Book picks similar to
Panic Button by Frazer Lee


horror
thriller
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first-reads-entries

Scorpion Trail


Geoffrey Archer - 1995
    Though he is an aid worker, the secret service minders who have protected him for twenty years have reactivated him: they want information about the man who perpetrated a massacre in a Muslim village in Bosnia. His target is the most ruthless killer in the whole war zone: Milan Pravic, codename the Scorpion. And the only eyewitness to the massacre is a twelve-year-old girl whom Pravic will do anything to silence-

The Gender Experiment


L.J. Sellers - 2016
    After discovering they were born at the same clinic two decades earlier, she investigates further and uncovers a startling list. With the realization that more gender-fluid people are targeted for elimination, Taylor kicks her investigation into high gear. But the researchers who conducted the experiment aren’t about to let anything interfere with their plans. Soon Taylor is in deep trouble and needs the help of FBI Special Agent Bailey. As Bailey scrambles to track down leads, events spin out of control and she finds herself blocked at every step by powerful military forces. With the clock ticking on Phase 2 of the experiment, can Bailey and Taylor uncover the truth in time to save the other subjects?

Creeper


Stuart James - 2021
    He's not real.A story so terrifying, the locals won't mention his name.It's said that Creeper is an urban legend, a chilling, made-up character fabricated to scare children into behaving themselves.He's known as Painswicks own Bogeyman.Parents tell their children that Creeper will come if they're naughty.Adults continually look over their shoulders.It's said that he hides out front late at night or crawls around in the basement. Others believe Creeper watches them as they sleep.Eight women have gone missing over the last twenty years. They're known as the Painswick eight.Now, a ninth woman has vanished.Billy Huxton, an ex-private investigator, resides at a retirement home and tries to persuade the local, flamboyant entertainer, Declan Ryan, to help him solve the case.Sean and Jenny make documentaries, creepypastas, the paranormal, and unsolved mysteries. Together with their children, they move into a rundown farmhouse on Gallows Lane.As they begin to learn of Creeper and the terror many believe he brought to Painswick years ago, they begin to make a film, delving into the chilling story.But they soon learn it may not be just a story.Whatever happens, pray you don't see Creeper...

Mirror, Mirror


Deborah Hawkins - 2017
    The State Bar of California accuses him of coaching witness Marty Lewis to lie seven years earlier while he was working as a prosecutor in order to convict small-time con man, Dillon Reese, of the attempted murder of police officer Christopher Rafferty, a former Navy SEAL. Jeff loses his million-dollar lifestyle, but sets up his own law office, determined to clear his name, by proving Reese is the shooter. Jeff discovers that Chris was wearing defective body armor made by Armor Up Corporation on the night he was shot. Jeff persuades Chris and his wife Beth to bring a negligence suit against Armor Up and the San Diego Police Department for millions in damages. Jeff forms a deep friendship with Chris, but that friendship is challenged with Jeff falls in love with Beth. On the eve of proving that he never coached Lewis to lie, Jeff is arrested for a double murder. If he uses his alibi, Chris and Beth will be destroyed.

Follow You Home


Mark Edwards - 2015
    To find their way back to civilisation, they must hike along the tracks through a forest…a haunting journey that ends in unimaginable terror.Back in London, Daniel and Laura vow never to talk about what they saw that night. But as they try to fit back into their old lives, it becomes clear that their nightmare is just beginning…Follow You Home is a chilling tale of secrets, lies and deadly consequences from the author of #1 bestsellers The Magpies and Because She Loves Me.

The Pendergast Files: (Relic, Reliquary)


Douglas Preston - 2017
    Hidden deep beneath Manhattan lies a warren of tunnels, sewers, and galleries, mostly forgotten by those who walk the streets above. There lies the ultimate secret of the Museum Beat.Relic — Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human...Reliquary —When two grotesquely deformed skeletons are found deep in the mud off the Manhattan shoreline, museum curator Margo Green is called in to aid the investigation. Margo must once again team up with police lieutenant D'Agosta and FBI agent Pendergast, as well as the brilliant Dr. Frock, to try and solve the puzzle. Books by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child The Pendergast Series Relic Reliquary Other books Mount Dragon Books by Douglas Preston The Kraken Project Impact Blasphemy The Monster of Florence The Codex Jennie At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Darkness Under the Sun


Dean Koontz - 2010
    There once was a killer who knew the night, its secrets and rhythms. How to hide within its shadows. When to hunt. He roamed from town to town, city to city, choosing his prey for their beauty and innocence. His cruelties were infinite, his humanity long since forfeit. But still . . . he had not yet discovered how to make his special mark among monsters, how to come fully alive as Death. This is the story of how he learned those things, and of what we might do to ensure that he does not visit us.

The Naturalist


Andrew Mayne - 2017
    So when mutilated bodies found deep in the Montana woods leave the cops searching blindly for clues, Theo sees something they missed. Something unnatural. Something only he can stop.As a computational biologist, Theo is more familiar with digital code and microbes than the dark arts of forensic sleuthing. But a field trip to Montana suddenly lands him in the middle of an investigation into the bloody killing of one of his former students. As more details, and bodies, come to light, the local cops determine that the killer is either a grizzly gone rogue… or Theo himself. Racing to stay one step ahead of the police, Theo must use his scientific acumen to uncover the killer. Will he be able to become as cunning as the predator he hunts—before he becomes its prey?

Shadow Kill


David Caris - 2021
    Betrayed by his employer and left for dead, Kovac decides to lie low in Tokyo.His plan? Revenge...But when a young woman asks him to protect her from the yakuza, Kovac feels duty-bound to help. She’s a victim of abuse, and long experience tells him if he doesn’t step in tonight she’ll be a corpse before dawn.As Kovac works to uncover the truth of his last job, he finds himself drawn into a conspiracy which goes well beyond the yakuza to a new and terrifying multinational cartel. One that will stop at nothing to control the global drug trade.The kingpins are certain they’ve covered all bases. They're well-funded and utterly ruthless. But they’ve failed to account for one man – John Kovac.SHADOW KILL is the first in a fast-paced, unflinching thriller series that won't in any way shortchange you on action. Perfect for fans of Lee Child, Mark Greaney and Mark Dawson.

Blood for Blood


Victoria Selman - 2019
    Now one is profiling her.Rush hour, London. A packed commuter train is torn apart in a collision. Picking through the carnage, ex-special forces profiler Ziba MacKenzie helps a dying woman who passes on a cryptic message: He did it. You have to tell someone.When a corpse is found bearing the gruesome signature of a serial killer dormant for twenty-five years, Ziba is pulled into the hunt for the perpetrator. As the body count rises it becomes clear he’s on a new spree. But what’s brought the London Lacerator back after such a long hiatus? And does his sudden return have anything to do with the woman on the train?Ziba scrambles to profile the killer in the hope of predicting his next move. But time is running out. And the closer she gets to uncovering his identity, the closer he gets to destroying hers.

Punishment


Scott J. Holliday - 2018
    Thanks to a technologically advanced machine, detectives have access to the memories of the living, the dying, and the recently dead. But extracting victims’ experiences firsthand and personally reliving everything up to the final, brutal moments of their lives—the sights, the sounds, the scents, the pain—is also the punishment reserved for the criminals themselves.Barnes has had enough. Enough of the memories that aren’t his. Enough of the horror. Enough of the voices inside his head that were never meant to take root…until a masked serial killer known as Calavera strikes a little too close to home.Now, with Calavera on the loose, Barnes is ready to reconnect, risking his life—and his sanity. Because in the mind of this serial killer, there is one secret even Barnes has yet to see…

The Vanishing (Detective Dean Cornell, #1)


David J. Delaney - 2015
    Grab a copy now. Detective Dean Cornell is investigating the murder of a young woman when he and his partner stumble across a second brutal murder. Hunting for the killer through the streets of Sydney he discovers another young girl has vanished, leaving a distraught father holding onto whatever hope he can. Dean and the detectives of Sydney homicide desperately try to unfold the mystery of the dead and the missing. Can they find the killer before another life is lost What people have said about the Author “David J Delaney mixes suspense and emotion to put you on the edge of your seat. You’ll have a blast reading his books.” J. Thorn, author of The Portal Arcane trilogy "Good luck putting down one of David's books. He'll have you biting your nails and turning pages for hours." Zach Bohannon, Amazon Top 100 Author of the Empty Bodies series “David has the ability to grab hold of you with his voice and never let go. The sense of place he firmly puts you in is remarkable, evoking every sense, every feeling of that moment. As a fan of David's work I know when I begin to read one of his stories I'll be reading late into the night, because putting it down isn't an option. If you're interested in a great read, you cannot go wrong with anything written by this talented author. I, for one, can't wait for his next story, and the next, and the next...” Sue Coletta, Crime Writer

Confidential


Jack Parker - 2013
    After being forced into hiding until the trial, Heidi finds Camdon, someone who changes her :Making her new life more than bearable, he makes it perfect.Now she has to decide if it's worth giving up the perfect life she has to testify, if it's worth it to go back to the old life she had before, and if she can keep lying to the only person that she's ever loved.

The Hope That Kills


Ed James - 2016
    No ID on her, just hard-earned cash. But there is no doubting the ferocity of the attack.DI Simon Fenchurch takes charge but, as his team tries to identify her and piece together her murder, they’re faced with cruel indifference at every turn - nobody cares about yet another dead prostitute. To Fenchurch, however, she could just as easily be Chloe, his daughter still missing after ten years, whose memory still haunts his days and nights, his burning obsession having killed his marriage.When a second body is discovered, Fenchurch must peel back the grimy layers shrouding the London sex trade, confronting his own traumatic past while racing to undo a scheme larger, more complex and more evil than anything he could possibly have imagined.

The Diary: The Complete Loving a Killer Serial


Julia Derek - 2014
    TERRIBLE SECRETS.Happily married Lexi Woods thought losing a child would be the worst thing that could ever happen to her. She was wrong. It turns out that life has more ugly surprises for her. When she is finally through the heavy depression of losing her newborn, she finds her husband’s diary. As she reads it, she learns that he’s been unfaithful to her. He’s not at all the man she thought he was. Unfortunately, that’s not the worst part. Not only has the love of her life gone behind her back -- but it also looks like he killed his mistress... What else could he be hiding?NOTE: This edition contains all three novellas of the Loving a Killer serial. The first is entitled The Diary, the second The Other Woman, and the third Guilty. It has some sexual content.