Books like 'The Judas Goat'
Readers who enjoyed The Judas Goat by Robert B. Parker also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
mystery action / adventure thriller north-america usa massachusetts urban england law-enforcement crime
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The Investigator by John Sandford
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLetty Davenport, the brilliant and tenacious adopted daughter of Lucas Davenport, takes the investigative reins in the newest thriller from #1 bestselling author John Sandford.By age twenty-four, Letty Davenport has seen more action and uncovered more secrets than many law enforcement professionals...Categorized as:
crime investigator law-enforcement political-intrigue politics suspense terrorism thriller -
L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsRobert Crais (Free Fall, Monkey's Raincoat) returns with his eighth Elvis Cole mystery, L.A. Requiem, a breakneck caper that leaves the wise-cracking detective second-guessing himself. Cole's partner, the tight-lipped, charm-free Joe Pike, gets a call from his friend Frank "Tortilla" Garcia. Not only is Garcia a wealthy businessman, he's a political heavyweight and father of Karen, Joe's ex... -
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... -
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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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...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement noir suspense thriller action-adventure -
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 political-intrigue suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
The Lonely Silver Rain by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"Travis McGee is back in action and he is in fine, fine form....What a treat. It is John D. MacDonald's 21st Travies McGee book and, without reservaton, his best."THE SAN DIEGO TRIBUNESearching for a wealthy friend's yacht, Travis McGee puts himself square in the center of the international cocaine trade, and finds himself the target of some of the most ruthless villains he's ever met... -
The Lion by Nelson DeMille
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsIn this follow-up to The Lion's Game, John Corey, former NYPD Homicide detective and special agent for the Anti-Terrorist Task Force, is back. And, unfortunately for Corey, so is Asad Khalil, the notorious Libyan terrorist otherwise known as "The Lion... -
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... -
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...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled humor investigator law-enforcement noir political-intrigue thriller -
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...Categorized as:
crime investigator law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
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... -
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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... -
When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDowning a bourbon or two with a couple of cronies, Scudder witnesses a heist. The Morrisey brothers who run the joint are strangely submissive during the raid, but eager to see Scudder track down the thieves without involving the regular forces of law and order...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement noir political-intrigue politics suspense -
The Long Lavender Look by John D. MacDonald, Darren McGavin
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMcGee has become part of our national fabric." SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER A lovely young girl steps in front of Travis McGee's headlights. McGee misses the girl but lands in ten feet of swamp water. As he's limping along the deserted road, someone in an old truck takes a few shots at him... -
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... -
Wicked Prey by John Sandford, Richard Ferrone
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt's September 2008, and the Republicans have come to St. Paul, Minnesota, for their convention. For most of the delegates, guests, reporters, and locals, it's a festive event, an occasion for having a good time and experiencing a unique moment in history. For law enforcement officials, however, it offers a grab-bag of embarrassing dangers, from small-fry con men to major stickup artists...Categorized as:
crime investigator law-enforcement political-intrigue politics suspense thriller action-adventure -
Win by Harlan Coben
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsFrom a #1 New York Times bestselling author comes this thrilling story that shows what happens when a dead man's secrets fall into the hands of vigilante antihero—drawing him down a dangerous road.Over twenty years ago, the heiress Patricia Lockwood was abducted during a robbery of her family's estate, then locked inside an isolated cabin for months... -
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... -
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 President's Henchman by Joseph Flynn
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsAccording to the polls, it's only a matter of time - and not that long a time - before the United States elects its first female president. Which will make her husband - what? Well, if he's the ex-cop who solved the murder of the president's first husband and brought the killers to justice ... and if he's not the kind of guy to stand on formality ..Categorized as:
crime investigator political-intrigue politics suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
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...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement noir politics suspense action-adventure -
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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 investigator law-enforcement noir suspense thriller action-adventure -
Early Autumn by Robert B. Parker
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"[Robert B.] Parker's brilliance is in his simple dialogue, and in Spenser."--The Philadelphia InquirerA bitter divorce is only the beginning. First the father hires thugs to kidnap his son. Then the mother hires Spenser to get the boy back. But as soon as Spenser senses the lay of the land, he decides to do some kidnapping of his own... -
Stranger in Town by Cheryl Bradshaw
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHe only needed her to look away for a few seconds... Six-year-old Olivia Hathaway tiptoes down the center aisle of Maybelle's Market, stopping once to glance over her shoulder and make sure her mother isn't watching. But Mrs. Hathaway is too preoccupied to notice her daughter has slipped away. Moments later, a frantic Mrs...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled political-intrigue politics suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
Swan Peak by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsTrouble follows Dave Robicheaux.James Lee Burke's new novel, "Swan Peak," finds Detective Robicheaux far from his New Iberia roots, attempting to relax in the untouched wilderness of rural Montana... -
Blind Eye by Stuart MacBride
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe first thriller in the No.1 bestselling DS Logan McRae series. Nothing keeps a crime hidden like fear… ‘Stuart MacBride’s thrillers just keep getting better’ Express ‘You can’t be an eyewitness if I cut out your eyes…’ Someone’s preying on Aberdeen’s growing Polish population... -
Cinnamon Skin by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen Travis McGee's friend Meyer lent his boat to his niece Norma, and her new husband Even, the boat exploded out in the waters of the Florida Keys. Travis McGee thinks it's no accident, and clues lead him to ponder possibilities of drugs and also to wonder where Evan was when his wife was killed...."Proves again that MacDonald keeps getting better with each new adventure... -
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...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement noir suspense thriller action-adventure -
Someone to Watch Over Me by Ace Atkins
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn this next thriller in the New York Times-bestselling Parker series, Spenser and his new apprentice trace the murder of a young woman to an international crime ring that has been operating with impunity because of the powerful and highly connected billionaire at its helm...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled humor investigator law-enforcement massachusetts north-america political-intrigue -
Hidden Prey by John Sandford, Eric Conger
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen a Russian sailor is found shot to death on the shore of Lake Superior, everyone has a theory: the local authorities, the FBI, even a female cop flown in from Russia. Lucas Davenport has a theory too - the right one - and it's putting him in more peril than he's ever faced before...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement political-intrigue politics suspense thriller -
Robert B. Parker's Killing The Blues by Michael Brandman, Robert B. Parker
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsParadise, Massachusetts, is gearing up for the summer season when a spate of car thefts places its tourist-friendly reputation in jeopardy. As the silver-tongued, heavy-handed police chief vows to put a stop to the activities, Jesse is forced to defend himself, his patch and - before long - his latest squeeze... -
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CODE NAME: GRIFFIN by Morgan Hannah MacDonald
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLike a viper, she strikes when you least expect it. She’s the deadliest operative the CIA has ever known. Alexandria Kingston is The Griffin. SHE’S BEAUTIFUL After graduating from The Farm in Langley, Virginia, she’s banished from the only family she’d ever known... -
House Arrest by Mike Lawson
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the thirteenth book in Mike Lawson’s celebrated series, Joe DeMarco finds himself on the wrong side of an investigation—in the wake of a political assassination, he’s been framed as the killer.As the fixer for Congressman John Mahoney in Washington, D.C., Joe DeMarco has had to bend and break the law more than a few times...Categorized as:
crime humor law-enforcement political-intrigue politics suspense thriller action-adventure -
Last Ditch by G.M. Ford
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSeattle p.i. Leo Waterman knows the city like no one else. And he knows how to stretch the limits of the law, when necessary, to accomplish what needs to be done--a very useful talent Leo acquired from his late, larger-than-life father, once one of the region's most powerful and colorful political characters...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled humor investigator law-enforcement suspense action-adventure adult -
Terminal Rage by A.M. Khalifa
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn this critically acclaimed and bestselling international thriller, FBI hostage-negotiator Alexander Blackwell is dragged out of a dishonorable retirement to negotiate with a terrorist leader who has taken hostages in a Manhattan skyscraper...Categorized as:
crime political-intrigue politics suspense terrorism thriller action-adventure adult -
The Way We Die Now by Charles Willeford
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWhen Miami Homicide Detective Hoke Moseley receives an unexplained order to let his beard grow, he doesn't think much about it. He has too much going on at home, especially with a man he helped convict ten years before moving in across the street... -
She Wore Mourning by P.D. Workman
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA dead child.A mother deep in mourning.Private Investigator Zachary Goldman’s life isn’t all roses, but he tries to put his own shattered life behind him to investigate the death of five-year-old Declan Bond.Declan’s death has been ruled an accident, but his grandmother thinks there is more to it...Categorized as:
crime investigator law-enforcement north-america suspense usa thriller action-adventure -
Backflash by Richard Stark
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsParker's got a couple of rules that have helped keep him alive throughout his long career. One of those is never to work on a boat. But with a gambling boat cruising down the Hudson, stuffed to the gunwales with cash, Parker’s got a plan, a team, and a new rule: a shot at a big enough score makes any rule worth breaking... -
Take Down by James Swain
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom Book 1: Whoever says crime doesn’t pay isn’t doing it right. There are hundreds of casinos in Las Vegas, and Billy Cunningham knows how to rip off every one. His scams are a thing of beauty—so perfectly orchestrated that onlookers believe he and his crew are winning fair and square... -
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... -
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... -
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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...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement noir suspense thriller action-adventure -
The Dreadful Lemon Sky by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTravis McGee has been offered easy money by a longtime lady friend. But when she gets killed, McGee's got a boatload of mystery. Navigating his boat into troubled waters, he heads for the seamier side of Florida--where drug dealing, twisted sex, and corruption are easy to find--but murderous riddles are hard to solve... -
3:10 a.m. by Nick Pirog
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHenry Bins hasn't seen his mother in thirty years. She walked out when he was six and never looked back. Five years ago, Henry started looking for her. Now she’s been found. At the bottom of the Potomac River. Henry soon learns everything he thought he knew about his mother was a lie. And that maybe his condition wasn't the reason his mother left all those years ago...Categorized as:
crime humor law-enforcement political-intrigue politics suspense thriller action-adventure -
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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