Books like 'The Skeleton Key'
Readers who enjoyed The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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An Evil Mind by Chris Carter
25 ratingsA freak accident in rural Wyoming leads the Sheriff's Department to arrest a man for a possible double homicide, but further investigations suggest a much more horrifying discovery - a serial killer who has been kidnapping, torturing and mutilating victims all over the United States for at least twenty-five years... -
One by One by Chris Carter
25 ratings'I need your help, Detective. Fire or water?' Detective Robert Hunter of the LAPD's Homicide Special Section receives an anonymous call asking him to go to a specific web address - a private broadcast. Hunter logs on and a show devised for his eyes only immediately begins. But the caller doesn't want Detective Hunter to just watch, he wants him to participate, and refusal is simply not an option... -
The Sixth Wicked Child by J.D. Barker
24 ratingsIn the riveting conclusion of the 4MK trilogy, Barker takes the thriller to an entirely new level. Hear No Evil For Detective Sam Porter, the words “Father, forgive me” conjure memories long forgotten; a past intentionally buried. For Anson Bishop, these three words connect a childhood to the present as he unleashes a truth concealed for decades... -
Hunting Evil by Chris Carter
20 ratings'Every story one day comes to an end.' As roommates, they met for the first time in college. Two of the brightest minds ever to graduate from Stamford Psychology University. As adversaries, they met again in Quantico, Virginia. Robert Hunter had become the head of the LAPD’s Ultra Violent Crimes Unit... -
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The Caller by Chris Carter
25 ratingsDon't miss GENESIS, the latest must-read serial killer thriller from master of the genre, Chris Carter. Available to order now.THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLERBe careful before answering your next call. It could be the beginning of your worst nightmare.After a tough week, Tanya Kaitlin is looking forward to a relaxing night in, but as she steps out of her shower, she hears her phone ring... -
Beneath Blackwater River by Leslie Wolfe, Gwendolyn Druyor
16 ratingsListening Length 13 hours and 4 minutesShe looked alive, her hair drifting freely in the water, her red lips gently parted, as if to let her final breath escape. A small locket floated by her face, attached to her neck with a silver chain…When Detective Kay Sharp first left Mount Chester—population 3,823—in her rear-view mirror, she promised never to look back... -
Heartbreak Bay by Rachel Caine
24 ratingsThey’re hunting a killer so silent, so invisible, that his unspeakable crimes are the only proof he exists.A car submerged in a remote pond. The bodies of two girls strapped into their seats. The mystery of their mother, vanished without a trace, leads Gwen Proctor and Kezia Claremont into dangerous territory... -
Play Dead by Angela Marsons
25 ratingsThe dead don't tell secrets... unless you listen. The girl's smashed-in face stared unseeing up to the blue sky, soil spilling out of her mouth. A hundred flies hovered above the bloodied mess. Westerley research facility is not for the faint-hearted. A 'body farm' investigating human decomposition, its inhabitants are corpses in various states of decay... -
Written in Blood by Chris Carter
20 ratingsDon't miss GENESIS, the latest must-read serial killer thriller from master of the genre, Chris Carter. Available to order now. ‘Wonderful storytelling, with a superbly drawn killer, it underlines exactly how good Carter has become’ Daily MailTHE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER A serial killer who will stop at nothing… The Killer His most valuable possession has been stolen... -
The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
30 ratingsIn downtown Manhattan, a gruesome discovery has just been made-an underground charnel house containing the bones of dozens of murder victims. Research reveals that a serial killer was at work in New York's notorious Five Points neighborhood in the 1880s, bent on prolonging his lifespan by any means... -
Memories of Tomorrow by Dean Koontz
24 ratingsWhat strange science made Nameless who he is? What catastrophes have been erased from his memories? In the stunning conclusion of this series, the dark past comes flooding back, and Nameless must decide how much he really wants to know.In Indiana, a murderous psycho has kidnapped his own six-year-old stepson, Jamie, and secreted him away in a subterranean cave. It’s become their bunker... -
Criminal by Karin Slaughter
30 ratingsKarin Slaughter's new novel is an epic tale of love, loyalty, and murder that encompasses forty years, two chillingly similar murder cases, and a good man's deepest secrets. Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him... -
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
43 ratingsCormoran Strike is back, with his assistant Robin Ellacott, in a mystery based around soldiers returning from war.When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed... -
The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter
28 ratingsInvestigating the killing of a prisoner during a riot inside a state penitentiary, GBI investigator Will Trent is confronted with disturbing information. One of the inmates claims that he is innocent of a brutal attack for which he has always been the prime suspect... -
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The Body Counter by Anne Frasier
21 ratingsFrom a New York Times bestselling author comes the chilling follow-up to the Thriller Award winner The Body Reader. Months after discovering the mastermind behind her own kidnapping, Detective Jude Fontaine is dealing with the past the only way she knows how: by returning to every dark corner of it... -
The Good Lie by A.R. Torre
25 ratingsSix teens murdered. A suspect behind bars. A desperate father. In a case this shadowy, the truth is easy to hide.Six teenagers dead. Finally, the killer behind bars. But are the games just beginning?Psychiatrist Dr. Gwen Moore is an expert on killers... -
The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup
33 ratingsThe heart-pounding debut from the creator of the hit Scandinavian television show The Killing.If you find one, he’s already found you.A psychopath is terrorizing Copenhagen.His calling card is a “chestnut man”—a handmade doll made of matchsticks and two chestnuts—which he leaves at each bloody crime scene... -
The Sandman by Lars Kepler, Neil Smith
26 ratingsThe #1 internationally best-selling thriller from the author of The Hypnotist tells the chilling story of a manipulative serial killer and the two brilliant police agents who must try to beat him at his own game.Late one night, outside Stockholm, Mikael Kohler-Frost is found wandering. Thirteen years earlier, he went missing along with his younger sister... -
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, Kathy Bates
48 ratingsHannibal Lecter. The ultimate villain of modern fiction who scared the world silent. A young FBI trainee. An evil genius locked away for unspeakable crimes. A plunge into the darkest chambers of a psychopath's mind -- in the deadly search for a serial killer . . .An instant classic of chilling psychological suspense . . . a critically acclaimed audio production of unforgettable intensity . . -
Killman Creek by Rachel Caine
34 ratingsEvery time Gwen closed her eyes, she saw him in her nightmares. Now her eyes are open, and he’s not going away.Gwen Proctor won the battle to save her kids from her ex-husband, serial killer Melvin Royal, and his league of psychotic accomplices. But the war isn’t over. Not since Melvin broke out of prison. Not since she received a chilling text…You’re not safe anywhere now... -
The Summer Children The Collector, Book 3 by Dot Hutchison
25 ratingsSeries including The Butterfly... -
Fractured by Karin Slaughter
33 ratingsThe second Will Trent novel, from the No. 1 Bestseller.When Atlanta housewife Abigail Campano comes home unexpectedly one afternoon, she walks into a nightmare. A broken window, a bloody footprint on the stairs and, most devastating of all, the horrifying sight of her teenage daughter lying dead on the landing, a man standing over her with a bloody knife... -
I Know a Secret by Tess Gerritsen
24 ratingsIn the twelfth gripping novel featuring Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles, the crime-solving duo—featured in the smash-hit TNT series Rizzoli & Isles—are faced with the gruesomely staged murder of a horror film producer.The crime scene is unlike any that Detective Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles have ever before encountered... -
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A Caller's Game by J.D. Barker
14 ratingsDIE HARD meets TALK RADIO in this heart-pounding, relentlessly fast-paced thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Fourth Monkey—master of suspense, J.D. Barker. "I'm going to offer you a choice." Controversial satellite radio talk show host, Jordan Briggs, has clawed her way to the top of the broadcast world... -
Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine
43 ratingsGina Royal is the definition of average—a shy Midwestern housewife with a happy marriage and two adorable children. But when a car accident reveals her husband’s secret life as a serial killer, she must remake herself as Gwen Proctor—the ultimate warrior mom.With her ex now in prison, Gwen has finally found refuge in a new home on remote Stillhouse Lake... -
Triptych by Karin Slaughter
36 ratingsIn the city of Atlanta, women are dying—at the hands of a killer who signs his work with a single, chilling act of mutilation. Leaving behind enough evidence to fuel a frenzied police hunt, this cunning madman is bringing together dozens of lives, crossing the boundaries of wealth and race. And the people who are chasing him must cross those boundaries too... -
Some Choose Darkness by Charlie Donlea
18 ratingsA modern master of suspense, critically acclaimed author Charlie Donlea returns with a taut, gripping novel about the deadly secrets hiding in plain sight . . . The truth is easy to miss, even when it’s right in front of us. As a forensic reconstructionist, Rory Moore sheds light on cold-case homicides by piecing together crime scene details others fail to see... -
Psycho by Robert Bloch
32 ratingsThe story was all too real-indeed this classic was inspired by the real-life story of Ed Gein, a psychotic murderer who led a dual life. Alfred Hitchcock too was captivated, and turned the book into one of the most-loved classic films of all time the year after it was released.Norman Bates loves his Mother. She has been dead for the past twenty years, or so people think... -
Malevolent by Jana Deleon
24 ratingsFrom New York Times bestselling author Jana DeLeon, the first in a new thriller series. Everyone wondered about Shaye Archer’s past. Including Shaye. Shaye Archer’s life effectively began the night police found her in an alley, beaten and abused and with no memory of the previous fifteen years, not even her name... -
Absolute Fear by Lisa Jackson
24 ratingsEvery Serial Killer... A serial killer is stalking the streets of New Orleans. The victims are killed in a ritual fashion, a series of numbers tattooed into their bodies. There are no clues, no connections except one: a crumbling old asylum that was once the scene of unspeakable madness--and is now the calling card of a new kind of fear. Is Searching For.. -
The Mercy of Snakes by Dean Koontz
24 ratingsA series of suspicious deaths in a retirement home draws Nameless into the confidence of a terrified former resident—and into the dark heart of a shocking conspiracy. In part five of the Nameless series, it’s time to hunt.Oakshore Park is Michigan’s most exclusive assisted-living community. Presided over by two killer angels of mercy, it’s also the go-to facility in assisted dying... -
The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi
24 ratingsA gripping literary thriller and smash bestseller that has taken Italy, France, Germany and the UK by storm.Six severed arms are discovered, arranged in a mysterious circle and buried in a clearing in the woods. Five of them appear to belong to missing girls between the ages of eight and eighteen. The sixth is yet to be identified... -
Eye Collector by Sebastian Fitzek
24 ratingsReady or not, here he comes...He plays the oldest children's game in the world, hide and seek. Only the Eye Collector plays it to death.It's the same each time. A woman's body is found with a ticking stopwatch clutched in her dead hand. A distraught father must find his child before the boy suffocates - and the killer takes his left eye... -
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Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner
26 ratingsThe bestselling author of Hide and Gone draws us into the venomous mind games of a terrifying killer. Come into my parlor . . . For Kimberly Quincy, FBI Special Agent, it all starts with a pregnant hooker. The story Delilah Rose tells Kimberly about her johns is too horrifying to be true—but prostitutes are disappearing, one by one, with no explanation, and no one but Kimberly seems to care... -
Stalker by Lars Kepler
26 ratingsDetective Joona Linna -- recently returned from compassionate leave -- reunites with hypnotist Erik Maria Bark in a search for a seemingly unassailable sadistic killer.The Swedish National Crime Unit receives a video of a young woman in her home, clearly unaware that she's being watched. Soon after the tape is received, the woman's body is found horrifically mutilated... -
The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
28 ratingsAn FBI agent, rotting away in a high-security prison for a murder he did not commit...His brilliant psychotic brother, about to perpetrate a horrific crime...A young woman with an extraordinary past, on the edge of a violent breakdown...An ancient tomb with an enigmatic curse, about to be unveiled at a celebrity-studded New York gala.. -
The Couple at No. 9 by Claire Douglas
28 ratingsIt was the house of their dreams. Until the bodies were found . . . BODIES FOUND UNDER PATIOWhen pregnant Saffron Cutler moves into 9 Skelton Place with boyfriend Tom and sets about renovations the last thing she expects is builders uncovering a body - two bodies, in fact.POLICE INVESTIGATEForensics indicate the bodies have been buried at least thirty years. Nothing Saffy need worry herself over... -
Steel Fear by Brandon Webb, John David Mann
10 ratingsAn aircraft carrier adrift with a crew the size of a small town. A killer in their midst. And the disgraced Navy SEAL who must track him down . . . The high-octane debut thriller from New York Times bestselling writing team Webb & Mann--combat-decorated Navy SEAL Brandon Webb and award-winning author John David Mann... -
Tell Me You're Sorry by Kevin O'Brien
14 ratingsFirst You'll Say You're SorryA family is wiped out after a burglary gone wrong. An executive accused of embezzling kills himself and his loved ones. A house fire claims the lives of all its inhabitants. Separate incidents with two common threads--a first wife who took her own life, and a secret the victims took to their graves. . -
Come with Me by Ronald Malfi
16 ratingsA masterful, heart-palpitating novel of small-town horror and psychological dread from a Bram Stoker nominee.Aaron Decker's life changes one December morning when his wife Allison is killed. Haunted by her absence--and her ghost--Aaron goes through her belongings, where he finds a receipt for a motel room in another part of the country... -
Messiah by Boris Starling
16 ratingsA former reporter and a specialist in kidnap negotiations releases a debut serial killer novel that reveals the making of a mass murderer. Three bodies are found with their tongues cut out and replaced with silver spoons. The killer's motives and methods are so elusive that talented investigator Red Metcalf must search the darkest corners of his own soul to stop the killings... -
Sleep Tight by Anne Frasier
18 ratingsWAKE UP, LITTLE DARLING. DO YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE?He's looking for the perfect woman. Someone who won't disappoint him, like so many have before. Someone who'll love him ... someone who won't have to die for her mistakes.GIVE UP, LITTLE DARLING....FBI agent Mary Cantrell has been called to Minneapolis to hunt down a killer... -
Paranoid by Lisa Jackson
18 ratingsFrom #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson comes a new novel of nerve-jangling suspense as a woman haunted by guilt realizes that nothing can be trusted—not even her own memory … There are people in Edgewater, Oregon, who think that twenty years ago, Rachel Gaston got away with murder... -
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What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
21 ratingsThey were eleven when they sent a killer to prison . . .They were heroes . . . but they were liars.Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked... -
Ich vergesse nie by John Marrs
21 ratingsShe’s chasing a killer. He’s watching her every move.He hides in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment. Each kill is calculated, planned and executed like clockwork.Struggling to balance her personal and professional life, young DS Becca Vincent has landed the biggest case of her career—and she knows that it will make or break her. But she can’t catch the culprit alone... -
Blood Memory by Greg Iles
24 ratingsForensic expert "Cat" Ferry has a stellar reputation until a panic attack paralyzes her at a New Orleans murder scene. Praying the attack is a one-time event, she continues working, but when the same killer strikes again - raising fears that a serial killer is at large - Cat blacks out over the victim's mutilated corpse... -
True Evil by Greg Iles, Dick Hill
24 ratingsDr. Chris Shepard, a busy young doctor in Natchez, Mississippi, has never seen his new patient Alex Morse before. But the attractive young woman with the scarred face has come to Dr. Shepards office on a mission to catch a killer. This New York Times bestseller is available in a tall Premium Edition... -
Alex by Pierre Lemaitre
24 ratingsAlex Prévost—kidnapped, savagely beaten, suspended from the ceiling of an abandoned warehouse in a tiny wooden cage—is running out of time. Her abductor appears to want only to watch her die... -
The Girl Who Was Taken by Charlie Donlea
24 ratingsCharlie Donlea, one of the most original new voices in suspense, returns with a haunting novel, laden with twists and high tension, about two abducted girls one who returns, one who doesn t and the forensics expert searching for answers. Nicole Cutty and Megan McDonald are both high school seniors in the small town of Emerson Bay, North Carolina...
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