Serial Killer Mystery Fiction

A schoolgirl found it on a nature hike. A severed human foot wearing pink nail polish. A gruesome but invaluable clue that leads forensic pathologist Birdy Waterman down a much darker trail - to a dangerous psychopath whose powers of persuasion seem to have no end.

FBI analyst Kassidy Bishop is assigned to the "'For You' Killer" task force after a series of sadistic murders bearing the same signature arise in different parts of the country. The homicides are both calculated and savage, occurring in different states, but bearing the same signature: the words "for you" scribbled at each crime scene. The case chills Kassidy, bringing back memories of her own encounter with a violent criminal five years earlier.

Detective Sergeant Washington Poe can count on one hand the number of friends he has. And he'd still have his thumb left. There's the guilelessly innocent civilian analyst, Tilly Bradshaw of course. Insanely brilliant, she's a bit of a social hand grenade. He's known his beleaguered boss, Detective Inspector Stephanie Flynn for years as he has his nearest neighbour, full-time shepherd/part-time dog sitter, Victoria. And then there's Estelle Doyle. Dark and dangerous and sexy as hell.

Everything Elka knows of the world she learned from the man she calls Father, the solitary hunter who took her under his wing when she was just seven years old. He has taught her how to shoot, track, set snares, and start fires - all the skills she needs to survive in a frozen, lawless land where civilization has been destroyed and men are at the mercy of the elements and each other. But the man Elka thought she knew so well is harboring a terrible secret. He's a killer. A monster.

This is Reaper speaking. So begins an anonymous letter published in a Utah newspaper after a young couple is viciously murdered. Tooele County sheriff Elizabeth Gray leads the investigation into the double homicide, which is eerily reminiscent of a string of brutal killings years ago. When the letter leads detectives to yet another body, Gray calls on an old friend for help.

The rain had been falling for weeks when Black Rock Falls Sheriff Jenna Alton receives a panicked phone call from a local forest ranger. The lifeless body of a woman has washed up on the banks of a swollen river. Rushing to the scene, Jenna and her deputy, David Kane, find the young girl laying face up in the dirt, her long brown hair spilling out around her, her perfect pale skin showing no signs of struggle. Leaning in for a closer look, she finds a jack of hearts playing card tucked into the girl’s underwear. This was no accident—someone killed this innocent soul.

When a world-renowned psychiatrist is found dead in an abandoned ranch house in the Californian Santa Carina Valley, a Post-it note with the words “Susan Parker” and a cell phone number is taped to the basement door. Still grieving her husband’s devastating suicide less than a year ago, FBI agent Susan Parker is taking a break from work and trying to rebuild her life as a single mom to her seven-year-old daughter, Natalie. When she’s called to the crime scene of Doctor Magnusson, a chill runs down her spine.

Calvin finally owns the bakery of his dreams, in an idyllic village in the Lake District. After reluctantly following his wife Vicky’s advice to promote it on social media, he’s thrilled when a viral clip makes him a legend overnight. But then the creepy DMs start flooding in—all from a stranger who claims she’s his biggest fan. Meanwhile, a local recluse is found on a nearby beach, buried to his neck and left to drown, and the community goes into shock.

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.

Eric’s wife, Anne, has followed the advice of handsome lawyer Mark Fenham and invested a small fortune in a merchant bank also involved in underwriting marine insurance. Now her company must pay out a vast insurance claim for the Sea Dawn, a ship sunk in Spanish waters. Eric Ward smells fraud. His wife could lose everything. And then, one by one, people connected to the Sea Dawn start to die. The murderous trail takes Ward to sunny Spain—where he comes face-to-face with his arch enemy. Will Ward uncover the truth about the sinking of the Sea Dawn?

The first time was easy. No one ever suspected the victim had been murdered. The crime long buried, the dark passions guiding the killer's hand are still alive. But the need for revenge cannot be denied. Only one person can stop the killing. Only one person can identify the killer. Only one person knows the face of death is as close as the face in the mirror....

In an average suburban town in Texas, homecoming princess Lindsay barely escaped death at the hands of a brutal, sadistic murderer in a Michael Jackson mask. Up on the cliff, she was rescued by a horse and bravely defeated the killer.

This is the box set of the Sean Kruger series, books 1 through 3: The Fugitive's Trail; The Assassin's Trail; and The Imposter's Trail.

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.

Dr Nell Ward is delighted when her childhood friend Percy announces she's engaged to handsome businessman Hawke McAnstruther - and rashly offers to host the wedding at Finchmere, her family's estate. But she hadn't anticipated Percy's parents' fiery disapproval of the groom. The ceremony is barely over before Hawke's shady personal and professional life starts to unravel, and tension ripples through the assembled guests.

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.

Shayna Darby is finally coming to terms with her parents’ deaths when she’s delivered another blow. The body of her estranged twin sister, Angela - the possible victim of a serial killer - has been pulled from the Seine. Putting what’s left of her life on hold, Shayna heads to Paris. But while cleaning out Angela’s apartment, Shayna makes a startling discovery: a coded message meant for her alone... Alive. Trust no one.

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.

It’s a brutal winter in Des Moines, Iowa, and the city is gripped by fear. A serial attacker known as the Sin Eater is stalking women and has just struck again. It’s a tough time and a tough place for Riley Fisher, a former small-town sergeant, to be reporting for duty as an FBI agent on her first assignment. Teamed with a man she’s not sure she can trust and struggling to prove herself—while fighting the pull of her old life and family dramas—Riley is tasked with investigating a vicious death threat against the newly elected female state governor.

Dr. Tessa McGowan had never seen anything quite like it. But the mutilated bodies on her exam table tell a stunningly macabre tale: someone with a twisted mind is kidnapping women and altering their faces to resemble real, life-size dolls. As a forensic pathologist, it's her job to aid the agent leading the case—even if that agent is her estranged husband.