Police Detective Thriller

'One of the best British crime writers' – Lee Child Roy Grace is about to find out just how dangerous a dead man can be . . . Arriving late for a funeral, James Taylor spots a familiar face in the church – his old schoolfriend Rufus Rorke. Except it couldn’t be him, could it? Because two...

The best mysteries have one thing in common: a memorable perpetrator. For every Sherlock Holmes or Sam Spade in noble pursuit, there's a Count Dracula, a Lester Leith, or a Jimmy Valentine. These are the rogues and villains who haunt our imaginations - and who often have more in common with their heroic counterparts than we might expect. Now, for the first time ever, Otto Penzler gathers the iconic traitors, thieves, con men, sociopaths, and killers who have crept through the mystery canon over the past 150 years, captivating and horrifying readers in equal measure.

Maurice Seton was a famous mystery writer - but no murder from his imagination could equal the ghastliness of his own death. When his grotesquely mutilated corpse is found in a drifting dinghy, ripples of horror spread among his bizarre neighbors: the cruel and cynical drama critic, the celebrated recluse, and the rakish young heir. It is up to Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh and his extraordinary aunt to discover the shocking truth about Seton's past - before the plot takes another murderous turn.

When Constable Evan Evans discovers a beautiful shepard's cottage in the mountains of Llanfair, Wales, he and his fiancée are thrilled. It's only months before their wedding, and they are eager to begin their new life together. The cottage is in need of renovation, so Evan wastes no time before he begins making much-needed repairs.

When Detective Kate Rosetti is startled awake in the middle of the night by a phone call from her mother, she knows it’s not good news. It turns out Kate’s father, the notorious Angelo Rosetti, is missing. There are no witnesses and no leads, and with only a week to go before Christmas, Kate hopes to find her father before the New Year. As Kate begins the hunt for her father, she gets another case added to her plate at the precinct.

An isolated beach on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel is the scene of the murder of Guy Brouard, one of Guernsey’s wealthiest inhabitants and its main benefactor. Forced as a child to flee the Nazis in Paris, Brouard was engaged in his latest project when he died: a museum in honor of those who resisted the German occupation of the island during World War II. The St. Jameses must delve into Guernsey’s dark history - both past and present - and into the troubled psyche of someone who may have exacted retribution for the most unspeakable crime of all.

"When I say, therefore, that [my brother] has better powers of observation than I...I am speaking the exact and literal truth." (Sherlock Holmes) This story occurs when Mycroft, an athletic Cambridge graduate, assists the secretary of state. He becomes embroiled in a mystery in Trinidad based on actual history. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a huge Holmesian, seven feet two inches tall, basketball's all-time leading scorer, and a US cultural ambassador. Anna Waterhouse is a professional screenwriter and script consultant.

For Meg Jennings and her K-9 companion, Hawk, exploring the ruins of a deserted building is an exciting way to sharpen their skills without the life-or-death stakes they face as part of the FBI's Human Scent Evidence Team. But deep in the echoing rooms of an abandoned asylum, Hawk finds the body of an elderly woman. The victim couldn't have made her way into the derelict building on her own. Before 48 hours pass, Meg learns of three more cases of elders found dead in neglected urban structures. There's not enough evidence to link the deaths - yet. But Meg scents a pattern.

What are the chances...that convicted killer Sam Blue is innocent of the serial murders of three young women? Detective Harriet Blue is certain that her brother is incapable of having committed these horrific crimes. Determined to clear his name, no matter the cost to her career, Harry attends Sam's hearing. The outburst she unleashes earns her a reassignment - to the Outback.

Jonah Sheens is enjoying a moment of peace in a pub garden on his day off when a teenage girl wanders out of the woods. She’s striking, with flame-red hair and a pale complexion. She’s also covered in blood. When Jonah races to help, the girl insists she’s fine. Then she smiles. It’s her sister he needs to worry about. Keely and her sister, Nina, disappeared from a children’s home a week ago. Now Keely is here—but Nina’s still missing. Jonah is sure Keely knows where her sister is—but before she tells him anything, she insists, he has to listen to her story from the beginning.

Detective Madison Harper’s heart aches when she attends a local support group for families of missing people in Lost Creek, Colorado. She wishes she could help them all, but one cold case in particular captures her attention. Five years ago, close friends Becky, Tasha and Stuart hiked the infamous Grave Mountain. But only Stuart returned. He claims they were separated by a storm, but the town has never believed him. Convinced Stuart is hiding something, Madison vows to find out what really happened.

In Lisa Gardner's second short story, after the New York Times bestseller The 7th Month, Detective D.D. Warren takes on her most intimidating assignment yet: a fifty-minute class meant to educate a horde of bloodthirsty thriller writers on the ways of actual police work. Yet sometimes life really does imitate fiction, as D.D. takes the writers through the reality of one of her most twisted cases - a case that involves a seedy motel room, drugs, prostitution...and a severed leg.

Evans' search for a hiker gone missing in the Welsh hills places his fiancé in the path of a killer in this tantalizing installment in this award-winning author's cozy series.

When the body of a woman is found hanging from a tree in her front garden, rookie Detective Morgan Brookes is first on the scene. But Olivia Potter is past saving. And when her husband and daughters cannot be traced, Morgan knows there is more to this tragedy. And then she finds them. Lying huddled together in the dark basement, each of their faces covered with a small cotton cloth, their bodies cold to the touch. But as Morgan kneels beside the family, she realizes that one of the girls is still breathing.

In this second book in the Frank Yakabuski Mystery series, Yakabuski is called in to investigate a gruesome crime scene. A body has been left hanging from a schoolyard fence. On closer inspection, Yak finds a large diamond in the murder victim’s mouth. Two criminal gangs - the Shiners and the Travellers - are fighting with each other, and Yakabuski turns to his father, a now-retired detective who has a long history with the gangs, for advice in the interrogation. And as if this weren’t enough for one detective, a serial killer is taking a deadly road trip through the United States.

Chicago detective Annalisa Vega shattered her life, personally and professionally, when she turned in her ex-cop father for his role in a murder. Her family can’t forgive her. Her fellow officers no longer trust her. So when detective Leo Hammond turns up dead in a bizarre murder, she thinks she has nothing to lose by investigating whatever secrets he hid behind the thin blue line. Annalisa quickly zeroes in on someone who had good reason to want Hammond dead: a fast-talking car salesman who’d gotten away with murder once and wasn’t about to let Hammond take a second shot.

When Detective Erika Foster finds politician Neville Lomas naked, hog-tied, and dead in his own bed, skittish higher-ups at the Met quickly rule the death from natural causes. Case closed...until two months later when a well-known casting director and a star footballer are found murdered and tied with the same knots. The Met can no longer ignore what’s staring them in the face: there’s a serial killer loose in London, and they’re out to settle a score. As Erika and her team investigate, things take a strange turn as CCTV footage turns up five female suspects...and they’re all identical.

Morse had never ceased to wonder why, with the staggering advances in medical science, all pronouncements concerning times of death seemed so disconcertingly vague. The newly appointed member of the Oxford Examinations Syndicate was deaf, provincial and gifted. Now he is dead.... And his murder, in his north Oxford home, proves to be the start of a formidably labyrinthine case for Chief Inspector Morse, as he tries to track down the killer through the insular and bitchy world of the Oxford Colleges....

When a call comes in about a young girl found dead at a high school prom—her life drained away from a fatal stab wound—Detective Josie Quinn drops everything to attend the scene. Taking in the girl’s neatly braided hair, Josie feels a flicker of recognition. But no one comes forward to identify this innocent child, murdered on what should have been the happiest night of her life. Trawling missing-persons files, Josie realizes where she has seen the girl before. Gemma Farmer disappeared a few months ago. But why would her body appear now, on her 16th birthday?

“Megan, you need to call me. Wallace was here. He left a message to say please don’t worry. He’s coming for you soon.” As I hang up the call, my blood runs cold. I’ve spent a lifetime running from this man. But as I look down at his next victim, their face frozen in one final moment of fear, I can’t escape the feeling that I will be next to die.