Book picks similar to
Taking the Fall by A.P. McCoy


first-reads
crime
reviewed
crime-thrillers

The Chateau Hauntings: A Riveting Haunted House Mystery Boxset


James Hunt - 2021
    The estate is in disrepair, but one couple is determined to restore the estate to its former glory. But when strange accidents begin to become more dangerous, putting their crew’s lives at risk, the fixer-upper couple realize they might have bitten off more than they could chew.The Haunting of Calhoun MansionThree murders. One night. No convictions.Nicole Harper, a hospice nurse with a floundering marriage, is assigned a new patient in the remote Northwestern wilderness. But when Nic meets her new patient, she discovers the old woman's family history is as troubling as her medical condition.The Haunting of the Holloway FamilyA job opportunity has brought the Holloway family to a small desert town on the Arizona/California border in the middle of nowhere. But what is thought as a godsend soon devolves into a parent’s worst nightmare.

Slur (The Riverhill Trilogy #1)


Heather Burnside - 2014
    Would you reach breaking point or fight to prove your innocence? Julie Quinley finds herself in this position following the events of one fateful night. She has to bear the slights and accusations of colleagues and acquaintances, and life becomes unbearable. Eventually, thinking that she has lost the respect of everyone around her, Julie plunges into a deep depression. However, unknown to Julie, those closest to her are rallying support. She reaches a turning point when her friends reveal that they may have found the real killer. Realising she must act in order to clear her name, Julie joins them in trying to find evidence. But proving a vicious murderer guilty is never going to be easy, especially when the police remain unconvinced. Will Julie and her friends succeed? And is their suspect really responsible for the crime?

A Line Too Far


B.C. Colman - 2016
    Thousands of Australian soldiers are held hostage. International realpolitik has left Australia abandoned by its supposed allies and its brittle social fabric is rapidly unwinding as the people panic. A Chinese ultimatum demands the annexation of the country’s top half in ten days, or face a full scale invasion. As other politicians clamour to sue for peace, Prime Minister, Gary Stone, in a desperate race against time and impossible military and political odds must commit to a risky and controversial plan to try and free the country …

The Insider


Reece Hirsch - 2010
    Within days, Will is the prime suspect in a murder, the target of an SEC insider trading investigation, and a pawn in a complex criminal scheme involving the Russian mafia and a ruthless terrorist plot.Now, Will must ensure that a deadly enemy doesn't gain access to the nation's most sensitive and confidential information -- and the power to do incalculable, irrevocable harm.

The Wave


L.E. Luttrell - 2020
    When they meet in Phuket in December 2004 and share their troubles, the future begins to look more promising. Lucy devises a plan to help Kelly escape from her controlling and violent partner. But a tsunami sweeps through the resort causing tragedy and chaos.After recovering from her injuries, Lucy, whose husband died in the tsunami, travels to Llandudno in Wales to visit her in-laws. Thirteen years later, still in Llandudno and having established a successful business there, an unexpected visitor turns up on Lucy’s doorstep who turns her whole world upside down. She then has to consider how far she will go to protect all she holds dear.The Wave is a psychological thriller set in: Phuket, Thailand; Melbourne, Australia and Llandudno, Wales.

The Time of Thunder


Greg Barron - 2020
    Yet what begins as a field assignment becomes a journey into Jamie’s own identity.Danny Carter was a schoolboy during the Korean War, growing up with the mystery of his airman brother's disappearance. As Danny comes of age in a rapidly changing United States, he is determined to locate his brother's lost plane in the face of murder, intimidation and loss.Danny and Jamie, coming together from opposite sides of the world, will find that revenge extracts a terrible price, and reveal a shocking truth that will shake the world.

Natasha Mehra Must Die: Book One of the Doomsday Trilogy


Anand Sivakumaran - 2018
    Someone is slaughtering every woman, girl and child named Natasha Mehra . . .Which is what Natasha Mehra, the most unpopular girl on campus, discovers. Though she’s always hated her name, she would’ve never imagined that it would be the reason she would be on the run from a gruesome death. But these murders aren’t random acts of madness. Rather, they are part of a conspiracy hatched by the Kul, an all-powerful secret organisation with tentacles everywhere. And the success or failure of this 2000-year-old mission will determine the future of humankind . . .About the AuthorAnand Sivakumaran has been telling stories since he was five. After passing out of IIT Bombay, he did stints in journalism, advertising, event management and youth marketing, before landing up in the entertainment business. His credits include films like Kalyug and Nazar and TV shows like The Buddy Project, Sadda Haq, Miley Jab Hum Tum, Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin, Rishtey, Adhafull, etc. He has directed two films as well—Detour and Money Devo Bhava (awaiting release).He currently runs CROCTALES, a creative shop that makes and runs web series, films and TV shows.Anand also does live, interactive storytelling which involves making up stories on the spot in front of a live audience using their words. He also has a storytelling podcast—The Croc’s Tales—again telling stories using listener’s prompts.Mumbai is his base in between exploring the world.

Everything to Lose


Andrew Gross - 2014
    A car ahead of her careens down a hill and slams into a tree. Stopping to help, she discovers the driver dead--and a satchel stuffed with a half a million dollars.That money could prevent her family's ruin and keep her special needs son in school. In an instant, this honest, achieving woman who has always done the responsible thing makes a decision that puts her in the center of maelstrom of dark consequences and life-threatening recriminations--a terrifying scheme involving a twenty-year-old murder, an old woman who's life has been washed out to sea, and a powerful figure bent to keep the secret that can destroy him hidden.With everything to lose, everything she loves, Hilary connects to a determined cop from Staten Island, reeling from the disaster of Sandy, to bring down an enemy who will stop at nothing to keep what that money was meant to silence, still buried.

A Bounty with Strings


Markus Matthews - 2019
    The thirty-three-year-old once used his elemental powers of Air and Lightning to protect the city from natural disasters, super villains, and criminals. Unfortunately, crime fighting didn’t pay the bills, so he hung up his spandex. Now known as bounty hunter Zack Stevens, he spends his time hunting monsters for money. While on the trail of a wanted Earth elemental, Zack finds he’s not the only one interested in the job. A Werepanther, a crazy vampire, a Mr. Hyde-type creature, and a blue-skinned alien attempt the bounty, and Zack helps clean up the mess, leaving him with a sense of responsibility for this odd crew who are now homeless and injured. Thanks to a multimillion-dollar contract on one of their group, the hunters become the hunted, and Zack and his new acquaintances strike up an alliance. He has always worked alone but must find a way to lead his ragtag crew if they are to survive attacks by the underworld they fight against. A Bounty with Strings leads readers on a fast-paced adventure starring an unlikely group of companions who must learn to trust each other even as they work to outwit those who would destroy them. Disclaimer - This book contains coarse language, sexual humor, violence and adult situations.

Diamond Reef


Douglas Pratt - 2020
    Chase Gordon has the life.The former Marine works part-time as a bartender to support his life island-hopping on his 40-foot sailboat.When the pretty young wife of one of his fellow Marines shows up looking for her husband, Chase steps in to help her out.Immediately, he finds himself in a stand-off between one of South Florida's most dangerous drug dealers and the D.E.A.Now, he's left wondering what kind of trouble his friend might be facing.Can Chase even save him?Filled with action and adventure, Chase Gordon is the next Travis McGee.

The Officers' Club


Ralph Peters - 2011
    Spring, 1981.  Vietnam is over, but the repercussions linger.  The military strives to recover as society reels from the excesses of the 1970s…A sinister beauty and a dutiful soldier… a Hollywood lawyer running from a dirty past and a cast-off vet who seems to have no future…  dueling drug gangs along the Mexican border… and the mutilated remains of a female lieutenant. Stunning, promiscuous, and brilliant at spotting the weaknesses in others, Jessie Lamoureaux may have been killed by a jealous lover, a drug smuggler—or a ghost from a life she hoped she had left behind. Was her murderer the Green Beret she betrayed?  The captain whose marriage she shattered?  The senior officer hoping to save her from herself?  A female sergeant fighting for dignity in a man’s world?  Or a fellow lieutenant with a secret of his own?In this gritty tale of young men and women torn between the laws of the land and the laws of the heart, a dark journey leads from a moonlit beach in Mexico to mayhem in Iran—then back to a country looking for its soul.The Officers’ Club captures the passions and confusion of the times, the reckoning due after a decade of indulgence—and the commitment of those who stayed in uniform through the bad years.As the military and society struggle to right themselves, their conflicts are embodied in the question:  Who killed Lieutenant Jessie Lamoureux?

Trapped


Nick Louth - 2019
    Something she never saw coming. A searing suspense thriller from bestselling author Nick Louth In Manchester, two hardened gang members on the run take Catherine Blake and her one-year-old son hostage at gunpoint. She is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Held in a Transit van, Catherine needs a plan fast. But it means diving into her captors’ risk-drenched world, and playing them at their own game. Catherine has been through cancer, miscarriages and five draining years of IVF in order to have her son Ethan. He is the most precious thing in the world. She may be terrified out of her wits, but she’d do anything to protect him. Anything, no matter the cost...

Outsourced


Eric J. Gates - 2012
    It's not long before he realises what it represents will change his life... with deadly consequences. Others want the package's contents too, including a high-tech Intelligence agency who will stop at nothing to obtain it. ...and the sender wants it back! The new fast-paced SUSPENSE THRILLER from Eric J. Gates will make YOU question your Destiny!

Assault and Buttercream (Lexy Baker Cozy Mystery Series Book 16)


Leighann Dobbs - 2022
    

When Camels Fly


N.L.B. Horton - 2014
    Seconds after Grace shoots Maggie's abductor, a handsome shepherd drops from the sky to kill a second assassin. The women's world crumbles in two blinks of an eye.Running for their lives, they quickly unearth a global evil poised to sacrifice millions. Their pursuit of justice plunges them into a vortex of intrigue and espionage, endangering friends and family while the world teeters toward disaster. As they crisscross the "cradle of civilization," they unexpectedly extinguish old flames and ignite new loves.How far will they have to go to save everyone and everything they hold dear? From the shadowy alleyways of old Jerusalem to a congested caravanserai in Jordan, and from elderly operatives hiding under Masada to youthful rescuers disguised as snake charmers in Jericho, the mother-daughter team soon realizes that nothing is as it seems. Even each other.Because sometimes, doing what's right is all that's left.(When Camels Fly is book 1 in the Parched series. Book 2, The Brothers' Keepers, continues the adventure.)