Tag Archives: Serial killers

by | May 6, 2009 · 2:32 pm

James Patterson. Kiss the Girls. Boston: Little, Brown, 1995.

As an expert in abnormal psychology working for the FBI, Dr. Alex Cross is used to calmly solving gruesome crimes, but in Kiss the Girls the case is personal.  His niece–a law student at Duke–is kidnapped while on campus, and he comes to the Triangle to try to help find her.  The North Carolina police and FBI are dealing with “Cassanova,” a man who is collecting beautiful and talented female victims.  There is also a second predator on the loose, a killer on the west coast with the nickname “The Gentleman Caller.”  A break in the case comes when one of Cassanova’s victims, a UNC med student, fights her way free of her captor.  This is the second book in the Alex Cross thriller series and the only one set in North Carolina.  It inspired a 1997 film of the same name starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1990-1999, 1995, Durham, Novels in Series, Orange, Patterson, James, Piedmont, Suspense/Thriller

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by | March 8, 2009 · 10:36 am

Kay Hooper. Blood Sins. New York: Bantam Books, 2009.

Reverend Adam Samuel is using his psychic powers to kill women and, perhaps, to endanger the whole world.  The FBI Special Crimes Unit, under Noah Bishop, tries to put a stop to Father Samuel’s villainy.  Bishop recruits Tessa Gray, an agent from a civilian organization, to pose as a vulnerable young widow who has inherited property next to Samuel’s mountain compound. Tessa has psychic powers, but she is a relatively inexperienced operative. When she arrives at Samuel’s compound, she finds herself surrounded by Samuel’s many fanatical and well-connected followers. Even when she joins forces with the local police chief (who also serves as the novel’s romantic interest), her chances for success look slim.  The back story on Reverend Samuel is horrific, but his crimes are just as troubling to contemplate. This is the second book in a planned trilogy; the first title was set chiefly in Georgia.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Hooper, Kay, Mountains, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Suspense/Thriller

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by | February 16, 2009 · 11:13 am

Sallie Bissell. Call the Devil By His Oldest Name. New York: Bantam Dell, 2004.

Atlanta prosecutor Mary Crow is in the middle of a heart-wrenching child abuse/child pornography case when she is informed that her infant goddaughter has been abducted. The call sends her to a Cherokee gathering in Tennessee and into the woods after the perpetrator. The kidnapping is not a random event, but rather an attempt by Mary’s nemesis to lure her to her death. Although most of the novel is set on the Tennessee section of the Trail of Tears, Mary’s North Carolina hometown, the fictional Little Jump Off, makes an appearance.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2004, Bissell, Sallie, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Suspense/Thriller

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by | January 27, 2009 · 4:47 pm

Sallie Bissell. In the Forest of Harm. New York: Bantam Books, 2001.

Prosecutor Mary Crow’s trip to the mountains with her two college friends was supposed to be a celebration; she has just won her sixth murder case in a row. The plan was to stop in her childhood hometown of Jump Off, NC and then hike and camp for two days in the Nantahala National Forest. Their plan quickly goes awry. The women face two very different men who are intent upon hurting or killing them; one is a seasoned serial killer who has stalked victims in the forest for years and one is a man with a personal grudge against Mary. This is the first book in the series of Mary Crow thrillers.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2001, Bissell, Sallie, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Suspense/Thriller

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by | November 17, 2008 · 4:00 pm

Susan Whitfield. Just North of Luck. West Conshohocken, PA: Infinity Publishing, 2007.

UPDATE NOV. 17, 2015: Susan Whitfield’s books are now published by Studebaker Press.

In Just North of Luck, the second book in the Logan Hunter mystery series, new SBI agent Logan trades the beach for the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her first assignment is to expose a moonshine ring in fictional Moss County, but after a school janitor is brutally murdered in the town of Trust, she offers to help with that investigation as well. As time passes, the deaths of more school employees have Logan and a local detective searching for a serial killer. In addition to murder and moonshine, Logan also uncovers a local meth producer and faces some of the ghosts from her past.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Madison, Mountains, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Whitfield, Susan

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by | October 20, 2008 · 5:10 pm

Richard H. Triebe. On a Rising Tide. Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse, 2006.

By June 1864, Wilmington was the only open Confederate port on the eastern seaboard.  Cargo brought into the port allowed the Confederacy to fight on.  Blockade running and Sherman’s March to the Sea changed Wilmington, bringing to the city thousands of desperate refugees, wheeler-dealers, and dangerous men.  This novel contains good scenes of the blockade runner Atlantis negotiating the waters at Cape Fear, eluding Union ships, and loading up in Nassau, but the heart of the story is what happens in Wilmington.  It is a book of adventure, war, and romance, with scenes of betrayal and violence.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2006, Brunswick, Coast, Historical, New Hanover, Triebe, Richard H.

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by | October 2, 2008 · 6:10 pm

Karen Dodd. Begin Again, Quinn. New Bern, NC: K. E. Dodd, 2008.

Quinn Winslow is happy to retire and move back to the North Carolina coast where she grew up.  She’s had a good career, but a bit of a disappointing life.  She hopes that being back among friends will help her forget an abusive marriage and renew her body and soul.  Once settled in, Quinn adopts a pleasing, healthy lifestyle, and begins to attract the interests of Danny, a friend from childhood, and Charles, a neighbor.  However, the town itself is having problems.  A number of older people have died under questionable circumstances.  When the killer targets members of Quinn’s investment club, she enlists her best friend in her search for the killer, imperiling them both.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Carteret, Coast, Craven, Dodd, Karen, Mystery

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by | May 27, 2008 · 10:53 am

Douglas Quinn. Blue Heron Marsh. New York: iUniverse, Inc., 2007

Former military-investigator Webb Sawyer was recently released from a U.S. Army psychiatric hospital and he returned to the Outer Banks, hoping for a little peace and quiet. After moving into his father’s stilted fishing shack on Blue Heron Marsh, he expects his life to be filled mostly with fishing, with the occasional stop at the local pub. When a local woman is charged with murdering her father, however, her friend needs Webb’s expertise and connections to help prove her innocence. As Webb’s investigation continues, he discovers a series of similar recent murders scattered across North Carolina and a possible connection to a forty year old cover-up. This is the first book in a planned mystery/suspense series written by N.C. resident Douglas Quinn.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Coast, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Quinn, Douglas, Suspense/Thriller

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by | May 23, 2008 · 4:10 pm

Bill Benners. My Sister’s Keeper. New Bern, N.C.: McBryde Publishing, 2007.

Richard Baimbridge returns to Wilmington to help his sister Martha recover from an assault she received while researching a story on the sexual assault of a minor. As Martha heals, she pulls Richard into her investigation. This puts them both in danger, and Richard himself becomes a suspect in a series of heinous murders. The siblings must struggle to find the real serial killer, uncovering their own family’s secrets along the way.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Benners, Bill, Coast, Mystery, New Hanover

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by | May 8, 2008 · 4:39 pm

Bill Floyd. The Killer’s Wife. New York: St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2008.

Six years ago, Leigh Wren’s testimony helped place her husband on death row for multiple murders. After the trial ended she started a new life under a new name, moving her young son from California to Cary, NC. The life she left follows her, however, and Leigh’s carefully created existence begins crumbling when the father of one of her ex-husband’s victims finds her and exposes her true identity.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Floyd, Bill, Piedmont, Suspense/Thriller, Wake

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