Books like 'Better the Devil'
Readers who enjoyed Better the Devil by Wes Markin also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
adult fiction noir thriller law-enforcement amateur-sleuth
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Night on Fire by L.T. Vargus, Tim McBain
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFire crawls up the sides of the church. The orange glow thrashes. Blackens the siding. Climbs up onto the steeple. The flames close in on the wedding party trapped inside. When a serial arsonist terrorizes Los Angeles County, FBI profiler Violet Darger heads to California to investigate. The fires keep coming faster. The body count rises, and the threat hangs over the city as thick as the smog... -
The Last Bloody Straw by J.D. Kirk
Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsHow do you solve a murder when everyone's a suspect? Tormented by the recent loss of a colleague, DCI Jack Logan is on the warpath, determined to bring down all those he holds responsible for the officer's death. His quest for revenge is cut short when a woman's body turns up on the remote island of Canna, and Jack is summoned to investigate... -
In Cold Blood by Caroline Mitchell
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWHEN THE HUNTER BECOMES THE HUNTED…DI Amy Winter faces her toughest case yet as a serial killer couple kidnap and hunt their prey. After capture, the victims are released from an unknown location each day. But freedom does not come easily as the victim’s injuries become more severe, and if they haven’t escaped by day four, they won’t live to see the fifth...Categorized as:
law-enforcement thriller noir fiction suspense police-procedural crime serial-killers -
DON'T TELL by Willow Rose
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis novel is based on historical events. One close-knit family. Too many secrets. When detective Jack Ryder is going skiing with his family in the mountains of North Carolina, he hopes for a week of fun in the snow with the ones he loves. But then the body of a teenage boy turns up in the cold waters of the creek behind the cabin they have rented. Don’t tell or you might be next... -
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Blood and Treachery by J.D. Kirk
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsHow far would you go to bury the truth? While searching for a missing hill walker, Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team uncovers a body - just not the one they were looking for. Still dealing with the fallout from their last case, DCI Jack Logan and his team venture south from Inverness to investigate a brutal, gangland-style execution in the wilds of the Highland countryside... -
Death in Dexter by Blake Banner
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThere hadn’t been a crime in Dexter, upstate New York, since 1865. It was a long time coming, but when it came, on the 21st September, 2012, it was ugly. It was murder.It was the murder of a seventeen year-old girl, beaten, raped and strangled, then stabbed in the heart with a hunting knife... -
The Talisker Dead by J.M. Dalgliesh
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPulling on the threads of your past... is enough to kill you...When a teenage islander goes missing on Burns Night, D.I. Duncan McAdam takes a strong interest despite the apparent lack of concern shown by the boy's father. When a woman's body is soon discovered in Talisker Bay, with a single stab wound to the chest, Duncan and his team realise they have a killer on the island... -
Steeltown Magnolia by Melissa F. Miller
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMaisy Farley, a Georgia peach transplanted to Pittsburgh, has won the hearts of her audience as their favorite hometown news anchor for seven years running. Then she dared to report the truth about the influential and eccentric billionaire who bought the TV station where she’s worked for over a decade... -
Right Behind You by Rachel Abbott
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsSome doors should not be opened.Some can never be closed. Jo Palmer’s peaceful and happy life is about to end. Ash – the man she loves – will be arrested by the police.Millie – her precious daughter – will be taken from her. She will lose her friends.She will doubt her sanity. Someone is stealing everything Jo loves, and will stop at nothing... -
Jo Nesbø Collection: Redbreast, Nemesis, Devil’s Star, Snowman & Redemeer by Jo Nesbø
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratings... -
Bury Them Deep: Inspector McLean Book 10 by James Oswald
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe tenth book in the Sunday Times-bestselling Inspector McLean series, from one of Scotland's most celebrated crime writers When a member of the Police Scotland team fails to clock-in for work, concern for her whereabouts is immediate... and the discovery of her burnt-out car in remote woodland to the south of Edinburgh sets off a desperate search for the missing woman... -
Unquiet Souls by Liz Mistry
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhat is the link between the abduction of a little girl and a dead prostitute? When the body of a prostitute is found, followed by the discovery of children locked in an attic, DI Gus McGuire, newly returned to work, is given the case. But what at first appears to be a simple murder soon turns into an international manhunt for the members of a twisted child trafficking ring... -
Dark Water by Caro Ramsay
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA bitterly cold February in Glasgow. In the attic of a deserted tenement, the body of a man is found hanging, his face disfigured beyond recognition.Around his neck is a sign that reads: I Am Stephen Whyte.Investigating officers DI Anderson and DS Costello believe the dead man was the prime suspect in a decade-old unsolved case.Ten years ago, a young woman was brutally attacked and left for dead... -
Dead and Buried: A Scottish Detective Mystery by John Carson
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSometimes, the past is better left behind...Detective Chief Inspector Harry McNeil had found himself back in CID after a leave of absence saw his team disbanded. Now he's been temporarily assigned to an existing Major Investigation team, working alongside his old friend, Detective Inspector Frank Miller, after Miller's DCI dies suddenly.A body is found in the city centre, torn to pieces... -
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The Hunter of the Dark by Donato Carrisi
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA brutal killer is on the streets of Rome. He leaves no trace. And shows no mercy.A series of gruesome murders leaves the police force in Rome reeling, with no real clues or hard evidence to follow. Assigned to the case is Sandra Vega, a brilliant forensic analyst, struggling to come to terms with the crimes and her own past... -
Come A Little Closer by Rachel Abbott
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThey will be coming soon. They come every night. Snow is falling softly as a young woman takes her last breath. Fifteen miles away, two women sit silently in a dark kitchen. They don’t speak, because there is nothing left to be said. Another woman boards a plane to escape the man who is trying to steal her life. But she will have to return, sooner or later... -
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... -
Purppuraverkko by Carmen Mola
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSatoja tuhansia myynyt Espanjan Varistyttö.Kesän viimeisinä päivinä rikostutkija Elena Blanco ryhmineen tekee rynnäkön Madridin laitamilla sijaitsevaan taloon. He syöksyvät suoraan perheen teinipojan huoneeseen, jossa tietokoneen näytöllä kaksi huppupäistä miestä kiduttaa nuorta tyttöä suorassa lähetyksessä. Poliisit joutuvat todistamaan ruudun välityksellä tytön kuolemaa... -
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... -
Bună seara, Melania! by Rodica Ojog-Braşoveanu
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRodica Ojog-Braşoveanu a publicat romane poliţiste, istorice şi alte povestiri. Maestră in arta suspansului, Rodica Ojog-Brasoveanu se arată o fină cunoscătoare a maștilor dincolo de care se ascund întotdeauna oamenii și în literatura, și în viata. Această carte o dovedește din plin.Despre "Ciclul Melaniei": Melania este cheia întregii serii, prin unicitatea ei... -
The Gone Sister by Thomas Fincham
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFROM THOMAS FINCHAM, THE NEW VOICE IN CRIME AND SUSPENSE GENRE. A MYSTERY THAT WILL KEEP YOU GUESSING UNTIL THE FINAL PAGES. How do you find someone who doesn’t exist? Isaiah Whitcomb is found dead in a parked car. Isaiah is a promising athlete and he also happens to be Detective Greg Holt’s nephew. It’s personal for Holt and he will stop at nothing to find who is behind his nephew’s murder... -
One Way Street: A gritty and addictive crime thriller. For fans of Val McDermid and Ian Rankin by Trevor Wood
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe second gritty Newcastle-set thriller in this unforgettable series about a homeless veteran turned local sleuth and vigilante. Follow up to the highly acclaimed The Man on the Street.'FRESH, ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC AND GRITTY' - LEE CHILD'CHARACTERS ARE EXCELLENT. RIVETING ... HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - PATRICIA GIBNEY'A TRIUMPHANT SEQUEL .. -
Murder in an Irish Bog by David Pearson
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsToo late to find a missing man, are Irish detectives in time to catch his killer?It is only a passing comment in the post office in a remote part of Western Ireland that alerts police to the disappearance of Davin Faherty.But foul play is established when his unceremoniously wrapped corpse turns up in a bog... -
Jo Nesbø Collection 3 Books Set: The Redbreast, Nemesis, The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbø
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTitle In This SetThe SnowmanThe RedbreastThe Devil's StarThe SnowmanThe night the first snow falls a young boy wakes to find his mother gone. He walks through the silent house, but finds only wet footprints on the stairs. In the garden looms a solitary figure: a snowman bathed in cold moonlight, its black eyes glaring up at the bedroom windows. Round its neck is his mother's pink scarf... -
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Vecchie conoscenze by Antonio Manzini
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsRocco Schiavone indaga sull’omicidio di una professoressa in pensione. E intanto l’ombra del passato si fa pressante: la pena per Sebastiano, l’amico fraterno che non ha mai smesso di dare la caccia a Enzo Baiocchi, che gli ha assassinato la moglie, lo rende inquieto e gli ruba il sonno... -
Killing Moon by Jo Nesbø
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn the thirteenth novel in the New York Times best-selling series, brilliant rogue police investigator Harry Hole is back, this time as an outsider assembling his own team to help find a serial killer.Harry has gone to Los Angeles to drink himself to death, in the wake of his life back in Oslo falling to pieces... -
An Unholy Shame by Joyce Cato
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMonica Noble and her husband Graham, the local vicar, are invited to participate in a high-flying ecclesiastical conference being held at a swanky hotel in their village. During the Saturday night dinner, the ambitious female cleric Celia Gordon tragically dies, seemingly of a peanut allergy... -
Perdition by Pete Brassett
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA drug-induced suicide, misadventure, or a cleverly calculated murder? London detective Charlotte West takes on Scotland. An employee of an investment bank is found dead in his car by a freshwater loch in Ayrshire, Scotland, but there are few signs of foul play... -
L'ultimo traghetto by Domingo Villar, Federico Zanandrea
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMónica Andrade è sparita da qualche giorno, e il caso non meriterebbe particolari attenzioni se non si trattasse della figlia di un celebre cardiochirurgo con cui mezza città (incluso il commissario Soto, diretto superiore dell'ispettore Leo Caldas) pare sentirsi in debito... -
Hunting Delilah by Anne Baines
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsCon artist. Get-away driver. Thief. Delilah makes her own way in a crooked world.Desperate for money after a heist goes south, Delilah breaks into a rich man's home. But instead of cash and jewels, she discovers a severed head and a serial killer... -
The Oxford Mystery by Joyce Cato, Faith Martin
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDiscover a new series of whodunits by million-selling author Faith Martin. These charming mysteries will have you scratching your head to work out who the murderer is. Meet Jenny Starling: travelling cook and reluctant amateur detective. Please note this book was first published as “DEADLY STUFF” under Faith Martin’s pen name JOYCE CATO... -
Wicked Secret by Valerie Keogh
Rated: 4.60 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNicola Connolly's dreams have started again but this time she is the target. Deciding to investigate, to hunt rather than be hunted, she makes a startling discovery. Tom Hudson, meanwhile, has troubles of his own - Sean White is missing and one of his colleagues has been brutally murdered. Is there a link between the two? Reluctantly, Tom decides to ask Nicola for help... -
A Dance At The Slaughterhouse by Lawrence Block
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn Matt Scudder's mind, money, power, and position elevate nobody above morality and the law. Now the ex-cop and unlicensed p.i. has been hired to prove that socialite Richard Thurman orchestrated the brutal murder of his beautiful, pregnant wife. During Scudder's hard drinking years, he left a piece of his soul on every seedy corner of the Big Apple... -
De test by Michael Hjorth
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn een verlaten schoolgebouw wordt het lichaam van een Zweedse televisieberoemdheid gevonden. Hij is vastgebonden op een stoel in een hoek van het klaslokaal en door zijn hoofd geschoten.Het is het begin van een reeks moorden op mediapersoonlijkheden die hun gebrek aan kennis met de dood moeten bekopen... -
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Buried in Secret by Viveca Sten
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen two cold case disappearances are reopened, a decade of deadly secrets is unearthed on Sandhamn Island in the #1 bestselling thriller by Viveca Sten, author of In Bad Company.A woman’s skeletal remains are excavated on an uninhabited island in Sandhamn’s archipelago, and Thomas Andreasson is called to officially investigate. But his best friend, Nora Linde, can’t help but get involved... -
Pressure Point by Ted Tayler
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsGus Freeman’s Crime Review Team has two successful cold case investigations behind them. Will it be third time lucky? The victim’s profession might make it hard to find someone to talk. ‘Pressure Point’ has a wide array of characters, and offers action, romance, humour and drama. In their most recent case, DS Neil Davis’s father, Terry, came under the microscope... -
Hollywood Notorious by M.Z. Kelly
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLAPD Detective Kate Sexton and her canine partner Bernie return in, Hollywood Notorious, the fourteenth book in the Hollywood Alphabet Thriller Series. Kate and her homicide partner Leo Kingsley are in pursuit of a reality TV star wanted for murder when their case takes a strange turn... -
Hollywood Murder by M.Z. Kelly
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHollywood Murder, book thirteen in the Hollywood Alphabet Thriller Series, finds tough but vulnerable LAPD homicide detective Kate Sexton and her canine partner Bernie in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods of Beverly Hills. The family of a billionaire investment broker has gone missing after their maid is savagely murdered... -
The Silence at Mystery Bay by D.D. Black
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA thousand people watched. No one saw a thing.Private investigator Thomas Austin is enjoying a relaxing holiday vacation in picturesque Port Townsend, Washington, accompanied by an intriguing new friend. But his tranquility is shattered when the nearby community of Mystery Bay is rocked by the death of a revered musician at an infamous counterculture The Rabbit Hole... -
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 .. -
Kamer 19 by Marc Raabe
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOp het openingsevenement van de Berlinale zorgt een snuff-movie voor een massale schok. Ruim 1800 sterren en beroemdheden zien hoe een gruwelijke moord op camera is vastgelegd. Het slachtoffer is de dochter van burgemeester Otto Keller. De dader dreigt dat het niet bij deze moord zal blijven. Rechercheur Tom Babylon en psychologe Sita Johanns staan met hun onderzoek naar de moord onder hoge druk... -
The Sleepwalker by Joseph Knox
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratings‘He said he didn’t remember killing them…’As a series of rolling blackouts plunge the city into darkness, Detective Aidan Waits sits on an abandoned hospital ward, watching a mass murderer slowly die. Transferred from his usual night shift duties and onto protective custody, he has just one job…To extract the location of Martin Wick’s final victim before the notorious mass murderer passes away... -
Sharko by Franck Thilliez
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratings" Sharko comparait toujours les premiers jours d'une enquête à une partie de chasse. Ils étaient la meute de chiens stimulés par les cors, qui s'élancent à la poursuite du gibier. À la différence près que, cette fois, le gibier, c'était eux. " Eux, c'est Lucie Henebelle et Franck Sharko, flics aux 36 quai des Orfèvres, unis à la ville comme à la scène, parents de deux petits garçons... -
The Dog Thief by Marta Acosta
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHow far would you go to save the amazing dog you love?“Incredible! This book touched my heart and soul. ★★★★★" —Amazon ReviewerIntroducing the “touching, funny, and worth crying over” Coyote Run K-9 Search and Rescue mystery series from LIBRARY JOURNAL WOMEN'S SUMMER FICTION author Marta Acosta... -
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Bred to Kill by Franck Thilliez
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe shocking sequel to the runaway international bestseller Syndrome ESyndrome E’s Lucie Henebelle and Inspector Sharko have reunited to take on the case of the brutal murder of Eva Louts, a promising graduate student who was killed while working at a primate research center outside of Paris. But what first appears to be a vicious animal attack soon proves to be something more sinister... -
Torch Scene by Renee Pawlish
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDenver private investigator Reed Ferguson is between cases when a house fire threatens to consume the home of his girlfriend, Willie. The police think it's arson, and they look to Willie - the owner of the building - as the logical suspect. Worse yet, when a body is found in the charred third-floor apartment, the police think Willie is the killer...Categorized as:
law-enforcement thriller amateur-sleuth mystery fiction crime contemporary investigator -
The Man Burned by Winter by Pete Zacharias
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAn investigative journalist on the edge. A serial killer testing his limits. What they have in common can freeze the blood.Still reeling from a personal tragedy, investigative journalist Rooker Lindström finds a grim hideaway from the world. It’s the dilapidated cabin on Minnesota’s Deer Lake bequeathed to him by his late father—one of the most notorious serial killers in the state... -
A Ticket to the Boneyard by Lawrence Block
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTwelve years ago, Matthew Scudder lied to a jury to put James Leo Motley behind bars. Now the ingenious psychopath is free. And the alcoholic ex-cop-turned-p.i. must pay dearly for his sins. Friends and former lovers -- even strangers unfortunate enough to share Scudder's name -- are turning up dead... -
The Flower Show Murder by Faith Martin, Joyce Cato
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPlease note this book was first published as Unholy Whiff of Death under Faith Martin’s pen name Joyce Cato.Smell the roses and die!Monica Noble is thrilled to be asked to judge a neighboring village’s flower show, even if she can't tell a begonia from an azalea!Her fellow judge Vicar James Davies inhales deeply from a large bloom and drops dead in the tent... -
In the Shadow of Power by Viveca Sten
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhat do the new arrivals on Sandhamn Island have to fear? Their own secrets—in this gripping novel of suspense by the bestselling author of In the Heat of the Moment. The new summer house on Sandhamn Island is an architectural dream for its owner, Carsten Jonsson. It’s a nightmare for the locals...
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