Police Procedural Books

The best police procedural book reviews. A subgenre of crime fiction, police procedurals focus on the methods and tactics used by law enforcement to solve cases and catch criminals.

The Art of Dying, a Stunning Crime Thriller by Derik Cavignano

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The Bottom Line: An edge-of-your seat detective thriller that crackles with gore and wit before delivering a stunning knockout blow. Fans of The Silence of the Lambs should flock to Derik Cavignano’s new series debut. Boston Police Detective Ray Hanley has seen a lot of gory crime scenes in his career, but he’s never seen anything quite like the body of murdered mob soldier Danny […]

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This Storm, a Smoldering New LA Crime Thriller by James Ellroy

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The Bottom Line: Elloy’s most challenging work yet, This Storm is strictly for fans of LA Noir and James Ellroy completionists. With This Storm, the author of classics like LA Confidential and Black Dahlia has entered yet another novel in the canon of crime thrillers set in the city of angels. As torrential rain hits LA in 1942, a body is unearthed in Griffith Park. The cops

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Black Frog, a Small-Town Crime Thriller that Fires on All Cylinders

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The Bottom Line: Get in on the ground floor of this engrossing small-town crime thriller. Highly recommended for fans of C.J. Box and Craig Johnson. In B.D. Smith’s second Detective Douglas Bateman series novel, Bateman is called to investigate multiple axe murders in northern Maine. Bateman, who serves with Maine’s Major Crimes Unit, soon discovers that the victims attended a town hall meeting to voice

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The Tale Teller, a Gripping Crime Thriller by Anne Hillerman

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The Bottom Line: An exemplary and emotionally resonant police procedural set in Navajo country. We couldn’t put it down. With her latest book, Anne Hillerman weaves a riveting tale of crime, superstition and tradition. Retired Navajo police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn finds himself knee-deep in a perplexing case involving a priceless artifact—a reminder of a dark time in Navajo history. Joe’s been hired to find a

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Spiral Into Darkness, a Throughly Compulsive FBI Thriller by Joseph Lewis

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The Bottom Line: A thoroughly compulsive police procedural by one of America’s most promising new writers. Joseph Lewis, author of our Best of 2018 pick Caught in a Web, is back with another crime thriller featuring world-weary Milwaukee detective Jamie Graff. This time, Jamie’s expertise is requested by Summer Storm, the leader of the FBI serial killer task force. There are seven loosely connected murders, no

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Verses for the Dead, a New Classic by Preston & Child

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The Bottom Line: Preston and Child shake up their Agent Pendergast series, and in doing so, elevate it to a new level. What could be worse than an extended government shutdown? For the eccentric Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast, the answer is a leadership overhaul at the FBI New York field office. Pendergast likes to work alone, and thanks to the agency shakeup, those days are seemingly

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A Knife’s Edge by Eliot Parker, a Memorable Crime Thriller by Eliot Parker

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The Bottom Line: A truly memorable police procedural for the 21st century. Trouble has a way of finding middle-aged Charleston Police Department Sergeant Ronan McCullough. While he appears in uniform at the dedication for a new children’s cancer center, it’s to support his boyfriend, Ty, an ER nurse. But those plans change when a vehicle slams into the building. Moments later, he discovers the driver

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Scissorman, One of the Year’s Best Thrillers

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The Bottom Line: One of the year’s best thrillers. Simultaneously playful and edgy, Scissorman is a generous helping of dazzling contemporary detective fiction. In Henry Chancellor’s Scissorman, a wealthy American living in London kicks off what promises to be the most celebrated annual scavenger hunt in history: the search for King Arthur’s mythical sword, Excalibur. The book kicks off in dramatic fashion on July 13th,

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The Fisherman’s Daughter, a Mesmerizing FBI Thriller by Robin Barefield

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The Bottom Line: A mesmerizing FBI thriller set in the Alaskan wilderness. After the bodies of four murdered women are found on Alaska’s Kodiak Island, FBI Special Agent Nick Morgan flies to Kodiak to aid in the investigation. Morgan’s local contact, Alaska State Trooper Dan Patterson, fears a serial killer is at work. But finding the perpetrator won’t be easy. The victims have very little

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Game Piece, One of the Year’s Best Thrillers

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The Bottom Line: One of the year’s best thrillers. When Texas detective Barry Marshall receives an anonymous tip on a stolen Chevy truck, he knows that something is off. The caller urges him to come quickly, claiming to fear for his own life, and the truck description matches an active case Marshall is working. But when Marshall arrives, there’s no truck in sight – just

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