Books like 'A Cold Killing'

Readers who enjoyed A Cold Killing by Anna Smith also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  mystery  serial killer  thriller  crime  suspense  female-mc

  • Longstone by L.J. Ross

    Longstone by L.J. Ross

    Rated: 4.54 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Between the devil and the deep blue sea… Viking treasure is discovered beneath the icy waters of the North Sea and local historian Doctor Anna Taylor is called in to help catalogue the most exciting hoard in living memory. But when a shipwreck diver washes up dead, she’s soon out of her depth...
  • Dying Truth by Angela Marsons

    Dying Truth by Angela Marsons

    Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    How far would you go to protect your darkest secrets? When teenager Sadie Winter jumps from the roof of her school, her death is ruled as suicide – a final devastating act from a troubled girl. But then the broken body of a young boy is discovered at the same school and it’s clear to Detective Kim Stone that these deaths are not tragic accidents...
  • Hello Again by Brenda Novak

    Hello Again by Brenda Novak

    Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    From NYT bestseller Brenda Novak comes the next installment of Dr. Evelyn Talbot and her murderous home for psychopaths in Hello Again. SHE CAN MAKE SENSE OF A COMPLEX CRIMINAL MIND. Evelyn Talbot, a psychiatrist at a maximum-security prison in Alaska, studies some of the world's worst serial killers. But she’s about to meet her most elusive patient at Hanover House yet: Dr...
  • Twisted Lies by Angela Marsons

    Twisted Lies by Angela Marsons

    Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Her stomach lurches as she sits in the windowless room. He throws her phone to the ground, grinds it against the floor with the heel of his shoe and brings his face closer to hers. There was no turning back now, her life as she knew it was gone...
  • Find Her Alive by Lisa Regan

    Find Her Alive by Lisa Regan

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Detective Josie Quinn hasn’t heard from her sister since Trinity stormed out of the house in the heat of an argument three weeks ago. So, when human remains are found at the remote hunting cabin where Trinity was last seen, Josie can only assume the worst...
  • Black Coral by Andrew Mayne

    Black Coral by Andrew Mayne

    Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    For a police diver in Florida, solving a cold-case mystery brings a serial killer out of hiding...Sloan McPherson and the Underwater Investigation Unit have discovered a van at the bottom of a murky Florida pond. Sealed inside the watery tomb are the bodies of four teenagers who disappeared thirty years ago after leaving a rock concert. To authorities, it looks like a tragic accident...
  • The Accomplice by Steve Cavanagh

    The Accomplice by Steve Cavanagh

    Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    THE MOST HATED WOMAN IN AMERICAThe Sandman killings have been solved. Daniel Miller murdered fourteen people before he vanished. His wife, Carrie, now faces trial as his accomplice. The FBI, the District Attorney, the media and everyone in America believe she knew and helped cover up her husband's crimes.THE LAWYEREddie Flynn won't take a case unless his client is innocent...
  • Face Off by Brenda Novak

    Face Off by Brenda Novak

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Tortured and left for dead at sixteen, Evelyn Talbot turned her personal nightmare into her life’s work—studying the disturbing psychopathy of some of the world’s most vicious serial killers...
  • Missing Angel by Roger Stelljes

    Missing Angel by Roger Stelljes

    Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Isabella pedals her bright red bike on the familiar route home, admiring her charm bracelet catching the light. But half an hour later, she is nowhere to be seen. All her frantic parents find is an angel-shaped charm discarded on the sidewalk…When twelve-year-old Isabella Farner disappears, Agent Tori Hunter races to the scene...
  • The Girl in the River by Rita Herron

    The Girl in the River by Rita Herron

    Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    The body lay in the river, arms outstretched. Long brown hair swirled in all directions, flowing with the current of the water. Her eyes were wide open in death, pale pink lips parted in a scream.Detective Ellie Reeves should be enjoying the wedding of her dear friend Mia Norman. But instead of celebrating, she is frantically searching for the missing bride...
  • First Blood by Angela Marsons

    First Blood by Angela Marsons

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    With this installment exploring an utterly chilling case following a disturbing killer, USA Today bestselling author Angela Marsons delivers the prequel to the internationally bestselling DI Kim Stone thrillers.In the darkness of a cold December morning, Detective Kim Stone steps through the doors of Halesowen Police Station. She’s about to meet her team for the first time...
  • Fatal Promise by Angela Marsons

    Fatal Promise by Angela Marsons

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Eeeny meeny, miney, moe. Who lives, who dies only I know. When the body of a doctor is discovered brutally murdered in local woodland, Detective Kim Stone is shocked to discover the victim is Gordon Cordell – a man linked to a previous case she worked on involving the death of a young school girl...
  • Dead Memories by Angela Marsons

    Dead Memories by Angela Marsons

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    She ruined their lives. Now they’re going to destroy hers. ‘Someone is recreating every traumatic point in your life. They are doing this to make you suffer, to make you hurt and the only possible end game can be death. Your death.’ On the fourth floor of Chaucer House, two teenagers are found chained to a radiator. The boy is dead but the girl is alive...
  • Child's Play by Angela Marsons

    Child's Play by Angela Marsons

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Finally we’re playing a game. A game that I have chosen. I give one last push of the roundabout and stand back. 'You really should have played with me,’ I tell her again although I know she can no longer hear...
  • Deadly Cry by Angela Marsons

    Deadly Cry by Angela Marsons

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    You have to stop me from hurting anyone else. I don’t want to do these horrible things. Help me before I’m forced to do it again. And I will do it again because I have no choice. I’ve never had a choice.In a busy shopping centre, a little girl clutches a teddy bear, clinging to it in the absence of her mother, Katrina. Hours later, Katrina’s body is discovered in an abandoned building...
  • In the Darkness by Mike Omer

    In the Darkness by Mike Omer

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    A forensic psychologist fights a mental war against two serial killers in this disturbing thriller from Mike Omer, Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestselling author of A Killer’s Mind.An online video of a girl clawing at the ceiling of her own grave could be the worst thing FBI forensic psychologist Zoe Bentley has ever seen...
  • Broken Bones by Angela Marsons

    Broken Bones by Angela Marsons

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    They thought they were safe. They were wrong. The murder of a young prostitute and a baby found abandoned on the same winter night signals the start of a disturbing investigation for Detective Kim Stone – one which brings her face to face with someone from her own horrific childhood...
  • Forever Mine by Linsey Lanier

    Forever Mine by Linsey Lanier

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    An old friend. A bad smell. A body stuffed into a wall. You'll never escape. After she left her abusive husband thirteen years ago, Miranda Steele became a fighter. Over the years, she picked up martial arts and street fighting tactics, and now that she works for the Parker Investigative Agency, she can handle a weapon. But the battle with her inner demons? Not so easy...
    Categorized as:
    crime  female-mc  suspense  adult  book  contemporary  drama  fiction
  • Thin Ice by Linsey Lanier

    Thin Ice by Linsey Lanier

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Take what matters most to her," said the voice. And he knew he would. He had to. Thirteen years ago, Miranda Steele’s abusive husband stole her baby and gave it up for adoption. Then he kicked Miranda out of his house. So she remade herself. Thirteen years later, the feisty, stubborn skeptic came to Atlanta hoping to find her daughter...
  • Such a Good Girl by Willow Rose

    Such a Good Girl by Willow Rose

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    FBI-profiler Eva Rae Thomas faces a devious plan in bestselling author Willow Rose’s blood-rushing thriller of murder and revenge.A girl falls from the penthouse floor of an apartment in Washington, D.C.Media Mogul Richard Wanton owns the apartment and is seen standing on the balcony when the girl falls...
  • Deadly Secrets by Robert Bryndza

    Deadly Secrets by Robert Bryndza

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    To commit the perfect murder, you need the perfect cover.On an icy morning, a mother wakes to find her daughter’s blood-soaked body frozen to the road. Who would carry out such a killing on the victim’s doorstep?Straight off her last harrowing case, Detective Erika Foster is feeling fragile but determined to lead the investigation...
  • The Girl from Silent Lake by Leslie Wolfe

    The Girl from Silent Lake by Leslie Wolfe

    Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Her daughter, with emerald eyes and the sweetest smile, is everything to her. Her whole world. “Mommy,” the little girl says, touching her mother’s face with trembling fingers before she’s torn away. “Don’t cry.” Will she ever see her again?When single mother Alison Nolan sets off with her six-year-old daughter, Hazel, she can’t wait to spend precious time with her girl...
  • Hunted on the Fens by Joy Ellis

    Hunted on the Fens by Joy Ellis

    Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    A VICIOUS CRIMINAL IS TARGETING DI NIKKI GALENA AND HER TEAM. ONE BY ONE HE WILL HUNT THEM DOWN AND DESTROY THEIR LIVES, UNLESS SHE CAN STOP HIM FIRST DI Nikki Galena faces her toughest challenge yet...
  • Blind Spot by Brenda Novak

    Blind Spot by Brenda Novak

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    New York Times bestseller Brenda Novak's Evelyn Talbot series returns, with a heavily pregnant Evelyn being held hostage. With Jasper Moore, the privileged boy who attacked her when she was only sixteen, finally caught and in prison, Dr...
  • If She Ran by H.K. Christie

    If She Ran by H.K. Christie

    Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Three months. Three missing women. One PI determined to discover the truth.Back from break, PI Martina Monroe clears the air with her boss at Drakos Security & Investigations and is ready to jump right into solving cold cases for the CoCo County Sheriff’s Department...
  • Trapper Road by Rachel Caine, Carrie Ryan

    Trapper Road by Rachel Caine, Carrie Ryan

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Sometimes danger comes from the most unexpected places.Gwen Proctor has always been willing to do anything it takes to protect her kids. But there are some things even she can’t protect them from. When a violent incident at Connor’s school brings the press to Gwen’s doorstep, she agrees to take a case out of town hoping to keep her family out of the crushing media spotlight...
  • Shadow Over the Fens by Joy Ellis

    Shadow Over the Fens by Joy Ellis

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    TWO BRUTAL KILLERS ARE LOOSE ON THE FENS BUT WHO CAN DI NIKKI GALENA TRUST? Detective Nikki Galena’s friend and neighbour meets a tragic end but there’s more to his death than meets the eye . . . And someone terrible from DS Joseph Easter’s past is back . .
  • The Flinck Connection by Estelle Ryan

    The Flinck Connection by Estelle Ryan

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    A murdered politician. An unsolved art heist. An international conspiracy. A cryptic online message leads nonverbal communications expert Doctor Genevieve Lenard to the body of a brutally murdered politician. Despite being ordered not to investigate, Genevieve and her team look into this vicious crime...
  • Truth and Lies by Caroline Mitchell

    Truth and Lies by Caroline Mitchell

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Meet Amy Winter: Detective Inspector, daughter of a serial killer.DI Amy Winter is hoping to follow in the footsteps of her highly respected police officer father. But when a letter arrives from the prison cell of Lillian Grimes, one half of a notorious husband-and-wife serial-killer team, it contains a revelation that will tear her life apart...
  • Impostor by L.J. Ross

    Impostor by L.J. Ross

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE DCI RYAN MYSTERIES There’s a killer inside all of us… After an elite criminal profiling unit is shut down amidst a storm of scandal and mismanagement, only one person emerges unscathed...
  • Shattered by Allison Brennan

    Shattered by Allison Brennan

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    Over a span of twenty years, four boys have been kidnapped from their bedrooms, suffocated, and buried nearby in a shallow grave. Serial killer or coincidence?That’s the question investigative reporter Maxine Revere sets out to answer when an old friend begs her to help exonerate his wife, who has been charged with their son’s recent murder. But Max can do little to help because the police and D...
  • Free to Kill by Julie Mellon

    Free to Kill by Julie Mellon

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    FBI Agent Katie Freeman’s life has been upended. After being reassigned from Louisiana to middle Tennessee, her new bosses suspect that her reassignment is due to an indiscretion with her previous partner. Now, she and her new partner, Michael Powell, are asked to assist on the bewildering case of a woman who was kidnapped, tortured and left for dead on her own front porch...
  • Tell Me by Anne Frasier, Erin Bennett

    Tell Me by Anne Frasier, Erin Bennett

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    What really happened in the forest? Hidden crimes and secrets of the past converge in a riveting thriller by Anne Frasier, the New York Times bestselling author of Find Me.No strangers to evil, criminal profiler Reni Fisher and detective Daniel Ellis both still grapple with traumatizing pasts. It unites them. So has a crime they must solve before someone else dies...
  • The Face of Death by Cody McFadyen

    The Face of Death by Cody McFadyen

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    In Shadow Man, Cody McFadyen took the suspense thriller where other writers have feared to tread. He introduced readers to a heroine every bit as dark and edgy as the serial killers she hunts: Special Agent Smoky Barrett. Now, in his latest novel, McFadyen brings Agent Barrett back to track down a killer who breaks all the rules...
  • Dead End by Nancy Mehl

    Dead End by Nancy Mehl

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    When a body is discovered in a field in Iowa, the police uncover fourteen additional corpses ranging from 20 years old to recent. The remains point to a serial killer with an MO the authorities have seen before--Ed Oliphant, a man who has been in prison for over 20 years . . . and is Special Agent Kaely Quinn's father...
  • Hell to Pay by Rachel Amphlett

    Hell to Pay by Rachel Amphlett

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    When a road traffic accident on a dark autumn night uncovers a disturbing conspiracy, Detective Sergeant Kay Hunter’s investigation exposes a ruthless serial killer exploiting vulnerable young women.With her enemies unmasked and her career spiralling out of control, Kay’s determination to seek vengeance for the victims brings her dangerously close to those who want to silence her...
  • One to Watch by Rachel Amphlett

    One to Watch by Rachel Amphlett

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Sophie Whittaker shared a terrifying secret. Hours later, she was dead.Detective Kay Hunter and her colleagues are shocked by the vicious murder of a teenage girl at a private party in the Kentish countryside. A tangled web of dark secrets is exposed as twisted motives point to a history of greed and corruption within the tight-knit community...
  • Lady's Well by L.J. Ross

    Lady's Well by L.J. Ross

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE WATER...When the ancient waters of Lady’s Well in the rural village of Holystone begin to run red, it seems to be a nasty Hallowe’en prank and nothing more. But things take a sinister turn when the entire village suffers severe poisoning, and one old man turns up dead...
  • So Close the Hand of Death by J.T. Ellison

    So Close the Hand of Death by J.T. Ellison

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Talent borrows. Genius steals. Evil delegates. It's a hideous echo of a violent past. Across America, murders are being committed with all the twisted hallmarks of the Boston Strangler, the Zodiac Killer and Son of Sam. The media frenzy explodes and Nashville homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson knows instantly that The Pretender is back…and he's got helpers...
  • Exposed by C.J. Carmichael

    Exposed by C.J. Carmichael

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    When a young boy goes missing shortly after his father is arrested for murdering the boy’s mother, the residents of Twisted Cedars are in a panic. They would be even more fearful if they knew a serial murderer has secretly moved back to town...
    Categorized as:
    crime  suspense  thriller  adult  book  contemporary  cozy  fiction
  • Before Evil by Alex Kava

    Before Evil by Alex Kava

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Special Agent Maggie O'Dell doesn't need to set foot at a crime scene to catch a serial killer. From her small Quantico office, she's profiled criminals using just Polaroids and faxed copies of evidence from homicide detectives across the country.Then comes Albert Stucky . . . and nothing will ever be the same...
  • The Innocent Girls by B.R. Spangler

    The Innocent Girls by B.R. Spangler

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Tears stream down her face as she feels the cold blade press against her neck. The sweet scent of her daughter’s favorite strawberry pancakes all around, her last thought is for her beautiful girl. Please, please let Lisa have escaped...
  • The Creek Killer by Dominika Best

    The Creek Killer by Dominika Best

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    How would you prove you weren’t dead? Jane Smith has been running from danger her whole life. That danger followed her everywhere, leaving a trail of death in its wake. When the mummified bodies of six girls are discovered in the wetlands of Los Angeles, Jane is surprised to learn one of the dead girls bears her name—the name she abandoned twenty-five years ago to go into hiding...
  • YOU DID THIS by Jamie Millen

    YOU DID THIS by Jamie Millen

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    A sister’s worst nightmare. A homicide detective’s destiny.Everybody loves Claire’s little sister, Tina. But only Claire sees the twisted psychopath hiding behind her sister’s angelic face. When Tina is brutally murdered on her fourteenth birthday, the day Claire failed to walk her home from school, Claire never forgives herself. And neither does their mother...
  • Her Deadly Touch by Lisa Regan

    Her Deadly Touch by Lisa Regan

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    The woman is kneeling at a gravestone, her hair blowing in the breeze, a bunch of wilting yellow daffodils on the grass beside her. Her eyes are fixed on the ground and her mouth is parted in a silent prayer...
  • The Drowning Girls by Lisa Regan

    The Drowning Girls by Lisa Regan

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    In the thin glow of moonlight, a mess of auburn curls gleams against the rocks. A girl’s pale hand reaches from a cleft in the boulders, waving weakly. But it’s too late. A wall of raging white water crashes down, swallowing her whole…A knock on the door late in the evening can only mean trouble for Detective Josie Quinn, but fear chokes her at the news that one of her own team is missing...
  • The Stolen Hours by Allen Eskens

    The Stolen Hours by Allen Eskens

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    A woman finds herself in a race not only for justice but for her life in this "riveting, hold-your-breath" new mystery from the bestselling author of The Life We Bury (Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author).Lila Nash is on the verge of landing her dream job—working as a prosecutor under the Hennepin County Attorney—and has settled into a happy life with her boyfriend, Joe Talbert...
  • The Stranger You Know by Jane Casey

    The Stranger You Know by Jane Casey

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    He meets women. He gains their trust. He kills them. That's all London police detective Maeve Kerrigan knows about the man she is hunting. Three women have been strangled in their homes, and it appears to be the work of the same sadistic killer. With no sign of break-ins, every indication shows that the women let their attacker in willingly...
    Categorized as:
    crime  female-mc  suspense  thriller  adult  alpha-mc  audiobook  book
  • One Last Step by Sarah Sutton

    One Last Step by Sarah Sutton

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    ONE LAST STEP (A Tara Mills Mystery—Book One) is the debut novel in a new FBI mystery series by debut author Sarah Sutton...
  • The Trapped Ones by Stacy Green

    The Trapped Ones by Stacy Green

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    She raced across the woods. Cold wind hit her face, and her heart pounded so fast she could almost feel the panic rushing through her veins. She knocked on the door knowing she didn’t have much time. Fear gripped her. “Please, help,” she whispered.Rushing to the scene of a homicide at a farmhouse surrounded by thick, dark woodland, Special Agent Nikki Hunt is shocked to find four victims...
Fantastic book recommendations by book lovers for book lovers.
Find out more about thebooknaut.com.



Looking for more inspiration? Enter another book title to get more suggestions on what to read next.


Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.