Book picks similar to
Cold Flame by Natalie Hames
mystery
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Cold Sacrifice
Leigh Russell - 2013
And without his trusted colleague, Detective Geraldine Steel, by his side, Ian's left to take the lead on a complex murder case with few clues.The first victim is a middle-aged woman named Martha, brutally stabbed to death in the local park. Her husband, who did not report her missing, is the prime suspect until a young prostitute, Della, reveals his whereabouts the night Martha was murdered. But then she is strangled to death in her apartment. While the police are frantically gathering evidence and looking for a connection, a second prostitute is suffocated.With nothing but the timing of the murders to tie the three women to one another, Ian and his new partner, Polly Mortimer, struggle to make sense of the case and find the elusive killer before he strikes again. But by the time Ian realizes the truth, it may be too late to save Polly.
A Time for Justice: A Legal Thriller
Freya Atwood - 2021
When a lawyer decides to unveil it twenty years later, she must fight against her family and city to find the truth…As a stubborn and quick-witted lawyer, Zoe Caine has been trying to catch her big case for far too long. And the chance presents itself, the moment a traumatized woman begs her to uncover a horrifying injustice committed by the town’s beloved people. An unspoken crime Zoe knows firsthand.Contemplating whether she should risk her career, Zoe soon learns that nothing remains secret. When the woman is found injured and near-dead, she decides to investigate. Only to find a truth that should have remained hidden away. They were raised in the same abusive facility. Twenty years ago.The case has turned personal and Zoe knows she only has one chance to make this right. And when people threaten her life, the court is her only hope. Until the corruption that follows…A Time for Justice is Freya's 1st novel in the Zoe Caine series of blood-pumping legal thrillers. If you are an avid fan of strong female leads, action-packed courtroom drama, riveting characters and mind-blowing murder mystery, then you'll love Freya's intriguing story.
A Single To Filey: A DCI Tony Forward Novel
Michael Murray - 2015
His latest production for the Sandleton-on-Sea Players is "The Cherry Orchard". It's nearly midnight and he still hasn't completed the dress rehearsal. Then duty calls: a man with fatal head injuries has been discovered in a remote bay on the East Yorkshire coast. The man's name is Mark Coulson and he's the Headteacher of a local primary school. But no-one seems able to explain why this respectable, professional man was at such an isolated spot so late at night. His wife is the most mystified of all. Why were Mr Coulson's pockets empty? Sergeant Wilmott believes robbery was the motive. But if the killer had stolen Coulson's car keys why is his car still parked nearby? Was Mr Coulson murdered by a jealous boyfriend or husband? That's what DC Diane Griffiths thinks. But Mr Coulson's Chair of Governors says he was a boring man whose only interest was his work. With such a baffling case to solve how can DCI Forward find time for "The Cherry Orchard"?
Killing the Beasts
Chris Simms - 2014
The Commonwealth Games are coming to town and the city is alive with possibilities. Caught up in the commercial feeding frenzy is Tom Benwell, account manager at an advertising firm. The pressure is getting to Tom – too many deals to make and lies to tell, and the passion for his job is waning. Meanwhile his friend, DI Jon Spicer, is on the fast track, showing a commitment to the job that borders on obsession, or so his girlfriend Alice tells him.Then, in the aftermath of the Games, a series of brutal killings shatters the city’s new found spirit. Jon Spicer gets the case. Each victim has been murdered in the same bizarre and grotesque manner, yet the lack of motive leaves the police utterly baffled.With the race on to catch the killer, both men find themselves caught up in a nightmare where the most innocent action can cost the highest price. In this nail-biting crime thriller, Chris Simms draws us into the shadows that lurk behind the city’s shiny new exterior, then plunges us into the mind of a madman.
His First His Second
A.D. Davies - 2014
She’s nice. Too nice to be a police officer, if she’s honest.She is also one of the most respected criminal analysts in the country, and finds herself in a cold northern town assigned to Donald Murphy’s team, investigating the kidnap-murders of two young women—both strikingly similar in appearance. Now a third has been taken, and they have less than a week to chip away the secrets of a high-society family, and uncover the killer’s objective.But Richard—the father of the latest victim—believes the police are not moving quickly enough, so launches a parallel investigation, utilising skills honed in a dark past that is about to catch up with him. As Richard’s secret actions hinder the police, Alicia remains in contact with him, and even starts to fall for his charms, forcing her into choices that will impact the rest of her life.
Taboo
Casey Hill - 2011
A first thriller co-written by Melissa Hill and her husband Kevin.The story is set in Dublin and features forensic investigator Reilly Steel who has moved from the US to Dublin to be close to her father.But what should have been a quiet period filled with training and Irish forensics team turns sinister and violent when body after body is found of people killed in what appears to be a twisted game.
The Vanishing Child
Jennifer Harvey - 2021
His blond hair neatly combed, smiling for the camera. I thought, you will disappear, Johnny. This will be the last photo taken of you.Forty years ago: Cece’s son went out on his bike on a hot summer’s day and never came home. Every evening she lingers on her front porch, hoping to see him coming up the driveway. But the street remains empty and, with her heart aching, Cece goes back inside and closes the door behind her…Forty years later: On a rare visit to her father, Carla stumbles across a box tucked away in one of the cupboards. Full of her father’s diaries and old newspaper clippings, it tells the story of the disappearance of three boys when her father was just a child.Her father refuses to discuss the missing children and his silence only makes Carla more curious. When she meets the mother of the last boy who went missing, and sees her pain first-hand, Carla becomes determined to help Cece finally lay her child to rest.But as Carla begins to read the diaries and discovers more about the dark days all those years before, she realises the truth might be more complicated than she thought. There are people in this town who will do anything to stop her digging up the past, and uncovering the truth could change her world in ways she never imagined possible…A totally gripping, emotionally charged suspense novel about small-town secrets and the price of facing up to the truth. Fans of Liane Moriarty, Diane Chamberlain and The Silent Daughter will be gripped from the very first page until the final, heart-stopping twist.
Truth Kills
Nanci Rathbun - 2013
his pregnant wife begs Angie to clear her man. Angie would rather let the cheating scum rot, but she can’t turn away from a distraught woman’s plea. As she searches for clues that will unmask the murderer, Angie must also confront her own inner demons. Can she learn to trust in a world filled with injustice and lies?Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ASIN B0721R2KNF here.
Truth and Lies
Caroline Mitchell - 2018
But when a letter arrives from the prison cell of Lillian Grimes, one half of a notorious husband-and-wife serial-killer team, it contains a revelation that will tear her life apart.Responsible for a string of heinous killings decades ago, Lillian is pure evil. A psychopathic murderer. And Amy’s biological mother. Now, she is ready to reveal the location of three of her victims—but only if Amy plays along with her twisted game.While her fellow detectives frantically search for a young girl taken from her mother’s doorstep, Amy must confront her own dark past. Haunted by blurred memories of a sister who sacrificed herself to save her, Amy faces a race against time to uncover the missing bodies.But what if, from behind bars, Grimes has been pulling the strings even tighter than Amy thought? And can she overcome her demons to prevent another murder?
The Cutting
James Hayman - 2009
He sought to raise his young daughter away from the violence of the big city . . . so he’s unprepared for the horrific killer he discovers, whose bloody trail may lead to Portland’s social elite.Early on a September evening, the mutilated body of a pretty teenaged girl, a high school soccer star, is found dumped in a scrap-metal yard. She had been viciously assaulted, but her heart had been cut out of her chest with surgical precision. The very same day a young businesswoman, also a blonde and an athlete, was abducted as she jogged through the streets of the city’s west end. McCabe suspects both crimes are the work of the same man---a killer who’s targeting the young---who is clearly well-versed in complex surgical procedures, and who may have struck before. Just as the investigation is beginning, McCabe’s ex-wife reemerges, suddenly determined to reclaim the daughter she heedlessly abandoned years earlier.With the help of his straight-talking (and, at times, alluring) partner, Maggie Savage, McCabe begins a race against time to rescue the missing woman and unmask a sadistic killer---before more lives are lost.
The River Is Dark
Joe Hart - 2013
His career, the only thing he ever knew how to do well, is over. The single solace each day brings is the ever-growing contemplation of suicide. But when his estranged brother and sister-in-law are brutally murdered in their bucolic town set on the banks of the Mississippi River, he is drawn into an investigation surrounding a string of killings unlike anything he has ever seen before. The murderer is ruthless, cunning, and without conscience. Soon Liam learns that the river is dark. And so are its secrets.Contains explicit language and violence.
A Talent for Murder
Andrew Wilson - 2016
In this tantalizing new novel, Christie’s mysterious ten-day disappearance serves as the starting point for a gripping novel, in which Christie herself is pulled into a case of blackmail and murder.“I wouldn’t scream if I were you. Unless you want the whole world to learn about your husband and his mistress.”Agatha Christie, in London to visit her literary agent, is boarding a train, preoccupied with the devastating knowledge that her husband is having an affair. She feels a light touch on her back, causing her to lose her balance, then a sense of someone pulling her to safety from the rush of the incoming train. So begins a terrifying sequence of events—for her rescuer is no guardian angel, rather he is a blackmailer of the most insidious, manipulative kind.“You, Mrs. Christie, are going to commit a murder. But, before then, you are going to disappear.”Writing about murder is a far cry from committing a crime, and Agatha must use every ounce of her cleverness and resourcefulness to thwart an adversary determined to exploit her expertise and knowledge about the act of murder to kill on his behalf.In A Talent for Murder, Andrew Wilson ingeniously explores Agatha Christie’s odd ten-day disappearance in 1926 and weaves an utterly compelling and convincing story around this still unsolved mystery involving the world’s bestselling novelist.
The Vanity Case (Sondra Blake, #1)
Niall Teasdale - 2018
Officer Sondra Blake of the NYPD went insane overnight and spent the next decade in a mental institution hastily set up to handle people like her, people afflicted by the magic which had suddenly appeared on Earth. In 2018, Sondra is the most senior detective in the NYPD’s Arcane Crimes Unit. Presented with a new partner, Sondra gets no time to train him as they are thrust into a new murder case with some worrying overtones. A young woman has aged to death in a few minutes while apparently collecting a barrage of disease symptoms she could not possibly have. Someone has used demonic magic to kill her, and the only suspect is the suave, handsome leading actor of an action movie being shot in New York, Dillan Archer. With tension rising toward riots in Orctown, Sondra and her partner, Clarke, must track down a serial killer who has remained undetected for decades before the current run of victims ends and the killer vanishes again for another seven years.
A Means of Escape
Joanna Price - 2011
Detective Sergeant Kate Linton is called on Glastonbury Tor where a young woman has been strangled. Twelve holes are found at the scene, surrounded by wax, evidence of garden flares - the only connection to two other unsolved cases. When another young woman and a TV celebrity go missing, Linton is in a race against time to find the serial killer before he strikes again. But, when her journalist ex-boyfriend is singled out as a chief suspect, Linton feels that events are heading a bit too close to home. A Means of Escape presents an intricate, gripping mystery plot, combined with a focus on the heroine's personal life as she juggles an unwelcome attraction for her good-looking and charismatic superior with her efforts to become closer to her estranged family. A Means of Escape is the first in a series of psychologically driven crime novels.