The Reluctant Detective


Tom Fowler - 2017
    A ruthless old acquaintance. Will C.T. Ferguson's first case be his last? Three weeks in a brutal prison—that was hacker C.T. Ferguson's punishment for helping Americans and dissidents evade the Chinese government. Deported home, C.T. uses his digital skills as a private investigator.Suspecting her husband is cheating on her, Alice hires C.T. to investigate. He soon learns that Alice has her own problems, namely a ruthless adversary squeezing her for money. Even the suspicious death of her husband can't buy Alice a break.C.T. stays on the case because he hates seeing innocent people pushed around. His persistence lands him on the ruthless adversary's hit list. If C.T. can't figure out what happened, both he and Alice will face deadly consequences.

Running Into the Darkness


D.A. Bale - 2011
    As a doctor, she swore an oath to protect life - not take it. But that was before he ordered the murder of her family. Swept from the frigid New York City winter, Dr. Samantha Bartlett returns to the Midwest to once again confront the sting of death - and face those she left behind. But she's not alone. A strange man she dubs "Shades" haunts her every step as she seeks answers to the inferno which claimed her grandmother's life, an eerie reminder of her parents' deaths. The secrets Samantha uncovers forever shatter the image of those she only thought she knew. Confronted by Shades, Samantha joins a secret underworld known only as the Elite, where a web of power and control is woven deep within governments worldwide. Their sights are set on the seat of domination behind the Resolute desk that is the powerhouse of nations - the presidency of the United States of America. Samantha becomes the Elite's unlikely key to infiltrating the White House at its most intimate levels. The Hippocratic Oath. All doctors swear by it. But the most despicable deeds must be avenged. The quest for blood swallows Samantha in a veil of darkness and threatens to destroy everything she once stood for. And from the darkness there is no escape.

The Perfect Girl


Gilly Macmillan - 2016
    Three years ago, she was involved in a tragic incident that left three classmates dead. She served her time, and now her mother, Maria, is resolved to keep that devastating fact tucked far away from their new beginning, hiding the past even from her new husband and demanding that Zoe do the same.Tonight Zoe is giving a recital that Maria has been planning for months. It needs to be the performance of Zoe’s life. But instead, by the end of the evening, Maria is dead.In the aftermath, everyone—police, family, Zoe’s former solicitor, and Zoe herself—tries to piece together what happened. But as Zoe knows all too well, the truth is rarely straightforward, and the closer we are to someone, the less we may see.

Speak No Evil


Tanya Anne Crosby - 2013
    But a killer is making headlines, and Caroline may have unwittingly stepped into the crosshairs. Even as she mends the tattered bonds of sisterhood, a sinister force beyond their control may tear them apart forever…Reading order for The Oyster Point ThrillerBook 1: Leave No TraceBook 2: Speak No EvilBook 3: Tell No Lies

Alpha


Steven Konkoly - 2011
    A secret his government has hidden in the deepest vaults of the Pentagon.Someone is trying to raise Black Flag from the dead, and drag Petrovich back into the poisonous life he abandoned. Someone who knows his darkest secrets.In exchange for the promise of a clean slate, and a chance to keep the life he has built with the woman he loves, he agrees to carry out one more mission. Now Daniel has an even bigger problem. The assassination of Mohammed Ghani, a wealthy Muslim importer, wasn't the uncomplicated mission he had been promised. Seven other prominent Muslim businessmen are killed on the same night along the East Coast, suddenly extinguishing Task Force HYDRA, the most significant counter-terrorism investigation in recent FBI history.Daniel's life is about to disintegrate, as he becomes the focus of a relentless FBI manhunt, and the target of a vengeful CIA agent. To survive, he'll be forced to release a dark side he fought for years to keep suppressed. A dark side with no boundaries, and few loyalties.

Breathless


Dean Koontz - 2009
    That night, through the trees, under the moon, a pair of singular animals will watch Grady's isolated home, waiting to make their approach.  A few miles away, Camillia Rivers, a local veterinarian, begins to unravel the threads of a puzzle that will bring all the forces of a government in peril to her door. At a nearby farm, long-estranged identical twins come together to begin a descent into darkness…In Las Vegas, a specialist in chaos theory probes the boundaries of the unknowable…On a Seattle golf course, two men make matter-of-fact arrangements for murder…Along a highway by the sea, a vagrant scarred by the past begins a trek toward his destiny… In a novel that is at once wholly of our time and timeless, fearless and funny, Dean Koontz takes readers into the moment between one turn of the world and the next, across the border between knowing and mystery. It is a journey that will leave all who take it Breathless.

Little Girl Lost


Cheryl Bradshaw - 2020
    Georgiana's brother-in-law has been murdered, her seven-year-old niece kidnapped. As the hours waste away, Georgiana races back to a town she left behind, and a former life she's still not ready to face.

Squall


Sean Costello - 2014
    On a clear winter morning he sets out in his Cessna 180 to do some repairs on a remote hunt camp, leaving his five year old son and very pregnant wife snug in their beds.On the return trip, a squall forces him into an emergency landing and he winds up—quite literally—in the lap of petty criminal Dale Knight. Dale, now a fugitive from the law—and worse, from a merciless drug lord who just happens to be his brother—draws Tom into a web of mayhem and treachery that puts not only his life at risk, but the lives of his wife, son…and unborn child.SQUALL is a fast-paced, darkly-comic tale of murder and gang-style retribution that grabs the reader on page one and simply does not let go.

A Book of Truths


Ty Hutchinson - 2019
    She’s fearless. She’s fifteen. Meet Mui, the assassin’s daughter. When a book filled with cryptic handwriting falls into Mui’s possession, she thinks nothing of the scribbling—until she learns the writings are hidden messages, and one is connected to her past. But Mui’s not the only one interested in deciphering the symbols. Someone is killing anyone with knowledge of that information. Will Mui fall victim while figuring out her connection to the book? A Book of Truths is the first installment in a gripping series about a mother-and-daughter assassin duo.

Leine Basso Crime Thrillers Boxset, #1-3


D.V. Berkom - 2015
     Serial Date: When a former assassin's daughter is abducted, she's drawn into the twisted game of a serial killer who may be a grisly remnant from her past. What happens when a reality show turns deadly? Determined to leave her old life behind, retired assassin Leine Basso accepts a job working security at one of television's most popular reality shows, Serial Date. When a contestant is found dead in the prop closet, it appears the killer is one of the 'bachelors' on the show- an ex-con billed as a serial killer- but the detective in charge of the case isn't so sure. When Leine's estranged daughter is abducted by a man claiming to be the real killer, she's forced to rely on old skills to find her, and must come to terms with who she really is. She soon realizes the murderer may be a grisly remnant from her past and she'll need to use all of her cunning to stop him... ...and rescue her daughter. Bad Traffick: Dangerous obsessions take center stage when a former assassin and a homicide detective race against the clock to find a missing girl before she's sold to the highest bidder. Identified as a person of interest in three cold case murders she didn't commit, retired assassin Leine Basso accepts a temporary position as a security specialist for A-list actor Miles Fournier. Soon, a woman contacts Miles, claiming to be his long-lost sister. But, there's a problem: her twelve-year-old daughter, Mara, has been abducted and she's desperate to get her back. Leine learns from a contact that Mara escaped, but the traffickers are determined to track her down and deliver her to their powerful client. Running out of time, Leine must find Mara before they do, or she will be lost forever. The Body Market: A retired assassin is called in when a celebration south of the border turns into a nightmare. Everything's for sale... Former assassin Leine Basso is hired by a wealthy Beverly Hills power couple to find their missing daughter, Elise, last seen partying with her boyfriend at a club in Tijuana. At first, police believe the two teenagers are the victims of a carjacking. But when Leine finds their missing vehicle with a mutilated body inside, and the local cartel warns her away, she knows if Elise isn’t already dead, she will be soon, or worse. In the lethal world of organized crime, there’s always a worse. As Leine races to uncover the reason behind Elise Bennett’s disappearance, she must also battle the powerful interests fighting to keep her from the truth.

The Good Daughter


S.A. McEwen - 2021
    A family secret.And a boyfriend who's not who he says he is...Sydney, Australia. Lawyer and companion Natalie Coommaraswamy struggles to be the good daughter her parents demand. A second-generation Sri Lankan, she’s never penetrated her family’s resolute silence surrounding their flight from Sri Lanka, and has been left with unanswered questions about where she belongs and who she can trust. Then her best friend is found murdered. Fuelled by disinterest from the police, Natalie begins her own hunt for the murderer. But when clues point to her new lover, her carefully regulated world starts to unravel. And the truth will threaten more than her sanity…

Frosted Shadow


Nancy Warren - 2011
    She’s also got a nose for trouble and a passion for solving mysteries. Imagine Columbo in a lavender suit. She never met a woman who wouldn’t look better with a little help from the Lady Bianca line of cosmetics. But don’t be fooled by appearances. Underneath the fake diamonds and the big hair is a sharp brain and a keen eye that sees the details as well as the funny side of life. When a Lady Bianca sales rep is murdered at the annual convention in Dallas, Toni is the one who notices things that some people, like sexy Detective Luke Marciano, might easily miss. Only someone who understands as much about how to make appearances deceiving could see into the mind of this killer -- a murderer who wants to give Toni a permanent makeover. Into a dead woman.

Follow the Crow


B.B. Griffith - 2014
    Six years ago his little sister Ana vanished without a trace. His best friend saw what happened, but he refuses to speak of what he knows, and so was banished from the Navajo tribe. That was the day the crows started following Ben. Caroline Adams is a nurse with a special talent: she sees things others can’t see. She knows that Ben is more than he seems, and that the crows are trying to tell him something. What the crows know will shed new light on the mystery of Ana’s disappearance, and throw Ben and Caroline into a race against time to find out what happened before they end up vanishing just like she did.

The Heart Ladder


Sibby Spencer - 2021
    Leaving behind everything she knew, including the mystery of what happened to the father of her unborn child after he went missing behind enemy lines. Three decades on and her son, thirty-something slacker Dan, knows he's wasting his life in pubs, nightclubs, and his dead-end job. That all changes, though, when a man with storied eyes and an old army jacket introduces himself as the father Dan never had a chance to know.But is Jacob, a battered and broken war veteran, really who he claims to be?As he and Dan kindle their relationship, more and more comes under question; including Jacob's true purpose in seeking Dan out, the unanswered mysteries of his past, and the pivotal role he'll play in Dan's uncertain future. Soon, Dan comes to understand that his life is very far from meaningless - and that the choices he's being forced to make might have deadly and irredeemable consequences.

The Darkest Lies


Solomon Carter - 2018
    SOME SECRETS CAN’T BE HIDDEN WITHOUT DEADLY CONSEQUENCES… AND HOGARTH HAS A SECRET ALL OF HIS OWN… DI Joe Hogarth and his team are called to a murder at a seaside nightclub. A big man with a reputation for extortion has been stabbed to death, but no one saw the killer strike. A young man disappeared from the scene moments before the murder. The young man has no clear motive but Hogarth can’t let go of his suspicions. He decides to track down the missing youth… And soon discovers the motive for the murder is far older, and far darker than he could have imagined.One man goes missing and a ghost from the past reappears as the darkest lies of two generations are ruthlessly exposed. One cop takes justice into her own hands. And yet another may pay the ultimate price.AS HOGARTH AND THE TEAM PEEL BACK THE LAYERS OF CRIME, THE BODYCOUNT STARTS TO RISE…DI Hogarth’s reputation hangs in the balance. And one cop’s life hangs by a thread.Secret Affairs. Lies and Betrayal. Murder.And Hogarth’s personal life is heading for a crisis. In a truly thrilling conclusion, DI Hogarth and his team race against time to stop a killer who watches their every move. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Ian Rankin, Val McDermid and Ruth Rendell, Helen Durrant, Joy Ellis and LJ Ross. If you love to read gripping detective thrillers with flawed characters and police procedurals with shocking twists and a noir flavour, then the DI Hogarth Darkest series is for you.Readers have described the Darkest series as pefect for fans of British crime thrillers, Female detective novels, British crime mysteries, Police Procedurals, Heist thrillers and Noir Thrillers.The Darkest Lies is a crime novel you won’t want to put down. The Setting: Southend-on-sea, Just over an hour from London. A tough and densely packed suburban town sandwiched between the sparkling Thames Estuary and a semi-rural hinterland of fields and marshes. A place where wealth and glamour sit cheek-by-jowl with addiction, poverty and crime. When he transferred to the Essex coast, ex-Met Detective Joe Hogarth might have imagined he was signing up for sun, sea and semi-retirement. But the merry hell of Southend might just have him beat. It’s a good thing this DI doesn’t know when to quit… THE DI HOGARTH DARKEST SERIES THE DARKEST LIESTHE DARKEST GRAVETHE DARKEST DEEDTHE DARKEST TRUTH ALSO BY SOLOMON CARTER LONG TIME DYING series featuring private investigators Eva Roberts and Dan BradleyTHE LAST LINELUCK AND JUDGMENTLONDON CALLINGTHE FINAL TRICK For more information visit SolomonCarter.net