Book picks similar to
Calculated Extortion by K.T. Lee
mystery
contemporary
fbi-series
lit-other
Murdered by Words
Dianne Harman - 2016
Kat is the one who finds her murdered editor and she and several others are worried that she'll be the next one to be murdered. She has to find the murderer to save her reputation and her life, but who did it? Was it her editor's husband? Was it the woman who had become obsessed with any book she considered to be morally objectionable? Or was it the "trophy wife" of the local banker?
Look Before You Jump
D.A. Bale - 2016
This here’s Texas after all. Meet Victoria Bohanan, a twenty-six year-old Dallas debutante turned bartender babe who rejected her father’s saintly sinner ways and struck out on her own – well, sort of. Her mom’s credit card comes to the rescue on occasion, but Vicki is still her own woman, with less than lusty – er, lofty – aspirations and a mind constantly limping from the gutter. But Texas moms don’t raise fools. Vicki will earn that twenty dollar tip by guessing the mistress’ name and your favorite drink faster than you can belly up to the bar. That sharp wit has gotten her out of more than one disastrous situation – until the mouth sinks her right into another. When an old high school flame returns to town with a pregnant wife in tow and a pastorate position lodged under his belt, life quickly becomes tangled. This time we’re not talking between the sheets. Sooner than Vicki can down a shot of Jack, her former boy-toy is embroiled in scandal that threatens to implode the megachurch his parents built – and send the gossiping gaggle into a tailspin faster than a quarterback sack on Sunday. Join the fun in book one of the Bartender Babe Chronicles. Light on mystery and long on…well, you know.
Bluewater Killer
C.L.R. Dougherty - 2011
A peaceful journey under sail on a classic yacht turns into a gut-wrenching nightmare for a beautiful, manipulative, and not-so-innocent young woman.A distraught father enlists the aid of some shady characters from his past to find out what happened to his footloose daughter.Mike Reilly's escape from his horrific past to the soothing environment of Caribbean yachting comes with some baggage.
Devil's Gold
Amanda McKinney - 2018
Despite being chronically late, occasionally disheveled and a tad disorganized, Dixie Knight is one of the top private investigators in the country, and when a young woman goes missing in the small, Southern town of Devil’s Den, Dixie takes the case. She expected it to be another ordinary missing person case — until it takes a brutal turn. While visiting relatives on his two-week leave, Marine Liam Cash bumps into Dixie at the local bar, and his attraction to her is immediate. When he becomes suspicious that Dixie’s current case is connected to two unsolved murders in his hometown, he steps in to help investigate, and keep Dixie safe, whether Dixie wants him to or not. As the bodies start stacking up, Dixie turns the town upside down looking for the killer — could it be the rumored witch that lives in the mountains; the rich, neurotic doctor’s wife; or the perky, blonde receptionist at the local medical clinic? Time is running out and Dixie knows she has to put the pieces of the puzzle together before another body turns cold in Devil’s Den.
Castle Cay
Lee Hanson - 2010
Who could have killed rising artist Marc Solomon, and what does Castle Cay, the Solomon's mysterious Caribbean island, have to do with it? Before long, Julie's sixth-sense pulls a hidden string that unravels a deadly conspiracy...and her own troubled past.
Concrete Evidence
Rachel Grant - 2013
Now she wants revenge…Accused of stealing artifacts from a five hundred year-old shipwreck, underwater archaeologist Erica Kesling is determined to clear her name. She’s concealed her past and taken a job certain to give her access to the buyer of the missing antiquities. She's finally closing in on her goal, when she's distracted by a sexy, charismatic intern who makes her want something other than revenge.But Lee Scott is no intern. He's looking for the lead conspirator in an international artifact smuggling scheme, and Erica is his prime suspect. He’ll do whatever it takes to win her trust and get her to reveal her secrets, even seduce her.As Erica and Lee struggle to conceal their real agendas, the one thing they can’t hide is the attraction that burns hot between them. When Erica’s quest puts her life in jeopardy, Lee must choose between old loyalties and a woman he never expected to fall for.
Grave Situation
Alex MacLean - 2011
When he finally decides to leave the force and start over, he's assigned a string of murders that all bear the signs of a serial killer collecting trophies.As Stanton unravels each grisly crime scene, the mounting evidence points uncomfortably close to him and a case more disturbing than anything he's ever seen.
Exercise Is Murder
Bruce Hammack - 2019
Smiley doesn’t buy it.There are a lot of things a blind man can do, but solve a murder alone isn’t one of them. He needs a partner…one who knows their way around a crime scene. In walks McBlythe. Only time will tell if she’s a help or a hindrance. Armed with years of experience as a homicide detective and his new partner, Smiley sets out to find a killer. He knows he’s on the right trail when a bullet whizzes by. Will Steve resurrect his life as a master crime solver, or will his sleuthing get them both killed?
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.
It's Just a Little Crush
Caroline Fardig - 2013
Residents are stunned when the body of a young woman is found strangled, and reporters at the Liberty Chronicle are thrilled, rather disturbingly, over the biggest news story to hit town this century. Lizzie Hart has even bigger problems. Lately, she can’t seem to concentrate on her job as copy editor at the Chronicle with the new hunky investigative reporter, Blake Morgan, swaggering around the office. How can a girl work when she’s using all of her energy combating Blake-induced hot flashes and struggling to repress the giggly inner schoolgirl that’s constantly rearing her dorky head? It’s a good thing that Blake barely knows Lizzie exists. After an odd string of events, however, Lizzie begins to wonder if Blake is really as fabulous as she has fantasized. When Lizzie and Blake find a co-worker dead, Blake’s personality changes completely—and not in a good way. Even though the police rule the death as an accident, Lizzie immediately suspects foul play and senses a connection to the recent murder. She is determined to bring the killer to justice, but is having some trouble getting her Nancy Drew on thanks to the pesky stalker she’s picked up—Blake Morgan. Wait, didn’t she want him to follow her around and pay attention to her? Not like this. Blake has turned from cool and smooth to cold and downright scary, making Lizzie wonder if he should be next on her suspect list.
The Drowned Girls
Loreth Anne White - 2017
Then he disappeared ...
But Detective Angie Pallorino never forgot the violent rapist who left a distinctive calling card—crosses etched into the flesh of his victim’s foreheads. When a comatose Jane Doe is found in a local cemetery, sexually assaulted, mutilated, and nearly drowned, Angie is struck by the eerie similarities to her earlier unsolved rapes. Could he be back?Then the body of a drowned young woman floats up in the Gorge, also bearing the marks of the serial rapist, and the hunt for a predator becomes a hunt for a killer. Assigned to the joint investigative task force, Angie is more than ready to prove that she has what it takes to break into the all-male homicide division. But her private life collides with her professional ambitions when she’s introduced to her temporary partner, James Maddocks—a man she’d met the night before in an intense, anonymous encounter. Together, Angie and Maddocks agree to put that night behind them. But as their search for the killer intensifies so does their mutual desire. And Angie’s forays into the mind of a monster shake lose some unsettling secrets about her own past . . . How can she fight for the truth when it turns out her whole life is a lie?
Dying Eyes
Ryan Casey - 2013
But for DS Brian McDone, there is no respite from the frenzy. An unidentified teenage girl has been found brutally murdered in a seedy section of the city, her body laced with bruises, her sharp fingernails digging into her palms. Her eyes are staring up at something in pure fear. Nobody knows who she is. As Brian and his team begin to piece together the clues, the answers lead him to places he would least expect. The further Brian digs, one question soon becomes apparent: who can he trust? The answer, it seems, may be life-threatening. The first in a new series from author Ryan Casey, Dying Eyes is a dark detective mystery with complex characters and a twisting, turning plot that is sure to please fans of the genre.
Exhume
Danielle Girard - 2016
Annabelle Schwartzman has finally found a place to belong. As the medical examiner for the San Francisco Police Department, working alongside homicide detective Hal Harris, she uncovers the tales the dead can’t tell about their final moments. It is a job that gives her purpose—and a safe haven from her former life at the hands of an abusive husband. Although it’s been seven years since she escaped that ordeal, she still checks over her shoulder to make sure no one is behind her.Schwartzman’s latest case is deeply troubling: the victim bears an eerie resemblance to herself. What’s more, a shocking piece of evidence suggests that the killer’s business is far from over—and that Schwartzman may be in danger. In this pulse-pounding thriller from award-winning writer Danielle Girard, a woman must face her worst nightmare to catch a killer.
The Last Witness
K.T. Roberts - 2011
The second takes a bullet to the back of the head. Two down and counting! Who's next? Detectives Tate Kensington and Zachary Gerard of the NYPD have two seemingly unrelated cases on their plate and aren't making much progress toward a resolution of either one. Complicating the proceedings are Detective Kensington's personal issues with weak women, violent men, and death threats. Other than that, she's doing just fine except her ex-beau is now her boss.Can the two detectives put the killer away without a body? And what if a grammar-school prank becomes the key to solving these two major cases?
Massage & Murder
Jenn Cowan - 2018
A professional. A healer. Not a killer. When a client ends up dead on my massage table, I become the number one suspect. I have Means. Motive. Opportunity. But I didn't kill her. The clock is ticking, someone is stalking me, I have to find out who before I end up in jail or worse...dead.