Crime Forensics Fiction Thriller

People are again dropping like flies in Dr. Steele's ER. She is facing another string of unexplained deaths, but this time it's even harder. Why? Because she doesn't mind seeing them dead. They are the worst of the worst: Wife beaters, child abusers, pet killers, and downright psychopaths that the law failed to punish. Even worse, it fails to protect their innocent victims. Can this be God's work? Did God get busy cleaning their community of evil? Emma doesn't think so. She finds the answer disturbingly near. It isn't God; it's a human, way too close for comfort.

It's Mardi Gras season in post-Katrina New Orleans. City officials expect record crowds and the biggest boost to the Crescent City economy since the big storm. Alexandra Lee Destephano, legal counsel for Crescent City Medical Center, is anticipating her third Mardi Gras season and her date with Mitch Landry to the biggest Mardi Gras ball in New Orleans. But hold on. Alex is stat-paged to the hospital and learns from her boss and former husband that the wife of the governor of Louisiana has been found unconscious and covered in blood in her hospital room.

The "book of the dead" is the morgue log in which all cases are entered. For Kay Scarpetta, however, it is about to have a new meaning. She moves to South Carolina in the hope of a quieter life, but then a series of violent murders begins.

People come to Hades Archer to dispose of their 'problems' - for a fee. But one night he makes a decision that will change everything. Twenty years later, homicide detective Frank Bennett meets his new partner, the dark and beautiful Eden Archer. But there's something strange about Eden and her brother, Eric. Something he can't quite put his finger on. And as they race to catch a serial killer, Frank starts to wonder if she's as dangerous as the man they hunt.

Dr. Strangeways meets the only woman he has ever really cared for, the hermit-like yet mysterious Angelina Frood, a striking young actress stalked by many demons. Tragedy strikes and the good doctor will do anything to solve the mystery. Following a chance encounter, he begins a correspondence with the famous Dr. Thorndyke, hoping that the medico-legal hybrid, a metaphorical centaur or merman, with a doctor's head and a lawyer's tail, can solve the case.

Few know the city of Los Angeles the way #1 bestselling author and acclaimed suspense master Jonathan Kellerman does. His thrilling novels of psychological drama and criminal detection make the capital of dreams a living, breathing character in all its glamour and infamy. That storied history of fame, seduction, scandal, and murder looms large in Mystery, as Alex Delaware finds himself drawn into a twisting, shadowy whodunit that’s pure L.A. noir—and vintage Kellerman.

Forensic entomologist Vanessa Marwood has built her career on her love of insects and the vital information these tiny creatures can provide at the scene of a crime. Just as she is about to board a plane for her dream job at a lab in New York, Vanessa receives a call about a chilling set of murders in her hometown. Not only have four innocent victims lost their lives in a single night, but the killer has sewn spider silk into their wounds. Vanessa swore she would never return to Greensands. But this case, and the dark secrets of her childhood, are drawing her back.

Master of suspense Jeffery Deaver returns with the latest gripping thriller featuring paraplegic forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme. Amelia Sachs is hot on the trail of a killer. She's chasing him through a department store in Brooklyn when suddenly the escalator malfunctions. The stairs give way, and several people are trapped, with one man horribly mangled by the gears. Sachs is forced to let her quarry escape as she jumps in to try to help save the victims.

When a body is found half-submerged in a molten mud pot in one of Rotorua's famous geothermal wonderlands, forensics expert Alexa Glock spots a way to prolong her stay in New Zealand, which she has been visiting for work. Teeth are her expertise, and the investigation needs her help, as other ways of identifying the body may have...melted away. Joining Detective Inspector Bruce Horne and his team, Alexa discovers that the murder victim, a city councilman, had trespassed on an island sacred to the Maori.

Liverpool, 1855. Ada Houston is alone. Her grandfather has recently passed away, and her brother is missing, last seen working on the Liverpool docks. Everyone assumes him to be dead. But she will not give up hope. Ada's determined search takes her to the Crimea, where she joins the team of Florence Nightingale's nurses. She may have set off looking for her brother, but along the way Ada finds friends, romance and a new purpose in her own life in the most troubling and difficult of places.

When forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is brought in to analyse a shallow grave on Scotland’s west coast, she is disturbed by a bundle of twigs crafted into a stickman and left in the victim’s mouth. Then, when a young woman is reported missing from a nearby campsite with another sinister figurine left in her van, it seems that someone is targeting wild campers. An idyllic coastline known for providing peace and serenity, now the area is a hunting ground.

It's been 101 days since Felix Hoffmann's girlfriend, Celine, left Berlin in a humanitarian convoy carrying aid to Kurdish northern Iraq. Now her coffin returns home. With the Iraq War all but begun, the story coming from Baghdad is that the young woman orchestrated the very bomb attack that killed her. But a devastated Felix, doctor at South Berlin Hospital, cannot believe that Celine would willingly participate in such an act, and certain clues - as well as questioning from German, Iraqi, and American agencies - raise the good doctor's suspicions.

How did it all begin? I suppose it would be the day I rescued a new-born baby from a poisonous snake, heard the news of my mother’s death and encountered my first ghost... Veterinary surgeon Clara Benning is young and intelligent, but practically a recluse. Disfigured by a childhood accident, she lives alone and shies away from human contact wherever possible.

Jacob Malecki killed fifteen people over a thirteen-year period. At the height of the murders, Dr. Jo McCready was at university and, as an exercise, compiled a profile of Malecki, which broke open the case and helped send him down for life. Twenty-five years later a copycat killer is re-creating his murders. What's more, Malecki offers to help the police catch him from his own prison cell. Malecki claims he's repenting for his crimes. Jo doubts it, but as the body count rises, she can't ignore the killer's offer. What does he really want - and can Jo find out before anyone else dies?

When a priest is brutally gunned down in front of St. Jerome's Chinese-American Catholic Church, Father Luis Chavez is asked by the archdiocese to lead an inquiry. With the confessed killer already in custody, it looks like an open-and-shut case. That is, until Father Chavez digs deeper. As the killer's confession unravels, Father Chavez teams up with Deputy District Attorney Michael Story to get to the bottom of it. Together, they discover a conspiracy leading back to one of the world's oldest criminal organizations.

Ten years ago in California, Daniel Pell, a self-styled Charles Manson, was sentenced to life in prison for murdering an entire family: husband, wife, and two children, plus one of his young male followers. He is brought to Salinas, California, to interview with Kathryn Dance after he is implicated in yet another killing. Things go terribly wrong during an interview break, and Pell escapes, intent on killing again.

Justice is worth the risk The death of a child is always heartbreaking, but what Kenzie Kirsch, assistant to the Medical Examiner, finds on her slab shakes her to the core. Kenzie can't help but feel a surge of anger and sadness as she examines the evidence. As she delves deeper into the case, Kenzie uncovers a tangled web of lies and deceit. But Kenzie is not one to back down from a challenge. She will not rest until the guilty are brought to justice. With each new piece of evidence, Kenzie's resolve grows. The truth must be revealed, no matter the cost to her professional career. If ...

Just as the bidding gets exciting in a Bath auction house, three armed men stage a hold-up and attempt to steal Lot 129, a medieval carving of the Wife of Bath. The highest bidder, appalled to have the prize snatched away, tries to stop them and is shot dead. Peter Diamond, head of the murder squad, soon finds himself sharing an office with the stone wife - until he is ejected. To his extreme annoyance the lump of stone appears to exert a malign influence over him and his investigation.

Dr. Harry Corbett heads to the hospital to visit his wife, Evie, scheduled for surgery the next day, and finds, much to his shock, that Evie is dead. The police suspect homicide. Their only suspect is Harry. Harry is unprepared for the stunning revelations that follow: his bright, beautiful, highly ambitious wife was leading a double life. But what secret was explosive enough for her to die for?

Two innocent women have been brutally murdered, their bodies left at neolithic burial sites across the island of Jersey. Detective Inspector Winter Labey leads the investigation, calling on forensic psychologist Saskia Monet to help unravel the killer's twisted motives. But Saskia harbours a dark secret of her own that threatens to derail the case, and when a suspect emerges with a connection to the prison where Saskia works, the investigation begins to hit dangerously close to home.