Books like 'The Institution'

Readers who enjoyed The Institution by Helen Sarah Fields also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

mystery  psychological  serial killer  supernatural  thriller  crime  suspense  locked-room  amateur-sleuth  kidnapping 

  • Zero In by Dean Koontz

    Zero In by Dean Koontz

    Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    This could be the most important mission of Nameless’s life. Because it’s putting him on a collision course with his own past and the nation’s future.The target: a fortified redoubt in the golden hills of California, the hub of a new world order that’s unthinkably close at hand. The time has come for Nameless to face its designer: the nihilist mastermind behind the One Solution...
  • The Last Straw by Sharon Sala

    The Last Straw by Sharon Sala

    Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Charlie Dodge may be down, but he’s most definitely not out. He’s still reeling after a series of earth-shattering events, so when a desperate woman hires Dodge Investigations to find her missing sister, the head-scratcher of a case is exactly the distraction Charlie and his steadfast partner, Wyrick, need...
  • Memories of Tomorrow by Dean Koontz

    Memories of Tomorrow by Dean Koontz

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    What 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...
  • Pretty Dead by Anne Frasier

    Pretty Dead by Anne Frasier

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    A serial killer stalks the streets of Savannah...Homicide detective Elise Sandburg and her partner, profiler David Gould, are all too familiar with the terrible costs of chasing evil. Despite their wounded psyches, the detectives delve into the deranged killer’s twisted mind, determined to unravel the clues in the taunts he leaves behind.A city gripped by fear..
    Categorized as:
    crime  female-mc  suspense  thriller  adult  audiobook  book  dark
  • Bitter Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff

    Bitter Moon by Alexandra Sokoloff

    Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    FBI agent Matthew Roarke has been on leave, and in seclusion, since the capture of mass killer Cara Lindstrom—the victim turned avenger who preys on predators. Torn between devotion to the law and a powerful attraction to Cara and her lethal brand of justice, Roarke has retreated from both to search his soul...
  • Under the Bones: A Lou Thorne Thriller by Kory M. Shrum

    Under the Bones: A Lou Thorne Thriller by Kory M. Shrum

    Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Enemies make the best allies. Louie Thorne is good at only one thing. Killing. She knows peace only when she kills and this relentless thirst drives her to hunt the world's worst crime lords. But when her cancer-stricken aunt makes a dying wish, Louie is torn between her own dark nature and a promise made to the only family she has left...
  • I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells

    I Don't Want to Kill You by Dan Wells

    Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    John Cleaver has called a demon—literally called it, on the phone, and challenged it to a fight. He’s faced two of the monsters already, barely escaping with his life, and now he’s done running; he’s taking the fight to them...
  • Light Has Weight, but Darkness Does Not by Dean Koontz

    Light Has Weight, but Darkness Does Not by Dean Koontz

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Instinct and violent visions compel Nameless to embark on an unplanned mission to help a desperate mother and daughter on the run. Why is this rescue so strangely familiar to a man with no memories?Evie and her daughter, Asteria, are fleeing an abusive cult when they meet a stranger in an abandoned Arizona shopping mall. Fate hasn’t set Nameless on their trail...
  • Hunting Fear by Kay Hooper, Dick Hill

    Hunting Fear by Kay Hooper, Dick Hill

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    He's no ordinary kidnapper. Not only does he strike again and again, but he collects the ransom, gets away safely, and leaves his helpless hostages dead. Now, after months of eluding the best that law enforcement can put against him, this monster has left nothing in his wake but a cold trail of unconnected victims. He's no ordinary cop...
  • Touching Evil by Kay Hooper, Alyssa Bresnahan

    Touching Evil by Kay Hooper, Alyssa Bresnahan

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    This is the story of Seattle police artist Maggie Barnes, whose remarkable artistic talents are the focus of an even more extraordinary psychic gift that she is determined to keep secret: a gift that has allowed her to work with crime victims, to feel what they feel, to create perfect portraits of their attackers...
    Categorized as:
    crime  ghosts  suspense  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary  fiction
  • Sense of Evil by Kay Hooper

    Sense of Evil by Kay Hooper

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    Kay Hooper is the brightest new star of suspense fiction. Now the New York Times bestselling author who's built a reputation for keeping her readers' pulse in the red zone delivers a thriller that will stun the senses -- all six of them. This time a psychic special agent and a gritty cop must stop a brutal killer with a chilling M.O. and an unstoppable...Sense of Evil...
  • Legacy Of Hunters Ridge by Sarah Barrie

    Legacy Of Hunters Ridge by Sarah Barrie

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    She dazzled with Secrets of Whitewater Creek, now Sarah Barrie kicks off a brand-new trilogy about small towns, secrets, and the love that saves lives. Successful horse trainer Alissa Morgan-Jones has the world at her feet, until a tragic fire destroys everything. Widowed, in debt and under suspicion for arson, Alissa’s life is in tatters...
    Categorized as:
    crime  female-mc  suspense  adult  book  contemporary  fiction  murder
  • Rebekka Franck Series Box Set: Vol 1-5 by Willow Rose

    Rebekka Franck Series Box Set: Vol 1-5 by Willow Rose

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Five Amazon Bestselling Mystery Novels. The Queen of Scream Novels channels Wes Craven in this 5-in-1 boxed set! ˃˃˃ One, Two ... He is coming for you Set in the Danish coastal town of Karrebaeksminde, journalist Rebekka Franck returns to her hometown with her six-year-old daughter...
  • The Killing Kind by John Connolly

    The Killing Kind by John Connolly

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    When the discovery of a mass grave in northern Maine reveals the grim truth behind the disappearance of a religious community, private detective Charlie Parker is drawn into a violent conflict with a group of zealots intent on tracking down a relic that could link them to the slaughter. Haunted by the ghost of a small boy and tormented by the demonic killer known as Mr...
  • Whisper of Evil by Kay Hooper

    Whisper of Evil by Kay Hooper

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Someone is stalking the little town of Silence...Three victims have fallen to a killer’s savage vengeance. Each of the dead men was a successful and respected member of the community — yet each also harbored a dark secret discovered only after his murder...
    Categorized as:
    crime  ghosts  suspense  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary  fiction
  • Watchers by Dean Koontz

    Watchers by Dean Koontz

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 42 ratings
    On his thirty-sixth birthday, Travis Cornell hikes into the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains. But his path is soon blocked by a bedraggled Golden Retriever who will let him go no further into the dark woods.That morning, Travis had been desperate to find some happiness in his lonely, seemingly cursed life...
  • Changeling by Matt Wesolowski

    Changeling by Matt Wesolowski

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    On Christmas Eve in 1988, seven-year-old Alfie Marsden vanished in the Wentshire Forest Pass, when a burst tyre forced his father, Sorrel, to stop the car. Leaving the car to summon the emergency services, Sorrel returned to find his son gone. No trace of the child, nor his remains, have ever been found. Alfie Marsden was declared officially dead in 1995...
  • Still Life With Crows by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

    Still Life With Crows by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    A small Kansas town has turned into a killing ground.Is it a serial killer, a man with the need to destroy?Or is it a darker force, a curse upon the land?Amid golden cornfields, FBI Special Agent Pendergast discovers evil in the blood of America's heartland.No one is safe...
  • The House that Jack Built by Willow Rose

    The House that Jack Built by Willow Rose

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Scott Kingston is afraid of monsters. He thinks they’re lurking outside his bedroom window at night when his mother tucks him in. He asks his mother to keep the light on to scare the monsters away. But that light is exactly what lures the kidnapper to his window and the next morning, Scott Kingston is gone...
  • Corkscrew by Dean Koontz

    Corkscrew by Dean Koontz

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    A terrorist attack in the news leaves Nameless reeling from a disturbing vision. But it’s not a glimpse of the future. It’s a recovered memory that’s opening a window into his mysterious past.Uncharacteristically forthcoming—and unexpectedly personal—Nameless’s handlers have no choice but to emerge from the shadows. The indoctrinating factions of his visions are growing in number...
  • Mastermind by Andrew Mayne

    Mastermind by Andrew Mayne

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    A mysterious electrical storm plunges Manhattan into darkness. As a strange, smothering fog rolls in, all communication crashes. In the blink of an eye, the island seems to vanish into a void.FBI special agent Jessica Blackwood and brilliant scientist Dr. Theo Cray know this isn’t a freak accident. It’s a sinister sleight of hand...
  • Sleeping with Fear by Kay Hooper

    Sleeping with Fear by Kay Hooper

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    Fear has never been so close...New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper returns with a relentless thriller that brings her readers face-to-face with fear itself. In this terrifying new novel, a psychic special agent finds herself caught up in a tangled web of secrets, lies... and evil.Riley Crane woke up fully dressed, a gun under her pillow, and covered in blood...
    Categorized as:
    crime  ghosts  suspense  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary  fiction
  • Gentle Is the Angel of Death by Dean Koontz

    Gentle Is the Angel of Death by Dean Koontz

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    To some he’s a medical genius. To others, a twisted angel of mercy with a necessary solution to what he sees as an ugly dilemma. Only one man can help Dr. Death face the evil of his ways.Henry Siphuncle has a selfless mission: releasing his patients forever from their distasteful imperfections. It’s for their own good. And the world’s. Even Henry’s own wife didn’t survive his disgust...
  • MARKED by DARKNESS: Gripping, psychological serial killer adventure thriller by Dawn Merriman

    MARKED by DARKNESS: Gripping, psychological serial killer adventure thriller by Dawn Merriman

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    A gritty and raw serial killer thriller with hints of the supernatural. . Two years ago, Detective Maribeth Johansen’s family was murdered by the killer she hunted. Maribeth now lives alone in the woods with her grief, the ghosts of her family in her mind.
    Categorized as:
    amateur-sleuth  crime  female-mc  ghosts  suspense  book  comedy  cozy
  • The Evil That Was Done by Michele Pariza Wacek

    The Evil That Was Done by Michele Pariza Wacek

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    The shocking conclusion to the award-winning Secrets of Redemption series. It’s happening again—people are disappearing. And just like before, the finger is pointed at Becca. She knows how it looks … and that she’s being set up. Someone is following her. Sneaking into her house. Planting evidence to make her look guilty. The problem is, she has no idea why...
  • The Lost Soul of the City by Dean Koontz

    The Lost Soul of the City by Dean Koontz

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    A gun. A mission. No memories. Nameless is back to hunt down an architect of chaos in #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz’s return to a landscape of hard-won justice.In a forgotten Cold War bunker, a cold-blooded arms dealer counts his cash and watches from a distance as cities collapse into violence...
  • Find Me by Anne Frasier

    Find Me by Anne Frasier

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    Convicted serial killer Benjamin Fisher has finally offered to lead San Bernardino detective Daniel Ellis to the isolated graves of his victims. One catch: he’ll only do it if FBI profiler Reni Fisher, his estranged daughter, accompanies them. As hard as it is to exhume her traumatic childhood, Reni can’t say no. She still feels complicit in her father’s crimes...
  • His Garden of Bones by Vickie McKeehan

    His Garden of Bones by Vickie McKeehan

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Not all flowers are grown with love. Years earlier, teenage girls began to vanish off the streets of Seattle. Now, they're turning up dead, their mutilated bodies left in prominent locations around the city. Skye Cree suspects there are more...
    Categorized as:
    crime  female-mc  suspense  thriller  adult  book  fiction  mystery
  • The Secrets of the Shadows by Helen Phifer

    The Secrets of the Shadows by Helen Phifer

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Sophie 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...
  • Spider's Truth by Christa Yelich-Koth

    Spider's Truth by Christa Yelich-Koth

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    A psychological detective thriller.Some people can’t let go of a grudge. Homicide Detective Sean Trann is learning this the hard way. He made the mistake of interrupting the killing spree of Boston’s most notorious serial killer, Spider. Intent on finishing what he started and infuriated at Sean’s previous involvement, Spider has decided to use those closest to Sean as pieces in his twisted game...
  • Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner

    Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    A 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...
  • Remnants by Carolyn Arnold

    Remnants by Carolyn Arnold

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Savannah, Georgia used to be a tranquil tourist destination—until human body parts started floating down the river.FBI Agent Brandon Fisher trusts his team with his life—or at least he did. It’s only been six months since Brandon’s boss almost died at the hands of a serial killer when the team is called to Savannah, Georgia...
  • Retribution by C.M. Sutter

    Retribution by C.M. Sutter

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    The violent drug-related murders of two prominent attorneys have the homicide division of the Chicago Police Department scrambling for answers, but without clues, a motive, or a suspect, not even the FBI can track down the killer...
  • The Mercy of Snakes by Dean Koontz

    The Mercy of Snakes by Dean Koontz

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    A series of suspicious deaths in a retirement home draws Nameless into the confidence of a terrified former resident—and into the dark heart of a shocking conspiracy. In part five of the Nameless series, it’s time to hunt.Oakshore Park is Michigan’s most exclusive assisted-living community. Presided over by two killer angels of mercy, it’s also the go-to facility in assisted dying...
  • End of Watch by Stephen King

    End of Watch by Stephen King

    Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    The spectacular finale to the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with Mr. Mercedes (winner of the Edgar Award) and Finders Keepers—In End of Watch, the diabolical “Mercedes Killer” drives his enemies to suicide, and if Bill Hodges and Holly Gibney don’t figure out a way to stop him, they’ll be victims themselves...
  • Stranger Still by Michaelbrent Collings

    Stranger Still by Michaelbrent Collings

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Your sins are Legion… and now you belong to him.Legion is a teacher. An avenging angel. A murderer. A madman. Born in the blood of a dying mother, raised in the underground lair of an insane father, he travels the world looking for those who keep secrets and sins. He finds those who have fallen short, and teaches them the lessons they need to leave their mistakes behind...
  • Inside Voices: A captivating mystery with a touch of romance by Sarah Davis

    Inside Voices: A captivating mystery with a touch of romance by Sarah Davis

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    The mind is a strange beast…extraordinary, unpredictable, protective.Penny Osborn’s mind is no exception. In High School, Penny witnessed a massacre and lost her father to the same killers. She had seen it unfold before it happened, in a premonition, but could not prevent it.A college research project at the edge of the Arctic is her chance for a new beginning...
  • The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

    The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie...
  • The Haunting of Rachel Harroway by J.S. Donovan

    The Haunting of Rachel Harroway by J.S. Donovan

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    In 1983, a family of four was murdered in their nineteenth century Queen Anne manse. There were no witnesses, no real investigation, and no survivors. The discovery of a serial killer's burial ground rocks the peaceful town of Highlands, North Carolina. Rachel Harroway, a tragic detective with the ability to see the dead, and her brilliant atheistic partner, Jenson Peak, are put on the case...
  • Emma Frost Mystery Series: Vol 1-3 by Willow Rose

    Emma Frost Mystery Series: Vol 1-3 by Willow Rose

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    3 Bone-chilling tales from a Bestselling Author. Sold more than 200.000 copies ˃˃˃ ITSY BITSY SPIDER (Emma Frost #1): Emma Frost inherits a house on Fanoe Island when her grandmother dies. She decides to move there with her family, much to her teenage daughter's regret...
  • The Box of Bones by Vickie McKeehan

    The Box of Bones by Vickie McKeehan

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    As a brutal killer descends into madness, can Skye end his reign of terror before it's too late? A motivated killer with the charm and good looks of Bundy and the cruelty of Dahmer works his craft with cunning skill. When he decides he's fed up with going unnoticed, he reaches out to Skye in a big way...
    Categorized as:
    crime  female-mc  suspense  adult  book  drama  female-author  fiction
  • Mourning Gloria by Andrew Downs

    Mourning Gloria by Andrew Downs

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    When a murder suspect escapes indictment on a technicality, Agent Leah Hudson is forced to shift her focus to a new task, a cold case. Five years after Gloria Stone disappears, Hudson must piece together the final days of her life, but Gloria was no ordinary girl...
  • In the Heart of the Fire by Dean Koontz

    In the Heart of the Fire by Dean Koontz

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 31 ratings
    A bloodthirsty sheriff is terrorizing a small Texas town where justice has been buried with his victims. Until Nameless arrives—a vigilante whose past is a mystery and whose future is written in blood.Anyone who crosses Sheriff Russell Soakes is dead, missing, or warned. One of them is a single mother trying to protect her children but bracing herself for the worst. Nameless fears the outcome...
  • Worth Dying For by Rita Herron

    Worth Dying For by Rita Herron

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    One man wants to kill her the other will die to protect her. Just when the residents of Slaughter Creek think they're safe, a sadistic serial killer strikes. Someone they're calling The Dissector. Someone who keeps his victims' body parts as gruesome trophies. Special Agent Liz Lucas has been on leave, recovering from the trauma of her last case...
    Categorized as:
    crime  female-mc  suspense  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary  dark
  • The Lost Children by Helen Phifer

    The Lost Children by Helen Phifer

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Lizzy pulled the covers over her head. Then she realised what was being dragged behind the person with the torch. She rammed her fist into her mouth to stop herself from screaming…For decades, The Moore Asylum was home to the forgotten children of Brooklyn Bay. But ever since a scandal forced its closure, the abandoned building has cast an imposing shadow...
  • Come with Me by Ronald Malfi

    Come with Me by Ronald Malfi

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    A masterful, heart-palpitating novel of small-town horror and psychological dread from a Bram Stoker nominee.Aaron Decker's life changes one December morning when his wife Allison is killed. Haunted by her absence--and her ghost--Aaron goes through her belongings, where he finds a receipt for a motel room in another part of the country...
    Categorized as:
    crime  ghosts  suspense  thriller  adult  audiobook  book  contemporary
  • Before She Dies by Mary Burton

    Before She Dies by Mary Burton

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    "Will have readers sleeping with the lights on." —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)HE IS THEIR JUDGE... In death, they are purified. Holding his victims under water, he washes away their sins as they struggle for their last breath. Then he stakes their bodies to the ground, exposing them for what they really are. Witches, sent to tempt and to corrupt... JURY..
  • An Aura of Mystery by Joy Ellis

    An Aura of Mystery by Joy Ellis

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    The newly discovered novel from multi-million-selling author Joy Ellis. Never-before published!Flower shop owner Ellie McEwan is driving home late one frosty November night when a shadowy figure leaps into the road out of nowhere. Ellie swerves to avoid him — and slams head-on into the crash barrier.Days later, Ellie wakes up in hospital — and notices there’s something different...
  • Angel Killer by Andrew Mayne

    Angel Killer by Andrew Mayne

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    In this self-published bestselling e-book by a real illusionist—the first thriller in a sensational series—now available in paperback, FBI agent Jessica Blackwood believes she has successfully left her complicated life as a gifted magician behind her . . . until a killer with seemingly supernatural powers puts her talents to the ultimate test...
  • Wolf by Mo Hayder, Jot Davies

    Wolf by Mo Hayder, Jot Davies

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    When a vagrant - the Walking Man - finds a dog wandering alone with the words “HELP US” written on its collar, he’s sure it’s a desperate plea from someone in trouble and calls on Detective Inspector Jack Caffery to investigate. Caffery has no idea who or what he is searching for, but one thing he is sure of: it's a race against time...
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