Serial Killer Mystery Fiction

A family torn. A serial killer at large. A lone man forced to relive a horrible past, and for what end? This psychological-thriller will keep you guessing.

When a popular mystery novelist dies suspiciously, his writing partner must untangle the author’s connection to a serial killer in award-winning John Copenhaver’s new novel set in 1950s McCarthy-era Washington, DC.

FBI Agent Ella Dark has studied serial killers from the time she could read, devastated by the murder of her own father, and has gained an encyclopedic knowledge of murderers. A victim of a new killer is found dead, an ancient water clock mysteriously dripping on her body—and Ella knows she has precious little time to decode this killer’s riddle, and stop him before he finds his next target…

On a frigid December night, Karen sits at the edge of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, dressed in a flowing gown, like a visitor from the distant past. A beautiful and shining young woman, she gazes up at a bone-white winter moon like a fairytale princess. At first glance, one might not even notice that she is dead, coated in a patina of ice. Homicide cops Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano take the lead on the case, uncovering a plethora of eerie clues, each more warped and spine-chilling than the last.

It was one of Kieran’s most chilling cases: her assessment of a murderer known as the Fireman. There was no doubt that the man needed to be locked away. Now, Craig is called to a gruesome crime scene that matches the killer’s methods, and news breaks that the Fireman has escaped prison. Amid a citywide manhunt, Kieran and Craig need to untangle a web of deceit, privilege, and greed. They suspect that those closest to the killer have been drawn into his evil, or else someone is using another man’s madness and cruelty to disguise their crimes.

Tim Mason’s gripping new novel finds Inspector Charles Field hunting a ruthless serial killer who is terrorizing Florence Nightingale and her nurses in Crimea in 1855. But when the main suspect turns up dead, Field determines the case is closed. Or is it? Twelve years later in London, amidst the turmoil surrounding the expansion of voting rights, Field discovers a woman’s body, mouth covered by the killer’s signature embroidered rose. Did Field suspect the wrong man before, or is he dealing with a copycat?

Two years ago, Maria Fontana, the head of the Psychology Department at Columbia University, sat on a jury for one of the most depraved cases ever to pass through the hallowed halls of City Hall. Wyatt Butler, an antique watch restorer and alleged serial killer, was portrayed in the courtroom as a brutal monster. But Maria had to make the tough choice.

My husband is lying. The minute he came home with alcohol on his breath and unable to look me in the eyes I knew it. We used to be in love–the intense ‘I can’t be without you for a second’ kind. Where it hurts deep to be apart. But now, we’re the couple that keep secrets from each other. We hide the truth. He thought I wouldn’t find out. I’m a detective–it’s literally my job to uncover clues and solve mysteries. I know what he did. And now I’m sitting here, in a police interview, being asked the question ‘did you kill her?’ to which I utter one life-shattering word: ‘yes.’

Ronnie Dark is having a bad day. Facing rock bottom after losing his job, a sudden divorce, and eviction from his home, he hatches a desperate plan for revenge on his ex-wife. Ronnie intends to take his own life and leave his rotting, stinking corpse behind for her to discover as a final gift. Meanwhile, the home's former inhabitant Patrick Dermotty, the infamous Balloon Boy Killer, has escaped from the institution holding him.

When Carrie Rose was six years old, she fought off her mother’s attacker. Now, 20 years later, she’s an internet sensation with millions of adoring fans and an offer to take her cooking show to television. Her culinary talents have brought her everything she’s ever wanted. Money. Success. A loyal fanbase. But it also brought her something she didn’t want. A stalker.

In Chicago a young man jumps from his 30th-story hotel room; along the Missouri River, a hunter and his son stumble upon a lake whose surface is littered with snow geese, all of them dead; and in Southern Alabama, Ryder Creed and his search-and-rescue dog, Grace, find the body of a young woman who went missing in the Conecuh National Forest, and it appears she filled her pockets with rocks and walked into the river. Before long Ryder Creed and FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell will discover the ominous connection among these mysterious deaths.

Spiritualism has captured the public’s imagination. Séances are all the rage, and Detective Ian Hamilton’s otherwise sensible aunt Lillian is not immune to their allure. But for Ian, indulging her superstitions has its limits. When members of Lillian’s circle of séance friends begin turning up dead, Ian doesn’t need a medium to tell him these aren’t freak accidents.

FBI special agent Clarke Sinclair doesn’t give up easily. She’s spent years tracking serial killer Simon Cross, forced to follow his twisted clues and photographs across the country. Clarke knows that Cross selects only redheaded women and that he doesn’t target another victim until Clarke discovers the previous one. He’s never broken pattern...until now.

Kat Grant and Alice Campbell have a friendship forged in shared confidences and long lunches lubricated by expensive wine. Though they're very different women - the artsy socialite and the struggling suburbanite - they're each other's rocks. But even rocks crumble under pressure. Like when Kat's financier husband, Howard, plunges to his death from the second-floor balcony of their South Florida mansion. Howard was a jerk, a drunk, a bully, and, police say, a murder victim. The questions begin piling up.

DC Alex McKenna is meant to be resting following her last case, so she lets her boyfriend to take her to the Isle of Skye for the weekend. But what's meant to be a getaway to see the aurora borealis soon turns into a nightmare when they discover that their hotel has double booked. In desperation, they check into the only hotel with rooms available nearby - The Loch House. But from the moment they step foot in the guest house Alex knows something is very wrong. And as snow starts to fall, and night closes in, she begins to wonder if they will ever leave here alive.

A long, hot summer in Salisbury is broken by a sudden downpour. Flash floods and burst riverbanks bring something sinister to the surface - a partial human skeleton. When forensic testing matches the bones to a man named Lee Hall, reported missing some fifteen years earlier, the case is passed to DI Matt Lockyer. Hall was a known criminal and drug user. It looks like a simple case of accidental overdose, but Lockyer isn't so sure.

Spring is beginning to brighten Sorenson, Wisconsin, for Mattie and Steve Hurley and their family. While their son Matthew may be in his terrible twos and Steve's daughter Emily a moody teenager, the kids bring light to their lives when their work is dark by its nature - Steve is a homicide detective and Mattie is a medicolegal death investigator, a.k.a. medical examiner. They deal in corpses. The latest corpse, a Jane Doe, was clearly an addict, but drugs didn't kill her, at least not directly. She's been stabbed multiple times in a pattern that is disturbingly familiar to Mattie.

Jede Leiche hat ihre Geheimnisse ... Jayne und Steelie haben Agency 32/1 zu einem bestimmten Zweck gegründet: sie wollen ihre speziellen forensischen Fähigkeiten zu nutzen, um der Polizei bei der Aufklärung von Verbrechen zu helfen. Als ein Haufen gefrorener Leichenteile aus einem auf einem Freeway in Los Angeles aus einem Transporter fällt, weiß FBI Special Agent Scott Houston genau, an wen er sich wenden kann, um eine inoffizielle Postmortem-Untersuchung in Auftrag zu geben.

Evelyn Talbot, a psychiatrist at a maximum-security prison in Alaska, studies some of the world's worst serial killers. But she's about to meet her most elusive patient at Hanover House yet: Dr. Lyman Bishop, aka the Zombie Maker, given his fondness for performing icepick lobotomies on his victims. A brilliant cancer researcher, Bishop is either the most cunning psychopath Evelyn has ever encountered - or he is wrongly convicted.

They are the most violent, blood-thirsty, and vicious of criminals. While hunting for them, FBI profilers call these monsters UNSUBS, short for "unknown subjects of ongoing investigations". At any given time, in the United States there are more than 50 serial killers at large, preying on vulnerable, unsuspecting victims. Until yesterday, no one knew Florida had another serial killer on the loose. Special Agent Tess Winnett calls this particularly elusive one the "Taker of Lives".