Book picks similar to
Broken Fall by Fergus McNeill


novellas
present-day-british-mystery
cheating-the-reader
crime

Only The Good Die Young : And I'm Not A Saint


Akash Verma - 2021
    She thinks that chapter of her life hasended, and starts afresh in Mumbai. But strangely, it seems her past is trying to catch up. Dhruv suddenlycomes back into her life. Even as they try to figure out their relationship, horrible things start happening to people they know. Together, Anuradha and Dhruv need to find out who it is that cannot bear to see them together. Who is carrying out these shocking crimes? Are they really soulmates cursed to stay apart, or is there some karmic debt they have to repay? Taut and thrilling, Only the Good Die Young is unputdownable.

Grind Their Bones


Drew Cross - 2012
    The original ‘Gray Man’ was Albert Fish - serial killer, rapist and cannibal - who was executed in New York’s Sing Sing prison in January 1936 for the murder of Grace Budd, but was believed to have been responsible for the deaths of up to one hundred people.Some tricks are worth repeating and some tastes never die, so enter the new ‘Grey Man’, a gourmet serial killer, who is itching to get his teeth into his next victim.And if the gruesome results of the killer’s classic cuisine are not chilling enough for Detective Chief Inspector Zara Wade who is leading the investigation, he claims to know her, and that she knows him.

Third Watch


Robert Dugoni - 2015
     In this prequel short story to Robert Dugoni’s #1 Kindle-bestselling novel, My Sister’s Grave, Tracy Crosswhite is a young patrol officer, paying her dues, keeping her head down, and hoping a solid record will get her promoted to detective. While years have passed since the disappearance of Tracy’s sister, the experience has made her one of the city’s most dedicated cops. Reporter Tevia Kushman is shadowing Tracy on a ride-along seeking to follow-up on a recent (and nasty) exposé about the Seattle PD’s treatment of female cops. Young and ambitious, Tevia is hoping for a juicy scoop on the gender politics of the PD, but may get a much bigger story than she bargained for… Neither woman expects a routine-sounding call to turn into something dangerous, until Tracy walks into a domestic dispute and finds herself looking down the barrel of a shot-gun. No stranger to high-pressure situations, Tracy must draw on more than just her academy training and lightning-fast shooting skills to find a way to talk down—or take out—the volatile man holding the gun.

A Brutal Hand: There's No Escape (SHORTZ)


Ravi Subramanian - 2020
    

The Butcher


Nathan Burrows
    She was wrong. The first time Norwich’s most hapless food inspector, Emily Underwood meets butcher Frank Pinch, he’s not got much at all in his display counters. But what he does have is a rather unusual plan to restock his shelves. The next time they bump into each other, he’s won an award for his sausages but is running out of meat.Can Frank keep up production of his unusually tasty sausages? Will Emily discover the source of Frank’s award wining meat? And what will happen the next time she tries to inspect his butchers shop? Book 1 in the Rub-a-Dub trilogy, this deliciously British dark comedy will change the way you look at sausages forever.

The Hunter


Chris Carter - 2013
    As a rookie, he is given a simple suicide investigation to cut his teeth on. But when he arrives at the scene, he swiftly begins to suspect that something is not quite right.Despite the fact that the door was locked from the inside, and there is no other way out of the apartment, Hunter has a hunch that the victim did not commit suicide. But with a new Captain to impress and the evidence stacked against him, Hunter has a lot to prove if he is to solve the case and keep his place on the team.

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.

Cullen Year One


Ed James - 2014
    Struggling with his burning ambition, Cullen is assigned a Missing Persons case. Caroline Adamson, a young, recently-divorced Edinburgh mother, has disappeared while on a date.But when Caroline's body turns up, Cullen digs into her past and her private life starts to unravel. Who was she on a date with? What happened during her divorce? What was she doing on Schoolbook?Now, as Cullen investigates, his own private life gets messier and the relationship with his DI deteriorates. As other bodies turn up, Cullen soon finds himself hunting for a ghost in the machine.GHOST IN THE MACHINE is an intense police procedural novel about privacy, loss and social networks that builds to a shocking climax.DEVIL IN THE DETAILDetective Constable Scott Cullen of Lothian & Borders CID, still reeling from the events of a case the previous summer, is caught between antagonism with his superiors and the pressures of a new relationship.But when the body of Mandy Gibson, disabled daughter of a pillar of the community, is discovered one January morning, Cullen is pushed out to Garleton, a typical East Lothian town - affluent, historic and with a good school.Now, as the investigation becomes obstructed by a families broken by the tragedy, Cullen finds himself stuck between his DI and Bill Lamb, the local Sergeant. Is Mandy's religious group connected to her death? Where is the town's bad boy, Jamie Cook? As the community closes ranks, Cullen has to hunt for the devil in the detail.DEVIL IN THE DETAIL is a taut police procedural novel about faith and trust.FIRE IN THE BLOODDetective Constable Scott Cullen, bemused by the managerial positioning surrounding the impending merger of Lothian & Borders into Police Scotland, is torn by his personal and professional ambitions.But when a male human body, battered and unrecognisable, is found in a barrel for Dunpender Distillery's special centenary edition, Cullen is sent out east again.Now, Cullen finds himself trudging through a case with two likely victims who both went missing when the whisky was distilled. Could it be the owner's son, Iain Crombie? Is it Paddy Kavanagh, an employee with a fiery past? As he delves into the ancient history of the Crombie family, Cullen is soon contending with too many plausible suspects and his DI's desire for a quick collar, and finds himself hunting for a killer with fire in the blood.FIRE IN THE BLOOD is a deep police procedural about family, friendship and alcohol.DYED IN THE WOOLDetective Constable Scott Cullen finds his professional and private lives at opposite ends of the spectrum. While his career is stagnating - impacted by the jockeying for position ahead of the Police Scotland restructure as much as by his own inability to push for promotion - his love life goes from strength to stren

Bloody Sunrise


Gregg Bell - 2017
    Blood. On his sheets. His pillowcase.Then he gets a call: his ex-wife was murdered last night.He desperately tries to piece together what happened. But he can’t explain how he got the scratches on his arms, the police want to know about the domestic violence report his ex filed against him, and his buddies say he was raging against her last night before he stormed off on his own. Right about the time she was murdered.

The Hangman


Louise Penny - 2010
    On his run, he finds a dead man hanging from a tree. The man was a guest at the local Inn and Spa.The man might have been looking for peace and quiet, but something else found him. Something horrible. Did the man take his own life? Or was he murdered? Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is called to the crime scene. As Gamache follows the trail of clues, he opens a door into the past. And he learns the true reason why the man came to Three Pines. A quick and easy read for people on the go.Librarian's note: "The Hangman" is a short story and a one-off; it is not part of a larger collection of short stories.

Power in the Blood


Michael Lister - 1997
    In this debut novel Lister, a prison chaplain, introduces John Jordan, chaplain of a prison in the Florida Panhandle, who witnesses the bloody death of Potter Correctional Institution inmate Ike Johnson. Jordan discovers that in the closed society of captives and captors no action goes unseen, and no one takes kindly to a cop in a collar. He soon finds his reputation, his career, and even his life are at stake. "While writing Power in the Blood , I attempted to present Chaplain Jordan as a person who is in many ways quite ordinary despite being a man of the cloth. Like everyone else, Jordan attempts to find romance, deals with the demands of work on a daily basis, and struggles with his faith," said Michael Lister. "Despite the extraordinary violence that he must face and the misdeeds of fallen souls he endures, Jordan manages to pursue the investigation with honesty and grace. I think that makes him an unusual hero in today's mystery market." By offering up the sacred as well as the profane, Power in the Blood is sure to please both mystery readers and general fiction enthusiasts. Michael Lister was a chaplain with the Florida Department of Corrections from 1993 to 2000. During his tenure at Gulf Correctional, Lister earned these words of praise from his warden, "Chaplain Lister's un prejudiced concern for the welfare of staff as well as inmates has brought a spiritual soothing to both populations at this institution. He is an exceptionally gifted teacher, truly an angel, a shepherd to all."

Close to the Bone


Kendra Elliot - 2018
    The complications pile up as Cate is distracted by the coroner on the case—and by nagging memories that draw her twenty years into the past. The remains suggest eerie similarities between this victim, and Cate and Tessa’s friend Samantha, who disappeared when she was fourteen.Cate finds herself up against closemouthed locals, buried town secrets, and even her own heart. As the case unravels, will she be able to cut through the fog and find justice for the missing and the dead

Deep Down


Lee Child - 2012
    The assignment that awaits him: The army is meeting with its Capitol Hill paymasters for classified talks on a new, state-of-the-art sniper rifle for U.S. forces. But vital details about the weapon are leaking—straight from the Capitol and probably into the hands of unidentified foreign arms dealers. The prospect of any and every terrorist, mercenary, or dictator’s militia getting their hands on the latest superior firepower is unthinkable. That’s where Reacher comes in. His task: infiltrate the top-secret proceedings and smoke out the mole. His target: a quartet of high-powered Army political liaison officers—all of them fast-track women on their way to the top. According to his bosses, it’s a zero-danger mission. No need to draw a gun . . . just chat over drinks. But Reacher knows that things are rarely what they seem. And he’s learned the hard way never to underestimate an opponent. Or four. Lessons that will come in handy when he starts digging for the truth—and gets his hands a lot dirtier than he expected.

Remorse


Stephen Edger - 2011
    But behind closed doors, his wife is cheating on him; his daughter’s relentless screaming deprives them of sleep; and he drinks heavily.Struggling to maintain balance in his life, cracks start to appear. Unable to deal with the mounting pressure, he hires a private investigator to spy on his wife. He is prepared to do anything to maintain the idyll.As the conclusion of Duggan’s trial looms, he must come to terms with what he has done and why he is facing a life behind bars. He is about to learn a valuable lesson: not every fairy tale has a happy ending…Betrayal, revenge, regret and suspense: TELL NO LIES is a heart-breaking thriller, exploring what fathers will do when driven to desperation.(Also considered a standalone novel.)

Her Last Move


John Marrs - 2018
    Each kill is calculated, planned and executed like clockwork. Struggling to balance her personal and professional life, young DS Becca Vincent has landed the biggest case of her career – and she knows that it will make or break her. But how can she identify one face in a sea of thousands? With the help of Police Super Recogniser Joe Russell, she strives to catch a glimpse of the elusive murderer, but he’s watching her every move.Time is not on their side. The body count is rising, and the attacks are striking closer and closer to home. Can Becca and Joe uncover the connection between the murders before the killer strikes the last name from his list? From the bestselling author of When You Disappeared and The Good Samaritan comes his most thrilling novel yet.