Showing results by publisher "Hachette UK - Bookouture" in Crime Thrillers

When Detective Casey White is called to a murder scene on an empty stretch of coastal road, her whole team is in a panic. Could the body be their missing colleague Samantha? The promising investigator was last seen two days ago, going home after an evening of dancing with friends. Her family are beside themselves with worry. Casey’s relief is short-lived when she sees the short dark hair of another woman. Pauline Rydel has been missing for a week. Devastated that anyone would take this innocent life, the tear-shaped cuts on the victim’s face make Casey’s heart stop.

Sukey Reynolds is delighted that summer has arrived. Her garden is in glorious form, and the long, warm days give her a chance to enjoy the countryside, and even play a bit of tennis. The only digging she plans to do is in her flowerbeds. But then Sukey is called to photograph the scene of what appears to be a tragic accident. Arthur Soames, a retired school teacher, fell to his death from the ornate iron staircase above his perfectly manicured lawn. But when the police notify his family, they are adamant that this is no accident.

Down the beach, she can just make out the rusting hulk of the Ferris wheel through the dawn mist. The hairs prickle on her neck as she drags her focus back to the chestnut hair fanned out in the shallow water at her feet, to the grains of sand decorating the beautiful girl’s white cheeks like freckles.

Forced home to Fog Harbor, California, to look after her little sister, criminal psychologist Olivia Rockwell is struggling to adjust to life in a town so small she can hardly breathe. Until, at church one morning, the sound of a scream leads her to the body of a missing local teacher in the shallows nearby. All the evidence points to Olivia’s most threatening patient, Drake, who is safely locked up behind bars....

When three nine-year-old boys go missing on a field trip to Lakemore’s annual spring festival, panic tears through the small town. Detective Mackenzie Price and her partner, Nick Blackwood, lead the search, but no trace of the boys is found - until one of them is found murdered, a note stuffed down his throat.

Detective Kay Sharp vows to get to the bottom of a heartbreaking murder that has rocked Mount Chester. A single mother has been brutally killed in front of her three daughters. The youngest, three-year-old Erin, is lying inches from the body, her pigtails loose, her face tear-stained. Eight-year-old Heather is discovered hiding under her bed. Sixteen-year-old Julie is nowhere to be found.

It’s Halloween in Black Rock Falls, and Sheriff Jenna Alton and her deputy, David Kane, are called to a small lodge on the outskirts of town. Jenna is devastated to find the lifeless body of Willow Smith, a military widow whose husband went missing in action and has been presumed dead for years. Her breath catches in her throat when she notices the heart-shaped purple medal on Willow’s pale chest. Was Willow clinging to it when she died, or was it placed there after she took her last breath?

When firefighters discover the body of a teenage girl at an abandoned house, Detective Amanda Steele hurries to the scene. Dumfries, Virginia, is a small town, yet no one seems to have any idea who the dead girl is, until Amanda finds a dragonfly pin with the name Crystal engraved on it. Working tirelessly, Amanda traces the pin to Crystal Foster, a 13-year-old who disappeared three years ago from her wealthy parents’ home. Breaking the news to the distraught parents won’t be easy, but the loss of her own daughter still haunts Amanda, and she knows this will bring them closure.

When Detective Delaney Pace is called to a local high school in her small hometown of Kearney, Wyoming, she is devastated to find the body of star football player Noah Pinehurst slumped in the changing room, his team shirt hanging behind his lifeless body. Days later, two of his friends vanish from Noah’s memorial. Haunted by memories of her own father’s murder, Delaney is convinced that another twisted killer is stalking Kearney looking for victims.

Piper cycles off one hot Oklahoma evening for a sleepover with her new friend, Miley, from summer camp. But when she doesn’t come home, her grandparents raise the alarm. Their little angel is missing, last seen on her pink bicycle, heading toward the dark woods on Black Heart Lane. Detective Kimberley King knows that the first 24 hours in a missing-child investigation are the most critical, but with no witnesses, and darkness falling in the small town of Dead Woman Crossing, she begins to fear the worst.

When the body of a 16-year-old girl is found in a remote hunting cabin in the middle of the snowy Maryland woods a shiver runs down Private Investigator Lucy Kendall’s spine. The handprints around her neck, her broken bones, and the incense left burning at the scene are vital clues to who committed this terrible crime—Mary Weston, a notorious serial killer. She has outwitted the police for many years and left many parents without daughters. Is the girl in the cabin a sign she is killing again?

On the streets of Philadelphia, as the snow falls and black ice settles in dark back alleys, lost and vulnerable teenagers are being snatched off the streets. When one of them is found alive, Private Investigator Lucy Kendall knows she will never forget the sight of the boy’s brown eyes, forever dulled. She vows to find the monster behind the suffering.

On the hottest day of the year, as a heatwave takes hold of the Appalachian Mountains, a five-year-old girl goes missing. Just as the sun is setting, a family vacation becomes a worst nightmare—Betsy, with her green eyes, ponytail, and rainbow T-shirt—disappears in the woods by Widow Lake. Detective Ellie Reeves is straight on the scene, promising Betsy’s heartbroken parents that she will stop at nothing to find their precious daughter.

Detective Mackenzie Price knows what makes a killer tick. But when she finds the body of a young woman dumped in the trunk of her car, she knows this case is going to be the most personal and twisted yet. Looking down at the victim, Mack recognizes her instantly: Sophie Fields, the fiancée of Mack’s coworker who vanished months before. Reeling in shock, Mack keeps one crucial piece of evidence to herself, too horrified to share it: a crumpled piece of paper bearing the words “You’re welcome, Mackenzie”.

When a walker finds the body of a woman by the shores of Lake Ullswater, the police are put on high alert. Felicia Evans was known to be a tough character, but who would have strangled her? Detective Beth Young quickly spots the links to three cold cases. Three women strangled and discarded in the stunning, wild hills of the Lake District.

Detective Jenna Alton surveys the charred remains of the large suburban home, stopping to pause at the three lifeless bodies of the Woods family. Jenna knows she’s looking for a serial killer, but her priority is finding the missing teenage daughter last seen on the night of the inferno. Days later, Sophie Woods’s body is discovered floating in a shallow pool of crystal-clear water - known locally as Dead Man’s Drop - but Jenna still doesn’t know who would target the quiet family in such a brutal attack.

She’d been running for so long, it felt like her legs were on fire. Her heart was pounding so hard, she was sure it would give out. Around her, the snow was falling, casting an eerie silence over the town. A crack behind her, a foot snapping a branch, it warned her that he was still coming. She whipped around and saw the knife gleaming in his hand....

When Detective Katie Scott receives a plea from neighboring Coldwater Creek to help with a tragic murder, she doesn’t hesitate. Fifteen-year-old Ivy Miller’s naked body was found tied to a tree, a freshly inked pink rose tattoo on her arm. The word more carved into her back means sweet Ivy could be the first of many....

When Detective Casey White is called early one morning to a beachside vacation campsite in the Outer Banks, she finds the bodies of Carl and Peggy Pearson side-by-side, their throats cut, and their 13-year-old daughter, Lisa, nowhere to be found. Haunted by memories of her own missing girl, Casey fears this could soon become a triple murder: Because without the medication found in the bathroom cabinet, Lisa has just days to live.

Detective Madison Harper is pulled away from Thanksgiving preparations when a local care worker, Terri Summers, is found dead in her home on the outskirts of Lost Creek, Colorado. Terri’s inconsolable mother can’t understand who would hurt such a kind soul who had dedicated her life to helping others. But analysis of the blood spatter at the scene indicates Terri knew her attacker, that she looked them right in the eye before her life was taken. Can Madison stop this twisted killer before another precious life is taken? And at what cost?