Serial Killer Mystery Fiction

Milly's mother is a serial killer. Though Milly loves her mother, the only way to make her stop is to turn her in to the police. Milly is given a fresh start: a new identity, a home with an affluent foster family, and a spot at an exclusive private school. But Milly has secrets, and life at her new home becomes complicated. As her mother's trial looms, with Milly as the star witness, Milly starts to wonder how much of her is nature, how much of her is nurture, and whether she is doomed to turn out like her mother after all.

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.

It's Christmas, and a serial killer is leaving displayed body parts all over Cumbria. A strange message is left at each scene: #BSC6. Called in to investigate, the National Crime Agency's Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw are faced with a case that makes no sense. Why were some victims anaesthetised, while others died in appalling agony? Why is their only suspect denying what they can irrefutably prove but admitting to things they weren't even aware of? And why did the victims all take the same two weeks off work three years earlier?

Hours later, the man’s cold body lies in the city mortuary, alongside the woman he couldn’t save. And his sister, unconventional nurse Gemma Tate, tracks down troubled police inspector Sebastian Bell to unravel the truth. Sebastian has enough pressure to solve the murder of an aristocratic heiress without Gemma meddling in his case. But the cryptic sentences she brings him from her brother’s notebook could be a crucial lead. If only they knew what “milky way” meant.

After a girl's body is found near the Mississippi, close to where Lainey lives, it sends a shockwave through town. Soon after, another death occurs, and it becomes clear that a serial killer is on the loose. Lainey is facing trouble of her own in the form of a bicyclist, who nearly runs her down. When she begins getting odd phone calls from a man, Lainey wonders if the biker has something to do with the case.

This book is for listeners of true crime podcasts and audiences of both fiction and true-crime nonfiction. It's the true story of first-generation Irish-American nurse Jane Toppan, born as Honora Kelley. Jane Toppan was absolutely a monster, but she did not start out that way. When Jane was a young child, her father abandoned her and her sister to the Boston Female Asylum. From there, Jane was indentured to a wealthy family who changed her name, never adopted her, and wrote her out of the will.

It’s my first day back at work, the grief I’m carrying is still with me, but I file it away and put on my professional face to greet my new patient. As a successful psychiatrist and criminologist, I’m used to working with damaged minds. But I’m not prepared for Trent Davis. Sitting across the table from me, his warm brown eyes shine. He laughs easily and part of me can't help but like him, despite what his file says he’s capable of. Then a package arrives for Trent, with my home as the return address. And everything falls apart…

When DCI Matilda Darke receives a mysterious telephone call, she immediately dismisses the threat. After all, the Homicide and Major Enquiries team are a regular target for prank calls. But ignoring this warning might soon be the biggest regret of Matilda Darke’s life. A lone gunman is on a deadly rampage around Sheffield, leaving a bloody trail in his wake. Taking his shots with a sickening precision, he’s about to leave his mark on the world and change Matilda and her team’s lives forever.

When the call comes in about Lucy, a 17-year-old girl murdered after the secret party she held in her parents’ home, Detective Lottie Parker is first on the scene. As Lottie breaks the news to Lucy’s heartbroken parents and the devastated partygoers, she discovers that hours before her death Lucy had revealed a terrible secret about her friend Hannah. And when Lottie finds Lucy’s bloodstained clothing hidden in Hannah’s bedroom, she has no option but to bring the shy, frightened girl into custody. But Hannah claims to have no memory of the night Lucy died.

Seventeen years ago. That was the last time Mercy Callahan saw Ephraim Burton, the leader of the twisted Eden cult where she was raised. But even though she escaped the abuse and terror, they continue to haunt her. When her brother Gideon discovers new evidence of the cult's - and their victims' - whereabouts, Mercy goes to Sacramento to reconnect with him. There, she meets Gideon's closest friend - homicide detective Rafe Sokolov. From Rafe, she receives an offer she never knew she needed: to track down Ephraim and make him pay for everything.

DS Kat Ballantyne is still reeling from a revelation that turned life as she knew it upside down. But when a dog walker discovers the body of a woman among the standing stones known locally as the Three Sisters, there’s no time to focus on her own troubles. Kat is drawn back to work to investigate. At first, the death appears to be an accident. But then Kat discovers an infinity symbol branded onto the dead woman’s abdomen.

When a body is discovered in a field in Iowa, the police uncover 14 additional corpses ranging from 20 years old to recent. The remains point to a serial killer with an MO the authorities have seen before - Ed Oliphant, a man who has been in prison for over 20 years...and is Special Agent Kaely Quinn's father. After several failed interview attempts to discover if Ed has been training someone to be a copycat killer, the police turn to Kaely in St. Louis.

‘Do you believe the Devil exists, Detective?’ the officer at the end of the line asks. ‘Because if you don’t...I’m sure you will once you get here.’ This is how Robert Hunter is called to one of the most vicious crime scenes he has ever attended. The disturbing nature of the murder is heightened when the autopsy reveals a poem, left by the killer, inside the body of their victim. When another murder occurs, the methods and signature of each death differ so greatly that forensics fail to link the two crimes.

DCI Matilda Darke has been kidnapped and her nemesis, Steve Harrison, appears to be behind it. He’s currently residing in the supermax of Wakefield Prison and spends twenty-three hours a day in his cell, so how could he possibly be responsible? As Matilda’s team race to find her, they’re alerted to a body found in an abandoned car on the outskirts of Sheffield. With forensics scouring the woodland for clues, the last thing they expect is for the body count to rise. Meanwhile the search intensifies for the DCI when a video of her kidnapping is leaked to the media.

Nine months ago, DCI Matilda Darke survived a bullet to the head. The brutal attack claimed dozens of lives, including those she loved most, and the nightmares still plague her every waking thought. Now, she’s ready to get back on the job. But a new terror awaits. A woman is found murdered and her wounds look eerily similar to several cold cases. Desperate to find a lead, DCI Darke and her team must face a terrifying truth: a serial killer is on the loose in Sheffield.

Elspeth, Meggy and Xavier are locked in a flat. They don’t know where they are, and they don’t know why they’re there. They only know that the shadow man has taken them, and he won’t let them go. Desperate to escape, the three of them must find a way out of their living hell, even if it means uncovering a very dark truth. Because the shadow man isn’t a nightmare. He’s all too real.

Kate O'Brien's quiet life in small-town Shelter Cove, Arkansas is shaken when her past suddenly comes roaring back to life. Four years ago, she and her twin sister were attacked by an elusive serial killer. Only Kate survived, and she's been in witness protection ever since. When new evidence arises to suggest the convicted man wasn't the murderer, she's subpoenaed to testify in the new trial. Afraid to go back into that world, Kate only agrees if Tony DeLuca, the deputy marshal who protected her during the original trial, escorts her to St. Louis.

It takes a killer to catch a killer. And no one understands the motives of ruthless murderer The Sandman quite like Rhett Voss. Having spent his childhood in the shadows of the deranged lunatic, he's become an expert on the topic. Killing is in his blood, and as a hitman for hire, Voss maintains a steady diet of carnage, himself. Except lately, it's lost its appeal. Until he's enticed to track down the clever Sandman who has his sights set on Nola Tensley.

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.

When a renowned crime podcaster vanishes without a trace, former FBI behavioral analysts turned private investigators River Ryland and Tony St. Clair are called upon to track her down. As they wade through the evidence she left behind, they unearth a startling connection—she may have discovered the existence of an unknown serial killer, and he will stop at nothing to carry out a deadly plan. As the pair delves deeper, they soon find themselves the target of a relentless enemy determined to silence them.