Book picks similar to
Three Strikes by A.J. Stewart


crime-mystery
crime-fiction
detective-pi
mysteries

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 Legend of Devil's Creek


D.C. Alexander - 2012
    More abductions and killings soon follow. Justin Riddley, recently transferred to the island’s small college, faces growing evidence that one of his new friends and fellow students may be the murderer. John Marshall, redemption-seeking captain of the local police force, leads the frantic murder investigation and struggles to figure out whether the killings are tied to the island's dark and violent past. Tormented by tragic wartime memories, and more convinced with each day that it is humanity’s fate to destroy itself, Marshall races against both the murderer and the specter of his own mental breakdown. As blood continues to spill, Riddley and Marshall wonder whether there may be a dark, universal force that drives evil deeds great and small, and whether the nature of one’s childhood might sometimes, in the end, be all that separates the saint from the psychopath.

Closet of Lies


Samruddhi Chandak - 2019
    “ Bogged down by the pressures of a daily hospital routine, 28-year-old cancer-stricken Riddhi's life suddenly picks up pace when she starts receiving mysterious letters from an anonymous sender, who means bloody business. Riddhi finds herself in the fast lane when a renowned top cop is found murdered as mentioned in one of the letters. It is only when CBI officer Kabir Rana gets involved in solving the case, does he realize there is more to Riddhi than meets the eye. When Kabir starts decoding secret clues that would lead him to the murderer, what he comes across shakes him to the core.

Die Laughing 2: Five More Comic Crime Novels


Ben Rehder - 2014
    He's working a routine case, complete with hours of tedious surveillance, when he sees something that shakes him to the core. There, with the subject, is a little blond girl wearing a pink top and denim shorts—the same outfit worn by Tracy Turner, a six-year-old abducted the day before. When the police are skeptical of Ballard's report—and with his history, who can blame them?—it's the beginning of the most important case of his life.LAST CHANCE LASSITERPaul LevineIn this prequel to the “Jake Lassiter” series, the linebacker-turned-lawyer faces overwhelming odds. Fired from his job and dumped by his girlfriend, Lassiter rents a grungy law office in a Miami Beach parking garage. What else could go wrong? Well, he could be disbarred for punching out his own client. As for cases, the down-and-out lawyer has only one. Lassiter represents Cadillac Johnson, an aging rhythm and blues musician who claims his greatest song was stolen by a top-of-the-charts hip-hop artist. The evidence is long gone and chances of winning are slim. Except for one thing. “If your cause is just,” Lassiter says, “no case is impossible.”CLIENTParnell HallStanley Hastings couldn't be happier. He had his first paying client, and the assignment was straight out of a forties noir movie, tailing the man's cheating wife and snapping pictures of her at a motel. If only he hadn't fallen asleep on stakeout. When he wakes up the woman is dead, the murder weapon is in his car, and a small town police force straight out of In the Heat of the Night has him cast in the Sidney Poitier role. To clear his name—and get paid—Stanley will have to figure out who his client is, who killed the woman in the upstate motel, and who was the resultant corpse!RADIO ACTIVITYBill FitzhughFM rock deejay Rick Shannon has just been fired from his latest Classic Rock station. He’s thinking it’s time to get out of radio once and for all. But when a famous deejay disappears in Mississippi, Rick gets a job offer to take over the slot. So he packs his bags and moves back to his home state where he comes across a tape of an illegally recorded phone conversation that might explain the fate of the missing deejay. Rick starts looking into the matter, and before you can say “Stairway to Heaven” he’s uncovered a scheme of blackmail, arson, murder, and a major FCC violation. Based on an illegal recording made by the author (and former FM rock deejay), Radio Activity redefines classic rock.CALABAMA Steve BrewerWhen a speeding Corvette flies over his head, leaving him without a scratch, Eric Newlin decides it's an omen and his life is about to change. He's right. Within days, he's broke, homeless, unemployed and getting divorced. He falls so far that he ends up involved in a kidnapping scheme with hillbilly crimelord Rydell Vance. Leavened with dark humor, CALABAMA takes a wry look at California's rural, redneck interior, a bitter, precarious place where it's easy for an outsider's life to spiral out of control.

Murder in the Goblins Playground (DCI Arthur Ravyn Mystery, #1)


Ralph E. Vaughan - 2016
    Located deep in Red Cap Woods, it has long been the site of weird events, from pagan rites to human sacrifice by secret devil cults. When local rowdy Allan Cutter staggers into the snug bar of the Three Crowns pub and dies, old fears that have lain dormant for ages come to the fore. His death is quickly followed by the murder of a developer who planned to destroy Red Cap Woods. Villagers believe dark powers are awakening, that the murderous elves reputed to dwell in the woods will again dip their caps in human blood. Into this maelstrom of fear and emotion come DCI Arthur Ravyn and DS Leo Stark. As the bodies continue to mount, they discover it will take all their combined skills, intellect and courage to solve the mysterious deaths, keep the villagers from panicking, and not get sacked by powers even more inimical than those lurking in the eldritch depths of Red Cap Woods.

Lies in High Places


Dana Killion - 2017
    A sniper. A city on edge. As investigative journalist Andrea Kellner is heading out of Chicago for a long weekend, a driver in front of her is shot and killed. The city’s gang violence problems have spilled onto a major expressway for the third time in a month. Or is something else at play? Her career faltering and marriage all but over, Andrea desperately needs a win, provided she can find out what’s really behind the shootings. With a boss who wants her sitting on the sidelines—or back in his bed, a competitive co-worker who just wants her gone, and a detective blinded by his own past, Andrea must look past CPD’s explanation and discover the truth behind the shootings. Provided she can live to tell the story. Lies in High Places is the first book in the Andrea Kellner crime fiction series. If you like complex plots and smart, ballsy, crime-solving women, you’ll love Dana Killion’s page-turning debut.

The Walker


Jane R. Goodall - 2004
    And her photo covers the front pages. So he knew her name and her face. His face, or lack of it, filled her nightmares until she woke screaming... London 1971: Nell is a university student in London, trying to put the past behind her. But as a series of murders reveals a killer obsessed with Jack the Ripper, she realises her nightmares might be coming true. Detective Briony Williams, also just starting out on her life on London, is part of the team tracking down The Walker. The killer is a practised anatomist with a theatrical streak, arranging his victims' bodies in twisted parodies of Hogarth's engravings. He sends a perfectly extracted eye to the police in a Tupperware container, with a defiant message. He's planning a reunion with the schoolgirl who found his first victim.

The Window


Kevin Wignall - 2012
    The job is simple, to kill a man and get out of town immediately. Why would he stay? He hates Christmas, and hanging around after the crime could be dangerous, but a stranger's compassion forces him to question everything he's always believed, tempting him to stay just another day longer... First published in the Christmas edition of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (Jan, 2004), this story was subsequently reviewed in Mystery Scene, which described it as "bordering on the magnificent". (Please note - this is a short story of approximately 45 Kindle pages.)

Murder on Ice


B.T. Lord - 2017
     As the first female elected sheriff of Clarke County, Maine, Cammie has finally found peace in her life. However, that peace is shattered when hockey legend Eli Kelley suddenly returns to Twin Ponds. He and Cammie were once involved, and when he left to pursue a sports career, he left with a secret that almost destroyed her. When he is found murdered and Cammie is forced to make an arrest, the finger of guilt from the townspeople turn to her. Racing against time, Cammie must prove not only that she is innocent, but that the one person she doesn’t want to believe is guilty may very well be a killer.

The Billiard Room Mystery


Brian Flynn - 1927
    First in the Anthony Bathurst series.

Greed


Jay Nadal - 2016
    . . As the body count starts to mount, Detective Inspector Scott Baker and his team face a race against time to track down a serial killer who’s methodical, disturbed and unforgiving. His boss seems grateful someone else is doing their job for them and thinks it’s all down to an internal power struggle between the factions of Brighton’s criminal underworld. As the killings become increasingly more savage, can Scott track down the murderer before anyone else dies and before the criminal underworld implodes? If you love police procedurals, hard boiled mysteries, or books from Damian Boyd, Angela Marsons, Helen H Durrant, Mel Sherratt, Lisa Hartley, or Kerry Wilkinson, you’ll enjoy the debut novel in the DI Scott Baker, an exciting new crime thriller and mystery series. Greed is the first in a new series of detective police procedurals featuring D.I. Scott Baker from Brighton and Hove CID. Scott Baker is a single, thirty something Detective Inspector who thrives on the challenges that life throws at him. His personal life, however, haunts him and threatens to break him every day. He treads a fine line between sanity and self-destruction. The police procedural series is set in the coastal resort of Brighton on the South Coast of England. It’s a bustling, vibrant, cosmopolitan town with a rich mix of fun, history and intrigue.Greed is a murder mystery thriller peppered with a sprinkling of romance and humour in this fast-paced crime whodunnit.

These Toxic Things


Rachel Howzell Hall - 2021
    When her latest client, Nadia Denham, a curio shop owner, dies from an apparent suicide, Mickie honors the old woman’s last wish and begins curating her peculiar objets d’art. A music box, a hair clip, a key chain―twelve mementos in all that must have meant so much to Nadia, who collected them on her flea market scavenges across the country.But these tokens mean a lot to someone else, too. Mickie has been receiving threatening messages to leave Nadia’s past alone.It’s becoming a mystery Mickie is driven to solve. Who once owned these odd treasures? How did Nadia really come to possess them? Discovering the truth means crossing paths with a long-dormant serial killer and navigating the secrets of a sinister past. One that might, Mickie fears, be inescapably entwined with her own.

Meowy Christmas


Sylvia Selfman - 2015
    When Izzy goes to a posh Christmas party at her friend's fabulous home, she winds up doing a favor for the hostess that leads to mayhem, mistletoe and maybe even murder. Plus a dash of romance! & NOTHING BUNDT MURDER: While trying to heal her broken heart, journalist Rosie Kale moves into her Grandma's beach-side guest house and takes a job at the hot new Bundt Baby Bakery. But when she and her boss cater a ritzy bridal shower, murder is on the dessert menu and the Bundt cake is blamed. Rosie tries to find the real killer before she becomes the next victim. But her senior sleuth 'helpers,' Nana and Birdie, are more interested in getting her married off than in the murder case. Unfortunately their prime romantic prospect--handsome real estate mogul Casey Baron--is also her prime murder suspect. "Nothing Bundt Murder" is a fun, clean, cozy mystery with cats, cupcakes and a dash of romance.

Slice


David Hodges - 2010
     THERE’S A KILLER INSIDE THE POLICE STATION. A police station should be a safe place. But not when there’s a psychotic serial killer working there. THE FIRST VICTIM IS FOUND GRUESOMELY MUTILATED IN HIS MOST SENSITIVE AREA. HE IS DRESSED IN A JUDGE’S WIG. Detective Superintendent Jack Fulton takes on the grisly murder enquiry and discovers that his murderer might actually be one of the police station staff. MORE EMINENT VICTIMS FOLLOW. KILLED IN THE SAME SADISTIC MANNER. The press nickname the razor-wielding assassin “The Slicer.” With the killer stalking the shadowy Victorian building, Fulton has to contend not only with press harassment and police who will stop at nothing to get a result, but also with other problems much closer to home. As the killer leads him on a grim game of cat and mouse, Fulton has little idea of just how personal that game is about to become . . . YOU WON’T WANT TO PUT THIS ONE DOWN Perfect for fans of Rachel Abbott, Robert Bryndza, Mel Sherratt, Angela Marsons, Colin Dexter, or Ruth Rendell. THE AUTHOR A former police superintendent, with thirty years’ service. Since ‘turning to crime’, he has received critical media acclaim, including a welcome accolade from Inspector Morse’s creator, the late great, Colin Dexter, and he is now a prolific novelist with eleven published crime novels and an autobiography on his police career to his credit. His previous police experience has enabled him to provide a gritty realism to his thrillers and his Somerset Murder Series, featuring feisty female detective, Kate, and her partner, Hayden, has gone from strength to strength, attracting interest in the United States as well as in the UK. DETECTIVE KATE HAMBLIN MYSTERY SERIES Book 1: MURDER ON THE LEVELS Book 2: REVENGE ON THE LEVELS Book 3: FEAR ON THE LEVELS Book 4: KILLER ON THE LEVELS Book 5: SECRETS ON THE LEVELS Book 6: DEATH ON THE LEVELS STANDALONES SLICE

Death and Taxes


David Dodge - 1941
    Often compared to Dashiell Hammett, David Dodge's urbane writing style stands the test of time. His novels still show the hallmarks of being fresh, fast-paced and witty. Whit Whitney is the last person you’d want to meet.  The taxman is no one’s best friend.  But in 1940’s San Francisco, there’s a price to pay for murder, romance, and heavy drinking, and the taxman turned detective is coming to collect. Hilarious and twisty, Dodge’s first novel is among his best, and makes for a terrific introduction to one of last century’s greatest talents in mystery.