Books like 'A Stab In The Dark'
Readers who enjoyed A Stab In The Dark by Lawrence Block also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
mystery serial killer action / adventure thriller urban new-york-state crime law-enforcement noir hard-boiled
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Penshaw: A DCI Ryan Mystery by LJ Ross
Rated: 4.58 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFROM THE #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF HOLY ISLAND When you sell your soul, the devil gives no refunds... When an old man is burned alive in a sleepy ex-mining village, Detective Chief Inspector Ryan is called in to investigate. He soon discovers that, beneath the facade of a close-knit community, the burn from decades-old betrayal still smoulders...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement literary-fiction politics thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
Longstone by L.J. Ross
Rated: 4.54 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBetween the devil and the deep blue sea… Viking treasure is discovered beneath the icy waters of the North Sea and local historian Doctor Anna Taylor is called in to help catalogue the most exciting hoard in living memory. But when a shipwreck diver washes up dead, she’s soon out of her depth...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement literary-fiction thriller action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Hidden on the Fens by Joy Ellis
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA derelict cottage hidden in a copse of trees.A missing girl whose body was never found.Has her killer returned?Detective Joseph Easter’s daughter discovers a cottage hidden in some trees on a large fenland farm. Someone has been living there.The farm-owner’s wife has been receiving sinister pagan artefacts, including a witch’s knife... -
Beware the Past by Joy Ellis
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsOne terrible case always haunted detective Matt Ballard. Now many years later, the killer seems to be back. And this time he's after Matt. When Matt Ballard was starting out his career, three boys were murdered in the same area, the remote and bleak Gibbet Fen. When the main suspect was killed in a hit-and-run, the killings stopped... -
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The House in the Woods by Mark Dawson
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFour murders. Two detectives. One mystifying crime. On Christmas Eve, DCI Mackenzie Jones is called to a shooting at a remote farmhouse. Ralph Mallender believes his father lies dead inside. When three more bodies are discovered, it’s clear a festive family gathering has turned into a gruesome tragedy... -
Deadly Desires by Rachel McLean
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen two men are found mutilated in Birmingham's gay village just before Christmas, DI Zoe Finch and her team are perplexed.Did their attacker mean to kill one of the men, or simply injure them both? And who would have the surgical skills for such a precise mutilation?When more bodies are found with the same injuries, the city's gay population is rightfully scared... -
Dead Sorry by Helen H. Durrant
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLooking for a brilliant best-selling crime mystery with great detectives?THE PAST COMES BACK TO HAUNT THEMTwenty-five years ago a schoolgirl was attacked by three bullies in her home where she lived with her grandmother.Now, the mother of one of those bullies is found murdered on the Hobfield housing estate. Written on the wall in the victim’s blood is the word, “sorry... -
The Dead Call by J.M. Dalgliesh
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time..Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement literary-fiction noir action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Curator by M.W. Craven
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIt's Christmas and a serial killer is leaving displayed body parts all over Cumbria. A strange message is left at each scene: #BSC6. Called in to investigate, the National Crime Agency's Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw are faced with a case that makes no sense... -
Her Broken Wings by D.K. Hood
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe sound that wakes her from sleep is unmistakable—someone is in their house... -
The Courbet Connection by Estelle Ryan
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsForged masterpieces. Kidnapped students. The dark net. Nonverbal communications expert Doctor Genevieve Lenard's search for an international assassin is rudely interrupted by an autistic teenager who claims that forged masterpieces are being sold on the dark net--a secret internet few know exists... -
Last Victim by Helen H. Durrant
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA two-month-old baby is missing. James’s parents left him with a babysitter while they went out for dinner. But when they get home, there’s no sign of baby or sitter.This is the last thing DCI Rachel King wants to hear on her last night of maternity leave. But worse is to come. The missing infant belongs to Scott Agnew, alleged member of Manchester drug-dealing ring, the Trio... -
The Ladykiller by Martina Cole
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsGeorge Markham has a nasty little hobby, one that erupts into an orgy of vicious sexual depravity.Patrick Kelly is a hard man. His one soft spot is his daughter, and when she falls victim to the Grantley Ripper, Kelly wants revenge.The DI in charge of the case is Kate Burrows. She feels for Kelly but her growing involvement with a known villain is putting her career at risk . . -
I'm Still Here by Jon Mills
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsStill haunted by her brother’s disappearance and the high profile murder trial that gripped the nation, New York homicide detective, Kara Walker deals with survivor’s guilt by tracking down killers. But as the anniversary of her brothers abduction approaches, Kara receives news of her mother’s death and is drawn back to her rural hometown in the Olympic Peninsula to tie up loose ends... -
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Where The Dead Fall by M.J. Lee
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsOne chance encounter, one street side murder, will change everything… The extraordinary new Ridpath crime thrillerManchester has been at peace for twenty years. Not any more.DI Ridpath is in the process of getting his life back together when everything goes wrong... -
Impostor by L.J. Ross
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE DCI RYAN MYSTERIES There’s a killer inside all of us… After an elite criminal profiling unit is shut down amidst a storm of scandal and mismanagement, only one person emerges unscathed...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement literary-fiction thriller action-adventure adult audiobook book -
The Night Thief by Joy Ellis
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen everyone is sleeping, he comes into their houses.He takes one thing. A photo of their child.A thief on a power trip or something even darker and more sinister?Detectives Jackman and Evans find themselves on the hunt for a highly unusual burglar who seemingly only steals photographs. But then, late one night, an elderly woman falls to her death after seeing someone in her home... -
Unbound Ties: When the past unravels, all that’s left is death ... by Liz Mistry
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen the past unravels, all that’s left is death.Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly,When DI Gus McGuire is called out to the murder of a pregnant woman, the crime scene tells him that this killer is not only taunting them … he’s also just getting started.Lavender’s green,With ritualistic precision, the killer has placed a series of clues beneath the victim’s feet...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement hard-boiled thriller mystery suspense police-procedural domestic-drama -
Deadly Justice by Kristi Belcamino
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBook 14 in the USA Today Bestselling Gia Santella Crime Thriller series by Agatha, Anthony, Barry & Macavity finalist Kristi Belcamino... -
A L'ombre Du Mal by Robert Crais, Hubert Tézenas
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsElvis Cole is Back--In a Desperate Fight to Clear his Name... It's fire season, and the hills of Los Angeles are burning. When police and fire department personnel rush door to door in a frenzied evacuation effort, they discover the week-old corpse of an apparent suicide...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Thames Path killer by Biba Pearce
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA SCINTILLATING DEBUT MYSTERY FROM YOUR NEW CRIME FICTION OBSESSION: BIBA PEARCE.Please note this book is a completely revised edition of THE SURREY STALKER.A deranged serial killer targeting brides-to-be. An ambitious young detective. A case that could destroy everything.A young woman is brutally attacked on her way home. It looks like she was the victim of a jilted — and twisted — ex-lover... -
Chosen Prey by John Sandford
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA New York Times bestseller! Lucas Davenport returns in the most harrowing and unexpected Prey novel yet—the story of a congenial man, and his most uncongenial obsession...An art history professor and writer and cheerful pervert, James Qatar had a hobby: he took secret photographs of women and turned them into highly sexual drawings. One day, he took the hobby a step further and.. -
Winter Prey by John Sandford
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 31 ratings"Winter Prey" is a John Sandford suspense masterpiece! Following the international success of "Shadow Prey" and "Silent Prey," he creates another heart-pounding chapter in the career of Lucas Davenport, the brilliant, hard-bitten detective from the Twin Cities.The Iceman is Lucas Davenport's most determined foe - a serial killer driven to cover his brutal tracks with blood... -
The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly, Dick Hill
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsDetective Harry Bosch was sure he'd shot the serial killer responsible for a string of murders in LA . . . but now, a new crime makes him question his convictions.The Dollmaker was the name of the serial killer who had stalked Los Angeles ruthlessly, leaving grisly calling cards on the faces of his female victims... -
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Murder in the Village by Faith Martin, Gemma Dawson
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA would-be politician is found battered to death in the kitchen of his expensive home in a lovely Oxfordshire village. His wife's alibi is full of holes and there's another woman in the background. And what about his seemingly mild-mannered political rival? DI Hillary Greene tries to get to the bottom of this perplexing murder... -
No Way Back by Rick Mofina, Christian Rummel
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSan Francisco crime reporter Tom Reed is burned out. On the day he decides to finally quit the news business, a sensational story breaks. A heart-stopping robbery-homicide at a jewelry store. The suspects have shot and killed a police officer before fleeing with a female hostage. Reed rushes to the scene, his passion resurrected for one last big story...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
Her Last Breath by Charlie Gallagher
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDiscover a crime thriller which will have you gripped from the explosive start to one of the most shocking endings of the year. DETECTIVE GEORGE ELMS THOUGHT HE’D SEEN IT ALL, UNTIL HE COMES UP AGAINST SERIAL KILLER HENRY ‘THE BULL’ ROBERTS. Henry Roberts had a type — young, blonde, attractive women. He is three years into a life sentence. Two of his victims were never found... -
Where The Truth Lies by M.J. Lee
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA killer in total control. A detective on the edge. A mystery that HAS to be solved. DI Thomas Ridpath was on the up in the Manchester CID: a promising young detective whose first case involved capturing a notorious serial killer. But ten years later he’s recovering from a serious illness and on the brink of being forced out of the police... -
Bad Blood by L.T. Vargus, Tim McBain
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe body slumps over the steering wheel. Pools of blood going tacky on the dash. Two shots to the back of the head. A mafia-style hit in a small town.So Special Agent Violet Darger arrives in rural Michigan. She must make sense of this savagery. Figure out how something like this could happen in an idyllic town of just 5,000.The victim had been living the American dream... -
Final Breath by Robert F. Barker
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA monstrous killer, safely behind bars – But just how safe is, ‘safe’? An archive of debauchery and murder, poised to ruin reputations, careers, lives A detective running out of time to find what he seeks Eighteen months on from the case that nearly cost him his life, only DCI Jamie Carver knows the incredible extent of the Worshipper Killer’s network of depravity – and the storm that will... -
Blood Work by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly presents his most ambitious, most gripping achievement to date--a novel of masterly suspense and righteous obsession that will never let you go.When Graciella Rivers steps onto his boat, ex-FBI agent Terrell McCaleb has no idea he's about to come out of retirement. He's recuperating from a heart transplant and avoiding anything stressful...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement noir thriller 20th-century action-adventure -
The Narrows by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 34 ratingsFBI agent Rachel Walling finally gets the call she's dreaded for years, the one that tells her the Poet has surfaced. She has never forgotten the serial killer who wove lines of poetry in his hideous crimes--and apparently he has not forgotten her.Former LAPD detective Harry Bosch gets a call, too--from the widow of an old friend...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement noir thriller 21st-century action-adventure -
There's No Place like Home by Willow Rose
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsASIN moved from less recent editionWhat is the worst that can happen?Maria and Jonas Boegh asked themselves that very question when deciding to sign the papers for their new house. It might be expensive. They might be in over their heads a little financially, but they were never happier than on the day they moved in. Everything was perfect. It was the house of their dreams... -
The Killing Kind by John Connolly
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen the discovery of a mass grave in northern Maine reveals the grim truth behind the disappearance of a religious community, private detective Charlie Parker is drawn into a violent conflict with a group of zealots intent on tracking down a relic that could link them to the slaughter. Haunted by the ghost of a small boy and tormented by the demonic killer known as Mr... -
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Her Last Day by T.R. Ragan
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn this page-turner of a thriller by bestselling author T.R. Ragan, unlikely partners PI Jessie Cole and crime reporter Ben Morrison search for clues to a mystery buried in their own pasts—only to discover that sometimes the truth is better off buried... -
Neon Prey by John Sandford, Richard Ferrone
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsListening length: 11 hours and 17 minutesClayton Deese looks like a small-time criminal, muscle for hire when his loan shark boss needs to teach someone a lesson. Now, seven months after a job that went south and landed him in jail, Deese has skipped out on bail, and the U.S. Marshals come looking for him... -
Dark Houses by Helen H. Durrant
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsTHE STUNNING NEW CRIME MYSTERY FEATURING D.I. GRECO BY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR HELEN H. DURRANT A young woman is found brutally murdered in an empty house Detective Stephen Greco and his team must piece together her life as quickly as possible. Within twenty-four hours there is another horrific murder using the same method... -
Dead Lucky by Matt Brolly, David Monteath
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA fast-paced crime-thriller, full of chilling twists, turns and grisly surprises, Matt Brolly’s Dead Lucky will have you gripped from beginning to end! DCI Michael Lambert is back… When a woman is murdered, the twisted killer forcing her husband to watch her slow and painful death, DCI Michael Lambert knows that his next case might be his toughest yet... -
A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connelly
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsTerry McCaleb, the retired FBI agent who starred in the bestseller "Blood Work," is asked by the LAPD to help them investigate aseries of murders that have them baffled. They are the kind of ritualized killings McCaleb specialized in solving with the FBI, and he is reluctantly drawn from his peaceful new life back into the horror and excitement of tracking down a terrifying homicidal maniac...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement literary-fiction noir thriller action-adventure adult -
The Creek Killer by Dominika Best
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsHow would you prove you weren’t dead? Jane Smith has been running from danger her whole life. That danger followed her everywhere, leaving a trail of death in its wake. When the mummified bodies of six girls are discovered in the wetlands of Los Angeles, Jane is surprised to learn one of the dead girls bears her name—the name she abandoned twenty-five years ago to go into hiding...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement thriller mystery fiction contemporary police-procedural action-adventure -
The Sixth Man by David Baldacci
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsAfter the #1 New York Times bestsellers Split Second, Hour Game, Simple Genius, and First Family, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell return in their most shocking case: a high stakes struggle where the relentless needs of national security run up against the absolute limits of the human mind...Categorized as:
crime investigator law-enforcement politics thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
The House that Jack Built by Willow Rose
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsScott Kingston is afraid of monsters. He thinks they’re lurking outside his bedroom window at night when his mother tucks him in. He asks his mother to keep the light on to scare the monsters away. But that light is exactly what lures the kidnapper to his window and the next morning, Scott Kingston is gone...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement literary-fiction thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
He is Watching You by Charlie Gallagher
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA young woman’s body is left in a metal container in a remote location. The killer is careful to position her under a camera that links to his smartphone. He likes to look back at his work.HE IS WATCHING HER.BUT SHE ISN’T DEAD.So he will return to finish the job. He can barely contain his excitement at the thought of getting to do it all over again. But he must be careful. He cannot rush... -
Bring Me Flowers by D.K. Hood
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsShe didn’t know he was watching. Until it was too late.She’d walked this path hundreds of times before, she knew every twist and turn. But today was different. She didn’t know someone was waiting for her, hidden away from view. She didn’t know this was the last time she’d walk this path... -
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Hear No Evil by J.M. Dalgliesh
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen the bonds of brotherhood are strained, who do you turn to?The celebration of the Viking Festival of Scira ensures that thousands descend annually on the small coastal town of Sheringham, but when one man dies amidst the grand finale, it falls to DI Tom Janssen and his team to identify who the victim was and how he met such a grisly end...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled law-enforcement literary-fiction noir action-adventure adult audiobook -
Blood of Others by Rick Mofina
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe disappearance and murder of a lonely San Francisco insurance clerk puts a relentless crime reporter and legendary homicide cop on separate tracks in their pursuit of a killer.The suspect lures solitary women out of their quiet worlds and into his nightmare as he races the clock and travels the globe searching for the one woman who will forgive the unforgivable...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled investigator law-enforcement thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Chale Bay Murders by Pauline Rowson
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMeet DI Andy Horton. He’s a risk-taking Harley-Davidson-riding detective who doesn’t always play by the rules . . . which often lands him in trouble with his bosses.Suspicious lights at sea, decomposing bodies and an old flame send Horton down a rabbit hole in this captivating crime thriller.An elderly man obsessively watches the coast from his Victorian house high on the hill above Ventnor... -
Dead to Me by J.M. Dalgliesh
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLet go of your past... or it will be the death of you...When a man's body is discovered crammed into the boot of an abandoned car in a remote location, DI Tom Janssen and his team must unpick his life to find out how he came to be there.The victim was a local man, popular with some although hated by others, and he had a habit of making enemies, enemies that any sane man would seek to avoid... -
Dark Hollow by John Connolly
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDark Hollow is a masterful second novel from a young Irish writer whose storytelling skills were established with Every Dead Thing. Now his fiery, ingenious detective, Charlie Bird Parker, returns to uncover a legacy of evil that has haunted Maine citizens for decades... -
The Next Accident by Lisa Gardner
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFBI Agent Pierce Quincy is haunted by his daughter's death in a drunk-driving accident. Pierce knew about his daughter's problem with alcohol, and about her loneliness. And so, he is sure, did the man who killed her. Rainie Conner is an ex-cop with a past overshadowed by violence. She was once involved with Pierce in a harrowing case that brought them together personally and professionally...
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