Recommendations based on "Dead Watch"

Philadelphia police detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano are working a new beat: the Special Investigations Unit, aka the cold case squad. Ironic, given that it’s the height of a blazing hot August. But even these hardened homicide veterans are chilled to the bone as a dormant murder case stirs to life–leading Byrne and Balzano into the dark heart of their city, their souls, and a psyche of pure evil.Months before, a teenage runaway’s body was found in the desolate, dangerous North Philly district dubbed the Badlands. Dead runaways were no novelty on these mean streets, but the Caitlin O’Riordan case was different. Her corpse was found in the basement of a rancid tenement apartment, the inexplicable cause of death: drowning. In the end, nothing was solved and the case was closed.Now a confession to the bizarre murder on the police tipline sends Byrne and Balzano rushing to make an arrest. But instead of a killer, they discover a ghastly scene: a jar containing human remains–along with a cryptic clue leading to an unlikely witness. Laura Somerville lives far from the squalor of the Badlands, and seemingly light-years from any connection to a murdered runaway. But moments after discussing the case with this elegant lady, Byrne and Balzano make another grisly discovery, and find an enigmatic word spelled out in Scrabble tiles.Across town, another victim’s shallow grave reveals deeper mysteries. Her secret diaries portray a woman haunted by a shocking past, and obsessed with finding a depraved killer.Now, as the body count grows, a terrifying design literally takes shape. Pieces of a gruesome puzzle are being set into place by the cruel hands of a madman using the city as his game board. His playthings are the innocent, and his opponents–and pawns–are Byrne and Balzano, who must, before time runs out, decipher the truth about a shadowy house of horrors and its elusive master.Internationally acclaimed author Richard Montanari works his black magic to spine-tingling perfection in Badlands, conjuring all the relentless suspense, dark twists of intrigue, and full-throttle action that make his brilliant, engrossing novels required reading for thriller fans.

Set in a chillingly realistic far-future world, and featuring a gritty antihero even more frightening than the evil empire he serves as soldier and assassin, Death’s Head is sure to be one of the most talked-about novels of the year. David Gunn is loaded–and he shoots to kill.At the top of the galactic pecking order is the United Free, a civilization of awe-inspiring technological prowess so far in advance of other space-faring powers as to seem untouchable gods. Most of the known universe has fallen under their inscrutable sway. The rest is squabbled over by two empires: one ruled with an iron fist by OctoV, a tyrant who appears to his followers as a teenage boy but is in reality something very different, the other administered by the Uplifted, bizarre machinelike intelligences, and their no-longer-quite-human servants, cyborgs known as the Enlightened.Sven Tveskoeg, an ex-sergeant demoted for insubordination and sentenced to death, is a vicious killer with a stubborn streak of loyalty. Sven possesses a fierce if untutored intelligence and a genetic makeup that is 98.2 percent human and 1.8 percent . . . something else. Perhaps that “something else” explains how quickly he heals from even the worst injuries or how he can communicate telepathically with the ferox, fearsome alien savages whose natural fighting abilities regularly outperform the advanced technology of their human enemies. Perhaps it is these unique abilities that bring Sven to the attention of OctoV.Drafted into the Death’s Head, the elite enforcers of OctoV’s imperial will, Sven is given a new lease on life. Armed with a SIG diabolo–an intelligent gun–and an illegal symbiont called a kyp, Sven is sent to a faraway planet, the latest battleground between the Uplifted and OctoV. There he finds himself in the midst of a military disaster, one that will take all his courage–and all his firepower–to survive.But an even deadlier struggle is taking place, a struggle that will draw the attention of the United Free. Sven knows he is a pawn, and pawns have a bad habit of being sacrificed.But Sven is nobody’s sacrifice. And even a pawn can checkmate a king.

“ONE OF THE BEST THRILLERS TO COME ALONG IN YEARS.”   —MICHAEL CONNELLYTo save America from a catastrophic betrayal, an FBI agent must stop a Russian molein the White House...No one is more surprised than FBI Agent Peter Sutherland when he’s tapped to work in the White House Situation Room. When Peter was a boy, his father was suspected of selling secrets to the Russians—a breach that cost him his career, his reputation, and eventually his life. Now Peter’s job is monitoring an emergency line for a call that has not—and might never—come.Until tonight.At 1:05 a.m. the phone rings. A terrified young woman named Rose tells Peter that two people have just been murdered and that the killer might still be in the house with her. One of the victims gave her this phone number with urgent instructions: “Tell them OSPREY was right. It’s happening...” The call thrusts Peter into the heart of a conspiracy years in the making, involving a Russian mole at the highest levels of the U.S. government. Anyone in the White House could be the traitor. Anyone could be corrupted. To save the nation, Peter must take the rules into his own hands, question everything, and trust no one. “Matthew Quirk moves into David Baldacci and John Grisham territory with The Night Agent.”   —JOSEPH FINDER 

The fourth unputdownable book in the DS Mark Heckenburg series. A killer thriller for fans of Stuart MacBride and Luther, from the #1 ebook bestseller Paul Finch. His worst nightmare is back... As a brutal winter takes hold of the Lake District, a prolific serial killer stalks the fells. ‘The Stranger’ has returned and for DS Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg, the signs are all too familiar. Last seen on Dartmoor ten years earlier, The Stranger murdered his victims in vicious, cold-blooded attacks – and when two young women go missing, Heck fears the worst. As The Stranger lays siege to a remote community, Heck watches helplessly as the killer plays his cruel game, picking off his victims one by one. And with no way to get word out of the valley, Heck must play ball... A spine-chilling thriller, from the #1 ebook bestseller. Perfect for fans of Stuart MacBride and James Oswald.

In the most suspenseful installment of the New York Times nestselling Body Farm series to date, forensic anthropologist Dr. Bill Brockton investigates a bizarre murder—and confronts a deadly enemy he thought he’d put behind bars for good. Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton has spent twenty-five years solving brutal murders—but none so bizarre and merciless as his latest case: A ravaged set of skeletal remains is found chained to a tree on a remote mountainside. As Brockton and his assistant Miranda dig deeper, they uncover warning signs of a deadly eruption of hatred and violence. But the shocking case is only the beginning of Brockton’s trials. Mid-case, the unthinkable happens: The deadliest criminal Brockton has ever foiled—the sadistic serial killer Nick Satterfield—escapes from prison, bent on vengeance. But simply killing Brockton isn’t enough. Satterfield wants to make him suffer first, by destroying everything he holds dear: Brockton’s son, daughter-in-law, grandsons; even Miranda, his longtime graduate assistant, now on the verge of completing her Ph.D. and launching a forensic career of her own. The dangers from all directions force Brockton to question two things on which he’s based his entire career—the justice system, and the quality of mercy—and to wonder: can the two co-exist? If not, which will Brockton choose in his ultimate moment of truth?

Award-winning writer C. J. Box returns with a vengeance in this thrilling new novel featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett.It’s elk season in the Rockies, but this year a different kind of hunter is stalking a different kind of prey. When the call comes in on the radio, Joe Pickett can hardly believe his ears: game wardens have found a hunter dead at a camp in the mountains—strung up, gutted, and flayed, as if he were the elk he’d been pursuing. A spent cartridge and a poker chip lie next to his body.Ripples of horror spread through the community, and with a possibly psychotic killer on the loose Governor Rulon is forced to end the hunting season early for the first time in state history. Are the murders the work of a deranged antihunting activist or of a lone psychopath with a personal vendetta?As always, Joe Pickett is the governor’s go-to man, and he’s put on the case to track the murderous hunter, as more bodies and poker chips turn up.Bold, fast-paced, and with a controversial hook—hunting versus antihunting activists—Blood Trailis proof that C. J. Box is an ever-rising talent.

From the #1 New York Times– bestselling author comes another remarkable novel of espionage today— and right around the corner.Alex Berenson’s The Faithful Spywas declared “one of the best spy stories ever told” (The Wall Street Journal), and The Ghost War“mesmerizing . . . an extraordinary achievement. Wells is a complex blend of smarts, scars, cynicism and wile. And the book’s imaginings seem not so much ‘ripped from the headlines’ as eerily destined to be set in type for tomorrow’s” (The News & Observer). Berenson’s third novel, however, is his most masterful yet.It isn’t easy to steal warheads from the heart of Russia’s nuclear complex in Mayak. It requires a great deal of money, coordination, ingenuity, and sleight-of-hand, and just a touch of luck. But if you’re determined enough, anything is possible.It’s been a rough few years for CIA agent John Wells. The undercover work in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the attack on the United States, the Chinese plot that could have led to war. Wells is exhausted, and his nights filled with disturbing dreams. But he knows he has no time for that. He has made many enemies, and the world won’t stay quiet for long.Nevertheless, Wells is not prepared for what is about to happen. He and his colleague—and fiancée—Jennifer Exley are driving into work when traffic comes to a standstill, due to accidents on both bridges into Washington. A pretty big coincidence, he thinks, beginning to get a bad feeling—a feeling that only gets worse when he spots the red motorcycle zooming up between cars toward him. Before the day is over, several people will be dead or severely injured, Exley among them, and Wells will be a man possessed.The attackers are Russian, and it is to Russia that Wells must follow the trail. He finds what he’s looking for—but also a great deal more. A plan of almost unimaginable consequences is in motion, and Wells has no idea if he has discovered it in time. The last few years have been rough indeed, but the next few weeks will be much, much worse.Real-world threats, authentic details, a scenario as dramatic as it is chillingly plausible, Alex Berenson’s new novel is another “timely reminder of the extremely precarious way we live now” (The Washington Post).

The deadliest weapon . . . is man Top NATO representatives meet in Kiev to forge a new alliance . . . Powerful elements within a newly resurgent Russia decide the alliance must be stopped at all costs . . . The warriors of Dreamland have moved on. Some, like Breanna and Zen Stockard, to positions of power and influence; others, like Danny Freah and Nuri Lupo, into Whiplash, a cutting-edge combination of brain and brawn. Tasked by the President to handle the country's most deadly and sensitive jobs, the elite SpecWarfare unit marries muscle to technological prowess. But can even Whiplash stand up to a covert Russian army of genetically enhanced assassins known only as the Wolves? The stories about them sound like sheer fantasy: the killers are said to be nearly invisible and virtually unstoppable, endowed with super-human strength and endurance. But when Danny Freah and company discover they do exist, Danny stumbles on an even darker and deadlier secret: One Wolf, the most ferocious of all, comes from the heart of Dreamland itself. And Danny saw him die more than a decade before.

"Bernhardt is a master legal tour guide, taking the reader through the labyrinth of the judicial system of America's heartland."--Mostly MurderBen Kincaid is not a superstar attorney. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, there are only a few lawyers who win headlines and big bucks. So when the notorious Apollo Consortium offers Ben a job as their in-house counsel, he takes it--for the money.The violence in the streets outside the Apollo is nothing compared to the backstabbing politics of the firm. And when Ben wins his first case, he unwittingly sets up some bitter rivalry with his colleagues--rivalry that will culiminate in a fellow lawyer's dead body and Ben charged with murder."Ben Kincaid is a refreshing change from the omniscient, holier-than-thou attorney/investigators whose courtroom acrobatics and aerial law displays are more show than substance."--Tulsa World

William Bernhardt’s bestselling novels explore politics, power, ambition, crime, and the law. Now he scales new heights of suspense as, in one harrowing day, lawyer and former senator Ben Kincaid enters the eye of an international storm, a crisis with consequences beyond calculation. Kincaid is in a meeting with the president in the Oval Office when Washington suddenly explodes into chaos. Facing an imminent threat to the White House, Kincaid is whisked, along with the president and his advisors, to the underground PEOC—Presidential Emergency Operations Center—built to withstand a nuclear blast, but vulnerable to another kind of attack. Inside the bunker, defense specialists realize that a malevolent foreign dictator has hacked into the U.S. nuclear defense system and now has a finger on the trigger of America’s most dangerous weapons. The dictator’s message is clear: Heed his demands or suffer unfathomable destruction. Forced to make critical, split-second decisions, the president seems to be falling apart under the pressure. The vice president wants to strip him of his powers—a move that could have a disastrous impact on national defense. But even during this time of upheaval, in order for the president to be removed, there must be a trial. With the clock winding down, Kincaid has precious little time to defend the president.   While Kincaid faces the trial of his life, legendary CIA agent Seamus McKay races through the clogged streets of Washington, searching for a hidden command center—guarded by murderous fanatics—that now controls U.S. ballistic missiles. Two sides of one unforgettable story, McKay and Kincaid home in on their targets. One uses a gun—and any weapon he can get his hands on; the other employs his intuition and the law. And in William Bernhardt’s spectacular thriller, as both move closer and closer to uncovering a world-shattering plot, the ultimate act of betrayal is launched from the heart of America’s capitol itself.