Book picks similar to
Mercy Killing by Kathryn Johnson


first-reads
mystery
fiction
romantic-suspense

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Henriette Gyland - 2012
    Unprepared for the viciousness of village gossip, she's vulnerable to insinuations that her grandmother knew something about the recent bomb threats against a nearby army base. Even so the longer she stays, the more she realises this is where she belongs.Wounded ex-navy man and artist Aidan Morrell has accepted his physical scars, but is still bitter over the army's treatment of his older brother, which had a devastating effect. He expresses himself in his sometimes disturbing paintings and through scuba-diving, and sees Lia with her fear of water as a challenge. The attraction between them is undeniable. Should they dare to let the other get close?

Ferris' Bluff


Fred Limberg - 2011
    He’s running from a busted Witness Protection Program assignment, an international collection of gangsters and arms merchants he pissed off working undercover, and worst of all—from his own scarred self-image and the nightmares that haunt him.After two lonely years on the road he risks a short visit with his old friend, Granville Tubbs, who lives in the sleepy small town of Ferris’ Bluff, Arkansas. He hasn’t even had a tingle that anyone has been on his trail for almost a year. What could go wrong in a few days?Plenty, it turns out. But some things go right, too…shotgun ambushes aside.The ultimate loner, Ace is soon brought under the spell of the quirky small town and its residents. As he tries to help Tubbs, all the while jealously guarding his alias, the friendliness of the townsfolk chips away at the wall of solitude he’s built. It’s as if Leets and Dicky and Art Drury are determined to become his new friends. And the pretty widow, Annie Travers—well, try as he might he can’t deny the growing mutual attraction between the two of them.He runs smack up against the dark side of Ferris’ Bluff in no time. The greedy lawyer, Tremont, and his slutty wife, Reena, are after something in Tubbs’ estate. The local mechanic, Pink, is out to mess him up, too. Ace is soon enmeshed in a battle of wits and wills with some of the locals.And if that ain’t thorny enough, Russian arms dealers who Ace hurt badly on his last assignment have been keeping a loose watch on Tubbs. When he discovers that Annie’s husband’s accident wasn’t an accident at all and Dicky Stover, the victim of a brutal beating, is killed while in the hospital, hitting the road is no longer an option.Ferris’ Bluff, a thriller with a smokin’ hot romance tucked inside!

Against The Odds


Mara Jacobs - 2012
    And I'm good. Very good.But, I also have a little bit of a problem with placing bets on a sporting events. Not so good.Sometimes my little problem becomes a whole lot of trouble and I need to resort to some, shall we say, less than stellar actions to get out of debt. So, I become my alter ego, JoJo, and fix college basketball games. Hey, a victimless crime, no one's the wiser, and it's better than the alternative, which is a drive into the desert with my loan shark and a shovel in the trunk. Although, it has to be said, my loan shark is pretty good looking.I love Vegas, and I love the life I've built, but when one of my friends is murdered, and another one shot at, I know I need to take a serious look at myself. And I need to call in the big guns. Even if that means teaming up with detective Jack Schiller, a man who's dealing with his own problems. But dang, he sure is sexy.I'm just trying to juggle protecting my friends, helping sexy detective Jack while not letting him get to close, and finding a murderer. And, oh yeah, no one can learn about JoJo.Because if they do, there's no way I'll be able to bluff my way out.

On the Run


Sue Fineman - 2011
    She didn't find out until the night of the raid, when Uncle Julio's men tried to shoot her. She got away, but she's been on the run for the past three years, staying one step ahead of the killers. Former DEA agent Adam Gregory tried to get Neen out before the raid, but he was stabbed in the back by one of his own people. Greg is desperate to find the dirty agent who stabbed him and protect Neen from the killers. He finally finds her in the cemetery, visiting her mother's grave, but the killers have spotted her, too.Greg takes Neen on a wild ride across the country, protecting her from the killers, but not from his love. She tries to keep her distance, but the macho dude cop is hard to resist, and he's determined to make her love him again.

Smash Cut


Sandra Brown - 2008
    Wheeler’s mistress, Julie Rutledge, who is also a suspect, believes that Creighton is the killer, despite his rock-solid alibi, and she’ll do almost anything in her quest to prove his guilt—even ruin Derek’s career. But the more Derek learns of Creighton’s darker side, especially his bizarre fascination with movie murders, the more he comes to believe Julie is right. The clock ticks down to a shocking ending as Derek and Julie join forces to find the truth. Has Creighton begun reenacting cinema’s goriest scenes? And who will be his unwilling costars? They won’t know until the final SMASH CUT.