Books like Badlands by C. J. Box

Detective Harry Bosch has retired from the LAPD, but his half-brother, defense attorney Mickey Haller, needs his help. A woman has been brutally murdered in her bed and all evidence points to Haller's client, a former gang member turned family man. Though the murder rap seems ironclad, Mickey is sure it's a setup. Bosch doesn't want anything to do with crossing the aisle to work for the defense. He feels it will undo all the good he's done in his thirty years as a homicide cop. But Mickey promises to let the chips fall where they may. If Harry proves that his client did it, under the rules of discovery, they are obliged to turn over the evidence to the prosecution. Though it goes against all his instincts, Bosch reluctantly takes the case. The prosecution's file just has too many holes and he has to find out for himself: if Haller's client didn't do it, then who did? With the secret help of his former LAPD partner Lucy Soto, Harry starts digging. Soon his investigation leads him inside the police department, where he realizes that the killer he's been tracking has also been tracking him.

When a brutal murder links a billionaire husband to a homicide investigation, Dallas‑Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas must piece together clues amid a chaotic crime scene.

Eve Dallas investigates the mysterious disappearance of a powerful politician when cousin Dennis Mira is stabbed at a family home, uncovering secret dealings and family feuds over a prized West Village brownstone.

Eve Dallas, a police officer and author, receives a clue from a book that leads her to solve a murder in New York City.

San Francisco is rattled by a series of shootings, and Sergeant Lindsay Boxer—trusted by the Women's Murder Club—must confront a cunning killer and looming police corruption to protect her city and her own integrity.

In 1974 Atlanta, a serial cop killer rattles the police department. To investigate, a conservative force stations two women detectives, Kate and Maggie—only to find themselves drawn into the very danger they seek to eliminate.

Flora Dane survived a years‑long kidnapping and now struggles to reintegrate while Boston detective D.D. Warren investigates a brutal crime that may link her past and a new abduction.

Sergeant Gunnhildur Giacute;sladottir investigates a suspicious death in a Reykjavik hotel, uncovering ties to a returning gangster and a clandestine bondage society, turning a simple case into a perilous police probe.

DI Louisa Smith investigates two chilling deaths— a murder on a farm and a suicide at a quarry— uncovering a sinister link that binds the victims and shatters the quiet life of a small English village.

Detective Constable Janet Scott, a diplomatic and humorous officer, teams with the energetic Rachel Bailey after a teenage girl is murdered on a Manchester housing estate. Together they must navigate complex clues, personal demons and a dangerous killer in this tense police procedural.

When Ali’s parents lose their life savings in a Ponzi scheme, her father becomes a suspect after a double homicide, and Ali and her husband fight to clear his name and bring justice to victims, including a cold‑blooded killer.

After two patrons are murdered on successive nights at a play, detective Kathy Mallory investigates the killings and mystery chalkboard messages backstage.

Harry Bosch’s past catches up with him in Los Angeles, where a cold case from 20 years ago resurfaces and threatens his ability to solve the present-day murder case.