Book picks similar to
Kiss Hidden Lies by Dan Taylor
mystery
ebook
mysteries
mystery-thriller-suspense
True-Life Adventure
J. Paul Drew - 1985
It wasn’t much, but it would keep Spot the cat in Kitty Queen tidbits.But then somebody poisoned Jack in Paul’s own living room. A day that begins with a body in your house really ought to get better, but next comes burglary and after that, assault-by-cop. And Paul’s got a feeling that’s just the beginning. There must have been something someone didn't want him to know in one of those client reports. But what?The wise-cracking, funny, but slightly depressed ex-journalist better become an ace private investigator in about two seconds—or end up like his detective mentor.Birnbaum's last report concerned a kidnapped child, so Paul begins there. The trail leads him to the laboratory of a Nobel laureate geneticist, and then to San Francisco City Hall, where an extremely nasty surprise awaits. But there’s an upside—lovely witness Sardis Kincannon. Nothing like falling in love while you’re running for your life!
The Other Side of Goodbye (Norman Green Book 1)
Ben Follows - 2018
He has created a career out of working for those the police have turned their back on. The only people he won't work with are child abusers, rapists, and journalists. However, when Robin Sweetwater, a journalist working for the same paper that destroyed Norman's athletic career, comes begging for help, Norman finds himself dragged into the same web of lies and deception that destroyed his life once before. In order to find the truth surrounding the alleged suicide of Robin's younger brother, a star athlete himself, Norman will need to wade through the dark depths of his past and unravel a conspiracy stretching farther than he could ever have imagined. Praise for Ben Follows's novels: "Explosive, extraordinary and engrossing; this is how I would describe this exceptional book. The Absence of Screams is a sensational crime/thriller novel that chilled me to my core from beginning to end." "What a great book. I found this book in my hands every time I had a spare minute. " "I couldn't go to sleep until I finished this book." "Ben Follows does it again; another excellent read by an accomplished writer."
Capture
Roger Smith - 2012
Hidden on nearby boulders, rent-a-cop Vernon Saul watches the child die and chooses to act only when it is too late. In the days following Sunny's death, gutted by grief and guilt, Nick falls under the spell of Vernon who presents himself as a friend in time of need. When the sinister Vernon's true motives are revealed, Nick is drawn into a spiral of manipulation and murder that leaves him fighting for his sanity and his life.
Prepped to Kill
M. Lee Prescott - 2011
While she pretends to be an ace private investigator, the niece of Massachusetts’ governor goes missing and a murderer terrorizes the campus. Ricky enlists the aid of her former roommates and together, the three create mayhem during Whitley School’s reunion weekend, bungling along in search of the truth. Join Ricky on her first caper and see how this humorous rollicking mystery series got its start.
Dangerous Stakes
G.K. Parks - 2019
Her target, Axel Kincaid, is smart and ruthless. His forte - stealing cars. His temperament- violent. And his legitimate business keeps half the judges and city officials entertained, so collecting enough evidence to put him behind bars is nearly impossible. But when a parking attendant is murdered and two exotic sports cars are stolen, all bets are off. There's just one problem. Axel claims to have an airtight alibi, but there are more than a few holes in his story. The only thing Liv knows for sure is someone is determined to get away with murder, and now the killer has set his sights on her. Will she stop the murderous thief before he strikes again? Or will she become his next victim?
Off the Record: An Avery Rich Mystery (Avery Rich Mysteries Book 1)
Sara B. Gauldin - 2016
But she is soon forced to keep her investigation "off the record" and gets paired with an unusual consultant. The world of crime and conspiracy takes on a dangerous edge as she finds herself dealing with kidnapped bankers, high stakes cover ups, and criminals who are determined to keep her quiet. To save herself from the unthinkable, she must sort out the conspiracy from the crime and find out who she can trust to finish the case before they can derail her investigation, permanently!
Jack Dillon Dublin Tales, Volumes 1-5
Mike Faricy - 2018
The Irish Mob, the Russian Mob, corruption, bodies, murders, vendettas, a target on his back . . . it’s a busy time!
Jack Dillon Dublin Tales, you're about to be throughly entertained.
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Skip Langdon Mysteries Vol. 1-5
Julie Smith
Amant has been crowned Rex, King of Carnival. But his day of glory comes to an abrupt and bloody end when a parade-goer dressed as Dolly Parton guns him down. Is the killer his aimless, promiscuous daughter Marcelle? Homosexual, mistreated son Henry? Helpless, alcoholic wife Bitty? Or some unknown player? Turns out the king had enemies...AXEMAN'S JAZZWhat's the perfect killing field for a murderer? A place where he (or maybe she) can learn your secrets from your own mouth and then make friends over coffee. A supposedly "safe" place where anonymity is the norm. The horror who calls himself The Axeman has figured it out and claimed his territory—he's cherry-picking his victims in the 12-Step programs of New Orleans.JAZZ FUNERALSkip Langdon just happens to be on hand when Ham Brocato, director of New Orleans Jazzfest, is discovered dead on the kitchen floor in the middle of his own party the evening before the Fest. To complicate the already murky case, the victim's sixteen-year-old blues musician sister has disappeared, and Skip suspects that if the young woman isn't the murderer, she's in mortal danger from the person who is. Melody's dangerous yet exhilarating journey tugs at the heart and raises the pulse rate.DEATH BEFORE FACEBOOKIt’s a chilly November in 1994, and thirty-one-year-old Geoff Kavanagh surreptitiously splits his time between science fiction novels and cyberspace in his parents’ dilapidated, overgrown, uptown New Orleans mansion. Until his mother finds him dead from a suspicious fall off a ladder. Maybe he should never have posted about seeing his father murdered …HOUSE OF BLUESSugar Hebert arrives home from a ten-minute errand to find her husband shot to death and the rest of her family missing—including her daughter Reed, heir apparent to the Hebert restaurant dynasty, and Reed's eleven-month-old daughter.
Birdsongs
Jason Deas - 2009
Fired from the FBI for inadvertently sleeping with the perp in a murder case, he tries to disappear to a houseboat and retirement. Not having what it takes to relax, Benny starts a service offering discreet investigations. That is until a body is found crucified near his marina. The local police department requests Benny’s help and he knows if he can catch the killer, redemption is his. The Chief gives Benny and the department ten days to solve the crimes before he promises to request the help of the FBI. As the case grows, grabbing national attention, and the murders continue, the media soon fills the normally quiet town. Media goddess, Rachael Martin arrives and adds spice to an already flavorful mix. A few newcomers straggle in as well. An ex-convict fresh out of prison from a thirty year murder rap slinks in unnoticed with revenge on his mind. Days later, a Greyhound bus delivers a strange young man raised by deaf-mute parents from deep within the Ozark Mountains. An old newspaper clipping and a dark secret pulls him to town. Whatever is going on has something strange to do with birds. At each murder site, dead birds are displayed in disturbing ways—the killer arranging them as an artist might. All the strange occurrences and unexplained visitors to this quiet town press Benny James to his max as he vehemently struggles to solve the most important case of his life.
Deuce Mora Mystery Series
Jean Heller - 2018
The scrappy lead columnist for the Chicago Journal normally writes about politics, and, rather than shying away from fights, she tends to pick them, but every once in a while, Deuce’s search for a good story brings her face to face with more trouble than she was really looking for. In Award-winning journalist Jean Heller’s first action-packed mystery featuring the intrepid sleuth, Deuce learns in short order that if you mess with organized crime, you have to be tough—and you’d better be as much detective as reporter. The second volume finds Deuce on the wrong side of the NSA, the FBI and the CIA. At a minimum. Exhausted by these two white-knuckle investigations in one year, Deuce is content to focus on her column until she gains information that could help catch the relentless arsonist whose Burning Rage is consuming Chicago. Fans of hard-boiled female protagonists should hang onto their fedoras-- this one’s an action-packed extravaganza! "Good reporters do not always good novelists make, but Jean Heller is both." -- The Boston Sunday Globe "Superb ... It reads like a multimillion-dollar movie thriller." -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Deuce … finds dead-ends and danger at every turn. Part journalism procedural, part character study, THE SOMEDAY FILE is a humdinger of a mystery, the first of a welcome new series.” --Paul Levine, author of Bum Rap THE SOMEDAY FILE Deuce uncovers a series of crimes committed over nearly six decades, and, as her human interest story morphs into a hard-boiled, action-packed mystery, she finds herself dead center in a storm of threats and reprisals from the mob. Fortunately, she has many allies, but at least one of them, she suspects, is hiding a secret–- corruption? Murder? The veteran reporter knows: if you’re talking Chicago crime scene—it’s probably both. THE HUNTING GROUND The grisly discovery of a human bone while Deuce is out for a hike with handsome arson investigator Mark Hearst leads to the unearthing of a vast burial field, a human trafficking ring, and international intrigue. The pull-no-punches columnist-- and meticulous detective-- keeps turning up information, but the Journal’s lawyer appears daily, bringing warnings about “national security.” What, Deuce seethes, could be a greater matter of national security than the safety of the city’s children, who are being kidnapped and murdered? BURNING RAGE Whole blocks of Chicago real estate are falling to an arsonist, but no one knows why and everyone suspects the worst – terrorism. But no terrorist group has claimed the mayhem. From the moment she hears the earliest details of the first fire, her detective-instincts say the pieces don’t fit, and every other instinct tells the hard-hitting reporter she can’t walk away from the story – even though she knows she’ll regret it. WHO WILL LIKE IT: Fans of Chicago private investigators VI Warshawski and Libby Fischer Hellman’s Georgia Davis, get-the-story-or-die reporters like Hank Philippi Ryan’s Jane Rylan
The Tracie Tanner Collection: Three Complete Thriller Novels
Allan Leverone - 2016
PARALLAX VIEW, originally published in 2013: It's spring 1987, and CIA clandestine operations agent Tracie Tanner is tasked with what should be a relatively simple mission: deliver a secret communique from Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to U.S. President Ronald Reagan. After smuggling the document out of East Germany, Tracie believes she is in the clear. She's wrong. A shadowy cabal is work, people who will stop at nothing to prevent the explosive information contained in the letter from reaching the White House. Soon, Tanner is knee-deep in airplane crashes and murder, paired up with a young Maine air traffic controller and on the run for their lives, unsure who she can trust at CIA, but committed to completing her mission, no matter the cost... ALL ENEMIES, originally published in 2014: It's the early fall of 1987, and when United States Secretary of State J. Robert Humphries is kidnapped out of his Washington, D.C. home at gunpoint, all evidence points directly to the Soviet Union as the responsible party. Still recovering from her injuries suffered earlier in the summer, covert ops specialist Tracie Tanner is tasked by CIA Director Aaron Stallings to follow the evidence and recover Humphries safely from the Soviets. There's only one problem - Tanner's not convinced the Soviets are involved. Soon, she's ruffling feathers, risking her career, and once again running for her life, betting everything on a hunch that might just get her and Humphries killed and result in the start of World War Three… THE HITLER DECEPTION, originally published in 2015: It's November 1987, and the disappearance of an elderly West German man results in CIA Director Aaron Stallings dispatching Tracie Tanner to the scene. Working with the assistance of a CIA operative she's not sure she can trust, Tracie faces her toughest assignment yet - pick up the trail of the mysterious Amber Room key, utterly unique and critical to unlocking the mystery of a missing cache of treasure worth an unimaginable sum. Meanwhile, lurking in the background is a man long-believed to have taken his own life in the dying days of World War II, but who may, in fact, be very much alive. Adolph Hitler. And he's waiting to resume his rightful place atop the Thousand Year Reich. Readers of the Tracie Tanner thriller series have come to expect international intrigue and a lightning-fast plot. THE HITLER DECEPTION delivers, raising the bar with treasure, treachery, and a Tracie Tanner pushed to the very limit of her abilities and endurance. ---------- Suspense, thrills, twists, and a surprisingly human - and fallible - hero make THE TRACIE TANNER COLLECTION a must-have for any thriller fan. You'll find yourself compulsively turning the nearly one thousand action-packed pages deep into the night... ---------- Praise for the Tracie Tanner novels: "Allan Leverone's PARALLAX VIEW is a sure-footed, masterful thriller with a breakneck pace that never lets up. Faced with the deepest act of betrayal in U.S. history, CIA agent Tracie Tanner must call on every tool she has---and her every last reserve to see the mission through." -- J. Carson Black, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of THE SHOP and HARD RETURN "PARALLAX VIEW...is a powerhouse full-throttle spy thriller...It is a taut and thoughtful journey back to the dying days of the Cold War...it will keep you up, and on the edge of your chair, long into the night.
James 516: A London Carter Novel
B.J. Bourg - 2014
Sheriff Burke puts his best sniper, London Carter, and his internal affairs officer, Bethany Riggs, on the case. Pressure mounts and panic sets in as the body count rises and the killer becomes more embolden. London and Bethany find themselves sifting through evidence, lies, and feelings for each other in their quest to stop the deadly attacks. A mysterious note at the crime scenes might offer a clue to the killer’s motive, but will they decipher it before the sheriff’s entire staff is wiped out? "...compelling and intense from start to finish...one heck of a read." --Kevin R. Tipple, Reviewer at Kevin's Corner (NOTE: Originally published on December 7, 2014 by Amber Quill Press, LLC)
Another One
Tony Faggioli - 2017
After two tours in the Afghanistan War, he thought the horrors that he witnessed there were behind him. But the death of his partner has now opened a dark hole of memories that are threatening to swallow Parker alive. Desperate to maintain his grip, he focuses on the last unsolved case his partner left behind: the brutal murder of Hymie Villarosa. Father Bernardino Soltera is being destroyed by the present. After ministering to the gang ridden streets of East L.A. for over twenty years, he's unable to see past the pain and suffering that drugs and violence have wreaked on his neighborhood; he’s ready to give up. But when a young girl confesses that she's pregnant and her boyfriend will hurt her if she doesn't get an abortion? Father Soltera decides to make one more stand. Hector Villarosa is being mocked by the future. After being released from jail he discovers the love of his life is with another man. As the leader of his gang, losing face could mean losing his life, and the fact that detectives are now asking questions about the death of Hector's cousin, Hymie, isn't helping. But Hector's bigger problem is the demon that has followed him out of jail and on to the mean streets of East L.A. Three men, one neighborhood. All about to discover that the veil between this world and the next is razor thin. “Faggioli does an astonishing job bringing both criminals and cops to life as three-dimensional, sympathetic characters.” – Amazon 5 Star Review “This is a book that so profoundly illustrates the never ending battle of good and evil, I'm almost without the words to explain it.” – Amazon 5 Star Review
Casey Jones Mysteries Vol 1-3
Katy Munger - 2017
The South will never be the same. Don't miss her.”—Janet Evanovich "Fast-paced and action-packed...The charm here lies in Munger's writing, which is silky-smooth and packs a wallop.”—I Love a Mystery “She is smart, tough, and tenacious…a wonderfully entertaining read.”—Publisher’s Weekly Big, badass Casey Jones, the smart-mouthed female PI with the thunder thighs and the bunny-soft heart, has everything you could possibly need to be an ace private investigator – except an investigator’s license. Fifteen years ago, this hard-boiled babe walked out of a Florida prison after serving an eighteen-month sentence, sporting 160 pounds of “nobody kicks my ass” and a couple of inches of dark roots at the base of her bleach job (“simply to confuse people into underestimating me”) and swearing she’d never set foot in a prison or trust a man again. Trust, no. But by no means has she given them up. She can love with the best of them, but when it comes to lust she’s in a class by herself. LEGWORK, Vol. 1Author Munger masterfully blends nail-biting suspense with Casey’s hilarious wisecracking narration as she navigates an unsavory southern stew of crooked politicians, crooked business deals, old grudges, ancient crimes, and everyone’s favorite, dysfunctional families. OUT OF TIME, Vol. 2The family of a death row inmate just isn’t buying the story that she killed her cop husband, and they’ve hired North Carolina’s mouthiest female sleuth to save her from lethal injection—in a month. MONEY TO BURN, Vol. 3When a favorite client gets killed on her watch, Casey vows to find the killer no matter what killers, arsonists, rapists, and spoiled rotten socialites get in her way. Then, to the cynical sleuth’s chagrin—everyone all around her starts falling in love…just before Casey herself is smitten. Always a rip-roaring romp, these will appeal to fans of all female sleuth mysteries—private eyes like Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone, Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski, Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan, Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone, and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, as well as their tough and witty male antecedents. If you ever flipped over Philip Marlowe, Spenser, or of course, the immortal Wolfe and his buddy Archie, you’ll fall in love with their direct descendant, Casey Jones, Private Eye.