Book picks similar to
A Ghostly Shade of Pale by Merle Temple
fiction
crime
recommendations
reordering
The Perfect Couple
Jackie Kabler - 2020
Since then, their relationship has been like something out of a dream. But one Friday evening, Gemma returns home to find Danny is nowhere to be seen.After two days with no word from her husband, Gemma turns to the police. She is horrified with what she discovers – a serial killer is on the loose in Bristol. When she sees the photos of the victims she is even more stunned…the victims all look just like Danny.But, the detectives aren’t convinced by Gemma’s story. Why has no one apart from Gemma seen or heard from Danny in weeks? Why is there barely a trace of him in their flat? Is she telling them the truth, or are there more secrets and lies in this marriage than meets the eye?
The One-Eyed Judge
Michael Ponsor - 2017
Cranmer insists the illicit material found by the agents isn't his, but the charge against him appears airtight, and his academic specialty--the life and work of controversial author Lewis Carroll, creator of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland--convinces investigators he's lying.Presiding over the case against Professor Cranmer, U.S. District Judge David Norcross fears his daily confrontation with evil has made him too jaded to become a husband and father. His girlfriend, Claire Lindemann, teaches in the same department as the defendant and is convinced of his innocence. Soon, she will take matters into her own hands. Meanwhile--with his love life in turmoil and his plans for the future on hold--a personal tragedy leaves Norcross responsible for his two young nieces. Unbeknownst to him, a vengeful child predator hovers over his new family, preparing to strike.Michael Ponsor's debut novel, The Hanging Judge, was praised by retired Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens for reminding readers "that the judicial process is not infallible" and by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder for bearing "the heft of authenticity." The One-Eyed Judge again draws on Ponsor's thirty years as a US district judge, offering readers an insider's view of one of the most harrowing kinds of cases faced by the courts. Fast-paced, thrilling, and thought-provoking, this is legal fiction at its most realistic and compelling.The One-Eyed Judge is the 2nd book in the Judge Norcross Novels, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
Bosstown
Adam Abramowitz - 2017
Zesty Meyers is Boston s fastest bike messenger caffeine fueled, wise-cracking and reckless accustomed to hurtling through Boston s kamikaze streets at breakneck speed, always just a bumper or car door away from disaster.Will Meyers is Zesty s father, Beantown s former backroom poker king and political fixer, who is suffering from Alzheimer s and a growing dread that the Big Dig carving its way through some of Boston s toughest neighborhoods will expose the bodies and secrets he d assumed were buried forever.When the heist of an armored truck goes violently wrong, Zesty is forced to navigate Beantown s gritty underworld of gangsters and blood money, desperately trying to outrace his family s criminal past and stay alive in a changing city where death loiters on every corner and the odds of survival have narrowed to pulling a straight flush on the river."
Creepy Crawly (DI Jake Sawyer, #1)
Andrew Lowe - 2018
Sharp, tough and pathologically fearless.Now he’s quit the capital and returned to his home town in England’s Peak District, to investigate the savage murder of his mother, thirty years earlier.When the body of a teenage boy is found in a shallow grave, close to woodland where Sawyer used to play as a child, he’s called in to help decode the killer’s nightmarish methods.But as the victims stack up and the case takes an unexpected turn, Sawyer must risk his own life to hunt the hunter and save an innocent.
Creepy Crawly is Book One in the DI Jake Sawyer series. Dive in now and discover a new breed of detective, with stories that reveal the dark side of one of England's brightest beauty spots.
Praise for Andrew Lowe:"Prose that gets under your flesh and into your bones.""Taut and compelling. Not a wasted word.""Plot and character perfectly intertwined.""Keeps you reading through the night.""Poetic and utterly gripping."(Amazon reviews).
Take One With You
Oak Anderson - 2014
Anyone determined to commit suicide is urged to first kill someone who "got away with it" before taking their own life. Why not, they ask, "take one with you?"The idea goes viral and things rapidly spiral out of control. As they develop feelings for each other, their worldwide followers begin to enact a very different version of their idea, perverting its original intent and threatening the thin line between civil society and criminal anarchy. Just as they find the hope of happiness together, Charlie and Sarah must deal with the monster they've created, a global epidemic of murder-suicide that threatens the very core of their humanity.Take One With You is a unique crime thriller/millennial love story that poses the question: If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, would you kill someone tonight? Someone who had done something terrible. Someone who deserved to die. If so, who would it be? If you wouldn't go that far, what about your neighbor? Your friend? Your enemy? Who draws the line? Who decides who lives and who dies? And what if we all began to take justice into our own hands?
The Last Justice
Anthony Franze - 2012
Supreme Court when an assassin guns down six justices as they are hearing a case. Solicitor General Jefferson McKenna, the government's top lawyer in the Supreme Court, is appointed to the multiagency commission investigating the murders. As Congress draws battle lines over who will replace the slain justices, the commission follows clue after clue, each one pointing to an unlikely suspect in the conspiracy: McKenna himself.From its explosive first page to its haunting conclusion, The Last Justice explores the politics of law, the bounds of friendship and love, and the frightening price of unbridled ambition.
Dark Homecoming
William Patterson - 2016
Their honeymoon was idyllic and Liz is blissfully happy—at first. But she feels increasingly uneasy in her lavish new home. Huntington House and its staff still seem to be in the thrall of David’s first wife. In fact, the housekeeper, Mrs. Hoffman, has made it clear that Liz can never measure up to the stunning, sophisticated, deceased, Dominique. Though Dominique drowned in a yachting accident, Liz still senses her spirit in the house. She hears unexplained noises…sees shadowy figures vanishing down the long corridors. The scent of Dominique’s favorite flowers fills the air. But Liz’s fears are more than insecurity. Two young women connected to Huntington House have already met terrible deaths. More will die—and soon. Because behind the house’s polished façade is an unimaginable secret and a love turned to twisted, unnatural obsession…Praise for William Patterson’s The Inn "The Conjuring meets The Shining in William Patterson's deliciously creepy thriller. Fast-paced, horror-filled, clever and impossible-to-predict, this heart-pounding tale will leave you breathless." --Kevin O’Brien, New York Times bestselling author
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J. Carson Black - 2012
Max has it all: the devil-may-care charisma, the stunning movie star wife, and a sizable personal fortune that grows along with his legend.When Max escapes from a rehab center in Arizona, disoriented and longing to return to his blue-collar roots, he becomes the target of a motley group of kidnappers planning to cash in by holding him for ransom. Max not only outsmarts them; he evens the score. Little does he know that a far more dangerous and merciless enemy is coming for him. But this time, he has an ally in the smart and beautiful sheriff’s deputy Tess McCrae.For years, Max drifted through an easy superstar life, untethered and without purpose. But as he fights for his life, something turns inside him. He’s ready to live again—on his own terms. He will destroy those who’d rather see him die like an icon than live like a man.
Redeeming Grace
Ward Tanneberg - 2012
Was her death the result of alcohol and drugs or something more sinister? Nobody knows: her body was never recovered. Now years later, a woman reads in disbelief the note addressed to her: Hello Grace, did you think we wouldn t find you? Those nine chilling words end Grafton s self-imposed sanctuary of witness protection. Now she and everyone she loves are in grave danger. Long believed dead, she has a secret that can change the world. She knows the man running for president is guilty of a double murder! But who will believe her?
The King of Lies
John Hart - 2006
But does that make her capable of a vicious murder? Fearing the worst, Work launches his own investigation, crossing paths with a power-hungry detective, a string of damning evidence, and the ugly rumors that swirl within his small, moneyed Southern town.Desperate for the redemption that has eluded him for so many years and stripped of everything he once valued, he fights to save his sister and clear his name--in this poignant and thrilling anatomy of a murder and its ripple effect within a family and a community.
The Silence
Joss Stirling - 2019
The eccentric owner, Bridget, is keen to share her house with like-minded artists so also living there is Jonah – charismatic, volatile and pursuing a career in acting. But his past continues to dog him, both a curse and a blessing as his edgy persona gains traction in the acting world.Jenny is herself battling demons; unable to speak after a catastrophic incident when she was a teenager, she is reliant on strong painkillers to dull the constant pain. Gradually, an insidious addiction takes hold and Jenny’s life spirals out of control. A malevolent energy has gripped the house and Jenny, Jonah and Bridget find themselves battling to save not only their sanity, but also their lives…
Phoenix (Book 1)
Kimberly Packard - 2012
The road to revenge is ahead. But the pit stop she makes along the way could reroute her life. Amanda Martin refuses to burn for the crimes of her manipulative ex-boyfriend. After all, he was the one who strong-armed her into committing fraud and left her to shoulder the blame. When an enraged investor sets fire to their office building, she scrambles onto the first bus out of the city. With the authorities hunting for her, she hides out to plot her revenge in the last place anyone would look—the tiny Texas town of Phoenix.But when Amanda uncovers a hidden talent for reporting at the local paper and starts a sweet romance with a charming cop, she starts to question whether she’d be better off building a new life than tearing her ex a new one. Just as she starts settling in, her work at the paper unearths a decades old cold case that threatens to turn the town against her and expose her criminal past. With time running out before the townsfolk discover her true identity, Amanda is faced with an impossible choice—turn her back on a fellow victim of crime or stand her ground and lose her precious freedom. Phoenix is the first book in an enthralling women’s fiction series. If you like compelling characters, nail-biting suspense, and a dash of romance, then you’ll love Kimberly Packard’s small-town mystery.
Kill Me First
Kate Morgenroth - 1999
When he kidnaps Sarah, his evil reaches new heights.
Deliver Us From Evil (DI Braddick Book #4)
Conrad Jones - 2019
The victims' bodies are missing and the police have no clue as to their identities or who killed them.As the investigation snowballs, the potential body count rises and the Major Investigation Team have little to go on until DNA evidence is examined.There appears to be no motive for the dreadful murders until an ancient script is found daubed on the walls of a nearby property.
As the clues are unravelled, Braddick and his team realise they are dealing with something they have never faced before. Because this time they're tracking evil itself…
Deliver us from Evil is a fast-paced crime thriller full of breathless action. It can be read as book 4 in the international bestselling DI Braddick series or as a truly unmissable stand-alone thriller.
The Ben Hope Collection
Scott Mariani - 2012
Contains the first six Ben Hope novels, together for the very first time:The Alchemist’s SecretThe Mozart ConspiracyThe Doomsday ProphecyThe Heretic’s TreasureThe Shadow ProjectThe Lost Relic