Most crime stories have a beginning and an end. They start with the crime, then the investigation by law enforcement authorities—and finally the solving of the case. But that’s not the way it works with cold cases. All we have left is unanswered questions. Which is what makes cold cases so fascinating. As a longtime…
After the Eclipse by Fran Dorricott is a thriller about two abductions of young girls that take place 16 years apart. A sister of one of the missing girls tries to connect the recent abduction to her missing sister’s cold case to find the criminal responsible. Half an hour to go until it was dark.…
In Tim Johnston’s new thriller, The Current, a killer drowns a woman and injures another woman along the Black Root River in Minnesota, mirroring another unsolved attack that occurred a decade earlier. Wanting answers, the surviving woman launches her own investigation to find the truth. I really enjoyed Tim Johnston’s first novel, Descent, so I couldn’t…
There's no such thing as the perfect crime. Sure, some cases go unsolved. But these 5 cold cases prove that you should never give up hope. Advancements in technology, guilty consciences—you never know what might finally crack the case!
Jane Doe January by Emily Winslow is a compelling, real-life crime mystery and gripping memoir of the cold case prosecution of a serial rapist, told by one of his victims. (Available May 24, 2016). In 1992, college student Emily Winslow was raped off-campus by a stranger. In 2013, the man was identified by a DNA match in…
On the morning of August 4, 1892, both Abby and Andrew Borden were brutally murdered—cause of death: repeated blows to the head from a hatchet-like weapon. See also: The Rhyme and the Crime: Lizzie Borden's Forty Whacks Lizzie Borden was tried and acquitted on both counts of murder, though many believe that she was the…
There is nothing more intriguing to many readers than a cold case mystery. The details, the missed evidence, the old clues that fresh eyes might decipher; it’s all there for the reader. Putting all the old crime scene data together is similar to working a puzzle. Finding that one crucial piece can solve the case.…
Flame Out by M.P. Cooley is the 2nd small-town mystery featuring FBI-agent-turned-local-cop June Lyons set in Hopewell Falls, NY (available June 2, 2015). Where and when are more than just integral parts to a news story – they’re also integral parts to an investigation. In this case, the ‘what’ is M.P. Cooley’s sophomore novel Flame…
Truth Be Told by Hank Phillippi Ryan is the third novel featuring Jane Ryland and Jake Brogan, a Boston journalist and cop, whose new investigations of murder amid shady foreclosures and the cold case of the Lilac Sunday murder become as complicatedly intertwined as their relationship (available October 7, 2014). The novel begins on an unseasonably…
Booty Bones by Carolyn Haines is the 14th book in the Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery series where a murdered treasure hunter interrupts Sarah's romantic tropical Gulf Coast getaway with her fiancé (available May 20, 2014). Sarah Booth Delaney’s fiancé, Graf Milieu, has become depressed while recovering from a severe leg injury, but Sarah Booth knows…
