Books like 'Private Games:'
Readers who enjoyed Private Games: by James Patterson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
mystery action / adventure serial killer thriller crime suspense law-enforcement investigator drama
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The Hermitage by L.J. Ross
Rated: 4.54 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFROM THE #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF HOLY ISLAND AND SEVEN BRIDGES He thought he was invincible, but he was wrong… When an old man is found dead inside the ancient hermitage at Warkworth Castle, Northumbria CID are called in to investigate... -
Desert Star by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsLAPD detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch team up to hunt the brutal killer who is Bosch’s “white whale”—a man responsible for the murder of an entire family. Discover more thrilling Bosch mysteries in the original Freevee series Bosch: Legacy. A year has passed since LAPD detective Renée Ballard quit the force in the face of misogyny, demoralization, and endless red tape... -
Winter's Curse by Mary Stone
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsKnowing someone will die is the worst curse...A bank robbery turns into a blood trail as a pair of unhinged masterminds hack their way through a list of the most notorious US heists. The copycat crimes, emulating famous robberies, escalate as the FBI work with local law enforcement.But the federal team has problems of its own... -
Dead Souls by Angela Marsons
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe truth was dead and buried…until now. When a collection of human bones is unearthed during a routine archaeological dig, a Black Country field suddenly becomes a complex crime scene for Detective Kim Stone. As the bones are sorted, it becomes clear that the grave contains more than one victim. The bodies hint at unimaginable horror, bearing the markings of bullet holes and animal traps... -
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The House in the Woods by Mark Dawson
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFour murders. Two detectives. One mystifying crime. On Christmas Eve, DCI Mackenzie Jones is called to a shooting at a remote farmhouse. Ralph Mallender believes his father lies dead inside. When three more bodies are discovered, it’s clear a festive family gathering has turned into a gruesome tragedy... -
Her Final Breath by Robert Dugoni
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsHomicide detective Tracy Crosswhite has returned to the police force after the sensational retrial of her sister’s killer. Still scarred from that ordeal, Tracy is pulled into an investigation that threatens to end her career, if not her life.A serial killer known as the Cowboy is killing young women in cheap motels in North Seattle... -
The Knight by Steven James
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn The Knight, the third installment in the bestselling series of thrillers featuring FBI criminologist Patrick Bowers, the stakes have never been higher.Agent Bowers is used to tracking the country's most dangerous killers, but now it looks like a killer is tracking him... -
Signature by Jeff Carson
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsChief Detective Wolf and Special Agent Kristen Luke are back — and they’re going up against a sadistic killer whose signature works span the Four Corners region of Colorado and are now spilling into Rocky Points. Signature is the latest pulse-thumping thriller in Jeff Carson’s popular David Wolf mystery-thriller series... -
August Origins by Alan Lee
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMack August, frustrated Los Angeles police detective, moves to a smaller city in Virginia to start over. Rather than join the force, he opens his own P.I. shop and hires out to local attorneys--until Sheriff Stackhouse comes calling, a stunner in designer khakis. Trouble has arrived, she explains, in the form of a gang general from the West Coach... -
Her Broken Wings by D.K. Hood
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe sound that wakes her from sleep is unmistakable—someone is in their house... -
The Courbet Connection by Estelle Ryan
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsForged masterpieces. Kidnapped students. The dark net. Nonverbal communications expert Doctor Genevieve Lenard's search for an international assassin is rudely interrupted by an autistic teenager who claims that forged masterpieces are being sold on the dark net--a secret internet few know exists... -
The Bishop by Steven James
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsF.B.I. Special Agent Patrick Bowers's cutting edge 21st century geospatial investigative techniques and impeccable logic have helped him track some of the country's most grisly killers. But those skills are pushed to the limit in this new installment of the highly acclaimed, award winning The Bowers Files series... -
Fear No Evil by James Patterson
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAlex Cross enters the final showdown with the relentless killer who has stalked him and his family for years.Dr. Alex Cross and Detective John Sampson venture into the rugged Montana wilderness—where they will be the prey. They’re not on the job, but on a personal mission... -
Dawn Girl by Leslie Wolfe
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA GRIPPING SERIAL KILLER THRILLERHer blue eyes wide open, glossed over. A few specks of sand clung to her long, dark lashes. Her beautiful face, immobile, covered in sparkling flecks of sand. Her lips slightly parted as if to let a last breath escape... -
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Crimson Lake Road by Victor Methos
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBestselling author Victor Methos’s acclaimed series continues as prosecutor Jessica Yardley races to catch an art-obsessed serial killer before she becomes his next masterpiece.Retiring prosecutor Jessica Yardley can’t turn down one last investigation. This time, it’s a set of murders inspired by a series of grisly paintings called The Night Things... -
The Girl in the Sand by L.T. Vargus, Tim McBain
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsShallow graves scar the desert landscape. A cemetery in the sand. Some of the lost are never found. Thousands of girls go missing every year in Las Vegas. Taken. Bought and sold. Or worse. And now the dead are calling. These lost girls summon FBI Profiler Violet Darger to Sin City -- a new case... -
Cold Lake by Jeff Carson
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe truth emerges one piece at a time. When a fisherman reels in a plastic bag containing a severed human head from the depths of Cold Lake, Colorado, Sheriff David Wolf and his deputies scramble to the scene, and quickly realize there are more surprises to be found below... -
No Safe Place by Patricia Gibney
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsListening Length: 12 hours and 4 minutesThere's nothing more dangerous than a familiar face...As funeral mourners stand in silence at Ragmullin cemetery, a deafening cry cuts through the air. Lying crumpled at the bottom of an open grave is the bloodied body of a young woman, and Detective Lottie Parker is called in to investigate... -
She Can Scream by Melinda Leigh
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn one moment, high school teacher and single mother Brooke Davenport interrupts a vicious assault, saves a young woman’s life, and attracts the attention of a serial killer. Sixteen years ago, Brooke lost her roommate to a brutal murder. Now she teaches women’s self-defense, still trying to heal from the guilt and grief that plague her... -
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...Categorized as:
crime investigator law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
Cross Justice by James Patterson
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsFor Alex Cross, the toughest cases hit close to home-and in this deadly thrill ride, he's trying to solve the most personal mystery of his life.When his cousin is accused of a heinous crime, Alex Cross returns to his North Carolina hometown for the first time in over three decades... -
Field of Prey by John Sandford
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe night after the fourth of July, Layton Carlson Jr., of Red Wing, Minnesota, finally got lucky. And unlucky. He’d picked the perfect spot to lose his virginity to his girlfriend, an abandoned farmyard in the middle of cornfields: nice, private, and quiet. The only problem was . . . something smelled bad—like, really bad... -
Chosen Prey by John Sandford
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA New York Times bestseller! Lucas Davenport returns in the most harrowing and unexpected Prey novel yet—the story of a congenial man, and his most uncongenial obsession...An art history professor and writer and cheerful pervert, James Qatar had a hobby: he took secret photographs of women and turned them into highly sexual drawings. One day, he took the hobby a step further and..Categorized as:
crime investigator law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
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... -
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Winter Prey by John Sandford
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 31 ratings"Winter Prey" is a John Sandford suspense masterpiece! Following the international success of "Shadow Prey" and "Silent Prey," he creates another heart-pounding chapter in the career of Lucas Davenport, the brilliant, hard-bitten detective from the Twin Cities.The Iceman is Lucas Davenport's most determined foe - a serial killer driven to cover his brutal tracks with blood... -
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... -
Gathering Prey by John Sandford
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe extraordinary new Lucas Davenport thriller from #1 New York Times–bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize–winner John Sandford. They call them Travelers. They move from city to city, panhandling, committing no crimes—they just like to stay on the move. And now somebody is killing them... -
The Rook by Steven James
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAn arsonist has struck a top-secret research facility at a key US naval base. But it's not just a random terrorist attack. These people were after something specific. When Special Agent Patrick Bowers is called in to investigate, he is drawn into a deadly web of intrigue and deception... -
The Watson Girl by Leslie Wolfe
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAn entire family is murdered and, by a quirk, a young girl is left unharmed. For fifteen years, she believed the killer had been caught, and he’s now on death row, awaiting execution. While trying to be content with her adoptive family, she’s living in relentless uncertainty and the fear of remembering what really happened that night when she was five years old. She’s The Watson Girl... -
No Way Back by Rick Mofina, Christian Rummel
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSan Francisco crime reporter Tom Reed is burned out. On the day he decides to finally quit the news business, a sensational story breaks. A heart-stopping robbery-homicide at a jewelry store. The suspects have shot and killed a police officer before fleeing with a female hostage. Reed rushes to the scene, his passion resurrected for one last big story...Categorized as:
crime investigator law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
Tell Nobody by Patricia Gibney
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe boy’s body was so white it was almost transparent. But that’s not what caused the nausea to rise up her throat. He was so young. His body was unmarked, surrounded by a halo of plucked wildflowers.One hot summer evening, eleven-year-old Mikey Driscoll is on the way home from playing with friends. Two days later, his body is discovered on a bed of wildflowers by some local teenagers... -
Her Last Breath by Charlie Gallagher
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDiscover a crime thriller which will have you gripped from the explosive start to one of the most shocking endings of the year. DETECTIVE GEORGE ELMS THOUGHT HE’D SEEN IT ALL, UNTIL HE COMES UP AGAINST SERIAL KILLER HENRY ‘THE BULL’ ROBERTS. Henry Roberts had a type — young, blonde, attractive women. He is three years into a life sentence. Two of his victims were never found... -
Broken Souls by Patricia Gibney
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratings‘She shivered, though the kitchen was warm. Icicles of foreboding trickled down her spine. With trembling hands she whipped back her hair at the nape of her neck. As she turned away from the window, she missed the shadow passing by.’One dark winter’s morning, bride-to-be Cara Dunne is found hanging in her home, dressed in her wedding dress, with a lock of hair removed... -
Taker of Lives by Leslie Wolfe
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA GRIPPING CRIME THRILLER How can you outrun a killer you won’t see coming?They are the most violent, blood-thirsty, and vicious of criminals. While hunting for them, FBI profilers call these monsters UNSUBS, short for unknown subjects of ongoing investigations... -
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Dark is the Grave by T.G. Reid
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA dead cop. A damaged detective. A copycat killer on the loose.When the chief suspect in the notorious Peek-a-boo cop killer case blew himself up, almost taking lead investigator DCI Duncan Bone with him, the psychologically damaged detective thought his days on the force were over...Categorized as:
crime suspense law-enforcement thriller mystery fiction contemporary police-procedural -
Buried Prey by John Sandford
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsA house demolition provides an unpleasant surprise for Minneapolis-the bodies of two girls, wrapped in plastic. It looks like they've been there a long time. Lucas Davenport knows exactly how long. In 1985, Davenport was a young cop with a reputation for recklessness, and the girls' disappearance was a big deal. His bosses ultimately declared the case closed, but he never agreed with that... -
Bad Blood by L.T. Vargus, Tim McBain
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe body slumps over the steering wheel. Pools of blood going tacky on the dash. Two shots to the back of the head. A mafia-style hit in a small town.So Special Agent Violet Darger arrives in rural Michigan. She must make sense of this savagery. Figure out how something like this could happen in an idyllic town of just 5,000.The victim had been living the American dream... -
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...Categorized as:
crime drama investigator law-enforcement suspense thriller 20th-century action-adventure -
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... -
Unsolved by James Patterson
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAvid fans of million-copy bestselling author Robert Bryndza's serial killer thrillers following the cases of Detective Erika Foster will be thrilled by the prospect of Unsolved, which also features a determined female lead as she pieces together clues to bring down an elusive serial... -
The Guilty Ones by Joy Ellis
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsTHE MOST DIFFICULT CASE OF DETECTIVE JACKMAN’S LIFE. WHO ARE THE GUILTY ONES AND IS ANYONE REALLY INNOCENT? THIS TIME IT’S VERY PERSONAL FOR JACKMAN. Jackman’s sister-in-law Sarah disappears to London and throws herself into the river. What drove her to this? She was a woman with a seemingly happy home life and two beloved sons. DI Jackman and DI Evans dig into Sarah’s life... -
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... -
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...Categorized as:
crime investigator law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
Dark Lava by Toby Neal
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsParadise is threatened by a fight for sacred artifacts.She just wants to disarm the IED.Newly assigned to the bomb squad, Detective Lei Texeira struggles with skills that may be dangerously out of reach, even as a heinous crime strikes close to home and catches her husband in the crossfire.The woman is his. And if he can’t have her, she’ll have to die...Categorized as:
crime investigator law-enforcement suspense action-adventure adult book conspiracies -
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Dead Lucky by Matt Brolly, David Monteath
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA fast-paced crime-thriller, full of chilling twists, turns and grisly surprises, Matt Brolly’s Dead Lucky will have you gripped from beginning to end! DCI Michael Lambert is back… When a woman is murdered, the twisted killer forcing her husband to watch her slow and painful death, DCI Michael Lambert knows that his next case might be his toughest yet... -
Secret Prey by John Sandford
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe company chairman lay dead in the woods, his orange hunting jacket punctured by a bullet at close range. Around him stood the four executives with whom he had been hunting, each with a reason not to be sorry about the man's death. A classic murder mystery, it would seem: the kind where the detective gathers everyone together at the end and solves the case... -
A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsTerry McCaleb, the retired FBI agent who starred in the bestseller "Blood Work," is asked by the LAPD to help them investigate aseries of murders that have them baffled. They are the kind of ritualized killings McCaleb specialized in solving with the FBI, and he is reluctantly drawn from his peaceful new life back into the horror and excitement of tracking down a terrifying homicidal maniac... -
Echo Park by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsMore than a decade ago, Harry Bosch worked on the case of Marie Gesto, a twenty-two-year-old who went missing but was never found. Now, with the Gesto file still on his desk, Bosch gets a call from the District Attorney: A serial killer has confessed. Did Harry miss a key clue? Or is something more going on here?In 1993 Marie Gesto disappeared after walking out of a supermarket... -
The Creek Killer by Dominika Best
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsHow 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...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement thriller mystery fiction contemporary police-procedural action-adventure -
The Sixth Man by David Baldacci
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsAfter the #1 New York Times bestsellers Split Second, Hour Game, Simple Genius, and First Family, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell return in their most shocking case: a high stakes struggle where the relentless needs of national security run up against the absolute limits of the human mind...
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