Book picks similar to
The Apex Predator by Michael Koryta


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mystery
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suspense-crime-detective

The Safe Man: A Ghost Story


Michael Connelly - 2012
    That is, his specialty is opening safes. Every job is a little mystery, and he has yet to encounter a lock he can't break or a box he can't crack. But the day Holloway gets called in to open a rare, antique safe in a famous author's library, his skills open a door that should have remained closed.In this haunting and singular story, previously published anonymously, Michael Connelly proves once again that he is "superb at building suspense.... the reader can never be sure what sudden turns the plot may take" (Wall Street Journal).

The Postman Always Rings Twice


James M. Cain - 1934
    Cain's first novel - the subject of an obscenity trial in Boston and the inspiration for Camus's The Stranger - is the fever-pitched tale of a drifter who stumbles into a job, into an erotic obsession, and into a murder.

Bone Baby


Diane M. Dickson - 2017
     For many years, Lily and her partner had kept a terrible secret. When her partner dies, this secret becomes her burden alone. Soon it becomes an obsession. Having worked alongside her more flamboyant partner in the publishing industry in London, the more sensitive Lily was used to playing second fiddle in their enigmatic social set. But their nice life hid a dark secret, one that she does not want to carry to her grave. Many years ago, Lily and her partner covered up a crime. They took something precious that didn’t belong to them and lost it. Lily has had to live with the consequences of her actions until she is given the chance to repair the damage she has done. This leads Lily down a dangerous path into the past. Disorientated, paranoid and scared, she uncovers a far graver crime. What she contemplates next is unthinkable. BONE BABY is set in the present-day cities of Bath and Portsmouth in southern England. BONE BABY is the eleventh novel by Diane Dickson to be published by THE BOOK FOLKS. Diane has a distinctive style and her thrillers and mysteries explore the lives of ordinary people facing difficult situations. Look out for her bestselling LEAVING GEORGE and the recently-published TANGLED TRUTH.

Extraction


Douglas Preston - 2012
    In New Orleans' French Quarter, the Tooth Fairy isn't a benevolent sprite who slips money under your pillow at night....he's a mysterious old recluse who must be appeased with teeth--lest he extract retribution. When young Diogenes Pendergast loses a tooth, however, his skeptical older brother Aloysius is determined to put the legend to the test...with dire consequences. *Includes a special preview chapter of Preston & Child's new full-length novel TWO GRAVES, available December 11, 2012.

Full Dark, No Stars


Stephen King - 2010
    For James, that stranger is awakened when his wife, Arlette, proposes selling off the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting in motion a gruesome train of murder and madness. In "Big Driver," a cozy-mystery writer named Tess encounters the stranger along a back road in Massachusetts when she takes a shortcut home after a book-club engagement. Violated and left for dead, Tess plots a revenge that will bring her face-to-face with another stranger: the one inside herself. "Fair Extension," the shortest of these tales, is perhaps the nastiest and certainly the funniest. Making a deal with the devil not only saves Dave Streeter from a fatal cancer but provides rich recompense for a lifetime of resentment. When her husband of more than twenty years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It's a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitely ends a good marriage. Like Different Seasons and Four Past Midnight, which generated such enduring films as The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me, Full Dark, No Stars proves Stephen King a master of the long story form.(front flap)Contains:1922Big DriverA Fair ExtensionA Good Marriage

The Blood Banker


David Prever - 2012
    And something about the tube death doesn’t add up… When a second banker takes his life, then a third, he’s certain of wrongdoing.In a race to reveal the truth, Lightfoot uncovers a laundered money trail that leads, via Hong Kong and the world’s largest online criminal cartel, to the heart of British government: Number Ten Downing Street – and a man who will stop at nothing to achieve the power he craves.But with a hired killer watching his every move, can Lightfoot banish his demons and face down the evil that threatens his life?

No Exit


Taylor Adams - 2017
    No help for miles. What would you do?On her way to Utah to see her dying mother, college student Darby Thorne gets caught in a fierce blizzard in the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s forced to wait out the storm at a remote highway rest stop. Inside are some vending machines, a coffee maker, and four complete strangers.Desperate to find a signal to call home, Darby goes back out into the storm . . . and makes a horrifying discovery. In the back of the van parked next to her car, a little girl is locked in an animal crate.Who is the child? Why has she been taken? And how can Darby save her?There is no cell phone reception, no telephone, and no way out. One of her fellow travelers is a kidnapper. But which one?Trapped in an increasingly dangerous situation, with a child’s life and her own on the line, Darby must find a way to break the girl out of the van and escape.But who can she trust?

Hostage


Robert Crais - 2001
    Hotly pursued by the police, they crash into the suburban home of an accountant and take the family hostage. Soon the mafia are on the scene.

Found


Erin Kinsley - 2019
    But months later Evan is unexpectedly found, frightened and refusing to speak. His loving family realise life will never be the same again.DI Naylor knows that unless those who took Evan are caught, other children are in danger. And with Evan silent, she must race against time to find those responsible...A gripping, heart-wrenching thriller with the emotional power of series like BROADCHURCH and THE MISSING, this is the perfect read for fans of Cara Hunter, Heidi Perks, Claire Douglas, Fiona Barton, Susie Steiner and Nuala Ellwood.

The Power of the Dog


Don Winslow - 2005
    This novel of the drug trade takes you deep inside a world riddled with corruption, betrayal, and bloody revenge. Art Montana is an obsessive DEA agent. The Barrera brothers are heirs to a drug empire. Nora Hayden is a jaded teenager who becomes a high-class hooker. Father Parada is a powerful and incorruptible Catholic priest. Callan is an Irish kid from Hell’s Kitchen who grows up to be a merciless hitman. And they are all trapped in the world of the Mexican drug Federaci. From the streets of New York City to Mexico City and Tijuana to the jungles of Central America, this is the war on drugs like you’ve never seen it.

Adrenaline


Jeff Abbott - 2010
    I can't ever say good-bye to you."ADRENALINESam Capra is living the life of his dreams. He's a brilliant young CIA agent, stationed in London. His wife Lucy is seven months pregnant with their first child. They have a wonderful home, and are deeply in love. They have everything they could hope for...until they lose it all in one horrifying moment.On a bright, sunny day, Sam receives a call from Lucy while he's at work. She tells him to leave the building immediately. He does...just before it explodes, killing everyone inside. Lucy vanishes, and Sam wakes up in a prison cell. As the lone survivor of the attack, he is branded by the CIA as a murderer and a traitor. Escaping from the agency, Sam launches into a desperate hunt to save his kidnapped wife and child, and to reveal the unknown enemy who has set him up and stolen his family. But the destruction of Sam's life was only step on in an extraordinary plot-and now Sam must become a new kind of hero.

Heartman


M.P. Wright - 2014
    Joseph Tremaine “JT” Ellington, an ex-cop with a tragic past and a broken heart, has left his native Barbados in search of a better life in the Mother Country. But Bristol in the Sixties is far from the Promised Land and JT faces hostility from both the weather and the people.Then local mogul Earl Linney approaches him. He needs JT’s help finding Stella Hopkins, a young deaf and mute West Indian woman who has gone missing, and who the police aren’t interested in searching for. With rent due, and no job, JT has little option than to accept.Calling on his wits and not-so-honest cousin Vic for help, JT soon finds himself adrift in a murky world of prostitution and kidnapping where every lead reveals more mystery and nobody can be trusted. What is Linney’s connection to the girl? Have more women gone missing? And what exactly is the Erotica Negro Club? Facing hostility and prejudice as well as the demons from home he thought he’d escaped, JT must unravel a deadly conspiracy in a dangerous and unfamiliar world.

Fire in the Hole


Elmore Leonard - 2001
    In Leonard's first original e-book, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (featured in Pronto and Riding the Rap) returns to the Eastern Kentucky coal-mining country of his youth. When Boyd Crowder, a mail-order-ordained minister who doesn't believe in paying his income taxes, decides to blow up the IRS building in Cincinnati, Givens is asked by the local marshal to intervene. This sets up an inevitable confrontation between two men on opposite sides of the law who still have a lingering respect for each other. Throw into the mix Boyd's sister-in-law, Ava, who carries a torch for Raylan along with a deer rifle, and you've got a funny, adrenaline-charged novella only Leonard could have written.

Final Passage


Timothy J. Frost - 2009
    Twenty-five years later, Martin discovers hidden logbooks in his mother's attic, and vows to find out the truth. His quest takes him racing across the Atlantic in the Columbus Cup, the world's largest-ever regatta, an event that becomes a personal voyage of discovery and disaster. On the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, with his enemies closing in, Martin must make one desperate final sea passage to discover the shocking truth about his family - and himself.

Tell Him He's Dead


Tony Parsons - 2018
    As Max attempts to protect her, he is haunted by a nightmare of his own: the reappearance of the terrorist he killed with his car at the start of The Murder Bag.Are they visions brought on by the medication Max is taking? Or is he going mad? Or do some people just have to be killed twice? Praise for the DC Max Wolfe series 'Tense and human, fast and authentic' Lee Child'A relentless plot, evocative prose and compelling characters conspire to make this a must read' Jeffery Deaver'Great plotting, great characters and at least two eye-widening twists I didn't see coming' Sophie Hannah'I've long been a fan of Tony Parsons' writing. This is brilliant stuff!' Peter James