Testament, David Morrell

After a writer does an expose on a white-supremacy group (they thought he would write something positive about them), his family's milk is poisoned. The baby dies.

Once it's proved that the police can't help him, the writer takes his family and runs.

Pretty damn bleak.

Black Mountain, Rex Stout

When one of Nero Wolfe's closest friends is murdered, Wolfe and Archie Goodwin are stumped. Then Wolfe's adopted daughter is killed, and he starts moving.

This novel departs radically from the usual Nero Wolfe formula. It probably bored Stout too. Even the ending is different. Good stuff.