Books like '1st To Die'
Readers who enjoyed 1st To Die by James Patterson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary mystery action / adventure serial killer horror thriller crime suspense law-enforcement friendship
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The Body Keeper by Anne Frasier
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsThe Thriller Award–winning series continues as Detective Jude Fontaine finds a decades-old connection to missing children that will freeze her blood.A boy’s frozen body is found trapped in the ice of a Minneapolis lake. The horrifying discovery leads Detective Jude Fontaine and her partner, Uriah Ashby, to more bodies in the ice, all of twelve-year-old boys missing for twenty years... -
Beneath Blackwater River by Leslie Wolfe, Gwendolyn Druyor
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsListening Length 13 hours and 4 minutesShe looked alive, her hair drifting freely in the water, her red lips gently parted, as if to let her final breath escape. A small locket floated by her face, attached to her neck with a silver chain…When Detective Kay Sharp first left Mount Chester—population 3,823—in her rear-view mirror, she promised never to look back...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
Heartbreak Bay by Rachel Caine
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThey’re hunting a killer so silent, so invisible, that his unspeakable crimes are the only proof he exists.A car submerged in a remote pond. The bodies of two girls strapped into their seats. The mystery of their mother, vanished without a trace, leads Gwen Proctor and Kezia Claremont into dangerous territory... -
The Dollmaker by Mary Burton
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDr. Tessa McGowan had never seen anything quite like it. But the mutilated bodies on her exam table tell a stunningly macabre tale: someone with a twisted mind is kidnapping women and altering their faces to resemble real, life-size dolls. As a forensic pathologist, it’s her job to aid the agent leading the case—even if that agent is her estranged husband...Categorized as:
crime female-mc law-enforcement police-procedural suspense action-adventure adult audiobook -
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The Fifth To Die by J.D. Barker
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsAlternate cover art can be found hereIn the thrilling sequel to The Fourth Monkey, a new serial killer stalks the streets of Chicago, while Detective Porter delves deeper into the dark past of the Four Monkey Killer.Detective Porter and the team have been pulled from the hunt for Anson Bishop, the Four Monkey Killer, by the feds...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
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... -
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, Kathy Bates
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 80 ratingsHannibal Lecter. The ultimate villain of modern fiction who scared the world silent. A young FBI trainee. An evil genius locked away for unspeakable crimes. A plunge into the darkest chambers of a psychopath's mind -- in the deadly search for a serial killer . . .An instant classic of chilling psychological suspense . . . a critically acclaimed audio production of unforgettable intensity . . -
Memories of Tomorrow by Dean Koontz
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhat strange science made Nameless who he is? What catastrophes have been erased from his memories? In the stunning conclusion of this series, the dark past comes flooding back, and Nameless must decide how much he really wants to know.In Indiana, a murderous psycho has kidnapped his own six-year-old stepson, Jamie, and secreted him away in a subterranean cave. It’s become their bunker... -
Criminal by Karin Slaughter
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsKarin Slaughter's new novel is an epic tale of love, loyalty, and murder that encompasses forty years, two chillingly similar murder cases, and a good man's deepest secrets. Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him... -
Gallery of the Dead by Chris Carter
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 19 ratings‘Thirty-seven years in the force, and if I was allowed to choose just one thing to erase from my mind, what’s inside that room would be it.'That’s what a LAPD Lieutenant tells Detectives Hunter and Garcia of the Ultra Violent Crimes Unit as they arrive at one of the most shocking crime scenes they have ever attended...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsCormoran Strike is back, with his assistant Robin Ellacott, in a mystery based around soldiers returning from war.When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed... -
Blood of My Blood by Barry Lyga
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsJazz Dent has never been closer to catching his father.Jazz has been shot and left to die in New York. His girlfriend, Connie, is in the clutches of Jazz's monstrous father, Billy--the world's most notorious serial killer. And his best friend, Howie, is bleeding to death on the floor of Jazz's new home... -
Looking Glass by Andrew Mayne
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsProfessor Theo Cray caught one of the most prolific serial killers in history using revolutionary scientific methods. Cut off from university research because of the shroud of suspicion around him after the death of his former student and the aftermath of catching his quarry, Cray tries to rebuild his life but finds himself drawn into another unsolved case...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult amateur-sleuth audiobook -
Bitter Falls by Rachel Caine
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsShe’s investigating a cold case no one else could—by going places no one else would dare.In spite of a harrowing past still haunting her, Gwen Proctor is trying to move forward. Until a new assignment gives her purpose: the cold-case disappearance of a young man in Tennessee. Three years missing, no clues. Just Ruth Landry, a tortured mother in limbo... -
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Game by Barry Lyga
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsBilly grinned. “Oh, New York,” he whispered. “We’re gonna have so much fun.”I Hunt Killers introduced the world to Jazz, the son of history’s most infamous serial killer, Billy Dent.In an effort to prove murder didn’t run in the family, Jazz teamed with the police in the small town of Lobo’s Nod to solve a deadly case... -
Cold Fear by Toni Anderson
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA relentless FBI profiler hunts a vicious killer. When old evidence turns up on a fresh corpse, ASAC Lincoln Frazer is determined it won’t delay the execution of a convicted serial killer. But when more young women are brutally slain, it becomes clear—this new killer is intimately familiar with the old murders. A dedicated emergency physician hides a dark secret. Former Army Captain Dr...Categorized as:
alpha-mc crime female-mc law-enforcement police-procedural suspense whodunit action-adventure -
The Sandman by Lars Kepler, Neil Smith
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe #1 internationally best-selling thriller from the author of The Hypnotist tells the chilling story of a manipulative serial killer and the two brilliant police agents who must try to beat him at his own game.Late one night, outside Stockholm, Mikael Kohler-Frost is found wandering. Thirteen years earlier, he went missing along with his younger sister...Categorized as:
crime drama law-enforcement police-procedural suspense whodunit thriller 21st-century -
The Silence of the White City by Eva García Sáenz de Urturi, Eva García Sáenz
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA madman is holding Vitoria hostage, killing its citizens in brutal ways and staging the bodies. The city's only hope is a brilliant detective struggling to battle his own demons.Inspector Unai López de Ayala, known as "Kraken", is charged with investigating a series of ritualistic murders. The killings are eerily similar to ones that terrorized the citizens of Vitoria twenty years earlier...Categorized as:
crime drama law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller 21st-century action-adventure -
Genesis by Karin Slaughter
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsWhen a tortured young woman enters the trauma center of an Atlanta hospital, Dr. Sara Linton is thrust into a desperate police investigation with Special Agent Will Trent and his partner, Faith Mitchell. Though guarding their own wounds and their own secrets, Sara, Will, and Faith find that they are all that stand between a madman and his next victim...Categorized as:
crime drama law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller 21st-century action-adventure -
Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThe serial killer isn't on trial.He's on the jury.It’s the murder trial of the century. And Joshua Kane has killed to get the best seat in the house – and to be sure the wrong man goes down for the crime. Because this time, the killer isn’t on trial. He’s on the jury.But there’s someone on his tail...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement legal realistic suspense thriller 21st-century action-adventure -
Police by Jo Nesbø
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsWhen a police officer is found murdered at the scene of an old unsolved murder case that he was involved in investigating, it can hardly be a coincidence. When the same thing happens to two other officers in a matter of months the pattern is as clear as it is terrifying. None of the old cases were ever solved. The killings are extremely brutal and the police have no leads...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller 21st-century action-adventure adult -
A Dark Lure by Loreth Anne White
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsTwelve years ago, Sarah Baker was abducted by the Watt Lake Killer and sexually assaulted for months before managing to escape. The killer was caught, but Sarah lost everything: her marriage, her child, and the life she loved.Struggling with PTSD, Sarah changes her name to Olivia West and finds sanctuary working on Broken Bar Ranch... -
Killman Creek by Rachel Caine
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsEvery time Gwen closed her eyes, she saw him in her nightmares. Now her eyes are open, and he’s not going away.Gwen Proctor won the battle to save her kids from her ex-husband, serial killer Melvin Royal, and his league of psychotic accomplices. But the war isn’t over. Not since Melvin broke out of prison. Not since she received a chilling text…You’re not safe anywhere now... -
Blood Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsBook II in the Thriller Award-nominated Huntress/FBI seriesTwenty-five years have passed since a savage killer terrorized California, massacring three ordinary families before disappearing without a trace... -
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Die Again by Tess Gerritsen
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe latest enthralling case in Tess Gerritsen's New York Times bestselling Rizzoli & Isles series, the blockbuster books behind the smash hit TNT series.Boston Detective Jane Rizzoli is on the case of a big game hunter found dead in his apartment, alone with the body of a beautiful white snow leopard he had recently been commissioned to procure and stuff for a high-profile museum in the area...Categorized as:
crime drama female-mc friendship law-enforcement police-procedural suspense whodunit -
Body Double by Tess Gerritsen
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsBoston medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles literally meets her match–and must face a savage serial killer and shattering personal revelations–in the brilliant new novel of suspense by the New York Times bestselling author of The Surgeon and The Sinner.Dr. Maura Isles makes her living dealing with death... -
Broken by Karin Slaughter
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsWhen Special Agent Will Trent arrives in Grant County, he finds a police department determined to protect its own and far too many unanswered questions about a prisoner's death. He doesn't understand why Officer Lena Adams is hiding secrets from him. He doesn't understand her role in the death of Grant County's popular police chief. He doesn't understand why that man's widow, Dr...Categorized as:
crime drama female-mc law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller 21st-century -
Catch Me by Lisa Gardner
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsDetective D. D. Warren has four days to stop a killer in this “shocking…‘must read’”* from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner—one of Library Journal's Best Thrillers of the Year.Charlene Grant believes she is going to die. For the past few years, her childhood friends have been murdered one by one. Same day. Same time... -
The Thirst by Jo Nesbø
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsHarry Hole returns in the eleventh installment of the author's best-selling, electrifying crime fiction series—published in 48 languages, more than 30 million copies sold worldwide. In Police—the last novel featuring Jo Nesbø's hard-bitten, maverick Oslo detective—a killer wreaking revenge on the police had Harry Hole fighting for the safety of the people closest to him...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller 21st-century action-adventure adult -
A Killer's Mind by Mike Omer
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsA chilling thriller of serial murder and dark secrets that will leave you wondering, is the past really in the past?Three Chicago women have been found strangled, embalmed, and posed as if still alive. Doubting the findings of the local PD’s profiler, The FBI calls on forensic psychologist Zoe Bentley to investigate... -
The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsLincoln Rhyme was once a brilliant criminologist, a genius in the field of forensics -- until an accident left him physically and emotionally shattered. But now a diabolical killer is challenging Rhyme to a terrifying and ingenious duel of wits... -
No One Left to Tell by Karen Rose
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA car crashes in front of rookie PI Paige Holden’s home. And suddenly, she finds one of her pro bono clients dying in her arms—from a gunshot wound. With her last breath, the woman whispers cryptic words into her ear and hands her a blood-smeared flash drive. Five years ago, State’s Attorney Grayson Smith put a murderer behind bars...Categorized as:
crime female-mc law-enforcement legal police-procedural suspense abuse action-adventure -
In the Barren Ground by Loreth Anne White
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the Barrens, a vast wilderness in northern Canada bordering the Arctic Circle, night consumes every hour of the winter. Humans are scarce; ferocious predators roam freely. Locals say spirits do, too. Rookie cop Tana Larsson doesn’t mind the dark and quiet. Five months pregnant and hoping to escape the mistakes of her past, she takes a post in Twin Rivers, population 320...Categorized as:
crime female-mc law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
The Coffin Dancer by Jeffery Deaver
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsDetective Lincoln Rhyme, the foremost criminalist in the NYPD, is on the hunt for an elusive murderer, the Coffin Dancer. He's a brilliant hitman who changes his appearance even faster than he adds to his trail of victims, only one of whom has lived long enough to offer a clue: the assassin has an eerie tattoo on his arm of the Grim Reaper waltzing with a woman in front of a casket...Categorized as:
crime drama law-enforcement police-procedural suspense whodunit thriller action-adventure -
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Find Her by Lisa Gardner
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsLisa Gardner's runaway New York Times bestseller--a fast-paced thrill ride featuring Detective D. D. Warren. Seven years ago, carefree college student Flora Dane was kidnapped while on spring break. For 472 days, Flora learned just how much one person can endure... -
Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell, C.J. Critt
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 41 ratings"Killing me won't kill the beast" are the last words of rapist-murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell, written four days before his execution. But they can't explain how Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds Waddell's fingerprints on another crime scene -- after she'd performed his autopsy. If this is some sort of game, Scarpetta seems to be the target... -
The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 76 ratingsNear an isolated mansion lies a beautiful garden.In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees…and a collection of precious “butterflies”—young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens... -
I Know a Secret by Tess Gerritsen
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn the twelfth gripping novel featuring Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles, the crime-solving duo—featured in the smash-hit TNT series Rizzoli & Isles—are faced with the gruesomely staged murder of a horror film producer.The crime scene is unlike any that Detective Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles have ever before encountered...Categorized as:
crime drama female-mc friendship law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller -
A Darkness Absolute: Library Edition by Kelley Armstrong, Thérèse Plummer
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen experienced homicide detective Casey Duncan first moved to the secret town of Rockton, she expected a safe haven for people like her, people running from their past misdeeds and past lives. She knew living in Rockton meant living off-the-grid completely: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council’s approval... -
Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsMaster of new noir Dennis Lehane magnificently evokes the dignity and savagery of working-class Boston in Darkness, Take My Hand, a terrifying tale of redemption.Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro’s latest client is a prominent Boston psychiatrist, running scared from a vengeful Irish mob. The private investigators know about cold-blooded retribution...Categorized as:
crime drama law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller 20th-century action-adventure -
The Summer Children The Collector, Book 3 by Dot Hutchison
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsSeries including The Butterfly...Categorized as:
crime drama female-mc friendship law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller -
The Secrets of the Shadows by Helen Phifer
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSophie was afraid of the man in the shadows. He terrified her, but he would always disappear when someone else came. But one day in June 1984, she didn't escape. He took her. When a young woman is found draped over a gravestone in a chilling murder, police officer Annie Graham experiences a familiar sense of dread... -
Vanish by Tess Gerritsen
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsA blessed event becomes a nightmare for pregnant homicide detective Jane Rizzoli when she finds herself on the wrong side of a hostage crisis in this timely and relentless thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Body Double. A nameless, beautiful woman appears to be just another corpse in the morgue... -
The Body Reader by Anne Frasier, 安·費瑟
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsFor three years, Detective Jude Fontaine was kept from the outside world. Held in an underground cell, her only contact was with her sadistic captor, and reading his face was her entire existence. Learning his every line, every movement, and every flicker of thought is what kept her alive... -
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Dance of Death by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsTwo brothers on opposite sides of the law battle it out on the streets of New York in this chill-inducing thriller, a follow-up to BRIMSTONE. — As the previous installment came to a close, vicious dogs and armed men surrounded FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast and his demise seemed certain. Nevertheless, he did leave behind a legacy: a letter for his friend, NYPD Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta...Categorized as:
crime drama law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller 21st-century action-adventure -
Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsA savage crime has rocked a working-class neighbourhood of Boston; four members of a family have been brutally murdered. The father is lying in an intensive care unit, his survival in doubt. He is the principal suspect. Female police detective D.D. Warren, however, is not one to take things at face value...Categorized as:
crime female-mc law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller abuse action-adventure -
Beyond Reach by Karin Slaughter
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsSara Linton--resident medical examiner/pediatrician in Grant County, Georgia, --has plenty of hardship to deal with, including defending herself in a heartbreaking malpractice suit. So when her husband, Police chief Jeffery Tolliver, learns that his friend and coworker detective Lena Adams has been arrested for murder and needs Sara's help, she is not sure she can handle the pressure of it all...Categorized as:
crime drama law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
Voice of Fear by Heather Graham
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA killer is looking to silence them, once and for all.FBI agent Jordan Wallace is close to cracking the human trafficking case she’s been working, when she does the one thing she should never do: let her guard down. The botched undercover mission is semi-salvaged by the last-minute appearance of criminal psychologist Patrick Law, but Jordan can’t imagine making a worse first impression...Categorized as:
crime drama law-enforcement police-procedural suspense action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsThe Surgeon has been locked up for a year but his chilling legacy still haunts the city, and especially Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli. But now a new killer is at work and Rizzoli senses something horrifyingly familiar about this murderer's modus operandi... -
A Caller's Game by J.D. Barker
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDIE HARD meets TALK RADIO in this heart-pounding, relentlessly fast-paced thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Fourth Monkey—master of suspense, J.D. Barker. "I'm going to offer you a choice." Controversial satellite radio talk show host, Jordan Briggs, has clawed her way to the top of the broadcast world...
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