Book picks similar to
Heartland by David Wiltse
fiction
mystery
thriller
suspense
High Water
Lynn Hightower - 2002
A daughter's intuition. A father's terrifying secret. High WaterBeaufort, South Carolina: When the matriarch of the Smallwood family dies of mysterious causes, everybody in town has their eyes on the widower. An ex-marine involved in a local scandal years before, Fielding Smallwood is known as a fierce man with a powerful sense of discipline. He was neglectful of his wife and three children, including Georgie, the youngest, who is convinced her father is the killer...until another tragedy occurs and her sister Claire becomes a prime suspect. Now it's up to Georgie to find the evidence needed to clear her sister's name -- even if what she discovers threatens the survival of the only family she has left.Lynn Hightower entwines deadly deceptions and startling revelations in this rich, intricate work of suspense.
The Marlow Chronicles
Lawrence Sanders - 1977
In this thrilling drama of revenge and desire, he introduces a deadly twist -- a brilliant actor, cast in the most demanding role of his career: his own death.
One Two Buckle My Shoe
Jessie Hunter - 1997
He is the Chocolate Man, a methodical serial killer who has already abducted seven children. But with number eight the Chocolate Man makes a terrible mistake: the child he takes is a little girl. Desperate and confused, this obsessive psychopath doesn't know what to do next--and neither do the police.While they scramble to predict the Chocolate Man's next move, terrified yet resourceful nine-year-old Emily Lookinland struggles to survive the clutches of a madman who is both grown-up monster and lonely child. And, caught in the middle of it all is Emily's grief-torn mother, a woman propelled by vengeance and hope, who will stop at nothing to rescue her daughter."Gripping suspense and a moving psychological portrait.. Turns the stereotype of the unstoppable, mechanical serial killer upside-down." - Publishers Weekly
Afterwards
Rosamund Lupton - 2011
They are in there...Black smoke stains a summer blue sky. A school is on fire. And one mother, Grace, sees the smoke and rush. She knows her teenage daughter Jenny is inside. She runs into the burning building to rescue her.Afterwards Grace must find the identity of the arsonist and protect her children from the person who's still intent on destroying them. Afterwards, she must fight the limits of her physical strength and discover the limitlessness of love.
The Mourning Hours
Paula Treick DeBoard - 2013
Kirsten Hammarstrom hasn't been home to her tiny corner of rural Wisconsin in years-not since the mysterious disappearance of a local teenage girl rocked the town and shattered her family. Kirsten was just nine years old when Stacy Lemke went missing, and the last person to see her alive was her boyfriend, Johnny-the high school wrestling star and Kirsten's older brother. No one knows what to believe-not even those closest to Johnny-but the event unhinges the quiet farming community and pins Kirsten's family beneath the crushing weight of suspicion. Now, years later, a new tragedy forces Kirsten and her siblings to return home, where they must confront the devastating event that shifted the trajectory of their lives. Tautly written and beautifully evocative, The Mourning Hours is a gripping portrayal of a family straining against extraordinary pressure, and a powerful tale of loyalty, betrayal and forgiveness.
Rhapsody in Red
Donn E. Taylor - 2008
Preston Barclay is a self-made recluse (and he likes it that way). Teaching college history allows him time to grieve the loss of his pianist wife and find relief from the musical hallucinations that have been playing in his head since her death. But when he and a headstrong colleague, Mara Thorn, discover the body of another instructor on campus, Press's monotonous solitude is shaken up. The preliminary evidence points to Press and Mara. Now they must take some chances, including trusting each other (and bending the rules) to build their own defense. With their unlikely alliance, they must stay ahead of the police, the college's incompetent administration, and whoever is trying to get away with murder. If not, they might end up unemployed, behind bars, or worse . . .
Blind Spot
Judy Mercer - 2000
The call that comes in the predawn stillness of a warm Los Angeles night shocks Ariel Gold awake. A friend has been blinded. The assualt on Laya is brutal, the result tragic, the method insidious. The LAPD thinks it's a case of product tampering, with the unlucky Laya a random victim. Ariel's not so sure. As a correspondent for the TV newsmagazine Open File, she is in a unique position to satisfy her doubts. As a friend, she won't quit until she has. But the claims of friendship, Ariel soon finds out, can prove complicated -- and dangerous....
The Butterfly Sister
Amy Gail Hansen - 2013
And then, on that particular October evening, it literally arrived at my doorstep."Eight months after dropping out of Tarble, an all-women's college, twenty-two-year-old Ruby Rousseau is still haunted by the memories of her senior year-a year marred by an affair with her English professor and a deep depression that not only caused her to question her own sanity but prompted a failed suicide attempt.And then a mysterious paisley print suitcase arrives, bearing Ruby's name and address on the tag. When Ruby tries to return the luggage to its rightful owner, Beth Richards, her dorm mate at Tarble, she learns that Beth disappeared two days earlier, and the suitcase is the only tangible evidence as to her whereabouts.Consumed by the mystery of the missing girl and the contents of the luggage-a tattered copy of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, the book on which Ruby based her senior thesis, and which she believes instigated her madness-she sets out to uncover the truth, not only about Beth Richards's past but also her own. In doing so, Ruby is forced to reexamine the people from her past: the professor who whisked her away to New Orleans and then shattered her heart and the ghosts of dead women writers who beckoned her to join their illustrious group. And when Ruby's storyline converges with Beth's in a way she never imagined, she returns to the one place she swore she never would: her alma mater.
The Bay At Midnight
Diane Chamberlain - 2005
Questions about Julie's own complicity, about a devastating secret her mother kept from them all. Questions about the person who went to prison for Izzy's murder -- and about the man who didn't.Now Julie must harness the courage to revisit her past and untangle the shattering emotions that led to one unspeakable act of violence on the bay at midnight.
Miscarriage of Justice
Kip Gayden - 2008
When her every attempt to rekindle romance and affection with her husband--a prominent local doctor--fails, she finds herself turning to the friendship of Charlie Cobb, a new man in town. But as their relationship becomes more intimate, smalltown tongues start wagging, and their starcrossed affair leads to a shocking public murder.
Cold Justice
Kathi Oram Peterson - 2012
On the eve of their wedding, however, Samuel disappears, and Regi wonders if once again he has run away from both a life with her and a membership in the Church. Quite the opposite; Samuel has been kidnapped by the Raven Clan, a powerful Alaskan tribe, and is en route to stand trial in front of their justice council for a puzzling crime that happened years ago. When Regi and Samuel’s close friends suspect a kidnapping, Regi—with the help of her sister, Claudia, and friend Wakanda—resolves to follow Samuel to Alaska but soon learns secrets about her fiancé she hadn’t bargained for. While Samuel struggles with his faith and with understanding why he has been accused, Regi risks life and love to set him free.
Superior Death
Matthew Williams - 2006
The last thing he needs is for his mother to become the suspect in a mysterious woman's death—a story he's covering for the local newspaper.Vince searches for answers and runs up against the town's irascible police chief, an untouchable influential family, and a rogue detective—who are all trying to kill the story for their own reasons. Even more mystifying is his usually opinionated mother's infuriating silence. The harder he tries to uncover the truth, the more he realizes just how deep the levels of secrecy in this small Lake Superior town really go. With each exposed lie, Vince risks losing everything: his family, friends, and reputation.As Apostle Bay—which is already divided by contentious union negotiations and teenage drug use—struggles to survive the scandal, Vince must decide just how far he's willing to delve into a world of deception, deceit, and self-discovery.
The Lake House
Kate Morton - 2015
But by the time midnight strikes and fireworks light up the night skies, the Edevane family will have suffered a loss so great that they leave Loeanneth forever.A missing child...Seventy years later, after a particularly troubling case, Detective Sadie Sparrow retreats to her beloved grandfather's cottage in Cornwall. Once there, she stumbles upon an abandoned house, and learns the story of a baby boy who disappeared without a trace.An unsolved mystery...Meanwhile, in her elegant Hampstead home, the formidable Alice Edevane, now an old lady, leads a life as neatly plotted as the bestselling detective novels she writes. Until a young police detective starts asking questions about her family's past, seeking to resurrect the complex tangle of secrets Alice has spent her life trying to escape...