Book picks similar to
Murder at Mount Joy by Nancy Engle


fiction
mystery
published
contemporary-fiction

A Fiery End


Diana J. Febry - 2020
    The driver is at the wheel, oblivious to the inferno surrounding him.There is no explanation for why the vehicle was on the road or why the quiet tradesman was murdered in such a macabre way. The only witness to the fire, claims she saw nothing. Whatever she did see goes to the grave with her when she is brutally strangled. Frustration grows when the driver’s daughter disappears.With time running out to find the daughter alive, Fiona is drawn into a web of powerful men determined to keep their deadly games secret. Juggling a family crisis and a growing suspicion her boss is corrupt, her judgement is hampered by her attraction to the man central to everything.

Midnight Haul


Max Allan Collins - 1986
    The tiny New Jersey town she lived in has seen a rash of suicides lately, with the unlikely coincidence that everyone who has died worked for Kemco, the chemical factory company that fuels the town’s economy.As Crane digs deeper, he encounters Boone, a local woman writing a book about the environmental destruction that has come at the hands of the local chemical giant. The two team up to unravel the conspiracies surrounding the factory—which soon makes them the next targets for those aiming to keep Kemco’s shady dealings under wraps.The pair races to expose the illegal operations poisoning the town and bring Kemco to justice—before either of them becomes the latest in the growing list of “suicides.”

I Think I Love You


Stephanie Bond - 2002
    At least they're reuniting. A cause to celebrate? Not for Justine, Regina, and Mica. Their parents are splitting up and the family business is going on the auction block--just a little reminder of how much they really have in common...Take the local bad boy who proposed to Justine, seduced Regina, and ran off with Mica. Add the unsolved murder they witnessed when they were young girls, and their vow to keep it a secret. Toss in their knack for being drawn to shady men, and there's only one thing left for them to do--put the bonds of family loyalty to the test.But it takes courage to outsmart a murderer, know-how to avenge the cad who betrayed them, and patience to bring their parent back together. Three talents. Three sisters. And who knows? Maybe even three new chances to fall in love when Justine, Regina, and Mica discover how much they're willing to risk--and forgive--in the name of sisterhood...

Shatter My Rock


Greta Nelsen - 2012
    And when a vicious migraine sends her to a saggy hotel bed and him to the marketing conference in her place, she is first relieved and then thankful.Weeks later, upon discovering she’s pregnant, Claire has no reason for concern. With the help of genetic counselors and fertility specialists, she and her college-sweetheart husband, Tim, have been striving for a sibling for their ten-year-old daughter, Ally. And now they have one: a precious baby boy they name Owen.But all is not well, and soon Claire begins spotting alarming quirks in Owen’s behavior that suggest he may be stricken with Batten Disease, the terminal illness that took her brother, Ricky, back in nineteen seventy-nine. If Claire is right and Owen is sick, other disturbing things may also be true. Things like: Claire has been raped; Owen is not Tim’s son; and Owen is going to die. As events unfold, Claire finds herself confronting unthinkable choices, the consequences of which could jeopardize her career, her marriage, and even her freedom.

The Couple in Room 13


John Rector - 2010
    

Hello, Darkness


Sandra Brown - 2001
    To her loyal listeners, she is a wise and trusted friend who not only takes their music requests but listens to their problems and occasionally dispenses advice. Paris's world of isolation is brutally threatened, however, when one listener -- a man who identifies himself only as "Valentino" -- tells her that her on-air advice to the girl he loves has caused her to leave him and that now he intends to exact his revenge. First he plans to kill the girl, whom he has abducted -- which he says he will do in 72 hours -- then he will come after Paris. Joined by the Austin police department, Paris plunges into a race against time in an effort to find Valentino before he can carry out his threat to kill -- and to kill again. To her dismay, she finds that one of the people she must work with is crime psychologist Dean Malloy, a man with whom she shares a history that had a catastrophic effect on both their lives. His presence arouses old passions, forcing Paris to confront painful memories that she had come to Austin to forget.As the clock ticks down, and Valentino's threats come closer and closer to becoming a reality, Paris suddenly finds herself forced to deal with a killer who may not be a stranger at all.

A Confusion of Murders


Marina Johnson - 2017
    A brother obsessed with his looks, a dog that thinks it’s human and a happy though, dull routine. Until that is, her father starts talking nonsense and she makes a shocking discovery about herself. Not to mention the strange events occurring in Frogham – a missing person and a case of dog-napping. And then, on top of everything Louise finds romance in the unlikeliest place....

Stitched: A gruesome tale of control, fear and brutality


Cheryl Elaine - 2019
    To the outside world, Andrew Brooke is a cop who’s obsessively committed to his job. But behind closed doors, he enforces his dominance and disciplines his wife, Emily, in the most inhumane ways. When his life begins to fall apart and his reputation becomes tarnished, he unleashes his anger and seeks revenge on those who dare to encounter him. Emily Brooke is left broken by her husband’s hand, with no means of escape. Eventually, though weak and confused, she manages to flee. But is the life she escapes to a better one? Detective Donavan has his own demons to battle following his wife’s death. Assigned a missing person’s case that leads to a series of brutal attacks, he follows the trail of a serial killer dubbed ‘The Stitcher’ - but will his own dark secrets get in the way of justice being served? Stitched perfectly demonstrates how cruel life – and people – can be.

Meredith & Hodge Boxset: Books 1-3


M.K. Turner - 2021
    However, nothing gets in the way of them solving a case. Discover them and their world in this three book box set, containing over 1300 pages of murder, mystery, twists and turns and find out why over 60,000 readers have downloaded M K Turner’s popular series. Misplaced Loyalty – Assisted suicide or euthanasia? Meredith calls it murder! Ill Conceived – Why is an apparently innocent young woman prime suspect in a motiveless, senseless murder? The Wrong Shoes – Why did a pair of shoes set off a string of murders and a kidnapping? Want the answers? Buy the box set now!

Merry Bloody Christmas


Ellie Scott - 2018
    A chocoholic grizzly bear, a talking Christmas tree, mince pie overdoses and a very bloody murder. Will poor old Saint Nick make it out alive? Sad, strange, funny and gruesome, this overlapping, multi-genre collection of tales has a little something for every reader. Curl up with a mulled wine and some fictional festive misery, and discover what Father Christmas really likes to drink when he wriggles down your chimney. Spoiler: it isn’t milk.

Jack Ryder Mystery #4-6


Willow Rose - 2019
     Mystery, love, suspense, and action these books have it all. The hit series from #1 Bestselling author Willow Rose is impossible to put down. - BLACK JACK:  Welcome to the Blackwood House. Enter if you dare. It is said about a house in Savannah that all who have ever lived there have gone insane. When Kimberly and Joseph inherit the house from an unknown aunt, they don’t know the house’s murderous history. They move in and soon a series of strange events occur. It’s like the house doesn’t want them there. Little by little, Joseph starts to change, and soon Kimberly begins to wonder: is the house haunted or is her husband just going mad? Jack Ryder and Shannon King have run away from the press and paparazzi to Savannah to get married. They are preparing for their wedding when they stumble upon a young girl sitting alone on the docks at the harbor at night. She doesn’t seem to have any parents, nor does she know where she lives. Her feet are bare, and she has nowhere to go. They take her in for the night, but as they try to pull out information from her, bizarre stories are revealed, and soon they start to speculate about the girl. Is she telling the truth or hiding unsettling secrets of her own? - THE GIRL NEXT DOOR: He came in the morning when they were still making lunches and getting ready for school and work. He killed them all. Mother, father, children. Brutally slaughtered them in the comfort of their own home. They called him the Monday Morning Killer. That was forty years ago, but now it is happening again. A mother and her daughter are brutally murdered in their house, on a peaceful Monday morning in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Home alone with six children while his wife - country superstar Shannon King - is on tour, Detective Jack Ryder gets the most terrifying case of his career, chasing a deranged serial killer, unlike anyone he has ever seen. No one feels safe, especially not the girl next door, who just bought the house where the first family was killed forty years ago. Who is capable of such cruelty? And why? Could one person be responsible for these brutal killings of entire families so many years apart? Or is Jack dealing with a copy-cat? You’ll never guess the shocking answer. - HER FINAL WORD: Ella Maria Chauncey walks home after a night out with her friends, hurrying to get back before her parents realize she's been out with the boy they don't want her to date. Living in the gated community of Lyford Cay, in one of the world's wealthiest neighborhoods, she believes it is safe. Ella Maria never makes it home. She is found the next day floating in her family's pool, her tongue cut out.. Seven months later Jack Ryder is visiting the Bahamas with his adopted daughter Emily. They're trying to find Emily's relatives, but it turns out to be easier said than done. The only living relative they can track down is a woman…in jail. She's doing time for murdering Ella Maria Chauncey, but as Jack digs into the case, he starts to wonder if she was wrongfully convicted and the murderer is still out there, hunting for his next prey. As the shocking investigation unfolds, and secrets are revealed, no one in in the lucrative Lyford Cay can be trusted.

On My Terms


Ashley Farley - 2021
    She’s a cop, turned journalist, turned private investigator. People say she’s ballsy. Truth is, her courage is a recklessness that stems from her troubled past. Jolie is currently in a mess of trouble. She’s been set up for murder by a powerful criminal attorney. The murder victims are the attorney’s wife and Jolie’s husband, Lucas. Jolie will do whatever it takes to clear her name. Including selling her soul to the devil. In Jolie’s case, the devil is a wickedly hot detective who brings the past back to haunt her.

The Concrete Vineyard


Cam Lang - 2020
    Thinking he might be out of his depth he is happy to enlist the aid of his friend, Kris Gage. But when Dee reads the deceased's last entry in his diary, 'time to take care of K. Gage', he becomes torn between investigation and friendship.As an urban planner, Gage understands real estate and the bureaucracy of planning. Following the money, he soon finds himself in the middle of corrupt developers who seek to take all the charm out of the area. Over two hundred years after the War of 1812, is Niagara-on-the-Lake, once again, on-the-Take?The Concrete Vineyard is an intriguing and unique whodunit. Packing an intellectual punch, this smart murder/mystery will have you guessing and gripped! If you like great characters, clever plots and intelligent storytelling, then you'll love this creative and thought-provoking novel.

Died in the Wool / Final Curtain / Swing Brother, Swing


Ngaio Marsh - 2009
    Three weeks later she turns up at an auction - packed inside one of her own bales of wool and very, very dead…FINAL CURTAINJust as Agatha Troy, the world famous painter, completes her portrait of Sir Henry Ancred, the Grand Old Man of the stage, the old actor dies. The dramatic circumstances of his death are such that Scotland Yard is called in - in the person of Troy's long-absent husband, Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn…SWING, BROTHER, SWINGThe music rises to a climax: Lord Pastern aims his revolver and fires. The figure in the spotlight falls - and the coup-de-théatre has become murder… Has the eccentric peer let hatred of his future son-in-law go too far? Or will a tangle of jealousies and blackmail reveal to Inspector Alleyn an altogether different murderer?

The Butcher of Benares


Mahendra Jakhar - 2014
    She is found to be a research scientist working with the Vatican Observatory, one of the oldest astronomical research institutions in the world. Hawa Singh, a senior inspector from Delhi crime branch on a visit to Benares, gets embroiled in the case. He finds that the murdered woman had been researching the Bhrigu-Samhita, an astrological classic dating back to pre-Vedic times, believed to be lost. The FBI sends in Ruby Malik, a Pakistani-American to investigate the murder. Soon, more bodies are found with bizarre connections to both the Bhrigu-Samhita and Christian orthodoxy. The Vatican seems to be carrying out a clandestine operation, seeking the secrets of Hindu astrology in the city most sacred to it. Secrets that the Vatican would kill to know. Hawa Singh, hardened by many gunfights and with a bullet already lodged near his brain in a previous encounter, teams up with Ruby Malik to unravel the mystery. Nothing is the same any more. The temple bells fade in the perpetual winter fog. There is blood on the streets of Benares, which becomes a battleground where faith and science collide. The worlds of astronomy and astrology come. Hawa Singh and Ruby search the opium dens and the domains of Naga sadhus, Aghoris and Doms in the cremation grounds, hunt a cannibal lurking in the maze that is Benares and clash with the figurehead king of the city, Kashi Naresh Maharaj Abhay Narayan Singh. The killer could be anyone. Only Hawa Singh and his beautiful co-runner on the chase, Ruby Malik, possess the mindset and the indomitable courage, to find the murderer at the heart of this mystery and in the process, find themselves.