Books like 'The Dead Stay Dumb'
Readers who enjoyed The Dead Stay Dumb by James Hadley Chase also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
thriller noir pulp crime law-enforcement hard-boiled organized-crime
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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... -
![In Cold Blood by Caroline Mitchell]()
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 crime noir fiction suspense police-procedural serial-killers -
![Death in Dexter by Blake Banner]()
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... -
![Bury Them Deep: Inspector McLean Book 10 by James Oswald]()
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... -
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![Dead and Buried: A Scottish Detective Mystery by John Carson]()
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... -
![The Pain of Strangers: Killing Them Since 1987 by Andrew Barrett]()
The Pain of Strangers: Killing Them Since 1987 by Andrew Barrett
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen damaged people reach positions of power, there is no hope for the innocent. In 1987, Norton Bailey became known as the Madman of Mabgate. A damaged person in a position of power, he built a machine to take care of his problems and used money as bait. CSI Eddie Collins is feeling alone and adrift. Even work is unreliable and tense, and brings conflict with bad people... -
![Beautiful Prey 5: The Storm Series - BWWM Romance by Phoenix Daniels]()
Beautiful Prey 5: The Storm Series - BWWM Romance by Phoenix Daniels
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratings... -
![Never Too Late by Sally Rigby]()
Never Too Late by Sally Rigby
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA vicious attack. A dirty secret. And a chance for justiceEx-police officer Sebastian Clifford is quickly finding that life as a private investigator is never quiet. His doors have only been open a few weeks when DCI Whitney Walker approaches him to investigate the brutal attack that left her older brother, Rob, with irreversible brain damage... -
![The Final Vow by B.J. Alpha]()
The Final Vow by B.J. Alpha
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe day has finally arrived.After waiting what feels like a lifetime, will Con finally get the wedding of his dreams?Inviting prominent Mafia families together can only mean one thing … Drama.What's a wedding without it?Do all the O'Connell brothers get their happily ever after?With so much more set to be revealed, prepare to be taken on a journey of Secrets and Lies... -
![Hey You, Pretty Face by Linda Coles]()
Hey You, Pretty Face by Linda Coles
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAn abandoned baby. Three girls stolen in the night. Two connected cases?London, Winter, 1999. When an abandoned newborn baby is discovered, DC Jack Rutherford becomes involved.Covering the holiday period almost singlehandedly, resources are at breaking point and he’s pushed to his limit...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement hard-boiled thriller mystery fiction psychological police-procedural -
![Purppuraverkko by Carmen Mola]()
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... -
![Bad Blood by Casey Kelleher]()
Bad Blood by Casey Kelleher
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBlood makes you related. Loyalty makes you family.In the underbelly of Soho’s organised crime ring, everyone knows that retired boxer Harry Woods is not one to mess with. And that goes double for his family.Harry has it all: the big house, the flashy cars, and an abundance of wealth. As much as money talks in his world, Harry knows deep down the only thing that really counts is family... -
![Bună seara, Melania! by Rodica Ojog-Braşoveanu]()
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 Mobster's Lament by Ray Celestin]()
The Mobster's Lament by Ray Celestin
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLike every other mobster, the longer he stayed in the life, the closer he got to a shallow grave . . . New York, 1947. Mob fixer Gabriel Leveson needs to leave this city behind. But his plans to flee are upset when he’s given a job by the boss of all bosses, Frank Costello. A job he can’t turn down . . . Meanwhile, a killing spree in a Harlem flophouse has left an innocent black man on Death Row...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement thriller organized-crime noir hard-boiled historical-fiction mystery -
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![Consummatum est by César Pérez Gellida]()
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![Beyond Good & Evil by L.T. Vargus, Tim McBain]()
Beyond Good & Evil by L.T. Vargus, Tim McBain
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHe slips through the unlocked window. Creeps down the hall. A shadow standing in the bedroom doorway. Will you wake when death comes ripping? A string of brutal home invasion murders terrifies Dade County Florida. The killer strikes in the dead of the night, savages innocent people in their beds, wipes out entire families. Skewering them with his blade. Butchering them beyond recognition. Raw... -
![Born in a Burial Gown by M.W. Craven]()
Born in a Burial Gown by M.W. Craven
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDetective Inspector Avison Fluke is a man on the edge. He has committed a crime to get back to work, concealed a debilitating illness and is about to be made homeless. Just as he thinks things can’t get any worse, the body of a young woman is found buried on a wet, Cumbrian building site. Shot once in the back of the head, execution style, it is a cold, calculated murder... -
![Ice Into Ashes by John Carson]()
Ice Into Ashes by John Carson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTime is a healer….unless you’re the one doing the killing…DCI James Craig is heading home to Fife for a family funeral after the discovery of his wife's uncle's lifeless body at home, having fallen down the stairs. The incident was classified as a Sudden Death, attributing it to the man's advanced age and fragility. Case officially closed... -
![Last Dance by Sheldon Siegel]()
Last Dance by Sheldon Siegel
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAmid the pulsating beats of an upscale strip club in San Francisco's historic North Beach, a chilling crime unfolds. Ex-cop César Ochoa stands accused of brutally stabbing the club's star dancer, Chloe Carson. The evidence is damning, but César maintains his innocence.In a desperate bid for justice, César turns to Public Defenders Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez... -
![Jo Nesbø Collection 3 Books Set: The Redbreast, Nemesis, The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbø]()
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... -
![Vecchie conoscenze by Antonio Manzini]()
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]()
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... -
![Brick by Conrad Jones]()
Brick by Conrad Jones
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA hard-boiled and utterly gripping crime thriller from a best-selling author When a teenager is the victim of an unprovoked attack while walking his dog, a murder investigation begins. A cruel twist of fate makes his innocent family the targets of a vicious campaign of terror... -
![L'ultimo traghetto by Domingo Villar, Federico Zanandrea]()
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... -
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![Hunting Delilah by Anne Baines]()
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... -
![Wicked Secret by Valerie Keogh]()
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... -
![De test by Michael Hjorth]()
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... -
![Buried in Secret by Viveca Sten]()
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]()
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 Killer by M.Z. Kelly]()
Hollywood Killer by M.Z. Kelly
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHOLLYWOOD KILLER – A HOLLYWOOD ALPHABET SERIES THRILLER Just when LAPD Detective Kate Sexton thinks maybe she’s finally found the man of her dreams, she gets a call that will turn her world upside down. Kate learns that the family of the high-profile host of the TV show Hollywood Nation has been murdered... -
![Hollywood Lust by M.Z. Kelly]()
Hollywood Lust by M.Z. Kelly
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHollywood Lust, the twelfth book in the Hollywood Alphabet Thriller Series, is a high-octane thrill ride that’s three mysteries rolled into one. While Kate tries to untangle a deep mystery that’s at the center of her family life, she and her canine partner Bernie work with cold case Detective Leo Kingsley to try and solve a ten-year-old murder that’s tied to the current homicide of a young woman... -
![Hollywood Jury by M.Z. Kelly]()
Hollywood Jury by M.Z. Kelly
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHollywood Jury, the tenth book in the Hollywood Alphabet Series Thrillers, finds Detective Kate Sexton and her canine partner Bernie continuing their assignment in Section One, an elite homicide unit that works out of Hollywood Station. Kate’s job quickly becomes more stressful than she could ever imagine when a deranged serial killer begins a murderous spree on college campuses... -
![Hollywood Intrigue by M.Z. Kelly]()
Hollywood Intrigue by M.Z. Kelly
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLAPD Detective Kate Sexton and her canine partner Bernie are back, along with hard-headed FBI agent Joe Dawson, in Hollywood Intrigue, the ninth book in the Hollywood Alphabet Series Thrillers. It’s a new year and a new start for Detective Kate Sexton... -
![The Silence at Mystery Bay by D.D. Black]()
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... -
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![Kamer 19 by Marc Raabe]()
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... -
![Fortuitous Justice by Dennis Carstens]()
Fortuitous Justice by Dennis Carstens
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWHEN THEY THROW THE BOOKAT YOU, WHO YOU GONNA CALL? You’d better call top Minneapolis criminal defense attorney Marc Kadella.Fixer Burt Chayson had well and truly fixed it this time. About to be charged in a vote-buying scandal, he was overheard declaring that if he went down, he’d take some people with him... -
![Sharko by Franck Thilliez]()
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 Man Burned by Winter by Pete Zacharias]()
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... -
![Everybody Dies by Lawrence Block]()
Everybody Dies by Lawrence Block
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn his 14th adventure, Matthew Scudder, signs up to help his closest and most unlikely friend, the larger-than-life Hell's Kitchen hoodlum Mick Ballou -- and soon finds himself living in a world where the past is a mine field, the present is a war zone, and the future's an open question... -
![Cinnamon Skin by John D. MacDonald]()
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...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement noir organized-crime pulp thriller action-adventure -
![Redemption Lake by Susan Clayton-Goldner]()
Redemption Lake by Susan Clayton-Goldner
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTucson, Arizona – Eighteen-year-old Matt Garrison is harboring two terrible secrets: his involvement in the drowning death of his 12-year-old cousin, and a night of drunken sex with his best friend’s mother, Crystal, whom he finds dead in a bathtub of blood. Guilt forces Matt to act on impulse and hide his involvement with Crystal.Detective Winston Radhauser knows Matt is hiding something... -
![No Way Out by D.C. Brockwell]()
No Way Out by D.C. Brockwell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhat would you do if you woke up in a strange room, strapped to a bed?This is exactly the predicament Daniel Rose finds himself in.He is soon introduced to a beautiful, intimidating woman who calls herself the Queen Bee, and refers to Danny as one of her workers... -
![De Engelenmoord by Bjorn Van den Eynde]()
De Engelenmoord by Bjorn Van den Eynde
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEen wervelende zoektocht door België met een Vlaams-Waals duo.De achttienjarige Julie Dumoulin wordt de keel afgesneden met een stuk vinylplaat van Angèle. Niet veel later wordt ook haar vriend dood teruggevonden, zijn handen afgezaagd en zijn mond volgepropt met rubber... -
![Below Zero by Eva Hudson]()
Below Zero by Eva Hudson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe fifth adventure in Eva Hudson's enormously popular Ingrid Skyberg Thriller seriesStockholm is under siege. A bomb has gone off, several high-profile people have been kidnapped, and the city is on lockdown. Unfortunately for Special Agent Ingrid Skyberg, everything is kicking off the day she arrives to complete a dangerous undercover assignment... -
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![The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps: The Best Crime Stories from the Pulps During Their Golden Age - The '20s, '30s & '40s by Otto Penzler]()
The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps: The Best Crime Stories from the Pulps During Their Golden Age - The '20s, '30s & '40s by Otto Penzler
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe biggest, the boldest, the most comprehensive collection of Pulp writing ever assembled. Weighing in at over a thousand pages, containing over forty-seven stories and two novels, this book is big baby, bigger and more powerful than a freight train—a bullet couldn’t pass through it... -
![Shella by Andrew Vachss]()
Shella by Andrew Vachss
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the author of the acclaimed Burke private-eye series comes an ambitious and chilling novel that shows us not only what evil is, but where it comes from. For Shella is nothing less than a tour of evil's spawning ground, conducted by one of its natural predators... -
![No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker]()
No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAfter serving an eight-year term in Folsom State Prison, Max Dembo is determined not to return to his former way of life, in a realistic, suspenseful study of the pressures facing ex-convicts as they attempt to negotiate the straight world. Reissue... -
![Dies irae by César Pérez Gellida]()
Dies irae by César Pérez Gellida
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsDespués de Memento mori... ha llegado el día de la ira.La acción de este thriller implacable arranca en la peculiar ciudad italiana de Trieste, frontera entre dos mundos. Augusto Ledesma elige el que fuera hogar de James Joyce como primer escenario para continuar su siniestra obra, que alimenta del aliento de sus víctimas y de la humillación de sus perseguidores... -
![The Scarlet Ruse by John D. MacDonald]()
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... -
![California Fire and Life by Don Winslow]()
California Fire and Life by Don Winslow
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsInsurance claims investigator Jack Wade knows that the woman who died in a suspicious fire in her multimillion-dollar mansion overlooking the Pacific was murdered. Jack could turn away from the case, but he won't because some old scores need to be settled. So Jack takes the plunge into a world of crime, ambition, and evil...
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