Books like 'Runaway'

Readers who enjoyed Runaway by Martina Cole also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  mystery  horror  thriller  crime  drama  suspense  hard-boiled  female-mc  law-enforcement 

  • Missing Angel by Roger Stelljes

    Missing Angel by Roger Stelljes

    Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Isabella pedals her bright red bike on the familiar route home, admiring her charm bracelet catching the light. But half an hour later, she is nowhere to be seen. All her frantic parents find is an angel-shaped charm discarded on the sidewalk…When twelve-year-old Isabella Farner disappears, Agent Tori Hunter races to the scene...
  • Such a Good Girl by Willow Rose

    Such a Good Girl by Willow Rose

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    FBI-profiler Eva Rae Thomas faces a devious plan in bestselling author Willow Rose’s blood-rushing thriller of murder and revenge.A girl falls from the penthouse floor of an apartment in Washington, D.C.Media Mogul Richard Wanton owns the apartment and is seen standing on the balcony when the girl falls...
  • Our Stolen Pieces by James Hunt

    Our Stolen Pieces by James Hunt

    Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    When the morning after a slumber party reveals two missing girls, a newly minted Detective and a young veteran are assigned the case. Recently partnered, the pair of detectives must set aside their troubled pasts to recover the pair of girls who may have been coerced by a stranger who had kidnapped before...
  • Play Dead by Angela Marsons

    Play Dead by Angela Marsons

    Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    The dead don't tell secrets... unless you listen. The girl's smashed-in face stared unseeing up to the blue sky, soil spilling out of her mouth. A hundred flies hovered above the bloodied mess. Westerley research facility is not for the faint-hearted. A 'body farm' investigating human decomposition, its inhabitants are corpses in various states of decay...
  • The Know by Martina Cole

    The Know by Martina Cole

    Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Joanie Brewer' s children meant the world to her. She'd do anything to protect them, even resorting to prostitution and petty crime in order to feed and clothe them. So when her beautiful teenage daughter is raped and murdered, only one thing will stop Joanie's pain - seeing her daughter's killer brought to justice. Joanie knows who he is and she'll do whatever it takes to nail him..
    Categorized as:
    crime  family  thriller  adult  book  contemporary  fiction  horror
  • 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...
  • Girl Next Door by Willow Rose

    Girl Next Door by Willow Rose

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    “We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere”-Ted BundyInspired by a true story.He came in the morning when they were still making lunches and getting ready for school and work. He killed them all. Mother, father, children. Brutally slaughtered them in the comfort of their own home.They called him the Monday Morning Killer...
  • Missed Connections by Alexandria Clarke

    Missed Connections by Alexandria Clarke

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    How far would you go for revenge? Veronica Bauer isn’t above homicide. Twelve years after a ruthless attack killed her mother and put her father in prison, she embarks on a mission to bring the real culprits to justice. As bodies start to drop, Detective Sheila Arden is assigned to the gruesome case, but she soon discovers that the truth is more complicated than she thought...
  • 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...
  • 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 . .
  • A Deadly Influence by Mike Omer

    A Deadly Influence by Mike Omer

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    Lieutenant Abby Mullen is no stranger to crisis. As the hostage negotiation instructor for the NYPD, she deals with worst-case scenarios every day. Nothing fazes her anymore.That all changes when she gets a call from Eden Fletcher, a fellow survivor of the infamous Wilcox cult. The two haven’t spoken since the night of a tragic, fiery massacre, when their paths diverged...
  • The Forgotten Cottage by Helen Phifer

    The Forgotten Cottage by Helen Phifer

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    The Forgotten Cottage, the eagerly-awaited and chillingly terrifying new book in Helen Phifer’s best-selling ‘Annie Graham’ series. Annie Graham has fought her demons, and is ready to leave them behind. Her new cottage seems like the new start she’s craved: quiet and quaint, it’s empty of the memories which have haunted her for so long...
  • Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein

    Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    We don’t pick and choose what to be afraid of. Our fears pick us.Tash Carmody has been traumatised since childhood, when she witnessed her gruesome imaginary friend Sparrow lure young Mallory Fisher away from a carnival. At the time nobody believed Tash, and she has since come to accept that Sparrow wasn’t real. Now fifteen and mute, Mallory’s never spoken about the week she went missing...
  • See No Evil by Allison Brennan

    See No Evil by Allison Brennan

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    A cunning killer hides in plain sight.A troubled teenage girl has been charged with the grisly murder of her stepfather. The evidence is damning: Emily was found alone at the scene with blood on her hands, and an incriminating e-mail she wrote outlines a murder plot identical to the method of the brutal slaying...
  • What Hurts the Most by Willow Rose

    What Hurts the Most by Willow Rose

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    ASIN B018A097LO moved to the most recent edition hereYou will never guess the ending!Am I pretty? Imagine being asked that question standing face to face with a killer. What would you answer? While her life is going from bad to worse, journalist Mary Mills receives a phone call from her father telling her that her brother has been arrested for murder...
  • The Dark Corners of the Night by Meg Gardiner, Hillary Huber

    The Dark Corners of the Night by Meg Gardiner, Hillary Huber

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Listening Length: 11 hours and 45 minutesI am the legion of the night …He appears in the darkness like a ghost, made of shadows and fear—the Midnight Man. He comes for the parents but leaves the children alive, tiny witnesses to unspeakable horror. The bedroom communities of Los Angeles are gripped with dread, and the attacks are escalating...
  • The Deepest of Secrets by Kelley Armstrong, Thérèse Plummer

    The Deepest of Secrets by Kelley Armstrong, Thérèse Plummer

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Number one New York Times best seller Kelley Armstrong returns to the captivating town of Rockton in The Deepest of Secrets, the next installment in one of the most imaginative crime series on shelves today. It’s not always easy to live in the hidden town of Rockton, something Detective Casey Duncan knows firsthand...
  • The Last Party by A.R. Torre

    The Last Party by A.R. Torre

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    A loving mother. A notorious murderer. They both have reasons to hide their secrets in a novel of escalating shock and suspense by New York Times bestselling author A. R. Torre.Perla Wultz lives with her husband, Grant, and their precious daughter, Sophie, in a gated Pasadena community. Affluent, sociable, and accomplished, Perla plays the part of loving wife and mother to perfection...
  • 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..
  • Wall of Silence by Tracy Buchanan

    Wall of Silence by Tracy Buchanan

    Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    Her children have a deadly secret. Can she uncover it before the police do?Melissa Byatt’s life in Forest Grove seems as perfect as can be: a doting husband, three loving children and a beautiful house in a close-knit community. But appearances can be deceiving...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  female-mc  suspense  thriller  adult  audiobook
  • Home Is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose

    Home Is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 5 ratings
    From New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage and You Shouldn't Have Come Here, comes a chilling family thriller about the (sometimes literal) skeletons in the closet. After their mother passes, three estranged siblings reunite to sort out her estate. Beth, the oldest, never left home. She stayed with her mom, caring for her until the very end...
  • All of Us Are Broken by Fiona Cummins

    All of Us Are Broken by Fiona Cummins

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    It’s been a long time since the Hardwicke family has been on holiday. But thirteen-year-old Galen has wanted to see the wild dolphins at Scotland’s Chanonry Point for as long as she can remember, and her mother Christine – a lone parent since her beloved husband left – is determined she gets her wish. But their serene trip is about to be interrupted...
  • 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...
  • Tell Me You're Sorry by Kevin O'Brien

    Tell Me You're Sorry by Kevin O'Brien

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    First You'll Say You're SorryA family is wiped out after a burglary gone wrong. An executive accused of embezzling kills himself and his loved ones. A house fire claims the lives of all its inhabitants. Separate incidents with two common threads--a first wife who took her own life, and a secret the victims took to their graves. .
  • Rum Runner by J.A. Konrath

    Rum Runner by J.A. Konrath

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    COULD YOUR MARRIAGE SURVIVE FIFTY KILLERS? Twenty years ago, a young cop named Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels arrested one of the most sadistic killers she'd ever encountered. She has since retired from the Chicago Police Department in order to raise her toddler daughter.But old grudges never die. They fester until the right opportunity comes along...
  • Bloodline by F. Paul Wilson

    Bloodline by F. Paul Wilson

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Jack has been on hiatus since the events in Harbingers. With his lover Gia's encouragement he dips a toe back into the fix-it pool. Christy Pickering's eighteen-year-old daughter is dating Jerry Bethlehem, a man twice her age. Christy sensed something shady and sinister about him, so she hired a private investigator to look into his past. But the PI isn't returning her calls...
  • 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...
  • The Darker Side by Cody McFadyen

    The Darker Side by Cody McFadyen

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Everyone has a secret they don’t dare tell anyone.He’ll kill you for yours.Cody McFadyen has shocked even the most jaded suspense fans with Shadow Man and The Face of Death. Now comes a thriller that outdoes them all, featuring a psychopath on a perverse crusade of murder. And the one woman who can stop him has a secret that will change her from the hunter to the hunted...
  • 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...
  • Paranoid by Lisa Jackson

    Paranoid by Lisa Jackson

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson comes a new novel of nerve-jangling suspense as a woman haunted by guilt realizes that nothing can be trusted—not even her own memory … There are people in Edgewater, Oregon, who think that twenty years ago, Rachel Gaston got away with murder...
    Categorized as:
    crime  drama  family  suspense  thriller  adult  audiobook  book
  • Ich vergesse nie by John Marrs

    Ich vergesse nie by John Marrs

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 21 ratings
    She’s chasing a killer. He’s watching her every move.He hides in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment. Each kill is calculated, planned and executed like clockwork.Struggling to balance her personal and professional life, young DS Becca Vincent has landed the biggest case of her career—and she knows that it will make or break her. But she can’t catch the culprit alone...
  • The Bitter Season by Tami Hoag

    The Bitter Season by Tami Hoag

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    #1"New York Times "bestselling author Tami Hoag explores the devastating consequences of the secrets families keep in this powerful thriller. As the dreary, bitter weather of late fall descends on Minneapolis, Detective Nikki Liska is restless, already bored with her new assignment to the cold case squad...
  • Trespassing by Brandi Reeds

    Trespassing by Brandi Reeds

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    In a novel of mounting psychological suspense, a young mother follows a dangerous path to find her missing husband.Veronica Cavanaugh’s grasp on the world is slipping. Her latest round of fertility treatments not only failed but left her on edge and unbalanced. And her three-year-old daughter, Elizabella, has a new imaginary friend, who seems much more devilish than playful...
  • Ghost Ship by Clive Cussler, Graham Brown

    Ghost Ship by Clive Cussler, Graham Brown

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 29 ratings
    The dazzling new novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series from the grand master of adventure.   When Kurt Austin is injured attempting to rescue the passengers and crew from a sinking yacht, he wakes with fragmented and conflicted memories...
  • The Tywi Estuary Killings by John Nicholl

    The Tywi Estuary Killings by John Nicholl

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Is it revenge or is it justice?DI Gravel is supposed to be on mandatory leave, but when a severed head washes up on the estuary beach his holiday is cut short. Back on the job, he’s shocked when the case leads him to the victim from an old caseSeventeen years ago, the system failed Rebecca. They let the abuser of a six-year-old girl walk free...
  • 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...
  • 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
  • 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...
  • Forget Me Not by Claire Allan

    Forget Me Not by Claire Allan

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    ‘AMAZING’ Marian Keyes I disappeared on a Tuesday afternoon. I was there one minute and the next I was gone. They’ve never found my body… It’s six in the morning during the hottest summer on record when Elizabeth O’Loughlin, out walking her dog, comes across Clare, a victim of a horrific knife attack, clinging onto life at the side of the road...
  • Closet Full of Bones by A.J. Aalto

    Closet Full of Bones by A.J. Aalto

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Ever since they were children, Gillian Hearth has been her sister Frankie’s guardian, her sounding board, and her best friend. Together, the Hearth sisters quietly bury their secrets and form a formidable team during any crisis. Purchasing the old Blymhill house with the hopes of turning it into an artists’ retreat, the sisters are finally living their dream...
  • Don't Scream by Wendy Corsi Staub

    Don't Scream by Wendy Corsi Staub

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Don't Tell A Soul. . . In a remote, heavily wooded area near the Berkshires of Massachusetts, Rachel Lorant died on her birthday. But she didn't die alone. That night, her four sorority sisters make a solemn, trembling pledge. They will never reveal what has just happened in those woods--ever. Instead, they will take their terrible secret to their graves. . . Don't Think About The Past. .
    Categorized as:
    crime  family  female-mc  suspense  thriller  adult  book  contemporary
  • Three, Four... Better Lock Your Door by Willow Rose

    Three, Four... Better Lock Your Door by Willow Rose

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    It was supposed to be a night of fun, pleasure, lust and pain for Susanne Larsen when she agreed to meet with a stranger from a S&M chatroom. She met him for dinner that later led to casual, anonymous sex at the hotel-room at the local inn. But someone else showed up in the room and suddenly it was no longer a game...
  • 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...
  • Caged by Ellison Cooper

    Caged by Ellison Cooper

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    FBI neuroscientist Sayer Altair hunts for evil in the deepest recesses of the human mind. Still reeling from the death of her fiance, she wants nothing more than to focus on her research into the brains of serial killers. But when the Washington D.C...
  • Copycat by Erica Spindler

    Copycat by Erica Spindler

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Five years ago, three young victims were found murdered, posed like little angels. No witnesses, no evidence left behind. The Sleeping Angel Killer called his despicable acts 'the perfect crimes.' The case nearly destroyed homicide detective Kitt Lundgren's career— because she let the killer get away. Now the Sleeping Angel Killer is back...
  • Bone Cold by Erica Spindler

    Bone Cold by Erica Spindler

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Twenty-three years ago Anna North survived a living nightmare. A madman kidnapped her, cut off her pinkie, then vanished. Today Anna lives in New Orleans, writing dark thrillers under another name. She finally feels safe.Suddenly Anna's quiet life takes a frightening turn. Letters start to arrive from a disturbed fan. Anna is followed, her apartment broken into. Then a close friend disappears...
  • Keep It In The Family by John Marrs

    Keep It In The Family by John Marrs

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    In this chilling novel from bestselling author John Marrs, a young couple’s house hides terrible secrets—and not all of them are confined to the past.Mia and Finn are busy turning a derelict house into their dream home when Mia unexpectedly falls pregnant. But just when they think the house is ready, Mia discovers a chilling message scored into a skirting board: I WILL SAVE THEM FROM THE ATTIC...
  • 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...
Fantastic book recommendations by book lovers for book lovers.
Find out more about thebooknaut.com.



Looking for more inspiration? Enter another book title to get more suggestions on what to read next.


Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.