Crime Fiction Thriller Serial Killer

Outside the house where Wexford investigated his first murder case—a woman found strangled in her bedroom—he noticed a short, muscular man wearing a scarf and walking a dog. He gave Wexford an unnerving stare. Without any solid evidence, Wexford began to suspect that this man—Eric Targo—was the killer. Over the years there are more unsolved, apparently motiveless murders in the town of Kingsmarkham, and Wexford continues to quietly suspect that the increasingly prosperous Targo—van driver, property developer, kennel owner, and animal lover—is behind them.

From number one best seller Mark Billingham comes a twisting, unbearably gripping DI Tom Thorne and Nicola Tanner thriller inspired by a dramatic real-life case. How do you catch a killer who is yet to kill? We all know the signs. Cruelty, lack of empathy, the killing of animals. Now, pets on suburban London streets are being stalked by a shadow, and it could just be the start. DI Tom Thorne knows the psychological profile of such offenders all too well.

A group of friends gather in a country house for a birthday party. At their host’s request, they each write a short mystery. They draw names from a hat: in each story, one of the group is the killer, and another the victim. Of course, when given such a task, it’s only natural to use what you know. Secrets. Grudges. Illicit love. It’s just that once you put it in a story, the secret is out.

Three years ago, 15-year-old Ellen Vicksburg went missing in the quiet town of River Remez, New Mexico. Ellen was kind, studious, and universally liked. Her younger brother, Ben, could imagine nothing worse than never knowing what happened to her - until, on the first anniversary of her death, he found her body in a shallow grave by the river's edge. Ben, now 17, is relentlessly driven to find answers to Ellen's homicide. Police believe she was the victim of a psychopath known as the Demon.

Les Dead Hunters ont une morale très personnelle. C'est la moindre des choses pour une confrérie de tueurs sanguinaires. Ils ont aussi quelques menus défauts, se croire invincibles, par exemple. Un démon va néanmoins vite les détromper. Malin, fort et intelligent comme seuls les démons savent parfois l'être, il va tranquillement les décimer les uns après les autres. À une exception près. Un des membres des Hunters reste en effet introuvable, et non des moindres : le "Bourbon Kid".

Arriving at a quiet family home on the outskirts of the Lake District, Detective Morgan Brookes must deliver devastating news to a heartbroken mother. Seeing Lexie’s pink boots against the side of the house, she remembers the girl’s happy face and can’t help but think of her carefree childhood. Three years ago, Morgan saved Lexie from a serial killer, who is now behind bars. But this time, she’s failed to protect her. Certain a new and more terrifying killer is at large, Morgan finds a neighbor who claims a man in a silver car was watching Lexie’s house.

Alex Mercer and his fiancee Zoey have weathered many storms, but this latest one might be too much for even them. She's hiding a secret she fears will send him running for the hills, and she has to tell him before he finds out on his own. Time is definitely not on her side. But with his busy hours at the police academy, there hardly seems a moment to open up to him.

As the sun rises, a wealthy young woman, Samantha Seabrook, is found drowned in the ornamental fountain of a deserted Cambridge courtyard, the only clue: an antique silver chain wound tightly around her throat. It’s Tara Thorpe’s job to discover what happened to Miss Seabrook. But the case becomes personal when she learns that Samantha had been receiving death threats, rather like the one that landed on Tara’s doorstep the night the woman died. Together with Detective Inspector Garstin Blake, Tara tracks the killer to the dank and dangerous fens on the outskirts of the city.

FBI Agent Rick Clark and his forensic psychologist sidekick, Marty Robin, are investigating a number of brutal serial murders committed within a three-year-period. All of the victims are women, and their backgrounds are similar in one important way. One important way, that is, in the twisted brain of the serial killer. While Rick and Marty speculate on personal events that may have created this moral monster, the listener becomes, if not sympathetic to the perp, at least more understanding of the role the past plays in creating a cold-blooded killer on a mission to save lost souls.

In this thrilling chapter in Faye Kellerman's best-selling series, Rina Lazarus makes a shocking discovery in the woods of her upstate New York community that leads her husband, police detective Peter Decker, through a series of gruesome, decades-old unsolved murders, pointing to a diabolical serial killer who's been hiding in plain sight.

For years, unbeknownst to his wife and teenage daughter, Martin Reese has been illegally buying police files on serial killers and obsessively studying them, using them as guides to find the missing bodies of victims. He doesn't take any souvenirs, just photos that he stores in an old laptop, and then he turns in the results anonymously. Martin sees his work as a public service, a righting of wrongs. Detective Sandra Whittal sees the situation differently.

Five serial killers. Known only to each other as: Alpha. Bravo. Charlie. Delta. Easy. Connected through a secure internet location, encrypted and concealed, a unique chat room they have named Jack’s Special Place in homage to their ultimate model—the one killer they hold in the highest esteem: Whitechapel, London. 1888. The infamous murderer remembered in dark history as Jack the Ripper. And so, they are Jack’s Boys. They delight in each other’s crimes. They relish in taunting police around the world with odd clues and deep confusion—the modern version of the Victorian-era killer they emulate.

Struggling with his new role as a detective chief inspector, John Tanner is warned of a convicted psychopath’s early release. When a couple is found later that day; the man stabbed to death, the woman with her throat cut, he's forced to assume the convict is responsible. But when the male victim turns out to be heir to a global pharmaceutical company, and his twelve-year-old son is nowhere to be found, he has to start looking closer at the victim’s family, and their sprawling stately ancestral home.

Southend-on-Sea, Essex: Detective Sergeant Tomek Bowen — driven, dogged, and haunted by the death of his brother — is called to one of the most shocking crime scenes he has ever seen. A man has been ritualistically murdered and dumped in an allotment near the local airport. Early investigations indicate this was a man with a past. A past that earned him many enemies. But when another victim is found murdered under similar circumstances, it becomes clear that Bowen is on the trail of a serial offender.

After one too many terrifying encounters, Millie Masters sets up a hotline for women who feel unsafe walking home alone at night: Message M. But very quickly she realises that there’s much more to be done to help the women who call in. Because the men just do it again the next night, and the next, and the next… And when her own sister is assaulted on a night out, the temptation to take the law into her own hands becomes too much to resist. Because M can also stand for murder.

Shopping with her sister, DI Amy Winter is admiring a Valentine’s Day window display of a perfect bride encrusted in diamonds and resplendent in lace - until she notices blood oozing from the mannequin’s mouth. This is no stunt. A post-mortem reveals the victim was left to die on her macabre throne for all to see. When a second victim is found, it emerges that both women were "Sugar Babes" arranging dates with older men online - and Amy finds herself hunting an accomplished psychopath.

Leela’s enemies are dying. They appear to be unrelated suicides, but she refuses to believe in mere coincidence. Someone is targeting these victims. But why? A single clue emerges, leading her to believe these deaths are linked to a cover-up job she did when she worked PR for the tech goliath Jolvix. It involves a high-tech novelty weapon, shrouded in secrecy, one she’s legally forbidden from discussing with anyone—including the hungry writer publishing an exposé on Jolvix who’s itching to get the full scoop.

The body of Amos Price lies in a pool of blood on the polished floor of an otherwise empty house. With no signs of a break in and no clues left at the scene, Detective Jenna Alton is at a loss. But as the team begins to unpick the life of the reclusive victim, they discover a disturbing link between Amos and the disappearance of several young girls in the county going back years.

L'inspecteur Pendergast est désemparé. Sa pupille Constance Greene est parvenue à retourner dans le New York des années 1880 pour sauver sa sœur avant qu'elle serve de cobaye au sinistre Dr Leng, l'ancêtre de Pendergast devenu son pire ennemi.

One hot summer evening, 11-year-old Mikey Driscoll is on the way home from playing with friends. Two days later, his body is discovered on a bed of wildflowers by some local teenagers. The case is assigned to Detective Lottie Parker, and this time it’s personal. The victim was a close friend of her son, Sean, from the run-down Munbally estate on the other side of town. Sean tells his mother Mikey was behaving normally before he died, but Lottie can’t help but feel that her son is keeping something from her.