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Heinous

Debra Webb · back to the book

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24 books with the same feel

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Blindsighted

Karin Slaughter · 393 pages

A small Georgia town erupts in panic when a young college professor is found brutally mutilated in the local diner. But it's only when town pediatrician and coroner Sara Linton does the autopsy that the full extent of the killer's twisted work becomes clear.Sara's ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, leads the investigation -- a trail of terror that grows increasingly macabre when another lo

Serial KillerDetective ProtagonistAmerican SouthTense and Suspenseful
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The Cold Room

J.T. Ellison

Homicide detective Taylor Jackson thinks she's seen it all in Nashville but she's never seen anything as perverse as The Conductor. Once his victim is captured, he contains her in a glass coffin, slowly starving her to death. Only then does he give in to his attraction. Later, he creatively disposes of the body by reenacting scenes from famous paintings. Strangely, similar macabre works are being

Serial KillerAmerican SouthTense and SuspensefulCrime
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Cruel and Unusual

Patricia Cornwell · 426 pages

"11:05 P.M. Convicted murderer Ronnie Joe Waddell is pronounced dead in the Commonwealth of Virginia's electric chair." "In the morgue, Dr. Kay Scarpetta has been waiting for Waddell's body. It's a strange feeling, preparing for an autopsy before the subject is dead. But Scarpetta's been here before. As Virginia's chief medical examiner, she knows the tension of watching the clock as the execution

Serial KillerAmerican SouthDetective ProtagonistCrime
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The Surgeon

Tess Gerritsen · 368 pages

If it's gripping, it's Gerritsen. The terrifying first Jane Rizzoli bestseller.In Boston, there's a killer on the loose. A killer who targets lone women, who breaks into their apartments and performs terrifying ritualistic acts of torture on them before finishing them off. His surgical skills lead police to suspect he is a physician – a physician who, instead of saving lives, takes them.But as hom

Serial KillerDetective ProtagonistTense and SuspensefulCrime
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Obsession in Death

J.D. Robb · 464 pages

Eve Dallas is used to unwanted attention. Famous for her high-profile cases and her marriage to billionaire businessman Roarke, she has learned to deal with intense public scrutiny and media gossip. But now Eve has become the object of a singular and deadly obsession. She has an "admirer", who just can't stop thinking about her. Who is convinced they have a special bond. Who is planning to kill fo

Serial KillerCrimeTense and SuspensefulDetective Protagonist
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When You See Me

Lisa Gardner · 400 pages

Serial KillerAmerican SouthDetective ProtagonistTense and Suspenseful
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Hangman

Stephan Talty · 320 pages

Pursuing an escaped serial killer to the city limits of Buffalo, homicide detective Abbie Kearney is horrified when teenage girls begin to go missing, a situation that reveals precinct corruption and suggests that the killer is being helped.

Serial KillerCrimeTense and SuspensefulDetective Protagonist
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The Hangman

Mary Burton · 338 pages

"Julia Vargas is a cop with a mission. When she's not chasing down bad guys, Julia dedicates her time to investigating the Hangman serial killer...the same unsolved case that her father, Jim Vargas, was working on when he supposedly shot and killed himself three decades before. While rumors continue to swirl around her father's death, Julia attempts to hunt down the truth. The case once again hits

Serial KillerCrimeDetective ProtagonistTense and Suspenseful
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Déjà Dead

Kathy Reichs · 509 pages

Un beau jour d'été à Montréal, sur la table de dissection du laboratoire de médecine légale de la police provinciale, arrive un cadavre découvert dans l'ancien parc du Grand Séminaire. Le docteur Temperance Brennan est chargé d'autopsier ce qu'il reste d'une femme découpée en morceaux. Sa sinistre expertise va l'amener en première ligne de l'enquête, face à l'assassin pervers qui collectionne les

Serial KillerDetective ProtagonistTense and SuspensefulCrime
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Devious

Lisa Jackson · 448 pages

When the body of young novice Sister Camille is found garroted in St. Marguerite's cathedral, Detectives Bentz and Montoya are called in. For Montoya, the brutal crime scene is disturbingly familiar - his aunt, also a nun, was murdered. And the connections don't end there. Montoya knew this victim in high school, and even knew the prime suspect, Father Frank O'Toole, with whom Camille was rumored

Serial KillerCrimeDetective ProtagonistTense and Suspenseful
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Don't Cry

Beverly Barton · 470 pages

When a recent spate of horrific murders is linked to a long-ago series of brutal crimes she hoped would never resurface, Chattanooga grief counselor Audrey Sherrod, who moonlights for the local police, soon discovers that the worst is yet to come.

Serial KillerAmerican SouthTense and SuspensefulCrime
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Hunted

Elizabeth Heiter · 400 pages

Terror stalks a small Virginia town. FBI rising star, criminal profiler Evelyn Baine, knows how to think like a serial killer. But she's never chased anyone like the Bakersville Burier, who hunts young women and displays them, half-buried, deep in the woods. As the body count climbs, Evelyn's relentless pursuit of the killer puts her career'and her life'at risk. And the evil lurking in the Burier'

Serial KillerTense and SuspensefulCrimeDetective Protagonist
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The Gift of Darkness

Valentina Giambanco · 505 pages

"In Seattle's upscale Blueridge neighborhood, James Sinclair, his wife Anne, and their two small boys are found brutally murdered in their home. Their bodies are carefully laid out: blindfolded, hands tied, and crosses drawn in blood across their foreheads. Above the bedroom door, the words "thirteen days" are scratched into the frame. At the same time, a card with the words "thirteen days" writte

Serial KillerDetective ProtagonistTense and SuspensefulCrime
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Holly

Stephen King · 598 pages

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down. Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared l

Serial KillerCrimeTense and SuspensefulDetective Protagonist
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The 7th Victim

Alan Jacobson

The Dead Eyes Killer lurks in the backyard of the famed FBI Profiling Unit. His brutal murders, unlike any others previously seen, confound the local task force, despite the gifted profiling skills of Special Agent Karen Vail. But along with Vail's insight and expertise comes considerable personal and professional baggage. On leave pending a review of her assault on her abusive ex-husband, Vail mu

Serial KillerDetective ProtagonistCrimeTense and Suspenseful
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Night Prey

John Sandford · 336 pages

It was a very cold, very clear morning in the Carlos Avery game reserve - cold enough to preserve the body lying there, clear enough so the state investigator couldn't miss it. There was something familiar about the stab wounds, she thought - but the Minneapolis police dismissed her theories, and the city's new police chief has problems enough of her own. The cops are wary of her, the public think

Serial KillerTense and SuspensefulCrimeDetective Protagonist
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Kiss the Girls

James Patterson · 466 pages

First came the stunning number-one bestseller Along Came a Spider. Now comes the scariest, most unforgettable novel in several years. In Los Angeles, a reporter investigating a series of murders is killed. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a beautiful medical intern suddenly disappears. Washington D.C.'s Alex Cross is back to solve the most baffling and terrifying murder case ever. Two clever patter

Serial KillerAmerican SouthDetective ProtagonistTense and Suspenseful
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The Darker Side

Cody McFadyen · 476 pages

Everyone has a secret they don't dare tell anyone.He'll kill you for yours.Cody McFadyen has shocked even the most jaded suspense fans with Shadow Man and The Face of Death. Now comes a thriller that outdoes them all, featuring a psychopath on a perverse crusade of murder. And the one woman who can stop him has a secret that will change her from the hunter to the hunted....A lie, a long-ago affair

Serial KillerCrimeTense and SuspensefulDetective Protagonist
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The Blue Hour

T. Jefferson Parker · 480 pages

Serial KillerTense and SuspensefulDetective ProtagonistCrime
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Boneyard

Michelle Gagnon · 376 pages

On the trail of a serial killer, the path splits in two...FBI special agent Kelly Jones has worked on many disturbing cases in her career, but nothing like this. A mass grave site unearthed on the Appalachian Trail puts Kelly at the head of an investigation that crosses the line--from Massachusetts to Vermont, from wealthy vacationers to poor transients, from a serial killer to a copycat nemesis.

Serial KillerDetective ProtagonistTense and SuspensefulCrime
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Taboo

Casey Hill · 409 pages

Forensic investigator Reilly Steel, Quantico-trained and California-born and bred, imagined Dublin to be a far cry from bustling San Francisco, a sleepy backwater where she can lay past ghosts to rest and start anew. She's arrived in Ireland to drag the Irish crime lab into the 21st century, plus keep tabs on her Irish-born father who's increasingly seeking solace in the bottle after a past family

Serial KillerDetective ProtagonistCrimeTense and Suspenseful
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Dawn Girl

Leslie Wolfe · 249 pages

Serial KillerDetective ProtagonistCrimeTense and Suspenseful
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The Owl Always Hunts At Night

Samuel Bjork · 480 pages

Serial KillerDetective ProtagonistCrimeTense and Suspenseful
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Hush

Anne Frasier · 378 pages

Few serial killers penned by suspense writers today are as warped or as fully realized as the Madonna Murderer, who preys on newborn baby boys and their unwed mothers. As if the crime itself isn't bad enough, the killer leaves a musical snow globe that plays "Hush, Little Baby" in the infant's crib as his calling card. It has been nearly two decades since Ivy Dunlap and her infant son were victimi

Serial KillerCrimeDetective ProtagonistTense and Suspenseful
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