If you’re a fan of James Patterson, look no further than this list of blood-pumping thrillers for your next read. Be warned: these tales are packed with twisting plot lines and psychological mind-benders that will keep you turning pages, so be sure to reschedule your important meetings until after these mysteries are solved.
Run, Rose, Run by James Patterson and Dolly Parton
Topping our list is Patterson’s upcoming March release, a collaboration with beloved singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. In Run, Rose, Run, a singer on the rise to stardom travels to Nashville, the place where musician’s dreams are made. Yet Nashville also poses a danger for the young singer because this is where the dark and dangerous past she’s running from may catch up to her. She’ll have to do whatever it takes to survive.
Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby
In a prior life, Beauregard “Bug” Montage was the best known getaway driver south of North Carolina. Now, he is a trusted mechanic, dedicated husband, and loving father who wants to leave his criminal past behind him. But when his new life is shaken, he accepts an offer from a former associate to take part in one last heist.
When the Bough Breaks by Jonathan Kellerman
Dr. Alex Delaware is a retired child psychologist trying to distance himself from a case that ended badly. But when 7-year-old Melody Quinn is the only witness to a brutal murder, the circumstances of which point to a larger scheme at play, police call Delaware in to help them unlock the terrible secrets Quinn carries. As Delaware works to uncover whatever Quinn is hiding, he discovers that there is a connection between his past and the sinister events that are unfolding. Now, to save Melody, Delaware must find answers and expose the truth before it’s too late.
Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
While riding a subway at two in the morning, Jack Reacher observes his fellow passengers and notices something strange: the fifth passenger, Susan Mark, is showing all the telltale signs of a suicide bomber. After Reacher’s intervention on the subway ends in Mark’s death, Reacher is determined to get to the bottom of unanswered questions about her past and motives. Despite warnings to let the case go, a deeper look into Mark’s life reveals that her secrets are just the beginning to uncovering a larger mystery, one that involves dozens of people from Washington to Afghanistan — all of whom will do anything to stop Reacher from finding out the truth.
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
Two murders in the small East Texas town of Lark have set the community on edge. The murder victims, a Black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman, have agitated tensions along racial lines in the town. With his job at stake, Darren Matthews, a Black Texas Ranger and native Texan, must solve the crimes before the town’s hostility reaches a breaking point. Time is of the essence—because when the people of East Texas become impatient, they often take the law into their own hands.
A Minute to Midnight by David Baldacci
After an incident on the job, FBI agent Atlee Pine can no longer ignore the unsolved case of her sister Mercy’s kidnapping and presumed murder thirty years ago. When Pine returns to her hometown to search for answers, her investigation is interrupted by two consecutive murders that shake the town. Now, Pine must work to find the killer before there is another victim, all the while working to uncover the secrets that may finally illuminate what happened to Mercy all those years ago. Yet, as Pine will discover, secrets in her hometown run in deeper and darker places than she could have ever imagined.
Fool Me Once by Harlan Coban
Following the atrocious murder of her husband Joe, former special ops pilot Maya sees an impossible image on her nanny cam just two weeks later: Joe playing with her two-year old daughter. Can Maya believe what she sees? Now, to get to the truth, Maya must uncover unsettling secrets, including ones that she herself has tried to hide. If you like Patterson’s thrillers, you will be hooked by Coben’s delivery in this unpredictable tale that will keep readers guessing until the end.
The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen
A severed hand in Boston’s Chinatown—and the corpse it belongs to—set Detective Jane Rizzoli on a chase to uncover a violent past before the killer strikes again. When clues from the murder scene suggest something is involved in the crime that isn’t human, a spine-chilling ancient Chinese legend may be key to finding the information she needs to stop the killings. Rizzoli must act quickly because the killer is already after his next target: a woman who witnessed a horrific incident almost two decades ago, an incident that continues to ripple into the present.
Rules of Prey by John Sandford
A murderer in Twin Cities is outsmarting police at every turn. He is the worse kind of killer; the kind that gets pleasure out of killing and the cat-and-mouse hunt that follows. What’s worse, he seems to know everything he has to do to remain undetected. He has rules. He is methodical. He does his research. It will take a special kind of cop to track him down, and that is where protagonist, Lieutenant Lucas Davenport, enters the scene. He is perhaps brilliant enough to beat the killer at his own game. But at what cost?
Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Whenever justice on the Rosebud Indian Reservation is denied by the justice system, Virgil Wounded Horse is hired to set things right. Virgil delivers his own form of justice. When the reservation suddenly sees heroin appear on its streets, Virgil becomes personally invested, especially because his own nephew is affected. He is determined to uncover what’s behind the drug importations and how he can stop them, but to do so he will have to face demons from his past and answer dangerous questions about the drug cartel’s links to money and power on the reservation.
Chiefs by Stuart Woods
In this decades-spanning crime drama, a body is found in Delano, Georgia with marks suggesting foul play. It’s 1920 and Delano has just appointed its first police chief, a failed cotton farmer named Will Henry Lee. The book follows Lee in his attempts to solve the crime, before weaving in the stories of two other Delano police chiefs who serve decades after Lee and carry on his determination to get to the bottom of this case. Touching on topics of race, love and hate in a small southern town across forty years, Stuart’s book will also be enjoyed by those who love historical fiction.
The Poet by Michael Connelly
Jack McEvoy is a crime reporter who specializes in violent deaths. But when his homicide detective brother commits suicide, McEvoy is shaken. He decides to write his next story on police suicides, hoping this will help him cope with his grief. But as he begins to investigate, an unexpected story emerges causing him to suspect that there is a serial killer at work. This killer has gone undetected by leaving only a trail of poetic clues, clues which McEvoy must now decode to solve his brother’s case and to write a story that will make his career.
Autopsy by Patricia Cornwell
Returning home to Virginia as the chief medical examiner, forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta quickly becomes enveloped in the atrocities of a serial killer who produces especially gruesome crime scenes. Then, a mysterious incident at a top-secret laboratory in outer space leaves two scientists dead. Tasked by the White House, Scarpetta must find out what happened at the lab, but when she shifts her focus to the new investigation, the serial killer begins striking much closer to home.
The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver
Lincoln Rhyme is a quadriplegic who can only move one finger and whisper into the ear of his partner, Amelia Sachs. He was once the leading criminologist in the country. But when an intelligent killer begins leaving sophisticated clues, Rhyme agrees to come out of retirement, using Sachs as his arms and legs to investigate the killer’s crimes. The duo soon finds out that if they can decode one of the killer’s clues in time, they can save his victims before it’s too late. But solving the killer’s clues unveil a dark history that will come with a price.
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