Book picks similar to
Shattered by Karl Jones
suspense
mystery
thriller
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The Long Fall: A Novel of Crime
Lynn Kostoff - 2003
In sunbaked Phoenix, Arizona, this never-predictable tale tosses into its antic mix a dead father, his two sons—one a small-time ex-con with a consistent genius for sabotaging his own best interests, the other a straight, uptight solid citizen with a moneymaking chain of dry-cleaning stores and a restive ex-stewardess of a wife named Evelyn—and a sicko cop with a twisted worldview. Recently released from prison—twenty-four months for possession of a truckload of black-market saguaro cacti—and in deep debt to an unforgiving crank dealer, Jimmy Coates returns home only to discover that his brother has cut him out of his inheritance. A not-unjustifiable desire to settle old scores and new sends Jimmy on a robbery spree that wipes out four of his brother's dry-cleaning establishments. But when he finds himself tumbling for a mutinously sexy Evelyn, the impulse to vengeance reverses itself. Unwittingly, however, Jimmy has already set in motion a series of dangerous consequences—adultery, blackmail, love, betrayal—that culminate in a blueprint for murder. And it could be Jimmy himself who is taking the long fall.
Face of Death
Stella Gold - 2019
The numbers torment her, make her unable to relate to people, and give her a failed romantic life—yet they also allow her to see patterns that no other FBI agent can see. Zoe keeps her condition a secret, ashamed, in fear her colleagues may find out. Yet when a serial killer strikes across the Midwest, strangling women in remote places and seemingly at random, Zoe, for the first time, is stumped. Is there a pattern? Can there be no pattern at all? Or is this killer as obsessed with numbers as she is? In a mad race against time, Zoe must enter the diabolical mind of a killer who always seems to be one step ahead of her, and stop him from claiming his next victim before it’s too late. At the same time, she must keep at bay her own demons, which may ultimately prove to be even more threatening.
Wearing the Spider
Susan Schaab - 2007
She embarks on a clandestine investigation while dodging the FBI, risking her life as well as her career.***It starts with a simple unwanted kiss…and evolves into a labyrinthine trail of forgery and illusion…a hijacked identity, a corruption scandal involving a U.S. Senator accused of channeling illegal benefits to a shady South American firm…even kidnapping and murder. Wearing the Spider, the award-winning debut novel by Susan Schaab, may be the only novel to combine elements of sexual harassment, identity theft, and political scandal into one sophisticated plot set in the hard-driving corporate culture. Evie Sullivan, a rising legal star on the fast track to partnership at her respected New York law firm, is being set up for a fall…a BIG fall. Besieged initially with seemingly innocuous recordkeeping errors, she overhears portions of a shocking telephone conversation. Then, she is blindsided by discoveries that are much more troubling: impersonation of her email username and unmistakable sabotage of one of her client projects causing a groundswell of doubt within the firm about her competence. Once her name is linked to a deal containing a questionable, and possibly illegal, arrangement, she has no choice but to conduct her own clandestine investigation to clear her name. An FBI agent confronts her with tough questions about murder and fraud for which she has no answers. As she searches for the truth, the electronic evidence shifts and transforms behind a dynamic veil of security””and certain pieces of the puzzle simply disappear. How will she gather tangible evidence to prove her innocence among the elusive clues and carefully woven traps? At stake: not only her professional reputation and her future with the firm, not only a commission worth $25 million””but several lives. In this intricately plotted and memorable thriller, attorney and former computer consultant Susan Schaab draws on her expertise in intellectual property and technology law as well as computer systems design to create a fast-paced and thoroughly believable journey through corruption and intrigue…an exhilarating joyride that explores the complex relationships in a big-city law firm, where sexual harassment and manipulation may be more common than any statistics suggest. “The Devil Wears Prada in legal technicolor. A smart, thoroughly enjoyable tale.”� ”“Liz Smith, New York Post“Wow…a high-tech thriller that cracks open the inner workings of a large law firm and leaves one wondering just how often sexual harassment and hostile work environments are tolerated in the corporate world…I highly recommend Wearing the Spider.”� ”¨”“Heather Froeschl, Book Review Journal “Imaginative, suspenseful and well thought out, Wearing the Spider is a mystery thriller that readers will find hard to put down.”� ”“Shirley Roe, Allbooks Review “…confronts us with some of the horrifying truths of our computer age world.”�”¨”“Ross Malde, TCM Reviews “...The characters are memorable and the vicarious technological insights are very interesting…Thrilling read…”�”“Jill Stovall, Armchair Interviews “It is one of those novels that one finds impossible to put down…If I could have given it a higher score than five stars, I would have…It will keep you on edge until you find
One Last Child
Anni Taylor - 2020
The heat was stifling that day, the tinkle of an ice-cream van in the air....Three-and-a-half years later, in the dead of winter, the children are returned to their families...one by one.All except for Ivy - the granddaughter of Homicide Detective Kate Wakeland. The other four children say Ivy is dead.Speculation grows that the mysterious abductor is enacting a cruel revenge plot due to a murderer that Kate put in jail years before.Kate isn't sure what to believe. But one thing is certain - she's about to begin the battle of her life. When the children were first stolen, she was prevented from investigating the case.But now, Kate will be relentless in uncovering the identity of the abductor and discovering what happened to Ivy.
Hollywood Assassin
M.Z. Kelly - 2014
Okay, so her ex-husband cheated on her and the DVD of his indiscretions made the rounds of the entire department, she’s broke and living above an appliance store with her canine partner Bernie who is a sexual predator, her British friend Natalie has a vocabulary that would make Howard Stern blush, and her mother is hallucinating about having sex with a dead president. But things could be worse . . . like Kate could be stalked by a sadistic serial killer while she tries to solve a thirty year-old murder and save the life and reputation of a cop wanted for the crime. Come to think of it, maybe things couldn’t get any worse because this is Kate’s life. Can Kate Sexton elude the killer, solve the cold case, keep Bernie's sexual wanderlust in check, keep her best friend under control, save a cop from death row, and find love again? Only time, loads of trouble, and tons of laughs will tell. Hollywood Assassin has more twists and turns than a car chase on Sunset Strip with a Hollywood starlet at the wheel. WARNING: The Hollywood Alphabet Series contains adult language and laugh out loud situations not for the faint of heart! If you think you can handle Kate Sexton’s crazy life . . . order Hollywood Assassin today. Hollywood Assassin is the first book in the Hollywood Alphabet Series. Other books include Hollywood Blood and Hollywood Crazy.
The Last Kind Words
Tom Piccirilli - 2012
Upon the razor-thin edge between love and violence lives a pair of brothers, their bonds frayed by betrayals and guilt, their loyalty to each other their last salvation.Raised to pick a pocket before he could walk, Terry Rand cut free from his family after his older brother, Collie, went on a senseless killing spree that left eight dead. Five years later, only days before his scheduled execution, Collie contacts Terry and asks him to return home. Collie claims he wasn’t responsible for one of the murders—and insists that the real killer is still on the loose.Dogged by his own demons, Terry is swept back into the schemes and scams of his family: His father, Pinsch, a retired cat burglar, brokenhearted because of his two sons. His card-sharp uncles, Mal and Grey, who’ve incurred the anger of the local mob. His grandfather, Shep, whose mind is failing but whose fingers can still slip out a wallet from across the room. His teenage sister, Dale, who’s flirting dangerously with the lure of the family business. And Kimmie, the woman Terry abandoned, who’s now raising a child with Terry’s former best friend. Terry pieces together the day his brother turned rabid, delving into a blood history that reveals the Rand family tree is rotten to the roots, and the secrets his ancestors buried are now coming furious and vengeful to the surface.A meditation on how love can confine a person just as easily as it can free him, juxtaposing shocking violence and sly humor, The Last Kind Words is the brilliantly inventive family saga that only a singular talent like Tom Piccirilli could conjure.
Last Chance to Run
Dianna Love - 2005
He’s interested. Escaping the compound of a deadly international felon--with a fortune in rare, stolen coins hidden on her body--elite athlete Angel Farentino has to make the most important run of her life. Literally. With her father in prison, where he belongs, and a prior undeserved conviction hanging over her head, she has nowhere to turn and no one to trust. Definitely not law enforcement who railroaded her through a judicial nightmare. One step ahead of lethal men and dogs on her trail, she runs into the arms of a dark stranger willing to help her if she’d let him. But that would only get the sexy pilot killed. Between figuring out who’s sabotaging his undercover work for the DEA and trying to save his baby sister from herself, Zane Jackson has enough on his plate. The last thing he needs is to get entangled with a woman who’s treading on the wrong side of the law. But when the long-legged distraction races into the middle of his operation and stows away on his plane, a primal need to protect forces Zane to risk everything, starting with his heart.Note - This book was originally released as Worth Every Risk. When Dianna received the rights back she revised the story to the much larger romantic thriller version she'd always envisioned, which includes more romance and plenty of action.
What You Did
Claire McGowan - 2019
A devastating accusation. Who should she trust, her husband or her best friend?It was supposed to be the perfect reunion: six university friends together again after twenty years. Host Ali finally has the life she always wanted, a career she can be proud of and a wonderful family with her college boyfriend, now husband. But that night her best friend makes an accusation so shocking that nothing will ever be the same again.When Karen staggers in from the garden, bleeding and traumatised, she claims that she has been assaulted—by Ali’s husband, Mike. Ali must make a split-second decision: who should she believe? Her horrified husband, or her best friend? With Mike offering a very different version of events, Ali knows one of them is lying—but which? And why?When the ensuing chaos forces her to re-examine the golden era the group shared at university, Ali realises there are darker memories too. Memories that have lain dormant for decades. Memories someone would kill to protect.
Disappear
Iain Edward Henn - 2012
None seem to have aged.On the trail of a vicious killer, Jennifer and homicide detective Neil Lachlan are drawn into a human minefield of deception and terror; into the depths of a mystery that baffles the police and defies logic. Investigating at the forefront of scientific and medical technologies, they confront a threat that is closer than either of them could ever have imagined.
The Woman
David Bishop - 2011
This is a story of just one woman. As the story unfolds Linda gradually learns that some people do deserve to die, but that she is not one of those people. Linda Darby is a seven-year divorcee, living quietly in a small let-the-world-go-by beach town on the coast of Oregon, who day trades for a living. Her only close friend is a widowed elderly woman who manages a small consulting company, which, as is later discovered, never has visitors, sends and receives its business correspondence only by courier, and is not listed in any phone directory. No one in town knows what kind of consulting the company does, but the rumor is that whatever they do is done for the government. Linda doesn’t date local men. When her celibacy grows intolerable, she visits nearby towns to frequent the watering holes of successful men. Her motto: No relationships. No second dates. No use of her real name during one-night stands. Then one evening, Linda goes for a walk and nothing for her is ever the same. She is dragged into an alley by two men, but saved by a third, a stranger who disappears as suddenly as he appeared. The next day she finds out the two men in the alley had been killed, the town’s first murders ever. The following day she learns that hours before she had been dragged into the alley, her close friend was tortured and killed.
The Darkest Thread
Jen Blood - 2016
When Jack realizes the case shares haunting similarities with the murders of the missing girls’ aunts ten years before, it becomes clear that he and Jamie are dealing with much more than two girls who simply wandered off the beaten path.
The Safe Bet
Brittney Sahin - 2015
No attachments, no relationships — he's too busy transforming his knack for military intelligence into a multi-million-dollar enterprise. But when headstrong event planner Kate Adams comes barreling into his life, everything changes.From the moment she arrives in Charlotte, Kate is tongue-tied by Michael. She's never fallen for a client before, but then she's never had a client like him — sleek, hard, and impenetrable as steel.While Kate struggles to keep her distance, a stalker sends her tumbling more deeply into Michael's world. The former Marine is equipped and willing to protect her, and yet Kate finds herself growing more terrified than ever in his care. For as they grow closer, she realizes that Michael has his own secret past. And while he might save her life, he will surely break her heart.Author's Note: Previously titled: Silenced Memories. This is a STAND-ALONE romantic mystery novel. Hidden Truths: Former Marines. Strong female leads. No cliffhangers.
A Good Man Gone
A.W. Hartoin - 2013
Louis and Mercy Watts is on vacation from her parents. The great detective and his nosy wife are on a cruise and Mercy thinks she’s off the hook for doing any investigating for them. But when a family friend has a fatal heart attack, Dad has one of his famous feelings and orders Mercy to look into it. Mercy tries not to get sucked in. She really does, but she’s her father’s daughter. Soon Gavin’s death leads to a more grisly one, the death of a bride on her wedding day. Can the two be connected? Was Gavin murdered? Now Mercy can’t stop. You do for family. That’s all there is to it.
Ghost in the Machine
Ed James - 2012
He is assigned a Missing Persons case which has stretched his uniform colleagues. Caroline Adamson - a young, recently divorced mother from Edinburgh - has disappeared whilst on a date. The more Cullen digs into her disappearance, the more he unravels her private life. Who was she on a date with? What happened during her divorce from Rob Thomson? As Cullen's own private life gets messier and the relationship with his DI deteriorates, Caroline's body turns up and he finds himself hunting for a ghost in the machine. Book one of the Scott Cullen series.
Loose Screw
Rae Davies - 2011
She even lets a cat shove her around.When Lucy trips over the body of a buckskin-clad relics trader, her ex-boss asks her to cover the story. She tries to tell him no, but old habits die hard and soon she finds herself directly in the path of a killer and the exasperating, if attractive, detective in charge.Can Lucy catch a killer or is this the last confrontation for her—period?