Serial Killer Mystery Fiction

Writing scrawled on the wall of Sheriff Jenna Alton’s office leads her, and her deputy, David Kane, to a secluded house on the outskirts of town. Inside, Jenna is devastated to find a much-loved local resident with stab wounds covering her lifeless body. As the small town grieves, Jenna discovers the wreck of a car with another dead woman inside. And, before she can make her next move, one of her own team is found unconscious, covered in the blood of a third female victim - a knife inches away from his hand. The clock ticks to uncover a dark secret that connects all three victims.

Steven dropped to his knees next to the paramedic. "Jenna." Her eyes opened and in them he saw shock and tears and guilt. "I'm so sorry, Steven. I should have listened to you." Steven noticed the smears of blood on her worn Duke T-shirt. "Any other wounds?" he asked the paramedic. "Only her throat. The blood on her shirt appears to be her own." "We found bloody handprints on the carpet where she crawled from the bedroom," said Uniform Two.

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.

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.

Ten years ago, fifteen-year-old Scarlett Crosby was held captive in a terrifying ordeal with a girl named Della. Scarlett escaped, their predator was killed, and Della simply vanished. Detective Kevin Dawson always wondered if Della even existed. A decade later, Scarlett is a successful artist. As hard as she tries to move on, the mysterious Della remains her inescapable obsession. Then a girl’s body is discovered—a link to Scarlett’s horrific past—and all her old traumas resurface. So does Della.

Fall in Philadelphia. A man's corpse is found in one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. It's unmistakably the work of a killer. But to homicide detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano, it feels familiar. Eight years ago another body was found in the same place, in the same position...killed in the same manner. Even the crime-scene photos are identical. That case was never closed. And now more copycat murders are happening. Someone is recreating the city's most infamous unsolved killings, victim by victim - with more clues for Byrne and Balzano to unravel.

Vampires may not walk among us, but FBI agents Della Hamilton and Mason Carter know real monsters exist. They’ve witnessed firsthand the worst humankind has to offer. They’re still catching their breaths after the apprehension of two such monstrous killers when they’re met with horrific news: Stephan Dante, the self-proclaimed king of the vampires, has escaped from prison, followed only by a trail of blood. All too familiar with Dante’s cruelty, Della and Mason know the clock is ticking. But as Dante claims more victims, a chilling message arrives.

Kennedy Farmer, an experienced athlete, never returns after leaving for her usual running route through the dusty mountain trails of New Mexico. While the search for Kennedy begins, Detective Alyssa Wyatt and her squad face a terrifying new case when the body of a young woman, Rheagan Pembroke, is discovered in the desert terrain surrounding Albuquerque. Her wounds horrify even the hardened squad of the Albuquerque P.D.—and the case takes an even darker turn when they discover a polaroid stuffed into the victim's mouth, showing the body of Gunner Galveston, a murder victim from years ago.

I’m a dreamer. I'm a warrior. Dr. Penelope Hase, a brilliant and alluring FBI profiler, faces the toughest case of her career, The Kabuki Killer. The killer taunts Philadelphia law enforcement with bizarre Japanese kabuki scenes. Hase joins Special Agent Eli Schiele, a conceited hothead—he’s a challenge. Just as Hase closes in on the killer, strange happenings force her to rethink her own role in The Kabuki Killer’s plan. A fast-paced journey into the abyss, with a reveal so shocking it leaves even the genius Penelope Hase speechless.

It was supposed to be a simple case: a young man arrested for armed assault. But it was just the beginning. As Rodney Middleton awaits trial, Detective Jack Warr is warned by his mentor DCI Ridley that they have only scratched the surface of the man's crimes. Then DCI Ridley is suddenly removed from his post. No one is to contact him - and no one will say why.

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.

Psychiatrist Evelyn Talbot has dedicated her life to solving the mysteries of the psychopathic mind. Why do psychopaths act as they do? How do they come to be? Why don't they feel any remorse for the suffering they cause? And are there better ways of spotting and stopping them? After having been kidnapped, tortured, and left for dead when she was just a teenager - by her high school boyfriend - she's determined to understand how someone she trusted so much could turn on her.

DI George Wiley is calling in a favor. As head of a new unit tackling cold and unusual cases, he presents Gill McArdle with a bag of human teeth. His evaluation – a serial killer has been operating undetected in Scotland for decades. With no leads in the case, Wiley wants Gill to leverage his contacts. But Gill McArdle feels under no obligation as he has a puzzle of his own to solve. Roadworks in the Scottish Highlands have uncovered an old battlefield site, and now the race is on to complete an archaeological dig before the site is buried under tarmac.

When a cold, naked body is discovered by a couple on a jog through the lush woodlands of Pine Valley, California, new recruit Detective Katie Scott is stunned to discover the victim is Amanda Payton - a much-loved local nurse and the woman at the heart of an unsolved case she’s been investigating whilst getting a grip on her crippling PTSD. Weeks earlier, Amanda had run, battered and bruised, out into the headlights of a passing patrol car. She claimed to have just escaped a kidnapping, but with no strong evidence, the case went cold. The Pine Valley police made a fatal mistake....

A young woman falls from a vehicle speeding down a quiet road. Battered and bruised, she turns her head to the person who comes to her aid. ‘Help her’, she whispers before her eyes close. Days later, the body of another young girl is found in a shallow grave just a few miles away. The similarities between the two girls are startling, same age, same frail body, same shocking red hair.

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....

Colette “Coco” Weber has relocated to her Catalina Island home, where, twenty years before, she was the sole survivor of a deadly home invasion. All Coco wants is to see her aunt Gwen, get as far away from her ex as possible, and get back to her craft—writing obituaries. Thankfully, her college best friend, Maddy, owns the local paper and has a job sure to keep Coco busy, considering the number of elderly folks who are dying on the island. But as Coco learns more about these deaths, she quickly realizes that the circumstances surrounding them are remarkably similar....

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.

When D.I. Mahoney is called to the scene of a ritualistic murder in southern Tasmania, he and his team must unlock the mind behind the murder before the killer can claim his next victim. The theatrically staged crime scene confounds the detective as he quickly realizes that he’s faced with apprehending a psychotic, yet methodical, killer. Although Mahoney is confident in the forensic and investigative arms of his Homicide Squad, he’s unsure that he has the necessary psychological insight to apprehend a murderer who seems so unhinged.

When you search for the missing, there’s no telling what you’ll find. PI Jessie Cole learned that painful truth firsthand when her sister disappeared. Now a new case will test Jessie and Ben once again. Owen Shepard, the public face of one of the country’s biggest health insurance companies, has become the target of a vengeful father. The man blames Shepard for his child’s death and plans to make the CEO know what it’s like to live with a broken heart - and watch others die.