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Fans of James Patterson and Michael Connelly will love C.M. Sutter!

A sadistic scene unlike any that Homicide Detective Jesse McCord has ever witnessed unfolds on a park bench in front of him. Jesse knows this isn’t just another Chicago murder.
Rage-filled killers are sending a disturbing message, and when a second and third body are discovered with the same vicious signature, police realize the victims aren’t random. Instead, each man is carefully chosen for a reason known only to the murderers.
It doesn’t take long for the killers to raise the ante and add a cop to their list—and one in particular is on their radar. Once their plan is in motion, Jesse McCord is chosen, and they intend for him to be the next person to die.


Editorial Review

“C. M. Sutter is known for writing nail-biters that keep readers up all night, and Sutter’s new Detective Jesse McCord Police Thriller is one of the most riveting yet. While homicides are nothing new in Chicago, Jesse’s latest investigation involves killers with a penchant for the macabre. While Jesse and the Chicago PD try to stop the murders, he also focuses on his personal life by joining a dating website, and the personal and the professional overlap with some thoroughly unexpected consequences.”Angela M., Line Editor, Red Adept Editing


The Detective Jesse McCord Police Thriller books are listed in chronological order below.

#1 Sniper's Nest
#2 At Large
#3 Deadly Pursuit
#4 To Die For

239 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2019

404 people are currently reading
332 people want to read

About the author

C.M. Sutter

51 books288 followers
C.M. Sutter was born in San Jose, California and split time between the sunny California coast and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a senior in high school, she chose Wisconsin as her permanent address. After many years in the Badger State, she decided on a warmer year-round climate to call home and moved south.
Years of progression took her from working in large companies, to twelve years as a massage therapist, and finally, owning a corporation. She has been self-employed for over twenty years.
Ms. Sutter has been writing and self-publishing since 2014 with eleven titles published in a different genre. Because of her deep interest in crime and thriller novels, she took up writing in the police procedural/crime thriller genre in 2016.

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5 stars
700 (61%)
4 stars
326 (28%)
3 stars
87 (7%)
2 stars
23 (2%)
1 star
8 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
Profile Image for Paulette.
615 reviews13 followers
February 26, 2023
OK police procedural. I thought it was pretty dry and one dimensional. I wasn't interested in knowing any characters better. Definitely readable but not more, for me. I'm not in any hurry to read another.
Profile Image for Scott A. Miller.
632 reviews26 followers
November 13, 2021
The last third of the book pulled out the fourth star. Jesse was in serious trouble but lucked his way out of it.

The bad guys were unique and appropriately evil. It just started out a little slower than Sutter usually does. I’ll continue the McCord series because of the way she pulled it out at the end.
Profile Image for Wiseask.
169 reviews17 followers
September 18, 2023
“The wheels protested as Gail turned another corner.” The second I saw that first sentence of this book, I knew I was going to have problems with the writing. Gail and her mother Janet were dragging a wagon. Of course, as inanimate objects, the wheels can’t ‘protest.’ Only Janet and Gail as living creatures can protest.

I thought that if the following 67 chapters were not written any better, then this book would seem far longer than its intended length of 206 pages. Unfortunately, the rest of the book was not written any better.

First there was the author’s distraction with chins. Yes, chins. Her characters tipped, rubbed and jerked theirs a lot. They also liked to swat the air and to slap, smack, rap, pat and knuckle doorframes as a way of punctuating their conversations.

But as to the story itself, imagine listening to a song with only one note. Boring, right? Then you can imagine reading the generic one-title-fits-all Deadly Pursuit.

In short, the book is distinguished by what it’s missing: The plot lacks complexity, the writing lacks ingenuity, the characters lack depth and the story lacks suspense.

A Chicago police detective and his nondescript squad of indistinguishable and interchangeable colleagues spend 206 pages discovering what we already know: that a mother and her daughter have been serially killing men with salt-and-pepper hair who resembled the bitter mother’s abusive husband.

So that their victims couldn’t be identified by their prints the killers cut off their fingertips, never figuring that in leaving their faces intact someone might miss or recognize their victims, leading to their discovery, downfall and arrest.

I suppose you could say that in their methodology these ladies made some poor choices. You could say the same about me for selecting this book to read.
Profile Image for Marla Madison.
Author 12 books112 followers
March 6, 2022
Rather good police procedural, but with a few story lines that were rather unbelievable. Could have been better.
Profile Image for Crazybear.
6 reviews
October 22, 2020
It was a great quick paced book. that i'd recommend to anybody who likes police thrillers
Profile Image for Jerry Walch.
668 reviews17 followers
April 22, 2022

Sutter is the mistress of the police procedural, the queen of the police thriller. Ms. Sutter made the thriller scene in 2016, writing and publishing the five book series, The Detective Jade Monroe Series. She has six series and one standalone novel in print for 33 books. Ms. Sutter is one very prolific writer with many faithful fans, of which I’m one.

Deadly Pursuit is a tale about two serial killers, a mother and daughter team, moving from state to state, killing men that remind the mother of her husband. We, the reader, know these things from the very beginning because those things are revealed to us through dialogue and description. Sutter uses this technique, a technique that more and more writer are using, to capture and hold our interest in what we don’t know is how many more men must die at their hands before the police take them down, and that’s what keeps us glued to the edges of our seats, and turning the pages of the page burner. What we don’t know from the very beginning and don’t discover until the very end is why Janet and Gail are on a mission to kill men that remind them of their husband and father.
It isn’t until we reach the two-thirds marker that pieces fall into place and detective Jesse McCord and his team close in on Gail and Janet. The tension builds as we read on, wondering if Jesse will find and take Janet and Gail down before they kill again.

When Jesse meets Janet and Gail, it’s.... well, you’re going to read the book to find out how it happened and what happened. As I said earlier, what we don’t know from the very beginning and don’t discover until the very end is why Janet and Gail are on a mission to kill men that remind them of their husband and their father, and that, trust me, will blow you away.
1,573 reviews7 followers
February 10, 2022
I liked it

So I wouldn’t call it a thriller, or even gritty as I’ve read many books like that that I’ve had to take a break from reading. But having said that this was a real good story, horrifying plot, with great characters in a writing style that flowed fast in an easy to read way. I prefer this kind of book to one I need a rest from.
I would have given it 5 stars but for the blasphemy.
431 reviews3 followers
February 15, 2022
Jesse McCord knows how to pick his girlfriends, stay away from internet dating. Great story with a good ending, he isn't dead. Descriptive police procedure getting down to the basics of detective work and gradually closing in on the serial killing duo then finding they are closer than he thought. Lucky he has a partner like Frank to watch his back and a boss who values him, plus a neighbour to watch his dog.
Profile Image for Black Butterfly.
2,630 reviews39 followers
February 16, 2022
2 1/2*stars REALLY.
I DID ENJOY FOLLOWING ALONG ABOUT HOW POLICE CATCH CRIMINALS. I'D CALL THIS A POLICE PROCEDUAL, I DIDN'T FIND ANYTHING THRILLING OR RIVITING ABOUT IT. SHOWED STEP BY STEP OF THEIR DAILY LIFE AND EVERY TINY THING THEY DID, EYE MOVEMENTS, DRIVING, SCENE DISCRIPTION, EATING, THOUGHTS ETC. A LITTLE TOO MUCH AT TIMES. AT ABOUT 55% JESSE FINIALLY STARTED GETTING IT, THEN HE TURNED INTO A KEYSTONE COP. I THOUGHT HOW STUU-UUPID CAN HE GET. GEEZ! ;<
129 reviews1 follower
May 20, 2022
loved it

What’s not to love about this story ...it has everything you want in it and a few you didn’t know you wanted but trust me ...you want them.Jesse and his team have their work cut out for them in this one but they are fighters and don’t give up easily. Sadly the description of what happened to the mother didn’t surprise me much....those kind of things happen way to often! Definitely recommend you read this one.
Profile Image for Ann.
1,117 reviews19 followers
September 11, 2022
Jesse was a cop and they currently had a case involving 3 unknown dead men. They seem to all be dumped in different places but they all had their teeth smashed out and all their finger tips cut off so they would be harder to identify. Jesse was single and he worked alot. They had a hard time getting any clues to these cases.This was a interesting book to read. I dont want to say any more as it will say to much and give the story away.But one good thing happens for Jesse in the end.
Profile Image for teresa.
512 reviews4 followers
May 22, 2023
Page turner

Tense thriller. Love the Jesse McCord detective character, he is strong, masculine and a dedicated detective. This murder mystery is a serial murder case that involves a team of suspects. Leaving their victims without fingers or teeth or even much facial features left just how do you identify them!? And so, the race is on to stop them before they are successful once more.
59 reviews1 follower
March 4, 2022
Superbly written And for me with a different twist!

Overall , Plenty of action and in a different direction than I normally would get, or would expect! Plenty of intrigue With a lot of action And an extraordinary ending ! Highly recommend for any detective aficionado!
CM Sutter is definitely an author I will be following.
169 reviews2 followers
March 20, 2022
Very good

I have read several books by this author and enjoy the books. I was a little disappointed in this book, however, as it seemed to develop slowly and it was difficult for me to connect to Jesse. It did improve as the pace picked up and by the end, I cared about what happened to the characters. I would recommend.
303 reviews1 follower
Read
April 3, 2022
Hard to describe

Storyline was decent, clearly not a subject that has a lot of stories behind it. Characters were decently chosen. Not a lot of action, but enough to keep you from putting the book down. This is not a bad book, just not an intriguing one. I feel a lot was left out that could have made this a great book. Will try another of this author's work.But
100 reviews2 followers
September 16, 2020
Different from other books in series

This book for some reason seemed to drag with unnecessary detail. The names of streets on a route to a place seemed unnecessary and almost like filler
4 reviews
February 19, 2022
Great Read

Its been a long time since I've read a book I couldn't put down. Five stars for sure... Loved the detective characters, very believable from start to finish...Ill be looking for other novels by CM Sutter!
38 reviews
February 25, 2022
Deadly Pursuit

A great crime thriller. Detective work was excellent and almost realistic. Woman are just as bad as men when it comes to revenge. Can't wait to read the next book in the series.
Profile Image for Chuck.
58 reviews
March 13, 2022
Tedious and predictable

Most of the story is tedious police procedural. The author describes her books as “ thrillers” but only that only description only fits the last couple of chapters.
Profile Image for maureen mcconnell.
106 reviews3 followers
April 20, 2022
McCord book 3

This was a very intense reading. I loved this one so far the best. I'm not sure I want to see Jesse hooking up with someone, but it might be a good thing. Thank you for these great books! Now on to 4 💖
Profile Image for Cathy R.
233 reviews2 followers
July 7, 2022
Riveting!

Well-written, captivating story. Sutter’s attention to detail helps to paint pictures that make reading this book as vivid as watching the scenes on the big screen. The narration is reminiscent of Dragnet’s Sgt. Joe Friday. Good book - read it in one day!
11 reviews
July 12, 2022
As always, another very good book from C.M. Sutter

I have never been disappointed reading Sutter's books.
The story gives the reader a good look at what and how police go about gathering their evidence.
And a very good read.
Profile Image for Kelly Smelcer.
404 reviews1 follower
September 21, 2022
Great novel!

When three different men are found dead with missing teeth and fingers, can Detective Jesse McCord and his team find the killer before there's a fourth victim? I really enjoyed the 3rd installment of this series! Highly recommend!
796 reviews5 followers
October 28, 2022
rRather gruesome

It was a plot about a serial killer and a mother /daughter duo killing men from a dating website. It took a while to get going, and i couldn’t figure out why Jesse got involved in the process.
Profile Image for Marika P.  Elliott.
38 reviews1 follower
February 6, 2023
Pretty Good One

I wouldn’t call it chilling but it is a pretty good cop read. I like the character a lot and his dog. If you want a relaxing read much like Criminal Minds, read this one..
3 reviews
June 2, 2024
Jesse McCord series

Hard to put down this one. The characters are very engaging and the plot leaves you wanting to keep reading more. Also, the first two books in the series were just as good. I'm looking forward to getting #4 and start with that one.
212 reviews3 followers
December 22, 2024
Methodical Detective Work

Well, at least the reasoning for killing has some logic in this book. But the entertainment value slipped a bit because of all the detail described in catching the killers. Maybe I watch too much television where crime is solved quickly.
Profile Image for Gerry.
1,800 reviews
November 5, 2025
Deadly Pursuit

Really enjoyed reading this third book in the series which I recommend reading just as with the first two of the series. Looking forward to reading more in the series.
50 reviews
May 25, 2020
Awesome

Well, nice twists and turns with plenty of action and uptakes! Very enjoyable and sometimes life is as strange as a storyline in the minds of writers!
11 reviews
January 17, 2021
Jessie McCord

This is a amazing book. The characters are all great and I couldn’t put the book down. I will recommend it to my friends
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews

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