Books like 'Widespread Panic'
Readers who enjoyed Widespread Panic by James Ellroy also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery horror crime noir historical-fiction thriller law-enforcement suspense hard-boiled
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St. Benet's by David Blake
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA girl thrown from a church tower, a man sacrificed to Satan, and a priest murdered at the hands of the Devil. When the body of an old man is found lying in the ruins of St Benet’s Abbey, his throat cut, a knife resting in his open hand, DI John Tanner and DC Jenny Evans are given no choice but to accept a ruling of death by misadventure... -
Goodnight Lady by Martina Cole
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA tour-de-force thriller of corruption and violence.In the sixties, Briony Cavanagh ran a string of the most notorious brothels in London. Only Briony knew what went on behind those doors, and she never opened her mouth - unless she stood to benefit. Only Briony knew the painful road she'd travelled to get there...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
Freedom of the Mask by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe year is 1703, and Matthew Corbett, professional “problem solver,” is missing. Last seen by his friends in New York before he departed on a lucrative, seemingly straightforward mission for the Herrald Agency in Charles Town, he's been too long absent. His comrade-in-arms Hudson Greathouse has an increasing sense the young friend he thinks of as a son must have met with some unexpected peril...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Mister Slaughter by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe world of Colonial America comes vibrantly to life in this masterful new historical thriller by Robert McCammon...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
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Angels and Demons / The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #1-2) by Dan Brown
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsEnter the labyrinthine world of internationally bestselling author Dan Brown with his first two spellbinding thrillers featuring Robert Langdon:Angels and DemonsWhen a groundbreaking scientist is found brutally murdered, world renowned Harvard professor Robert Langdon is summoned to identify the mysterious symbol seared on to the dead man's chest...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
King Stakh’s Wild Hunt by Uladzimir Karatkevich
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsKing Stakh's Wild Hunt tells the tale of Andrey Belaretsky, a young folklorist who finds himself stranded by a storm in the castle of Marsh Firs, the seat of the fading aristocratic Yanovsky family. Offered refuge by Nadzeya, the last in the Yanovskys’ line, he learns of the family curse and terrible apparitions that portend her early death and trap her in permanent, maddening fear...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
None Left to Tell by Noelle W. Ihli
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThree women, connected by one of the most brutal mass slayings in US history.Lucy is sick of turning the other cheek. Ten years ago, an anti-Mormon mob drove her family and friends from their homes in Illinois. But now, the tables have turned. Rumor has it, some of those same men are traveling through Utah on their way to California. And this time, Lucy won’t run... -
Some Shall Break by Ellie Marney
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis sequel to the New York Times bestselling None Shall Sleep is an equally electrifying, chilling thriller that brings us back into the lives of junior FBI consultants Travis Bell and Emma Lewis with a new case that may unravel everything they’ve been working for...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction suspense thriller law-enforcement mystery young-adult horror -
The Providence Rider by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"The Providence Rider is the fourth installment in the extraordinary series of historical thrillers featuring Matthew Corbett, professional problem solver. The narrative begins in the winter of 1703, with Matthew still haunted by his lethal encounter with notorious mass murderer Tyranthus Slaughter...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense action-adventure adult audiobook book -
The Caretakers by Eliza Maxwell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the isolated estate she’s found the perfect getaway. But there’s no escaping the past in this chilling novel from the bestselling author of The Unremembered Girl. Filmmaker Tessa Shepherd helped free a man she believed was wrongly imprisoned for murder. When he kills again, Tessa’s life is upended.She’s reeling with guilt, her reputation destroyed... -
Judgment of The Witch by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAfter a decade, New York Times bestselling author Robert McCammon returns with an epic novel of suspense that reinstates him as one of the great storytellers of our time.... The Carolinas, 1699: The citizens of Fount Royal believe their town is cursed by a witch... -
The Darker Arts by Oscar de Muriel
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMadame Katerina, Detective 'Nine Nails' McGray's most trusted clairvoyant, hosts a séance for three of Edinburgh's wealthiest families.The following morning everyone is found dead, with Madame Katerina being the only survivor. When questioned she alleges a tormented spirit killed the families for revenge... -
Evil Unveiled by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"New York Times" bestselling author Robert McCammon continues his triumphant return with the conclusion of an epic tale of suspense that reinstates him as one of the great storytellers of our time....The Carolinas, 1699: After hearing damning testimony from the townspeople of Fount Royal, magistrate Isaac Woodward sentences the accused witch, Rachel Howarth, to death by burning... -
The Spinster's Fortune by Mary Kendall
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMoonlit alleys, shadowy tunnels, and buried secrets…Summer of 1929.Of supposed unsound mind without a penny to her name, Blanche Magruder lies alone in a home for the aged and infirm.Meanwhile, her house, a crumbled ruin in the heart of Georgetown, Washington, D.C., is pillaged nightly by thieves looking for treasure rumored to be hidden there... -
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Nineteen Eighty by David Peace
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDecember 1980, the Yorkshire Ripper murders his thirteenth victim, while Assistant Chief Constable Peter Hunter struggles even deeper in the mire of a culture tainted with dark and sordid detail to solve one of the country's most hellish crimes... -
Gangland by Chuck Hogan
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of The Town, an epic thriller about the secret right‑hand man of one of the most infamous unprosecuted mob bosses in American history, and the hidden crime that will bring down an empire.In the late 1970s, The Outfit has the entire city of Chicago in its hands. Tony Accardo is its fearless leader... -
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes, Paula Rabinowitz
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPostwar Los Angeles is a lonely place where the American Dream is showing its seamy underside—and a stranger is preying on young women. The suggestively named Dix Steele, a cynical vet with a chip on his shoulder about the opposite sex, is the LAPD's top suspect...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled historical-fiction law-enforcement noir suspense thriller 20th-century -
The Thicket by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsLove and vengeance at the dark dawn of the East Texas oil boom from Joe Lansdale, "a true American original" (Joe Hill, author of Heart-Shaped Box). Jack Parker thought he'd already seen his fair share of tragedy. His grandmother was killed in a farm accident when he was barely five years old...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled historical-fiction noir suspense thriller action-adventure audiobook -
The Werewolf of Bamberg by Oliver Pötzsch
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsIn 1668, hangman Jakob Kuisl, his daughter Magdalena, and her husband Simon are traveling to the town of Bamberg. But what was planned as a family vacation soon becomes a nightmare: there is a murderer in Bamberg who is leaving the severed limbs of victims in the trash outside the city... -
Sherlock Holmes & the Ripper of Whitechapel by M.K. Wiseman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsI am afraid that I, Sherlock Holmes, must act as my own chronicler in this singular case, that of the Whitechapel murders of 1888. For the way in which the affair was dropped upon my doorstep left me with little choice as to the contrary. Not twelve months prior, the siren’s call of quiet domesticity and married life had robbed me of Watson’s assistance as both partner and recorder of my cases...Categorized as:
historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller crime mystery fiction historical -
Kissyman & the Gentleman by Scott Sigler
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsNew York City, 1946. No one knows his real name, but when the job is too dirty, too dangerous, they call Kissyman. Once an elite Nazi SS commando, an honorable soldier, a taker of lives. When he was assigned to Dachau and saw what he was actually fighting for, he went AWOL and ran as far away as he could — to America. He still makes his living with a gun, but he no longer kills for his country... -
An Ancient Evil by Paul Doherty
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn Ancient Evil inaugurates an ingenious new series of historical mysteries by P. C. Doherty, each one using characters from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. In Chaucer's poem, the pilgrims narrate tales to pass the time during their journey to the sacred shrine of Canterbury; Doherty's pilgrims entertain their companions with stories of mystery, terror, and murder... -
Madness in the Ruins by John A. Connell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA mutilated body. No witnesses. The only clue, a message, “Those who I have made suffer will become saints and they shall lift me up from hell.” Winter, 1945. Munich is in ruins, and a savage killer is stalking the city.U.S. Army investigator Mason Collins enforces the law in the American Zone of Occupation. This post is his last chance to do what he loves most—being a homicide detective...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The River of Souls by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe year is 1703. The place: the Carolina settlement of Charles Town. . Matthew Corbett, professional “problem solver,” has accepted a lucrative, if unusual, commission: escorting a beautiful woman to a fancy dress ball.What should be a pleasant assignment takes a darker turn when Matthew becomes involved in a murder investigation...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
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The Best American Noir Of The Century by Otto Penzler, James Ellroy
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn his introduction, James Ellroy writes, "Noir is the most scrutinized offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction…It's the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams and the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad."Ellroy & Penzler mined the past century to find this treasure trove of thirty-nine stories... -
A Fine Dark Line by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt is the summer of 1958 in Dewmont, Texas, a town the great American postwar boom passed by. The kids listen idly to rockabilly on the radio and waste their weekends at the Dairy Queen. And an undetected menace simmers under the heat that clings to the skin like molasses..Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction noir suspense thriller 21st-century audiobook bildungsroman -
The Harvest Man by Alex Grecian
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsScotland Yard’s Murder Squad—and Jack the Ripper—return, in the extraordinary new historical thriller from the author of the acclaimed national bestseller The Yard. In The Devil’s Workshop, London discovered that Jack the Ripper was back, sending the city—and Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad—into chaos. But now it is even worse... -
The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratings1950s Los Angeles: The City of Angels has become the city of the Angel of Death. Communist witch-hunts and insanely violent killings are terrorising the community. Three men are plunged into a maelstrom of violence and deceit when their lives become inextricably linked as each one confronts his own personal darkness...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled historical-fiction law-enforcement noir suspense thriller 20th-century -
The Lost Girls of Rome by Donato Carrisi
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA grieving young widow, seeking answers to her husband's death, becomes entangled in an investigation steeped in the darkest mysteries of Rome.Sandra Vega, a forensic analyst with the Roman police department, mourns deeply for a marriage that ended too soon...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLEGENDARY THRILLER WRITER DAVID MORRELL TRANSPORTS READERS TO THE FOGBOUND STREETS OF LONDON, WHERE A KILLER PLOTS TO ASSASSINATE QUEEN VICTORIA.The year is 1855. The Crimean War is raging. The incompetence of British commanders causes the fall of the English government. The Empire teeters...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Man With No Face by Peter May
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBrussels, 1979. Jaded Edinburgh journalist Neil Bannerman arrives in the capital of European politics intent on digging up dirt. Yet it is danger he discovers, when two British men are found murdered. A CHILD WITH NO FATHER One victim is a journalist, the other a Cabinet Minister: the double-assassination witnessed by the former's autistic daughter... -
Estudio en escarlata/El sabueso de los Baskerville by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLa popularidad de Sherlock Holmes ha sido inmensa e incesante... si muchos le parodiaron (a Conan Doyle) casi todos los escritores posteriores han moldeado sus héroes conforme a uno de los poliédricos aspectos del gran Sherlock. Este dejó de ser un personaje literario, se convirtió en una criatura viviente y borró la memoria de su creador...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense action-adventure adult book classics -
Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes by Charles Prepolec, Kim Newman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe fabled tin dispatch box of Dr. John H. Watson opens to reveal eleven all new tales of mystery and dark fantasy. Sherlock Holmes, master of deductive reasoning, confronts the irrational, the unexpected and the fantastic in the weird worlds of the Gaslight Grimoire...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense action-adventure adult anthologies fiction -
A Mask of Shadows by Oscar de Muriel
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIdols of the theatre Henry Irving and Ellen Terry are preparing to stage Macbeth in Edinburgh. But long before the actors hit the boards the play-house is hit with horror; the piercing, desolate wail of a banshee and a bloody message smeared on the street.Legendary Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray and disgraced London sceptic Inspector Ian Frey are to investigate... -
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The Dark Sleep by P.N. Elrod
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDeath hasn't ended Jack Fleming's problems. His girlfriend Bobbi has caught the attention of a famous radio star, who promises to open doors for the lovely singer -- including the one to his bedroom. His current case -- retrieving incriminating letters from the ex-lover of a rich, foolish young socialite, looks simple until bullets start flying. Now Jack's mortal partner is in the hospital... -
Resurrectionist by James McGee
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood brings his own form of justice to the salons and slums of Regency London in the gripping sequel to 'Ratcatcher'. For the body snatchers, death is a lucrative business. But it's the corpse they leave behind, horribly mutilated and nailed to a tree, which sets Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood on their trail...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement thriller action-adventure adult book fiction -
Entwined by Lynda La Plante
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNo matter how cruelly twins are separated, their lives will always be entwined.In the newly liberated streets of modern Berlin two women, a pampered, beautiful Baroness, losing control of her mind, and a fearless wild animal trainer, facing the greatest challenge of her career, are drawn together by a series of tragic and extraordinary coincidences... -
Her Sister's Death by K.L. Murphy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsShe wanted the truth. She should have known better.When her sister is found dead in a Baltimore hotel room, reporter Val Ritter’s world is turned upside down. What’s worse—an empty pill bottle at the scene leads the police to believe the cause of death is suicide. With little more than her own conviction, Val teams up with a retired detective who has his own personal interest in the case... -
The Candle Man by Alex Scarrow
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLocked in an eerily quiet room on the Titanic, a dying man tells a young girl his life story as the ship begins to sink. It all starts in Whitechapel, London in 1888, as the Ripper murders began... -
The Specimen by Jaima Fixsen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWalk carefully, lest you become a part of Dr. Burnett's collection…1826. Isobel Tait finds herself, by chance, staring at a tiny human heart floating in a jar. It should be of little consequence; Dr. Burnett is renowned for his collection of oddities and medical specimens, and this, a juvenile heart with a damaged mitral valve, is not the strangest thing on display... -
No Doors, No Windows by Harlan Ellison
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsYOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF! The only trouble is, fear comes in so many different shapes and sizes these days. It comes as rejection by a beautiful woman. It comes in the brutalization of your love by an amoral man... -
Spellbinders in Suspense by Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Bloch
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTable of contents:"The Chinese Puzzle Box" by Agatha Christie"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell"The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier"Puzzle For Poppy" by Patrick Quentin"Eyewitness" by Robert Arthur"Man From The South" by Roald Dahl"Black Magic" by Sax Rohmer"Treasure Trove" by F... -
Steel Breeze by Douglas Wynne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA BLACK WIND BLOWS AND LIFE HANGS IN THE BALANCE. It’s been a year since novelist Desmond Carmichael's wife Sandy was brutally murdered. Now, with someone stalking him and his four-year-old son, he fears that the wrong man has been imprisoned for the crime... -
The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAriana Franklin combines the best of modern forensic thrillers with the drama of historical fiction in the enthralling second novel in the Mistress of the Art of Death series, featuring medieval heroine Adelia Aguilar. Rosamund Clifford, the mistress of King Henry II, has died an agonizing death by poison - and the king's estranged queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, is the prime suspect...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
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Ruler of the Night by David Morrell
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThomas De Quincey is beginning to control his opium addiction when the excitement of his current case threatens to unravel his grip on reality once and for all. On their way home to the Lake District, the De Quinceys become unwitting witnesses to a truly historic murder: the first to take place on one of England's newly constructed railways...Categorized as:
historical-fiction crime law-enforcement suspense thriller mystery fiction historical -
White Corridor by Christopher Fowler
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom using crackpot psychics to cutting-edge forensics, Arthur Bryant and John May are famous for their maddeningly unorthodox approach to solving crimes that the ordinary police cannot. Now Christopher Fowler, “a new master of the classical detective story,”* brings back crime detection’s oddest—and oldest—couple to solve the ultimate locked room mystery...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense 21st-century action-adventure adult arthurian -
The Unclaimed Victim by D.M. Pulley
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLiving decades apart, two women get caught in the web of an infamous serial killer. In 1938, at the height of the Great Depression, a madman hunts his victims through the hobo jungles of Cleveland, terrorizing the city...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement suspense thriller 20th-century action-adventure adult -
The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThe Redbreast is a fabulous introduction to Nesbø’s tough-as-nails series protagonist, Oslo police detective Harry Hole...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction law-enforcement noir suspense thriller 20th-century 21st-century -
Sunset and Sawdust by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn the middle of a cyclone, beautiful, red-haired Sunset Jones shoots her husband Pete dead when he tries to beat and rape her. To Camp Rapture’s general consternation, Sunset’s mother-in-law arranges for her to take over from Pete as town constable...Categorized as:
crime hard-boiled historical-fiction law-enforcement noir suspense action-adventure adult -
Crippen by John Boyne
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsJuly 1910: A gruesome discovery has been made at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden.Chief Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland Yard did not expect the house to be empty. Nor did he expect to find a body in the cellar. Buried under the flagstones are the remains of Cora Crippen, former music-hall singer and wife of Dr. Hawley Crippen. No one would have thought the quiet, unassuming Dr...
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