Small Town Crime

The deliciously twisty twenty-fifth novel in the much-loved Libby Sarjeant audiobook series by Lesley Cookman.

Two months a widow, Mallory Dent has made the impulsive decision to pack up and move on. In remote McNamara, nestled in the northern mountains, she can escape her grief, guilt, and pain. But the day Mallory arrives, death follows her, lapping just outside her door. A woman’s body is found floating in Loss Lake - and it’s not the first death on these shores. Locals talk about a monster in the depths with an almost disturbing reverence. Sergeant Joel Benson understands Mallory’s unease. Years ago, his own brother was killed in the home Mallory now owns.

Three girls disappear into the night. One by one they go missing, never to be seen again. No witnesses, no leads, nothing. The only thing they had in common? An uneasy sense of being watched in the days before they vanished. Noises in the night, and boot prints in the flower beds outside their bedroom windows . . . One of the lost girls was Anna Klein's best friend. With no body, the case went cold. But Anna never stopped looking for Sylvie—or whoever took her.

Mount Orange, Florida, is famous for two things: cerulean freshwater springs, ideal for free divers who aren't afraid of lurking gators. And the gruesome cold case murder of best friends, Bailey and Celeste, twenty years ago. Bailey and Celeste's murders cast a permanent darkness over sunny Mount Orange. Tru has always lived in that shadow. Now she's supposed to head to FSU in the fall with her boyfriend, but those unsolved murders—and the death of her own sister—invade her every thought. It’s only in the shadowy deep of Hidden Glen Springs that she can breathe.

When retired homicide detective Thomas Prescott learns he’s inherited a 250-acre farm in Tarrin, Missouri (pop. 2,100), he can’t get there fast enough. As he slowly acclimates to small-town living, he hears rumblings about a horrific crime in the town’s past. Four years earlier, a recently fired employee of the local grocery store enacted his revenge, shooting and killing the owner of the store, plus four customers, then turning the gun on himself. The crime appears to have been solved, but Prescott has his doubts.

When Charlotte discovers a dead body her first day in the cozy town of Sweetwater Falls, she worries she may have made the wrong choice, moving from the big city to a small town. She was hoping for a family feel and a fresh start, not a shakedown from local law enforcement and an aunt who keeps disappearing right when danger nears.

In need of an escape from her failing marriage, Nia agrees to house-sit her aunt’s cottage on the Isle of Wight. She feels sure the cosy close in a quaint harbour town will be a safe place to hide and figure out what to do next. But things are not all as they seem in the close, and the neighbours who welcome her with open arms, are keeping secrets. When Nia finds the body of one of her new friends lying on the beach, she feels sickeningly sure that the killer is dangerously near to home.

Sheriff Wade Mackay needed a break. Little did he know, a day of fishing would land him right into the aftermath of a deadly accident. The only survivor is a woman who doesn't remember her name and has no identification. Wade's instincts ignite when he notices the telltale marks of old bruises on Jane Doe. What hidden truths lie beneath the layers of her forgotten past? For true crime writer Dougal Lachlan, Twisted Cedars holds secrets that refuse to stay buried.

With its reputation in tatters, Alexi Ellis is determined to save her beloved Hopgood Hall from any more bad press. A writing course for wannabe journalists shouldn't cause too many issues and will hopefully take the heat off Hopgood Hall. But disaster strikes when one of the group is found dead in a local pub. What’s worse Alexi was the last person to see the victim alive, which makes her suspect number one. Alexi is sure she is being set up, but who would go to such deadly lengths?

In the small American town of Hope, teenager Lucas Caldwell dreams of escaping his life. His mother, Liss, is struggling with addiction, and his sickly little brother, Reuben, would never survive her without him. His grandfather, Lucky, is dying in a care facility, his mind fading. But in a final moment of clarity, he lets slip to Lucas that he is in possession of a painting worth millions, stolen from a transport convoy in a daring heist five decades ago. As the disbelief fades, a thin hope begins to grow.

Handywoman Barb Young has lived in the sleepy coastal town of Bullford Point for over fifty years - and frankly, in that time, not much has happened, unless you count that business where a bush turkey managed to board the ferry a couple of years ago. When Joe Griffiths returns from Sydney after six years of drug addiction, jail and, eventually, rehab, Barb offers him a job, hoping to help him turn his life around. However, when another new resident of Bullford Point is murdered, Joe becomes the prime suspect.

When dead mobsters start turning up in Blood Rock, Sheriff Serenity Adams joins forces with a new recruit, a US marshal, and her ex-partner to solve the cases, but can she trust any of them? Her old partner, Ryan Donavan, is not acting like himself, and Serenity fears he's keeping secrets. For all of his politeness, there's something about Officer Jerome Wilson that doesn't ring true, and Marshall Bryant always has his own agenda. Throw in the Moretti mafia family, a Mexican drug cartel, and a hillbilly moonshine making clan, and Serenity has her hands full.

When Sheriff Elven Hallie answered Carolina McKay’s pleas for help, he thought it would be an easy job. But when the FBI shows up to investigate a murder, he finds himself trapped in a dangerous game. One where he’s the prime suspect. On the run and fighting to clear his name, Elven must uncover the truth and prove his innocence. But as secrets are revealed, he realizes no one can be trusted, not even his closest allies. Will he be able to save himself and those he cares about before it’s too late?

Ultimate soldier. Ultimate mission. But can the SAS pull off a daring prison break and escape from Communist-run Ethiopia alive? In 1975 Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, recently deposed in a Communist revolution, is declared dead. In the hands of the brutal army officer Mengitsu Haile Mariam, the country has descended into chaos and bloodshed. Then an astonishing truth emerges. The emperor is being kept alive in prison by Mengitsu, but only until he reveals the location of his billion-pound fortune.

In dem malerischen Dörfchen Ballydehag in Irland, in das die Hexe Quinn Callahan vor kurzem gezogen ist, scheint ein uralter Fluch Unheil zu stiften. Ist dieser schuld an dem Mord, der sich ereignet? Oder läuft dort ein sehr lebendiger Mörder frei herum? Der Umzug in ein kleines irisches Dorf hätte die nicht mehr allzu junge Hexe vor Schwierigkeiten bewahren sollen. Doch leider geht diese Rechnung nicht auf. Quinn und ihre untoten Bücherwürmer müssen den wahren Mörder finden und dem Fluch ein Ende setzen, bevor noch jemand ums Leben kommt.

Hallie, a young and successful fashion blogger, recently married to a station owner, is having trouble adjusting to the flies, dust, snakes and isolation in the Flinders Ranges. Left alone with her baby while her husband, Alex is often out on long bore runs during the day, she also has to contend with her father-in-law, Rod, who insists on making himself at home in their house. Alex is out on a bore run, and as Hallie and their daughter, Ruby, watch him in real time on the camera from the homestead, Alex suddenly disappears from view. He is found later, dead at the bottom of a windmill.

Babs Dionne, proud Franco-American, doting grandmother, and vicious crime matriarch, rules her small town of Waterville, Maine, with an iron fist. She controls the flow of drugs into Little Canada with the help of her loyal lieutenants, girlfriends since they were teenagers, and her eldest daughter, Lori, a Marine vet struggling with addiction. When a drug kingpin discovers that his numbers are down in the upper northeast, he sends a malevolent force, known only as The Man, to investigate.

Greta Pugh is dead. The small village of Bethesda, Wales, is no stranger to tragedy. Once a thriving, prosperous community, the town has been marred by an ever-deepening class divide. But now, with rich and popular Greta Pugh found murdered in the local quarry, everyone in Bethesda is rattled, and all their secrets are at risk.

A young woman is found dead at a local beach. Sergeant Bill Granger, the local policeman, is called in to investigate. He had hoped for a quiet off-season. Instead, what seems to be a straightforward case of an unfortunate death turns into a complex web of small-town secrets and desire for revenge that will soon place Bill's family in danger. With Niko Sopoaga, a young South Auckland constable working alongside him, Bill falls into the dark and dangerous world of drug distribution and a hardened motorcycle gang wreaking havoc, while they chase a clever killer.

Kara Johnson always knew she’d die young and violently. It didn’t matter who delivered the final blow, she would deserve it—her years spent running drugs and spreading violence would guarantee it. But death doesn’t always go as planned.