Book picks similar to
Sirocco by D.L. Wilson
first-reads
hot-list
mystery
new-adult
Anonymous
Christine Benedict - 2013
Floorboards creak when she's alone. Objects appear and disappear. Neighbors insinuate the house is haunted but memories of her mother's schizophrenia make her wonder. Julie, a neighbor who befriends Debra, faces her own fears when a stalker starts sending perverted anonymous letters that cause a rift in Julie's unstable marriage. Their plots merge as their friendship grows to create a rich and satisfying story. "Intelligence, as well as emotion, drives this novel. A taut thriller rich with lurid details yet also an evocation of vividly real and compelling characters." --Mark Spencer, author of A Haunted Love Story, The Weary Motel, The Masked Demon, and Trespassers.
Come Little Children
D. Melhoff - 2013
A paranormal rumor. A family secret. The Nolan morgue is more than just an ordinary funeral home. When their newest employee uncovers a supernatural conspiracy connected to a string of child murders, she must use every shred of her intelligence to stop a new breed of serial killer and escape the morgue alive. Full Synopsis: “There are strange things done in the midnight sun...”After moving to the Yukon for her first job since graduating from college, Camilla Carleton—a young mortician with a curious mind and a peculiar sense of fashion—thinks she’s found a place where she belongs. The residence is beautiful. The pay is decent. The work is rewarding. But the Nolan Morgue is more than just an ordinary funeral parlor. Within twenty-four hours of arriving, Camilla discovers the mutilated body of a six-year-old boy in the backyard of her new home: soaking wet, stitched up like an autopsy cadaver—and still alive. When her employers refuse to address the incident, she takes matters into her own hands and starts scouring the town for information.The consequences are catastrophic. A rumor involving paranormal activity connects the funeral home to a violent history of child murders, and when a shocking religious conspiracy is exposed, it triggers a horrific chain of events that threatens the entire town. Now, trapped in a hellish nightmare outside the realms of reason and science, Camilla must come to terms with her own dark past while struggling to outsmart a serial killer, save her family, and escape the morgue alive.Set against the ghostly backdrop of the Yukon wilderness, Come Little Children possesses a rich supply of chilling imagery, memorable characters, and incisive nightmares. Packed with horror and dappled with equal parts humor and romance, this gripping supernatural thriller ensnares readers all the way from its eerie start to its explosive, heart-pounding climax.
The Last Day For Rob Rhino (Twisted Crime #2)
Kathleen O'Donnell - 2013
I became more immersed with every page, as the plot twisted and turned its way to the end. Kathleen O'Donnell has done an outstanding job with her first book. Can't wait to hear more from her. Hurry! – Ryker, five star review on Amazon. Claire’s a rich widow on a mission, who partakes with abandon from the pharmacy stored in her Prada purse. Rob’s an aging reality show celebrity. Stuck on the same flight, bound for the same eccentric town, she hates him on sight. She thinks she knows all there is to know about him but is dying to find out more. He’s disinterested but somehow still sees right through her. But they’ve both got big problems. Hers is in the Louis Vuitton carryon in the overhead. His is in his pants. To Claire’s dismay, Rob turns up everywhere she goes, yet they form the unlikeliest of friendships. He cares for her in ways she’s never known before. He could be the best thing in her life—or the worst. In a place full of secrets, including their own, they help each other find answers they didn’t even know they were looking for, yet some questions linger. What happened to Rob’s first wife? What happened to Claire’s husband? Will they live through the answers? The Last Day for Rob Rhino is a dark, tragic, and funny novel about the bonds of family and friendship. If you’d love a Gillian Flynn, Paula Hawkins, or Stieg Larsson novel with a humorous twist, this would be it.
The Orphan Collector
Ellen Marie Wiseman - 2020
Army. But as her city celebrates the end of war, an even more urgent threat arrives: the Spanish flu. Funeral crepe and quarantine signs appear on doors as victims drop dead in the streets and desperate survivors wear white masks to ward off illness. When food runs out in the cramped tenement she calls home, Pia must venture alone into the quarantined city in search of supplies, leaving her baby brothers behind. Bernice Groves has become lost in grief and bitterness since her baby died from the Spanish flu. Watching Pia leave her brothers alone, Bernice makes a shocking, life-altering decision. It becomes her sinister mission to tear families apart when they’re at their most vulnerable, planning to transform the city’s orphans and immigrant children into what she feels are “true Americans.” Waking in a makeshift hospital days after collapsing in the street, Pia is frantic to return home. Instead, she is taken to St. Vincent’s Orphan Asylum – the first step in a long and arduous journey. As Bernice plots to keep the truth hidden at any cost in the months and years that follow, Pia must confront her own shame and fear, risking everything to see justice – and love – triumph at last. Powerful, harrowing, and ultimately exultant, The Orphan Collector is a story of love, resilience, and the lengths we will go to protect those who need us most.
The Forgotten Girl
David Bell - 2014
Now she’s clean and sober but in need of a desperate favor—she asks Jason and his wife to take care of her teenage daughter for forty-eight hours while she handles some business in town.But Hayden never returns.And her disappearance brings up more unresolved problems from Jason’s past, including the abrupt departure of his best friend on their high school graduation night twenty-seven years earlier. When a body is discovered in the woods, the mysteries of his sister’s life—and possible death—deepen. And one by one these events will shatter every expectation Jason has ever had about families, about the awful truths that bind them and the secrets that should be taken to the grave.
Blood Test / When The Bough Breaks / Over The Edge
Jonathan Kellerman - 1992
The Anthrax Protocol
James M. Thompson - 2016
One by one, the team falls violently ill, bleeding from their eyes and ears before succumbing to a slow, painful death. Whatever was buried with the Aztec chief is still active, infectious--and now airborne…It Spreads Quickly…In Austin, a young archeologist listens to the dying words of her mentor in Mexico--a warning to quarantine the site before all hell breaks loose. In Atlanta, the CDC's Dr. Mason Williams leads an emergency squad on a life-or-death mission--into the hot zone. At Fort Detrick, an army officer sends a trained team to secure the anthrax--as a biological weapon. But time is running out. The disease is spreading rapidly across the border, into the airports, and across the globe, killing thousands. With no cure, no vaccine, and no way to contain it, there will be no hope for humanity--to survive…
The Sage Wind Blows Cold
Clint Hollingsworth - 2015
"The Sage Wind blows Cold" is a finalist in Chanticleer Dante Rossetti Awards 2014, New Adult Thriller. Author Clint Hollingsworth studied tracking under Tom Brown, Jr., consultant on Benicio Del Toro's "The Hunted" and is a black belt in Goju Ryu karate. "Bagging a killer should have been the end of it, but it was only the beginning. Young tracker Mackenzie Crow, working at his uncle’s bounty hunting business, is ambivalent when an old flame pleads for help. Not sure where he stands with Kailee, Mac soon finds out: she is married to his old rival and has kept this from him in order to solicit his expertise. Once in the woods with the Search and Rescue team, Mac comes into his element and within a short time has found both the lost child’s trail and something completely unexpected: a strange set of tracks following the girl. Before this is through, he will be hunted by a psychopath and a cadre of mercenaries, all wanting to remove Crow from the land of the living."
Distant Memory
Alton Gansky - 2000
THEN HER LIFE TURNED COMPLICATED. Befriended by a truck driver who takes her under his wing, she sets about to rediscover--and reclaim--the life she's lost. But despite appearances, she's not really alone. Two men--one, a hardened killer; the other; a methodical, high-tech tracker--stalk her every move. Even Nick--the good Samaritan truck driver helping her--may not be all that he appears.LOCKED IN HER MIND IS A SECRET WORTH KILLING FOR--AND WORTH LIVING FOR.More than anything, she wants her memory--and life--back. Others will stop at nothing to make sure she never remembers anything again. For though she does not know it, deep in her mind is buried a secret that threatens to bring down one of the richest men in the world. A secret that can shake governments to their very foundations. A secret that could lead to her destruction--or her salvation.
Champagne & Forever
Andrea Johnston - 2017
Sometimes the princess really does marry her prince. Twenty years ago, I fell in love with my best friend’s brother. It doesn’t matter that I was only five years old, he was it for me. Ben says a single kiss changed it all and I suppose he’s right. I’m looking forward to raising my glass of champagne and toasting our forever. Happily ever after does exist. **Champagne & Forever is part of the Country Road series and may contain spoilers of books 1-3 of the series**
Ashes
Steven Manchester - 2017
Perceived betrayal had burned the bridge between them, tossing them into the icy river of estrangement. But life and death has a robust sense of irony, and when they learn that their cruel father has died and made his final request that they travel together across the country to spread his ashes, they have no choice but to spend a long, long car trip in each other s company. It s either that or lose out on the contents of the envelope he s left with his lawyer. The trip will be as gut-wrenching as each expects it to be . . . and revealing in ways neither of them is prepared for. At turns humorous, biting, poignant, and surprisingly tender, ASHES puts a new spin on family and dysfunction with a story that is at once fresh and timelessly universal."
Wildalone
Krassi Zourkova - 2015
Away from her family and her Eastern European homeland for the first time, she struggles to adapt to unfamiliar American ways and the challenges of college life—including an enigmatic young man whose brooding good looks and murky past intrigue her. Drawn to the elusive Rhys and his equally handsome and mysterious brother, Jake, she ventures into a sensual mythic underworld as irresistible as it is dangerous.In this shadow world that seems to mimic Greek mythology and the Bulgarian legends of the samodivi or “wildalones”—forest witches who beguile and entrap men—Thea will discover a family secret bound to transform her forever . . . if she can accept that dead doesn't always mean gone, and love doesn't always distinguish between the two.
My Soul To Take
Erin Bedford - 2020
A whole helluva lot. And that’s exactly what I got. Hell.Baby sitting a cemetery was supposed to be an easy job. Stay up all night. Keep an eye out for kids partying. Maybe get some school work in.What I wasn’t supposed to do was deal with three ghosts that wanted nothing more than for me to leave. Did I mention they’re three guys who are as hot as the hell I’m in?I have one thing to say to my ghostly friends. Bring it on.
Elegantly Wasted
C. Elizabeth Vescio - 2012
Years later, with her training complete, she believes she's doomed to the life of a sociopathic lone gun until a botched hit brings two unlikely allies, her cousins Addison and Katharine. Using Katharine’s etiquette school, Elegance, Inc., as a front, the trio weave through Frankie’s dark underworld, carrying out contracts, drinking too much wine, and trying not to get each other killed. Trouble follows the team home when the death of the cruel Fairholm matriarch reveals more than they ever wanted to know about their family. As the funeral preparations play out, the trio begin to realize there is much more to their employer than meets the eye and their family connections run deeper than they ever imagined.
The Talented Miss Farwell
Emily Gray Tedrowe - 2020
Dressed in couture YSL, drinking the finest champagne at trendy Balthazar, Reba, as she’s known, is the picture of a wealthy art collector. To some, the elusive Miss Farwell is a shark with outstanding business acumen. To others, she’s a heartless capitalist whose only interest in art is how much she can make.But a thousand miles from the Big Apple, in the small town of Pierson, Illinois, Miss Farwell is someone else entirely—a quiet single woman known as Becky who still lives in her family’s farmhouse, wears sensible shoes, and works tirelessly as the town’s treasurer and controller. No one understands the ins and outs of Pierson’s accounts better than Becky; she’s the last one in the office every night, crunching the numbers. Somehow, her neighbors marvel, she always finds a way to get the struggling town just a little more money. What Pierson doesn’t see—and can never discover—is that much of that money is shifted into a separate account that she controls, “borrowed” funds used to finance her art habit. Though she quietly repays Pierson when she can, the business of art is cutthroat and unpredictable. But as Reba Farwell’s deals get bigger and bigger, Becky Farwell’s debt to Pierson spirals out of control. How long can the talented Miss Farwell continue to pull off her double life?