Books like Mind Prey

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.

I love Boston Detective D.D. Warren. She may be a knockout blonde but she's no ditsy airhead. She's a smart, hard-nosed detective who takes no guff from anyone. But her current case is a complex puzzle. One night while her print journalist husband is away at work, a young mother disappears, leaving her four-year-old daughter home alone, fast asleep in bed. 

The husband stonewalls D.D.'s questions and won't let her question his daughter. The couple appears to lead a squeaky-clean life with their daughter, but both parents have dark secrets. D.D.'s investigation yields a plethora of suspects but damn few answers. Worse, D.D. believes the four-year-old saw whoever took her mother, putting her life in danger. Multiple bombshells and heart-wrenching revelations drive The Neighbor to a shocking conclusion.

Picture Jack Reacher on an NYC subway car at 2 AM with a suicide bomber. Will she blow up the car and everyone in it? I love how Lee Child keeps us in suspense, not just for a page or two, for twenty-seven pages! Reacher finds out the woman had a dangerous secret, but everyone he talks to lies to him. Each chapter ends with a cliffhanger and more questions. 

But many people want Reacher to stop asking questions: a former Delta Force operative running for the US Senate, two Al Qaeda agents, NYC cops, and FBI agents. They want Reacher to get lost and forget the suicide bomber. Fat chance! The complex plot will intrigue you. The climactic ending will terrify you even more than the suicide bomber.

Half the fun of reading a Detective John Corey novel is his smartass humor and snarky dialogue. The other half is watching his dogged pursuit of the bad guys. In Radiant Angel, he's working for the Diplomatic Surveillance Group in New York City. His assignment? Keep tabs on a Russian diplomat who may be an enemy agent on a deadly mission. 

The threat? A nuclear bomb—aka radiant angel—small enough to fit in a suitcase, big enough to blow New York City to smithereens, with enough radioactive fallout to cripple the US for years. The bonus is experiencing the action from the Russian agent's perspective, including his fear of failing to complete his mission. And the clock is ticking so John Corey must figure out how to stop him pronto.

After reading the first book of the Cork O’Connor series some twenty years after its initial publication date, I got hooked and quickly devoured the other books.

I’ve come to love many of Krueger’s recurring characters. Not only does he weave a good mystery but paints vivid descriptions of the Minnesota wilderness. This nineteenth book of the series is my favorite so far.

Ok, fine…you caught me. I admit it: I’ve got a ginormous sweet tooth and gooey caramel is my downfall…so, you can see why I’d naturally gravitate to a cozy mystery that features a small-town cookie shop owner and amateur sleuth like Hannah Swenson. In this book, Hannah gets asked for her help in baking pastries at the local inn for a flashy fishing competition with big prizes and even bigger names. While at the fishing tournament, Hannah spots a runaway boat on the local lake and, on board, the lifeless body of the event’s renowned celebrity spokesperson. Hannah joins forces with her younger sister and sidekick, Andrea, to catch a clever culprit before another unsuspecting victim goes belly up. The two sisters are like night and day. I love how their differences not only help solve the murder, but are the spice that adds zing to the plot.

Great follow-up novel in Sanford’s Prey Series concerning a serial female killer. Sanford leaves the reader from a previous prey novel, where the female serial killer escapes. This leaves his readers with a desire to learn more….a continuing storyline…and he more than satisfies that with her return in Mortal Prey.

Fictional lady detectives are sexy and fascinating, we can all agree. But what about real life? That’s the question asked and answered in this non-fiction book by brilliant crime writer Val McDermid, who lavishes her attention and experience over nearly 300 interview-packed pages to explore all the ways in which private investigation is – thank you – a very suitable job for a woman indeed. “Smart, strong and sure of themselves, they walk the mean streets to their own beat,” Val concludes. When I think of my friends who, like me, are real-life women PIs, I have to say Val McDermid has done her detective work – because that sounds exactly right.

I love Anne Perry's murder mystery books. Her historical novels take us back to a place that none of us remember but feel familiar through Charles Dickens. We learn about the dark side of Victorian England. Perry shows us the grit and struggle of the times. Her characters are complex, and we see their growth. Detective Thomas Monk (before the television show) is in a field still struggling for professionalism, and he grapples with that status. We also learn about the development of the nursing profession and how women helped and fought for rights through the other main character, Hester Latterly. Perry does an outstanding job of showing not only the surroundings but also the characters' feelings and how they processed their surroundings and pasts.

When I was investigating the heartless murders that are the central mystery of my book, I discovered that the author of Cool Hand Luke had worked as a private investigator on the case back in 1976. The next afternoon I was on his doorstep. Donn Pearce was kind with his time and his advice. Asked for the key to his success as a PI, Donn said, simply: “I absorb.” Every detail, every moment, observed, evaluated, accounted for. It’s as true a description of detective work as you’ll ever find – and of Cool Hand Luke too. The book is not a detective story but it is a detective’s masterpiece, a harrowing prison saga told from the inside out in spare and beautiful sentences. Every word feels deeply lived, and so alive.