Here are 100 books that A Wicked Snow fans have personally recommended if you like
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My career path led through tenure as a police detective working multiple death investigations and into forensic medicine, where I worked with the late Dr. Joseph Burton (a person I sensed was the smartest I had ever met) and Dr. Jan Garavaglia of “Dr. G: Medical Examiner” fame. A case of a homeless person’s murder triggered my interest in writing crime thrillers. I was hooked. To date, I have three published novels, received a contract for one, due for release in early 2025, and other manuscripts ready for submission likened to the five novels on my list.
"Wow!" becomes an understatement in this story. I enjoyed the challenge this author issued to the investigators called to a murder scene where more than enough DNA evidence to convict the suspect shouts, “Collect me and solve the case.” Not so fast. Twenty years later, the case remains unsolved.
I liked this story’s multiple secrets, but how might Avery Mason, a TV show host in search of a ratings boost, find the killer when the person of interest died in one of the Twin Towers on 9/11? The answer: a twist of fate.
“Excellent…Donlea tells a propulsive tale.” – The New York Times
The New York Times Best Thrillers This Season | E! NewsRecommended Books | OverdriveBiggest Books of the Month
Fans of Verity by Colleen Hoover won’t want to miss this thrilling new suspense novel from the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Girl Who Was Taken! Hiding her own dark past in plain sight, a TV reporter is determined to uncover the truth behind a gruesome murder decades after the investigation was abandoned. But TWENTY YEARS LATER, to understand the present, you need to listen to the past…
My career path led through tenure as a police detective working multiple death investigations and into forensic medicine, where I worked with the late Dr. Joseph Burton (a person I sensed was the smartest I had ever met) and Dr. Jan Garavaglia of “Dr. G: Medical Examiner” fame. A case of a homeless person’s murder triggered my interest in writing crime thrillers. I was hooked. To date, I have three published novels, received a contract for one, due for release in early 2025, and other manuscripts ready for submission likened to the five novels on my list.
The way Author Dornbush shares authenticity through her reflection-of-life characters and premise based on her background in the world of forensic science and medicine resonated with me.
I appreciated the way she portrayed Dr. Emily Hartford’s background (similar to the author’s), the character’s resolve for answers, and how life turned for the lone survivor of a murdered family. This one kept me involved and turning pages.
Dr. Emily Hartford is back in Chicago, ready to move forward and leave the past behind, until an unexpected request for help sends her deep into an investigation—and into the path of a killer.
Seventeen months after the Parkman case, Dr. Hartford has returned to Chicago to finish her surgical residency. But when she is contacted out of the blue by Solange McClelland, the only survivor of a decade-old triple homicide, Emily is compelled to dig deeper. She doesn’t know the details of the event but remembers it as one of the few cases her deceased father never solved.
My career path led through tenure as a police detective working multiple death investigations and into forensic medicine, where I worked with the late Dr. Joseph Burton (a person I sensed was the smartest I had ever met) and Dr. Jan Garavaglia of “Dr. G: Medical Examiner” fame. A case of a homeless person’s murder triggered my interest in writing crime thrillers. I was hooked. To date, I have three published novels, received a contract for one, due for release in early 2025, and other manuscripts ready for submission likened to the five novels on my list.
Steven James is one of my favorite authors, and this novel is one of his best works. I connected with the main character, Travis Brock, a person blessed with an eidetic memory. Travis remembers everything he sees, but like an eyewitness to a crime, some things seen prove haunting afterward.
Threats, trouble, and conflict kept me turning pages. This story's ending, with one of the best twists I have ever read or heard of, left me with a sense of urgency to read the sequel as soon as it is published.
The man who knows all our secrets has a secret of his own.
When Travis Brock, a high-level Pentagon redactor with an eidetic memory, finds a clue to solving the tragic arson that took his wife from him, he risks everything to find the truth—and chances losing himself in the process.
With a terror attack looming on the horizon and a pair of assassins on his tail, Brock drops off the grid and joins forces with a disavowed Homeland Security operative. Together they race to stop the attack before Brock is neutralized by the people he trusts the most.
He’s riddled with guilt. She’s annoyed with the status quo.
The death of a crime boss’s daughter forces Detective Neil Caldera to leave NYC. He seeks refuge in the tranquil embrace of a small town, where he finds himself entangled in the labyrinth of a teenage girl’s murder. Tess Fleishman’s pale skin and extreme weight loss portrays a disease she wants others to see. While inside, a compulsion for Neil fuels her passion to have him or destroy him.
He's riddled with guilt. She's annoyed with the status quo. The death of a crime boss's daughter forces Detective Neil Caldera to leave NYC. He seeks refuge in the tranquil embrace of a small town, where he finds himself entangled in the labyrinth of a teenage girl's murder. Tess Fleishman's pale skin and extreme weight loss portrays a disease she wants others to see. While inside, a compulsion for Neil fuels her passion to have him or destroy him. As Neil delves into the heart of the town's secrets, will truth deliver solace? Or will Tess prevail?
My career path led through tenure as a police detective working multiple death investigations and into forensic medicine, where I worked with the late Dr. Joseph Burton (a person I sensed was the smartest I had ever met) and Dr. Jan Garavaglia of “Dr. G: Medical Examiner” fame. A case of a homeless person’s murder triggered my interest in writing crime thrillers. I was hooked. To date, I have three published novels, received a contract for one, due for release in early 2025, and other manuscripts ready for submission likened to the five novels on my list.
Although I had not read anything written by Susan Hunter, I’m glad I bought this one. I liked this story based on the mindset the author gave Leah Nash. I sensed Leah’s hesitancy in the beginning (a well-thought-out reason), but her determination to help a friend get answers in an old death case drove her onward and led her to places of best-kept secrets.
The case resonated with me because, like Leah, once I sense the truth within reach and find it, I hold on and never let go. The evidence shouted at me (my background helped me see it). I became concerned Leah might not ever see it until she did.
Teenager Heather Young disappears from the small town of Himmel, Wisconsin. Everyone believes her boyfriend killed her, but no one can prove it.
Twenty years later, Leah Nash is pulled into the cold case by an old friend.
She finds the answer—and the shocking truth shatters her world.
DANGEROUS PLACES is the third standalone book in the Leah Nash series of complex, fast-paced murder mysteries featuring quick-witted dialogue, daring female characters, and plots with lots of twists and turns.
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What readers are saying about Susan Hunter and DANGEROUS PLACES:
Among other things, I'm an existentialist. A well-constructed mystery novel is an existential puzzle given to the reader to solve at his/her leisure, and the noir sub-genre has the further subtext that the protagonist—and the reader—are doomed in some way even if the solution is nailed. Romance novels are drivel and have no basis in reality, but noir and other types of mystery fiction reflect the way that the world works: you may solve this puzzle problem, but then you are left to a vast world that is rife with puzzles but without a coherent plot. The detective trudges on, achieves a kind of satisfaction, and then is thrust into the next crisis.
Watching
bad people self-destruct is hard work, but author Cain makes sure that the bad
people get what they deserve. A drifter takes a job at a roadside diner that is
run by an old man and his beautiful and unhappy wife; the two youngsters begin
a dangerous affair and then plot to kill the husband so that the girl inherits
the property. But matters do not turn out as they planned. The novel has been
adapted for film at least seven times, with the favorite being the 1946 movie
starring Lana Turner.
'Nobody has ever quite pulled it off the way Cain does, not Hemingway, and not even Raymond Chandler' Tom Wolfe
'It is no accident that movies based on three [of Cain's novels] helped to define the genre known as film noir' NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS
'The most starkly elemental thing that has been written for years' EVENING STANDARD
The torrid story of Frank Chambers, the amoral drifter, Cora, the sullen and brooding wife, and Nick Papadakis, the amiable but inconvenient husband, has become a classic of its kind, and established Cain as a major novelist with a spare and…
I started reading detective stories in my teens, and I’ve never quit. They’ve become part of my professional identity. I’ve taught detective (and crime) fiction at various universities in the U.S. and the Middle East. I believe the genre is incredibly rich, allowing the writer to explore anything from contemporary social issues to historical events and from psychological phenomena to philosophical problems. Apart from my academic work, I also write and edit detective/crime stories, and I try to keep up with the stream of new works being published every year. The list here contains some of my all-time favorites, and I hope you will enjoy them as much as I have.
I love a good conspiracy story, and this is one of the whackiest, most original ever. Steeped in 1960s culture and packed with literary and pop-cultural references (and itself referenced by William Gibson, Star Trek, and Radiohead, amongst many others), the story follows Oedipa Maas as she tries to unravel a nefarious plot that spans the centuries.
Every time I reread the novel, I discover something new, and I’m sure I still don’t get even half of the allusions. The book is zany and funny, but I can’t help wondering whether this conspiracy might not have some basis in fact….
By far the shortest of Pynchon's great, dazzling novels - and one of the best.
Suffused with rich satire, chaotic brilliance, verbal turbulence and wild humour, The Crying of Lot 49 opens as Oedipa Maas discovers that she has been made executrix of a former lover's estate. The performance of her duties sets her on a strange trail of detection, in which bizarre characters crowd in to help or confuse her. But gradually, death, drugs, madness and marriage combine to leave Oepida in isolation on the threshold of revelation, awaiting The Crying of Lot 49.
Told from the perspective of Helena, a veterinarian whose career was cut short by—you guessed it!—cancer, this book explores the ethical implications of testing on animals while unpacking the messy reality of grief. As Helena’s husband, David, struggles to care for his late wife’s houseful of beloved animals, ghost-Helena reflects on the meaninglessness of her existence. I think we all like to believe we leave some kind of impact on the world, but what if we don’t? And who are we to call ourselves superior beings when other creatures are forced to suffer at our expense?
UNSAID is told from the perspective of Helena Colden, a veterinarian who has just died of breast cancer. Helena is forced to witness the rapid emotional deterioration of her husband David. With Helena's passing, David, a successful Manhattan attorney, loses the only connection that made his life full. He tries to carry on the life that Helena had created for them, but he is too grief stricken, too angry, and too quickly reabsorbed into the demands of his career. Helena's animals likewise struggle with the loss of their understanding and compassionate human companion. Because of Helena, David becomes involved in…
The 17th and 18th- century female poets who were the focus of my master’s degree thesis in English inspired me to write several true-to-life historical novels with strong, intelligent, and engaging heroines. When I wrote Claire, After All, however, I needed and thought readers might welcome something more light-hearted. Life can be grim and the nightly news distressing. How about a break from all that drama? So as a longtime Georgette Heyer fan and as homage to her delightful romantic heroines, I created Claire Penwarren, a woman who loves her family, makes mistakes but fixes them, and eventually lives happily ever after. No soap boxes. No surprise endings. Just fun.
What do you get when you combine the great 20th-century mystery writer P. D. James and the great 18th-century social commentator Jane Austen? You get Death Comes to Pemberley, that’s what. Austen’s beloved Darcy and Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudiceare happily married living at Pemberley with their children until along comes that dastardly George Wickham (also from P & P) who has the nerve to get murdered, leaving it up to Lizzy to figure out the culprit! A Regency whodunit is the best of both worlds.
A rare meeting of literary genius: P. D. James, long among the most admired mystery writers of our time, draws the characters of Jane Austen’s beloved novel Pride and Prejudice into a tale of murder and emotional mayhem.
It is 1803, six years since Elizabeth and Darcy embarked on their life together at Pemberley, Darcy’s magnificent estate. Their peaceful, orderly world seems almost unassailable. Elizabeth has found her footing as the chatelaine of the great house. They have two fine sons, Fitzwilliam and Charles. Elizabeth’s sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; her father visits often; there is optimistic…
As a teenager, I loved reading past my bedtime, getting lost within a story, then having it fill my dreams and leaving me on the hunt for another book just as good. The best books to read are those that draw me in with their voice and storytelling and leave me needing to turn page after page. Getting in trouble as a kid for reading too late was the best type of trouble to get into and even now, when I need to make a second pot of coffee after a night of reading, I walk away with no regrets.
There is something in the way this author writes that always hooks me. Every single time I read one of her novels, I’m left with a feeling of…nothing else will be as good. You know that feeling right? There are so many twists in this story, some I didn’t see coming, that not only had me reading way too late at night, but nothing else I picked up the next day grabbed my attention like this book did. To me, that’s the perfect book-hangover to have.
'Wow wow wow. Finished in one day... Twists to make me gasp out loud!... Read it, thank me later!' NetGalley reviewer, 5 stars
Don't miss the next gripping thriller from the bestselling author of Three Days Missing!
Beth Murphy is on the run...
For nearly a year, Beth has been planning for this day. A day some people might call any other Wednesday, but Beth prefers to see it as her new beginning-one with a new look, new name and new city. Beth has given her plan significant thought, because one small slip and her violent husband will find her.…
I’ve been fascinated by people’s behavior since I was a child. I was the kid who asked too many impertinent questions, never satisfied with the short answer. When I fell in love with historical fiction, the history mingled with my interest in human psychology. I soon discovered that despite advancements throughout civilization, people’s wants, needs, and fears remain fairly consistent. The exploration of life experiences that are not our own through the power of a book is pure magic. I hope these recommendations will allow you to put another’s life on like you would your winter parka and just for a moment, gain an understanding of another’s trials and tribulations.
I will admit it, I am a sucker for a compelling book cover. The cover ofMrs. Kimble completely drew me in and it didn’t take long for me to be so immersed that I wanted to grab the characters by their shoulders and shake some sense into them. I was intrigued by the idea of a “serial husband” but honestly, I wanted to know more about this narcissistic man who could simply change who he was at any given moment all the while changing careers, hometowns, and wives without nary a backwards glance. Self-centered doesn’t even begin to describe Ken Kimble but he sure does make the novel an intriguing story about love, loss, betrayal, and human nature in all of its glory.
Covering a span of twenty five years, Mrs Kimble tells the story of three women married in succession to the same man - a charismatic opportunist named Ken Kimble. Told from the perspective of each Mrs Kimble, it offers a mesmerising look at how three very different women become accomplices in their own deception.
We see Ken Kimble through the eyes of the women he seduces: his first wife, Birdie, who struggles to hold herself together in the months following his desertion; his second wife, Joan, a lonely heiress recovering from personal tragedy, who sees in Kimble her last chance…
