Books with category 🕵️ Detective
Displaying 9 books

Nine Elms

2019

by Robert Bryndza

From the breakthrough international bestselling author of The Girl in the Ice, comes a breathtaking, page-turning novel about a disgraced female detective’s fight for redemption. And survival…

Kate Marshall was a promising young police detective when she caught the notorious Nine Elms serial killer. But her greatest victory suddenly turned into a nightmare. Traumatized, betrayed, and publicly vilified for the shocking circumstances surrounding the cannibal murder case, Kate could only watch as her career ended in scandal.

Fifteen years after those catastrophic events, Kate is still haunted by the unquiet ghosts of her troubled past. Now a lecturer at a small coastal English university, she finally has a chance to face them. A copycat killer has taken up the Nine Elms mantle, continuing the ghastly work of his idol.

Enlisting her brilliant research assistant, Tristan Harper, Kate draws on her prodigious and long-neglected skills as an investigator to catch a new monster. Success promises redemption, but there’s much more on the line: Kate was the original killer’s intended fifth victim…and his successor means to finish the job.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a gripping tale of a real-life murder that inspired the birth of modern detective fiction. In June 1860, three-year-old Saville Kent was tragically found at the bottom of an outdoor privy with his throat slit. This horrific crime shocked all of England and sparked a national obsession with detection. Ironically, it nearly destroyed the career of perhaps the greatest detective of the time, Inspector Jonathan Whicher.

At the time, detectives were a new invention; there were only eight in all of England, and they were rarely called out of London. Yet, this crime was so appalling that Scotland Yard dispatched its best man, Inspector Whicher, to investigate.

Whicher quickly suspected the unthinkable: someone within the family was responsible for young Saville Kent's murder. However, without sufficient evidence or a confession, his case remained circumstantial, and he returned to London a broken man. Though he would be vindicated five years later, the true legacy of Jonathan Whicher endures in fiction: the tough, quirky, knowing, and all-seeing detective archetype that has captivated readers for generations.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a provocative work of nonfiction that reads like a Victorian thriller. In it, Kate Summerscale crafts a brilliant, multilayered narrative that is as cleverly constructed as it is beautifully written.

The 19th Christmas

It's not sleigh bells that are ringing this Christmas.

As the holidays approach, Detective Lindsay Boxer and her friends in the Women's Murder Club have much to celebrate. Crime is down. The medical examiner's office is quiet. Even the courts are showing some Christmas spirit. And the news cycle is so slow that journalist Cindy Thomas is on assignment to tell a story about the true meaning of the season for San Francisco.

Then a fearsome criminal known only as "Loman" seizes control of the headlines. He is planning a deadly surprise for Christmas morning. And he has commissioned dozens of criminal colleagues to take actions that will mask his plans. All that Lindsay and the SFPD can figure out is that Loman's greed—for riches, for bloodshed, for attention—is limitless.

Solving crimes never happens on schedule, but as this criminal mastermind unleashes credible threats by the hour, the month of December is upended for the Women's Murder Club. Avoiding tragedy is the only holiday miracle they seek.

The Likeness

2019

by Tana French

In the compelling (The Boston Globe) and pitch perfect (Entertainment Weekly) follow-up to Tana French’s runaway bestseller In the Woods, it's six months later and Cassie Maddox has transferred out of the Dublin Murder Squad with no plans to go back—until an urgent telephone call summons her to a grisly crime scene. The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used as an undercover cop. Cassie must discover not only who killed this girl, but, more importantly, who was this girl?

The Red Hand

Someone is experimenting with...Death! Rookie detective Frank Nagler has barely had time to arrange his desk, when a new homicide case is assigned to him. Could a serial killer be stalking his hometown of Ironton, N.J.?

One by one the bodies pile up. Nine victims are killed over several months, all from different walks of life and different parts of Ironton. Each killed in a different way, forming no clear pattern, as might be expected from a single killer.

The Red Hand is the prequel to The Swamps of Jersey, the book that launched the Frank Nagler Mysteries. This investigation takes place before economic hard times, political corruption and a government money scandal hit the former industrial center of Ironton, N.J.

This story is atmospheric, moody, dark and thrilling.

Lethal White

Lethal White is a gripping mystery and a thrilling installment in the ongoing story of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. Written by the international bestselling author Robert Galbraith, this novel is a masterpiece of suspense and intrigue.

When Billy, a troubled young man, comes to private eye Cormoran Strike's office, he asks for help investigating a crime he believes he witnessed as a child. Billy is clearly mentally distressed and cannot recall many concrete details, yet there is something sincere and compelling about his story. Before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from the office in panic.

Determined to uncover the truth behind Billy's story, Strike and Robin Ellacott—once his assistant, now a partner in the agency—embark on a twisting journey. Their investigation leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside.

Throughout this labyrinthine investigation, Strike's own life is far from straightforward. His newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Moreover, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than ever. Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that.

This novel is a testament to Galbraith's wizardry as a writer, offering readers both a captivating mystery and an engaging continuation of the Cormoran Strike series.

One Small Sacrifice

2019

by Hilary Davidson

An apparent suicide. A mysterious disappearance. Did one man get away with murder—twice?

NYPD detective Sheryn Sterling has had her eye on Alex Traynor ever since his friend Cori fell to her death under suspicious circumstances a year ago. Cori’s death was ruled a suicide, but Sheryn thinks Alex—a wartime photojournalist suffering from PTSD—got away with murder.

When Alex’s fiancée, Emily, a talented and beloved local doctor, suddenly goes missing, Sheryn suspects that Alex is again at the center of a sticky case. Sheryn dislikes loose ends, and Cori’s death had way too many of them.

But as Sheryn starts pulling at the threads in this web, her whole theory unravels. Everyone involved remembers the night Cori died differently—and the truth about her death could be the key to solving Emily’s disappearance.

Thin Air

2019

by Lisa Gray

She investigates missing persons—now she is one.

Private investigator Jessica Shaw is used to getting anonymous tips. But after receiving a photo of a three-year-old kidnapped from Los Angeles twenty-five years ago, Jessica is stunned to recognize the little girl as herself.

Eager for answers, Jessica heads to LA’s dark underbelly. When she learns that her biological mother was killed the night she was abducted, Jessica’s determined to solve a case the police have forgotten. Meanwhile, veteran LAPD detective Jason Pryce is in the midst of a gruesome investigation into a murdered college student moonlighting as a prostitute. A chance encounter leads to them crossing paths, but Jessica soon realizes that Pryce is hiding something about her father’s checkered history and her mother’s death.

To solve her mother’s murder and her own disappearance, Jessica must dig into the past and find the secrets buried there. But the air gets thinner as she crawls closer to the truth, and it’s getting harder and harder to breathe.

Blood for Blood

2019

by Victoria Selman

Ziba Mackenzie profiles killers. Now one is profiling her.

Rush hour, London. A packed commuter train is torn apart in a collision. Picking through the carnage, ex-special forces profiler Ziba MacKenzie helps a dying woman who passes on a cryptic message: He did it. You have to tell someone.

When a corpse is found bearing the gruesome signature of a serial killer dormant for twenty-five years, Ziba is pulled into the hunt for the perpetrator. As the body count rises it becomes clear he’s on a new spree. But what’s brought the London Lacerator back after such a long hiatus? And does his sudden return have anything to do with the woman on the train?

Ziba scrambles to profile the killer in the hope of predicting his next move. But time is running out. And the closer she gets to uncovering his identity, the closer he gets to destroying hers.

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