Book picks similar to
A Body On The Beach by P.F. Ford
mystery
1st-in-series
fiction
first-in-series
Someone Else's Daughter
Linsey Lanier - 2011
Independent. Skeptical.Thirteen years ago her abusive husband stole her baby and gave it up for adoption.She comes to Atlanta to find her daughter.THE PIWade Parker.Ace detective.Wealthy owner of the Parker Investigative Agency.The most eligible forty-four-year-old bachelor in Atlanta.Still mourning the death of his socialite wife, he must solve a disturbing murder case.Before the killer strikes again.THE MURDERERA serial killer strangling young girls in a bizarre ritual.Why?She doesn't need a man.He needs to find a killer.Together, can they save a thirteen year old girl?
Olive Park
C.J. Booth - 2011
One of the most intensive investigations in California history fails to find any trace of the killer and the case goes cold.15 years later - the newly formed Ongoing Investigation Division, charged with closing cold cases, is handed as its very first case – the Olive Park Murders. Detectives Stan Wyld and Jake Steiner, together with assistant Mallory Dimante, reopen the Olive Park case and find nothing new, until their examination of the original burial site turns up one chilling piece of evidence that proves Olive Park is no longer just a cold case about three dead children.The truth is much worse.For the twisted killer of Olive Park has never stopped and has already chosen its next victim. And no one will be able to protect her. No one.
Spare Change
Bette Lee Crosby - 2011
A boy running for his life. A town defending them both.From award-winning USA TODAY Bestselling Author BETTE LEE CROSBY, the first book of a gritty, small-town, family saga in the tradition of the finest Southern fiction.Small-town gossip never much bothered Olivia Westerly. As a single career woman, she's weathered her share. It's easy to ignore the raised eyebrows over her late-in-life marriage to Charlie Doyle. But after he drops dead on their honeymoon, the whispers are salt on her raw grief. Especially when an orphaned, eleven-year-old-boy shows up on her doorstep, looking for the grandfather he never met.Behind Ethan Allen Doyle's wary blue eyes lie heavily guarded emotions that unexpectedly tug on Olivia's heart, and she finds herself wanting to win his trust. But when his murderous secret comes looking for him, the entire town embraces the lonely widow and desperate child to show its true heart when danger threatens one of its own.A heartwarming tale of love, loss and unexpected gifts, featuring a woman you'd like to call friend, a boy you will ache to hug, and a town you wish you could call home. USA TODAY BESTSELLER AND WINNER OF FIVE LITERARY AWARDS - Royal Palm Literary Award, Reviewer's Choice Award, FPA President's Book Award, IAN Outstanding Fiction Award, Eadon Contemporary Fiction Award
Too Many Crooks Spoil the Plot
Sarah Osborne - 2018
So when a childhood friend asks Ditie to babysit her kids for a few days, she jumps at the chance. She never imagined she’d be solving a murder too . . . Despite growing up together, Ditie hasn’t seen Ellie Winston in two years, and she didn’t even know Ellie was living in Atlanta. But when Ellie asks her to take care of Lucie and Jason for the weekend, she thinks nothing of it. They’ll bake cookies together, play with her dog—it’ll be fun! Until the police call with terrible news . . . Ellie may not have been the best friend, but who would want her dead? Could it have something to do with the vague get-rich-quick scheme she mentioned to Ditie? Or the men in a black truck following her and breaking into her home? Not sure who to trust other than her best friend, Lurleen, Ditie’s buried maternal instincts kick in to protect the kids and find their mother’s killer—before they’re orphaned again . . . Includes Family-Friendly Recipes!
A Killer's Mind
Mike Omer - 2018
Doubting the findings of the local PD’s profiler, The FBI calls on forensic psychologist Zoe Bentley to investigate.Zoe quickly gets off on the wrong foot with her new partner, Special Agent Tatum Gray. Zoe’s a hunter, intense and focused; Tatum’s a smug maverick with little respect for the rules. Together, they must descend into a serial killer’s psyche and untangle his twisted fantasies, or more women will die. But when the contents of three inconspicuous envelopes reveal a chilling connection to gruesome murders from Zoe’s childhood, suddenly the hunter becomes the hunted.
Sign Off
Patricia McLinn - 2012
TV journalist Elizabeth “E. M.” Danniher will tell you she committed two sins — she didn’t stay young, and she made an enemy of a powerful news executive — her ex. She used to break national news. Now her top story as the “Helping Out!” reporter at dinky KWMT-TV in Sherman,Wyoming is getting a refund for a defective toaster. Tough, funny and determined, Elizabeth wrestles with isolation, keeping a professional edge, and an evolving self-image. Is Wyoming — the land of cattle, cowboys, tumbleweeds, and fewer than six people per square mile — her new home or a road to permanent obscurity? Soon she’s in a battle of wills with ex-football player turned journalist Mike Paycik, who sees her as a handy rung on his career ladder. And there’s the matter of a deputy sheriff—missing or murdered? Elizabeth finds herself investigating at the insistence of a girl who’s set on proving her father’s innocence. Not that enigmatic rancher Thomas David Burrell makes investigating easy. But Elizabeth won’t fade to black without a fight, no matter how final some might want to make her SIGN OFF. Don’t miss any of the Caught Dead in Wyoming series by USA Today bestselling author Patricia McLinn:Sign OffLeft HangingShoot FirstLast DitchLook LiveBack StoryCold OpenHot Roll
Frozen Fear: Murder In Season - Book 1
Anne Shillolo - 2020
But injured cop Claire Beckett is right in the path of a killer. The death of a look-alike friend brings murder right to the front door of Claire’s quaint log cabin. After being shot in the line of duty she’s spending the winter in cottage country to recover, but it’s more than a vacation. Much more. The picturesque village of Falcon Lake serves up murder, kidnapping, a mysterious new neighbor, and a blizzard of clues and suspects. When Detective Constable Claire Beckett decides to spend the winter up north with her partner’s dog, Kojak, mistaken identity leads to a web of death and corruption that may lead all the way back to the city where Claire is still on the payroll. For the moment. An evening visit to Marina’s Café brings more than latte and dessert. Claire visits with her artist friends and enjoys some music, but by the end of the night, one person is dead. The local police are working hard, but Claire thinks the ‘crime of opportunity’ theory is all wrong. Falcon Lake just doesn’t seem like the kind of place where thugs wait outside the local businesses to rob them. She’s determined to find out who killed her friend Kayla, and why. Her neighbor is newcomer Miles Gallagher, and he’s distant and as chilly as the winter weather. But helping Claire stay alive and stop a killer may thaw his heart. Meanwhile things aren’t adding up for Claire at work. The tragedy of her boss’s ambush, where she herself was injured, is being laid at her doorstep. How can she clear her name and get back to work? Book 1 of the Murder In Season cozy mystery series.
The Watcher
Matthew Hattersley - 2020
But when the world’s deadliest female assassin can’t hit the mark, she may be vacationing six feet under...Even hired killers need a break. Acid Vanilla is about to take a holiday, won through sheer sweat and blood, when her boss demands she off a notorious Paris-based hacker. But when the eccentric female target shares a startling revelation about Acid’s troubled past, she can’t pull the trigger.Tangled in a blossoming love/hate relationship with her spared victim and a bounty on both their heads, Acid’s only chance out of the game is to disappear for good. But first she has to battle through a barrage of deadly coworkers, and this killer-for-hire will need every brutal trick in her lethal playbook just to stay alive…Can she help the hacker and get the goons off her back without taking a fatal retirement?Acid Vanilla is the pulse-pounding first book in the Acid Vanilla vigilante thriller series. If you like femme fatales, complex cover-ups, and whip-smart dialogue, then you’ll love Matthew Hattersley’s wild tale. Buy Acid Vanilla and start this explosively addictive series today!For fans of John Wick, Luke Jenning’s Killing Eve, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne.
Bad Karma
Douglas Clegg - 1997
You will never escape me.” She’s the most dangerous inmate in the hospital for the criminally insane...and she just broke out. When Trey Campbell takes his family to Catalina Island, his escaped patient leaves a trail of bodies behind as she hunts for her one true love – from a previous life.
An Affair to Dismember
Elise Sax - 2013
That’s why Gladie is more than a little skeptical when her Grandma Zelda — who is more than a little psychic — recruits her into the family’s matchmaking business in the quaint small town of Cannes, California. What’s more, Gladie is also highly unqualified, having a terrible track record with romance. Still, Zelda is convinced that her granddaughter has her clairvoyant “gift.” But when the going gets tough, Gladie wonders if this gift has a return policy. When Zelda’s neighbor drops dead in his kitchen, Gladie is swept into his bizarre family’s drama. Despite warnings from the (distractingly gorgeous) chief of police to steer clear of his investigation, Gladie is out to prove that her neighbor’s death was murder. It’s not too long before she’s in way over her head — with the hunky police chief, a dysfunctional family full of possible killers, and yet another mysterious and handsome man, whose attentions she’s unable to ignore. Gladie is clearly being pursued — either by true love or by a murderer. Who will catch her first?
The Creek Killer
Dominika Best - 2020
That danger followed her everywhere, leaving a trail of death in its wake. When the mummified bodies of six girls are discovered in the wetlands of Los Angeles, Jane is surprised to learn one of the dead girls bears her name—the name she abandoned twenty-five years ago to go into hiding. Detective Harriet Harper gets pulled into a case to make or break her career…if it doesn’t end her life. When the burial site of six mummified girls is discovered, Harri joins the task force created to bring justice for the dead girls. Forces outside her control threaten her reputation and her coveted position on the team as the killer sets his sights on her, taunting her to come and find him. When a witness comes forward with details that take Harri in new directions, she finds herself moving ever closer to the dark center of a decades-old secret, one that many people would prefer to stay hidden. With her career in the balance and her life on the line, Harri forges ahead to bring a serial killer to justice before he kills again.
Before He Kills
Blake Pierce - 2016
It doesn’t take long for the police to realize a serial killer is on the loose—and that his spree has just begun.Detective Mackenzie White, young, tough, smarter than the aging, chauvinistic men on her local force, finds herself called in grudgingly to help solve it. As much as the other officers hate to admit it, they need her young, brilliant mind, which has already helped crack cold cases that had left them stumped. Yet even for Mackenzie this new case proves an impossible riddle, something the likes of which she—and the local force—have ever seen.With the FBI called in, together, an intense manhunt ensues. Mackenzie, reeling from her own dark past, her failed relationships, and her undeniable attraction to the new FBI agent, finds herself battling her own demons as her hunt for the killer takes her to the darkest places of her mind. As she delves into the killer’s mind, obsessing over his twisted psychology, she finds that evil truly does exist. She only hopes it will not be too late to extricate herself from it, as her entire life collapses around her.As more bodies turn up dead and a frantic race against time ensues, there is no way out but to find him before he kills again.A dark psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, Before He Kills marks the debut of a riveting new series—and a beloved new character—that will leave you turning pages late into the night.
Going Underground
Michael Leese - 2017
But Jonathan Roper has never let that sort of thing get in the way, and once he’s got the bit between his teeth there’s no stopping him - even when his own safety comes under threat. It makes him a wonderful detective and an impossible colleague.Roper is autistic and finds it really hard to make friends, but he can pull together the oddest clues to make sense of the most complicated crimes. If one man can be said to understand him it’s Detective Chief Inspector, Brian Hooley, a veteran of Scotland Yard. Years on the job have given him a near bullet-proof armour-plating, and he’s going to need it. Working with Roper means he will have to withstand a barrage of bracingly direct personal comments. Despite this, the DCI is his biggest supporter because he knows Roper is the man you turn to when everyone else gives up."Going Underground is a page turning thriller that will keep you awake at night with its twists and turns that make it impossible to put down, and the richly observed characters will stay with you long after you finish." "Their remarkable relationship is highlighted by compelling dialogue and laugh out loud moments, making this more than just another cop story."
Snake Skin
C.J. Lyons - 2010
A woman of many identities. Lucille to her doting mother, Lulu to her devoted husband, Mom to her pre-teen daughter, Lucy to her friends, LT to her co-workers, and Supervisory Special Agent Guardino to the criminals she captures for the FBI's Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement squad.A loving mom and wife, dutiful daughter, consummate professional, and kick-ass federal agent, Lucy is living the perfect life.Until the day she comes up against a predator more vicious and cunning than any she's ever tackled before, one who forces Lucy to choose between the life of the young victim she is fighting to save and her own daughter's....and Lucy's dream life is shattered.
A Life Removed
Jason Parent - 2017
But a new terror is stalking their city. The killer’s violent crimes are ritualistic but seemingly indiscriminate. As the death toll rises, the detectives must track a murderer without motive. The next kill could be anyone… maybe even one of their own. Officer Aaron Pimental sees no hope for himself or humanity. His girlfriend is pulling away, and his best friend has found religion. When Aaron is thrust into the heart of the investigation, he must choose who he will become, the hero or the villain. If Aaron doesn’t decide soon, the choice will be made for him.