69 books like All the Colors of the Dark

The Halloween Maze was great, and I like how the serial killer family revolves around it. It's a solid story that holds together and has a good, satisfying ending.

FBI agent Winter used to chase serial killers, then got sidelined into white-collar crime, but stumbles into finding another possible serial killer, leaving bodies at National parks. The chase is on.

I really enjoyed the development of the serial killer. The flesh-eating bugs did their job too. And there was a nice flashback of Winter. Great story.

The quest to endure and overcome against seemingly impossible odds is a strong theme with The Highway. I liked that and also that the characters came alive from the first page.

The main character Cassie Dewell’s interaction with those around her keeps you guessing as to whether she is smart or flaky. As a rookie investigator in a rural sheriff’s department beset with corruption she has her work cut out to survive. The stressed interplay of her family and work life ramps up tension when she gets on the trail of a serial killer, snatching his victims from highways and truck stops. The plot is compelling and you hold your breath as you leaf through each page. If page-turning crime thrillers are your thing, I recommend The Highway.

Every day is Halloween when you live in the seventh most haunted town in America, so ghosts and witches are nothing new to Evie Von Rathe. But when Aunt Des disappears, Evie knows she’ll do anything to get her back, even if it means playing a deadly game against a serial killer with a creature called The Clackity.

Watching Evie overcome her anxiety is a struggle kids will relate to and makes her an easy character to root for. The Clackity has such a perfect spooky Grimm’s Fairy tale vibe, that I was immediately sucked in. Nothing is more Halloween than a dark trip through the woods, and the twisted Alice in Wonderland feel of this book lives and breathes Halloween.

Erik Hickey is the pioneer in serial killer research. His renowned book is the gold standard for those wishing to gather the facts about serial murderers, their crimes, and their victims. He does not include “gore” (his word) in his writings. His work is methodical, evidence-based, and respectful, and his results have been consistently replicated by my team and others. With respect to my recommendation theme, in this book, Hickey describes his lengthy research on both male and female serial killers and emphasizes that the crimes of male serial killers (MSKs) are starkly different than those of FSKs. I know him to be a great supporter of other researchers in their empirical pursuits. His book is a must-have for scholars and students of psychology and criminal justice interested in this topic.

Families. What can I say? They can be weird beasts, and none less so than the family of detective Eva Rae Thomas.
A father who kidnapped her sister from a grocery store when they were children. A brother she didn’t know existed. Ignored by her family for decades, can she refuse their call for help? Many would, in a case where nothing is as it seems.

I read this one in college, and it sparked my imagination for years and years. Set in 1890s New York, it combines the lowbrow pleasures of gory crime with lots of nifty historical settings and facts (the history of psychiatry! Early forensic science! Gilded Age politics!).

I read it on my bottom bunk in the dorms in about 8 hours, probably while I should have been studying. I’d love to recapture that intensity of pleasure in reading, but a job and two small children make it tricky. 

Now these two main characters, both “villains,” are refreshingly human. When the evil archeologist in Raiders of the Lost Ark tells Indy that it would only take a small push to move him out of the light, this is the kind of thing he meant. For the woman in the story, being bad is an almost understandable way to cope with the particular situation she faces (that we’ve all faced). For the man, he’s been in the dark for a long time, but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t need love. A serial killer/black comedy/love story about a hired killer and an inspired killer. Is it a match made in Heaven, or Hell?

I like crime journalism, especially when it breaks new ground or reveals a shocking story.

It’s hard to believe we aren’t well-versed in this Cape Cod serial killer, Tony Costa, since this 1969 case of multiple murders inspired two major writing talents, Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut, to compete for a scoop. 

Sherman, who happened to stumble upon the story, brings out these authors’ personality quirks and describes the strange things they’d do for a shot at publication. At the same time, we learn about Costa’s predatory maneuvers and the way the investigation was handled.

I found this book to be a terrific addition to the historic true crime genre. 

Although the Jefferson Chene mysteries are not historical, I really enjoy them. I love a mystery and all the twists and turns that go with it. It feeds my imagination and I want to unpick the motive of the murderer. 

Here we are with a murder, but the question is this a possible serial killer with no apparent motive? Thank goodness, honest, hardworking, and dependable, Jefferson is on the case. I thought I had the case cracked, but prayed I got it wrong. I chomped through to the end, sure I got it all worked out. Did I? No, I didn’t, not until the last possible minute. But that’s the beauty of a good mystery isn’t it?

I’ve been a colleague of both Peter and Toni for many years.

Toni is a clear spiritual channel and Peter asked the questions for this book and published it. What many people may not know is Toni used to be a state attorney and as her channeling developed she did the one thing attorneys should never do and that is to ask questions of a witness without knowing what the answer would be. Yet the intuitive questions she asked resolved cases in a dramatic way.

In this book 25 souls share what happened at their moment of death and shortly afterwards.

This includes someone who died in the twin towers, a Vietnamese diplomat is tortured and shot, a serial killer who suffered the torment of a self-induced hell and two little Italian girls were too frightened to believe they had died and spent time as ghosts. A great read that… show more.