Best of
Thriller

1988

The Charm School


Nelson DeMille - 1988
    In a place called Mrs. Ivanova's Charm School, young KGB agents are being taught by American POW's how to be model citizens of the USA. The Soviet goal -- to infiltrate the United States undetected. When an unsuspecting American tourist stumbles upon this secret, he sets in motion a CIA investigation that will reveal horrifying police state savagery and superpower treachery.

Black Wind


F. Paul Wilson - 1988
    Paul Wilson’s powerful World War II novel is an unforgettable saga of passion and terror, the ravages of war, the pain of betrayal, and the glory of love.At the heart of the story are four people torn between love and honor: Matsuo Okumo, born in Japan, raised in America, and hated in both lands; Hiroki Okumo, his brother, a modern samurai sworn to serve a secret cult and the almighty Emperor; Meiko Satsuma, the woman they both love; and Frank Slater, the American who turned away when Matsuo needed him, and who now struggles to repay his debt of honor.

Lightning


Dean Koontz - 1988
    But even more mysterious was the blond-haired stranger who appeared out of nowhere – the man who saved Laura from a fatal delivery. Years later – another bolt of lightning – and the stranger returned, again to save Laura from tragedy. Was he the guardian angel he seemed? The devil in disguise? Or the master of a haunting destiny beyond time and space?

The Edge


Dick Francis - 1988
    A high-class, transcontinental horse-racing junket should be an idyllic getaway for the super-rich.But one passenger on this train is a sociopath, a genius at blackmail and criminal corruption—and he plans to take everyone for everything they've got.

Men in Blue


John Kevin Dugan - 1988
    Griffin's bestselling series, THE CORPS and BROTHERHOOD OF WAR, have captured the pride and glory of the military community. Now he reveals a city police force with the same unique blend of realism, drama, and action. Here are the brave men and women behind the badge as you've never seen them before--their hopes and fears, their courage and heroism, sparked by a single, shocking event: the killing of a cop in the line of duty.

Flashback


Michael Palmer - 1988
    He had a routine operation. It was fine. Now he's gone home to terror. Months have passed. But Toby still bursts into tortured screams. Because something is very wrong. Toby can remember every moment of the operation. All the trauma. All the pain. He relives every horrifying detail of surgery while he's awake. Now someone must expose the unspeakable truth about this hospital. Or else an innocent child will die. And he won't be the last. The next victim is being wheeled into surgery right now.

The Preacher


Ted Thackrey Jr. - 1988
    He's known only as The Preacher, an ex-Priest, ex-Special Forces commando, and now a professional gambler who has given up on his own salvation...but is determined to find justice for a murdered Vietnam vet...even if it means taking on the entire, God forsaken town.

In Pale Battalions


Robert Goddard - 1988
    At last the time has come when secrets can be shared and explanations begin... Their journey starts with an unscheduled stop at the imposing Thiepval Memorial to the dead of the Battle of the Somme near Amiens. Amongst those commemorated is Leonora's father. The date of his death is recorded as 30th April, 1916. But Leonora wasn't born until 14th March 1917. Penelope at once supposes a simple wartime illegitimacy as the clue to her mother's unhappy childhood and the family's sundered connections with her aristocratic heritage, about which she has always known so little. But nothing could have prepared her, or the reader, for the extraordinary story that is about to unfold.

The Icarus Agenda


Robert Ludlum - 1988
    Now, brought into the light, Kendrick is a target, pursued by the terrorists he once outwitted. Together with the beautiful woman who saved his life, Kendrick enters a deadly arena where the only currency is blood, where frightened whispers speak of violence yet to come, and where the fate of the free world may ultimately rest in the powerful hands of a mysterious figure known only as the Mahdi.  Praise for Robert Ludlum and The Icarus Agenda  “[Robert] Ludlum is light-years beyond his literary competition in piling plot twist upon plot twist, until the mesmerized reader is held captive. . . . Ludlum pulls out all the stops.”—Chicago Tribune  “[An] intricate story of conspiracies within conspiracies . . . Once you start reading you just can’t stop.”—Library Journal  “Readers will be hooked.”—The New York Times

Sword Point


Harold Coyle - 1988
    And then the stakes are raised: Iran is on the verge of assembling a nuclear device.

White Cargo


Stuart Woods - 1988
    A self made multi millionaire at 50, he has a loving wife and a beautiful teenaged daughter. And after years of hard work, he is taking his family on the ultimate dream sabbatical: a two year cruise to the South Pacific via the Panama Canal, aboard his custom built forty three foot yacht.He gets as far as Colombia.Off that country’s cocaine dusted shores, Cat’s bliss – and his dearly loved family – are permanently shattered by an event so unexpected, so savage, and so tragically final that it leaves Cat completely devastated. Consumed by terrible guilt, he returns home alone, a broken man. Investigations by both the Colombian authorities and the U.S. State Department prove fruitless.Then, late one night, Cat is awakened by the telephone and, from far away, over a static filled line, an achingly familiar voice utters a single, electrifying word.Driven by a mixture of hope and anguish, Cat slips back into South America on a desperate search for the daughter he cannot bring himself to believe is dead – a search that will take him down the corridors of cocaine financed palaces. Aided by an Australian ex convict, a beautiful television journalist and a man known to him only as “Jim”, Cat follows a trail of blood and graft, white powder and white slavery, and discovers in himself an unsuspected capacity for ruthlessness and cunning, and – even more surprising – a rekindled capacity for love.

Summer Visitors


Susan Sallis - 1988
    It was there she and her mother went to recover from a heartrending family tragedy - there she was forced reluctantly into marriage - there she fell into a wild and passionate wartime love. And it was there she saw her children grow and love and cope with the secret legacies the years had left them, until finally they became more than just summer visitors.

Silver Tower


Dale Brown - 1988
    Iran has been invaded. And America responds in a grueling counterattack by air, by sea--and by brave new technology that will redefine war: the most sophisticated laser defense system ever. It is called Silver Tower. And it will change the balance of world power forever...

Aid and Comfort


Ted Allbeury - 1988
    Yuri Volkov is appointed as Jarvis's controller and despises the weak man before him. Larry Gets is the senior CIA official who is tasked with finding the traitor in their midst.So begins a cat-and mouse game of danger and deception. And it's becoming clear that in order to win the game, Getz will have to bend the rules more than a little...

The Scholars of Night


John M. Ford - 1988
    A professor at a small New England college, Hansard has a second, secret career with The White Group, a "consulting agency" with shadowy Washington connections.When Hansard's work exposes one of his closest friends, Allan Berenson, as a Soviet agent, and Berenson dies mysteriously, the connections seem all too clear. Shaken, Hansard turns away from secrets to investigate a manuscript that may be a lost play from Christopher Marlowe. Surely, he thinks, four hundred years is a safe distance from the events of the present.He is wrong.Allan Berenson's murder has set in motion a deadly chain reaction, as spies run for cover, traitors hide their tracks, and assassins stalk their victims. Berenson's lover--herself an unsuspected spy--seeks revenge by completing Berenson's final project: the theft of the West's most crucial military secret. Its use will forever change the balance of power in Europe.But the key to completing the plan is hidden in the Marlowe manuscript... and only Nicholas Mansard can find it.Pursued and manipulated by all sides, Hansard is caught in a crossfire where no loyalty, identity or motive is what it appears, and a name from the time of Elizabeth I will bring the world to the brink of war.The Scholars of Night is an extraordinary novel of technological espionage and human betrayal, weaving past and present into a web of unbearable suspense.