Serial Killer Mystery Fiction

Police Chief Jesse Stone has a problem—actually, several problems: dead bodies keep turning up. Investigating a serial killer in an affluent suburban town is difficult, and with the added pressures from the town selectmen and media, the heat is turning up on Jesse. The harder these outside forces push against him, the more Jesse retreats into himself. Despite all the odds, he's convinced it is up to him alone to stop the killings.

Returning home from a trip to Paris, Boston medical examiner Maura Isles confronts a nightmarish scene. Police cruisers line her street and slumped in a car at the end of Maura's driveway is a dead woman, her head bloodied by a gunshot wound. Cops and neighbors gape at her as she approaches. Only when Maura looks at the victim does she understand why everyone is so shocked by her arrival. The dead woman looks exactly like Maura.

Doing everything chaotic to get her family's attention, Ayana finally got her wish to meet her sisters. But Faith and Zaira felt like Ayana had failed to live up to the expectations of being a Black Ice girl and attempted to end her life, filling her with bullet holes. Ayana learned that family could also be her worst enemy; the bond she yearned for was not the family she needed.

Aethelburg City is drowning in fear. A chillingly precise killer dubbed "The Puppeteer" stalks the rain-slicked streets, leaving elaborately staged victims like grotesque marionettes. The police are lost, and Detective Jack Donovan, haunted by his past, is running out of time. Then the whispers begin. Voices only Jack can hear, offering cryptic clues, impossible insights into the killer's mind. Are they a lifeline, or the first sign of his own unraveling?

Detective Alex Cross and Bree's wedding plans are put on hold when Alex is called to the scene of the perfectly executed assassination of two of Washington D.C.'s most corrupt: a dirty congressmen and a scheming lobbyist. Next, the elusive marksman begins picking off other crooked politicians, sparking a blaze of theories - is the marksman a hero or a vigilante? The case explodes and FBI agent Max Siegel battles Alex for jurisdiction.

He performs his profane ceremony in a wooded Minneapolis park, anointing his victims, then setting the bodies ablaze. He has already claimed three lives, and he won't stop there. Only this time there is a witness. But she isn't talking. Enter Kate Conlan, former FBI agent turned victim/witness advocate. Not even she can tell if the reluctant witness is a potential victim or something more troubling still.

Sue Grafton's X: Perhaps her darkest and most chilling novel, it features a remorseless serial killer who leaves no trace of his crimes. Once again breaking the rules and establishing new paths, Grafton wastes little time identifying this sociopath. The test is whether Kinsey can prove her case against him before she becomes his next victim.

Saffy Huntley-Oliver is an intelligent and glamorous socialite; she also happens to be a proficient serial killer. For the past fifteen years, she’s hunted down and dispatched rapists, murderers, domestic abusers—bad men all. But leading a double life has left her lonely—dating’s tough when your boyfriend might turn out to be your next victim. Saffy thinks she’s finally found a truly good man in Jonathan Desrosiers, a true-crime podcaster who’s amassed legions of diehard fans for cracking cold cases and bringing justice to victims.

When vandals destroy beach hut 512 on Brighton’s iconic seafront, they reveal a dead body that has apparently lain undisturbed for two months. But according to the hut’s owner, Sims, its locks rusted shut three months ago and she hasn’t had access to it since. So how could the man have got in, and why is there no evidence of the murderer?

On the day she returns to active duty with the Serial Crimes Unit, Detective Inspector Anjelica Henley is called to a crime scene. Dismembered body parts from two victims have been found by the river. The modus operandi bears a striking resemblance to Peter Olivier, the notorious Jigsaw Killer, who has spent the past two years behind bars. When he learns that someone is co-opting his grisly signature - the arrangement of victims’ limbs in puzzle-piece shapes - he decides to take matters into his own hands.

When Lieutenant Mark Wheeler of the South Carolina Police Department arrives at a possible murder-suicide, he realizes almost immediately things are amiss. The crime scene is brutal, but upon further investigation, he unveils a sadistic killer at play who will stop at nothing to get away. As the case unfolds, nothing can prepare Wheeler for the gauntlet of turmoil and trouble. Relentlessly pursuing a psychopath who has flown under the radar for years, Mark fights to keep control—driven to bring this monster to justice. Will the sadistic killer finally be caught or will his instincts which...

When homicide detective Gabe Quinn returns to the Los Angeles streets after the senseless murder of his wife Hope, he thinks he's fought off all the demons that life can throw his way. But his first case back may prove to be his last. A repeat killer is in town. A killer who is on a personal mission to bring Gabe to his knees, luring him into a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Mickie Lambert creates “digital scrapbooks” for clients, ensuring that precious souvenirs aren’t forgotten or lost. When her latest client, Nadia Denham, a curio shop owner, dies from an apparent suicide, Mickie honors the old woman’s last wish and begins curating her peculiar objets d’art. A music box, a hair clip, a key chain - twelve mementos in all that must have meant so much to Nadia. But these tokens mean a lot to someone else, too. Mickie has been receiving threatening messages to leave Nadia’s past alone.

In 1998, an apparently ordinary Australian man is arrested and charged for a series of brutal murders. The news shocks the nation, bringing both horror and resolution to the victims’ families, but its impact travels even further: into the past, as the murders rewrite personal histories, and into the future, as true crime podcasts and biopics tell the story of the crimes. Highway Thirteen, Fiona McFarlane’s newest collection, takes murder as its starting point, but it unfolds to encompass much more.

Dismembered bodies of women for hire litter the sides of the road in rural Tennessee. It has happened before, 30 years prior. Not knowing if the murders are that of a copycat or the original killer making a reappearance, Agent Hank Rawlings, along with Agent Beth Harper, is once again dispatched to the scene. With little help from the local authorities and limited resources at their disposal, Hank, Beth, and a local agent are tasked with pulling back the layers of deceit to circle closer to the man responsible.

Melissa Sanderson is the perfect wife and mother. She dotes on her daughter and lives in her dream home in a quiet cul-de-sac in the suburbs. But looks can be deceiving. Something is amiss in that house - all the neighbors think so. Some say Melissa is having an affair. Others say she’s been drinking too much. Then one night, sirens wake up the whole neighborhood. Melissa Sanderson is dead.

Five years ago Elizabeth Piccioni's husband was arrested for being a serial killer. Her life suddenly turned upside down, she did what she thought was best for her newborn baby: she took her son and ran away to start a new life. Now, living in a quiet part of the Midwest with a new identity, Elizabeth is ready to start over. But one day she receives a phone call from a person calling himself Cain. Cain somehow knows about her past life. He has abducted her son, and if Elizabeth wants to save him she must retrieve her husband's trophies - the fingers he cut off each of his victims.

Each time he struck, he took two victims. He waited for the first body to be discovered - a body containing all the clues the investigators needed to find the second victim. The clock ticked - the police were never in time. Years have passed and the game begins again. Two girls have disappeared...and the clock is ticking. Rookie FBI agent Kimberly Quincy knows the killer's deadline can be met. But she'll have to beat a criminal at a game he's had time to perfect.

In the dead of a swelteringly hot summer's night, Detective Erika Foster is called to a murder scene. The victim, a doctor, is found suffocated in bed. His wrists are bound and his eyes bulging through a clear plastic bag tied tight over his head. A few days later, another victim is found dead in exactly the same circumstances. As Erika and her team start digging deeper, they discover a calculated serial killer - stalking their victims before choosing the right moment to strike.

Capri Sanzio knows that when you give serial killer walking tours for a living, unexpected situations are more common than San Francisco's famous fog. So, when one of her guests claims to see a woman being attacked during a tour, Capri remains unphased. The police search the apartment in question and find no evidence of anything amiss, so they chalk it up to a false report from a true crime fanatic looking to be a part of a case. And Capri thinks they might be right, since lately her tours have been attracting even more obsessives than usual.