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Jessica Balzano & Kevin Byrne

This series plunges into the gritty reality of law enforcement in Philadelphia, following two dedicated officers as they navigate the city's underbelly. Each installment offers a blend of thrilling action, intricate plots, and complex moral questions. Readers will be drawn into the high-stakes investigations and the personal lives of those fighting for justice.

The Doll Maker
Broken Angels
Play Dead
The Killing Room
The echo man
The Skin Gods

Recommended Reading Order

  1. 1

    The Rosary girls

    • 544 pages
    • 20 hours of reading
    4.0(6314)Add rating

    This brawny, hard-edged novel from an emerging star of suspense pits two besieged Philadelphia homicide detectives against a fiercely intelligent and relentlessly brutal serial killer--a monster fueled by a twisted, sacrilegious fury.

    The Rosary girls
  2. 2

    The Skin Gods

    • 544 pages
    • 20 hours of reading
    3.8(231)Add rating

    In this electrifying sequel to "The Rosary Girls," Philadelphia detectives Jessica Balzano and Kevin Byrne are on the trail of a maniacal killer, who is recreating Hollywoods most famous murder scenes and casting real-life victims.

    The Skin Gods
  3. 3

    Broken Angels

    • 528 pages
    • 19 hours of reading
    4.1(1377)Add rating

    When the first body is found, mutilated and strangled on the riverbanks, Philadelphia homicide detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano suspect yet another case of random urban violence. Then it happens again. And again

    Broken Angels
  4. 4

    Play Dead

    • 416 pages
    • 15 hours of reading
    4.0(144)Add rating

    In each soul, a secret ...Philadelphia homicide detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano's first assignment from the Cold Case files is the brutal murder of a young runaway. The lifeless body of Caitlin O'Riordan was found carefully posed in a glass display case in the desolate Philadelphia Badlands but, as Byrne and Balzano rapidly discover, she was just the first pawn in the killer's twisted game...A mysterious phone call leads them on a scavenger hunt for a second victim. This time a young girl has been dismembered, her body parts left in three boxes in the basement of a deserted house. More clues lead to other victims and, as the body count rises, it becomes clear that there is a serial killer on the loose, hell-bent on completing the 'performance' of a lifetime.As more runaways vanish, Byrne and Balzano come to realize that the homicidal mastermind plans to complete seven depraved tricks in his dark and dangerous magic act. With Balzano increasingly obsessed by a case that haunts her, and Byrne struggling with a loss of his own, the stakes are mounting. But this is one game they can't afford to lose...

    Play Dead
  5. 5

    It is fall in Philadelphia and the mutilated body of a man has been found in one of the poorest neighbourhoods. When homicide detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano investigate, they soon realise that their crime scene is linked to an unsolved case. Eight years ago, another body was found in the same position, killed in the same manner. Apart from this killer's unusual calling cards, the crime scene photos are identical. As another body appears, then another, it becomes horrifyingly clear that someone is recreating unsolved murders from Philadelphia's past. And the killer is closer than they think ...

    The echo man
  6. 6

    Packed with ingenious twists and relentless excitement, and starring two of the most compelling heroes in crime fiction, The Killing Room is a major thriller event: the best novel yet from one of the world's best suspense writers

    The Killing Room
  7. 7

    The Stolen Ones

    • 458 pages
    • 17 hours of reading
    4.0(91)Add rating

    Destroyed by fire years ago, the infamous Philadelphia State Hospital was known as a warehouse for the criminally insane. But one man never left. By night Luther walks Philadelphia's backstreets; by day he roams the catacombs beneath the city. Luther is everywhere and nowhere; he's is in your dreams - and your nightmares. Then Detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano are called to a bizarre murder scene: a man has been killed by a railroad spike driven into his head. But this is just the beginning of a trail of evil that will lead Byrne and Balzano back to the hospital, to a missing girl and to a horror they could never have imagined ...

    The Stolen Ones
  8. 8
  9. 9

    Your face is a blur to him. But your body still bleeds. The Farren family has been a plague upon Philadelphia's most dangerous neighbourhood, the Devil's Pocket, for generations. There, row after row of tumbledown houses hide dark secrets - none darker than Billy, the youngest Farren. Afflicted by a syndrome that means he can't recognise faces, Billy must use photographs to identify his family - and his victims. And when your life has bled away, he takes a final, gruesome picture for his wall. But what is the meaning of the horrific ritual Billy enacts with every murder? And is there any connection to a childhood event Detective Kevin Byrne has buried so well it's hidden even from his former partner Jessica Balzano?

    Shutter Man