Best movies like Darker Than Amber

Scudder is a detective with the Sheriff's Department who is forced to shoot a violent suspect during a narcotics raid. The ensuing psychological aftermath of this shooting worsens his drinking problem and this alcoholism causes him to lose his job, as well as his marriage.

Private detective and former football player Harry Moseby gets hired on to what seems a standard missing person case, as a former Hollywood actress whose only major roles came thanks to being married to a studio mogul wants Moseby to find and return her daughter. Harry travels to Florida to find her, but he begins to see a connection between the runaway girl, the world of Hollywood stuntmen, and a suspicious mechanic when an unsolved murder comes to light.

Buster McHenry is as an undercover agent for the police. His mission involves him in a robbery. Buster gets shot but Hank Storm, an Indian, helps Buster. Since Hank wants a spear in the possession of the criminals that Buster is after, they team up.

Johnny Scardino is working for blackmailers, photographing wealthy guys in seedy motels. One such assignment turns the wrong way and blackmailers die one by one. Is Johnny the next on the list?

A troubled detective travels to Memphis in order to track down a pair of serial killers.

Rookie cop, Amelia Donaghy reluctantly teams with Lincoln Rhyme – formerly the department's top homicide detective but now paralyzed as a result of a spinal injury – to catch a grisly serial killer dubbed 'The Bone Collector'. The murderer's special signature is to leave tantalizing clues based on the grim remains of his crimes.

In a dystopian Detroit, grand houses that once housed the wealthy are now homes of the city's most-dangerous criminals. Surrounding the area is a giant wall to keep the rest of Detroit safe. For undercover cop Damien Collier, every day is a battle against corruption as he struggles to bring his father's killer, Tremaine, to justice. Meanwhile, Damien and an ex-con named Lino work together to save the city from a plot to destroy it.

Two Los Angeles vice squad officers find themselves up against their corrupt superiors when they try to bring a crime boss to justice. During the course of their investigation, the two cops disguise themselves as gay men and raid a gay bar.

Sam Bowden witnesses a rape committed by Max Cady and testifies against him. When released after 8 years in prison, Cady begins stalking Bowden and his family but is always clever enough not to violate the law.

A tough police detective escapes from custody after being framed and arrested for the murder of his ex-wife, and must now find the real killer and prove his innocence.

A deep-sea salvage expert enacts an elaborate plan to infiltrate and take revenge on a criminal organization that dealt him a foul misdeed.

After a fateful near-miss an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn't personal.

While diving for sunken treasure, street-smart gumshoe Tony Rome finds the body of a gorgeous blonde, her feet stuck in a block of cement. Soon after, tough guy Waldo Gronski hires him to find a missing woman named Sandra Lomax, and Rome wonders if there's a connection. He sets about trying to locate the woman, and in no time finds himself mixed up with a beautiful party girl and a slippery racketeer.

Police Lieutenant Lon McQ investigates the killing of his best friend and uncovers corrupt elements of the police department dealing in confiscated drugs.

In late 1940s Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is an unemployed black World War II veteran with few job prospects. At a bar, Easy meets DeWitt Albright, a mysterious white man looking for someone to investigate the disappearance of a missing white woman named Daphne Monet, who he suspects is hiding out in one of the city's black jazz clubs. Strapped for money and facing house payments, Easy takes the job, but soon finds himself in over his head.

Harper is brought to Louisiana to investigate an attempted blackmail scheme. He soon finds out that it involves an old flame of his and her daughter. He eventually finds himself caught in a power struggle between the matriarch of the family and a greedy oil baron, who wants their property. Poor Harper! Things are not as straight-forward as they initially appeared.

A detective is hired to locate a girl adopted 30 years earlier whose birth father wants to bequeath her his fortune.

Two veteran private eyes trigger a criminal reign of terror with their search for a missing girl.

In this send-up of the Humphrey Bogart detective films of the 1940s, a man idolizes Bogart so much that he has his features altered to look exactly like him and then opens up a detective agency under the name Sam Marlow.

In 1950s Harlem a vicious Italian gangster (Frank deKova) tries to muscle in on a black racketeer's (Paul Harris) numbers game.

A teenage gang led by the vicious Dexter; his girlfriend Mitzi; and friends Denny and Lummonx; create havoic in a small Florida town by harrassing various people, vandalizing property, well... just for the hell of it. When a former gang member, Doug, tries to prevent their ever increasing violent antics, Denny takes it upon himself and a few loyal members of the gang to target Doug's girlfriend, Jeanne, to make him back off.

Following a mysterious suicide at Niagara Falls, a low-rent detective unravels a conspiracy to build a revolutionary invention by enigmatic scientist, Nikola Tesla.

A hardened New Orleans cop, Dave Robicheaux, finally tosses in the badge and settles into life on the bayou with his wife. But a bizarre plane crash draws him back into the fray when his family is viciously threatened.

This new installment in the popular and critically-acclaimed Donald Strachey Mystery series finds America’s favorite gay private investigator, Donald Strachey (Chad Allen), taking on the most complicated case of his career. After his long-time partner, Tim (Sebastian Spence), asks him to uncover the source of an anonymous and generous donation to the Albany youth center, he gets caught in a whirlwind of deceit and danger. When the lawyer who presented the donation turns up dead, the hard-boiled Strachey must race against the clock to capture the killer before he strikes again."

Lt. Dave Robicheaux, a detective in New Iberia, Louisiana, is trying to link the murder of a local hooker to New Orleans mobster Julie (Baby Feet) Balboni, who is co-producer of a Civil War film. At the same time, after Elrod Sykes, the star of the film, reports finding another corpse in the Atchafalaya Swamp near the movie set, Robicheaux starts another investigation, believing the corpse to be the remains of a black man who he saw being murdered 35 years before.

Mysterious Orfamay Quest hires Los Angeles private investigator Philip Marlowe to find her missing brother. Though the job seems simple enough, it leads Marlowe into the underbelly of the city, turning up leads who are murdered with ice picks, exotic dancers, blackmailed television stars and self-preserving gangsters. Soon, Marlowe's life is on the line right along with his case.

Tony Rome, a tough Miami PI living on a houseboat, is hired by a local millionaire to find jewelry stolen from his daughter, and in the process has several encounters with local hoods as well as the Miami Beach PD.

Jack, a Palm Beach detective, becomes involved in a case of multiple murders. All the women can be linked to Jack in some way. Jack and his partner have no leads, but numerous suspects. The murders continue, along with anonymous letters from the killer.

A drug deal hijacked by a third party, they leave the drugs and take the money. A stripper witnesses a murder and now the Mafia's after but there is nowhere safe to hide.

Walker investigates a murder connected with a missing government weapon. In addition, he tries to track down a teen on the run from a crime syndicate.

Following a series of drug deals and murders, three criminals -- Fantasia, Ray Malcolm and Pluto -- travel from Los Angeles to Houston, finally arriving in a small Arkansas town to go into hiding. Two detectives from the LAPD, who are already on the case, contact the town's sheriff, Dale Dixon, to alert him of the fugitives' presence in the area. Underestimating Dixon, the criminals have no idea what they are about to face.

Aging Major Palgrave, an idiosyncratic but charming mystery writer, reveals to Miss Jane Marple that one of the guests at a luxurious Caribbean resort they're staying at is a Bluebeard-type wife murderer. Unfortunately, the Major succumbs to an apparently accidental overdose of alcohol and blood pressure medication before revealing the killer's identity. When it's discovered that the medicine belonged to another guest and the revealing photograph the Major was carrying is missing, Miss Marple realizes that the serial killer has struck again and more murders will follow.

Private eye Philip Marlowe and his bride move to a desert town, where he uncovers a land scheme.

For opposite reasons, an undercover federal agent and a small time hood join forces to take on a union of drug lords and dirty cops.

Mayor candidate Mike Rhodes is kidnapped in his own home outside of Los Angeles by unknown, masked terrorists. His wife Kelly barely survives the attempted murder on her, and is able to identify one of the kidnappers. She's placed on the police's protection list while the investigation is ongoing. Ruger, a tough and merciless bounty hunter is out on the streets avenging her partner's death. With Kelly as her bait, Ruger starts a dangerous game to bring Cavanough, a crazed crime kingpin behind the kidnapping, out of hiding.

When Baton Rouge police detective Bud Carter busts contract killer Jesse Weiland, he convinces Jesse to become an informant and rat out the South's most powerful crime ring.

A female police detective enlists her boyfriend to help her track down a murderer picking off the dancers at an upscale male strip club in Los Angeles.

Private eye Mike Hammer tries to clear his friend, Captain Chambers, who has been framed for cocaine possession.

Private detective Frank Cannon comes out of retirement to investigate an old friend and Army Intelligence colleague's death, which has been ruled a suicide, but which smells like murder.

A Los Angeles policewoman's partner has her pose as a stripper to lure a killer of strippers.

Detective Jim Rockford works to uncover facts of the death of a wealthy socialite whose two grown children are accused of murdering her. Complicating matters are Rockford's omnipresent "friend" Angel, and Rockford's ex-wife Kit, a lawyer who represents the children.

Private eye Mike Hammer probes his long-lost love's death while seeking their daughter.

A private detective becomes involved in a new cast when her partner's guardian is murdered.

A young architect finds himself being stalked by a gang of criminals who believe he knows something that could expose their activities.

Laid-back private eye Jim Rockford and his brown Pontiac Firebird become embroiled in another case when he runs across an old flame, blind book editor Megan. Her no-good playboy cousin Patrick is involved with the Russian Mob, which puts everyone's life in danger. The weary Rockford must also deal with his old friend Angel, who is painting Jim's trailer to work off a debt.

A trigger-happy outlaw goes on the run and a burned out, disillusioned cop gives chase. They end up head-to-head in a Los Angeles shoot out.

In the frenetic underbelly of Los Angeles, Agent Maxwell closes in on an international cocaine smuggling operation run by criminal mastermind Vincent Camastra. When Agent Beverly Royce goes undercover with the drug dealers and finds herself deeper then she can handle - the case becomes personal for Maxwell who has to combat ruthless killers and dirty cops in an all-out action filled finale to bring the criminals to justice.

In the bleak near future Los Angeles has become a dangerous war zone with cops pitted against assorted law-breaking lowlifes. Sergeant Arliss Ryder (well played with customary wired intensity by the always great Wings Hauser) has an electronic device put into his back that turns him into an out-of-control psychotic killer and put on the Strike S.Q.U.A.D. (an acronym for Scum Quelling Assault Urban Devision), which is a unit of crazed cops assigned by Captain Bill Quinton (a typically gruff Alex Cord) to rid the City of Angels of criminals by using any means necessary. The only problem is that Arliss discovers what's going down and decides to put a stop to all this madness.

With few clues to go on, Detective Rodriguez is assigned to the case and charged with the task of bringing a beautiful, murdering seductress to justice. After being sentenced to a life term at a mental institution for the criminally insane, the convicted murderer fights for her freedom while falling in love with the man who put her there.

Travis McGee is a world-weary private eye trying to help boat skipper friend Van Harder salvage his reputation that sank when his boat ran aground, resulting in a death that might have been faked.