The Bone Keeper


Luca Veste - 2018
    Your bones he'll keep. Twenty years ago, four teenagers went exploring in the local woods, trying to find to the supposed home of The Bone Keeper. Only three returned. Now, a woman is found wandering the streets of Liverpool, horrifically injured, claiming to have fled the Bone Keeper. Investigating officer DC Louise Henderson must convince skeptical colleagues that this urban myth might be flesh and blood. But when a body is unearthed in the woodland the woman has fled from, the case takes on a much darker tone. The disappeared have been found. And their killer is watching every move the police make.The brilliant new police procedural from Luca Veste, featuring series characters Murphy and Rossi - a guaranteed page-turner.

Creepers


David Morrell - 2005
    Built in the glory days of Asbury Park by a reclusive millionaire, the magnificent structure - which foreshadowed the beauties of art deco architecture - is now boarded up and marked for demolition.The five people are "creepers," the slang term for urban explorers: city archeologists with a passion for investigating abandoned buildings and their dying secrets. On this evening, they are joined by a reporter who wants to profile them - anonymously, as this is highly illegal activity - for a New York Times article.Frank Balenger, a sandy-haired, broad-shouldered reporter with a decided air of mystery about him, isn't looking for just a story, however. And after the group enters the rat-infested tunnel leading to the hotel, it becomes clear that he will get much more than he bargained for. Danger, terror, and death await the creepers in a place ravaged by time and redolent of evil.

Tips for Living


Renee Shafransky - 2018
    With the help of her best friend, she fled New York City for a small resort town, snagged a job as the advice columnist for the local paper, and is cautiously letting a new man into her life. But when Hugh and his perfect new family move into a summer house nearby, Nora backslides. Coping with jealousy, humiliation, and resentment again is as hard as she feared. It’s harder still when Hugh and his wife are shot to death in their home.If only Nora could account for the night of the murders. Unfortunately, her memories have gone as dark as her fantasies of revenge. But Nora’s not the only one with a reason to kill—and as prime suspect in the crime, she’d better be able to prove it.

The Right Hand of Evil


John Saul - 1999
    The house, abandoned for 40 years, harbors a dark family secret--a grim bloodline poisoned by suicide, strange disappearances, voodoo rituals, and rumors of murder.

The Cry of the Halidon


Robert Ludlum - 1974
    All Dunstone Limited requires is his time, his expertise, and his absolute secrecy. No one—not even McAuliff’s handpicked team—can know of Dunstone’s involvement. But British Intelligence is aware of the deal, and they’ve let Alex in on a secret of their own: The last survey team Dunstone dispatched to Jamaica vanished without a trace. Now it’s too late to turn back. Alex already knows about Dunstone—which means he knows too much. From the moment he lands in Jamaica, Alex is a marked man. On an island paradise where a beautiful woman might be a spy and every move could be his last, Alex’s only clue to survival is a single mysterious word: Halidon.  Praise for Robert Ludlum  “Don’t ever begin a Ludlum novel if you have to go to work the next day.”—Chicago Sun-Times   “Ludlum stuffs more surprises into his novels than any other six-pack of thriller writers combined.”—The New York Times

The Extraction


Steven F. Freeman - 2017
    His fiancée has been kidnapped, and Farr is given only twenty-four hours to follow and solve a trail of ten hidden clues, or she dies. Identifying the abductor could provide Farr with a vital shortcut for locating his fiancée. But with each new clue connected to a different criminal from his past cases, which offender should he pursue? With the window closing fast, Farr must race the clock to rescue his love…or be consumed by the madness and violence he had thought left behind.

Games of the Hangman


Victor O'Reilly - 1991
    When photographer Hugo Fitzduane finds a hanged body, it's ruled a suicide. But when the body of a terrorist is found with the same strange tattoo, Fitzduane is plunged into a firestorm of violence as he tries to expose the link.

A Small Death in Lisbon


Robert Wilson - 1999
    for the best mystery of 1999, this complex literary thriller may be one of the most satisfying suspense novels to come along in some time. Robert Wilson has written several political thrillers, most of which are set in West Africa, but they are, alas, largely unavailable in the U.S.In A Small Death in Lisbon, the narrative switches back and forth between 1941 and 1999, and Wilson's wide knowledge of history and keen sense of place make the eras equally vibrant. In 1941 Germany, Klaus Felsen, an industrialist, is approached by the SS high command in a none-too-friendly manner and is "persuaded" to go to Lisbon and oversee the sale--or smuggling--of wolfram (also known as tungsten, used in the manufacture of tanks and airplanes). World War II Portugal is neutral where business is concerned, and too much of the precious metal is being sold to Britain when Germany needs it to insure that Hitler's blitzkrieg is successful.Cut to 1999 Lisbon, where the daughter of a prominent lawyer has been found dead on a beach. Ze Coelho, a liberal police inspector who is a widower with a daughter of his own, must sift through the life of Catarina Oliveira and discover why she was so brutally murdered. Her father is enigmatic, her mother suicidal; her friends were rock musicians and drug addicts.The reader is treated to a wonderful portrait of Lisbon in the aftermath of the 1974 revolution that ousted Salazar from power, and the scars from that conflict are still close to the surface for the citizens of Lisbon, including Coehlo and his colleagues. We also see World War II in a slightly different manner from that to which we are accustomed--through the eyes of the Germans and the Portuguese. The pace of the book is leisurely but compelling as the events of 1941 and those in 1999 merge in an extraordinary climax

Max


D.M. Mitchell - 2011
    Terrible things. My mind is in a whorl, confused as to what I should relate first. Where to begin? I must describe my cell. After all, it has become my world. Strange, that I who once had the entire globe to choose from, am now confined within a twelve feet by twelve feet boundary." So writes Philip Calder. He is being kept a prisoner, alone, on a remote Scottish island. His life is shrunk to the stifling confines of his small room, a courtyard surrounded by high walls, and the sterile company of two uniformed guards whom he ironically names Morcambe and Wise. He is only allowed a pen and paper to break the monotony. So he writes. He writes about how he came to be there, starting at the beginning, when Maxwell Stone first came into his world.He relates how his world was altered forever when Connie Stone and her ten year old son Max moved into the small mining town of Overthorpe. It's the 1960s, and Connie causes a stir amongst the locals, for wearing bright lipstick, short skirts, and, the worst of all, being a single mother. Calder is at once captivated by her. Philip becomes friends with her son, but it is a strange, volatile relationship. Max is unfathomable, unpredictable, often violent, and as they grow older both Philip and Max vie for one young woman's attention - Ruby. But it's Max's strange fascination with wanting to be Philip Calder, to have his life, his identity, that triggers a series of unpredictable events that will lead to Calder's imprisonment.Gavin Miller is a successful author. He is in possession of Calder's manuscript, having been handed it by the manager of a nursing home called Overton Hall. He knows he must destroy it, because in it is laid bare his own dark secret. In it lies the seeds of his own ruin and why he is irrevocably tied emotionally and physically to the enigmatic Mrs Randolf.But who exactly is Gavin Miller? Who is Mrs Randolf? What is the truth behind Philip Calder's bizarre imprisonment on a remote Scottish island?Max is a brooding novel that twists and turns through the decades to explore the dark workings of a troubled friendship, a diseased mind, and the jealousies and hatred that leads ultimately to madness, deceit and murder.

Playing Jenna


Kiersten Modglin - 2017
    This mysterious woman, Jenna, causes Monroe to question everything she thought she knew about her life, her family, and her marriage. Forced to face a life, and a love, full of lies and deceit— Monroe vows to exact revenge on the woman who caused her entire world to crumble around her. As she begins digging into the affair, she finds herself uncovering clues that point to a much more sinister truth than she could have ever imagined. Every belief Monroe had about her marriage, and her seemingly perfect husband, is called into question as she realizes she may not have known the man she married as well as she thought. With all of the odds against her, Monroe sets out on a journey of self-discovery and self-preservation to uncover the truth about her past and the woman who ripped it all away from her.

Her Last Breath


Hilary Davidson - 2021
    However, her sorrow turns to bone-chilling confusion when she receives a message Caroline sent days earlier warning that her death would be no accident. Long used to being a pariah to her family, Deirdre covers her tattoos and heads to Manhattan for her sister’s funeral.The message claimed Caroline’s husband, Theo, killed his first wife and got away with it. Reeling from the news, Deirdre confronts Theo on the way to the cemetery, and he reveals both his temper and his suspicion that Deirdre’s “perfect” sister was having an affair.Paranoid and armed with just enough information to make her dangerous, Deirdre digs into the disturbing secrets buried with Caroline. But as she gets closer to the truth, she realizes that her own life may be at risk…and that there may be more than one killer in the family.

These Toxic Things


Rachel Howzell Hall - 2021
    When her latest client, Nadia Denham, a curio shop owner, dies from an apparent suicide, Mickie honors the old woman’s last wish and begins curating her peculiar objets d’art. A music box, a hair clip, a key chain―twelve mementos in all that must have meant so much to Nadia, who collected them on her flea market scavenges across the country.But these tokens mean a lot to someone else, too. Mickie has been receiving threatening messages to leave Nadia’s past alone.It’s becoming a mystery Mickie is driven to solve. Who once owned these odd treasures? How did Nadia really come to possess them? Discovering the truth means crossing paths with a long-dormant serial killer and navigating the secrets of a sinister past. One that might, Mickie fears, be inescapably entwined with her own.

The Ministry of Fear


Graham Greene - 1943
    He was surviving alone, outside the war, until he happened to win a cake at the fête. From that moment, he is ruthlessly hunted by Nazi agents and finds himself the prey of malign and shadowy forces. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Alan Furst.

Judas Silver


J.R. Rain - 2010
    RainSomeone is stealing the cursed thirty coins paid to betray Christ. Disturbed by these events, the Vatican hires our hero, antiquities thief, Trey Jordan. Trey's mission is simple: find the coins first, and to free his imprisoned father, Trey has no choice but to agree. To combat the dark power contained within the cursed coins, Trey will be entrusted with a powerful weapon of his own, a weapon hidden deep with the Vatican's secret chambers.As the adventure begins, he will team up with a past lover, the beautiful numismatist Eve Roberts, a coin collector herself and owner of one of the cursed Judas coins. Their search begins with a famous sunken ship and will lead to a bizarre castle located in the middle of a Scottish loch. And waiting at every turn is the mysterious Draken, whose dark power multiplies with the acquisition of each new coin. In the end, when a seemingly victorious Draken brings together all thirty coins, when the Gates of Hell have been thrown wide open and the world has been plunged into darkness and chaos, a desperate Trey Jordan will unleash the ferocious power of the legendary Fourth Nail.**Acclaim for the Novels of J.R. Rain**"Gripping, adventurous, and romantic — J.R. Rain's The Lost Ark is a breakneck thriller that traces the thread of history from Biblical stories to current-day headlines. Be prepared to lose sleep!"—JAMES ROLLINS, international bestselling author of Altar of Eden and The Doomsday Key"I enjoyed this immensely. The protagonist, Samantha Moon, is a female vampire with a husband and children. Those predate her condition; six years ago she was attacked by a vampire and rendered into one. Now she's trying to carry on with family and private eye business, and she's a feisty, skilled person, so is doing mostly okay. It is not a horror story; she buys animal blood to eat and doesn't generally prey on humans. But her husband has an increasing problem with her coldness — not of spirit, but of body. 'You sicken me and scare the hell out of me,' he tells her. 'And when I touch you it's all I can do to not gag.' She replies, 'Words every wife wants to hear.' I love this! What makes it special are her character and nature."—PIERS ANTHONY, New York Times bestselling author of A Spell for Chameleon and On A Pale Horse"Dark Horse is one of the best books I've read in a long time! A great classic detective story with a modern twist. Unique and interesting characters (I think I'm half in love with Jim Knighthorse now!), a great plot that kept me guessing until the end, and some of the funniest lines I've read anywhere."—GEMMA HALLIDAY, author of Deadly Cool and Play Dead"Impossible to put down. J.R. Rain's Moon Dance is a fabulous urban fantasy."—APRIL VINE, author of The Midnight Rose and Blindfolded by Lust"Moon Dance is absolutely brilliant!"—LISA TENZIN-DOLMA, author of Understanding the Planetary Myths and The Dolphin Experience "Moon Dance is a must read. If you like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter, be prepared to love J. R. Rain's Samantha Moon, vampire private investigator."—EVE PALUDAN, author of Letters from David and The Romance Writer's Pink Pages"I totally loved The Body Departed. As someone who communicates with those who are either earthbound or have crossed over — your descriptions and interpretations of the dialogue and circumstances could not have been written more accurately. My favorite scene is the one of Jesus stepping down from the cross and then the passionate and compassionate way it was treated as he went back to the cross. I will relive that for a long time to come. You're a wonderfully descriptive writer who paints a very creative, visionary canvass based in a paranormal pallet that only a few experience and many can enjoy."—JULIE BELMONT, author of The Path to Personal Success and Freedom and Seizing Your Success

A Stranger in the Mirror


Sidney Sheldon - 1976
    He gets any woman that he wants, but under the superstar image is a lonely man. Jill Castle is a sensuous starlet. She has a dark and mysterious past and has an ambition even greater than Toby's. Together they rule Hollywood.