Crime Fiction Police Procedural Suspense

DCI Harry Grimm’s happy emotions are confusing the hell out of him. Enjoying the company of his new girlfriend and furry black dog, the usually gruff detective finds himself feeling genuinely content for the first time in a very long while. But it’s soon back to business as usual when the idyllic countryside is rocked by the demise of a popular farmer in a horrific hay-baler accident. After the coroner rules the mangled remains a homicide, Grimm sends his team out to follow clues that provoke more questions than answers.

When gunshots ring out from an exclusive family home on the edge of Northern Pine Lake, Agent Tori Hunter races through the gathering snowstorm to discover that ten-year-old Teddy Marist has disappeared. His mother and her new boyfriend are dead in the family kitchen, breakfast still cooking on the stove. And racing to track down Teddy’s father, Tori finds he is missing too. Local police are certain this is a simple case of a jealous ex-husband turned violent over his recent divorce.

After a teenage boy is found dead on a Lenchester train, Detective Chief Inspector Whitney Walker believes they’re being targeted by the notorious Carriage Killer, who chooses a local rail network, commits four murders, and moves on. Against her wishes, Walker’s boss brings in officers from another force to help the investigation and prevent more deaths, but she’s forced to defend her team against this outside interference.

A string of overdoses in Colorado Springs has Detectives Joe Kenda and Lee Wilson on the lookout for a bad batch of heroin that has been cut with a drug they’ve never seen before. Meanwhile, at Springs General Hospital, Dr. Blair Moreland—the notoriously unpleasant head anesthesiologist—has found a way to feed his deepening addiction to the very same powerful new drug: fentanyl. But when Dr. Moreland starts supplying the dangerous painkiller to dealer Lula Lopez, he angers a Mexican crime syndicate and sets into motion a cycle of death and violence that threatens to engulf the entire city.

In the beautiful gardens of Shelley House a shocking discovery is made. A blackened hand dangles over the side of a wheelbarrow. The horrific scent of burnt flesh lingers in the air. Detectives Nikki Galena and Joseph Easter are called in to investigate.

The once tranquil woods in a picturesque part of Lenchester have become the bloody stage to a series of ritualistic murders. With no suspects, Detective Chief Inspector Whitney Walker is once again forced to call on the services of forensic psychologist Dr. Georgina Cavendish. But this murderer isn't like any they've faced before. The murders are highly elaborate, but different in their own way, and with the clock ticking, they need to get inside the killer's head before it's too late.

The young man with the shock of white-blond hair lay spread-eagled on the floor, surrounded by fallen books. His hand reached out to the scattered pages, as though he was trying to tell her something. But who is he? How did he come to be killed in Flora’s ordinary little bookshop? Flora finds out he was staying at the Priory Hotel, and when the gardener suddenly dies in its beautiful grounds only a few days later, she is certain that something untoward is happening in her quiet village by the sea.

It’s been five years since Detective Amanda Steele’s life was derailed by the tragic death of her young daughter. The small community of Dumfries, Virginia, may have moved on, but Amanda cannot. When the man who killed Lindsey is found murdered, she can’t keep away from the case.

Kay Hooper weaves an irresistible web of mystery and suspense in her latest thriller Touching Evil. Police sketch artist Maggie Barnes, whose exceptional talent has made her indespensible, faces the challenge of a lifetime when a deranged psychopath grips the city in a horiffic tirade that leaves many women wounded. Maggie’s abilities are put to the test as she struggles to put a face to the acts and uncover this predator before even she becomes his victim.

Benny Griessel is a cop on a mission: he plans to ask Alexa Bernard to marry him. That means he needs to buy an engagement ring - and that means he needs a loan. So Benny has a lot on his mind when he is called to a top-priority murder case. A woman's body is discovered, naked and washed in bleach, draped on a wall beside a picturesque road above Cape Town. The identity of the victim is a mystery, as is the reason for her killing. Gradually, Benny and his colleague Vaughn Cupido begin to work out the roots of the 17th century.

Kim and Mia Timmers were just 11 years old when they were imprisoned in a local psychiatric institution, accused of murdering the man they believed to be responsible for the death of their family. Now, 10 years later, they are due for release. Detective Pieter Vos is given cause to reopen the case when the girls disappear. His investigation takes an unexpected turn when it becomes clear that someone is posing as Little Jo - Kim and Mia's other sister, who was killed along with their parents.

Eight-year-old Grace is last seen in a sweetshop. Her mother, Emma, is living a nightmare. But as her loved ones rally around her, cracks begin to emerge. What are the emails sent between her husband and her sister? Why does her mother take so long to join the search? And is there more to the disappearance of her daughter than meets the eye?

In a Dry Season, winner of the Anthony Award, is an outstanding example of mystery fiction. Peter Robinson's Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks conjures up memories of classic detectives like Philip Marlowe and Sherlock Holmes. An insufferable drought ravages the Yorkshire countryside, depleting the Thornfield Reservoir, revealing the remnants of the flooded town of Hobb's End and the terrible secrets kept safe within its watery tomb. Amongst the ruins, the remains of a woman's body are discovered.

In a town full of liars, who can you trust? When Detective Finnegan Beck is demoted from his high-powered job in Dublin and relocated in disgrace to the small Irish town of Cross Beg, he predicts boredom will be his biggest threat. But then a beautiful local teenage girl is found strangled in the cold, dark woods a mile from town. The prime suspect is the seemingly gentle drifter who found Tanya’s body. Beck seems to be the only person who can’t escape the feeling that Tanya wasn’t killed at random.

Juillet 1981. Pendant que Daniel Duval et son collègue Louis Harel participent aux Jeux mondiaux des policiers à Mexico, Gilles Hébert part en vacances avec ses petits-fils Sébastien, six ans, et Vincent, treize ans. Le vieil homme étrenne sa roulotte et il a la ferme intention de trouver un site enchanteur, en pleine nature sauvage. Si les Jeux se terminent bien pour les deux policiers, il n'en va pas de même pour le voyage des campeurs...

DI Tom Stonem’s peaceful holiday is cut short when a body is discovered nearby, in the shadow of the Angel of the North. The dead man is bound, his arms outstretched in the sculpture’s iconic pose. In the man’s pocket is what appears to be a little girl’s Christmas list, with the first item – 1. Angel delight – crossed off. When a second body is found – a woman, stabbed in the abdomen after her work Christmas do – Stonem can’t help but notice a grim connection between the crime scenes and the items on the seemingly innocent list. 2. Red party dress. Could this be a murderer’s twisted code?

Nearly three thousand New Yorkers died on 9/11. But in the entire city on that tragic day, only one murder actually took place. Now, over two decades later, Detective Nick Ryan must dig beneath the official report—and into his own past—to find the truth.

When a 71-year-old man is shot dead in his home, it seems like a random act of violence. But the hundreds of photos of Detective Tori Hunter found at the scene seem to say otherwise. And when the gun that proves to be the murder weapon in the brutal murder of Tori’s family some 30-something years earlier is found, Tori is not only facing her past, but a massive conflict of interest.

As Fenchurch and his wife Abi struggle to reconnect with their daughter, Fenchurch comes face to face with his worst nightmare—the man who allegedly abducted Chloe eleven years ago, now out having served time for another murder. But is Fenchurch just playing to his own prejudices? Is he looking for the real killer? And will he have to pay a high price to catch a brutal murderer?

When Special Agent Nikki Hunt is called to the Boundary Waters near Stillwater, Minnesota, it’s not just the cold that shocks her to her core: the body of a young woman has been found frozen beside a remote lake. Nikki is devastated to see the victim is her childhood friend Annmarie, and she recognizes the velvet ribbon tied in her hair as the hallmark of a serial killer who she has been hunting for years.