Books like 'Cruel Summer'

Readers who enjoyed Cruel Summer by Juno Dawson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  mystery  horror  thriller  lgbtq  crime  season-summer  suspense  poc-mc  law-enforcement

  • Genesis by Chris Carter

    Genesis by Chris Carter

    Rated: 4.61 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    A killing like no other.A killer more twisted than he’s ever seen before.A case that will test him to the limit. Has Robert Hunter finally met his match?‘Do you believe the Devil exists, Detective?’ the officer at the end of the line asks. ‘Because if you don’t . . . I’m sure you will once you get here.’ Robert Hunter is called to the most vicious crime scene he has ever attended...
  • An Evil Mind by Chris Carter

    An Evil Mind by Chris Carter

    Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    A freak accident in rural Wyoming leads the Sheriff's Department to arrest a man for a possible double homicide, but further investigations suggest a much more horrifying discovery - a serial killer who has been kidnapping, torturing and mutilating victims all over the United States for at least twenty-five years...
  • One by One by Chris Carter

    One by One by Chris Carter

    Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    'I need your help, Detective. Fire or water?' Detective Robert Hunter of the LAPD's Homicide Special Section receives an anonymous call asking him to go to a specific web address - a private broadcast. Hunter logs on and a show devised for his eyes only immediately begins. But the caller doesn't want Detective Hunter to just watch, he wants him to participate, and refusal is simply not an option...
  • The Sixth Wicked Child by J.D. Barker

    The Sixth Wicked Child by J.D. Barker

    Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    In the riveting conclusion of the 4MK trilogy, Barker takes the thriller to an entirely new level. Hear No Evil For Detective Sam Porter, the words “Father, forgive me” conjure memories long forgotten; a past intentionally buried. For Anson Bishop, these three words connect a childhood to the present as he unleashes a truth concealed for decades...
  • Hunting Evil by Chris Carter

    Hunting Evil by Chris Carter

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    'Every story one day comes to an end.' As roommates, they met for the first time in college. Two of the brightest minds ever to graduate from Stamford Psychology University. As adversaries, they met again in Quantico, Virginia. Robert Hunter had become the head of the LAPD’s Ultra Violent Crimes Unit...
  • I Am Death by Chris Carter

    I Am Death by Chris Carter

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    AN EVIL MIND was Chris Carters's most acclaimed novel to date, described by the Daily mail as: 'A chilling, compulsive portrait of a psychopath, and proves that Carter is now in the Jeffrey Deaver class.' It spent three weeks in the Sunday Timestop ten and received brillant reviews and sales. This terrifying new standalone thriller reunites Hunter and Garcia in their most explosive case to date...
  • The Caller by Chris Carter

    The Caller by Chris Carter

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    Don't miss GENESIS, the latest must-read serial killer thriller from master of the genre, Chris Carter. Available to order now.THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLERBe careful before answering your next call. It could be the beginning of your worst nightmare.After a tough week, Tanya Kaitlin is looking forward to a relaxing night in, but as she steps out of her shower, she hears her phone ring...
  • The Puppet Show by M.W. Craven

    The Puppet Show by M.W. Craven

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    An alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.A serial killer is burning people alive in the Lake District's prehistoric stone circles. He leaves no clues and the police are helpless. When his name is found carved into the charred remains of the third victim, disgraced detective Washington Poe is brought back from suspension and into an investigation he wants no part of . .
  • Written in Blood by Chris Carter

    Written in Blood by Chris Carter

    Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    Don't miss GENESIS, the latest must-read serial killer thriller from master of the genre, Chris Carter. Available to order now. ‘Wonderful storytelling, with a superbly drawn killer, it underlines exactly how good Carter has become’ Daily MailTHE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER    A serial killer who will stop at nothing…  The Killer His most valuable possession has been stolen...
  • Runaway by Martina Cole

    Runaway by Martina Cole

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Book by Cole,...
  • Vražedná lhůta by Andreas Gruber

    Vražedná lhůta by Andreas Gruber

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Když do 48 hodin zjistíte, proč jsem tu ženu unesl, zůstane naživu. Pokud ne, zemře.Tímto poselstvím začíná perverzní hra sériového vraha. Nechává své oběti vyhladovět, utopit v inkoustu nebo je zaživa zalije do betonu. Mnichovská komisařka Sabine Nemezová zoufale hledá nějaké vysvětlení, motiv...
  • Der Insasse by Sebastian Fitzek

    Der Insasse by Sebastian Fitzek

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Vor einem Jahr verschwand der kleine Max Berghoff.Nur der Täter weiß, was mit ihm geschah.Doch der sitzt im Hochsicherheitstrakt der Psychiatrie und schweigt.Max' Vater bleibt nur ein Weg, um endlich Gewissheit zu haben: Er muss selbst zum Insassen werden.Der InsasseUm die Wahrheit zu finden, muss er seinen Verstand verlieren...
  • The Lucky Ones by Mark Edwards

    The Lucky Ones by Mark Edwards

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    It was the happiest day of her life. Little did she know it was also the last.When a woman’s body is found in the grounds of a ruined priory, Detective Imogen Evans realises she is dealing with a serial killer—a killer whose victims appear to die in a state of bliss, eyes open, smiles forever frozen on their faces.A few miles away, single dad Ben Hofland believes his fortunes are changing at last...
  • The Crucifix Killer by Chris Carter

    The Crucifix Killer by Chris Carter

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 29 ratings
    *Don't miss GENESIS, the next instalment in the compulsive Robert Hunter series from Sunday Times number one bestselling author of WRITTEN IN BLOOD - available to pre-order now!*When the body of a young woman is discovered in a derelict cottage in Los Angeles, Robert Hunter is thrown into a nightmare case...
  • If Angels Fall by Rick Mofina

    If Angels Fall by Rick Mofina

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    In the bestselling tradition of Jonathan Kellerman and Mary Higgins Clark, comes this powerful psychological thriller from newcomer Rick Mofina. "If Angels Fall" is the story of a man beset by tragedy, who moves from mourning...to madness...to murder.There are some horrors a man can never forget. Sounds so chilling that they can never be silenced. The frantic screams of drowning children...
  • Little Boy Blue by M.J. Arlidge

    Little Boy Blue by M.J. Arlidge

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Detective Helen Grace faces her own dark compulsions in the twisty new thriller from the author of Pop Goes the Weasel and Eeny Meeny.In the darkest corners of the city, there is a thriving nightlife where people can let loose and cross the lines of work and play, of pleasure and pain. But now that sanctuary has been breached. A killer has struck and a man is dead...
  • Seven by Anthony Bruno

    Seven by Anthony Bruno

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Mismatched partner cops Somerset and Mills are on the trail of a psychotic murderer who intends to avenge the seven deadly sins, starting with gluttony...
  • Verses for the Dead by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

    Verses for the Dead by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 35 ratings
    In this #1 New York Times bestseller, FBI Agent Pendergast reluctantly teams up with a new partner to investigate a rash of Miami Beach murders . . . only to uncover a deadly conspiracy that spans decades.After an overhaul of leadership at the FBI's New York field office, A. X. L...
  • The Vanished Ones by Donato Carrisi

    The Vanished Ones by Donato Carrisi

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    We call them the sleepers...At the elite Missing Persons bureau of the Federal Police, Mila Vasquez is tasked with finding the hundreds of lost people who have vanished from their former lives. However, the longer they are gone, they more they are forgotten by the world. Now they are returning...
  • Liar Liar by M.J. Arlidge

    Liar Liar by M.J. Arlidge

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Detective Helen Grace gets caught in an inferno of death and destruction in the red-hot new thriller from the author of Eeny Meeny, Pop Goes the Weasel, and The Doll’s HouseDetective Helen Grace has never seen such destruction. Six fires in twenty-four hours. Two people dead. Several more injured. It’s as if someone wants to burn the city to the ground..
  • Please Tell Me by Mike Omer

    Please Tell Me by Mike Omer

    Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    After a year in captivity, a kidnapped child escapes―only to reveal horrific truths that lead her psychologist on a race against time...When eight-year-old Kathy Stone turns up on the side of the road a year after her abduction, the world awaits her harrowing story. But Kathy doesn’t say a word. Traumatized by her ordeal, she doesn’t speak at all, not even to her own parents...
  • The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

    The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective.Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying… yet enticing...
    Categorized as:
    crime  thriller  poc-mc  horror  fiction  contemporary  mystery  dark
  • The Longest Silence by Debra Webb

    The Longest Silence by Debra Webb

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    "The twists and turns in this dark, taut drama make it both creepy and compelling." -- New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry A killer stole her voice. Now she's ready to take it back. Don't miss the chilling Shades of Death series from USA TODAY bestselling author Debra Webb. Joanna Guthrie was free. She had been for eighteen years--or so she needed everyone to believe...
  • Stay Awake by Megan Goldin

    Stay Awake by Megan Goldin

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she’s dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers―a stranger who now lives in her apartment and forces her out in the cold. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing, and in its place is a bloodstained knife...
  • Hell's Half Acre by Will Christopher Baer

    Hell's Half Acre by Will Christopher Baer

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Kidnapping, snuff films, amputee geeks and a requiem of lost love.Cast adrift after the blood symphony of Penny Dreadful, Phineas Poe is looking for answers in the form of a woman. He tracks Jude to San Francisco, where he finds her involved with John Ransom Miller, a wealthy sociopath with a mysterious hold over her...
  • Le Manuscrit Inachevé by Franck Thilliez, Jean-Yves Berteloot

    Le Manuscrit Inachevé by Franck Thilliez, Jean-Yves Berteloot

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Aux alentours de Grenoble, un jeune a fini sa trajectoire dans un ravin après une course-poursuite avec la douane. Dans son coffre, le corps d’une femme, les orbites vides, les mains coupées et rassemblées dans un sac...
  • Sleep Tight by Anne Frasier

    Sleep Tight by Anne Frasier

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    WAKE UP, LITTLE DARLING. DO YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE?He's looking for the perfect woman. Someone who won't disappoint him, like so many have before. Someone who'll love him ... someone who won't have to die for her mistakes.GIVE UP, LITTLE DARLING....FBI agent Mary Cantrell has been called to Minneapolis to hunt down a killer...
  • The Trial by Rob Rinder

    The Trial by Rob Rinder

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    An unputdownable murder mystery by Britain's best-loved criminal barrister Rob Rinder.ONE MURDER. ONE IMPOSSIBLE CASE. WHO IS GUILTY?When hero policeman Grant Cliveden dies from a poisoning in the Old Bailey, it threatens to shake the country to its core.The evidence points to one man. Jimmy Knight has been convicted of multiple offences before and defending him will be no easy task...
  • #NoEscape  (Volume 3) by Gretchen McNeil

    #NoEscape (Volume 3) by Gretchen McNeil

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    The #murder and mayhem continue in this prequel companion novel to the grisly, campy social media insanity that is #MurderTrending and #MurderFunding. Gretchen McNeil brings her signature wit and merciless kills to this gruesome yet hilarious, wildly topical young adult novel.Twenty years before Dee Guerra and the Death Row Breakfast Club took down The Postman and Alcatraz 2...
  • Three Strikes by Kate Kessler

    Three Strikes by Kate Kessler

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Three Strikes is the new novel in a thriller series where a criminal psychologist uses her own dark past to help law enforcement catch dangerous killers.Thanksgiving is approaching, and Audrey Harte has a lot to be thankful for -- her mother has recovered from surgery, her relationship with Jake is solid, her father is relatively sober, and her career is evolving in an exciting direction...
  • American Devil by Oliver Stark

    American Devil by Oliver Stark

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    A violent killer is stalking New York's streets, and the trophies he will take from his victims are essential if he is to complete his masterpiece. That he also likes playing games with the police and his pray is a bonus. He can outwit everyone he comes up against...
  • Wander in the Dark by Jumata Emill

    Wander in the Dark by Jumata Emill

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    In this new pulse-pounding thriller from the author of The Black Queen, two brothers must come together to solve the murder of the most popular girl in school after one of them is caught fleeing the scene of her death.Amir Trudeau only goes to his half brother Marcel’s birthday party because of Chloe Danvers...
  • Black for Remembrance by Carlene Thompson

    Black for Remembrance by Carlene Thompson

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Caroline Webb knows what it means to lose the person you love most. Twenty years ago, her five-year-old daughter, Hayley, was the light of her life, her treasure, her angle. Then came the terrible day when Hayley was kidnapped from her favorite swing. More than a month passed before her burned, lifeless body was found. All that remained was the silence of Caroline's heartache--and her guilt..
    Categorized as:
    crime  suspense  thriller  adult  book  contemporary  fiction  horror
  • Nailed by Joseph Flynn

    Nailed by Joseph Flynn

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Ron Ketchum saw his share of the dark side of life as a cop in Los Angeles. Then he left L.A. to become the chief of police in the Sierra Nevada resort town of Goldstrike. One sunny morning in the mountains, though, he comes upon a crime unlike anything he’s ever seen before. He finds the body of an African American man nailed to a tree...
  • White Russian by J.A. Konrath

    White Russian by J.A. Konrath

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Just when you get out...Former Chicago cop Jack Daniels thought she'd left her former life behind. She'd traded her badge for a toddler, and her lifelong pursuit of heinous serial killers for a boring house in the suburbs....they pull you back in.Then Jack sees some pictures. Pictures of men who were supposed to be dead...
  • All the Pretty Faces by Rita Herron

    All the Pretty Faces by Rita Herron

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Josie DuKane is on shaky ground. Having narrowly escaped the notorious Bride Killer, she penned a tell-all memoir that dug up a town’s dark past. Now the book is being made into a movie, and Josie must visit the very place that will trigger an avalanche of unwanted memories—Graveyard Falls...
  • A Snowball in Hell by Christopher Brookmyre

    A Snowball in Hell by Christopher Brookmyre

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Each society gets the serial killers it deserves...How sick are you of our vapid celebrity culture, reality TV shows and tawdry talent contests? Not as sick as Simon Darcourt—but let’s face it, nobody is as sick as Simon Darcourt...
  • Twelve by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

    Twelve by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Cassie Hobbes has been working with the FBI since she was a teenager. Now twenty-three years old, she and her fellow Naturals have taken over running the program that taught them everything they know. As a unit, they're responsible for identifying new Naturals--and solving particularly impossible cases...
  • The Girls He Adored by Jonathan Nasaw

    The Girls He Adored by Jonathan Nasaw

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    For ten years, the charmingly disheveled veteran FBI Special Agent E.L. Pender has been investigating the apparently random disappearances of a dozen women across the country. The only detail the cases have in common is the strawberry blond color of the victims' hair, and the presence of a mystery man with whom they were last seen...
  • The Doll Maker by Richard Montanari

    The Doll Maker by Richard Montanari

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Hardcover edition...
  • The Islanders by Caroline Mitchell

    The Islanders by Caroline Mitchell

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    She thinks the island will keep her safe—she is wrong.Traumatised by the death of a child in her care, top London paediatrician Claire seeks refuge on remote Selkie Island in the wilds of the Irish Sea with her husband Daniel and their baby daughter Kitty...
  • Broken Dolls by James Carol

    Broken Dolls by James Carol

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Jefferson Winter is no ordinary investigator.The son of one of America's most renowned serial killers, Winter has spent his life trying to distance himself from his father's legacy. Once a rising star at the FBI, he is now a freelance consultant, jetting around the globe helping local law enforcement agencies with difficult cases. He's not got Da Vinci's IQ, but he's pretty close...
  • Paranoia by Franck Thilliez

    Paranoia by Franck Thilliez

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Rare...
  • You're Family Now by Jack Stainton

    You're Family Now by Jack Stainton

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘ EPIC!! EPIC!! EPIC!! This book had EVERYTHING I love in a book!! ' Goodreads ReviewerHe only had to do one thing. Love her family…Matt Walker was a chancer; he’d spent his entire profession chasing the next job. His personal life took on a similar mantra; a succession of one-night stands and brief relationships. Life was slowly drifting him by...
  • Long Gone by Paul Pilkington

    Long Gone by Paul Pilkington

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    The brand new mystery series from the author of the bestselling Emma Holden Trilogy and Kindle Number One Someone to Save You...A missing girl... Natalie Long is missing. About to board a high speed train from London’s Paddington station, she has vanished without a trace.Just two days earlier, things were so different...
  • ASBO by Iain Rob Wright

    ASBO by Iain Rob Wright

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    YOUR FEAR IS THEIR ENTERTAINMENT...Andrew’s life is one of bored contentedness: a teenage daughter, a faithful wife, and a middle-class job. He even has a Mercedes. His life is without drama, and the comfort of middle-age is setting in.That all changes when he refuses to buy a pack of cigarettes for the local gang of youths...
  • Bones by Jan Burke

    Bones by Jan Burke

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Irene Kelley bets her life on a deal she makes with a serial killer in the novel that firmly ensconces [Burke] in the mystery pantheon with Patricia Cornwell, Sue Grafton, Robert B. Parker, and John Sandford...
  • Merciless by Richard Montanari

    Merciless by Richard Montanari

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Richard Montanari's The Echo Man.On a frigid December night, Karen sits at the edge of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River, dressed in a flowing gown, like a visitor from the distant past. A beautiful and shining young woman, she gazes up at a bone-white winter moon like a fairy-tale princess frozen in time...
  • Dead Guilty by Beverly Connor

    Dead Guilty by Beverly Connor

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    In Beverly Connor's absorbing series, the bones of the dead reveal the secrets of the living. In this latest investigation, forensic anthropologist Diane Fallon must lead a chilling excavation of a crime with harrowing implications: the murder of three people, hanged execution-style in an isolated patch of Georgia woods...
  • Down in the Zero by Andrew Vachss

    Down in the Zero by Andrew Vachss

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Andrew Vachss has reinvented detective fiction for an age in which guilty secrets are obsolete and murder isn't even worth a news headline. And in the person of his haunted, hell-ridden private eye Burke, Vachss has given us a new kind of hero: a man inured to every evil except the kind that preys on children...
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