades; the other to a deep political conspiracy that reached back into the dark history of the police department.

The Stakes


Ben Sanders - 2018
    The latest from Ben Sanders, following his novels American Blood and Marshall’s Law.Rip-offs are a dangerous game, but heist man Miles Keller thinks he’s found a good strategy: rob rich New York criminals and then retire early, before word’s out about his true identity. New town, new name, no worries. Retirement can’t come soon enough, though. The NYPD is investigating him for the shooting of a hitman named Jack Deen, who was targeting Lucy Gates—a former police informant and Miles’s ex-lover. Miles thinks shooting hitmen counts as altruism, but in any case a murder charge would make life difficult. He’s ready to go to ground, but then Nina Stone reappears in his life. Nina is a fellow heist professional and the estranged wife of LA crime boss Charles Stone. Miles last saw her five years ago, and since then her life has grown more complicated: her husband wants her back, and he’s dispatched his go-to gun thug to play repo man. Complicating matters is the fact that the gun thug in question is Bobby Deen, cousin of the dead Jack Deen—and Bobby wants vengeance. The stakes couldn’t be higher, but Nina has an offer that could be lucrative. Maybe Miles can stick around a while longer…

The Drumbeater


Clive Allan - 2013
    The task of unravelling the mystery falls to history graduate Neil Strachan, now a career cop, fast tracked into a new role on Northern Scotlands Major Enquiry Unit. When Neil calls upon German naval historian, Matthias Fuchs, to help identify the remains, a name soon emerges, that of a dashing young U-boat ace who mysteriously disappeared in 1941: Korvettenkapitän Max Friedmann. Neil seeks the assistance of Glendaig’s elderly residents, but encounters an impenetrable wall of silence, causing him to suspect that they know far more about the young submariner than they are willing to impart. With more questions than answers, and under mounting pressure from his cynical boss to wrap up the enquiry, Neil embarks on a race against time to discover the truth. He begins to unravel a tale of subterfuge, escape and astounding loyalty. A tale that will ultimately reveal a secret that could have changed the course of World War Two...

A Cooper and Fry Mystery Collection #1: Black Dog, Dancing with the Virgins and Blood on the Tongue


Stephen Booth - 2014
    Ben Cooper is on the case, and he's been paired with a new partner. Diane Fry is as tenacious as she is alluring. But the two must work together to apprehend a killer who is hiding in plain sight.Dancing with the Virgins: As winter closes in on the moors, so does murder. The body of a young woman is found within a ring of ancient cairns and a second woman has been attacked, savagely wounded and severely traumatized…but alive. Cooper & Fry must unlock the memories trapped inside her mind before more blood is shed among the stones.Blood on the Tongue: A New Year means new homicides to solve in the icy depths of a bitter January. A woman is found, dead, who seems to have curled up in the freezing snow and lain there until her heart stopped. Did she go willingly towards death or is there a more sinister explanation? Cooper & Fry are desperate to find the answers.Warning: reading this bundle may result in an addiction to the mysteries of Cooper & Fry.

Copycat


Alex Lake - 2017
    The other, she has never seen. But everything in it is accurate. Recent photos of her and her friends, her and her husband, her and her kids. Even of her new kitchen. A photo taken inside her house.She is bemused, angry, and worried. Who was able to do this? Any why?But this, it soon turns out, is just the beginning. It is only now–almost as though someone has been watching, waiting for her to find the profile–that her problems really start…

Reaping a Pain in the Axe (Fear the Reaper Book 2)


Stacey Rourke - 2020