Books like 'Backflash'
Readers who enjoyed Backflash by Richard Stark also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
mystery action / adventure thriller crime noir suspense hard-boiled heist law-enforcement outlaws
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Hidden on the Fens by Joy Ellis
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA derelict cottage hidden in a copse of trees.A missing girl whose body was never found.Has her killer returned?Detective Joseph Easter’s daughter discovers a cottage hidden in some trees on a large fenland farm. Someone has been living there.The farm-owner’s wife has been receiving sinister pagan artefacts, including a witch’s knife... -
Last Victim by Helen H. Durrant
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA two-month-old baby is missing. James’s parents left him with a babysitter while they went out for dinner. But when they get home, there’s no sign of baby or sitter.This is the last thing DCI Rachel King wants to hear on her last night of maternity leave. But worse is to come. The missing infant belongs to Scott Agnew, alleged member of Manchester drug-dealing ring, the Trio... -
Bedlam by L.J. Ross
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the international best-selling author of the DCI Ryan mysteries.In a world gone mad, who can you trust?Fresh from a high-profile case in the Paris fashion world, elite forensic psychologist and criminal profiler Dr Alexander Gregory receives a call from the New York State Homicide Squad... -
Missing Persons by James Patterson, Adam Hamdy
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn Afghanistan, a US Special Forces pilot is shot down during a covert mission.In New York, a mother is forced to flee with her two young children.A wealthy businessman approaches Jack Morgan, head of Private - the world's largest investigation agency - with a desperate plea to track down his daughter and grandchildren, who have disappeared without a trace... -
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The Depth of Darkness by L.T. Ryan, Sean Patrick Hopkins
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDetective Mitch Tanner's life hangs in the balance. He clings to the daughter in his care. He agonizes over the disappearance of his son and estranged wife. Twelve months has yet to turn up a solid lead.While investigating the apparent accidental death of Dusty Anne Miller, Mitch and his partner Sam Foster find themselves in the middle of a fiendish plan that strikes too close to home... -
Dark Night of the Soul by Kristi Belcamino, Sonja Field
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsGia Santella, the fast-driving, hard-drinking, karate-trained free spirit, has finally put her dark past behind her. UNFORTUNATELY, the past isn't done with her yet. The third book in a new, exciting series featuring an unforgettable new character by the Anthony, Barry & Macavity finalist and crime writer .. -
Butcher's Moon by Richard Stark, Joe Barrett
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe sixteenth Parker novel, Butcher’s Moon is more than twice as long most of the master heister’s adventures, and absolutely jammed with the action, violence, and nerve-jangling tension readers have come to expect... -
Last Breath by Tom Barber
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen is violence necessary?A Federal manhunt is underway across the United States. A sniper has killed three people in three different cities during the last seventy two hours and he’s gone to ground somewhere in Washington D.C. No-one can find him, and riots have erupted on the streets in response to the shootings.The lead suspect is a police officer... -
Malibu Burning by Lee Goldberg
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFor a professional criminal and a relentless arson investigator, fear and revenge spread like wildfire in a an incendiary thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg.Hell comes to Southern California every October. It rides in on searing Santa Ana winds that blast at near hurricane force, igniting voracious wildfires. Master thief Danny Cole longs for the flames... -
The Blind Trust by Colin Conway
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsA quiet death in a small town. A double homicide in the big city. Only a murderer knows they’re connected. Whitman County Sheriff Tom Jessup wants a nice, safe county. Unfortunately, things are about to get deadly. A seemingly normal death points Jessup north where he finds Detectives Quinn Delaney and Marci Burkett investigating a double murder...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement suspense hard-boiled mystery fiction audiobook action-adventure -
Dark Houses by Helen H. Durrant
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsTHE STUNNING NEW CRIME MYSTERY FEATURING D.I. GRECO BY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR HELEN H. DURRANT A young woman is found brutally murdered in an empty house Detective Stephen Greco and his team must piece together her life as quickly as possible. Within twenty-four hours there is another horrific murder using the same method... -
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... -
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... -
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... -
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Cold Kill by Stephen Leather
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 17 ratings"While investigating a crew of people-traffickers…Dan Shepherd discovers a cross-Channel currency-smuggling operation. Posing as a low-level criminal, Shepherd infiltrates the gang, befriending its London soldiers and establishing contact with the Albanian gangster who masterminds the business from his swank Paris flat...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
Gia and the Forgotten Island by Kristi Belcamino
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn exciting new series character ...Gia Santella is a fast-driving, hard-drinking, karate-trained free spirit, who is gorgeous, sexy, and a young heiress. She also has a fierce temper and zero tolerance for people in power preying on the vulnerable ... especially when the injustice takes place in her neighborhood... -
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... -
The Dead Tracks by Tim Weaver
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"The Dead Tracks" is the second in the David Raker series from Tim Weaver. A serial killer more terrifying than you could ever imagine...Seventeen-year-old Megan Carver was an unlikely runaway. A straight - a student from a happy home, she studied hard and rarely got into trouble. Six months on, she's never been found. Missing persons investigator David Raker knows what it's like to grieve... -
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... -
The Things you find in Rockpools by Gregg Dunnett
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhy has Billy Wheatley become a favorite character for thousands of readers? Eleven-year-old Billy lives a lonely life with his father in a windswept clifftop house. Until a tourist girl vanishes from the beach below. A huge police search takes over the island, but fails to uncover what happened. And Billy can’t resist getting involved... -
Eight Million Ways to Die by Lawrence Block
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNobody knows better than Matthew Scudder how far down a person can sink in this city. A young prostitute named Kim knew it also—and she wanted out. Maybe Kim didn't deserve the life fate had dealt her. She surely didn't deserve her death. The alcoholic ex-cop turned p.i. was supposed to protect her, but someone slashed her to ribbons on a crumbling New York City waterfront pier... -
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... -
From Cradle to Grave by Patricia MacDonald
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA nail-biting novel of domestic suspense from a best-selling author - When Morgan Adair arrives at the small seaside town of West Briar on the Long Island shore, she is looking forward to attending the baptism of her new godson, Drew. Morgan and Drew's mother, Claire, have been friends since childhood, and Morgan was delighted when Claire married the handsome Guy Bolton... -
Riptide / Mount Dragon by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsRiptide: Seit 200 Jahren liegt der Schatz des Piraten Edward Ockham in einem raffinierten Stollensystem auf der Insel Ragged Island versteckt. Unzählige Abenteurer versuchten ihn zu bergen - und bezahlten dafür mit ihrem Leben. Denn auf Ragged Island lastet ein tödlicher Fluch. Als der Mediziner Malin Hatch das Geheimnis lüften will, bringt er sich unwissentlich in höchste Gefahr .. -
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The Dead Yard by Adrian McKinty
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhile on holiday in Spain, Michael Forsythe is arrested in the chaos of a soccer riot and hauled off to jail... -
Dark Crimes by Michael Hambling
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA young woman’s body is discovered on a deserted footpath in a Dorset seaside town late on a cold November night. She has been stabbed through the heart. It seems like a simple crime for DCI Sophie Allen and her team to solve. But not when the victim’s mother is found strangled the next morning... -
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 Outfit by Richard Stark
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWhen the Outfit tries to kill him, Parker declares war. Ripping off the syndicate is easy, but going one-on-one with Bronson, the Outfit's big boss, is the hard part. Hard for anyone but Parker, because the entire underworld understands that whatever Parker does -- he does for keep... -
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... -
Pale Gray for Guilt by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTush Bannon was in the wrong spot at the wrong time. His measly plot of land just so happened to sit right in the middle of a rich parcel of five hundred riverfront acres that big-money real estate interests decided they simply must have.It didn’t matter that Tush was a nice guy with a family, or that he never knew he was dealing with a criminal element... -
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... -
The Empty Copper Sea by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"The professional's professional of suspense writers."THE NEW YORK TIMESVan Harder, once a hard drinker, has found religion. But that doesn't keep folks from saying he murdered his employer, Hub Lawless, whose body hasn't been found. To clear his name, and cear up the mystery, Van asks friend-in-need Travis McGee to find out what really happened... -
Next Victim by Helen H. Durrant
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA young man’s body is found burnt and tortured by a Manchester canal. He was a journalism student who told his friends he was working on a big story. His death leads the police on a false trail. Detective Rachel King investigates. She has a secret, the love of her life is a well-known villain. He has recently come back on the scene... -
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Lupa nera by Juan Gómez-Jurado
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsRestare viva non è mai stato tanto difficile. Dopo Regina Rossa, che ha incoronato Antonia Scott come la nuova protagonista assoluta del thriller spagnolo, il secondo capitolo della trilogia bestseller di Juan Gómez-Jurado. Antonia Scott e Jon Gutiérrez sono ancora alla ricerca di Sandra Fajardo, quando Mentor li convoca per un altro caso al momento più pressante... -
Sudden Prey by John Sandford
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 25 ratings"Sudden Prey" opens with a death and ends with one.For months, Lucas Davenport's men have been tracking a vicious woman bank robber named Candy, and when they finally catch up with her, she doesn't go quietly. In the ensuing shoot-out, she dies – and Davenport's nightmare starts...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
Red Queen by Juan Gómez-Jurado
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsYou've never met anyone like her …Antonia Scott is special. Very special. She is not a policewoman or a lawyer. She has never wielded a weapon or carried a badge, and yet, she has solved dozens of crimes.But it's been awhile since Antonia left her attic in Madrid. The things she has lost are much more important to her than the things awaiting her outside.She also doesn't receive visitors... -
See Her Burn by Margaret Murphy
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPLEASE NOTE THIS BOOK WAS FIRST PUBLISHED AS “THE DISPOSSESSED”A woman’s body is found stuffed inside a wheelie bin. Stripped of her clothes. Drained of her blood. Thrown out with the rubbish.Detective Jeff Rickman is on the case. Within hours, the police have their prime suspect. And it’s Rickman himself.Elsewhere, a cruel prank ends with four innocent people burnt to death... -
Riot Act by Zoë Sharp
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA self-defence expert with a motorbike and an attitude, Charlie Fox doesn't need to go looking for trouble. It generally finds her. Housesitting for a friend seemed easy at first but the house is in the Lavender Garden Estate. Teenage gangs are running riot and desperate neighbours have employed a ruthless security firm to apply rough justice... -
Breakout by Richard Stark
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsParker's back in jail, but not just any old jail; it's the correctional center, where people without bail wait before and during their trial. So Parker's first order of business is to build a network among these cons and break on through to the other side... -
Blood Brother by Jack Kerley
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDetective Carson Ryder's sworn duty is to track killers down. He's never revealed the fact that his brother, Jeremy, is one of America's most notorious killers - albeit imprisoned. Now though, his brother's escaped and is at large in New York. With Jeremy the chief suspect in a series of horrifying mutilation-murders, a mysterious video demands Ryder be brought into help... -
No Way to Die by M.D. Grayson
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSeattle mathematician Thomas Rasmussen had everything to live for. He had a beautiful, loving wife and two great kids. He was well known and respected in his field . His startup company – Applied Cryptographic Solutions recently finished building a revolutionary decryption device called The Starfire Protocol that was already attracting offers in the millions... -
The Seventh by Richard Stark
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhy not?Just because no one had ever tried it before? What better place for a heist, if it was timed right, than a football stadium?There'd have to be money in the box office; the game was a sellout. Every eye in the place would be glued to the action down on the field. Even the getaway would be a cinch... -
She's Out by Lynda La Plante
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA thrilling sequel to the groundbreaking thriller, Widows. After serving a lengthy sentence for the murder of her husband, Dolly Rawlins is free from prison. And she’s only got one thing on her mind: the diamonds she stashed before the police caught her. But there are people waiting for Dolly on the outside - tough ex-prisoners who know about the diamonds, and they all want a cut... -
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Anglesey Blue by Dylan H. Jones
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt’s not the homecoming Detective Inspector Tudor Manx was expecting, but solving the case is just the start of his problems.Recently transferred from the London Met to the North Wales Constabulary, Detective Inspector Tudor Manx has come to Island of Anglesey hoping for a quiet life... -
The Long Cold Winter by Colin Conway
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsA thirty-year old case. A body discovered in the snow. For one grieving detective, it's going to be a long, cold winter.After the passing of his wife, Major Crimes Detective Dallas Nash is handed a cold case to ease him back into the job.Three decades prior, a teenaged girl was strangled to death... -
The Turquoise Lament by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOne of the most enduring and unusual heroes in detective fiction." THE BALTIMORE SUN Now that Linda "Pidge" Lewellen is grown up, she tells Travis McGee, once her girlhood idol, that either she's going crazy or Howie, her affable ex-jock of a husband is trying to kill her. McGee checks things out, and gives Pidge the all clear... -
Out on the Cutting Edge by Lawrence Block
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt isn't called Hell's Kitchen for nothing - a gritty landscape of dark doorways and dirty alleys inhabited by crack addicts and the homeless. For Matt Scudder, it's a city gone mad, but a city he can't leave as he's been hired to find missing would-be actress Paula Hoeldtke... -
The Scarlet Ruse by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTravis McGee is too busy with his houseboat to pay attention to the little old man with the missing postage stamps. Except these are no ordinary stamps. They are rare stamps. Four hundred thousand dollars worth of rare. And if McGee doesn't recognize their value, perhaps Mary Alice McDermit does, a six-foot knockout who knows all the ways to a boat bum's heart... -
The Score by Richard Stark, John Banville
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt was an impossible crime: knock off an entire North Dakota town called Copper Canyon—clean out the plant payroll, both banks, and all the stores in one night. Parker called it "science fiction," but with the right men (a score of them), he could figure it out to the last detail. It could work...
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