Recommendations based on "The Brutal Heart"

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy's business now. Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts.

In this delightfully creepy mystery, Ruth Galloway―whom #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny calls “a captivating amateur sleuth”―is haunted by a ghost from her past, just as her future lands on shaky ground. ¶ “Its patented combination of mysterious circumstances, police procedure, and agonizing relationship problems will keep you reading, and feeling, all night.” ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review) ¶ Ruth’s partner in crime, DCI Nelson, has been receiving threatening letters. They are anonymous, yet reminiscent of ones he has received in the past, from the person who drew him into a case that’s haunted him for years. At the same time, Ruth receives a letter purporting to be from that very same person―her former mentor, and the reason she first started working with Nelson. But the author of those letters is dead. Or is he? The past is reaching out for Ruth and Nelson, and its grip is deadly.

Investigator Jeri Howard is fascinated by the beautiful horses and the zealous spectators at stylish Edgewater Downs. But behind the scenes, where the owners, trainers, jockeys, and grooms mingle, life is not so pretty. Someone is terrorizing owner-trainer Molly Torrance with sinister phone threats. Who would be so malicious? Jeri's money is on ambitious jockey Benita Pascal, whom Molly recently fired. But what about great horses suddenly losing races? Or the blonde Jeri spies betting a bundle on the longest of long shots? And what about . . . cold-blooded murder? For when death's dark horse hugs the rail, Jeri gallops to find a ruthless killer.

A violent past haunts Sir Walter Maltravers, the wealthy lord of Ingoldby Hall. As a commander during the War of the Roses, he fought alongside Edward IV at the bloody, fratricidal Battle of Towton. Decades earlier, and thousands of miles away, he served in the fanatical bodyguard of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaeologus.There, as Turkish Jannisaries breached Constantinople’s walls and set the city aflame, Sir Walter committed what may have been an unforgivable sin: instead of defending the emperor with his last drop of blood, Maltravers fled. But not before scooping up all the treasure he could carry, including the Lacrima Christi---a giant ruby said to be a holy relic of incalculable value.When the ruby disappears from Canterbury’s Franciscan monastery, Sir Walter fears the emperor’s vengeful loyalists---the Athanatoi---have tracked him to his estate. He doesn’t have much time to ponder his dilemma. Crawling on his bare knees to the shrine at the center of his enormous private hedge maze, the penitent Sir Walter encounters his axe-wielding killer. . . . Maltravers’s head turns up days later, impaled on a pole.Gossips in Canterbury whisper of the fabled Athanatoi, come to claim their bloody due from a traitor. But apothecary Kathryn Swinbrooke doesn’t think so. Her Irish fiancée, Colum Murtagh, the King’s Commissioner in Canterbury, is called in to investigate the crimes. A Renaissance woman in a Middle Age world, Swinbroke comes to believe that all is not as it seems within the cozy confines of Ingoldby Hall. She asks tough questions of the wealthy power-players who seem to hover around the murder case. And before long, the death toll mounts: a maid, a madwoman, a scribe, a retainer. . . . One thing becomes abundantly clear: if Swinbrooke and Murtagh don’t nail down the killer---or killers---soon, they’ll be next!

The eighth outing for Rhona MacLeod, forensic scientistthink CSI Glasgow"""She began to scrape at the mortar. A few minutes later she was able to prise the edge of the brick loose. The resulting rush of foetid air made her gag, but she focussed her torch beam on the enlarged hole and peered inside. Her eyes widened in horror."When art student Jude Evans disappears on a photographic visit to a derelict Glasgow cinema, her friend Liam he enlists the help of his birth mother, forensic scientist Dr. Rhona MacLeod, in his search for Jude. Visiting other derelict cinemas on her list, they find clues to her disappearance and to the horrifying secret she may have discovered behind those walls. Throughout the investigation, Rhona must deal with the news that a face from her past is literally back from the deadbut for how long?"

With Molly Murphy’s wedding to NYPD Captain Daniel Sullivan quickly approaching, the Irish sleuth heads to the Westchester County countryside, where his mother can lend her a hand and advise her on a bride’s proper place. And shockingly, Molly seems to be agreeing. She has already promised that she’ll close up her PI business and settle down after marrying, but she isn’t a married woman yet. So, when she gets word of a possible case, she sneaks back into the city to squeeze in a little more sleuthing before the wedding bells can ring.A wealthy Chinese immigrant wants her to find his missing bride, and Molly---sure she isn’t getting the whole story---suspects that his bride ran off. But where could she go? The only Chinese women in early-twentieth-century New York are kept under lock and key, and Molly can’t help but wonder if she’s saving the woman from the streets or helping to lock her away for good.Rhys Bowen’s deft touch and charming wit make Bless the Bride another stellar addition to her Anthony and Agatha Award--winning historical series.

In his ninth mystery, Constable Evan Evans scours a Welsh mountainside to find a missing woman—and then copes with the subsequent disappearance of his beloved Bronwen...Mt. Snowdon, Yr Wyddfa to the locals, is crawling with tourists in the summer months. So Constable Evans isn’t unduly alarmed when a young female hiker goes missing for a few hours. She might have taken a wrong turn or even stormed off to hide after a tiff with her boyfriend.The routine search turns more ominous, though, when the village police find an underground bunker—complete with handcuffs and chains. Now, as he copes with wedding plans and a visit from his disapproving mother, Evans has a serious investigation on his plate, searching for a link between the still-missing girl and the eerie, empty chamber.And when his own fiancée disappears, the case goes from ominous to terrifying…

With husband Max away in Argentina, Sarah Kelling plans to do a killer job of relaxing at her shorefront home. Then a real killer foils her plans when the administrator of Boston's Wilkins Museum is murdered with a lovely antique hat pin. Named executor of the will, Sarah must find the murderer--before her own life is added to the murderer's collection.

No detection team was ever more mismatched: Julian Kestrel, the debonair and elegant Regency dandy, and Sally Stokes, a bold and bewitching Cockney prostitute and thief. But one night Fate throws them together, giving them the only clue that can unmask a diabolical killer. It all starts in London's notorious Haymarket district, where Sally picks up three men one after the other and nicknames them Bristles, Blue Eyes, and Blinkers. From each of them Sally steals a handkerchief - and from one she mistakenly steals a letter that contains an urgent appeal for help as well. But which man did she get the letter from? Who is the distraught young woman who wrote it? And where is she being held against her will? These questions take on a new urgency when Sally finds the writer of the letter - dead. Luckily, Sally's brother is none other than Dipper, reformed pickpocket and now valet to gifted amateur sleuth Julian Kestrel. The authorities dismiss the girl's death as suicide, but to Kestrel it looks more like murder. To prove it, he must track down Bristles, Blue Eyes, and Blinkers, and find out which of them had the dead girl's letter. Sally uses all her ingenuity and daring to help Kestrel solve this case. But she is out to solve another mystery as well: Is there a man of flesh and blood under Kestrel's impeccable clothes?

A case from the past Could change their future New chief of police Jake Love is just settling in when information on a cold case pops up. Bringing closure to the murder at Vincent Vineyard is his top priority. And having his girlfriend, Ella Bowman, at his side helping with the investigation should have drawn them even closer. But when Ella’s connection to the powerful family leads to threats, the truth’s revelation might destroy them both.  From Harlequin Intrigue: Seek thrills. Solve crimes. Justice served. Discover more action-packed stories in the West Coast Crime series. All books are stand-alone with uplifting endings but were published in the following order: Book 1: The Heart-Shaped Murders Book 2: Danger in the Nevada Desert Book 3: Homicide at Vincent Vineyard