Forensic Mystery Fiction

Forensic artist Gwen Marcey is between jobs when she accepts temporary work in Pikeville, Kentucky - a small town facing big-city crime. But before Gwen can finish her first drawing of the serial rapist who is on the loose, the latest witness vanishes. Just like all the others. Gwen suspects a connection between the rapist and the "accidental" deaths that are happening around town, but the local sheriff has little interest in her theories. When her digitally-obsessed teenage daughter joins her, Gwen turns her attention to a second assignment.

When a coed falls prey to a sadistic murderer, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Caitlin "Caity" Cassidy and Special Agent Atticus Spenser are called in to testify - one for the defense, one for the prosecution. With warring approaches to justice, these two rivals have been butting heads for years - both inside the courtroom and out. And at first, this case appears to be no different. But when a brutal attack leaves the accused man dead and Caity in critical condition, petty differences take a backseat to saving lives. As the lone survivor, Caity knows too much.

In A Face to Die For, New York Times best-selling author Andrea Kane explores the urban legend of the doppelganger, as our favorite team of investigators (Forensic Instincts) find themselves in a conflict of interest between two clients. When one case unexpectedly intersects with the other, the only solution is to find the link between the two and unearth who is pulling the strings and why.

Eleven years ago, the Co-ed Slayer murdered nine female students on the Oregon State University campus. Lacey Campbell barely escaped his attack, but lost her best friend whose remains were never found. As the sole surviving victim, Lacey helped send the sadistic serial killer to prison for life. Now a forensic odontologist examining teeth and bones for the state Medical Examiner, Lacey is devastated when she arrives at a crime scene and identifies the skeletal remains as her college friend’s.

New Orleans criminal psychologist Kit Franklyn, lately drowning in personal doubts about her life and career, thinks that investigating the corpse she found in the garden of her new home will be the perfect distraction. Together with her boss, chief medical examiner Andy Broussard, she sets out to solve this case that seems plain unsolvable. Though they identify the body as a missing hooker, now dead 27 years, all hope of conviction still seems lost.

Forensic psychologist and FBI agent Alexis Forrest's search for the serial killer responsible for her sister's murder has hit a wall. All the evidence she has found has led her to the identities of numerous victims, yet the killer is still unknown. But he knows who she is, and he is watching her from the shadows. He is hiding in plain sight near Broken Hill, the snowy New England town that Alexis used to call home. Meanwhile, a young suburban mother goes missing while out on a morning run. When Alexis starts to dig deeper, she finds out that the woman's perfect marriage and family are not ...

Anthropology Professor Gideon Oliver would prefer to keep his mind on his beautiful new bride, Julie, during their English honeymoon, but one intrusive question will not stop nagging at him: Who would want to steal a 30,000-year-old parieto-occipital calvarial fragment? Yet someone has lifted this chunk of prehistoric human skull from a musty museum in Dorchester. Then, 30 miles away, an archaeology student is murdered, increasing tension and suspicion at a dig that had already seethed with suspicion, rivalry, and mistrust.

An untreatable illness. A dangerous misdiagnosis. A deadly plot that hits too close to home, Drs. Jack Wyatt and Madison Shaw have finally settled in to a comfortable life together. But during a friendly college tour with Jack's daughter Anise, they learn that her mother, Jack's ex-wife, is suffering from a perplexing combination of ominous symptoms. Within days, she and ten of her work colleagues are in the ICU with an identical untreatable illness, Wyatt and Shaw soon find themselves embroiled in another medical mystery. The brightest doctors in Washington D.C.

Officially, Aidan Deveraux is a communications expert for one of the largest financial firms in the world. In his secret life, the former Marine heads the Zermatt Group, a covert team of military and spy agency operatives that searches the data stream for troubling events in an increasingly troubled world. When his artificial intelligence system detects that Lauren Pennington - a college junior studying abroad in Germany - has been kidnapped, Aidan immediately sees the bigger picture.

At the close of the 24th century, a series of revolutions has caused the galaxy to descend into chaos. With the Galactic Union Army stretched thin, mercenary units have arisen for those who have the need - and the means - to hire them. Kay, the alien member of the Cutter Force Initiative, has returned to her brutal home world of Vast on a mission of mercy. Before she joined the merc team, she was a great healer. And now her skills are sorely needed. Hundreds of Vastalimi - including her blood-kin - are mysteriously dying. But is the plague a work of nature? Or is it a bioengineered virus, purposefully unleashed?

When a father vanishes with his two-week-old daughter, leaving behind a frantic wife and their eight-year-old son, forensic psychologist and FBI agent Alexis Forrest is called in to investigate. The man's blood-stained truck is discovered abandoned on a dirt road, but there's no trace of him or the baby. As Alexis delves into the case, she uncovers a tangled web of secrets and lies. With the serial killer responsible for her sister's death now behind bars, Alexis hopes for a fresh start in the small New England town where she grew up. However, peace is hard to find. Alexis tries to move ...

A hotshot venture capitalist—whose gold country is Silicon Valley—hires forensic geologists Cassie Oldfield and Walter Shaws to track his missing brother. The geologists are hooked by the story of this lost man, this wounded soul. And they have the skills to find him. It's what they do: view a rock under the microscope and unravel a mystery. Solve a crime. Prevent a crisis. Find a missing person.

It’s the kind of case that chills Caitlyn to the bone. Missing person. College student. Beloved daughter of a world leader in biotechnology. She was last seen on a spring break cruise. No witnesses. No motives. Just one possible lead - reports of a stranger who may have lured the young archeology major off the ship and into the jungles of Guatemala. When Caitlyn follows her hunch into the jungle - with the FBI’s Jake Carver by her side - the trail takes a surprising turn into the very heart of darkness.

When she finds out that the man convicted of killing her sister may be innocent, FBI agent and forensic psychologist Alexis Forrest goes on the search for the real culprit. Evidence of her sister’s murder was found in a remote cabin, along with traces of dozens more young women. A serial killer has been stalking these woods for decades and he’s still out there. Alexis had returned to Broken Hill, the snowy New England town where she grew up, to investigate another case. But after finding the serial killer’s cabin with evidence of other victims, she will do anything to track him down. ...

When Gideon Oliver and his wife, Julie, are in Tuscany visiting the Cubbiddu family, the renowned Skeleton Detective is asked to reexamine the remains of a mysterious family tragedy. Pietro Cubbiddu, former patriarch of the Villa Antica wine empire, is thought to have killed his wife and then himself in the remote mountains of the Apennines. It does not take long for Gideon to deduce that, whatever happened, a murder-suicide it was not. Soon Gideon finds himself in a morass of family antipathies, conflicts, and mistrust, to say nothing of the local authority's resentment.

There is not much left of the irascible Albert Evan Jasper, "dean of American forensic anthropologists," after his demise in a fiery car crash. But in accord with his wishes, his remains are installed in an Oregon museum to create a fascinating if macabre exhibit. All agree that it is a fitting end for a great forensic scientist - until what is left of him disappears in the midst of the biannual meeting of the august WAFA - the Western Association of Forensic Anthropologists - in nearby Bend, Oregon. Like his fellow attendees, Gideon Oliver - the Skeleton Detective - is baffled.

Blue Magic, the latest designer drug linked to a rash of overdoses, might explain the needle mark on the arm of a young woman found dead in her Kansas City apartment. But when star reporter Rich Azadian digs deeper, the clues point to a far more explosive story: MaryLee Stock was a special protege of evangelical megapastor and power broker Cobalt Becker, who is poised to deliver his followers and the presidency to a firebrand right-wing senator in the next election.

FBI forensic linguist Raisa Susanto thinks she’s through with the past now that her psychopathic serial killer sister, Isabel, is locked away forever. Then Raisa receives a letter from Isabel. It’s just a single message: By the time you read this, I’ll be dead. Soon after, Isabel is discovered dead in her cell, forcing Raisa back into her depraved orbit—one that includes a band of true-crime worshippers obsessed with Isabel, her killing spree, and those who survived it.

Nerves of Steel introduces Dr. Cassandra Hart, a Pittsburgh ER doctor who discovers that her very own hospital is the source of a deadly street drug. When her best friend is murdered and Cassie starts getting death threats, she must trust Detective Mickey Drake to protect her. Yet even as a passionate love affair blossoms between them, a relentless killer draws ever closer.

When Heather McKinley dreamed of becoming a doctor, she imagined curing sick kids and sporting pink stethoscopes. She never anticipated the sleepless nights, grueling exams, and endless labs. And she certainly never knew that her medical school earned the nickname Dead Med thanks to the tragic history of students overdosing on illegal drugs. But Heather would never consider doing anything like that. That is, until her longtime boyfriend dumps her, she finds herself failing anatomy, and her world starts to crumble.