Books like 'The Last Detective'
Readers who enjoyed The Last Detective by Robert Crais also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary mystery action / adventure thriller crime law-enforcement suspense investigator hard-boiled kidnapping
-
A Death Most Monumental by J.D. Kirk
Rated: 4.55 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWe all have our little secrets.When the remains of a brutally murdered young woman are left hanging from the Glenfinnan Monument in the Highlands of Scotland, DCI Jack Logan and his Major Investigations Team are dispatched to investigate.At first, the case appears to be fairly open and shut... -
Blood Money: A Legal Thriller by Scott Pratt
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn the sixth volume of the bestselling Joe Dillard series, Dillard does something he has never done before -- he hires a young associate. Her name is Charleston Story, she is bright and beautiful, and in her very first case, she winds up inheriting an item so valuable that it threatens to destroy her and everything she cares about... -
Secrets Never Die by Melinda Leigh
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe #1 Amazon Charts bestselling series continues as Morgan Dane and PI Lance Kruger fight for the innocence of a young murder suspect—if only they could find him.When a retired sheriff’s deputy is shot to death in his home, his troubled teenage stepson, Evan, becomes the prime suspect. Even more incriminating, the boy disappeared from the scene of the crime... -
Conflict of Interest by Scott Pratt
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA six-year-old girl is kidnapped from her bed in Tennessee's oldest town. The ransom note demands millions. In this fifth installment of the highly-acclaimed and bestselling Joe Dillard series, Dillard is hired to represent the parents of a child who has gone missing... -
-
Injustice For All by Scott Pratt
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA criminal court judge is found hanging from a tree. A young employee of the district attorney's office goes missing. In this third book of the best selling Joe Dillard series, Dillard finds himself in the middle of two volatile mysteries. The primary suspect in the judge's murder is Dillard's son's best friend, and Dillard's wife may have destroyed evidence... -
A Crime of Passion by Scott Pratt
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA beautiful, young, rising star in the country music world is found dead in a Nashville hotel room. The owner of her record company is charged with murder. In the seventh installment of Scott Pratt's bestselling Joe Dillard series, Dillard is hired to travel to Tennessee's capital city to defend Paul Milius, a record company baron accused of strangling Kasey Cartwright, his label's young star... -
L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsRobert Crais (Free Fall, Monkey's Raincoat) returns with his eighth Elvis Cole mystery, L.A. Requiem, a breakneck caper that leaves the wise-cracking detective second-guessing himself. Cole's partner, the tight-lipped, charm-free Joe Pike, gets a call from his friend Frank "Tortilla" Garcia. Not only is Garcia a wealthy businessman, he's a political heavyweight and father of Karen, Joe's ex... -
The Poet by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsDenver crime-beat reporter Jack McEvoy specializes in violent death. So when his homicide detective brother kills himself, McEvoy copes in the only way he knows how--he decides to write the story. But his research leads him to suspect a serial killer is at work--a devious murderer who's killing cops and leaving a trail of poetic clues... -
Extreme Prey by John Sandford
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAn extraordinary Lucas Davenport thriller from #1 "New York Times" bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner John Sandford.After the events in "Gathering Prey", Lucas Davenport finds himself in a very unusual situation—no longer employed by the Minnesota BCA...Categorized as:
crime investigator kidnapping law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
The Last Coyote by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsHarry attacked his commanding officer and is suspended indefinitely, pending a psychiatric evaluation. At first he resists the LAPD shrink, but finally recognizes that something is troubling him and has for a long time. In 1961, when Harry was twelve, his mother, a prostitute, was brutally murdered, and no one has ever been accused of the crime... -
Martin Swans Diary: Black Water Crossing by Kyle Keyes
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMartin Swan was not a terrorist, nor a truck driver. He only replied to the want-ad because the wording linked Florida with Washington DC and wanted someone who could speak Arabic. The year was 2008. Jobs were scarce, gas prices high. The back page ad called for a big rig driver with a clean record, who could be at Black Water Crossing the day before Halloween... -
Little Broken Things by Cheryl Bradshaw
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDetective Georgiana Germaine is back on the trail of a cold-blooded killer, and once again, the case hits close to home.Twenty-year-old Olivia Spencer sits at her desk in her mother's bookshop, dreaming about her upcoming wedding. The shop may be closed, but Olivia's not alone, and her dream is about to become her worst nightmare... -
The Crossing by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsDetective Harry Bosch has retired from the LAPD, but his half-brother, defense attorney Mickey Haller, needs his help. A woman has been brutally murdered in her bed and all evidence points to Haller's client, a former gang member turned family man. Though the murder rap seems ironclad, Mickey is sure it's a setup.Bosch doesn't want anything to do with crossing the aisle to work for the defense...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement legal suspense thriller action-adventure -
Bloody Genius by John Sandford
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsVirgil Flowers will have to watch his back--and his mouth--as he investigates a college culture war turned deadly in this thriller from #1 "New York Times" bestseller John Sandford.At the local state university, two feuding departments have faced off on the battleground of PC culture... -
-
Trunk Music by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsBack on the job after an involuntary leave of absence, LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch is ready for a challenge. But his first case is a little more than he bargained for. It starts with the body of a Hollywood producer in the trunk of a Rolls-Royce, shot twice in the head at close range - what looks like "trunk music," a Mafia hit... -
Lost Light by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsIn this New York Times bestseller, retired LAPD detective Harry Bosch wants justice for a murdered production assistant -- but without his police badge, can he take down a powerful and ruthless killer? The vision has haunted him for four years -- a young woman lying crumpled in death, her hand outstretched in silent supplication... -
Angels Flight by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsAn activist attorney is killed in a cute little L.A. trolley called Angels Flight, far from Harry Bosch's Hollywood turf. But the case is so explosive--and the dead man's enemies inside the L.A.P.D. are so numerous--that it falls to Harry to solve it. Now the streets are superheating. Harry's year-old Vegas marriage is unraveling... -
A L'ombre Du Mal by Robert Crais, Hubert Tézenas
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsElvis Cole is Back--In a Desperate Fight to Clear his Name... It's fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. When police and fire department personnel rush door to door in a frenzied evacuation effort, they discover the week-old corpse of an apparent suicide... -
Indigo Slam by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsLife in the California sun suits Elvis Cole—until the day a fifteen-year-old girl and her two younger siblings walk into his office. Then everything changes. Three years ago, a Seattle family ran for their lives in a hail of bullets. Hired by three kids to find their missing father, Elvis now must pick up the cold pieces of a drama that began that night... -
The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly, Dick Hill
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsDetective Harry Bosch was sure he'd shot the serial killer responsible for a string of murders in LA . . . but now, a new crime makes him question his convictions.The Dollmaker was the name of the serial killer who had stalked Los Angeles ruthlessly, leaving grisly calling cards on the faces of his female victims... -
The First Rule by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsWhen Frank Meyer and his family are executed in their home, the police begin investigating the secret life they're sure Meyer had. Joe Pike's on a hunt of his own: to clear his friend's name, and to punish the people who murdered him... -
Her Last Goodbye by Melinda Leigh
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsWall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh’s Morgan Dane series continues as the fearless attorney and her partner, investigator Lance Kruger, take on a disturbing disappearance…Young mother Chelsea Clark leaves the house for a girls’ night out…and vanishes. Her family knows she would never voluntarily leave her two small children... -
Kade by Apryl Baker
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGut-wrenching, soul-searing grief has haunted Angel Kincaid for seven years, since she suffered a miscarriage. Just when she starts to think she’s come to terms with it, everything she thought she knew is cast into doubt when she comes face to face with a little boy, and every instinct tells her the child belongs to her—that he is her son... -
Blood Work by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly presents his most ambitious, most gripping achievement to date--a novel of masterly suspense and righteous obsession that will never let you go.When Graciella Rivers steps onto his boat, ex-FBI agent Terrell McCaleb has no idea he's about to come out of retirement. He's recuperating from a heart transplant and avoiding anything stressful... -
-
Gone by Lisa Gardner, Anna Fields
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsFrom New York Times bestseller Lisa Gardner, author of Alone and The Killing Hour, comes a thriller that goes from heartbreaking to heartstopping in the blink of an eye... -
The Narrows by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsFBI agent Rachel Walling finally gets the call she's dreaded for years, the one that tells her the Poet has surfaced. She has never forgotten the serial killer who wove lines of poetry in his hideous crimes--and apparently he has not forgotten her.Former LAPD detective Harry Bosch gets a call, too--from the widow of an old friend... -
Deadline by John Sandford
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt's Virgil Flowers! And one of the thrilling novels in the #1 "New York Times" bestselling series.In Southeast Minnesota, down on the Mississippi, a school board meeting is coming to an end. The board chair announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed, due to a personnel issue. “Issue” is the correct word. It's also an understatement... -
Her Last Day by T.R. Ragan
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn this page-turner of a thriller by bestselling author T.R. Ragan, unlikely partners PI Jessie Cole and crime reporter Ben Morrison search for clues to a mystery buried in their own pasts—only to discover that sometimes the truth is better off buried... -
Playing with Danger by Riley Edwards
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt’s strange how quickly life can go from predictable and boring to…not.How a chance meeting can set off a chain reaction.How a single moment can offer much-needed clarity.How a kiss can alter the course of your life.Valentine Malone fell into my life…correction, I fell into his in the aisle of a grocery store... -
Deep Freeze by John Sandford
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsClass reunions: a time for memories—good, bad, and, as Virgil Flowers is about to find out, deadly—in this New York Times bestselling thriller from John Sandford.Virgil knows the town of Trippton, Minnesota, a little too well... -
Neon Prey by John Sandford, Richard Ferrone
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsListening length: 11 hours and 17 minutesClayton Deese looks like a small-time criminal, muscle for hire when his loan shark boss needs to teach someone a lesson. Now, seven months after a job that went south and landed him in jail, Deese has skipped out on bail, and the U.S. Marshals come looking for him... -
The Sentry by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsDru Rayne and her uncle are Louisiana refugees who relocated to Los Angeles after Hurricane Katrina. Now, five years after the storm, their struggling restaurant faces a different danger. When Joe Pike witnesses Dru's uncle beaten by a neighbourhood gang intent on extorting protection money, he offers his own brand of protection... -
The Wanted by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsIt seemed like a simple case before the bodies starting piling up...Categorized as:
crime humor investigator kidnapping law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure -
Blueblood by Matthew Iden
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFour unrelated murders. Nothing special in Washington DC. Not even good enough to make the evening news. But then a concerned police lieutenant approaches retired homicide detective Marty Singer with a simple fact that changes everything. They were all cops...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
-
The Last Teacher by Alan Lee
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsMackenzie August is starting a new life. After a successful but destructive career as a high-profile California homicide detective, and then a less successful and even more destructive stint working for a church, he has moved to Virginia to start over as a teacher. The only thing he’s bringing with him is Kix, his infant baby boy... -
Incriminating Evidence by Sheldon Siegel
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWith his terrific first novel, Special Circumstances , Sheldon Siegel delivered legal fiction so exciting, it drew comparisons with the very top tier of courtroom thrillers. Now he has a new challenge for defense attorney Mike Daley--ex-priest, ex-husband, ex-public defender--and it’s a high-profile zinger: a case he doesn’t think he can win for a client he can’t stand... -
School of Fish by Amy Lane
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJackson Rivers has been learning how to take care of himself so he can be there for Ellery Cramer, but after eight weeks of healing, body and soul, he’s itching to get back to work. Finally Ellery gives him a simple task: pick up a file on a kid who probably didn’t commit murder but who refuses to participate in his own defense.Nothing is ever that easy... -
Fish in a Barrel by Amy Lane
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJackson and Ellery face their toughest case yet—against the criminal justice system itself.Jackson Rivers and Ellery Cramer have worked difficult jobs before, but usually it’s getting the facts that’s the problem. For their newest client, the trouble isn’t finding the truth—it’s corruption at the highest levels of the justice system... -
Risk Everything by Janie Crouch
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe wedding is two weeks awayIf they survive until then…Following a fire at the New Journeys women’s shelter, Deputy Tanner Dempsey is on high alert, and his fiancée, Bree Daniels, fears that one of the shelter’s clients is being targeted. Outmanned and outgunned, Tanner and Bree must make a last stand for justice and unravel the twisted plot of a dangerous sociopath... -
Marine Force Recon by Elle James
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWrong place, wrong time.Right man for the job. Declan O’Neill’s US Marines career is over, but nothing can stop him from saving lives. When he starts an organization that aims to help people who can’t defend themselves, his first client is a woman desperate for answers... -
The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsElvis Cole is back...With his acclaimed bestsellers, Hostage (a New York Times Notable Book) and Demolition Angel, Robert Crais drew raves for his unstoppable pacing, edgy characterizations, and cinematic prose... -
Lullaby Town by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsHollywood's newest wunderkind is Peter Alan Nelson, the brilliant, erratic director known as the King of Adventure. His films make billions, but his manners make enemies. What the boy king wants, he gets, and what Nelson wants is for Elvis Cole to comb the country for the airhead wife and infant child the film-school flunkout dumped en route to becoming the third biggest filmmaker in America... -
Taken by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsWhen Nita Morales hires Elvis Cole to find her missing adult daughter, she isn’t afraid, even though she’s gotten a phone call asking for ransom. She knows it’s a fake, that her daughter is off with the guy Nita will only call "that boy," and that they need money: "Even smart girls do stupid things when they think a boy loves them."But Nita is wrong...Categorized as:
crime humor investigator kidnapping law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure -
The Namatjira Connection by Estelle Ryan
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLooted artworks. Italian Mafia. Deepfakes.The weekend in Italy is supposed to be a family event—a celebration as well as a break for the whole team to enjoy everything Naples has to offer. As it is, Doctor Genevieve Lenard is hard-pushed to keep an autistic shutdown at bay while surrounded by boisterous relatives and friends... -
-
Fire with Fire by Candice Fox
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA pair of desperate parents. A man on the run. A rookie cop.Four people with everything on the line... -
Remnants by Carolyn Arnold
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSavannah, Georgia used to be a tranquil tourist destination—until human body parts started floating down the river.FBI Agent Brandon Fisher trusts his team with his life—or at least he did. It’s only been six months since Brandon’s boss almost died at the hands of a serial killer when the team is called to Savannah, Georgia... -
Holmes, Marple & Poe: The Greatest Crime-Solving Team of the Twenty-First Century by James Patterson, Brian Sitts
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsCrime! Murder! Who are you going to call? In New York City, three intriguing, smart, and stylish private investigators open Holmes, Marple & Poe Investigations. Who are these detectives with famous names and mysterious, untraceable pasts?Brendan Holmes—The Brain: Identifies suspects via deduction and logic.Margaret Marple—The Eyes: Possesses powers of observation too often underestimated... -
The Lost Girls by Allison Brennan
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPhotojournalist Siobhan Walsh has been searching for two sisters who disappeared two years ago in Mexico, so when she receives a call from a priest in Texas about an abandoned baby holding a locket with her name, she calls her friends in the FBI for help... -
Jolie Blon's Bounce by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Barnes & Noble ReviewJames Lee Burke's fiction is haunted, sometimes quite literally, by the ghosts of history, and by a bone-deep apprehension of the human capacity for violence and cruelty. A case in point is the author's latest Dave Robicheaux novel, Jolie Blon's Bounce, a contemporary account of murder and madness whose plot reflects the lingering aftereffects of the antebellum South... -
Crusader's Cross by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCritically acclaimed and bestselling crime writer James Lee Burke delivers his most exciting thriller ever featuring beloved hero Dave Robicheaux, and this time he's sleuthing his way through Louisiana's hotbed of sin and uncertainty.In Crusader's Cross, a deathbed confession from an old schoolmate reminds Dave Robicheaux of a girl he once knew, sending him on a hunt for her whereabouts...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.