Book picks similar to
A Wash of Black by Chris McDonald
crime
mystery
uk-crime
genre-thriller-mystery
The Reaper
Steven Dunne - 2007
But it seems a serial killer has followed him north…Brook's seeking sanctuary. Years in the MET have left their mark - so much so that he's fled to Derby leaving behind his marriage, his teenage daughter and very nearly his sanity to wind down a once promising career in the peace of the Peak District.But one winter's night, Brook is confronted by a serial killer he hunted many years before - The Reaper - a man who slaughters families in their homes then disappears without a trace.To find this killer Brook must discover what the Reaper is doing in Derby, why he's started killing again and what, if anything, connects the butchered families.As Brook becomes entangled in a deadly game of cat and mouse, he is forced to face his own demons by confronting a past that destroyed his family and destroyed his family and nearly cost him his life…A heart-stopping thriller from a stunning new crime talent, for fans of Stuart MacBrie and Thomas Harris.
The Shetland Sea Murders
Marsali Taylor - 2021
A fishing vessel has become trapped on the rocks off the coast of one of the islands.In the days that follow, there's both a shocking murder and a baffling death. On the surface there's no link, but when Cass becomes involved it is soon clear that her life is also in danger.Convinced that someone sinister is at work in these Shetland waters, Cass is determined to find and stop them. But uncovering the truth could prove to be deadly . .
White is the Coldest Colour
John Nicholl - 2015
Be careful who you trust…The Mailer family is oblivious to the terrible danger that enters their lives when seven-year-old Anthony is referred to the child guidance service by the family GP, following the breakdown of his parents’ marriage.Fifty-eight-year-old Dr David Galbraith, a sadistic, predatory paedophile, employed as a consultant child psychiatrist, has already murdered one child in the soundproofed cellar below the South Wales Georgian town-house he shares with his wife and two young daughters.When Anthony becomes Galbraith’s latest obsession he will stop at nothing to make his grotesque fantasies reality.But can Anthony be saved before it’s too late? Brilliantly gripping, White is the Coldest Colour will have you hooked from the very first page and holding your breath to the heart-pounding and shocking conclusion.Please be aware that this book includes content that some readers may find disturbing from the start.
Nine Elms
Robert Bryndza - 2019
But her greatest victory suddenly turned into a nightmare. Traumatized, betrayed, and publicly vilified for the shocking circumstances surrounding the cannibal murder case, Kate could only watch as her career ended in scandal.Fifteen years after those catastrophic events, Kate is still haunted by the unquiet ghosts of her troubled past. Now a lecturer at a small coastal English university, she finally has a chance to face them. A copycat killer has taken up the Nine Elms mantle, continuing the ghastly work of his idol.Enlisting her brilliant research assistant, Tristan Harper, Kate draws on her prodigious and long-neglected skills as an investigator to catch a new monster. Success promises redemption, but there’s much more on the line: Kate was the original killer’s intended fifth victim…and his successor means to finish the job.
Found Money
Charlie Carillo - 2012
Where did it come from? Whose is it? Those questions will be answered in an overnight drama that’s also a journey into the past - a saga of love, lust, greed, double-crossing, prison, betrayal and redemption on that long, crooked road to the truth. Found money looks like easy money, but looks can be deceiving.
Death Comes to Cornwall
Kate Johnson - 2020
The perfect place for murder...
Molly Higgins never expected to be caught up in a murder investigation. All she'd hoped for this year was to work hard, save enough money to open her very own café on the Cornish coast and avoid her ex, Conor Blackstone, who has just arrived back in the village. But when she and Conor discover a body on the cliffside in Port Trevan they are thrown once more together. Molly is keen to leave the mystery to the police, but when she finds herself their top suspect, Molly has no choice but to catch the killer herself - before it is too late.
Death Wore White
Jim Kelly - 2008
Harvey Ellis was trapped - stranded in a line of eight cars by a blizzard on a Norfolk coast road.At 8.15 p.m. Harvey Ellis was dead - viciously stabbed at the wheel of his truck.And his killer has achieved the impossible: striking without being seen, and without leaving a single footprint in the snow . . .For DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine it's only the start of an infuriating investigation. The crime scene is melting, the murderer has vanished, the witnesses are dropping like flies. And the body count is on the rise . . .
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."
Bangkok Cowboy
Ron McMillan - 2013
Two days after private eye Mason sees a drunken Australian kicked to death in Bangkok’s notorious Soi Cowboy, he is approached by one of the men involved. Mobster Raymond Long owns nightclubs on the seedy sex strip and wants Mason to find his American accountant, who has disappeared, taking with her a computer hard drive. Mason is about to turn him down, when he realises the missing accountant is his friend Nathalie West. A British Army veteran of the Afghan war, Mason has seen his share of conflict - but finding out why Nathalie was secretly working for scum like Raymond Long pushes him beyond even his combat-hardened limits. Mason and his Thai partner Dixie urgently need to discover why the missing hard drive is so important – and to get to Nathalie before Long’s murderous gang find her. The arrival from Vancouver of a psychotic hitman representing Raymond Long’s mob bosses only adds to tension that mounts all the way to a late night climax on the banks of the Chao Phraya River. By the author of the critically-praised Yin Yang Tattoo, (Sandstone Press, 2010), Bangkok Cowboy is the first in a series of action-packed Mason & Dixie crime thrillers set within the grimy folds of one of the world’s great cities.
Power and Justice
Peter O'Mahoney - 2019
His enemies want blood.And criminal defense attorney Tex Hunter is the only hope he has left.Robert Sulzberger appeared to have a perfect life—a respected position in the City Council, a lovely family, a house with all the trimmings—but behind the façade, his life was crumbling. Drawn into a world of crime and corruption, Sulzberger couldn’t find a way out. He couldn’t escape. And when he tried to walk away, he found himself behind bars.The trial captures the media’s attention and the dark forces of politics are thrown into the limelight. As the son of a convicted serial killer, Tex Hunter knows just how dangerous those forces can be.In the first instalment of the Tex Hunter novel series, Hunter battles against deception, fraud, and cover-ups; risking everything in the most difficult case of his career.Can justice triumph against corruption?Or will the dark side of politics bury the truth forever?This thrilling story will take you for a ride through the courtroom, and end with a twist that you didn’t see coming.
The Blood Banker
David Prever - 2012
And something about the tube death doesn’t add up… When a second banker takes his life, then a third, he’s certain of wrongdoing.In a race to reveal the truth, Lightfoot uncovers a laundered money trail that leads, via Hong Kong and the world’s largest online criminal cartel, to the heart of British government: Number Ten Downing Street – and a man who will stop at nothing to achieve the power he craves.But with a hired killer watching his every move, can Lightfoot banish his demons and face down the evil that threatens his life?