Small Town Crime

"In a small town, every secret has its price—and someone is ready to collect." From bestselling author Chris Witt comes The Unmasked Villain, a spellbinding thriller mystery novel that will leave readers breathless. Known for crafting stories that delve deep into the human psyche, Witt delivers yet another masterpiece, blending crime thriller intensity with the layered details of a psychological thriller. Follow the compelling journey of Detective Sarah Miller and Professor Zachary Barnes as they unravel a web of deceit, peril, and murder. An Unlikely Alliance When heinous crimes grip ...

Days after a young pageant queen named Jenny is found murdered, her small town grieves the loss alongside her picture-perfect parents. At first glance, Jenny's tragic death appears clear-cut for investigators. The most obvious suspect is one of her fans, an older man who may have gotten too close for comfort. But Jenny's half sister, Virginia - the sarcastic black sheep of the family - isn't so sure of his guilt and takes matters into her own hands to find the killer.

Blue Bonet, a well-known watercolorist in the Texas Hill Country, looks forward to a peaceful summer of painting. She has a backlog of commissions to complete and believes her lakeside studio ideal for the task. However, her small hometown of Magnolia Bluff has an astonishing number of murders, and this summer is no different. When a woman is killed in City Park the lazy small-town cops are quick to suspect an easy roundup: Fergus, the town drunk. Blue and her best friend, Gloria, take on Fergus’s defense drawing the ire of nosy bodies who want Fergus tarred and feathered. Along with ...

Murder in the dunes: A new mystery series where dark secrets lurk beneath the surface, with a dash of humor to keep things afloat. Off the coast, a fisherman pulls a dead body out of the sea. She is covered in nothing but a series of strange symbols. The coroner discovers that the woman, suffering from terminal cancer, appears to have drowned without any outside influence—but no one can find the boat she must have fallen from. Enna and Pavel are faced with a baffling mystery: Was it suicide or something far more sinister? The case takes a darker turn when the dead woman’s cell phone ...

Elections and Old Loves Combine with Deadly Results in the Newest Romantic Mystery Featuring Sheriff Mel Crane and Special Agent Dana Rossi! What happens when Mel runs for Sheriff, an Amish girl runs away from home and Dana runs – er, limps - for cover? Can anything else possibly go wrong for these two ladies of law enforcement? Sure it can and it will! Can the two sometimes lovers work it all out once and for all and finally have a happy life together or will more crime, murder and mayhem get in the way? This book is great together with Books 1 and 2 to get all of the Dana and Mel back ...

The small town of Briar Reef is shaken to its core when one of its leading citizens is found dead in the woods with her face missing. Detective Celia Sparks is working her first murder case in the town where she had come to escape but this big city cop has her work cut out for her. The more she uncovers the more questions they are than answers. In a town that’s known for burying its secrets how will she ever find the truth?

When a mail order bride must prove her new husband’s innocence in a murder case, their love is put to the ultimate test! Emma Jamieson moves to Texas as a mail order bride to secure a better future for herself. Her husband, Dr. Jonathan Newford, seems kind and she is sure he will treat her well. Their new marriage is put to the ultimate test of trust when a murder shakes up the sleepy Texas town. Emma must question her husband’s involvement with the crime, and she puts her own life in danger when she is determined to prove his innocence. Can Emma and Jonathan ever find true happiness ...

It’s a brutal winter in Des Moines, Iowa, and the city is gripped by fear. A serial attacker known as the Sin Eater is stalking women and has just struck again. It’s a tough time and a tough place for Riley Fisher, a former small-town sergeant, to be reporting for duty as an FBI agent on her first assignment. Teamed with a man she’s not sure she can trust and struggling to prove herself—while fighting the pull of her old life and family dramas—Riley is tasked with investigating a vicious death threat against the newly elected female state governor.

McGee Ridge, earthquake-rattled and clinging to the thousand-foot cliffs of the Northern California coast, is nestled in one of a very few truly wild places left in the Lower 48. It is also home to a band of off-grid outlaws who vanished behind the famed Redwood Curtain in the 1960s and whose time there is swiftly coming to an end.

Wesley Crocker is accused of the murder of young Maria Ibarra, who was found near the "camping place" of the drifter. Crocker's account of the previous night leads Undersheriff Bill Gastner to more troubling questions.

On a winding mountain road into the town of Denton, Pennsylvania, Detective Josie Quinn finds the body of a local teenage girl, Dina Hale. The sight of plum-colored bruises gathering around the girl’s neck pierces Josie’s heart, but the discovery of a second girl’s empty purse in the dirt nearby gives her a flicker of hope that one person, at least, made a lucky escape. Dina’s parents are grief-stricken as the town rallies together in a desperate search for the second girl, who waitressed with Dina. The two best friends were on their way to a shift when they were attacked.

July, 1997. Matilda is killed in a tragic accident on the Dorset rocks, leaving her best friend Sophie alone, wracked with guilt. Decades later, Sophie is back for the first time since that terrible summer, to sell her family's old beach hut and bury the memories forever. But on clearing out the hut, she finds evidence that Matilda's death was no accident. What really happened the night she died? As Sophie edges closer to the truth, the past starts to close in on the present.

His lakeside holiday homes are a success, and he's generously invited the village to drink champagne with their wealthy new neighbours. This will be the party to end all parties. But not everyone is there to celebrate. By midnight, Rhys will be floating dead in the freezing waters of the lake. The tiny community is her home, so the suspects are her neighbours, friends and family—and Ffion has her own secrets to protect. With a lie uncovered at every turn, soon the question isn't who wanted Rhys dead...but who finally killed him.

An online flirtation can have horrific consequences, as detective Louise Rick discovers when she is called to an idyllic Copenhagen neighborhood where a young woman has been left bound and gagged after a profoundly brutal rape attack. Susanne Hansson met her rapist on a popular dating website. But the man is hiding behind a labyrinth of false pseudonyms, and neither Susanne - nor the police - have been able to trace his true identity. With the Internet as his playground, the rapist will almost certainly strike again if Louise can't unmask him before it's too late.

Already widowed by the age of 40, Ilka Nichols Jensen, a school portrait photographer, leads a modest, regimented, and uneventful life in Copenhagen. Until unexpected news rocks her quiet existence: Her father - who walked out suddenly and inexplicably on the family more than three decades ago - has died. And he's left her something in his will: his funeral home. In Racine, Wisconsin. Clinging to this last shred of communication from the father she hasn't heard from since childhood, Ilka makes an uncharacteristically rash decision and jumps on a plane to Wisconsin.

Charlize has been called home as her mother begins to succumb to a long illness. Reluctantly taking a step back from her role in private security with the Kinross organization, Charlize resumes her role as a detective, armed with a badge and a determination to still make a difference in this world. Amidst the challenges of settling into a small-town police precinct, she stumbles upon a mysterious case. A baffling disappearance that local authorities dismiss as attention-seeking antics. Charlize's instincts, however, tell her there's more to the story. Especially when digging she discovers ...

Graves of the Forgotten A Maggie and Bentley Mystery Where Old Lies Lead to New Danger In the quiet mountain town of Pine Ridge, secrets don’t stay buried forever. When K-9 handler Maggie Shaw and her therapy dog Bentley stumble upon a disturbed patch of earth at a controversial construction site, they uncover more than just signs of trespassing; they uncover bones. As Detective Noah Rodriguez launches an official investigation, the two long-time allies find themselves drawn into a decades-old mystery that threatens to unravel the town’s carefully guarded history. With Bentley’s ...

Over the years, small-town Pike, Wisconsin, has seen its share of shady characters, murderers, and serial killers—and not all of them have landed behind bars. For some folks, solving cold cases from the safety of the virtual world is a harmless diversion—but the stakes can be deadly …

In the picturesque market town of Taunton, Roger Morgan is a celebrated photographer known for his artistic genius and dedication to capturing nature's fleeting beauty. His serene cottage, adorned with the fruits of his labour, serves as both his home and gallery. Yet, beneath the surface of Roger's idyllic life lies a web of rivalry, obsession, and dark secrets. As Taunton prepares for its annual Flower Show, Roger's latest collection promises to be his finest yet. But when his lifeless body is discovered, brutally murdered, the town's festive spirit is shattered. Detective Inspector ...

In this atmospheric and profoundly moving debut, Cathy and Daniel live with their father, John, in the remote woods of Yorkshire, in a house the three of them built themselves. John is a gentle brute of a man, a former enforcer who fights for money when he has to, but who otherwise just wants to be left alone to raise his children. When a local landowner shows up on their doorstep, their precarious existence is threatened, and a series of actions is set in motion that can only end in violence.