Book picks similar to
Identical Death by Alexa Padgett


mystery
ebook
mystery-suspense
thriller

Murder in the Aisle


Kris Pearson - 2019
    That’s until Vicar Paul and I find Isobel Crombie lying dead in a sea of flowers in the aisle of Saint Agatha’s church. Who’d kill a harmless old girl like her?In no time flat I’ve scored a house-and-pet sitting gig – Isobel’s remote seaside cottage and her two darling dogs. It comes complete with hollyhocks and seagulls and a SEAL from California who looks a lot like a younger Jon Bon Jovi. He's certainly cute, but aren’t his questions about Isobel's house a bit – well, suspicious? Then I find a secret office stuffed with alarming files about car thefts and Black Ops assassins. Maybe Isobel wasn't as harmless as we all thought? Sleuthing’s more fun than I’ve had in ages, but how safe am I on my own now things are unraveling? Little white Bichons are hopeless attack dogs.

The Suburbs Have Secrets


Barbara Wallace - 2017
     Tragic accident? Or Murder? The following morning, Marylou is found dead at the bottom of her staircase. What first appears to be a drunken tumble becomes far more complicated as Sadie discovers Marylou wasn’t as sweet and timid as everyone thought. Turns out Marylou spent her spare time digging up dirt on her neighbors and left behind a list of their secrets. Much to her horror, Sadie’s name is right on top. Eager to keep her past buried, Sadie, with the help of her best friend Rob and Dan Bartlett, the town’s sexy new chief of detectives, sets out to who on the list was desperate enough to kill. Will she discover the answer before the truth gets out? Or will the killer find Sadie first?

The Devil Died at Midnight


Cheryl Bradshaw - 2017
    The original edition can be found here True crime writer Alexandria Weston has been keeping a deadly secret for twenty-five years. A secret she plans to take to the grave.When Alexandria is found murdered on the last stop of her book tour for The Devil Wakes, a story about the life and death of serial killer Elias Pratt, fellow writer Joss Jax steps in to investigate.Joss's search reveals disturbing details from Alexandria's past and a long list of enemies, each with a secret to hide. Just when Joss believes she has discovered the identity of Alexandria's killer, a detail about Elias Pratt rises to the surface, revealing the truth behind Alexandria's mysterious death.Enjoy books by Gillian Flynn and Sue Grafton? You'll love the creative mind of Cheryl Bradshaw.Readers are saying:"The ending was a surprise.""Bradshaw is an author I can always rely on to entertain.""If you love a good story, this is a must."

See You Soon


N.C. Marshall - 2016
     When Emily receives an e-mail from her estranged childhood friend, Ali, she instantly looks forward to reading what it has to say. She hasn’t seen or heard from Ali in a very long time and hopes that they can begin to rekindle the perfect friendship they once had. But when Emily opens the e-mail, she finds it isn’t the friendly message she had hoped for. Instead, it is a desperate plea for help from Ali to tell Emily she could be in danger. Growing increasingly concerned for Ali’s safety, Emily is forced to return to the seaside town where she and Ali had grown up. The same town that she had fled from over fifteen years ago, when she had sworn she would never return. Once back there, Emily is quickly thrown into a game of cat and mouse, where she must follow the clues to help her old friend. But time is against her and she is constantly looking over her shoulder. It appears Emily isn’t alone, and must hurry before her past finally tracks her down...

Yesterday's Lost (Yesterday's Mysteries)


Sam Cheever - 2018
     Pratt Davies is a police detective with the Saint Louis PD. He’s comfortable in his role…confident that he’s seen just about everything there is to see. Until he and his partner answer a call to enter a home where blood curdling screams speak of horrific violence. Inside the disturbing house, he encounters a strange, icy mist and something malevolent waiting just beyond view. Pratt’s confidence is shaken, his worldview smashed into tiny pieces…like shards of glass from a broken mirror. His partner comes out of that house damaged, both physically and mentally, unable to even form a coherent response. Pratt is so shaken he can barely function. And he still has a murder to solve. Who killed the couple living in that terrible house? What haunted the mist obscuring the scene? How did Pratt’s partner end up bleeding and babbling on the floor, something evil oozing through her gaze? And how is Pratt…broken and terrified himself…ever going to solve a murder that has every indication of having been born in the ether?

Depraved Difference


J. Robert Kennedy - 2011
    A cell phone video of her vicious murder, callously released on the Internet, its popularity a testament to today's depraved society, serves as a trigger, pulled a year later, for a killer.Emailed a video documenting the final moments of a woman's life, entertainment reporter Aynslee Kai, rather than ask why the killer chose her to tell the story, decides to capitalize on the opportunity to further her career. Assigned to the case is Hayden Eldridge, a detective left to learn the ropes by a disgraced partner, and as videos continue to follow victims, he discovers they were all witnesses to the vicious subway murder a year earlier, proving sometimes just watching is fatal.From the author of The Protocol comes Depraved Difference, a fast-paced murder suspense novel with enough laughs, heartbreak, terror and twists to keep you on the edge of your seat, then knock you flat on the floor with an ending so shocking, you'll read it again just to pick up the clues.

Lies Come True


Emerald O'Brien - 2015
    Ten years later... The body of a young woman is discovered along the path of a park in the same town. The killer is cunning and ruthless, but even the best killers make mistakes. Fiona Wolfe, the second woman to be attacked, survives and reveals a potential link between the current killer and the attack on Avery Hart. Noah Cotter, an ambitious new inspector, becomes drawn to the case when his curiosity combines with his attraction to Avery. The dangerous search for truth appears to be muddied with each shocking secret brought to light, as Avery, Fiona, and Noah realize that when someone is deceived for too long, sometimes... Lies Come True*Free with sign up to Emerald O'Brien's newsletter http://eepurl.com/4YHaX

The Sister


Max China - 2013
    Suspenseful, and thrilling, it is a mystery that unravels over time, following the lives of a group of seemingly unconnected people, as they struggle to bring an unusually talented serial killer to justice. CORNWALL, ENGLAND. In the summer of love, 1967, two children witness a murder. One, a seven-year old boy, views it from fifty yards - the other, a young Irish girl, from miles away... LONDON, 2006. With retirement looming, DCI John F Kennedy reopens the only unresolved case in his career, the disappearance of a young nurse, Kathy, twenty-three years earlier. The broadcast appeal for information on the missing teenage runaway, Eilise; is followed by a cold-case reconstruction of Kathy's last known movements. A new witness comes forward, and Kennedy - now set on the trail of a serial killer - unwittingly sparks a sequence of events that lead back to himself, threatening his own, very private existence. As the investigation unfolds, it becomes apparent that the murderer is no ordinary adversary. Resourceful and cunning, he has been operating undetected for over forty years, and it seems that only the original witnesses from 1967 can stop him. But they have yet to meet... The Sister is much more than just an ordinary thriller. It is the story of a lifetime...The book is a two part pilot episode with resolution, but left open to a series of planned spin-off self-contained episodes involving a selection of characters from the original story, the first of which is due for release in late spring.

Illusive Storm


Lily Campbell - 2020
    But with a body on the floor and suspicions mounting, it’s time to figure out who the killer is before someone else winds up dead.Everyone has their own secrets. They are all clearly hiding something.Everyone turns to the P.I. for answers. With the cell towers down, her best advice is for everyone to stay in their rooms until the storm is over and they can call in help. So when hormones take over and a tryst leads two of them to make out in the lobby, the pair is stunned to see familiar faces on T.V. Apparently they also have armed criminals in their midst…When the storm passes, it will all be much clearer — or not.

Due Justice


Diane Capri - 2011
    Fiercely independent Carly is the number one suspect. When Carly asks Willa for due justice, Willa has everything to lose. But she risks it all to uncover the conspiracy and keep Carly alive. Can Willa possibly win?<**formerly titled Carly's Conspiracy

Dark Moon: A Legal Thriller


Deborah Hawkins - 2016
    Now, newly arrived in San Diego from New York, she is appointed to represent Alexa Reed, a former U.S. Supreme Court clerk and the daughter-in-law of Supreme Court Justice Coleman Reed. Alexa is arrested for the murders of her ex-husband, attorney Michael Reed, and La Jolla psychologist, Ronald Brigman. During bitter divorce proceedings, Brigman has declared Alexa’s reports of Michael’s domestic abuse false, has diagnosed her with borderline personality disorder, and has given Meggie and Sam, ages six and five, to their abusive father.All the evidence points to Alexa. Her gun was the murder weapon and her cell phone places her at the scene of the murders. Sarah is warned that doing anything more than the minimum for her client will be professional suicide. Coleman Reed wants Alexa sentenced to death without delay. But Sarah and her investigator, ex-FBI agent Jim Mitchell, refuse to be intimidated even after attempts on Sarah and Alexa’s lives. They discover Michael Reed’s taste for high-priced call girls and his entanglement in an extensive pattern of criminal financial dealings. But when Coleman manipulates the trial judge to exclude Sarah’s star witness on the eve of trial, she must risk discovery of her own terrible secret to save Alexa’s life.

The Lanvin Murders


Angela M. Sanders - 2014
     But when Joanna finds a key in a 1930s Lanvin coat cast off by an ex-showgirl, everything changes. The elderly woman turns up dead, and Joanna is pulled into a long-ago drama of back room deals, blackmail, and lost love. She must find a very real—and present day—killer before she becomes his next victim. “As you dive into this intriguing mystery novel featuring vintage clothing dealer/sleuth Joanna Hayworth and a quirky cast of characters, prepare for an entertaining ride through long-buried crimes and Portland lore to solve the mystery of 'the woman in the Lanvin coat.' A truly enjoyable read!" --Christine Finlayson, author of Tip of a Bone, a Pacific Northwest mystery "Slip on a pair of pink mules and a silk robe, mix up a shaker of martinis, and relax with this delightful mystery set in a Portland vintage clothing store. Populated by a charming heroine and a flock of odd characters, this engaging tale will satisfy the sleuth in you as well as the fashionista." --Ann Littlewood, author of Endangered, a zoo-dunnit

A Dead Red Cadillac


R.P. Dahlke - 2011
    But when her trophy red Cadillac is found tail-fins up in a nearby lake, the police ask why a widowed piano teacher, who couldn’t possibly see beyond the hood ornament, was found strapped in the driver’s seat. Reeling from an interrogation with local homicide, Lalla is determined to extricate herself as a suspect in this strange murder case. Unfortunately, drug running pilots, a cross-dressing convict, a crazy Chihuahua, and the dead woman’s hunky nephew throw enough road blocks to keep Lalla neck deep in an investigation that links her family to a twenty-year old murder only she can solve.

New Corpse In Town


Lucy Quinn - 2016
     A phone call to the sheriff should mean the end of Cookie’s involvement, but when it’s clear the sheriff has no interest in the investigation, Cookie calls in reinforcements…her ex-partner Hunter O’Neil. Suddenly it’s like old times while the pair questions the residents of Secret Seal Isle. Except it’s not. Now she has both Hunter and Dylan vying for her attention, a wayward hippy mother, and a potential killer on the loose. With her love life heating up, her mother lighting up, and all signs pointing to the most unlikely suspect, Cookie does the only thing she knows to do—focus on solving the case.

Gone the Next


Ben Rehder - 2012
    He's working a routine case, complete with hours of tedious surveillance, when he sees something that shakes him to the core. There, with the subject, is a little blond girl wearing a pink top and denim shorts—the same outfit worn by Tracy Turner, a six-year-old abducted the day before. When the police are skeptical of Ballard's report—and with his history, who can blame them?—it's the beginning of the most important case of his life.