Books like 'The Choirboys'
Readers who enjoyed The Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
mystery action / adventure thriller crime humor law-enforcement true-crime police-procedural noir drama
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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... -
Righteous Prey by John Sandford
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsLucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are up against a powerful vigilante group with an eye on vengeance in this thrilling novel in the beloved series by the #1 New York Times bestselling author.“We’re going to murder people who need to be murdered.”So begins a press release from a mysterious group known only as “The Five,” shortly after a vicious predator is murdered in San Francisco... -
Judgment Prey by John Sandford
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsLucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers team up to crack an unsolvable case in this thrilling new novel by John Sandford.Alex Sand was spending the evening at home playing basketball with his two young sons when all three were shot in cold blood... -
The Harry Bosch Novels, Volume 2: The Last Coyote / Trunk Music / Angels Flight by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Last Coyote: LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch is suspended from the force for attacking his commanding officer. Unable to remain idle, he investigates the long-unsolved murder of a Hollywood prostitute — his mother. Trunk Music: Harry returns to the force to investigate the murder of a movie producer with Mafia ties...Categorized as:
crime drama law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
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Dire by Jeff Carson
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen a man careens off the road into the frigid waters of the Chautauqua River, Chief Detective David Wolf risks his own life to bring the man to shore. News of Wolf’s bravery travels fast through the burgeoning ski town of Rocky Points, Colorado, and before long he’s pulled into the political grinder, where candidates are eager to exploit Wolf’s character for their own gain...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
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...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
The Red Book by James Patterson, David Ellis
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFor Detective Billy Harney, the distance from hero to statistic is one false move.To Harney, the newest member of Chicago PD's elite strike force -- Special Operations Section (SOS) -- getting shot in the head, stalked by a state's attorney, and accused of murder by his fellow cops is all part of breaking a case...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
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... -
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...Categorized as:
crime drama law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
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...Categorized as:
crime drama humor law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure -
The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsMickey Haller has fallen on tough times. He expands his business into foreclosure defense, only to see one of his clients accused of killing the banker she blames for trying to take away her home. Mickey puts his team into high gear to exonerate Lisa Trammel, even though the evidence and his own suspicions tell him his client is guilty...Categorized as:
crime drama law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure -
High Road by Jeff Carson
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the brand-new thrilling mystery from a #1 Amazon and International Bestselling author, Detective David Wolf is pulled to a high plateau in the heart of the Colorado Rockies, and to a murder case that will test every ounce of his character.When a sheriff’s son is found dead in a neighboring county to the south, clues show foul-play... -
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... -
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... -
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Ashes Never Lie by Lee Goldberg
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe secrets hidden in smoldering ashes hold the fate of a city in an explosive thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg.Vacant homes in a new housing development are erupting into flames in broad daylight with no apparent cause. It’s a perplexing mystery for dogged arson investigator Walter Sharpe and his restless new partner, Andrew Walker, an ex–US marshal who craves action... -
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... -
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 hard-boiled law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
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...Categorized as:
crime drama law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure -
Mortal Prey by John Sandford
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsYears ago, Lucas Davenport almost died at the hands of Clara Rinker, a pleasant, soft-spoken, low-key Southerner, and the best hitwoman in the business...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure audiobook book -
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...Categorized as:
crime humor law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsJames Lee Burke's eagerly awaited new novel finds Detective Dave Robicheaux back in New Iberia, Louisiana, and embroiled in the most harrowing and dangerous case of his career. Seven young women in neighboring Jefferson Davis Parish have been brutally murdered... -
Only the Brave by Mel Sherratt, Anne Flosnik
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen one of the notorious Johnson brothers is murdered and a bag of money goes missing, a deadly game of cat and mouse is set in motion.DS Allie Shenton and her team are called in to catch the killer, but the suspects are double-crossing each other and Allie has little time to untangle the web of lies...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
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... -
Tell No One / Gone For Good by Harlan Coben
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben comes an unforgettable duet of classic novels—two top-notch thrillers filled with the author’s signature storytelling genius.TELL NO ONEFor Dr. David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams... -
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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... -
Robert B. Parker's Colorblind by Reed Farrel Coleman
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPolice chief Jesse Stone returns in the newest novel in Robert B. Parker's New York Times--bestselling series, and his newest case hits right at the heart of the Paradise police force...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
King City by Lee Goldberg
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsMajor Crimes Unit detective Tom Wade secretly worked with the Feds to nail seven of his fellow cops for corruption…turning him into a pariah in the police department. So he’s exiled to patrol a beat in King City’s deadliest neighborhood… with no back-up, no resources, and no hope of survival...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsMickey Haller gets the text, "Call me ASAP - 187," and the California penal code for murder immediately gets his attention. Murder cases have the highest stakes and the biggest paydays, and they always mean Haller has to be at the top of his game...Categorized as:
crime drama law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure -
Blood of Others by Rick Mofina
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe disappearance and murder of a lonely San Francisco insurance clerk puts a relentless crime reporter and legendary homicide cop on separate tracks in their pursuit of a killer.The suspect lures solitary women out of their quiet worlds and into his nightmare as he races the clock and travels the globe searching for the one woman who will forgive the unforgivable...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
Poirot's Finest Cases by Agatha Christie, John Moffat
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsJohn Moffatt stars as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.The ABC Murders: A chilling letter sets the sleuth on the trail of an enigmatic killer.After the Funeral: A wealthy businessman is dead, and his sister thinks it was murder.Death on the Nile: Poirot is in Egypt when a chilling murder takes place.Peril at End House: Whilst on holiday, the sleuth encounters a young woman, a hat and a bullet... -
Sunset Express by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsProminent restaurateur Teddy Martin is facing charges in his wife’s brutal murder. But he’s not going down without spending a bundle of cash on his defense. So his hotshot attorney hires P.I. Elvis Cole to find proof that Detective Angela Rossi tampered with the evidence. Rossi needs a way back to the fast track after falling hard during an internal investigation five years ago... -
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... -
Voodoo River by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsL.A. private eye Elvis Cole is hired by popular television star Jodie Taylor to delve into her past and identify the biological parents who gave her up for adoption thirty-six years before. Cole's assignment is to find out their biological history and report back.It seems all too clear cut. But when he gets to Louisiana and begins his search, he finds that there's something much darker going on... -
Family Values by G.M. Ford
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsReturning to Seattle after a business trip, retired PI Leo Waterman is shocked to find his girlfriend, Rebecca Duvall, unconscious on the bathroom floor, her house filled with gas. Officials believe it was a suicide attempt in the wake of a humiliating scandal. Under investigation for dereliction of duty, she’d been suspended from her job as medical examiner for King County... -
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Eyes of the Predator: The Pickham County Murders by Glenn Trust
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratings***For Mature Readers*** Eyes scanning, searching, the predator sits motionless in a parking lot. His next victim is only feet away. Within hours a backwater south Georgia county will be rocked by two seemingly unrelated murders that signal the arrival of a serial killer in the rural southland...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
Misery Bay by Steve Hamilton
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt's a beautiful place to die... The latest superb novel from EDGAR AWARD-winning author of THE LOCK ARTIST. In the dead of winter a young man is found hanging from a tree on a remote shore of Lake Superior known as Misery Bay. There's no evidence of foul play. Nothing to suggest it's anything other than a tragic teenage suicide...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
Free Fall in Crimson by John D. MacDonald, Carl Hiaasen
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMcGee tracks killers who brutally murder an ailing millionaire. He renews unfinished adventure with Hollywood actress who leads him into a nasty nest of murderers involving a motorcycle gang, porn movies, and mad balloonists. And Mcgee relearns old lesson. Only close to the edge of death does he feel completely alive... -
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...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure -
Flamingo by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA routine assignment transporting two death-row prisoners to their executions goes fatally wrong, leaving Dave Robicheaux brutally wounded and his partner dead. Obsessed with revenge, Dave is persuaded by the DEA to go undercover into the torrid sleepy depths of New Orleans, a volatile world of Mafia drug-running and Cajun voodoo magic...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure -
What Lies Beneath by Bill Kitson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDetective Mike Nash thought that moving back to Yorkshire from London would give him a quieter life. Little did he know . . .Two skeletons are discovered in Lamentation Tarn, a mountain lake.Talented detective Mike Nash and his team have little evidence with which to work, until a surprising discovery prompts them to contact law enforcement agencies in Eastern Europe...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure -
Broken by Don Winslow
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn six intense short novels connected by the themes of crime, corruption, vengeance, justice, loss, betrayal, guilt and redemption, Broken is #1 international bestseller Don Winslow at his nerve-shattering, heart-stopping, heartbreaking best...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure -
Free Fall by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsJennifer Sheridan's fiance, Mark Thurman, is a decorated LA cop with an elite plainclothes unit, but Jennifer is sure he's in trouble - the kind of serious trouble that only Elvis Cole can get him out of... -
Dare Game by Melinda Colt
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOne dead body, one ace of spades… Is the playing card an oversight—or a trademark?Detective John O’Sullivan needs to find out if the murder was a one-off, or if the killer plans to work his way through a whole deck of cards. The plot thickens as his team discovers more unsolved murders with the same modus operandi—worldwide...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural suspense romance mystery fiction action-adventure -
Twelve Mile Limit by Randy Wayne White
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt starts out as a fun excursion for four divers off the Florida coast. Two days later only one is found alive-naked atop a light tower in the Gulf of Mexico. What happened during those 48 hours? Doc Ford thinks he's prepared for the truth. He isn't...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
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The Secret Fear by Solomon Carter
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDETECTIVE JOE HOGARTH IS CALLED TO A BRUTAL MURDER AT A TURKISH TAKEAWAY. THE TELL-TALE MARK OF A ONCE NOTORIOUS LONDON CRIME FAMILY IS FOUND ON THE VICTIM’S BODY. HOGARTH FEARS THE NEW CASE COULD OPEN A PANDORA'S BOX. BUT HE HAS NO CHOICE.HOGARTH MUST FIND THE KILLER AND TAKE ON THE DEADLIEST RISKSMurdered kebab shop owner Baba Sen was beloved by his clientele... -
The Camel's Back Lib/E by Brian Christopher Shea, Conner Goff
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThree people, each at their own breaking point, collide. The resulting impact will forever change their lives ... if they can manage to survive it.Declan Enright, a former police officer recently fired over a controversial shooting, has reached a breaking point in his life...Categorized as:
crime drama hard-boiled law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure -
Night Frost by R.D. Wingfield
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA serial killer is terrorizing the senior citizens of Denton, and the local police are succumbing to a flu epidemic. Tired and demoralized, the force has to contend with a seemingly perfect young couple suffering arson attacks and death threats, a suspicious suicide, burglaries, pornographic videos, poison-pen letters..Categorized as:
crime humor law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
The Green Ripper by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBeautiful girls always grace the Florida beaches, strolling, sailing, relaxing at the many parties on Travis McGee's houseboat, The Busted Flush. McGee was too smart--and had been around too long--for many of them to touch his heart. Now, however, there was Gretel. She had discovered the key to McGee--to all of him--and now he had something to hope for. Then, terribly, unexpectedly, she was dead... -
Her Last Wish by Blake Pierce
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFBI Agent Rachel Gift, 33, unparalleled for her ability to enter the minds of serial killers, is a rising star in the Behavioral Crimes Unit—until a routine doctor visit reveals she has but a few months left to live.Not wishing to burden others with her pain, Rachel decides, agonizing as it is, not to tell anyone—not even her boss, her partner, her husband, or her seven-year-old daughter... -
Purple Cane Road by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDave Robicheaux has spent his life confronting the age-old adage that the sins of the father pass onto the son. But what has his mother's legacy left him? Dead to him since youth, Mae Guillory has been shuttered away in the deep recesses of Dave's mind. He's lived with the fact that he would never really know what happened to the woman who left him to the devices of his whiskey-driven father...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement noir police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure
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