Small Town Thriller

Katie Benard reluctantly returns home to Grady Lake two decades after her older sister Malorie disappeared without a trace, a story that has captivated the nation since the day she was reported missing in 2003. After leaving home years ago, Katie is overjoyed to reunite with her childhood best friend and cousin while working at her family's lakeside resort at the end of tourist season in northern Michigan. Just when life begins to feel normal again, a teenage girl goes missing from the resort. She has vanished without a trace, just like Malorie.

Meet twenty-two-year-old Cherry Pye (née Cheryl Bunterman), a pop star since she was fourteen—and about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster.

In a small town, rests a hallowed estate shrouded in secrecy… Mystery and horror surround a long-abandoned estate, seemingly forgotten by the town. What was thought to be a new beginning for Beth Claymont soon devolves into an endless nightmare of hidden secrets and a troubled past best left unturned.

When a young archaeologist discovers a set of human remains, the locals are intrigued. Is it an ancient find—or a more contemporary mystery? Then an elderly woman is fatally shot and Ann Cleeves's popular series detective Jimmy Perez is called in. As claustrophobic mists swirl around the island, Inspector Perez finds himself totally in the dark.

The greatest days of Heather Matthews' life have taken place in Delta County. Unfortunately, so have the worst. Ten years after an unspeakable tragedy took the lives of the two people she loved the most, Heather returns to her hometown for a class reunion with her high school sweetheart, who is now her husband. Just when she recalls all the reasons to love the idyllic lakeside town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, her life is once again turned upside down. Heather must push her grief aside and investigate the events that occurred the night of the reunion.

What if the serial killer you were chasing was closer than you think? Small town detective, Shelby Moore, has kept a case board on her mother’s ten-year-old murder in her basement. When beautiful women start dying with the same words written next to them that were next to her mother, Shelby believes she may have finally gotten a break. The only thing is…the killer shares something very precious with Shelby. Something she can’t shake off. Scottish cop, Colin MacKenzie, left disaster behind and moved to the rural landscape of Arkansas. The last thing he expected was for his past ...

Some memories don’t drown. They wait.When Erin Mallory returns to Greywater Cove, she isn’t just revisiting the home she fled. She’s stepping back into a story the sea never stopped telling. The coastal town has tried to paint over its past, but the cracks always return. Spirals surface in sand and salt. Children hum songs that no one remembers teaching them. And the sea, silent for years, has begun to whisper again. Erin’s bloodline carries a debt, and the sea is calling it in. Driven by dreams, tormented by the voice of her lost sister, and pursued by a legacy she never chose to ...

True crime podcaster Trinity Scott is chasing breakout success, and her brand-new serial may get her there. Her subject is Clayton Jay Pelley. More than two decades ago, the respected family man and guidance counselor confessed to the brutal murder of teenage student Leena Rai. But why he killed her has always been a mystery. In a series of exclusive interviews from prison, Clayton discloses to Trinity the truth about what happened that night beneath Devil’s Bridge. It’s not what anyone in the Pacific Northwest town of Twin Falls expects.

Charlotte Parks feels like she’s going crazy. From misplaced items and phantom scents to specters of the past in the form of hallucination. But as the incidents become more targeted, the coincidences increasingly cruel, Charlotte begins to suspect that someone is deliberately using her family history of psychosis to torment her for their own ends. Escaping to the serene waters of Lake Rabun, she first runs afoul of the local sheriff, Ethan McCloud, before finding it necessary to enlist his aid. Is Charlotte being stalked, or is she simply paranoid? Because sometimes the most treacherous ...

With his acknowledged individual storytelling expertise, D. M. Mitchell pens yet another taut psychological thriller with a difference that twists and turns to its deliciously devious and unexpected conclusion. Discover for yourself why D. M. Mitchell is being hailed as one of the most exciting new writers of thriller and supernatural tales in the UK. From reviews of Max: "Downloaded to take on holiday and was glad I did. Different to any other mystery thriller which I've read before which was really interesting and refreshing!" "Max! A Brilliant Book. Words can't describe how good this ...

When Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor, Jo. Despite her reservations, Katie begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community..

To the distaste of the Compton Dando villagers, the big house has been taken over by a group of New Age eccentrics. And when the first death is reported, no one is surprised...or disappointed. The coroner rules it an accident. But only weeks later, there’s another death. And this time, it is murder. Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby is called to the scene immediately, and there’ll be no escape until he has sifted through the world of psychics, cult leaders and horrifying deaths to get to the cause of it all.

When the roar of a low-flying plane awakens him in the middle of the night, Sheriff Winston Barnes knows something strange is happening at the nearby airfield on the coast of North Carolina. But nothing can prepare him for what he finds: a large airplane has crash-landed and is now sitting sideways on the runway, and there are no signs of a pilot or cargo. When the body of a local man is discovered—shot dead and lying on the grass near the crash site—Winston begins a murder investigation that will change the course of his life.

Adam Alba has spent years drifting from town to town, outrunning a past marked by trauma, an intuition he doesn’t fully understand, and a lingering sense that someone is always watching. When he gets off the bus in a small, quiet town, all he wants is a hot shower and a good night’s sleep. But when a man collapses at his feet, gasping his final breath, what first appears to be an accident quickly reveals itself as something far more calculated. Within hours, Adam finds himself the prime suspect in a murder investigation that has rocked the seemingly idyllic town of Ur. In a close-knit ...

When eight-year-old Kathy Stone turns up on the side of the road a year after her abduction, the world awaits her harrowing story. But Kathy doesn’t say a word. Traumatized by her ordeal, she doesn’t speak at all, not even to her own parents. Child therapist Robin Hart is the only one who’s had success connecting with the girl. Robin has been using play therapy to help Kathy process her memories. But as their work continues, Kathy’s playtime takes a grim turn: a doll stabs another doll, a tiny figurine is chained to a plastic toy couch.

On the run across the 1960s South, agents for a civil rights group are hunted by ruthless killers determined to silence them. Madeline Sterling and Socrates Gray have uncovered damning evidence in the brutal murders of civil rights workers. Now, they're the targets. Hunted by shadowy figures, they must evade capture while piecing together a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of power. When Gray is kidnapped, Sterling faces an impossible ransom demand: surrender her newborn daughter. Torn between protecting her child and saving her friend, she embarks on a desperate rescue mission. ...

Inspector Jimmy Perez takes his fiance home to Fair Isle, the tiny island he comes from, to meet his parents. The island is a magnet for bird watchers, who congregate at the local inn and lighthouse. When a local married celebrity who had an eye for the lads is murdered, Perez discovers that the suspects are very close to him indeed.

The town of Marshall, Texas, is the epicenter of intellectual property law in the US—renowned for its speedy trials and massive payouts. One of its best lawyers is James Euchre. His newest client, Amir Zawar, is a CEO forced to defend his life’s work against a patent infringement claim. But when a beloved hometown hero is murdered, all signs point to Zawar, an outsider with no alibi. With the help of a former federal prosecutor and a local PI, Euchre hopes to uncover the truth. In his first criminal case, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

One early morning on a Norfolk beach in Virginia, a dead body is discovered by a man taking his daily swim—Arman Bajalan, formerly an interpreter in Iraq. After narrowly surviving an assassination attempt that killed his wife and child, Arman has been given lonely sanctuary in the US as a maintenance worker at the Sea Breeze Motel. Now, convinced that the body is connected to his past, he knows he is still not safe.

Deputy Tessa Black spots a man disturbing a grave in the local cemetery and gives chase. But when Tessa catches him, she learns that the ghoulish trespasser wasn’t robbing graves; he was burying a box of bones. With the help of her fiancé, park ranger Logan Wilde, Tessa discovers that the remains belong to a missing teenager from a nearby island. After the girl disappeared nine months ago, police labeled her a runaway. Now, though, it’s clear the teenager was murdered.