Serial Killer Mystery Fiction

When the body of a bookseller is discovered, collapsed in a pool of blood in his Bristolian bookshop, it is immediately clear that he has been murdered. What is unclear is how someone could have met such a violent end in this quiet, peaceful place. DS Cross is adept at dismissing red-herrings but a worrying development in his personal life has left him hopelessly distracted, leaving his usual means of deciphering evidence challenged.

When the body of a man is found in the dense forest surrounding Black Rock Falls, Sheriff Jenna Alton immediately sees disturbing similarities with a past case - the same murder weapon, the remote beauty spot, and the way the victim is perched against a tree with no sign of a struggle. But the killer in that case was jailed for life.

The X and O Killings A novel by Logan Carter Brooklyn, 1997. The borough is caught in the grip of terror. Bodies are turning up across the city—marked with cryptic symbols: an X... an O. At first, the police dismiss the deaths as random violence. But Dispatch reporter Frankie Moretti sees a pattern emerging: a deadly game of Tic-Tac-Toe being played out in blood across the map of a gritty, pre-digital New York. As the victims pile up, two killers—one brutal and impulsive, the other cold and calculating—race to complete the board. With pagers buzzing, payphones ringing, and the streets...

When a desperate mother calls Denton Police Department to report her children missing, Detective Josie Quinn races to investigate. Sixteen-year-old Kayleigh and her little sister Savannah went for a walk in the woods but never came home. They are good girls and know not to go far, say their frantic parents. Kayleigh always looks after Savannah and brings her home safely. Until now....

A decade ago, Emily Carlino vanished after her car broke down on a California highway. She was presumed to be one of serial killer Ronny Lee Jessup’s victims whose remains were never found. Writer David Thorne still hasn’t recovered from losing the love of his life, or from the guilt of not being there to save her. Then David meets Maddison Sutton, beguiling, playful, and keenly aware of all David has lost. But what really takes his breath away is that everything about Maddison, down to her kisses, is just like Emily.

On a stormy Chicago night, renowned semiotician Dr. Evan Wilding and his brother, River, who’s back from an archaeological dig, reunite in a mystery. A package addressed to both of them contains a hand-drawn maze, an ancient Cretan coin, and a cryptic greeting: Let the game begin. The opening move is murder. In a downtown alley, a man has been found nearly cleaved in two, a symbol drawn on his forehead and a savage rip in his throat. Given the clues, Evan sees a parallel to a fearsome Greek myth. Which means his friend Detective Addie Bisset is on the trail of a legendary flesh-eating monster.

A serial killer is burning people alive in the Lake District's prehistoric stone circles. He leaves no clues, and the police are helpless. When his name is found carved into the charred remains of the third victim, disgraced detective Washington Poe is brought back from suspension and into an investigation he wants no part of. He is reluctantly partnered with brilliant but socially awkward civilian analyst Tilly Bradshaw, and the mismatched pair uncover a trail that only he is meant to see. The elusive killer has a plan, and for some reason Poe is part of it.

Detective Mia Hart never planned to return home. One terrifying summer night, Mia lost two of her closest friends to suicide. Scarred and broken, she fled St. Lucy’s, a small island off the coast of Maine. Now fifteen years later, when the body of a journalist is fished out of the bay near St. Lucy’s cliffs, Mia is forced to help with the case - and face all she’s been running from. As she approaches the island, the wintery winds of Black Rock Bay usher Mia home again.

Find my killer. Rachel Ryder's world is catapulted into chaos with the discovery of a dire note on her front door begging her to solve the murder of former MLB star, Ryan Hicks. Ryan Hicks, who is very much alive. Initially written off as a dark twist on a promotional campaign for his new charter school, the grim reality hits home when Rachel and partner, Rob Bishop, find Hicks's lifeless body in his lavish home, turning a dismissed warning into a desperate plea for justice.

Rainey Paxton is convinced there is a link between the disappearances of several women and her friend Winnie. Her obsession leads her back to the mysterious house where she said goodbye to Winnie years prior. Rainey is certain there is something sinister about the man who took her friend to Florida. Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Dakota Jagger is on her own, looking for shelter. While roaming the city streets, Dakota meets a charming and persuasive man who offers to help her. This is the same man who stalks women and keeps them as his own.

Addison has it all: beauty, money, youth. She’s set to inherit the bulk of her father’s wealth, and takeover running his companies. But someone wants her dead. How far would you go to survive? Beaten, shot, and running from the men who want her dead, she escapes, but when a man living in the remote wilderness finds her unconscious, broken and bleeding, will he be friend or foe? *** Johnny was sent to prison because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but now he’s out and he doesn’t want to play nursemaid to a stubborn, obstinate, sexy as hell female. He went off the grid to...

Washington Poe has a story to tell. And he needs you to listen. You'll hear how it started with the robber birds. Crows. Dozens of them. Enough for a murder. He'll tell you about a man who was tied to a tree and stoned to death, a man who had tattooed himself with a code so obscure, even the gifted analyst Tilly Bradshaw struggled to break it. He'll tell you how the man's murder was connected to a tragedy that happened fifteen years earlier when a young girl massacred her entire family. And finally, he'll tell you about the mercy chair.

It’s a time for celebration. Unfortunately in Twilight Cove, the festivity is masking something ominous... PI Dean Steele has had to solve many strange mysteries throughout his career. This time he is called to the small seaside town to unmask the truth behind a chilling murder. Who would kill a man and tie him up to a parade float? While following clues in this case, Dean stumbles upon an intricate web of secrets. Skeletons that seemed to have shaped Twilight Cove for many generations. Across town at the palatial home of Joseph Palmer, a Gatsby-like figure. The most incredible party in ...

Hannah Wilson can't text her ex again - it's too sad. She can't snap back at the new boss who took her promotion either - she'll be fired. But what she can do is write a series of furious letters to William Thompson, arrested for the murders of multiple women he got close to.

Computational biologist and serial-killer hunter Dr. Theo Cray receives an off-the-record request from the FBI to investigate an inexplicable double homicide. It happened at the excavation site where a murderer had buried his victims’ remains. In custody is a forensic technician in shock, with no history of aggression. He doesn’t remember a thing. His colleagues don’t even recognize the man they thought they knew. But an MRI reveals something peculiar. And abnormal.

FBI agent Alex Cross is on vacation with his family at Disneyland when he gets a call from the Director. A well-known actress was shot outside her home in Beverly Hills. Shortly afterward, an editor for the Los Angeles Times receives an e-mail describing the murder in vivid detail.

When five Texas women disappear without trace, each on Saturday nights, the local authorities call in the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit. The newest member of this elite group of criminal profilers, Caitlin Hendrix, is all too familiar with hunting society's most depraved and twisted criminals. She suspects that the women were taken by a highly confident killer who convinces victims to lower their guard so he can gain power over them. But there's no evidence that any of the victims are dead - until a dog drags home a bloody strip of fabric torn from a white baby doll nightgown.

There’s no mercy for the wicked. And the heart of a killer will not be spared. PI Dean Steele has put many evil masked men behind bars. While attending a wrestling match with Xavier, Dean witnesses one of the masked wrestlers drops unconscious on stage. The unmasking reveals a shocking twist, and the death causes a ripple throughout the entire Wrestling Federation. Dean goes undercover and stumbles upon clues that may change everything. When another wrestler’s body is found, brutally murdered, it appears that these Goliath-like men are being strategically taken out. Dean has wrestled ...

Months after discovering the mastermind behind her own kidnapping, Detective Jude Fontaine is dealing with the past the only way she knows how: by returning to every dark corner of it. But it’s a new, escalating series of mass slayings that has become her latest obsession at Homicide. At first, Jude and her partner, Detective Uriah Ashby, can see no pattern to the seemingly random methods, the crime scenes, or the victims - until they’re approached by a brilliantly compulsive math professor.

[Original Novella Version, now replaced by the novel length Extended Version] Detective Richard Burnside is a long way from Earth system. For two years he's been tracking a serial killer, and finally he falls only hours short of preventing the next kill. Avon PD are as much use as any other PD when it comes to this killer, but this time, has the killer finally slipped up? Thinking you know the next target doesn’t help much unless someone will believe you. General Price introduces Burnside to Captain Jane, and with Janet's help, they set a trap for the killer on Hunter's Redoubt. But is ...