Recommendations based on "Something Wicked A McKenzie Novel"

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.

The Number One bestseller from the award-winning Stuart MacBride. The seventh DS Logan McRae thriller is a gripping page-turner in which fame and fortune crash head-on with crime and punishment. No suspects. No clues. No rest for the wicked. 'You will raise money for the safe return of Alison and Jenny McGregor. If you raise enough money within fourteen days they will be released. If not, Jenny will be killed.' Alison and Jenny McGregor - Aberdeen's own mother-daughter singing sensation - are through to the semi-finals of TV smash-hit Britain's Next Big Star. They're in all the gossip magazines, they've got millions of YouTube hits, everyone loves them. But their reality-TV dream has turned into a real-life nightmare. The ransom demand appears in all the papers, on the TV, and the internet, telling the nation to dig deep if they want to keep Alison and Jenny alive. The media want action; the public displays of grief and anger are reaching fever-pitch. Time is running out, but DS Logan McRae and his colleagues have nothing to go on: the kidnappers haven't left a single piece of forensic evidence. The investigation is going nowhere. It looks as if the price of fame just got a lot higher...

In The Chase, Clive Cussler introduced an electrifying new hero, the tall, lean, no-nonsense detective Isaac Bell, who, driven by his sense of justice, travels early-twentieth-century America pursuing thieves and killers . . . and sometimes criminals much worse. It is 1907, a year of financial panic and labor unrest. Train wrecks, fires, and explosions sabotage the Southern Pacific Railroad's Cascades express line and, desperate, the railroad hires the fabled Van Dorn Detective Agency. Van Dorn sends in his best man, and Bell quickly discovers that a mysterious saboteur haunts the hobo jungles of the West, a man known as the Wrecker, who recruits accomplices from the down-and-out to attack the railroad, and then kills them afterward. The Wrecker traverses the vast spaces of the American West as if he had wings, striking wherever he pleases, causing untold damage and loss of human life. Who is he? What does he want? Is he a striker? An anarchist? A revolutionary determined to displace the ?privileged few? A criminal mastermind engineering some as yet unexplained scheme? Whoever he is, whatever his motives, the Wrecker knows how to create maximum havoc, and Bell senses that he is far from done'that, in fact, the Wrecker is building up to a grand act unlike anything he has committed before. If Bell doesn't stop him in time, more than a railroad could be at risk'it could be the future of the entire country. Filled with intricate plotting and dazzling set pieces, The Wrecker is one of the most entertaining thrillers in years.

Punished for his maverick ways, FBI agent Mark Beamon has been exiled from Washington, D.C., to a sleepy Southwest office where he's got one last chance to play by the rules. But that's not going to happen, not when he's on a case that may be too hot even for his unorthodox talents to handle. A local millionaire and his wife are brutally murdered. Jennifer, their teenage child and sole heir, is the prime suspect - and she's gone missing. Laying everything on the line, Beamon sets off on a trail that takes him from a remote survivalist's cabin in the Utah mountains, through the labyrinthine headquarters of a cultlike church, into the shadowy, interlocking boardrooms of a powerful high-tech communications empire. Just when he thinks he's close to finding answers, Beamon discovers the killing of Jennifer's parents is far more sinister than even he could have guessed. Now he isn't just looking for a young girl - he's got to stop a bizarre conspiracy that could bring America to its knees . . .

The New York Times hails David Mark's work as "in the honorable tradition of Joseph Wambaugh and Ed McBain." SORROW BOUND is the third installment of the internationally acclaimed Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy series. The sweltering summer heat is pushing Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy and the Serious and Organized Crime Unit to the brink as a sadistic new boss takes over the local drug trade and violent crime escalates. Then, McAvoy and DS Trish Pharaoh are distracted by something deadlier: a serial murderer with a taste for the macabre. McAvoy comes to suspect these are actually copycat murders, committed as revenge for mishandled police investigations conducted years ago. But when one of McAvoy's fellow police officers is blackmailed, McAvoy's life--and that of his wife, Roisin, and the couple's two young children--is suddenly in jeopardy. As the vicious monsters lurking in the shadows creep closer and closer to home, McAvoy must figure out a way to protect his family at all costs. David Mark's latest Detective Sergeant McAvoy novel, CRUEL MERCY, is on-sale February 2017.

Travel into the dark underworld of Glasgow, Scotland, in the suspenseful, award-winning organized-crime thriller series that the New York Times calls "habit-forming."Hit man Calum MacLean has finally had enough of killing. And he's planning an unprecedented escape just as his employers need him the most -- Glasgow's biggest criminal organizations are gearing up for a final, fatal confrontation.The panic over Calum's abrupt disappearance may finally give Detective Michael Fisher the chance he needs to close the case of a lifetime. But first, he must track down a man who has become a master at staying in the shadows."[Mackay's] Glasgow Trilogy is classic . . . The subject is organized crime, but it's the author's blunt eloquence that matters. Don't pick up a Mackay book unless you've got spare time. They're habit-forming." --Janet Maslin, The New York Times"It's been a long time since so many pages went by so fast . . . Mackay is a natural storyteller [with] a voice to which we're happy to surrender. Surprisingly rewarding . . . a thriller trilogy that thrills. "--Dennis Drabelle, The Washington Post"Bracing . . . remarkable." --Adam Woog, Seattle Times

The breathtaking, devastating second novel in the acclaimed Glasgow Trilogy, a Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year.How does a gunman retire? Frank MacLeod was the best at what he does. Thoughtful. Efficient. Ruthless. But with his health failing him, how long before he's no longer of use to his employers?A new job. A target. But something is about to go horribly wrong. And up-and-coming hitman Calum MacLean will be called upon to pick up the pieces.Most gunmen say goodbye to the world with a bang. Frank's still here. No longer in his prime, certainly. But with decades of experience at the top of his profession. Underestimating such a man could prove to be deadly.

Read by Darren McGavinSix Cassettes, 9 hoursIncludes: THE DEEP BLUE GOODBYE, THE LONELY SILVER RAIN & ONE FEARFUL YELLOW EYETHE DEEP BLUE GOODBYETravis McGee: He's a self-described beach bum who won his houseboat in a card game. He's also a knight errant who's wary of credit cards, retirement benefits, political parties, mortgages, and television. He only works when his cash runs out and his rule is simple: he'll help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half....THE LONELY SILVER RAINKeeping himself alive is something detective Travis McGee has always taken for granted -- until his search for a wealthy friend's missing yacht places him square in the center of the international cocaine trade. Following a trail that leads him from Miami's lavish penthouse suites to a remote village in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Travis finds himself the target of some of the most ruthless villains he"s ever met.ONE FEARFUL YELLOW EYETravis McGee arrives in Chicago to investigate the theft of thousands of dollars during Glory Doyle's husband's last painful year and comes across a particularly sadistic blackmailer.

On the heels of the New York Times bestselling Dead Shot comes the most thrilling installment of the Kyle Swanson series yet, in which an attempt at a new peace in the Middle East is shattered by an unknown attacker, and only Swanson can find out who’s responsibleAt a 15th Century castle outside Edinburgh, Scotland, Sir Geoffrey Cornwell is brokering an unprecedented agreement. Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and the Israeli Foreign Minister are scheduled to sign an historic peace treaty—that is, until their meeting is violently interrupted by a missile strike that leaves the Foreign Minister of Israel dead and Cornwell and the Prince injured.Gunnery Sergeant Kyle Swanson is running covert missions in the mountains of Pakistan when he’s called away from duty. He leaves for the U.K., where he thwarts another attempt on the prince of Saudi Arabia’s life. The attackers are Middle Eastern, but they aren’t working for Al Qaeda—they’re employed by foreign operatives opposed to the peace agreement and determined to claim Saudi oil reserves for themselves by whatever means necessary. Meanwhile, out of hiding and back from the dead comes Juba, one of the deadliest terrorists in the world and Kyle Swanson’s nemesis, who is determined to exact revenge on the man who nearly took his life.With scenes of tremendous suspense that span the globe, Clean Kill puts Swanson in the sights of a group whose greed and vengeance know no limits. But their deadly ambitions also bring them into his sights, which is the wrong place to be.

New York Times Bestselling Author of Die a StrangerEdgar Award–winner Steve Hamilton introduced one of the most compelling characters in modern fiction with Alex McKnight. In Ice Run, Alex finds himself in the middle of a very strange mystery with much greater consequences than he ever anticipated. . . .Alex McKnight is happier than he can remember being in a long time. And it's all because of a woman—Natalie Reynaud, a Canadian police officer. When they take a romantic weekend together at an old luxury hotel, however, they receive an unexpected message—someone has left a hat filled with snow, and a note that reads, "I know who you are." As Alex searches for an explanation, he must face up against a terrible Reynaud family secret, a secret that to this day still drives men to kill.