Happy Tuesday! Again I am diverging from the Top 10 Tuesday prompt (I feel like I have done that topic a number of times) and going with great first books in mystery/suspense series. I’ve chosen a lot of great older books, so check out those backlists and get reading! đ
For more Top 10 Tuesday fun, check out That Artsy Reader Girl.
Top First Books of Great Mystery/Suspense Series
Back on Murder by J. Mark Bertrand
Det. Roland March is a homicide cop on his way out. But when he’s the only one at a crime scene to find evidence of a missing female victim, he’s given one last chance to prove himself. Before he can crack the case, he’s transferred to a new one that has grabbed the spotlightthe disappearance of a famous Houston evangelist’s teen daughter. With the help of a youth pastor with a guilty conscience who navigates the world of church and faith, March is determined to find the missing girls while proving he’s still one of Houston’s best detectives.
Brink of Death by Brandilyn Collins
The noises, faint, fleeting, whispered into her consciousness like wraiths passing in the night. Twelve-year-old Erin Willit opened her eyes to darkness lit only by the dim green nightlight near her closet door and the faint glow of a street lamp through her front window. She felt her forehead wrinkle, the fingers of one hand curl as she tried to discern what had awakened her. Something was not right . . . Annie Kingston moves to Grove Landing for safety and quietâand comes face to face with evil. When neighbor Lisa Willet is killed by an intruder in her home, Sheriffâs detectives are left with little evidence. Lisaâs daughter, Erin, saw the killer, but sheâs too traumatized to give a description. The detectives grow desperate. Because of her background in art, Annie is asked to question Erin and draw a composite. But Annie knows little about forensic art or the sensitive interview process. A nonbeliever, she finds herself begging God for help. What if her lack of experience leads Erin astray? The detectives could end up searching for a face that doesnât exist. Leaving the real killer free to stalk the neighborhood . . .
Cuts Like A Knife by M. K. Gilroy
Chicago has new resident, a heartless killer with a long and bloody history. When a successful young woman is found dead in her fashionable town home, a red flag lights up FBI computers in Washington, D.C. The Feds know an elusive âorganized killerâ is at work again. The problem is they have only one tenuous lead to assist the Chicago Police Department in the manhunt ⌠a most unlikely place the killer hunts for his victims. Detective Kristen Conner is light as a feather but punches hard as a heavyweight. A copâs kid, her life is built on faith, family, and catching criminals. She coaches her nieceâs soccer team, the Snowflakes, when she isnât fighting with her CPD partner or glamorous TV news reporter sisterâor going undercover to find the man who is terrorizing the women of her city. Sheâs a good cop but sheâs never faced an adversary like this. From an opening chase that leads Kristen to a back alley where a punk with a knife awaits her, to the climactic and head-spinning ending where she goes one-on-one with the hauntingly familiar man who is killing innocent women in her city, Cuts Like a Knife, is loaded with action, suspense, and humor through the voice of its irrepressible lead character.
Dangerous Passage by Lisa Harris
She’s dedicated her life to ending violence. But has she moved too deep into a treacherous world?
When two Jane Does are killed on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, detective and behavioral specialist Avery North discovers they share something in common — a magnolia tattoo on their shoulders. Suspecting a serial killer, Avery joins forces with medical examiner Jackson Bryant to solve the crimes and prevent another murder. As they venture deep into a sinister criminal world, Avery and Jackson are taken to the very edge of their abilities–and their hearts.
Dangerous Passage exposes a fully realized and frightening world where every layer peeled back reveals more challenges ahead. You’ll be hooked from the start.
Deeper Water by Robert Whitlow
In the murky waters of Savannah’s shoreline, a young law student is under fire as she tries her first case at a prominent and established law firm. A complex mix of betrayal and deception quickly weaves its way through the case and her life, as she uncovers dark and confusing secrets about the man she’s defending–and the senior partners of the firm.
How deep will the conspiracy run? Will she have to abandon her true self to fulfill a higher calling? And how far will she have to go to discover the truth behind a tragic cold case?
Fear Has A Name by Creston Mapes
A Haunting Name From the Past . . .
Granger Meade was mentally scarred as a boy by his religious zealot parents. He was bullied at school for his quiet, oafish appearance, which naturally made him a loner and outcast.
But one girl treated him differentlyâPamela Wagner. Pam talked to Granger, took an interest, listened, made him feel like a human being. She cared when no one else did, and Granger loved her for it; and still does 20 years later.
So Granger goes back to their Ohio town. Back to Pamela. But she is happily married to reporter Jack Crittendon, who’s embroiled in a time-sensitive story about a pastor who’s disappeared and left a suicide note; a case swirling with suspicion and talk of scandal.
Full Disclosure by Dee Henderson
Ann Silver is a cop’s cop. As the Midwest Homicide Investigator, she is called in to help local law enforcement on the worst of cases, looking for answers to murder. Hers is one of the region’s most trusted investigative positions.
Paul Falcon is the FBI’s top murder cop in the Midwest. If the victim carried a federal badge or had a security clearance, odds are good Paul and his team see the case file or work the murder.
Their lives intersect when Ann arrives to pass a case off her desk and onto his. A car wreck and a suspicious death offer a lead on a hired shooter he is tracking. Paul isn’t expecting to meet someone, the kind that goes on the personal side of the ledger, but Ann Silver has his attention.
The better he gets to know her, the more Paul realizes her job barely scratches the surface of who she is. She knows spies and soldiers and U.S. Marshals, and has written books about them. She is friends with the former Vice President. People with good reason to be cautious about who they let into their lives deeply trust her. Paul wonders just what secrets Ann is keeping, until she shows him the John Doe Killer case file, and he starts to realize just who this lady he is falling in love with really is…
Night Watchman by Mark Mynheir
Eleven months ago, Ray Quinn was a tough, quick-witted Orlando homicide detective at the top of his game — until a barrage of bullets ended his careerâŚand his partnerâ s life.
Now medically retired with a painful handicap, Ray battles the haunting guilt for his partnerâs death. Numbing the pain with alcohol and attitude, Ray takes a job as a night watchman at a swanky Orlando condo.
But when a pastor and an exotic dancer are found dead in one of the condos in an apparent murder-suicide, Ray can no longer linger in the shadows. The pastorâs sister is convinced her brother was framed and begs Ray to take on an impossible case–to challenge the evidence and clear her brotherâs name.
Ray reluctantly pulls the threads of this supposedly dead-end case only to unravel a murder investigation so deep that it threatens to turn the Orlando political landscape upside down and transform old friends into new enemies. As Ray chases down leads and interrogates suspects, someone is watching his every move, someone determined to keep him from ever finding out the truth — at any cost.
A Shred of Evidence by Kathy Herman
The first book in the Seaport Suspense series
Ellen Jones, first introduced in the Baxter series, is enjoying a leisurely lunch at a Seaport restaurant when she overhears a private conversation at the table next to her â and disturbing accusations involving the husband of a woman she has recently befriended. But as Ellen digs through old newspaper articles and stumbles onto information too frightening to keep to herself, will she become enmeshed in speculation and gossip â or will she take the lead and become a catalyst for truth and healing?
Sober Justice by Mark Hilley
Life in the low country of the Gulf Coast can get pretty steamy. But life just got a lot hotter for Mike Connolly, a divorced, alcoholic, 50 something attorney. Usually content when he just makes it through another day, Mike’s life takes a dangerous and unpredictable turn when a judge appoints him to defend an indigent man accused of murdering a prominent plaintiff’s attorney. Just when he thinks that things can’t get worse, Mike stumbles onto a conspiracy and finds himself in the midst of a complicated web of intrigue that will take a miracle to survive. Trouble is–Mike’s fresh out of miracles. Or is he?
Widows And Orphans by Susan Meissner
When her ultra-ministry-minded brother, Joshua, confesses to murder, lawyer Rachael Flynn begs him to let her represent him, certain that he is innocent. But Joshua refuses her offer of counsel.
As Rachael works on the case, she begins to suspect that Josh knows who the real killer is, but she is unable to get him to cooperate with his defense. Why won’t he talk to her? What is Josh hiding?
The answer is revealed in a stunning conclusion that will have readers eager for the second book in this gripping new series.
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