by Tana French (2007)
As dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one child clutching a tree trunk in terror. Twenty years later, Detective Rob Ryan must investigate a child's murder in those same woods.
Stieg Larsson
Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families, disappeared forty years ago. Her aged uncle cannot let go of the mystery, believing she was murdered by a member of their own clan. He hires disgraced investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist and punk hacker prodigy Lisbeth Salander to uncover the truth.
Gerrie Ferris Finger
Richard Lake of the Atlanta Police Department gets a cold case when a witness suddenly gets his memory back. Lake recruits Moriah Dru to look into the murder of Juliet Trapp' sixteen when she died' and a student at Winters Farm Academy. Juliet Trapp had told her mother she was going to Bike Week with Wild Blood' an outlaw motorcycle gang' over the Christmas break. The police were unable to solve Juliet's murder after interviews with the bikers. The case roars into high gear when Juliet's father' Sherman Trapp' is murdered in Chattanooga where Wild Blood is the predominant motorcycle club. Dru discovers that Trapp was trying to find the killer of his daughter' but got too close.
Alan Russell
Michael Gideon and his police dog partner investigate a crucifiction. "When LAPD detective Michael Gideon and his police-dog partner Sirius are assigned to tithe Special Cases Unit (SCU), Gideon knows their work lives will be anything but ordinary. SCO gets the cases no one else wants, the unusual and bizarre crimes that need special handling and special investigators. When a high-school student is found crucified in a local park, Gideon and Sirius must face up to the gruesome tableau and the motivation behind the murder. Complicating matters is a nightmare from their past, the scars of a terrible fire that nearly cost them their lives. The blaze left Gideon ravaged by PTSD-and yet somehow imbued him with an eerie prescience that gives him unusual insights in the crimes he investigates"--P. [4] of cover.
Lisa Gardner
"Flora Dane is a victim. Seven years ago, carefree college student Flora was kidnapped while on spring break. For 472 days, Flora learned just how much one person can endure. Flora Dane is a survivor. Miraculously alive after her ordeal, Flora has spent the past five years reacquainting herself with the rhythms of normal life, working with her FBI victim advocate, Samuel Keynes. She has a mother who's never stopped loving her, a brother who is scared of the person she's become, and a bedroom wall covered with photos of other girls who've never made it home. Flora Dane is reckless.. or is she? When Boston detective D. D. Warren is called to the scene of a crime--a dead man and the bound, naked woman who killed him--she learns that Flora has tangled with three other suspects since her return to society. Is Flora a victim or a vigilante? And with her firsthand knowledge of criminal behavior, could she hold the key to rescuing a missing college student whose abduction has rocked Boston? When Flora herself disappears, D.D. realizes a far more sinister predator is out there. One who's determined that this time, Flora Dane will never escape. And now it is all up to D. D. Warren to find her"--