5 Police Procedurals to Add to Your Fall TBR

From #1 international bestselling author Ian Rankin, John Rebus spent his life as a cop putting Edinburgh’s most deadly criminals behind bars—but after being convicted of a homicide, he’s joining them instead.  

A convict is brutally murdered in his locked cell deep in the heart of Scotland’s most infamous prison. Sleeping in a cell across the floor lies John Rebus, the equally notorious detective. Stripped of his badge and estranged from his police family, he is now fighting for his own life—protected by an old nemesis but always one wrong move away from the shank. As new allies and old enemies circle, and the days and nights bleed into each other, even this legendary figure struggles to keep his head.  

They say old habits die hard, though. The death stirs Rebus’s deductive—and manipulative—impulses, setting off a domino-chain of scheming criminals, corrupt prison guards and perhaps only one or two good souls who may see it all through.  

But how do you find a killer in a place full of them?

With women going missing across the Deep South, dynamic detective duo Hap and Leonard zero in on a horrific, chimerical villain protected and abetted by Texas’ most powerful figures in this thrilling conclusion to the beloved series.

“Joe R. Lansdale is to crime fiction what Willie Nelson is to country music: . . . raw, gritty, soulful, and lastly, timeless.”—May Cobb, author of The Hunting Wives

The sun never sets on justice, but it may finally be setting on the beloved crime fighting duo of Hap Collins and Leonard Pine. The two opposites—brothers from another mother—have called the detecting business quits, but when a prop plane holding the bodies of several kidnapped women crashes into their favorite watering hole, the boys know they’re in for one last effort. With the help of a victim’s sister, they learn that a network of men has stolen vulnerable young women on behalf of a horrifying, charismatic villain known as The Artist, a sculptor of living things, including his own body, and protected by the elite of the South. But the Artist refuses to be found, and every lead brings Hap and Leonard into the crosshairs of something even more dangerous. Finding The Artist is a long shot, and getting out alive is even less likely.

Perhaps the darkest, funniest, and most intense of the Hap & Leonard mysteries, Petrified Dreams concludes the revered series as audaciously as one would expect from the mojo master of Southern crime and wit.

Argento finds himself shielding a teenage boy caught up in a manhunt in this explosive installment of the Kurt Argento series, from USA Today bestselling author, Adam Plantinga.

“Brutal, unflinching and honest. A true triumph!.”—Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Terminal List and The Fourth Option

After the bloodshed in Fenton, Arizona, former Detroit cop Kurt Argento had to disappear. He reemerges in the small town of Barton, South Dakota, working under an assumed name as a church handyman. It’s a serene existence of tending to the church grounds and avoiding questions. Until he meets seventeen-year-old Majed, a Syrian refugee trying to build a life in Barton with his single mother, as he’s running for his life.

Two men with hard eyes are close behind. Argento steps in, and Majed’s pursuers retreat with a thin excuse about a stolen wallet. It’s a story Argento doesn’t buy for a second. Digging deeper, he uncovers something far more lethal than a street-level shakedown. Majed isn’t just in trouble—he’s a target. And the hunters are closing in.

To safeguard Majed, Argento hits the road with the boy, pushing west. And along the way it becomes clear that whatever Majed knows—or carries—someone powerful wants it and will kill to get it. But Argento can’t let that happen. Because he’s made a promise. Protect the boy. Or die trying.

“Explosive and compelling!” —Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Still See You Everywhere

In this riveting contemporary thriller, Sheriff David Blunt is faced with a string of murders following the arrival of a mystery from out space—soon to be a television series from Ron Howard!

“A fully engrossing, genre-bending procedural that will have you staying up long past your bedtime.” -Karin Slaughter, New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of Pretty Girls

All David Blunt wanted was to be sheriff of his hometown, Little Springs, Nebraska, population 731. But his days of simply keeping the peace among the locals he’s known all his life are upended by a series of brutal, bizarre murders—all happening in the wake of an event truly out of this world. One year ago, just outside the town, a being fell to Earth. Whatever it is, it’s three miles tall, seemingly dead, and definitely not human.

Dubbed “the giant,” the being’s arrival has transformed this quaint farm town from the middle of nowhere into the most important city on the planet. Yes, a city, complete with a top-secret government research site and a hundred thousand new residents: soldiers, scientists, bureaucrats, spies, criminals, conspiracy theorists—and now a murderer.

David never thought his job would involve breaking up chanting crowds of cultists or brokering peace with dueling government agencies, all against the backdrop of the otherworldly. And as he faces a murder spree that strikes closer and closer to home, David has to solve multiple mysteries—what fell from the sky, how it’s connected to the killings right in front of him, and who the killer is—before he loses his hometown forever.

“A fresh and surprising genre mashup, bringing a laconic small town sheriff together with a crash-landed alien and a series of brutal killings, beautifully interweaving otherworldly images and naturalistic details of rural Nebraska life. Van Jensen is a terrific writer, and I was under the book’s strange and extraordinary spell from start to finish.” -Dan Chaon, author of Sleepwalk

“Godfall is the genre-mashup novel of my dreams. With breathtaking imagery and razor-sharp prose, Jensen gives us a story that is part alien sci-fi, part mystery, with a doomsday cult, a serial killer, and a dash of sandhill cranes, all against the beautiful backdrop of rural Nebraska. I expect Godfall to rocket to the top of many best-of lists for the year.” -Erin Flanagan, Edgar-Award winning author of Deer Season and Blackout

#1 International bestselling author Ian Rankin returns with a razor-sharp, twisty standalone thriller—this one exposing the lives of the 1% in London’s most exclusive high rise.

Facing Hyde Park, The Heights is London’s most coveted luxury high-rise apartment—designed to satisfy every need, with a gym, infinity pool, cinema, and more, where self-made owner-developer Allan Franklyn himself has claimed the penthouse duplex. His neighbors include some of “Money London’s” biggest personalities: a wealthy art dealer, a young heartthrob pop star, a foreign heiress, a gangster’s wife. The residents are used to service, deference, and privacy, all on their terms.

But when nighttime concierge Dwayne Hogarth is found dead in the lobby, none of that is in their control anymore, and everyone’s under the unwelcome scrutiny of Detective Sergeant Gillian Gish. Her questions begin with the party on the 4th floor the night Dwayne died, which ended with a fight; the missing key to one of the apartments; and a mysterious gap in the security camera footage. Before long, Gish uncovers the unsavory truths and dark secrets that lurk beneath the glittering facades of the building and its inhabitants.

Filled with shocking twists and unforgettable characters, The Heights confirms Ian Rankin’s status as one of the most original and compelling crime writers of our time.