The Unburied Dead


Douglas Lindsay - 2012
    A city lives in fear. The police fall into chaos. A woman is savagely murdered, her body stabbed over a hundred times, and the police recognise that the perpetrator will likely strike again. DCI Bloonsbury, the once-feted detective, is put in charge of the investigation, but when an officer is slain, and an old police conspiracy begins to unravel, Bloonsbury slides further into morose, intoxicated depression. And here, somewhere in the midst of the horror, is Detective Sergeant Thomas Hutton, lost in a sea of love, lust, deception, alcohol, and murdered colleagues. But the dead will not rest, the past will not be buried, and DS Hutton must find his way, as the killer kills, and kills again…

Shame


Karin Alvtegen - 2005
    They have nothing in common but the determination to obliterate their memories and be left alone. When a tragic accident forces them to confront each other, the emotional void at the centre of their lives threatens to engulf them.

Black Diamond Death


Cheryl Bradshaw - 2011
    "In a panic I gasped for air, but there wasn't any. I tried to cry out, but I was alone. And in my hysteria it hit me: I had felt a similar feeling before - like my body was giving out on me, and I knew what it meant. I was dying."Enter the world of Sloane Monroe in Black Diamond Death...A SKIER CRASHES On the slopes of Park City, Utah's newest ski resort a woman is found dead. At first glance, it has all the makings of an accident. But what if wasn't? What if she was murdered? A SECOND BODY IS FOUND Just as Private Investigator Sloane Monroe feels she's close to solving the case, a second dead body is found. With the killer aware that Sloane will stop at nothing to find him, her life is in danger, her every move being tracked. Will Sloane uncover the truth before he strikes again?

Burned


Thomas Enger - 2010
    She's been stoned to death. There are lash marks across her back. One of her hands has been cut off. Henning Juul finds an increasingly dangerous trail and, despite an early arrest, he is convinced that the story is more complex than the police think.

The Find (The Find, #1)


Venezia Miller - 2021
    In the dark forests of Sandviken, Sweden, a hiker makes a shocking discovery that disrupts the lives of four families, bound by memories of joyous summer vacations, but confronted by a dark secret they long believed to be a relic of the past.For over thirty years, a serial killer has lived among them, hunting innocent young girls and using them for his perverted pleasures.The investigation is slow, and the inspectors assigned to the case are confronted not only with a cunning, calculated and ruthless killer but also with their own personal demons.It’s only a matter of time before he strikes again.Will they be able to stop him this time?And at what price?Keywords: mystery, detective, suspense.

Rules of Deception


Christopher Reich - 2008
    Jonathan Ransom, a surgeon for Doctors Without Borders, is climbing in the Swiss Alps with his wife, Emma, when she falls into a hidden crevasse and dies. Twenty-four hours later, Jonathan receives an envelope addressed to his wife containing two baggage-claim tickets. Puzzled, he journeys to a railway station only to find himself inexplicably attacked by the Swiss police. Suddenly forced on the run, Jonathan's only chance at survival lies in uncovering the devastating truth behind his wife's secret life.

Yellow-Dog Contract


Ross Thomas - 1976
    Former political campaign manager Harvey Longmire comes out of retirement to search for a missing union leader. What follows is the wildest adventure of conspiracy and murder in his career.

Field of Blood


Denise Mina - 2005
    The vicious murder of a young child provides rookie journalist Paddy Meehan with her first big break when the suspect turns out to be her fiance's 11-year old cousin. Launching her own investigation into the horrific crime, Paddy uncovers lines of deception deep in Glasgow's past, with more horrific crimes in the future if she fails to solve the mystery. Infused with Mina's unique blend of dark humor, personal insights and social injustice, the story grips the reader while challenging our perceptions of childhood innocence, crime and punishment, and right or wrong.

The Blood Strand


Chris Ould - 2016
    But he is drawn back when his estranged father is found unconscious with a shotgun by his side and someone else’s blood at the scene. Then a man’s body is washed up on an isolated beach. Is Reyna’s father responsible?Looking for answers, Reyna falls in with local detective Hjalti Hentze. But as the stakes get higher and Reyna learns more about his family and the truth behind his mother’s flight from the Faroes, he must decide whether to stay, or to forsake the strange, windswept islands for good.

Private Heat


Robert E. Bailey - 2002
    So when the senior partner of one of the premier legal firms in Grand Rapids approaches Hardin about a job protecting his niece from her soon-to-be ex-husband for a couple of days, Hardin isn't exactly eager to take on the job. However, Hardin finds that the fee offered to too great to pass up. After a hatchet attack, a house burnt down, and a few violent encounters with some crooked cops, Hardin can hardly wait for the case to be over. But when the husband is found murdered, the niece attempts suicide, and Hardin is brought in on a trumped-up warrant for the crime, it is no longer a case that he is willing to walk away from -- even if he could.

Russian Roulette


Mike Faricy - 2011
    OR SO DANGEROUS... PI Dev Haskell wakes up one morning in dire need of an asprin, a cup of coffee, and an hour in the sauna. It seems he's just spent a wild night with his beautiful bombshell of a client, Kerri, and she's left him a note. A smart and sly man who fancies himself just a little more savvy and debonair than reality confirms, Dev thinks he's got it made. But he has absolutely no idea what he's getting into when he agrees to track down Kerri's sister Nikki. Turns out both women are involved in an elaborate human trafficking ring with Braco the Whacko, a notorious Russian mobster, at the helm. Soon Dev finds himself at odds with local police, Homeland Security, and an FBI task force, as well as in and out of the hospital thanks to a gunshot wound and a bit of shrapnel in the rear, not to mention on the run from a neurotic underworld boss and a psychotic killer: it must be love... In a bizarre but compelling mixture of crime and offbeat comedy, Dev proceeds to messily balance both sides of the law in a wacky tale that will keep you on your toes while laughing out loud.

Rough Country


T.J. Brearton - 2020
    A town with a dark secret.A young girl, Kasey, is murdered in the woods of northern New York, a strange symbol carved into her stomach.Investigator Reed Raleigh, Major Crimes, is tasked with finding the killer.Reed has his own troubles. He’s in therapy, divorced, estranged from his son. But he desperately needs to solve this case - his own stepdaughter vanished when she was a teenager and Reed knows all about the agony of having no closure. No way is he letting Kasey’s mother go through that.But as Reed begins to dig, the case grows ever more complex. Why is Kasey’s boyfriend acting so strangely? And why is her mother lying to the police?As evidence of Kasey’s bizarre secret life starts to emerge, Reed realises this case isn’t just about a dead girl. There’s something much bigger at play in this small rural town, a decades old secret that needs to be protected. At any cost.

The Crossing Places


Elly Griffiths - 2009
    Ruth Galloway is in her late thirties and lives happily alone with her two cats in a bleak, remote area near Norfolk, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants—not quite earth, not quite sea. But her routine days of digging up bones and other ancient objects are harshly upended when a child’s bones are found on a desolate beach. Detective Chief Inspector Nelson calls Galloway for help, believing they are the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing a decade ago and whose abductor continues to taunt him with bizarre letters containing references to ritual sacrifice, Shakespeare, and the Bible. Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson receives a new letter—exactly like the ones about Lucy. Is it the same killer or a copycat murderer, linked in some way to the site near Ruth’s remote home?

Catalina Eddy: A Novel in Three Decades


Daniel Pyne - 2017
    This is Pyne's masterpiece. I guarantee no reader will go wanting." - Michael ConnellyTimes may change, but crimes never do, and neither do the people who investigate them. A collection of three loosely connected crime novellas, each set in a distinct era, Catalina Eddy is a gritty, hard-boiled exploration into the immutable police underworld of Southern California. In The Big Empty, an obstinate Los Angeles detective investigates the murder of his estranged wife while fears of nuclear war and Communism grip the nation; in Losertown, a mid-career attorney in San Diego chases down a legendary drug kingpin but chafes against the Reagan Revolution policies of his new boss; and in Portuguese Bend, set in the present day, an undercover cop is paralyzed in a gunfight but determined to solve what may be her last case as a police officer in Long Beach. They are all, in one way or another, stuck in dreary endless loops of love, murder, and the quest for clarity, release, and redemption. Reminiscent of James Ellroy's grittiness and Raymond Chandler's dark wit, Catalina Eddy is Daniel Pyne's clever homage to--and skillful deconstruction of--traditional noir storytelling. Moody, enthralling, and keenly imagined, Catalina Eddy evokes the characters and ambiance of a singular, peculiar landscape with cinematic flair.

Silent Crime


W.L. Knightly - 2019
     My mother used to tell me that evil only comes to those who are looking for it, and maybe she was right. Corruption and death walk hand and hand in this town. I refuse to give in, but giving up seems to be my only option. As a detective, I’ve seen enough killing for ten lifetimes, and now, leaving is the only way to keep my sanity. I never thought that my last case while training my replacement would have a stranglehold on me personally. It’s like the Hangman is placing the noose around my neck, and the rope is only getting tighter.