by Gerald Hammond (2008)
When his trusted assistant takes on the running of his company after a man has a car accident, all appears to be well until a routine police investigation brings up evidence of an attempted murder.
Mary Roberts Rinehart
The Halls, Lancasters, Talbots, Wellingtons, and Daltons--five close-knit and well-to-do families living on exclusive Crescent Place--retreat into terrified paranoia when first old Mrs. Lancaster is found hacked to death with an axe and then other victims are discovered
Anne Holt
It is only the beginning of May but in Oslo a brutal heat wave has coincided with an alarming increase in violent crime. In the latest instance, police investigator Hanne Wilhelmsen is sent to a macabre crime scene on the outskirts of town. An abandoned shed is covered in blood. On one wall an eight-digit number is written in blood. There is no body--nor any sign of a victim. Is it a kid's prank or foul play? Is it even human blood? As more bloody numbers are found in isolated locations throughout Oslo, Hanne's colleague Håkon Sand makes a startling discovery: the digits correspond to the filing numbers of foreign immigrants. All are female, all are missing. Is there a serial killer on the loose in Oslo? Meanwhile, as the trail heats up, the victim of a horrific unsolved rape case and her father have each decided to take justice into their own hands. Hanne and Håkon soon discover that they aren't the only ones on the hunt for the killer.
Elizabeth Ferrars
It was the first really nice day of the summer. The strawberries were ripe and Irene Cable was having a few friends over for cocktails in the garden. It happened so fast--the cry, the splash, the flailing of strong arms across the still water to what lay sprawled in the pool under the shade of the chestnuts--that Catherine Gifford afterwards was never certain what she had seen under those trees. It was Andie Manson who dived into the pool and emerged with the limp body of Douglas Cable. Douglas couldn't remember what had happened, and it appeared that he had been hit on the head before he fell into the pool. Attempted murder in this quiet country village? Unheard of. But, soon after, another body is found in the pool--very, very dead, and most definitely murdered.
C. J. Box
When two sisters set out across a remote stretch of Montana road to visit their friend, little do they know it will be the last time anyone might hear from them. The girls - and their car - simply vanish. Former police investigator Cody Hoyt has just lost his job and fallen off the wagon. Convinced by his son, who the girls were coming to visit, and his former rookie partner Cassie Dewell, he sets out for the girls' last known location.