Fans pick 71 books like Stranded

I’ve been a fan of Crais’s Elvis & Joe series for years, so I was delighted to see that he brought a dog into a new series as a main character. Another book with traumatized characters, this one demonstrates the redemptive power of canine love.

LAPD officer Scott James is recovering from an assault in which his partner was killed, and he almost lost his life. He’s barely fit to return to duty until he’s paired with his new partner Maggie, a bomb-sniffing German shepherd that lost her handler in Afghanistan. Their partnership offers healing for both, and I love this book and A Borrowing of Bones because they reflect redemption.

This book was short-listed for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and named the Dogwise Book of the Year. It features ex-soldier Mercy Carr and retired military K-9 Elvis, who were both traumatized when Mercy’s fiancé—also Elvis’s handler—was killed on their last deployment.

Paula Munier is another author with a deep connection to the natural world. She is studying for a naturalist certificate in her home state of Vermont, and the books are full of great details.

I fell in love with Kate Shugak as soon as I met her on the page.

Kate's an Aleutian private investigator who lives with Mutt, her half-wolf, half-husky, on a 160-acreage homestead in Alaska. Do you know why Kate carries a scar from ear to ear? Do you know why Kate and Mutt's nearest other neighbors are a grizzly bear and a moose, and why they like it that way?

If so, you probably know how everyone turns to Kate for justice and that this very first book won an Edgar Award. Maybe you, like me, have read all 26 books in this series. High five.

Billy, an injured Iraq war vet, returns home and finds no real place for him at his former job. Milo, a German shepherd trained by the same police department, has aged out at seven years and is also unwanted. Since Milo and Billy previously worked together, they team up, and with Rosenfelt’s tongue-in-cheek humor, commit robberies to survive. Why not use the dog’s training to grab items from criminal hands and remove them? But on the fourth outing, things don’t go as planned.

Milo takes off and buries an envelope he took from the perp, Billy is framed for murder, and attorney Andy Carpenter, who loves dogs, agrees to represent the dog, jailed for his own safety. Carpenter’s snarky sense of humor leaps off every page as he twists and turns the justice system for yet another dog-related cause. Rosenfelt has rescued thousands of dogs through his Tara Foundation and… show more.

Ryder Creed brings his canine handling skills to potential crime scenes and smuggling operations. He works as a team with his Jack Russell Grace. Dog and man communicate in non-verbal ways to assess situations and aid law enforcement in uncovering evidence. The typical crime scene dog is taught for the job they will perform from birth. Ryder’s dogs are rescued from the street, animal shelters, or retrained after their owners are killed during military actions. The characters’ back stories are thoroughly crafted and distributed throughout the plot. As you learn more about each character, you understand their canine companions’ vital role in their lives.

Set in a vividly described location in the Swiss Alps, Flowers Over the Inferno features a most refreshing protagonist. Teresa Battaglia is in her sixties, stocky, diabetic, and extremely grumpy. What’s not to like? The plot is dark, the location stunning, and the crimes intriguing, but it’s Teresa’s character that made it a stand-out book for me. 

Camilla Grebe has no equal when it comes to portraying Swedish society and culture. And she does it with poetry and accuracy.

In this book, her psychological profiler, Hanne Lagerlind-Schön, who is struggling with devastating early onset dementia, takes us to Ormberg, a small town on the Swedish east coast, to investigate a cold case.

This gripping social thriller is formidably well-crafted and the perfect companion during a snowy day.

Definitely a page-turner. A dark mystery/thriller/romance that is fed to you through FBI profiler Lilah Love's eyes. FBI agent Lilah Love leads a complicated life. She's engaged to Kane Mendez, a man most call dangerous, but hey birds of a feather, do flock together. She's dangerous, too, and in ways only Kane understands. As for their happily ever after, well that might have to wait. Right now, an old enemy who should be dead is still living, Junior, her mystery letter writer, is stirring up trouble, and her family is trying to prove they're crazier than her. On top of that, she has a new case: a dead woman in a bloody wedding dress. And since Lilah knows all too well there is no such thing as coincidence, clearly, someone is sending her yet another message. If you love romantic suspense novels, secrets, and scandals with a bit of profiling… show more.

The resilience of the protagonist, FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera, dubbed the "Warrior Girl" by the media really drew me in.

She’s the only person to ever survive a horrifying encounter with a serial killer called the Cipher when she was a teenager. This terrible attack molds her into the ultimate protector for those who can’t save themselves. Nina tugs at your heartstrings with her bravery, despite her prickly nature.

Once the serial killer starts killing again, he drops hints to the media that his rampage is tied to Nina. She’s forced to confront the nightmare that nearly ended her life. Her next encounter with the Cipher is cringe-worthy, but her courage and tenacity shine through and make Nina Guerrera the woman you have to root for. 

This is an excellent reading about a former FBI agent not giving up on their search to find predators. I truly honor this agent for how he never gave up on the search. From my former experience as a Special Agent with The Drug Enforcement Administration, the writers did a thorough job to focus on how the FBI Agents unselfishly dedicated long investigative hours to target the predators of children. The writers described how the FBI agent’s moral beliefs and his dedication to helping the sexually abused children; perseverance, and creative innovative investigative techniques that enable him to find the predators.