63 Books Like As Good as Dead

This is an important resource for anyone interested in the history of twentieth-century forensic practice, because it explains the rise of forensic science as a discipline separate from forensic medicine. Forensic scientists, based in laboratories, analyse trace evidence found at crime scenes, while forensic pathologists focus on the dead body in the mortuary. An analysis of the 1953 serial murders committed by John Christie at his infamous London address, 10 Rillington Place, shows how murder investigations had by then become team efforts centred on the crime scene itself. 

This book broke my heart. A college student goes for an exciting semester in Italy and has to deal with the tragic murder of her roommate, her own wrongful arrest for the crime, an internationally covered trial where she is portrayed as a monster, and more than four years in prison for a crime she did not commit.

I love this book because it not only tells the story of a wrongful conviction but is also the best book I have read about the prison experience that women around the world go through. It is beautifully written and tough to put down.

Another author first for me…I know what is wrong with me! I wish Three Pines was real and I could meet all of the residents.

Each character is endearing, even the foul-mouthed Ruth, and reaches into the heart of the reader. I look forward to getting to know them over the numerous books in the series.

This book isn’t as dark as I typically read; however, the mystery of who the caped person on the golf course was, why they were there, and the side mystery of the history of the town had me losing track of time. 

Forget walking the dog. Take a walk through Three Pines and just try to leave town before you’ve finished the book!

Ace Atkins is a master of the crime genre. It’s no wonder Robert B. Parker’s estate tapped him to carry on the Spenser series. He’s great at capturing places and the internal monologues of weary men. He’s also able to tell stories just seedy enough to keep readers curious, without making them cringe. The first book in Atkins’ Quinn Colson series is on par with Elmore Leonard’s Raylan Givens books. Quinn seems entirely real, the small town he returns to after a years-long absence feels lived in and believable. And the pacing is masterful. Whereas Perry drags readers along for the action, Atkins makes you feel as though you’re sitting in the backseat, riding down the winding roads of Tibbehah County in northeast Mississippi as Quinn uneasily approaches another backcountry crime scene.    

Real-life P.I. Ethan Brown pulls no punches with this wrenching exposé of deep-South police corruption.

Murder in the Bayou parts the curtain on inescapable connections between eight women killed in a rural Louisiana parish between 2005-2009..

Clocking in at less than 250 pages, this one is thick as swamp fog with the backgrounds and rap sheets of all players, indicted and unindicted. Brown's boots-on-the-ground approach to this story is evident in the interviews he scored with the central characters of this backwoods underworld.

The result is not just a triumph of journalism; it's a triumph of courage. I was inspired by Brown's devotion to the story and, more importantly, to the families and friends of these marginalized women.

I love tasty writing as much as I do a juicy story. This book delivers on both counts.

It’s a murder mystery that reads like the best of literary fiction. I’ve been a fan of Kortya since devouring his earlier novel Those Who Wish Me Dead, which begins with a young boy witnessing a murder. This novel starts with a murder after the fact, on a rudderless boat adrift at sea: perpetrator unknown.

Its strong characters seem plucked from real life. Its twists and turns kept me guessing. Its humdinger of a climax kept me up past my bedtime. To work your way through the author’s oeuvre is to take a master class in writing, while being thoroughly entertained. More, please.

I read this while recuperating from an operation, and it was the pick-me-up I needed.

What starts off as a current missing person’s case becomes an investigation into a cold case as it comes to light that the two cases could be linked. The sleuths in this case are retired spies, The Martini Club, and they are such a fun group of characters. It’s the second book of Tess Gerritsen’s to feature this cast of characters, and they have skills to outdo the local police chief, Jo—and occasionally get in her way.

Any book in which a journalist and a librarian are the heroes gets a gold star from me. In this gripping novel, a Black journalist from Detroit who writes about the Black Lives Matter movement goes to Birmingham, Alabama, in 2019 on a personal and professional quest.

Her great-grandfather was, she believes, killed there by a white policeman 90 years ago, and she’s determined to find out the truth. She also thinks his story can illuminate what’s happening nationwide today. Based on this compelling premise, the novel is a mystery, a love story, a history, and an examination of racial justice rolled into one. I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes view of exactly how a journalist builds a story.

I’m not only a mystery/suspense writer but also a fan of the genre, as I read or listen to about forty whodunnits a year, just under one a week. I tend to read these books with one eye toward the superficial story, yes, but I also study them from a technical standpoint, saying to myself, “Oh, I see what the author did there,” “Man, that was a nice way to frame that conflict,” or, “What the hell? I think the author wrote that chapter by getting drunk and taping crayons to their feet.” The point I’m trying to make is that the plot devices and metaphors tend to blur together after a while. 

But this book? Man, it stood out. I mean, Kat Rosenfield had me hook, line, and sinkers with the book’s opening line, “My name is Lizzie Ouellette, and if you’re reading this, I’m already dead.” It's… show more.

It has all my favorite elements of fiction: an intriguing location (Catalina Island), a propulsive narrative, and characters you’d want to have coffee with, or throw from a bridge, as the case may be.

The Catalina Island of Nightshade is the Island of Misfit Toys for the disgraced cops who secure it. Its protagonist, Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell, battles bad guys, both criminal and law enforcement, while battling his own demons. And he makes patrolling his beat in a golf cart, the sole motorized transport permitted on Catalina, seem badass.

If they make a movie of this novel, I’d love to see what a “car chase” using golf carts looks like. Nail-biting? Probably not, although the book has no shortage of chills. It begins with two crimes which may or may not be related: a murder and the beheading of a buffalo.

I can’t wait to see what Stillwell gets up… show more.