January 12, 2021 | strande
If you enjoy John Sanford, Vince Flynn, Lee Child, or David Rosenfelt try one of these suggestions of gripping mysteries with great characters. Many are part of ongoing series.
It's 1986, the heart of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She's brilliant, but she's also a young black woman working in an old boys' club. Her career has stalled and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. So when she's given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention, she says yes.
Andrew Yancy--late of the Miami Police and soon-to-be-late of the Monroe County sheriff's office--has a human arm in his freezer. There's a logical explanation for that, but not for how and why it parted from its shadowy owner. For more Andrew Yancy, check out Razor Girl.
A sadistic rapist turned killer is terrorizing Grant County, and the chief of police, Sara's ex-husband Jeffrey Tolliver, must find him. But he's not alone. Lena Adams--the county's sole female detective--wants to see justice done, since her sister was the first victim. Sara, too, cannot escape the terror. A secret from her past could hold the key to finding the killer--unless he finds her first. If you like this one, try more from Karin Slaughter.
When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules -- a fact that Darren Mathews, a Texas Ranger, knows all too well. When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders -- a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman -- have stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. For more of Attica Locke's Highway 59, check out Heaven, My Home.
Former cop Cass Raines has found the world of private investigation a less stressful way to eke out a living in the Windy City. But when she stumbles across the dead body of a respected member of the community, it's up to her to prove a murderer is on the loose.
Peter Ash came home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: buzzing claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress. But when a friend from the Marines commits suicide, Ash returns to civilization to help the man's widow with some home repairs. Under her dilapidated porch, he finds more than he bargained for: the largest, ugliest, meanest dog he's ever encountered...and a Samsonite suitcase stuffed with cash and explosives. Find more of Nicholas Petrie's Peter Ash series.
In the latest novel in this energetic series, ex-special forces soldier Charlie Fox finds herself on a mission to the Iraqi countryside to track down a missing comrade-in-arms. Special forces soldier-turned-bodyguard Charlotte "Charlie" Fox can never forget the men who put a brutal end to her military career, but a long time ago she vowed she would not go looking for them. Now she doesn't have a choice. Check out more of Zoe Sharp's Charlie Fox series.
Daria Gibron is a woman with a deadly past and an uncertain future. A former Shin-Bet agent now in exile in the U.S. and under the protection of the F.B.I., she works primarily as an interpreter. But Daria is a thrill junkie who can't resist the occasional freelance job as an operative--a habit that has left her with a trail of corpses behind her, and a few still living, very dangerous, high-powered enemies who would stop at nothing to get revenge. If you like this one, try more from Dana Haynes.
The LAPD is barely keeping up with the neighborhood's high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, lost children unrecovered. But someone from the neighborhood has taken it upon himself to help solve the cases the police can't or won't touch. They call him IQ. Find more of Joe Ide's IQ series.
This was the summer he discovered what he wanted--at a gruesome museum of criminology far off the beaten track of more timid tourists. Visions of torture inspired his fantasies like a muse. It would prove so terribly fulfilling.The bodies of four men have been discovered in the town of Bradfield. Enlisted to investigate is criminal psychologist Tony Hill. If you enjoy this, try more Val McDermid.
In present-day Russia, ruled by blue-eyed, unblinking President Vladimir Putin, Russian intelligence officer Dominika Egorova struggles to survive in the post-Soviet intelligence jungle. Ordered against her will to become a "Sparrow," a trained seductress, Dominika is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a young CIA officer who handles the Agency's most important Russian mole. You can check out the rest of the Red Sparrow Trilogy.
When a Chinese national working for an American-owned construction company and his one-man security detail goes missing in Shanghai, the security firm hires Grace Chu, a forensic accountant, and Johnny Knox, a civilian with training in combat and street culture, to find the hostages before the ransom deadline. Find more of Ridley Pearson's Risk Agent series.
Fired for refusing to cooperate in a police cover-up, Chicago detective-turned-private investigator Ashe Cayne searches for a missing woman who has been hiding dangerous secrets from her wealthy family.